Time tracking is an essential practice for every architect – not just those who bill by the hour. You can’t improve project estimations or profitability without it. But few architects have the spare time and cognitive energy to do it accurately across all their daily tasks. It’s precisely why we developed Timely – the first automatic time tracking tool that remembers how you spend time across projects and clients without any manual input.
The time tracking tool for architects
Timely captures all the time you and your team spend on work without taking you away from it. By integrating with all your desktop apps, you can essentially map out your entire work day – from time in meetings, emails and GPS locations, to websites, documents and work tools. AI-powered time sheets, real-time project dashboards and custom reporting then allow you to explore your time data without compromising your own productivity.
📕 Get a full account of your day
You can’t use time more intelligently without knowing how you (mis)use it in the first place. Thankfully, Timely records every second of your day to a private timeline and uses AI to tag different activities for you. Every detail is captured – from overrunning meetings and time spent traveling, to client emails, admin and contractor coordination. You essentially get a complete account of how your effort and resources are spent – which is essential for addressing operational inefficiencies, internal costs, lengthy workflows and your own unproductive behaviors.
Bill every client accurately
Automatic time tracking is a no-brainer when you work across multiple projects and sub-projects. You just can’t capture all the time you spend on each project accurately using manual timers. With Timely, every detail makes it to your time sheet – even “hidden” billable hours spent on project communication, travel and overtime. Nothing is misremembered or misrepresented, and you can painlessly export your data into granular reports for full client transparency.
Manage project time proactively
As an architect, projects are rarely neat and contained. Deliveries run months into the future, clients can request adjustments at a moment’s notice, and the sheer of people involved puts the best laid plans under serious stress. So, real-time project dashboards offer a huge advantage. In Timely, you can keep an eye on exactly where your project budget is going, how long you spend on each task and how work is distributed. Custom notifications let you stay informed of key milestones, so you don’t need to constantly be inside the tool to stay informed.
Improve project estimates
Once you know exactly how long different tasks and project phases tend to take your team, you can set more realistic estimates for future work. That means being able to set your minimum requirements for a profitable return, understanding what clients and projects are actually worth your time, and setting profitable fixed rates which cover all your project costs. With a an accurate history of project time, you can estimate competitively for new work and only take on projects that deliver.
🏃🏽♀️ Capture mobile work
Timely was built for the active architect lifestyle. Client meetings, site visits, contractor coordination, mobile calls and travel – all the work that happens away from your desk can all be captured. And Timely itself is accessible on web, desktop, tablet and smartphone, so you can manage your time on-the-go. Expect a fully native app, whether you prefer Android to iOS or Mac to Windows.
👓 Get back to productive work
Automation exists to remove the irritating tasks that take you away from what matters most. Automatic time tracking is no different: you don’t have to interrupt your flow to stop a timer or manually note down what you’ve been doing. You don’t even have to spend time putting your time sheet together if you don’t want to – Timely’s AI can actually work out what you were doing for you! By tracking and processing everything automatically, you can forget about time tracking completely and get back to what you were hired to do.
Why architects love Timely
Architecture firms and independent consultants alike outsource their project time management to Timely. From accurate invoicing to effortless project management, there are a ton of reasons why automatic time tracking makes sense. Here are just a few from Timely’s architect community:
“I could see the benefits of Timely after just one week of the trial. It lets me record hours against my projects more efficiently and improves my organization. I can’t imagine going back to the way I used to do things – and I’ve told my local architect group about it too!” – Guyarch
“Automatic data collection with the Memory Tracker is key for me. It lets me track what I’m doing when I’m bouncing around from thing to thing.” – James
“The user Interface is great for creative industries working on hourly rates – it’s a great app for small creative businesses generally.” – Josef
“Timely is working amazingly for us. We use it to bill accurately and see what projects are actually worth the investment – and it makes tracking project budgets with our external consultants really simple. It’s simply the best time tracking app we’ve tried so far.” – Christoph
“We needed a simple way to track our work hours for our small business. Timely makes this easy, saves time and helps us get an overview over time spent (and time left) on different projects. It’s so easy to use.” – Mari
“I often have projects that I bill hourly. Timely lets me track those hours automatically – it’s ideal for my sporadic work environment, where I might just spend a few minutes on a project. It’s also integrates nicely with other apps and your phone!” – Jessica
"I was losing money on all my projects, because I was not valuing my time. To start valuing my time, I needed to track it and associate a cost to it. The last two weeks have been amazing; I am finding out where all my time has been going and I feel like I have better control of all my projects. Use Timely if you want to take your business seriously." – Jonathan
"My firm uses BQE Core, but I found the interface cumbersome to use to continuously track time. Now Timely does it for me!" – Matthew
“I was using ClickUp, but my time tracking became so inconsistent– I had to keep updating current projects. With Timely’s automatic approach, I can go into the tool just once a day to log everything. I finally have a tool I can trust which remembers how I spend my time for me." – Ellen
"Running a staff that have both hourly work and project based work, a time tracker that has background AI running is a dream. Timely is simply the best time tracking app available; it tracks what you're doing all day so you don't have to." – Ida
