HourGuard

Pros

As someone like me who is in the service industry, keeping track of time spent on different client projects can be very tedious. I have tried making my work a bit less tedious with using a diary, desk calendar and basic notepad. Nothing helped but when I come across the NCH Software website, I was immediately tempted by the attractive description and affordable price of HourGuard TimeSheet Software. After just one day of trying the free trial I come to know I couldn't work well without it. This software allows me to set up clients, main tasks and sub-tasks, and effortlessly track the time I spend on each one by simply clicking ''Start'' when I begin and ''Stop'' when I finish. I can pause and resume as many times as needed throughout the day, pausing or switching tasks when I receive a phone call, taking breaks and so on. At the end of a specific period, I can request HourGuard to generate a report. I have the option to report all time spent on a selected client, only time spent on a specific task, or obtain a comprehensive report covering all time allocations. By specifying the date range, the report is instantly available, providing a detailed breakdown of how I allocated my time across different jobs. While I could have chosen to invest a little more in Express Invoicing and have HourGuard automatically send data to create well-formatted invoices with complete details of the time billed, I decided to manually create my invoices in Express Accounts instead. This is because I work part-time and don't have a large volume of invoices to generate. HourGuard is a fantastic solution for freelancers and professionals who bill by the hour, offering the option to print or email timesheets or invoices for the time spent. It's simple, affordable, and highly efficient.

Cons

There is very little that I do not like about this product. Initially I had to figure out how to prevent it from automatically starting when my computer boots up and how to stop it from automatically resuming a task after a break. While some users might like this automation I personally didn't. Thankfully it is entirely optional and after a bit of research I learned how to disable it. Now, I manually start, stop and select tasks. All this only takes a few seconds at the beginning and end of each task to ensure an accurate record is generated at the end of the period. The report displays the number of sessions for each task, time spent, and the cost (based on the individual hourly rates I input for each client or project). I am usually cautious of software that constantly runs in the background due to compatibility issues and memory limitations, but with HourGuard, I haven't encountered any problems at all. I can't comment much on customer support since I haven't required any assistance. However, I did come across negative comments on a forum from a user who couldn't figure out how to disable the automated start feature. Honestly, it's easy to turn off, and I'm confident that the NCH support team would have been responsive.

Pros

Learning how to use this software is a simplest thing. and I can easily record each task for every client and sub task.

Cons

It is impossible to get an accurate reporting system. Even when downloading the file as a CVS format, it is useless as it only provides a summary without any detailed notes. Based on my experience with CVS files, they should provide all the necessary information to create accurate and detailed reports and graphs. Unfortunately that is not possible with HourGuard. this application feels incomplete and has remained that way for years.