CLion is a cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE). To put it more plainly, it’s a code editor for software developers that enables collaboration and works “cross-platform” on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
For context, CLion IDE is a product of Jetbrains, a well-known producer of developer tools (such as IntelliJ IDEA and PyCharm IDE). It’s similar to other code compiler and editor solutions like Visual Studio Code (VS Code), CMake, and GitHub and also integrates with them.
This Jetbrains IDE supports multiple programming language options such as Python, Java, C, and C++.
Need to track time for a team of CLion developers?
We’ve got all the info you need!
In this article, we’ll explain whether native CLion time tracking is possible and why it’s so important to track time comprehensively for software developers. We’ll then provide five fantastic apps you can use to do it.
Table of Contents
- Does CLion offer time tracking?
- Drawbacks of using plugins for CLion time tracking
- 5 top-tier tools to use for CLion time tracking
Let’s begin.
Does CLion offer time tracking?
Unfortunately, CLion doesn’t have a native time tracking feature.
However, you can use a plugin to track time across every task, work item, and issue. There are many plugins made specifically for software developers to track time during a CLion work session.
Some of these plugins include:
- YouTrack: This popular time tracking plugin allows you to make time estimates and compare them to actual time tracked on each issue. You can view the data by project, individual developer, or team.
- Darkyen: This plugin shows time tracked in the form of a simple status bar. It also has a Git integration that allows you to note time tracked on commit messages.
- TimingApp: This is an automatic time tracker plugin. It reports time tracked on each code file and uses a drag-and-drop system to allow you to categorize entries.
- WakaTime: This is an open source plugin that gives real-time metrics about time spent on each project, commit message, debugging session, and issue.
- Code Time: This open source plugin displays time tracked in a status bar in CLion. You can use it to see your work metrics, daily progress, and work calendar in one place.
While these plugins can track a specific task or work item related to the coding process, they lack comprehensive time and productivity tracking capabilities. They also don’t include project management and payrolling functions offered by dedicated time trackers.
Let’s explore these shortcomings in detail.
Drawbacks of using plugins for CLion time tracking
When you use only a basic time tracking plugin with CLion, you can’t get a complete insight into your team’s time usage.
For example, you’ll be unable to:
- Mitigate human error common with manual time entry or basic time tracking.
- Evaluate time tracked across multiple projects, tasks, and client categories.
- Analyze the time developers spend inactive or unproductive.
- Get a complete picture of time tracked across all work related tasks (e.g., emails, meetings, calls), not just software development tasks.
- Notice and fix bottlenecks, workload issues, and unproductive tasks (e.g., lengthy meetings).
- Create and run an accurate payroll based on billable hours tracked for all activities.
On the other hand, a comprehensive time tracking tool for developers can provide your business with several benefits. For example, it can improve your team’s focus and productivity by creating a sense of accountability and transparency.
That’s why you should consider using a dedicated, fully featured time tracking solution for your CLion software development team.
Next, we’ll look at five amazing tools you can use to take your CLion time tracking to the next level.
5 top-tier tools to use for CLion time tracking
Here are five tools you can use alongside CLion to track your employees’ daily activities and productivity:
1. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is an all-in-one time tracking software with robust productivity management features. It’s used in many different industries by large companies, like Ericsson, and small businesses, like Thrive Market, to increase team productivity.
With handy features like time tracking automation, detailed attendance reports, and work schedules, Time Doctor makes comprehensive time tracking a breeze.
Key features
Let’s look at some of Time Doctor’s brilliant features:
A. User-friendly time tracking
Time Doctor offers two easy-to-use time tracking options: interactive and silent.
The interactive mode allows team members to start a timer to track their work hours and stop it when they take a break. The app only collects time and productivity data when the timer is on.
The silent mode is an automatic option that tracks time and productivity in the background whenever a device is in use. It uses the data to create an automatic time log. This can be beneficial for ensuring minimal disruptions to the employee workflow and preventing inaccuracies when employees forget to start or stop the timer.
B. Client, project, and task tracking
Time Doctor makes it easy for employees to track time across multiple projects, tasks, and client portfolios.
Depending on permissions, managers and employees can create projects and tasks. A project manager can assign tasks and projects to employees to categorize tracked time. Employees can also create their own tasks and label them with a project or client name.
Developers can use this feature to track time for issues, commits, and other developer tasks.
Time Doctor can then generate reports detailing which projects employees worked on and for how long within any chosen period. It also categorizes the entries by client, allowing you to provide them with a detailed record of time usage and progress.
C. Idle-time detection
The idle-time detection feature calculates team members’ activity versus inactivity. Time Doctor detects keyboard and mouse usage data to calculate a rate of inactivity (the percentage of idle time in a given period).
This can help ensure that your software developers work productively during their reported work hours.
The app also displays a pop-up notification when a team member has been idle for too long, reminding them to refocus. If the employee doesn’t interact, the app assumes they are on a break and automatically stops the timer. This helps prevent inaccuracies and time theft.
Note: Time Doctor is not a keylogger. It does not record any details of your activity. The app only detects when the user presses on the keyboard or mouse.
D. Customizable productivity ratings
Time Doctor assesses the productivity of websites and apps employees access and assigns a rating to each. You can configure these productivity ratings for individual team members or entire teams.
For example, managers can set social media sites as “productive” for a marketing team but “unproductive” for developers.
You can then accurately see how much time team members spend on productive or unproductive sites.
Check out the support page for an in-depth productivity ratings tutorial.
E. Comprehensive reporting
Time Doctor generates numerous detailed time and productivity reports, such as:
- Activity summary: Analyze the time employees spend active, idle, or unproductive.
- Hours tracked: Calculate the total hours each employee tracked in a selected period.
- Web & app usage reports: Get a record of time employees tracked on all websites and applications.
- Attendance reports: See details of employee attendance and punctuality.
- Timeline reports: See a real-time timeline of each employee’s workday (e.g., see the current project an employee is working on).
- Custom exports: Create custom reports for your specific business needs, downloadable as a PDF or CSV file.
F. Payroll integration
Time Doctor allows you to pay your staff right from the app, based on their tracked time and billable rates. The app automatically generates a payroll using your rules and preferences and the collected time data.
You can configure the payroll to your liking by selecting a pay period and currency. You can also choose to pay team members according to a monthly salary or an hourly wage.
The app integrates with several payment gateways, including PayPal, Gusto, and ADP, to process payments.
The payroll feature is the culmination of your software development team’s time tracking process. After tracking every activity along the way to completion, you can then pay your staff accurately and transparently.
But that’s not all! Time Doctor also has several other beneficial functionalities.
Pros
- Track time both online and offline.
- Track time on multiple devices using the desktop app (for Windows, Mac, and Linux), web app, or mobile app for Android.
- Create staff work schedules and track attendance and punctuality.
- Get optional screenshots and screencasts of employee computers.
- Utilize over 50+ integrations with other apps (e.g., project management software like Asana or issue tracker software like Jira and GitHub) via the Time Doctor Chrome extension.
- Use the Time Doctor API documentation to extend the software’s features for developers.
- Enjoy easy setup and 24 hour customer support.
Pricing
Time Doctor offers a free 14-day trial without requiring any credit card information. Paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (280+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)
2. TMetric
TMetric is a flexible time tracking solution for tracking and managing employee hours, Paid Time Off (PTO) requests, billing, and invoicing.
Key features
- Track time using a timer or enter hours manually on a timesheet.
- Use labels like milestones, location, or status to categorize each time entry.
- Group, sort, and filter time data to create custom reports.
Pricing
TMetric offers a 30-day free trial. Paid plans start at $5/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (100+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (240+ reviews)
3. Clockify
Clockify is an affordable time tracking solution that helps you easily create automatic timesheets. Along with the basic employee time monitoring functionality, it has comprehensive features for reporting time and financial metrics.
Key features
- Track time employees spend on different websites and apps.
- Visualize schedules in context with a calendar view.
- Configure project templates for recurring projects.
Pricing
Clockify offers a limited free plan. Paid plans with extra features start at $4.99/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (120+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7 (4,200+ reviews)
4. Harvest
Harvest is a user-friendly tool that tracks time and provides insight into time usage with a range of reports. It also has features for managing financial processes like payroll and invoicing.
Key features
- Track time manually with a timer or enter hours directly on the timesheet.
- Import Google Calendar and Outlook events as time entries.
- Utilize integrations with Paypal, Stripe, Quickbooks, and Xero to create invoices and collect client payments.
Pricing
Harvest offers a limited free plan for one user and two projects. Its paid plan is $12/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (750+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (500+ reviews)
5. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a cloud-based time tracking software. It has useful features like timesheet automation, managing PTO requests, payroll and billing, integrations, and more.
Key features
- Track active and idle time automatically after switching the tracker on.
- Generate reports about idle time, web and app usage, and hours tracked.
- Use financial controls to set billable rates, track budgets and costs, and receive client payments.
Pricing
TimeCamp offers a limited free plan. Paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (180+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (550+ reviews)
Wrapping up
CLion IDE is a fantastic development tool for teams to collaborate on software production projects. However, it doesn’t include a native time tracking option. Moreover, the plugins CLion supports may not provide a comprehensive time tracking experience.
A dedicated time tracking software solution can track your entire process from start to completion and also boost employee productivity.
Time Doctor is an excellent choice for CLion time tracking thanks to its robust features, such as flexible time tracking, project and task tracking, productivity management, payroll, and more.
