time tracking software?

Hi,

Does anyone know of any software that is popular amongst freelance designers/developers to track time spent on various phases/tasks of a project? I'd like to start estimating new jobs better, but really have a tough time keeping track by hand of how long I spend on the different phases of a project.

Specifically I think it would be cool if there was one that counted how long particular photoshop files, etc... were open so it could be calculated how long you spent on certain documents.

Free software would be great but if there was something great out there and on the cheap, I'd pony up some money for it.

So... any thoughts?

I started mapping out the different points of a project by hand, then "clock in" and "clock out" when I work on them by writing the starting and ending times on the printed out list.

Then again, I'm a fanatic of keeping that type of thing in print form.

Maybe Quickbooks or something...or just use an Excel spreadsheet or something. If you run a calendar type program, you can probably put in a reminder to tell you to update it every hour or something

Using API it is possible to track application activity which would allow you to record how long photoshop files were opened. With a lot of effort. But what does that tell you? I could come in at 8:00AM and open a file then go to a meeting, have lunch, tend to other tasks, never actually do anything at all with the file, and close it at 6:00PM when I leave for the day.

Note that MS-Office documents inherently track time spent working on a document. Such as in MS-Word go to File > Properties and under the Statistics tab.

I need a similar thing. But beside tracking of time I need something where I can write down project details, manage customers contact, their payments ...

Also a posibility to add files to projects (as a backup) so that basicly everything could be kept in one place ...

Anyway - Google for Studiometry - might be what you need.