Toggl provides a robust free time tracking application but are the paid versions enough for you to succeed in business? Learn all the paid features as well as the pros and cons of upgraded Toggl plans below.
A Quick Toggl Background
Toggl is a cloud-based time tracking tool primarily used through the web. However, it’s also available as a downloadable app for desktop, iOS, and Android. You can also use their extension for Chrome and Mozilla for easy access.
Toggl works both online and offline, so all your tracked data is synchronized automatically when you connect to the internet. It offers a robust amount of services for small businesses and freelancers who take their business seriously.
Paid Features of Toggl
The free version of Toggl offers a robust amount of features, including timed entries, reports, analytics, the ability to create multiple projects, and more. All are available when upgrading to a higher plan.
The free version should be sufficient for freelancers seeking to track hours when working on a project or for small businesses needing to track time spent on specific tasks.
But if you run a large business or have a successful freelance career, it is worthwhile to upgrade your account for the features you will gain.
Toggl Starter Features
A level up from the free version, the Starter account can offer significant benefits with data analytics, project management, and integrations.
Reporting – You’ll be able to designate different billing amounts to your time depending on the client, project, or team member for tracking revenue generation.
You can also round your timed entries up or down to the nearest interval, then export the data as an Excel spreadsheet. The Starter plan also allows you to add your company logo on all your time reports for a more professional look.
Project Management – Efficiently manage your projects and clients by setting up templates for billable rates, estimates, tasks, and teams with the Starter plan. The task feature becomes eligible for you to delegate different workloads to different team members.
You can also assign estimates to various projects and tasks and receive notifications once those projects or tasks reach 50%, 75%, or 100% of their estimated time.
Integrations – You can add timed entries directly into your Google Calendar using the iCal integration with the Starter plan to keep track of your projects against other priorities.
Toggl Premium Features
The Premium plan comes with all the features of the free version as well as the Starter plan. However, you’ll also have access to more for your business in time-tracking, reporting, project management, and team management.
Time-Tracking – If you notice your team members won’t be able to hit their time goals for the week, you can schedule email reminders. So your team remembers to track all of the time spent on a project.
Reporting – With full control over your account, you can keep team members from editing their timed entries after they have been logged. You can also create parameters for suspicious entries into Toggl and identify easily which timed entries have not been assigned to a project.
The Premium plan also offers scheduling reports to arrive in your inbox regularly instead of downloading them manually.
Project Management – Keep track of your projects and estimated times of completion by accessing the project dashboard. This will show a forecast of the completion date based on the time logged on the project so far.
Team Management – This is where the Premium plan really sets itself apart from the others. To keep a complete history of all your timed entries, you can require everyone on your team to include the specific project, task, or description before they save.
The Add Time for Team Feature allows you to immediately add or change a previous timed entry from any team member without hunting down missing hours. The comprehensive admin dashboard permits you to edit a team member’s billable rates, rights, and labor-costs.
Pros and Cons of Using Toggl
Not every tool is perfect, and learning the pros and cons of Toggl will help you access if a paid version is worth the investment.
Pros of Toggle
The user interface of Toggl is notably easy to use for someone with practically no experience with time tracking tools.
The features that are available in the free version alone are more robust than a majority of online time tracking tools. This allows you to test out the product to see if it will fit your business and needs before upgrading to a different plan.
You can track your time, run reports analysis, add specific projects, and different clients to each timed entry. You can also use the tools with any device, no matter if you are online or offline.
If you feel you aren’t getting enough done with your time, Toggl sends you a weekly report to your inbox of all the time spent on different projects for a full summary.
Cons of Toggl
Toggl doesn’t include any invoicing for your timed entries. Even if you are able to accurately track all of the time spent by your team, you will still need another software to bill your clients.
Toggl is not for every industry and wouldn’t make sense for agriculture or retail, for example, because the time that needs to be tracked is more basic.
A higher-level plan on Toggl is significantly more expensive than other time-tracking tools because of its extra features. So if your business does not need these additional features, the price becomes much higher than necessary.
Is Toggl Worth Paying For?
If you are a business with multiple employees who need to manage several different client accounts and projects within those accounts, then the paid version of Toggl is more than worth it.
More than other time tracking tools, it provides access to features that could significantly save your business time and money. However, you might want to stick with the free version for now if you’re a freelancer or a small business with a couple of employees to see if you require any additional features first.