Solutions on how to use an OS X calendar as a more perfect time tracking solution for 5-10 users in a small agency?
- by jnthnclrk
I really like OS X's iCal. Entering events is easy with the mouse and it also gives you a very real visual sense of how long tasks take to complete. We often work remotely in our organisation, so we use a few shared calendars between key individuals to provide us with an overview of hours worked, availability & schedule conflicts without too much disruption to our various, hectic workflows. It really is a neat solution, especially on shared tasks. How many times have you tasked a remote colleague and then lost the thread on whether that task was completed or not? With shared calendars you get a much clearer idea of what your people are working on without having to pick up the phone or compose a chat.
However, there are a few areas where this approach fails...
iCloud syncing often needs to be re-jiggered
The "view only" option on shared calendars does not seem to work, which makes all shared calendars editable by others
There is no decent reporting with this workflow
There is no task categorisation or tagging
Things get very busy in iCal when working with more than 2 shared calendars
I've looked at a few task management apps like Basecamp and Harvest, but nothing appears to let me edit my calendar natively and then sync with a 3rd party. Interested in solutions to improve the above workflow and enable us to elegantly increase the amount of users.
