Honest Review:

Traqq

• Ease of use
• Accurate time tracking, online and offline
• Ethical tracking and visibility of performance levels
• Anti–cheating algorithm
• Team management
• Customization fosters flexibility 
• Simplified time management and task prioritization
• Unlimited group feature
• Manual editing of tracked time
• Detailed reports

Traqq offers a unique pricing scheme in which it does not curate feature packages according to plan. Instead, it offers all of its features in all plans, and the only difference among them is the number of users who can use the software. 

The features offered by Traqq in all of their plans are the desktop time tracker that works either online or offline, the ability to add and edit time manually, app and website monitoring, mouse and keyboard activity tracking, automated desktop screenshots and screen video recording, ethical tracking, custom user and group reports that can be exported via email or in CSV or PDF formats, team management, role and access level management, unlimited groups, smart alerts and notifications, and a personal account manager to help keep businesses’ Traqq experiences on track.

The Traqq Premium Starter Plan is the first of the three Traqq plans. It’s a free plan designed for use by freelancers and very small teams. It can be used by up to three persons and costs nothing.

For businesses with more than three members, the Traqq Premium Teams Plan is the best choice. The most popular among the three, it’s a very flexible plan for teams of 4 to 100 people. Each seat costs $7 per month.

For larger teams with more than 100 members, the Traqq Enterprise Plan offers a custom solution with custom prices. Quotes can be requested from Traqq representatives.

Traqq offers discounts for users paying quarterly and annually. Quarterly payment gives users a 10% discount, while annual payment gives slashes off a whopping 14% off of their bill. They also offer a 21-day free trial of all features for more than three seats, after which users can either upgrade to either of the paid plans or revert to the three-seater free plan. 

1. Traqq Time Tracking

First and foremost on the features I’d like to discuss in this Traqq review is its time tracking. Traqq boasts of an accurate desktop app for Mac or Windows that functions as a personal timer to track the amount of time that employees spend on tasks, projects, and breaks. This timer syncs to the user’s profile every minute to ensure that the records are always up-to-date down to the very minute, quite literally. On the management side, admins can see which team members are online and what tasks they’re currently working on in a neat dashboard. There, they can also review activity levels, duration of breaks, clock in and clock out times, and a whole lot more. 

For the times when internet connection suddenly becomes unstable, Traqq allows them to continue recording their working time and then syncs it with the system once a secure connection is reestablished. There are also times when users have to do work outside the scope of Traqq’s recording capabilities, such as going on physical meetings, taking calls, and running errands in the office — for that, they can log the time spent on tasks manually. 

A couple of Traqq time tracking features that I think are really quite helpful are the smart notifications and reminders. These intuitive notifications remind users to take breaks as mandated by the management, refocuses them when they go idle, and alerts them to turn on the timer when they forget to. This means that employees get protected from losing out on unrecorded hours, and helps keep them on track with whatever they are working on. 

To use Traqq, users simply need to download and install the app and grant the appropriate permissions for tracking, such as notifications, accessibility, browser, and screen recording. Once installed and granted permissions, users can then open the application which will cause the Traqq icon to appear in their task bar or system tray, or open up a mini window. From the mini window, users can click the start button to begin the timer. On the task bar or system tray, users can click the app icon to open the options, where they can select start to begin the timer. From there, they can also access other options such as a view of their activity, support, preferences, and updates. 

To add time manually on Traqq, users need to navigate to the activity page and click the add time button on the upper left corner of the page, or alternatively, select the add time option from the list that appears when the Traqq icon on the taskbar or system tray is clicked. After that, they can enter the date, starting and ending times, and their reason for adding the time entry in the pop-up window. Once they’ve accomplished that, the can hit the submit request button and the requested time entry addition will automatically appear in the manual adjustments tab. From there, they can view the status of the request — pending, approved, or declined — and delete it if necessary by clicking the bin icon on the rightmost column. 

I’ve mentioned in the overview that Traqq takes screenshots while employees work. The add does this randomly within 10-minute windows, and attaches the screenshot to a 10-minute time entry. In case employees feel that they need to delete certain screenshots for any reason — maybe because it captured them reading and responding to personal messages, or perhaps they were viewing their socials, or they were in the middle of a personal online banking session when the screenshot was captured — they can so easily from the screenshots tab of the activity page. However, by deleting the screenshot, they’re also deleting the 10 minutes of worked time it is attached to. They can select one or multiple screenshots by toggling the checkbox on the bottom left corner of the screenshot tile and then hit the delete button near the bottom of the screen. Traqq will then show a pop-up window containing a warning that they’re deleting however much time and screenshots with their selection, and they can either confirm or cancel. Once the screenshots and tie are deleted, the daily total hours at the top of the screen will reflect that accordingly. 

Now, all of that sounds great, but my main gripe about all of these is that there’s no mobile app to record worked hours outside the office setting. This lack of a very crucial element severely limits the usability of Traqq to desk jobs only, and even those can suffer from the unintuitiveness of having to log time manually for work done off-desk when they can just be tracked on one’s own mobile device. 

Speaking of manual time entries, I also feel that there’s a huge potential for misuse — both on the employee and management sides — of the feature. Unscrupulous employees can use the feature to add time that they didn’t actually work and managers can categorically decline time entries that were actually worked, because Traqq doesn’t give them any options to submit proof of work with the manual time entry option. If Traqq had a mobile app, these things could be avoided by having employees capture their working hours on the go. 

Another downside of not having a mobile app is that there’s no way to track where employees are. Sure, the dashboards give visibility on who’s online or offline, but for operations that require the managers’ awareness of employee location, Traqq offers a dead end — for now. Thankfully, they’ve announced that a mobile version of the software is in the works, and I can only hope that they release it soon.

2. Traqq Ethical Employee Monitoring 

One Traqq feature that they seem to hype up the most is ethical employee monitoring. Early on in this Traqq review, I mentioned that they offer various employee monitoring tools such as screenshotting, screen recording, app and URL usage monitoring, and key and mouse activity analysis that help in determining the activity levels of employees while they are on the clock. These features are standard fare for most time tracking software in the market, but Traqq takes their commitment to the whole tracking-not-spying thing with some pretty impressive key differences.

First of all, Traqq puts an emphasis on employee consent by informing them about permissions for notifications, accessibility, browser, and screen recording as discussed the the time tracking section. This permission-setting is done at the outset, before even Traqq is installed. In very clear terms, the software lets the user know that it can only work with their permission, and that they can choose what to allow and what not to. The user decides if Traqq can send them notifications, access their browser, and record their screen right upon setup, and they can change these permissions at any point during their use of the software.

With permissions out of the way, let’s talk about how Traqq monitors employee activity during work time. Its employee monitoring functions are only activated upon clocking in, and stops once employees clock out. This means that the software does not track anything outside of working hours, and users can rest easy knowing that the employee monitoring features will not compromise even a single minute of their time outside of work. 

But while they are at work, Traqq will log the amount of keystrokes, mouse scrolls, and clicks that they do on a minute-to-minute basis. This information is used to report on activity levels, which can be seen on the average daily activity chart as percentages and as blocks of color on the timeline — green for high activity, yellow for normal activity and red for low activity. On the management side, this gives visibility to activity peaks and drops, helps analyze root causes for the periods when productivity flags, and allows managers to plot courses of correction based on the data. However, while Traqq does record general keyboard and mouse activity, it is not a keylogger. This means it will not record what employees typed out or clicked in the interest of protecting their privacy, so they can be assured that the passwords, messages, and other stuff that they type won’t be visible to anyone else.

Another way by which Traqq allows businesses to monitor employee activity is through the use of automated screenshots and screen video recordings. As previously discussed in the time tracking feature, the software captures images of employees’ screens randomly in 10-minute windows. It can also be configured to take random 10-second screen recordings with the same time window, and like the screenshots, those recordings will be attached to the 10-minute time entry they’re associated with. Other time tracking solutions stop at the capture, but Traqq offers employees additional layers of privacy protection by intentionally blurring screenshots and video recordings, and allows them to review and delete any image or recording — along with the associated time — that they feel would compromise their privacy. 

Traqq also records the websites that users visit for more than 10 seconds, but will not record specific pace information. The data gathered is displayed in a pie chart together with a summary of the top 10 apps used and websites visited across any given period of time, which helps businesses get visibility into what affects employee time use and address them accordingly.

These are awesome ways to show commitment to employee privacy, a conviction that I wholeheartedly share. However, I feel like the blurring could be done a little bit better, maybe 10% more, because I can still make out entire sections of text that may or may not contain sensitive personal information. The way screenshots are taken can be quite disruptive for work as well, and can make employees lose their momentum. 

But perhaps the concern that carries the most weight does not come from my observation, but from the hundreds of reviews that I’ve scoured for this Traqq review. Some users feel that the video recording is a step too far for employee monitoring, and it’s actually a violation of their privacy — even with the blurring. I’m quite inclined to agree, because to me, video monitoring seems Big-Brotheresque and shows a deep distrust towards employees. 

3. Traqq Team Management

Aside from time tracking and ethical monitoring, another Traqq standout feature for me is its team management capabilities. With this feature suite, Traqq makes it easy for businesses to direct and control admins, managers, and users with ease. 

With its arsenal of team management tools, Traqq allows businesses to decide what to monitor. Management can choose to use the software to its fullest and allow the recording of app and website usage, screenshots, and screen video recordings, or they can disable all of those and just use it for time tracking and  nothing more — the choice is in their hands. 

Traqq’s team management features also facilitates the assignment of roles and granting of permissions. Business owners can easily set up their accounts and enjoy global organization permissions, which means they can access every admin, manager, and user, as well as all tracked data, settings, and everything that has to do with the account. They can also set individual hourly pay rates for every employee and gain insights into how much they earn on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. 

Business owners can also designate admins who will have access to organization settings and have visibility and and managerial control over the activity and accounts of all managers and users, and managers who will be viewing the activity of all users in assigned groups. These admins and managers are also responsible for approving and declining any manual time entries or edits, if that feature is activated. Users on the other hand can only access and view their personal accounts and activity. 

The unlimited grouping feature is something that I find really helpful. This allows businesses to group their employees according to any task, project, area, timezone, or just about any classification that comes to mind. This gives them the ability to create various levels of compartmentalization that come in handy when trying to gauge the productivity of certain segments of the workforce, as they can generate flexible and customizable reports on each group based on their tracked time, activity, and productivity data. Having the ability to create separate reports for each group or team can also help in reviewing overall company profitability. 

However, this unlimited grouping feature has its downside, as previously noted early on in this Traqq review. It clutters the dashboard so much and can potentially flood admins with notifications, leading to frustration. If they could devise a solution to curb that, perhaps by allowing inactive groups to be archived and focusing notifications to include only the most important actions, it would help managers out a lot.

Another Traqq feature that I find really helpful is the ability to enable restrictions for various time zones. This is especially helpful for businesses with remote employees. The power to limit time tracking within specific hours and days can help remote employees avoid burnout, and businesses can stay within budget by preventing unauthorized overtime. 

4. Traqq Reporting and Insights

I’ve said it before in other reviews, and I’ll say it again in this Traqq review: reports are the backbone of great business decisions, so it’s extremely important to get a reliable reporting system that can present data accurately and in the manner required by specific business needs. And of course, doing all of that with ease is a must.

Traqq boasts of the ability to generate detailed reports using tracked data that address a range of analysis needs. The weekly summary report gives visibility into overall personal or team performance for a selected week. The time and activity report shows the amount of time someone or an entire team worked for a certain period, along with their activity levels. The apps and websites report shows the amount of time a person or a team spent on various apps and websites for a specific period, while the idle time report details how much of the time they spent working during a chosen period is considered as idle based on keyboard and mouse activity. The manual time adjustments report shows how much time — if any — was added for a certain period, and the deleted tracked time report shows the statistics of deleted time entries. 

These reports can be filtered by people, by date, and as previously discussed in the team management section of this Traqq review, by group. Users can even choose a timezone other than their own to make better sense of the tracked data. These can be done quite easily by using the drop down menus for the said variables in the report dashboard. Once a satisfactory report is generated according to the user’s specified criteria, it can be shared via email by simply clicking the email button near the top right corner of the report page, or exported in either PDF or CSV using the export button just beside the email button. 

Aside from generating reports on demand, users can also schedule reports to be generated at specific times or for certain intervals, sent to them or to stakeholders via email. To do this, they need to navigate to the reports page, get on the scheduled reports tab, and click the schedule a new report button on the upper right corner of the interface. This will result in a popup where they can choose the report type, report view, filters for members and teams, report periods, and timezones, and email preferences such as file format and time of sending. Once the save button is clicked, the scheduled report will show up in the scheduled reports list. 

From there, details can be easily edited by hovering the cursor over the desired report and toggling the edit option. Should any scheduled report need to be discontinued, it can be deleted by toggling the checkbox to the left of the scheduled report title and hitting the delete button that appears near the bottom of the page. 

While the simplicity of the reporting options may be a boon for users and businesses who need straightforward options, I find the selection of report templates to be severely limited, and frankly, very basic. The ability to create custom report structures according to more specific analytic requirements is also conspicuously lacking, even with the various filtering capabilities in place. 

(As of December 2023)

• GetApp: 4.9/5 
• Capterra: 4.9/5
• G2: 4.8/5
• Software Advice: 5/5
• Trustpilot: 4.3/5
• TrustRadius: 9.4/10

With all that we’ve discussed in this Traqq review, I think it’s justified to say that the software is a reliable and straightforward way of tracking time, monitoring employees, managing teams, and generating simple reports. 

The reliability of the timer is a really good thing for me, but I wish it had more than just the current click-to-approve feature for manually added and edited time entries. The current system is prone to abuse without proof of work. I also wish that they’d release the mobile app soon, because that’s going to address the current limitations on the usability of the desktop app, and it’s also going to open up entire segments of the market for them. And with a mobile app, it would also make sense to add a GPS tracking feature to give businesses visibility of their teams’ locations, and essential ability for industries like construction, logistics, retail, hospitality, and other location-based industries. 

As for the ethical tracking, I think that it’s a step in the right direction. However, if we’re doing something, we must do it well. And if we say that we stand for something, we must fully walk that path and truly commit to it. I say these because I think they could do a bit more blurring on the screenshots so that managers can’t make out any details that may compromise employee privacy, as is the case now. They should also rethink the screen recording feature, as it can feel quite intrusive, even more than screenshots. It signals a need to micromanage and a lack of trust in employees, who are justified in feeling that the Big-Brotheresque method of monitoring is excessive and runs contrary to the promise of ethical tracking. 

Another thing I’m quite concerned about is the productivity level monitoring based on keyboard and mouse action. Work happens beyond the screen, and the myopic definition of productivity based on keyboard and mouse activity fails to take into consideration that thinking — and planning, sketching, taking calls, going on meetings, and other offscreen and offline work — is also productive work.

The team management features are great, especially the ability to group employees in unlimited ways, plus the fact that separate reports can be made for separate groups. That’s quite helpful for determining levels of productivity and profitability. But I wish that there was a way to mitigate the trade-off that results to a cluttered dashboard and flooded notifications. Aside from those, I also wish that there were more project management tools so that tasks and projects could be better kept on track — pun fully intended. And since we’re already talking about additional tools, an in-app payroll solution would be most beneficial so users won’t have to jump between apps just to be able to process payroll and payments. 

Now, Traqq’s reporting capabilities have been hyped up as “detailed” in the website. If we’re going to define detailed as the ability to apply filters, the sure, they’ve hit the mark on that. But unfortunately, the report library is just so basic that I don’t think it would be justifiable to call it detailed. Detailed for me means it can cater to a wide variety of analytical needs, including ones that would require heavy-handed report customization — something that currently, Traqq does not allow. I’d give it points for ease of use, though — it’s very easy to generate, schedule, share, and export reports with Traqq.

Finding a time tracking solution that’s best suited for unique business needs can be quite challenging. If all the information in this Traqq review points you towards the direction of using it, I’d say give their free trial a whirl and see for yourself if it’s really a good fit… but only if you’re using it to track desk jobs.