Automatic, not willpower
There is no start button and no stop button. You work; it records.
Timeslip
You never have to remember to press start.
Timeslip sits in the menu bar and writes down the app and window you are using, so the hours land on the right client and the right project. At the end of the month it turns them into a timesheet you can send as-is. Nothing leaves this Mac.
14 days with everything unlocked. No card, no account.
macOS 14 or later · Needs Accessibility access
| What a sample holds | Example |
|---|---|
| Frontmost app | Xcode, Figma, Chrome, Mail… |
| Window title | AcmeWeb — HomeView.swift |
| How long | From the first sample to the last |
| Where it goes | The client and project its rule matches |
| What it never holds | Keystrokes, screenshots, page contents |
02Features
It solves exactly one thing
If you bill by the hour or by the project, time is what you sell. Timeslip writes down how much of it you produced.
By client and project
Not “Chrome, three hours”, but “the Acme redesign took twelve”.
A timesheet, not a chart
The PDF carries the client, the period, the hours, the rate and the total. Forward it.
Teach it once
File an entry and say “always put this here”. The rule keeps working from then on.
Local by default
The database lives in your Application Support folder. No account, no cloud.
Pay once
No subscription. Your licence covers Timeslip 1.x; later major versions are sold separately.
03Setup
From install to invoice
Ten minutes the first time. A minute a day after that.
-
01
Grant Accessibility access
macOS only lets an app read another app’s window title with this permission. Without it Timeslip cannot tell which project a window belongs to.
-
02
Add clients and projects
Give each project its hourly rate. Internal work — admin, meetings — can be marked as not billable.
-
03
Check in once a day
Open the timeline, put anything unclassified where it belongs, and it becomes a rule for next time. At month end, export the timesheet.
04Compared
Compared with what you do now
Three common approaches, and the gap each one leaves.
Screen Time
Free and already installed, but it counts by app rather than by client — and it will never produce an invoice.
A timer app
You have to remember to press start. Two weeks in, the numbers are fiction.
A cloud time service
Your client names, project files and rates sit on someone else’s server, and the subscription never stops.
Timeslip is the fourth option: automatic like Screen Time, billable like a time service, and local like neither.
05How I build
Your data stays on this Mac
The whole database is one SQLite file you can copy, back up or delete.
- Stored at
~/Library/Application Support/Timeslip/timeslip.db - Sent outNothing, apart from licence activation and update checks
- Deleted fromSettings → Data → Delete all recorded data
06Pricing
Pay once, keep using it
No subscription. Includes updates for the current major version; later majors are sold separately.
Timeslip · full licence
$49
$39
one-time
Use code EARLY39 at checkout. Limited time.
Supported payment methods
- Automatic tracking in the menu bar
- Clients, projects and hourly rates
- Rules that file new entries for you
- Timesheet export as CSV and PDF
- Activate on one of your own Macs
- Timeslip 1.x updates included; major upgrades sold separately
Refunds within 14 days. Your data is never held hostage — it is a file on your disk.
07Requirements
What it needs
- SystemmacOS 14.0 or later
- HardwareIntel and Apple Silicon (universal)
- PermissionAccessibility, to read window titles
- Current version 1.0.0 · 2026-09-16
08FAQ
Questions
Does it record what I type or which pages I visit?
No. Each sample stores three things: the frontmost app, its window title, and the time. No keystrokes, no screenshots, no page contents.
Window titles can contain client names. Isn’t that sensitive?
They are written to a local database and never uploaded. If you would rather not keep them at all, pause tracking from the menu bar, or delete everything in Settings → Data.
I forgot to start it. Is my day wrong?
There is nothing to start. Timeslip records from the moment it runs, and a day it did not run is simply a day with no entries. It never guesses.
Can I round the hours?
Yes, in Settings — to 1, 6, 15 or 30 minutes. Rounding only affects reports and exports; the recorded time itself is never altered.
What updates does the one-time purchase include?
You keep using Timeslip forever on the major version you bought (currently 1.x), including all 1.x updates. When a new major version ships, it is sold as a paid upgrade — we do not promise lifetime free majors.