A redesign that simplified how small business owners track, edit, and manage billable time on the go
Mobile redesign · 2023
What is FreshBooks Time Tracking?
FreshBooks is an accounting and business management platform helps small service-based business owners invoice, track expenses, and manage client work. Time Tracking is the daily workflow where service providers capture billable work, edit entries, and turn time into invoices.
My role and contribution
I led the mobile Time Tracking revamp from problem discovery through launch and post-launch iteration.
→ Identified usability gaps through research, FullStory observations, and user interviews
→ Developed new design patterns (widgets, calendars etc.,) and contributed to the mobile app's design system
→ Defined the long-term mobile time tracking vision
Impact:
Increased first-time mobile Time Tracking usage by 24%
Shifted more time tracking activity from web to mobile, increasing mobile adoption by 8%
Increase mobile time tracking sessions by 12%
Time Tracking is a key FreshBooks feature, but the mobile experience was falling behind. Users need to track time while working away from their desks, but the app made basic tasks harder than they needed to be.
FreshBooks mobile app engagement was about 30% lower than web, and poor UX led some users to choose alternative time tracking tools.
Three problems stood out:
Navigation was painful
To check what got tracked a week ago, users had to tap through dates repeatedly. In FullStory, we saw users rage-clicking while trying to navigate to past time entries.
The mobile experience lacked important functionality
Users could not easily do things like mark entries as billable or non-billable, review weekly or monthly tracked time, or move between time tracking and invoicing workflows.
The timer was too rigid for real work
Through user interviews, we learned that the timer did not match how users actually worked in real life. Users often started work before starting the timer, forgot to pause it during breaks, or preferred logging several entries at the end of the day.
“I started the timer late. I already started working 30 minutes ago, how can I backtrack the timer?”
“When I’m working on a project, I might take a break in between and I often forget to pause the timer.”
Workshop: mapping real-world time tracking moments
We used a day-in-the-life storyboard to map where time tracking broke down across a typical workday
What we learned:
Users did not need a more powerful timer. They needed a timer that could adapt to the way work actually happens.
Service-based business owners often start tracking late, forget to pause during breaks, move between jobs, and clean up their time entries after the fact.
→ How might we make time tracking flexible enough to support how people actually work?
Defining the vision
I led the mobile time tracking vision to connect short-term usability fixes with a longer-term product direction. The goal was to move FreshBooks from a manual timer experience to a more flexible system that helps users track time accurately, whether they start on time, forget to pause, or need to edit entries later.
From: manual, effortful time tracking
To: accurate, flexible, and seamless time tracking
Prioritizing the product scope
We worked through product proritization based on the vision we set up to achieve. We split the work into two phases: usability fixes first, adoption opportunities second.
Making past work easier to review
The old experience required repeated tapping to move through dates. I explored different calendar views that makes viewing weekly and monthly views easier.
Approach 1: Separate weekly and monthly views
This gave users clear modes, but added more cognitive loads
Approach 2: A single expandable calendar
This kept the experience on one page and reduced cognitive load
The single expandable calendar tested better because users did not have to decide which view they needed before navigating.
→ We shipped a single, expandable calendar so users could move between weekly and monthly context more easily.
Making the timer easier to control
The previous timer started immediately and assumed users were tracking perfectly in real time. But users often needed to adjust time after starting late, forgetting to pause, or logging retroactively.
→ This revamped timer supported more flexible editing, including adjusting start time, end time, date, client, project, service, notes, and billable state.
Connecting time tracking to invoicing
Time tracking only matters if users can turn tracked work into billable value. Previously, users had to move between separate areas of the app to manage time and invoicing.
→ We added a clearer connection between unbilled time entries and invoicing.
This reduced context switching and helped business owners move from tracked time to client billing faster.
Supporting faster access with lock screen widgets
Because users often forgot to pause timers, we explored lock screen widgets as a lightweight way to keep the active timer visible and easy to control.
→ The widget made it easier to pause an active timer without reopening the app.
Testing and iteration
One important iteration came from the collapsed timer view. In testing, users found the first version distracting because it took up too much attention while they were reviewing entries.
→ We simplified the collapsed timer so it stayed accessible without competing with the main task
After beta launch, the biggest feedback we received was users do not like the new calendar navigation as much as expected. The core issue was long-range navigation: getting to another year, like 2021, was still unclear.
We released a follow-up calendar update:
The redesigned Time Tracking experience improved both adoption and engagement after beta launch.
Adoption
#of first-time Time Tracking users on mobile
#of time tracking sessions logged via mobile app
The revamp also modernized a core FreshBooks mobile feature, introduced reusable design patterns for calendars and widgets, and helped align the mobile app with updated design standards.
What I learned and what I’d do differently
The biggest learning was that “better navigation” was not just about reducing taps. Users needed confidence that they could find, edit, and use their tracked time later. I would have pushed even earlier on more complex calendar navigation and tested edge cases like moving across months and years sooner.