Does anyone use toggl for timetracking their work?

Hi,

I'm interested in looking at the APIs for toggle to see whether it's worth creating a plugin for this application or not.  I came across them courtesy of  and have since learned they do have an API.  Putting in the effort to look at this won't be worth it if nobody uses them so I thought I'd ask here.

The website is:

https://www.toggl.com/

Looking forward to your feedback if you are aware of them, use them, or tried them and dropped them?  Would it be worth investing time and resource investigating a plugin to these guys?

Regards

Paul

Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi, Paul! I use Toggl for my business, day in and day out. At the end of the week, I have typically tracked 85-90% of my work activities. I track all my project-related activities (editing time, file prep, TM updates as it pertains to a particular project, glossary updates, quoting, client emails/calls), to admin work (invoicing, accounting). At the end of the project, I know exactly how much time the project took from the moment I received the first client email until completion. I then use this information to compare it against my quote. Their online platform is really simple to use.
  • Hi , and ,

    Thanks for your feedback. So far then would this be a summary of what you would see as helpful? Note that I don't know what's possible yet but I'm looking for a starting point:

    1. New ribbon group for Toggl
    2. Icon that takes you to a setup location for your activities in Toggl
    3. Icon that lets you start the clock for a specific activity
    4. Icon that stops the clock
    5. Some sort of reporting link - maybe as simple as an icon that takes you to Toggl for the reports?
    6. All recording should also tag the following (if there is somewhere in Toggl to store this information):
    - the project name
    - the file name

    So basically four icons in a new ribbon group. Does that sum up at a high level the way you see this working? I thought about some automated start/stop the clock as we have with Qualitivity but there isn't always a trigger for this based on the things you mention Micaela so this is why I'm thinking a simple way to be able to start stop the clock from within Studio for Studio related activities.

    Thank you

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • I just signed up to Toggl and can see a few more things of interest now:

    • Activities (the type of thing you are doing - translating/reviewing/project management/invoicing etc.) - some will be user defined but I guess we could automatically create some based on Studio activities
    • Projects - need to match a Studio project?
    • Clients - could be linked to the Client field in Studio
    • Teams - not sure how you would see this being used?
    • Workspaces - not sure how you would see this being used?
    • Tags - this could be useful for the filename for example, or even the names of who worked on a file based on userid?  What else might this be used for?

    It does look like an interesting application and I definitely think the reporting needs to be done in Toggl so we just need to look at how users would make use of this in practice via Studio.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi Paul,

    Thank you for your consideration.

    For me, the biggest draw of the idea of having a Toggl plugin was automatic clock starting/stopping.
    If it is not going to do that, then I don't think I need a plugin (Sorry, Karen Tkaczyk):
    when I translate, I have my Internet browser open anyways for research, and, in Chrome, another tab of Toggl does not get in the way (especially if I "Pin tab").

    My feedback to your starting point:

    1. New ribbon group for Toggl

    Yes, but I would add Toggl buttons to my ribbon that I've customized.
    And would it be able to show the running clock? If not, I think I would just use the web or desktop Toggl.

    2. Icon that takes you to a setup location for your activities in Toggl

    Yes, a link to that page in Toggl.com

    3. Icon that lets you start the clock for a specific activity

    OK.

    I am used to using the start buttons which are to the right of my most recent activities in Toggl.com, so I can continue what I was doing before instead of selecting parameters each time.
    I create a new Toggl Project for each new translation project, so I would have to manually change the "specific activity" in settings each time I start a new project.

    There may be other people who would track all their SDL time in a Toggl Project called "Translation" or something, and I think your idea would work the best for those people.

    4. Icon that stops the clock

    Yes.

    5. Some sort of reporting link - maybe as simple as an icon that takes you to Toggl for the reports?

    Yes. Toggl has a robust reporting system, so I wouldn't require anything additional within SDL, or require looking at Toggl.com in a smaller frame within SDL products.

    6. All recording should also tag the following (if there is somewhere in Toggl to store this information):
    - the project name
    - the file name

    Toggl has Projects, Descriptions, and Tags for each time record. (Clients are set when setting up Projects, so not for each record.)

    My system for using Toggl:
    Toggl Projects = project name. This is not necessarily the file name in SDL (since that is sometimes set by the client).
    Toggl Descriptions = irregular. In a project with multiple files, I may use the file name.
    Toggl Tags = I don't use it. (Toggl's official Android app automatically adds the "moblie" tag from records started on it, unless this option is turned off.)

  • Unknown said:
    For me, the biggest draw of the idea of having a Toggl plugin was automatic clock starting/stopping.
    If it is not going to do that, then I don't think I need a plugin (Sorry, Karen Tkaczyk):

    Hi  so for this how would you like it to work?  Qualitivity has a sort of cleverness built into it so the clock automatically stops if you take too long translating on a segment for example.  So if you took a break and left your translation open the clock would stop.  How would you like an automated start/stop to work and what would the triggers be?  I don't think it can be as simple as start when you open a file and stop when you close it... unless we did that and you have to responsible for stopping/starting between for any reason?

    That could probably be done, and we could do this for activities we know about.  So this would only be translating/reviewing/signoff.  I suppose it could also be done for project preparation... maybe... but I don't know who relevant this would really be and I also don't know what would be possible given the multitude of ways in which people can start work these days.

    Always interesting how a simple idea can get complicated once you start to discuss it!

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • I agree that most things are user-defined, as to which level people want to assign to a Trados Project.

    Here is how I personally use all the different things in Toggl:

    • Activities (I'm guessing this means the Time Entry that is being tracked): each one can be given a Description (type in anything), a Project (select or create) and Tags (select or create). I usually just add a Project.
    • Projects: Yes, for me, this is the Studio project.
    • Clients: Could be linked to the Client field in Studio if the plugin is also going to be able to create Toggl Projects.
    • Teams: This is for groups of people who use Toggl to work on projects together, so, as a single freelancer, I've never used it.
    • Workspaces: I have two workspaces: Billable (which is where I put translation projects) and Unbillable one (for logging bookkeeping etc.). Each Project must be assigned to a Workspace when it is created, so if the plugin is going to be able to create Toggl Projects, it would need to read the Workspaces created by the user and be able to select one. Like Clients, no need to worry about this if the plugin is just creating Activities.
    • Tags: I haven't thought of any information I would find useful here.

    Workspaces is pretty cool, since the report data for one is completely separated from the others. So I would think that most people using Studio would want all their Studio Activities in the same Workspace.

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  • I agree that most things are user-defined, as to which level people want to assign to a Trados Project.

    Here is how I personally use all the different things in Toggl:

    • Activities (I'm guessing this means the Time Entry that is being tracked): each one can be given a Description (type in anything), a Project (select or create) and Tags (select or create). I usually just add a Project.
    • Projects: Yes, for me, this is the Studio project.
    • Clients: Could be linked to the Client field in Studio if the plugin is also going to be able to create Toggl Projects.
    • Teams: This is for groups of people who use Toggl to work on projects together, so, as a single freelancer, I've never used it.
    • Workspaces: I have two workspaces: Billable (which is where I put translation projects) and Unbillable one (for logging bookkeeping etc.). Each Project must be assigned to a Workspace when it is created, so if the plugin is going to be able to create Toggl Projects, it would need to read the Workspaces created by the user and be able to select one. Like Clients, no need to worry about this if the plugin is just creating Activities.
    • Tags: I haven't thought of any information I would find useful here.

    Workspaces is pretty cool, since the report data for one is completely separated from the others. So I would think that most people using Studio would want all their Studio Activities in the same Workspace.

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