Unfuddle Stack is a popular software development project management tool that’s widely used by developers to manage large open source projects, among other things.
It offers issue tracking, bug tracking, Git and Subversion repository hosting, and other team collaboration features to streamline your software project workflow.
You also get a native time tracking functionality to track your projects and tickets.
But does Unfuddle time tracking have all the essential features that you need to track your projects effectively? Let’s find out.
In this article, we’ll explore Unfuddle time tracking and its limitations in detail. You’ll also discover five powerful alternatives to overcome these limitations.
So let’s get started.
Table of Contents
- A quick intro to Unfuddle time tracking (and its limitations)
- 5 powerful alternatives for Unfuddle time tracking
A quick intro to Unfuddle time tracking (and its limitations)
Tickets are at the heart of Unfuddle. You can use them for bug or defect tracking, project planning, and much more.
Its time tracking feature lets you log the time you spend working on each ticket within your projects. You can add any number of time entries to each ticket. There’s also an option to set a time estimate when creating a ticket.
Based on these time entries and estimates, Unfuddle generates two different time reports:
- Time Invested: A report showing how much time was spent on either an Unfuddle account or a project with the specified criteria.
- Overall Progress: A report illustrating the overall progress of a project and its respective milestones. It shows a project progress bar that shows the percentage of work completed based on the closed tickets.
Note: For more information on its features, visit Unfuddle.com and head over to its knowledge base.
Unfuddle’s built-in time tracking functionality is certainly a convenient way to track your team’s hours on specific tickets and the overall project. However, it lacks several essential productivity tracking features.
Without these features, you won’t be able to:
- Check if team members are logging time that they actually work for.
- Get an insight into your team’s time usage.
- Track what a team member is working on in real-time.
So how do you get around these limitations?
You can opt for a standalone time and project tracking tool with a larger feature set. This way, you get the best of both worlds – a powerful defects and bug tracker and cutting-edge time tracking technology.
5 powerful alternatives for Unfuddle time tracking
Let’s take a look at five tools to meet your time tracking needs for your Unfuddle projects.
1. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a popular time and productivity management software suitable for big and small teams and individuals using Unfuddle.
It’s used by large companies like Ericsson as well as small teams like Thrive Market for improving project and team efficiency.
You can use Time Doctor’s vast feature set through its:
- Desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Mobile app for Android.
- Google Chrome extension (for supported integrations).
Its features a standalone time tracker that lets you log the time spent on each Unfuddle ticket and the overall project, down to the last second. It’ll allow you to track the project progress and ensure fair payments to your team members based on their billable time.
And the best part is that Time Doctor supports online and offline time tracking. It ensures that every minute spent on a project is accounted for, even if you face server outages or have remote employees with unstable internet connectivity.
Let’s explore some important Time Doctor valuable features in detail.
Key features
A. Convenient time tracking
Time Doctor gives you the option to log hours for a project and all its tickets using two convenient modes – manual and automatic.
A user can choose how and when they measure time while using the manual or interactive modes. They only have to press the start or stop button on a timer window.
It works like this:
- Step 1: Launch the Time Doctor app and type in the task name (ticket name) you’d like to complete.
- Step 2: To begin tracking, press the start button.
- Step 3: Work for as long as you want, and when you’re done, click stop.
It’s as simple as that. The time entry (for both the user and the ticket) will then be automatically saved in a timesheet that you may access at any time.
And when you don’t want to start or stop the timer manually, like during those intense coding sessions, you have the option to record the time automatically.
In automatic or silent mode, the timer starts as soon as the user turns on the computer. It runs in the background without affecting the user’s workflow.
A project manager or team leader can use the automatic tracking feature to monitor the work patterns of each of their team members.
B. Idle-time alerts
At times, you or your software team may lose focus while working on a tricky bug, resulting in a period of inactivity. This could affect your team’s overall efficiency.
Thankfully, Time Doctor has a built-in idle time tracker that detects if a user remains inactive for an extended period of time. It checks for the user’s keyboard and mouse activity to determine these idle minutes, and admins can set a permissible time limit.
Post this limit, users will get a pop-up notification on their screen, gently nudging them to return to work.
Note: Time Doctor is not a keylogger. It only checks if the user has clicked the mouse or any key to measure their inactive time.
At this point, they can also choose to stop the timer and take a break, helping them unwind and get charged up for the next programming session.
In any case, you can rest assured that you aren’t billed for these idle and unproductive hours.
C. Projects and task management
If you or your team work on multiple projects on Unfuddle simultaneously, it’s vital to keep an eye on your progress and manage time well to meet your deadlines.
With its project and task feature, Time Doctor makes timekeeping and management of your Unfuddle projects more intuitive and clutter-free.
You can add all your Unfuddle projects and their associated tickets (as tasks) in Time Doctor and track time for them individually.
Managers can assign these tasks to software developers as per their skills, allowing them to better organize the workflow and track progress.
D. Real-time productivity reports
Time Doctor offers a more comprehensive selection of insightful reports than Unfuddle. These reports help team leads and managers monitor their team’s availability, time usage, and the progress of a software project, all in real-time.
These reports include:
- Activity summary report: Shows an overview of a developer’s activity, including active, unproductive, or mobile time over a period of time.
- Timeline report: See the time an employee spends working on a ticket and on breaks in daily and weekly formats.
- Hours tracked report: Check the working hours your team tracked during a specific date range.
- Projects & tasks report: Take note of the time a user spends on different projects and tasks.
- Web & app usage report: Lists the sites and applications each team member visits during work hours and the time spent on each of them.
D. Productivity ratings
Time Doctor doesn’t just show you a detailed log of the websites and apps used by your team members. It goes beyond and lets you categorize these websites and apps based on their relevance to the work.
You can assign the websites and app any one of the four ratings:
- Productive.
- Unproductive.
- Neutral.
- Unrated.
So if your team regularly visits a software development and bug tracking tool like GitLab while working on Unfuddle tasks, you can mark it as productive. Whereas social media sites like Facebook and Instagram can be labeled unproductive.
This categorization allows you to gauge an employee’s productivity more accurately using the web and app usage report.
Admins can adjust the scope of productivity ratings (global, company, user group, individual) on the Time Doctor’s Settings / Productivity Ratings page.
E. Payroll management
Whether you have a salaried team or hourly freelance software engineers, Time Doctor’s integrated payroll system makes payment processing a breeze.
All you need to do is configure the payroll with pay rate, currency, date range, etc. The tool will intelligently process the payroll based on your input and the tracked time data, allowing you to make payments directly.
You can also export your payroll to popular payment gateways like Paypal, Wise, etc., for processing.
Additionally, Time Doctor supports a Chrome integration with 50+ popular tools, including:
- Issue tracker software like Zendesk, Jira, etc.
- Project management tools like ClickUp, Trello, Asana, etc.
Pricing
Time Doctor offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card details required.) Its basic plan starts at $7/user per month and includes essential features like time tracking and activity tracking.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (280+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)
You can check out all of Time Doctor’s beneficial features here.
2. RescueTime
RescueTime is an online time tracking tool that can help software development teams stay focused while working on Unfuddle tickets. It’s available for desktop (macOS and Windows) and mobile platforms (Android and iOS.)
Key features
- Supports manual (offline) and automatic time tracking.
- Has a dedicated ‘Focus Session’ to minimize distractions.
- Sends on-screen notification alerts based on your productivity benchmarks.
- Lets you set daily time limits for apps and websites.
Pricing
RescueTime offers a free trial with limited features. Paid plans for this time tracking solution start from $6.50/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.2/5 (70+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (120+ reviews)
3. Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a time and project tracking solution suitable for small to medium-sized software teams. You can use Toggl features through its desktop (macOS, Windows, and Linux) or mobile app (iOS and Android).
Key features
- Has a one-click time to start or stop tracking time.
- Lets you pin frequently-used time entries at the top of the timer page for easy access.
- Offers reporting tools like graphs, pie charts, etc., to visualize the time and productivity data.
- Provides integration with popular project management tools like Jira, Pivotal Tracker, etc., as well as with bug tracking software like GitHub.
Pricing
Toggl Track supports a 14-day free trial. Its paid plans start at $10/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (1450+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (1800+ reviews)
Check out our detailed review of Toggl Track here.
4. My Hours
My Hours is a cloud-based time tracking tool suitable for small teams and freelancers using Unfuddle. Your team can track their Unfuddle tasks through their mobile devices (iOS and Android.)
Key features
- Time, attendance, and absence tracking from a single interface.
- Helps your developers manage their work with to-do lists.
- Offers a detailed timesheet view and a weekly timesheet tracker for manual logging.
- Lets you keep an eye on a project’s profitability by tracking project hours and labor costs.
Pricing
My Hours offers a 14-day free trial. Its paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (160+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (700+ reviews)
5. QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time is a time and project tracking tool with effective team management and scheduling functions. You can use its web or mobile (iOS and Android) apps to track your time working on different issues and defects while resolving Unfuddle tickets.
Key features
- Offers a time kiosk with features like a four-digit PIN for clocking in /out and photo capture to prevent buddy punching.
- Has a GPS tracking feature to help track your developers working on an issue at the client site.
- Can automate employee timesheets for faster payroll processing.
- Supports integration with third-party project management software like Knowify, Karbon, etc.
Pricing
QuickBooks Time offers a 30-day free trial. Its paid plans start at $8/user per month plus a $20 base fee.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (1350+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (5500+ reviews)
Here’s our detailed review of Quickbooks Time.
Wrapping up
Unfuddle Stack is a capable software project management and bug tracking system with many features, including native time tracking.
But to truly leverage the incredible potential of workplace timekeeping, you’ll need a tool with advanced features.
Use the information in the article to understand what Unfuddle’s native time tracking can and can’t do. Also, check out the powerful time tracking alternative shared in this article to pick a tool that best suits your Unfuddle time tracking needs.
While all the time tracking software tools mentioned above have their advantages, Time Doctor stands out with its exceptional features. Its idle-time tracking, payroll, scheduling, and other features help you manage your team and streamline key business functions, all from a single interface.
So why not sign up for Time Doctor’s 14-day free trial to see how it can transform your business.
