Know where development hours go and whether the project is still profitable
TimeMagick is time tracking and project profitability software for software development teams.
1-month free trial · See TimeMagick pricing
Why software projects overrun without anyone noticing
A software project is rarely one kind of work. The same build contains backend, frontend, QA, DevOps, UX/UI and project-management hours, and each can drift for a different reason: an integration that took longer than estimated, a round of QA fixes, a scope change agreed in a call. On a fixed-price build, those hours come straight out of the margin.
Most development teams can say how many hours were logged last month. Fewer can say, while the project is still running, how much of the budget each discipline has consumed, how much of the work is billable, what has already been invoiced and whether the client is still profitable. TimeMagick keeps those answers on the project the developers are already tracking time against:
Step 1
Planning
Project, budget, tasks and dates on the Gantt.
Step 2
Development
Developers track time against Backend, Frontend and other tasks.
Step 3
QA
QA hours tracked separately, with budget burn visible.
Step 4
Client Review
The client follows progress in their workspace and project channel.
Step 5
Deployment
DevOps work tracked; tasks and statuses updated on the board.
Step 6
Billing
Hours approved with a billable %, then Project Billing and the invoice.
Stage and task names are examples; you create your own tasks and statuses.
Track development work by project and task
A developer might spend the morning on an API, an hour in code review and the afternoon fixing a bug for another client. TimeMagick records each block against the project and the task, with its client and member attached, so the hours can be read by discipline instead of as one daily total:
A day total
Worked 7.5 h
No project, discipline or client behind it.
Project and task
- Customer portal → Backend → 3 h
- Customer portal → Code review → 1.5 h
- Mobile app → QA → 2 h
- Support → Bug fixing → 1 h
Illustrative entries; each also carries its client and member.
You create the tasks, so they can follow how your team works: Backend, Frontend, QA, DevOps, UX/UI and Project Management, or feature-level tasks. TimeMagick does not import tickets from Jira or GitHub; the structure lives in TimeMagick, next to the budget and the billing.
How time tracking worksUnderstand remote development work without collecting developers' screens
Distributed teams still need to know how the working day is spent. Screenshot tools answer that by storing images of a developer's screen, which can include source code, credentials, customer data and private messages. TimeMagick takes no screenshots at all.
- Activity % from keyboard clicks, mouse clicks and mouse movement
- Active applications and URLs, with time per item
- Productive, Neutral or Unproductive classification that you set per role or member
- Idle time with a configurable threshold
- Private Time: time keeps counting while app and URL detail is withheld
That is operational visibility, not code surveillance: TimeMagick does not read code, commits or repositories. Each member also has their own dashboard, and roles control who can see whose data.
How activity monitoring worksSee budget burn before the build runs over
A fixed-price build is estimated in hours. The question that matters mid-project is whether the remaining work fits in the remaining hours, and it needs answering while scope can still be discussed with the client.
Example · fixed-price customer portal
- Budget
- 800 h
- Spent
- 570 h
- Remaining
- 230 h
71% of the budget used. If QA, DevOps and client review need more than the 230 hours left, the overrun is visible now, not at the final invoice.
In TimeMagick, budget against time spent is shown on the project card, in the project overview, on each Gantt task, beside the billable total in tracked-time approval and on the admin dashboard. Budget alerts and forecasting work from the same numbers, and Projects Over Budget is one of the headline KPIs.
How project budgets workPlan releases around the people who build them
A release date depends on backend, frontend, QA and deployment work happening in the right order, and on the same developers not being booked on three projects at once.
- An interactive Gantt per project, with the project as parent bar and tasks beneath
- Drag to reschedule, resize to change duration; dates are written back to the task
- Assignees, progress, budget and spent time beside every task
- A portfolio Gantt across every client's projects
- Resource planning that shows who is working on which project tasks across projects
Because the plan uses the same tasks the team tracks time against, planned work, actual hours and budget sit side by side.
Keep scope decisions with the project they change
A scope change agreed in a chat thread nobody can find later is how a fixed-price build loses its margin. Every TimeMagick project automatically gets its own channel, next to its tasks, tracked hours and budget, with file attachments, unread badges and search.
Developers also have direct messages and groups for internal discussion, and Client Members take part in project channels and groups from their own workspace.
How project communication worksGive clients project visibility without a weekly status email
Software clients want to know what is done, what is due and how many hours went in this week. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients, and their workspace has a Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai.
The Client Dashboard shows Total Projects, Total Tasks, Completed, Weekly Hours Logged and Overdue Tasks, with project status and due tasks. Clients see progress and hours; they do not edit your projects or see your internal workspace.
How the client portal worksDecide what the client pays for before the invoice
Not every development hour is billable. Rework after an internal mistake, onboarding a new developer or a warranty fix may be hours you decide not to charge. In tracked-time approval, the approver sets a billable percentage for each entry, with the project budget beside the total:
- 5 hours worked
- approved at 80%
- 4 billable hours
- Project Billing
- invoice
Project Billing then shows billable hours against hours already billed for each client and project. Invoices take duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes and notes, download as PDF, and can be issued from multiple legal entities and billing accounts in the client's currency. Ongoing support can use scheduled recurring invoices, which go through approval when they fall due.
How billing and invoicing workKnow which projects and clients actually make money
A delivered project and a profitable project are different things. A build that shipped on time can still have consumed a third more hours than the fee assumed, and a client with steady work can still be your lowest-margin account.
TimeMagick's KPI module works from the tracked hours, budgets, client rates, expenses and billing already in the system. For development teams, the most useful views are Effective Rate, profit and margin by client and project, Projects Over Budget, Low-Profit Projects, Uninvoiced Hours and Client Health.
Illustration (demo data, fictional projects and clients).
Example workflow · fictional
Example: a fixed-price customer portal
A development agency signs an 800-hour, fixed-price customer portal. In TimeMagick, the team would:
- Create the project with its client, 800-hour budget and release date, and add tasks for UX/UI, Backend, Frontend, QA and DevOps.
- Lay the tasks out on the Gantt, assign developers and check their other project work in resource planning.
- Have developers track time against their tasks from the desktop app, with Activity %, apps and URLs recorded and no screenshots.
- Watch the budget as it reaches 570 hours, and raise the remaining QA and deployment scope with the client in the project channel.
- Let the client follow progress and weekly hours from their own workspace.
- Approve tracked hours with a billable percentage, check Project Billing and create the invoice.
- Review the project's margin, effective rate and the client's health in the Profitability module.
This is an illustrative example, not a customer case study.
What TimeMagick is, and what it is not
TimeMagick runs the commercial side of software delivery: hours, budgets, plans, communication, client visibility, billing and profitability. It is not a code host, issue tracker or CI tool, it has no GitHub, GitLab or Jira integration, and it does not monitor code or commits.
Pricing is per user, and every plan includes every feature. See TimeMagick pricing. For time reports and Excel export, see Reports & Analytics; for who sees what, see Roles & Permissions.
TimeMagick for software development: key facts
- TimeMagick is time tracking and project profitability software that software development teams use to track hours by project and task.
- Developers track time from the Windows desktop app and the iOS and Android apps.
- Activity visibility includes Activity %, apps, URLs, idle time and productivity classification; TimeMagick takes no screenshots.
- Private Time keeps time counting while app and URL detail is withheld.
- Each project has an hour budget shown against time spent, with budget alerts and forecasting.
- TimeMagick includes a Projects board, per-project and portfolio Gantt, and resource planning.
- Every project has its own chat channel; teams also have direct messages and groups.
- Client Members get a workspace with Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai.
- Tracked time is approved with a billable percentage, and Project Billing shows billable against billed hours.
- The KPI module shows Effective Rate, Projects Over Budget, Low-Profit Projects, Uninvoiced Hours and Client Health.
- TimeMagick has no GitHub, GitLab or Jira integration and does not monitor code or commits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Developer time tracking, activity without screenshots, budgets, release planning, client access, billing and profitability.
Is TimeMagick suitable for software development teams?
Yes, for teams that deliver software as projects, such as development agencies, product studios and in-house teams that report hours by project. Developers track time against project tasks, managers watch each project's budget and plan work on a Gantt, clients get their own workspace, and the same hours flow into billing and profitability.
Can TimeMagick track development time without screenshots?
Yes. TimeMagick never takes screenshots. The Windows desktop app records Activity % from keyboard clicks, mouse clicks and mouse movement, the active application and URL with time per item, idle time and productivity classifications. Private Time lets a developer keep time counting while app and URL detail is withheld.
Can developers track time by project and task?
Yes. Every entry is recorded against a project and a task and carries its client and member, so time can be split by the tasks you create, for example Backend, Frontend, QA, DevOps, UX/UI or Project Management. TimeMagick does not import tasks from Jira, GitHub or other tools; tasks are created in TimeMagick.
Can TimeMagick track fixed-price software project budgets?
Yes. Each project has an hour budget, and budget against time spent appears on the project card, in the project overview, on the Gantt, beside the billable total in tracked-time approval and on the admin dashboard. Budget alerts and forecasting work from the same numbers, and Projects Over Budget is a headline KPI.
Does TimeMagick support Gantt and resource planning for releases?
Yes. Each project has an interactive Gantt with the project and its tasks, drag to reschedule, resizable durations, assignees, progress, budget and spent time, plus a portfolio Gantt across clients. Resource planning shows who is working on which project tasks across projects.
Can our software clients see project progress in TimeMagick?
Yes. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients. They get a client workspace with a Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai. It is for visibility and communication; your team keeps control of the projects.
Can TimeMagick separate billable and non-billable development time?
Yes. In tracked-time approval, the approver sets a billable percentage per entry: 5 worked hours approved at 80% become 4 billable hours. Project Billing then shows billable hours against billed hours for each client and project, and invoices are created from there.
Can TimeMagick show which software projects and clients are profitable?
Yes. The KPI module shows Revenue, Profit, Effective Rate, Utilisation %, Projects Over Budget and the other headline KPIs, with Low-Profit Projects, Uninvoiced Hours, the most and least profitable clients and Client Health, from the tracked time, budgets, client rates, expenses and billing already in TimeMagick.
See where every development hour goes
From project task to profitability. Start a 1-month free trial and track your first build against its tasks and budget.