The new normal way of working has turned the traditional method around its head and we are getting used to new reporting tools and formats. With so many of such tools out there, how would you know which is the right one for you?
This post covers TimeTackle vs GTime Report – two tools for exporting Google calendar to excel, pulling out employee reports, timesheets, and invoices in a fast and effective way. Dive in to know about the features and benefits of each and find out who the winner is!
What is GTime Report
GTime Report pulls out information from your Google Calendar and organizes them into timesheets. You can have as many calendars as you want and GTimeReport will synchronize them so that you can easily calculate hours spent, merge similar job activities, and export the report to Google Spreadsheets or Excel.
What is TimeTackle
TimeTackle is also a reporting tool that extracts information from your Google calendar and turns them into timesheets at the click of a button. It has all the basic features like exporting to excel and Google Sheets, merging similar activities, showing a preview, etc.
But what sets it apart from the rest of the tools in the crowded reporting tool market is that TimeTackle has paid attention to details like hashtags, the addition of metadata, and others to make the entire process much smarter and more efficient. What’s more, the user-friendly interface has all the options organized neatly.
GTime Report Vs TimeTackle
Now, let’s cut to the chase and see where these two tools are similar and what’s unique about each of all the parameters that make a reporting tool a cut above the rest.
User-Friendliness
Any timesheet reporting tool should cover the basic feature of being user-friendly otherwise, it beats the whole purpose if different team members from different backgrounds and hierarchy cannot use the tool.
So, based on user-friendliness here is the side by side comparison between GtimeReport and TimeTackle. 👇
| User-friendliness | Benefits | GTime Report | TimeTackle |
| Separate features for consultants, employees, and supervisors | Report generation as per individual needs. | ✔ | |
| Hashtag | Easy projectwise tracking. | | ✔ |
| Recurring export | Automated daily report. | | ✔ |
| Task merging | Represents the same type of activity to show the hours spent on them. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Auto time and date formatting. | No need for manual input. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Date time formatting options | Allows you to choose in MDY, MDY, or YMD format along with the choice to add hours, minutes, and seconds or hours and minutes only. | | ✔ |
| Report preview | Allows a glance of the final report. | ✔ | ✔ |
The search button on any website is a useful and user-friendly tool as it helps the visitor to search for a specific term. On this count, neither TimeTackle nor GTime Report has scored as there is no search button on either.
Now, Let’s dive into the details.
GtimeReport- Separate features for employees, consultants, supervisors
With the job nature in mind and the kind of reporting needed on different hierarchy levels, GTime Report offers separate features for employees, consultants, and supervisors.
Hence, if you are a consultant, for example, you can get separate time reports for individual clients and projects. Also, this allows you to have an overview of the time spent on each activity and each project. As a result, you can always have the report on your excel file to make changes and incorporate the final information in your invoice template.
For employees, the features of GTimeReport help them to keep a calendar of all their current activities and a separate one for planned activities, thereby, enabling them to pull out timesheets quickly. Then to print the report, you need to click on the Create report to the new window button.
The reporting features for the supervisors work similarly. When you are in charge of a team, you not only keep a tab on the ongoing projects but also on how work is distributed among the different team members and the hours spent on a particular activity by each of them.
All you need to do is ask them to share their calendars with you so that you can access the data of each team member. Since they will have separate calendars for separate projects, you can access these also and figure out whether every project has the required resources and whether some resources have more on their plate than others.
TimeTackle Chrome Extension 👏
The Custom tag feature “TimeTackle Tag” is a novel way of labeling your events and activities so that these can be extracted easily and you can look at your project by project activities without searching for them manually. Besides categorization, the TimeTackle Tag helps you to add values associated with the labels. You can add more specific information like job type, priority status, etc. In some cases, these values are pre-defined, but if you want to add your own, you have the freedom. Simply choose the text type tag, key in the value you want.
In an ordinary calendar, you can’t categorize events unless you color code them and that is a limited option. Another problem is when you input task details, such information will not be extracted when you import your calendar.
Also, TimeTackle lets you add metadata by using hashtags for the job specifics so that you know at one glance what job it is, its position on the priority list, and its status. Therefore, you can key in information like priorities, job specifics like a sales call, marketing presentations, etc.
TimeTackle Recurring export
This feature automatically exports a calendar for you if you need one periodically.
If you need a report every Monday for the past week, this feature will do so even when you are offline.
Task Merging
This feature merges similar jobs so that you can view at a glance how many hours were spent on each activity type. Just make sure to check the boxes beside this option.
Whereas you need to use the exact words in GTimeReport to ensure that similar activities are merged, in TimeTackle, this is handled in a much easier way through the smart use of hashtags.
Automatic date and time formatting
You don’t need to manually fill in the time and date when your reporting tool can do it automatically. However, as a user, you are greatly benefited if the tool can also give you multiple options for formatting the time and date, for example, you may choose month-day-year or year-month-day, or day-month-year format. So, this is where TimeTackle gives you an edge. GtimeReport also supports Automatic date and time formatting but only with limited options as you can see in the picture below.
Report preview
With a window showing you how the report will look before you download, share, or print it, you can be sure that all the data looks right and you won’t get any unpleasant surprises after sharing or printing.
Once again, TimeTackle is one up in this aspect over GTime Report since it gives you a preview of the report exactly as it would look like in an excel sheet. Moreover, most of us are more used to working on spreadsheets, and if your report preview looks like one, you are automatically more at ease.
The search button on any website is a useful and user-friendly tool as it helps the visitor to search for a specific term. On this count, neither TimeTackle nor GTime Report has scored as there is no search button on either.
Versatility
| Versatile | Benefits | GTime Report | TimeTackle |
| Multiple projects in one calendar. | Bird’s eye view of all projects. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Time calculation. | Cost calculation per project. | ✔ | ✔ |
| TimeTackle Tag Chrome extension. | Allows categorization of events and customization on each activity. | ✔ | |
| Metadata addition. | Specifies job activity, priority, etc for a microscopic view. | ✔ | |
| Invoice exporter. | Generates invoices automatically. | ✔ | |
| Advanced options. | Filters and other options help create reports with varying levels of info. | ✔ |
There should be numerous ways of working with a timesheet reporting tool. Therefore, It should be versatile enough to cover more ground without losing its basic user-friendliness. You should be able to look at complex data in a simple form. Moreover, it should act as an enabler and help you perform various functions.
If you can look at all your projects in one calendar, that’s a great way of getting a bird’s eye view so that you know how many projects are going on simultaneously.
You can narrow down and calculate the cost per project to know which one is taking up more of your employees’ time and which is more profitable.
Shareability
What good is a report if you can’t share it with your colleagues through shared files on your Drive, export to Excel or Google Spreadsheets, or convert to HTML, CSV, or PDF files? For instance, TimeTackle offers you file saving in many formats, which GTimeReport doesn’t!
| Shareability | Benefits | GTime Report | TimeTackle |
| Downloadable and shareable in many formats. | Maximum flexibility to use any type of file like PDF, HTML, CSV, etc. | | ✔ |
Affordability
There are two sides to every coin and when it comes to choosing a timesheet reporting tool, the feature of affordability also has two sides. While GTime Report is free for all, anyone can access it and generate reports easily.
However, the catch is that with most free software, you are deprived of many advanced options. TimeTackle, on the other hand, offers you a trial period of 14 days. That’s quite a long time to check out the host of advanced options it offers.
Other Features
Other good features may include how easy it is to print the report. GTimeReport features a button Create a report to the new window so that you get a fresh file on your browser from where you can print the report.
When you use a timesheet reporting tool and you suddenly see a chatbot appearing and asking you to fill out a survey, you feel good because you realize how much your feedback counts. So, this inclusive approach is what makes TimeTackle stand out in the crowd as they are constantly looking for ways to fulfill your needs.
The Verdict 🏆
So, to wrap up, the table below shows you at a glance what you’re missing out if you’re using GTime Report vs TimeTackle.
| Broad Features | Specific Features | Benefits | TimeTackle | GTime Report |
| User-friendly | Separate features for consultant,employees, and supervisors | Report generation as per individual needs. | ✔ | |
| Hashtag | Projectwise easy tracking | ✔ | ||
| Recurring export | Automated daily report | ✔ | ||
| Task merging | Represents the same type of activity to show the hours spent on them. | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Auto time and date formatting | Intuitive | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Date time formatting options | Allows you to choose in MDY, MDY, or YMD format along with the choice to add hours, minutes, and seconds or hours and minutes only. | ✔ | ||
| Preview | Allows a glance of the final report | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Versatile | Multiple projects in one calendar | Bird’s eye view of all projects. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Time calculation | Cost calculation per project. | ✔ | ✔ | |
| TimeTackle Tag Chrome extension. | Allows categorization of events and customization on each activity. | ✔ | ||
| Metadata | Specifies job activity, priority, etc for a microscopic view. | ✔ | ||
| Automatic invoice generator | Generates invoices automatically. | ✔ | ||
| Advanced options | Filters and other options help create reports with varying levels of info. | ✔ | ||
| Shareable | Downloadable and shareable in many formats. | Maximum flexibility to use any type of file like PDF, HTML, CSV, etc. | ✔ | |
| Affordable | Free | Accessible by anyone | ✔ | |
| Other Features | Chatbot survey | User feedback for product improvement. | ✔ | |
| Printability | Ease of printing directly from the report. | ✔ | ✔ |
In conclusion, TimeTackle wins.
You can see that TimeTackle offers you way more depth in your reports as some multiple filters and options enable you to create reports with as few or as many levels you want. Instead of just fulfilling the basics like exporting calendars, sharing these, etc, TimeTackle goes the extra mile to make your reports clean, effective, easily readable, and with just enough information to present any data succinctly.
