🔗 David Sommerseth<p>I've been testing out <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://fosstodon.org/@solidtime" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>solidtime</span></a></span> for a little bit, as an alternative to <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Harvest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Harvest</span></a>.</p><p>It really looks like one of the nicer ones. But to be honest, it's not mature enough. Several hickups, lacking some features (like editing date and seconds on entries, rounding of time, simpler reports to export to customers). And the webUI is a bit chaotic. Too much information and buttons are presented on the same view, which gives it a bit of a chaotic impression, unfortunately.</p><p>It's too easy to start the timer instead of just adding a new log entry, which requires pushing another button to open a little window for data entry - while the time tracking is kicked off by just typing some info and "click the play button" in the main view. Such things makes me always think at least twice before clicking anything.</p><p>What is good is the Harvest data import. That went very well with all the needed information added instantly.</p><p>In regards to support ... still no replies to both "chat messages" (they seem to not be available there at all), slow responses in their discussion boards.</p><p>It seems it's only a two-person company behind this ... I really do understand it takes time to get the finances running to speed and be more visibly active. But to pay €9/month (which I would be willing to do), it just feels like a very fragile package if I'm going to depend on it for my professional services.</p><p>To consider paying for such a service at this stage, there need to be much more visible communication. Either with some blog posts or some Mastodon posts with what they're working on and some indication that this project is alive. Except of the git history, it seems pretty dead. And that is <em>really</em> unfortunate.</p><p>I really want to use <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/opensource" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>opensource</span></a> based tools, and Kimai seems to be another one. But poking at their demo accounts, it feels like a pretty hefty beast. Solidtime just felt like a better alternative.</p><p>I honestly prefer the simplicity of Harvest in the daily use scenarios. Where it's quick to log the time spent (click the big + button, enter some details and hours/minutes used and done - takes me 5 seconds to complete everything) and quick to "pdf print" a monthly summary with just the needed details. But I do want to move away from US based services and really embrace open source alternatives; it's time for that now.</p>