For freelancers

A free time tracker for freelancers — because your tracker shouldn't cost more than your coffee

You track time so you can bill for it. Paying a monthly subscription for the privilege eats into exactly the hours you're tracking. Here's the free alternative.

The freelance workflow

One category per client. Set up categories for each client or project. Every logged block of time lands under the right client automatically, so there's no untangling at invoice time.

Track as you work, not from memory. Use the built-in focus timer while you're in a task. Reconstructing a week from memory at invoice time is where undercharging happens — studies of freelance billing consistently show unlogged time is simply lost income.

Export the evidence. At invoice time, export your log to CSV: dates, tasks, durations, per client. Attach it to the invoice or keep it as backup when a client asks what the 14 hours covered.

This week, by client

Invoice week
Client A — website build11h 30m
Client B — retainer6h 15m
Proposals & admin (non-billable)4h 50m
4h 50m unbillable this week. That's the number that sets your real hourly rate — and most freelancers never see it.

The non-billable time trap

Most freelancers only track billable hours, which hides the real picture. If you bill 20 hours a week but spend another 10 on proposals, admin, and email, your effective rate is two-thirds of what you think it is. Tracking everything — billable and not — is how you find out whether to raise rates, cut admin, or drop the client whose "quick questions" consume your Tuesdays.

When a paid tool is worth it

Being straight with you: if you invoice many clients monthly and want invoices generated automatically from tracked hours, Harvest earns its fee. If you collaborate inside a team's shared workspace, Toggl or Clockify make sense. One Day Tracker is for the freelancer who wants clean tracking and timesheets without another subscription on the books.

FAQ

How do I track billable hours for free?

Create a category per client, log time against it through the day, and export the CSV at invoice time. The export lists tasks, dates and durations — the evidence behind your invoice line items.

Can I send the export directly to clients?

Yes — the CSV is clean enough to attach to an invoice as-is, or paste into your own invoice template.

Does it work across my laptop and phone?

It works in any browser on both, but data is stored locally per device — it doesn't sync between them. Pick one primary tracking device (most freelancers use their work machine) for a single source of truth.

Every untracked hour is unbilled income.

Free, no account, no subscription eating your margin.

Start tracking — it's free