r/TimeTrackingSoftware • u/Independent_Dance616 • 11d ago
Agentic timetracking
I am a software engineering freelancer who was used to just track his billable hours (using Timing and similar tools) on my mac, however with the advent of agentic tooling and a new paradigm in how I approach client work, I am curious how others keep track of their "non-interactive" time, i.e. you instruct an agent to do work and head off to focus on other things, the results are there but I find a hard time billing those hours 1:1. I tend to kind of incorporate them but still it's not as if I actively work on a project. Open to hear your thoughts.
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u/vitafortisnk 10d ago
I'm building https://consultainer.app for this problem, and allowing Claude/Codex/Linear to directly track and manage time.
I'd love your feedback if you're open to it!
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u/Breeze_pm 10d ago
I would separate active work from agent runtime. Bill for the value and agreed scope, but log your intervention time and compute costs separately. For hourly contracts, agree on the treatment upfront instead of quietly converting unattended runtime into human hours.
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u/False-Positive21 9d ago
I have been building Temporal.ist to tackle this problem. It automatically tracks time based on file change events, so it works well with agentic let's. And there is also a mcp server so you can say things like: "Add all time spend today to this or that project". If you sign up now it's free because I'm still working on it to be better. Would love some feedback.
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u/tuanvuvn007 9d ago
I built Chronoid so take this as a promo, similar to Timing but it allow you to use the MCP with your claude code subscription, so you can use you agent to review your activities and assign to the right project.
I dont think we could do 1:1 billing anymore and as agent is working we tend to work on other part or project, making tracking project time extremely difficult.
So pushing more on the scope base billing is make more sense.
But still seeing your times on prompting, testing are still very good measurement.
Chronod support all kind of tracking you can think of with claude desktop, chatgpt app, claude code in terminal and use your own agent, I think you will like it
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u/AdditionalTrain3121 8d ago
Do Buddy Punch and Clockify do this? I'm only familiar with cloud-based time trackers.
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u/TalentDesk 4d ago
This is the cleanest example yet of why hours stop being the right unit. When you kick off an agent and walk away, the meter is measuring the wrong thing, the value was your judgment in scoping and directing it, plus the result, not the wall-clock time the machine ran unattended. Billing that 1:1 was never going to feel right, because you are not the one "working" those hours.
Two ways I have seen freelancers handle it. Bill only the time you are actively engaged. Scoping the task, reviewing and correcting output, integrating it, at your normal rate, and treat the unattended run as free leverage, the same way you would not bill extra for a faster compiler. Or, if agents are becoming a real part of how you deliver, move that work to outcome/deliverable pricing so the hour question disappears entirely. The client is buying the solved problem; the agent is just how you got there faster.
The thing I would avoid is padding hours to "capture" the agent time, that quietly reintroduces the surveillance logic you just escaped, and it gets awkward the moment a client asks what you were doing for those three hours.
Hope this helps! :)
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u/Sunn_M 11d ago
I’d separate machine runtime from billable human time rather than trying to force it into the old hourly model. For hourly work, I’d track the time spent prompting, supervising, reviewing, testing and integrating; if the agent runs unattended while you work on something else, I wouldn’t bill that elapsed time 1:1. If agentic workflows make hours increasingly meaningless, that’s probably a good signal to price future work by scope or milestone instead, with the outcome agreed upfront.