Examples

Build a time tracking tool with Melta - timer, projects, approvals and monthly reports in one product

For businesses, agencies and teams that want clean records of working hours without buying into a large HR suite: hours per project and client, approvals by the team lead, absences and a monthly report you can trust. You describe how your team works. Melta builds the time tracking tool, puts it online and runs it for you.

What a product like this does

A time tracking tool is only as good as the moment someone logs the hours: on site, in the van, between two appointments. That is why at Melta it is a phone tool first and an office report second. These building blocks come with it:

Timer and manual entries

Start, stop, done. Whoever forgot the timer adds the time by hand, with date, duration and a note. Break and rounding rules are set in the concept.

Projects and clients

Every entry belongs to a project and a client, and to an activity if you want one. You see where the hours go and which of them are billable.

Approvals

Employees submit their week, the team lead approves it or sends it back with a comment. Approved time is locked, and changes stay traceable.

Absences

Holidays, sick days, time off in lieu: request, approve, see it in the calendar. The remaining balance per person is kept up to date.

Monthly reports

Hours per person, project and client, target versus actual, overtime and shortfall. The report is ready at the end of the month, as a PDF by email to the team leads if you like.

Export

Hand time out as CSV or PDF, for payroll, the invoice to the client or the archive.

Roles

Employees see only their own time, team leads see their team, the admin sees everything: create users, maintain projects, change rules.

Built for the road

Mobile-first from 390 px screen width, checked before every release. The timer works as well on a phone as it does at a desk.

For your own business or as a product for others

Most time tracking tools are built for the company's own use: a tool for the team, with no sales and no subscriptions for third parties. Then you need no payments inside the product, and the share of sales does not apply because nothing is sold. You can also offer the tool as a product of its own, say to businesses in your trade that work the same way: a monthly subscription per company, a free tier for individuals, an annual plan for teams. Then accounts per company, checkout and receipts are part of the build, and your customers see your product as the merchant when they pay.

How Melta builds it

Describe - You say in your own words who tracks time, what it is booked against, who approves and what should come out at the end of the month.
Questions and concept - Melta asks up to four questions, none of them technical, for example whether time is booked per project or per client and whether you need absences. From that comes a concept in plain language. You change it by chat until it fits.
Approve and build - When you click build, the build starts, paid from the credits of your plan. Melta builds the whole product: interface, logic, accounts, database, email and legal pages, typically within 24 hours. You get an email when it is done.
Test the preview - The private preview comes with demo data and named test logins for every role. You start a timer as an employee, submit the week, approve it as the team lead and pull the monthly report as the admin.
Go live - In seconds, with no rebuild. Before that Melta checks that your operator details for the imprint are complete. You choose which preview data comes along, for example the projects and clients you set up. Rolling back to the previous live version is possible.
Change by chat - A new activity, rounding to quarter hours, a field for travel time: you write it to your product's editor, watch it work and can step in. The preview updates live, and you decide when it goes live. Change runs are included in every plan.

Related example products

Melta has not built a time tracking tool as an example product yet. Two products show the building blocks in use. TeamTakt organises weekly tasks for teams, meaning accounts, roles and a fixed weekly rhythm, the same rhythm a time tracking tool with weekly submissions relies on. FristenWächter manages inspection deadlines and equipment for trade businesses, built for people who work from their phone rather than a desk. See the example product TeamTakt - See the example product FristenWächter

What comes with it

A time tracking tool needs more than a timer, and at Melta the rest is part of the plan: accounts with registration, password reset and email confirmation, transactional email under your product's name with reports as attachments, a melta.ai subdomain or your own domain, the legal pages (imprint, privacy policy and terms) generated from your operator details for Switzerland, Germany and Austria (general information, not legal advice), cookieless analytics, a support inbox that sorts questions from the team automatically, error monitoring, protection against spam on logins and forms, payment processing in case you offer the tool to others, and hosting on a globally distributed network with no server for you to manage.

What it costs

A concept uses only a few credits; afterwards your product runs on a plan per organisation with credits every month. All numbers and how the price is made up are on the pricing page.

Common questions

Can staff enter time after the fact?

Yes. Next to the timer there are manual entries with date, duration and a note. Whether a late entry counts right away or only after the team lead approves it is something you decide in the concept. Approved time is locked, and changes stay traceable.

Who sees which hours?

The roles decide that. Employees see their own entries, team leads see their team's entries and approve them, the admin sees everything and manages users, projects and rules. Further roles, say an accountant with read access to the reports, you describe in the concept.

Can I get my data out?

Yes. Time lists and monthly reports export as CSV or PDF, per person, project or client and for any period you choose. If you want, the monthly report goes to the team leads by email automatically at the end of the month.

Has Melta already built a time tracking tool?

Not yet as an example product. The closest are TeamTakt, a tool for weekly team tasks, and FristenWächter, which manages inspection deadlines and equipment for trade businesses. The building blocks, meaning accounts, roles, database, email and a mobile interface, are the same ones in every Melta product.

Is the share of sales due if the tool is only used internally?

No. The share applies only when your product sells something. A time tracking tool for your own team sells nothing; you pay your plan and its credits, nothing else. If you later offer it to other businesses on a subscription, card processing and the share apply exactly as listed on the pricing page.

Describe your time tracking. Melta does the rest.

A concept uses only a few credits. Timer, approvals, absences and monthly reports are built in once you approve it.

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