How to Integrate Toggl with Asana for Time Tracking in your Practice
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Asana is more than just your to-do list, Asana is a business management tool that allows you to keep track and, of course, manage nearly every aspect of your practice - including time tracking.
Tracking your time (even if you’re not working by the hour) is one of those things that come in handy when you least expect it. For example, when you’re self-auditing your practice and are trying to figure out exactly how long it takes to complete a task.
There is a time tracker built into Asana (Harvest Tracking) but not nearly as powerful as the one I’m about to share with you. Now, this time tracking system is not ‘built in’ to Asana and requires an integration with another super easy tool called Toggl. Toggl is a free time-tracking tool that not only smoothly integrates with your Asana, but has a chrome extension to make time-tracking quick and easy.
Time-Tracking with Toggl
Time is money, so why wouldn’t you want to know where your time is being spent? Tracking your time through Toggl as you and your staff do your daily tasks allows you to understand where your money is being spent - or where you need to start saving.
After understanding where your time is being spent, you might be surprised by discovering the need to outsource or pass along tasks to your staff. You should be focusing on what you’re good at, and streamlining your business functions.
More than that, you can identify tasks that are no longer needed within your business. Once you’ve narrowed down your time tracking and time management, your business can function more like that well-oiled machine we want.
Looking for how to set up and manage your Asana for your bookkeeping practice? Check out my free Asana guide below.
How to Integrate Toggl with Asana
Now the good stuff, how to actually integrate Toggl with Asana. Integrating the two platforms is rather easy, but can get jumbled if done incorrectly. Here’s what to do:
1. Sign-up and Create a Toggl Account
As with everything else, Toggl requires you to create an account before using their services - don’t worry though, it’s free. You can set-up your account using Google if that’s what you prefer.
2. Enable Asana Integration
Now that you’re in your Toggl account, click Show More on your left panel. Then, go to Import/Export and click on Integrations on your top bar. Scroll down to Asana, click Enable, and allow access to your Asana account through the pop-up screen.
3. Download Toggl Extension
To allow Toggl to function properly, you’ll need to download the Toggl extension for Chrome. Head over to Chrome extensions, search for Toggl, and download. Head back to your Toggl homepage.
4. Open Asana
Open your Asana in another tab. Log in, then log out to reset and enable Toggl. Next, click on a section with tasks.
5. Toggl Integrations
Head back over to your Toggl tab. Go into Integrations, search for Asana, click Allow. Go back to your Asana tab and click Refresh.
6. Check Your Integration
Toggl should now be fully functional with your Asana account. Next to your tasks, you should see a Power button that should allow you and your team to track your time through Toggl.
What You Should Know
When tracking your time through Asana and Toggl, you will be required to create projects within Toggl whenever tracking time for a task. The projects can be managed within Toggl, but can get out of hand without upkeep.
Why You Should Add Time Tracking to Your Asana
Tracking your hours for payday is not the only reason to keep track of your time when completing tasks for a client or for your practice.
Time-tracking keeps you and your team accountable. Not so you can crack-down on what they’re doing - but so they can see just how much time is being spent on a task. When you understand how much time is spent on one task, you can adjust how that task is done, realize there might be a better way to automate, or hand off the task to someone more familiar with it’s process.
Even if it was used to just track your own time, it’s more than just for clients (which don’t get me wrong, is another way to time-track even on retainer). It’s for you. You can determine how much time is going into your business processes, into client work, and into expanding your practice.
Why is that important?
You should have a dedicated amount of time to spend on improving and expanding your practice to make sure you are actually scaling. If you’re stuck spending all of your time working in your business and not on your business, you won’t be able to take more clients, expand your team, or more past where you are right now.
Looking for more ways to automate and streamline your business? Check out my free Asana guide below 👇
