Clock-in apps vs automatic time tracking for the self-employed

Blog10 November 2026

There are two ways to track your time. You can tell an app when you start and stop, or you can let your phone work it out from where you are. Both can be accurate. They fail in different places, so the right one depends on how you work.

Clock-in and timer apps

You press start, you press stop. The record matches your intent, and you can label the task as you go. That makes timers a good fit for desk work, where the job is a task on a screen and you are already holding the phone or laptop.

The weak point is memory. If your hands are in a bilge or on a ladder, the timer does not get pressed, and the morning is rebuilt later from guesswork. Travel is the worst case, since nobody starts a timer at the traffic lights.

Automatic tracking

An automatic tracker uses your phone's location to notice when you arrive somewhere and when you leave. You do nothing during the day and review afterwards. It suits work where you move between sites and cannot stop to press a button.

It has its own weak points. Location tells you where you were, not what you were doing, so you still label the visits. Phones sometimes stop background apps, which can leave gaps. And where the location data goes matters: some apps send it to a server, and some keep it on the phone.

How to choose

• If you work at one desk or one site all day, a timer is simpler.
• If you drive between jobs and bill for the travel, automatic tracking catches what a timer misses.
• If your clients are sensitive about where you have been, look for an app that keeps data on the phone.
• If you will never review your day, neither kind works. Automatic tracking needs a few minutes of checking.

Many people end up with a mix: a timer for tasks that happen on a screen and automatic tracking for the days on the road.

Where Tarry sits

Tarry is automatic tracking for work days. It records time on each site and the travel time and kilometres between them, only during the hours you schedule, and it keeps everything on your phone with no account. You add the job and notes afterwards.

It has limits. It is on Android now, iPhone is coming, and it will not fill in time outside your scheduled hours. When Android stops the app, Tarry marks the gap on the timeline so you can see it. More on how it handles a work day.