Hours is a beautiful new app for time tracking on the iPhone

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Time tracking for clients can be a huge pain, but there’s a new iPhone app out called Hours to make the process easier.

“Three years ago we got so frustrated with time tracking software that we decided to do something about it,” said Jeremy Olson of Tapity, an Apple Design Award-winning studio behind apps like Languages and Grades. Hours features a simple, elegant interface with flexible options for keep track of when you work.

The app, which was released today in the App Store, lets you create different timers for multiple clients or categories with corresponding colors.

There’s a scrollable timeline of the day that sits above your list of timers, and you just tap the timer you want to start. A month view lets you see what days you’ve worked at a glance.

Screen Shot 2014-07-17 at 3.28.09 PM

The key to Hours that makes it an attractive tool is its flexibility. It’s easy to mark when you’re taking a break, split a segment of worked time in half, or go back and add more minutes to a chunk of time earlier in the day. The app has built-in rounding rules that can be fine-tuned down to the minute, or as generous as a per hour basis.

If you have set times you work every day, Hours can remind you to start your timer if you haven’t done so. The goal of the app is not only to make time tracking a more pleasant experience, but also to make it easy to log the actual time you’ve worked without missing chunks you forgot about.

Screen Shot 2014-07-17 at 3.28.53 PM

Reports can be exported by email as PDF or CSV, and Tapity has plans to offer a web-based version of Hours for collaboration between teams.

It’s not perfect, but at launch, Hours is an incredibly well designed, thoughtful time tracking tool for the iPhone you should definitely check out. It’s on sale in the App Store for 50% off at $4.99 for a limited time.

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