Download Upwork Time Tracker [TOP]
Lisandra Okumoto
A time tracker is an essential part of Upwork that allows freelancers to keep a record of how long they have worked on a certain task or project. That way, you have a comprehensive report to show clients to ensure that you are paid for all your work.
There are three ways you can view the time billed on Upwork. The first option is viewing the current session. In this view, you can see your time tracked in real-time. This time will not count as idle time or change the activity levels.
Lastly, you have a full-week view. This shows you all the time you spent working on a project for the whole week. Again, you can take screenshots to document the time you spent working on certain tasks.
One of the major concerns that freelancers have when using the Upwork time tracking feature is privacy. This is because Upwork takes an automatic screenshot every ten minutes while tracking time. This is to serve as proof to clients that freelancers were working on the project while tracking billable time.
Your only real option as a freelancer if you have a screenshot that was taken with sensitive information is to delete the screenshot. Sadly, you cannot edit screenshots once they are taken and the contract has closed. On top of that, if you have to delete the screenshot, you also forgo the billable time that was tracked along with the screenshot.
To get around this, many Upwork users suggest negotiating with your client to raise your hourly rate. That way, you can compensate for the hours you worked away from your computer without the automatic time-tracking option.
As Upwork has not made it possible for you to integrate a third-party time tracker with their platform, you will have to use software like Zapier. Fortunately, integrating Jibble with Upwork through Zappier is quite easy.
Whether intentionally or not, the rules, method and behavior that Upwork has built into the Time Tracker system favors the client and penalizes the contractor. But more than that it divorces real time from logged time which in my mind is poor design.
Concerning the random capture interval:
Presumably this is done intentionally so the captures fall on unpredictable schedules, discouraging the contractor from wasting time. On the surface this seems like it might be a good idea to keep contractors honest but in practice it is insulting, punitive and inherently inaccurate. The randomization displaces real time from recorded time. Not only is it confusing for the contractor, but it also creates an inaccurate representation of your progress in the Work Diary. As I said above, a time interval between captures could be from 2 min. to 18 min. But no matter how much real time has passed the Time Tracker still posts the screen cap at a 10 min. interval. There is a disconnect between the actual time that the contractor spends on a task and the recorded progress in the Work Diary. Further, the keystrokes and mouse movements are registerd and recorded as "Activity Level", but the activity level is not factored over the actual captured time, but rather the activity calculated over a 10 min. interval. So if you get a capture that is 2 min. it looks like you have done virtually nothing during that 10 min. The system This is poor design.
Thank you for your feedback about Upwork Desktop App and time tracking. I'm not aware of any plans to change how the time is tracked in 10-minutes increments. If anything is to change, we'll definitely announce.
Hey Valeria. Thanks for your reply!
I see from that other thread that the Time Tracker issue is a pretty hot one.
Just for clarification, I am not so concerned that the Time Tracker captures in 10 min. increments. Although I think it would be better to simply capture time segments stop watch style rather than divisions of time blocks. My concern is more that the randomization of the increments and the capture of the "fun apps" is petty and it confuses the Work Diary. Further I don't like that when I delete a screenshot it deletes my time. Its not fair that I get a capture when quickly using a browser or music player, delete it and forfeit my time.
Thanks Petra. Yeah, I decided to just start listening to music on headphones from my phone... I have to admit that I resent being penalized for using my own equipment the way I like to use it -- but whatever, my headphones do sound better.
What really upsets me is that I have deleted hundreds of screenshots before they were uploaded to the work diary for exactly that reason. I didn't know it but that apparently discarded my work from the last screenshot so I have unwittingly screwed myself out of hundreds of dollars. If you delete a screenshot the Time Tracker asks if you are sure you want to delete it. It would be prudent for Upwork to put a specific warning in that confirmation that alerts you that you are forfeiting your time since the last screenshot. I know if such a message had been provided I would have adopted other methods for listening to music long ago.
Hi. I've been an Upwork client since 2013. I currently have contracts with 16 freelancers on long-term hourly contracts (with all time tracked through the Upwork time tracker app).... however, I have no real idea how to interpret the "activity levels" shown on my freelancer's Work Diaries.
The official Help page on this topic doesn't really tell me what a reasonable / average level of actiity is for a given type of activity... so, as a client only, I don't have any real idea much activity I should expect to see from my freelancer work diaries. (All of my freelancers are doing online customer support work, no phone calls or offline work tasks at all, although they do sometimes have to read longer emails or watch 10-minute videos)
Is there a way I can test the Time Tracker app myself (without being a freelancer or having to hire myself) so that I can do the same work as my freelancers do for an hour or two, and compare my own activity levels with my freelancer work diaries? This would give me a benchmark to compare my own activity levels with what my freelancers typically log.
hi gurus I am trying to open my desktop Upwork app but it's not showing a tracking window showing me the messages and contact list windows I have reinstalled the app restarted the laptop twice but failed to load the tracker window I have tried already by opening the app from taaskbar
i am using windows 10
So I accidentally close the time tracker with the key commands when I am multi-tasking. I have had to go through this process several times now and to be honest it gets really annoying. Is there a fix to this issue in the development queue at all? Its obviously an ongoing issue for many of us. And we shouldn't have to run terminal commands each time just to get it to fix. Just uninstalling and reinstalling the app never works for me.
I totally agree. This is a HUGE app UI fail. Is it so hard to have "Open Time Tracker" in the Window menu? Or, perhaps, a simple button on the messages window? Maybe a small toolbar or something. Jesus. This is such a pain in the ass. Every time I forget and close the time tracker window I have to WASTE time searching for the fix. Grrrrr
Luckily it hasn't happened to me since my post, however, I have since learned that from the Messages window (which of course is always available, but I digress) the key command to bring the timer back up is (if on a mac, not sure about PC) control + option + t.
I have a solution that may not be available to you. I refuse to use Time Tracker, and make that explicit. It is so easy to bypass that anyone not smart enough to know how to do that isn't smart enough to work for me (I'm also a client). Second, I can only succeed with my clients in an atmosphere of mutual trust. Punching a time clock pollutes that environment. Only one prospective client, in a dozen years, demanded I use time tracking, so I withdrew my response. The only time it cost me anything was in a job where I was ready to fire the client anyway.
I disagree that using the time tracker "pollutes" the environment of trust. I suppose if you look at the time tracker as solely a tool for a client to track you out of lack of trust, then perhaps that is the conclusion you will draw. However, on the freelancer side I find it to be a way for me to manage billable working time in an unobtrusive automated way. Yes I could run a separate timer and manually enter the results. That would be fine; however, I have nothing to hide and saving a few steps to not only make invoicing easier but also to kick in payment protection, is something I see as a benefit of the tool. Additionally, we are working in an environment where there isn't a handshake and a face to face meeting. Both sides have a right to be wary and if using the time tracker helps clients get initial comfort, then that's awesome. Creating tools to lessen the barriers of doing business here is not something I consider a pollutant.
As someone who has been a salaried person since college, I get the notion of tracking time to be somewhat offensive on the surface. But I think if you dig a little deeper in context with a global forum and the profession of a freelancer, you may see that this isn't exactly like punching a time card as if you were a teenager working at the local fast food joint.
Having said the above, and UW doesn't force you to work in that paradigm. You can use fixed bid or manual time entry. If that works, great! My only point is that I think the time tracker is a useful business enabler and not the harbinger of an untrusting poisonous relationship.
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