10 excellent Grindstone time tracking alternatives

Grindstone is a time management tool by Epiforge Software. This free tool allows you to track working time and measure employee productivity. It’s compatible with Windows software and can be integrated with other Microsoft Office tools like Office Timeline, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Access for easy collaboration.

So, why look for a grindstone time tracking alternative?

Well, the application has its own share of drawbacks. For starters, Grindstone has limited features and may not be able to boost the overall productivity of your employees.

But don’t worry. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive and user-friendly time tracking solution, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll check out the top 10 Grindstone time tracking alternative tools and their key features, pricing, and ratings. We’ll also explore the features to look for when choosing a Grindstone alternative.

Let’s get started!

Top 10 Grindstone time tracking alternative tools

Grindstone is a simple time tracking and task management software that allows you to efficiently boost your team’s productivity by:

Tracking time with the help of a widget-like stopwatch.
Connecting with Grindstone Sync allows Grindstone users to see what each member of the team is doing and view their time tracking information live. The feature helps you see, filter, manage, and monitor team members and assignments.
Gathering information on when employees are away from their system.

However, the app’s features limit you to basic time tracking with a timer. Additionally, the tool doesn’t facilitate in-depth analysis or productivity assessment. Such features are essential to gain actionable insights into your organization.

Are there better time tracking solutions with advanced features?

Yes.

Here’s a list of some of the best Grindstone time tracking alternative tools for your team.

1. Time Doctor

time doctor - better for the organization

Time Doctor is a powerful cloud-based employee time tracking and productivity management tool. It’s used by big companies like Verizon and Ericsson, as well as small businesses like Firehouse Subs, to boost employee productivity.

The tool has advanced performance management, timesheet, and payroll features, making it a top time tracking software for your business needs. The tool is available as a desktop app and a mobile app (Android).

Key features

Here are some of Time Doctor’s key features that make it a perfect Grindstone alternative:

A. Time tracking

Time Doctor offers manual and automatic time tracking modes.

To use the manual time tracking mode, you need to:

Add a new task or select an existing one under the relevant project.
Press ‘Start’ when you want to start tracking time.
Press ‘Stop’ to stop tracking time or if you want to take a break.

The automatic time tracking mode runs silently in the background when employees start their systems. It helps your team members concentrate on their task without worrying about tracking time every time they start their system.

B. Idle time tracking

Time Doctor helps you track when an employee is idle for a particular amount of time.

The business software also sends a pop-up alert to your employees to re-focus on their task after a certain period (specified by the admin) of inactivity. The timer automatically turns off if the user doesn’t respond.

Note: Time Doctor isn’t a keystroke logger. It’ll only check if a user pressed any keys or moved the mouse to determine idle time.

C. Screencasts (optional)

Time Doctor’s screencasts is an effective employee monitoring feature that lets you see what your team members are working on. The app takes screenshots of a user’s screen periodically.

This feature deters employees from engaging in non-work activities during work hours since they’re aware that their screen activities are being monitored.

Note: The tool only takes screenshots when employees indicate they’re working. This feature is optional and can be enabled or disabled for a particular user. The admin can blur or delete the screenshots with confidential information to maintain privacy.

D. Productivity ratings

Time Doctor lets you set productivity ratings for different apps and websites, depending on an employee’s tasks and projects.

You can classify the websites as:

Productive.
Unproductive.
Neutral.
Unrated.

For example, if your team member uses LinkedIn to run social media campaigns, you can classify the website as productive. But, you can rate the website as unproductive for a team member who works in software development.

E. Productivity reports

Time Doctor generates multiple comprehensive reports that you can view in real-time.

Here are some of the reports available:

Hours tracked report: Shows how many hours or minutes your employees have worked per week, workday, or the date range you select.

Attendance report: Shows if the employee was present, absent, partially absent, or late for their shift. You can filter the report as per requirement.

Projects & tasks report: Shows how much time was spent on each project and task.

Custom export reports: Allows you to customize what you want to include in a single exported report rather than combining data from multiple reports.

Internet connectivity reports: Shows the total time your employee was offline and the percentage of days spent offline while tracking time.

Timeline report: Shows the exact time your employees sign in and sign out of work every day.

Web and app usage report: Displays how many hours your team spends on different websites and applications.

Activity summary report: Reflects your employee’s active seconds, active minutes, unproductive, or mobile time.

F. Payroll management

Time Doctor also provides powerful payroll management features, like automated timesheets and billing, along with time tracking.

You can integrate Time Doctor with payment gateways like Gusto, PayPal, ADP, or Wise to take care of your payroll needs.

You can customize payroll details like:

Payment method.
Payment currency.
Pay period.

Thus, you can manage your company’s payroll with minimal fuss and increase productivity and profits.

G. Powerful Integrations

You can integrate Time Doctor’s powerful Chrome extension with other apps your team may use. For example, CRM (Customer Relationship Manager Software) and project

management tools like Asana, Zoho Projects, and Microsoft Office.

It also offers integration with Google Calendar.

With these integrations, your employees can use Time Doctor to log time on these other apps with just a single click.

Check out Time Doctor’s features page for more information.

Pricing

Time Doctor provides a 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Its paid plan starts at $7/user per month.

Customer ratings

G2: 4.4/5 ( 320+reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (460+ reviews)

2. Paymo

Paymo is a time tracking and management software with project planning capabilities. You can integrate it with your Google Calendar. The tool is suitable for small business and mid-sized companies as well as freelancers.