Notion and Time Tracking
There are dozens of time tracking applications out on the market, but to see what can be accomplished I built my own using Notion. If you’re not familiar with Notion, it’s a low-code/no-code solution platform that can be used for any variety of purposes. In this case, I took advantage of Notion’s database functionality combined with relationships and rollups.
I created two databases in my Notion workspace, one for projects and one for time records. In the project database, I’m tracking the project name, the client, a description of the project, targeted completion date (if any) and the billable rate for the project. I can more information as I need to (for example this morning I added columns to allow me to track the primary contact as well as contact number for the project. The second database. Focuses on the time records themselves. It includes. A description of the activity. The date that it occurred. And. By using the relationship function, I'm able to select the project. From the listing of projects that I created earlier.
Included in the time record is the number of hours that I executed for period of work. My time records are done on a daily basis and then I accrue them indicating whether or not they're billable for given projects. What makes this most useful is the calculation to determine the billable amount for any given time record is pulled using a roll up from the project table to the time tracking table. It performs the calculation as you would think, taking the hourly rate and multiplying it by the number of hours expended. What I found is also useful for this is I can set hourly rates or cost rates per project rather than at the high-level client designation. This gives me more flexibility in pricing as well as giving me more flexibility in tracking the costs related to each given project. I can also split projects up into multiple records, making it simpler to track a multiphasic project such as one that has a strategic component as well as a training component, two things that are priced differently within my structure.
The amount of time it took to construct the tool within Notion was under 30 minutes. I've found since constructing it, it is extremely easy to go in and use and to update and to capture the information that I need so that it does not get lost in the shuffle of daily activities. I have found some limitations in the base structure that I created when trying to use it on a mobile interface, but that's something that I have the flexibility within the platform to fix as I go through and try different designs.
One of the things I am looking forward to doing is creating customized pages per client that allow me to roll up from the tables that I have for projects and for time records onto those pages so I can have just a specific client view. I don't have to try to build those within the tables themselves because I can link tables to pages within Notion, providing a dashboard style view at the client level as well as being able to provide a dashboard level view for particular types of projects or particular scales of work.
I'm sure someone will tell me that I could have just gone out and bought something to do this. But I'm always an advocate of use the tools that you have to their utmost. And if I'm already paying a license for notion, it doesn't seem to make much sense to go pay a license for another application when the one I have will do just fine. If I just take a little bit of time to learn the tools. If you'd like to learn more about this solution or other solutions utilizing Notion, I recommend that you drop by GelwicksTech.com and schedule a time so we can talk about the best way for you to put notion to use for your particular needs.
