A less tedious way to log time

[edmundsullivan]

Any chance UpWork will ever make it less of a pain to log time? There's no way I'm downloading your intrusive app on to my work computer, so don't suggest that. The manual time logging interface is tedious and slow and difficult to use.

Why not open up the API so I can integrate it with something like Toggl? Shouldn't your goal to be make working through UpWork as easy as possible?

Between that and the very high fees and the occasional random account shut-down, what is supposed to be our motivation to work through UpWork?

[charles_kozierok]

"Between that and the very high fees and the occasional random account shut-down, what is supposed to be our motivation to work through UpWork?"

Making money? 🙂

I do only manual time and with the exception of very long projects, I track the time on the side and bill an entire day's work in one block. I suppose I might eventually run into a client who has a problem with this, but it hasn't happened yet. Just leave a tab open with all of your current projects and a couple of clicks takes you to the appropriate workroom.

[charles_kozierok]

"Between that and the very high fees and the occasional random account shut-down, what is supposed to be our motivation to work through UpWork?"

Making money? 🙂

I do only manual time and with the exception of very long projects, I track the time on the side and bill an entire day's work in one block. I suppose I might eventually run into a client who has a problem with this, but it hasn't happened yet. Just leave a tab open with all of your current projects and a couple of clicks takes you to the appropriate workroom.

[prestonhunter]

You have a lot of freedom here, Eddie.

 You can use the desktop time-tracker, or not. You can use manually logged time, or not.

Neither of these are tedious or complicated to use.

You can use fixed-price contracts instead of using hourly contracts.

You can use none of these and use weekly stipends or bonus pay instead.

There are a lot of choices. More than you would find in a brick & mortar job, certainly.

If it helps for your planning purposes, I can tell you that Upwork does not have plans to integrate Toggl.

Your suggestions are noted, but keep in mind that Upwork's primary customers are the clients. Upwork is not opposed to making things easier for freelancers, and takes many steps to do do. But that is not their primary goal. It is not clear to me how integration with Toggl would benefit clients or boost Upwork's bottom line.

[gilbert-phyllis]

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@Eddie S wrote:

Any chance UpWork will ever make it less of a pain to log time? There's no way I'm downloading your intrusive app on to my work computer, so don't suggest that. The manual time logging interface is tedious and slow and difficult to use.

Why not open up the API so I can integrate it with something like Toggl? Shouldn't your goal to be make working through UpWork as easy as possible?

Between that and the very high fees and the occasional random account shut-down, what is supposed to be our motivation to work through UpWork?

---

 Nope. UW is built for clients, not freelancers.

I use manual time on all hourly UW projects. I use my own desktop time tracker. Once a week, I run a time sheet and then log my time on each UW project in a block. (The day I have a client who cares which hours of a day I log, is the day I'll know I've dropped the ball vetting the client and setting expectations.)

My motivation to use UW is the access to more viable clients and qualified leads than I could ever generate on my own, for the equivalent investment. I've also enjoyed getting acquainted with the community of FLs who post regularly in the forum.

[edmundsullivan · Accepted solution]

I guess I should rephrase this as a feature request.

UpWork does have a fairly full-featured API. I haven't tried using it, but it looks like it could be useful for automating certain tasks (although it's true that they are mostly client-facing). However, the API doesn't include logging hours. It would be great if it could.

I have a python script that I run weekly that collates my Toggl records through their API and sends summary reports to all my clients. It would be fantastic if I could integrate that with UpWork.

-Eddie

[javakit]

I also need a feature, which Eddie described. I need an API, which allows me log manual time over certain contracts. This will save me time each week, so I can be more efficient on my client's goals and deliver more good features to them, handle more requests, run more projects and so on. 

So, this is an answer on question, why Upwork could be interested in such API as well. 

Thank you.