How to trick and hack DeskTime (updated for 2022)

Software enabling teams and freelancers to log their time automatically.

What is DeskTime?

DeskTime is a time-tracking, attendance-tracking, and workflow-management tool for desktop and mobile devices. It was created to help the Draugiem Group, a Latvian IT firm, manage their large number of workers. On July 1st, 2011, it was made available online.

In their own words:

The main idea of this time tracking software, from day one, is to increase workplace transparency between employees and management and to make sure work time is spent faithfully.

DeskTime software is used by 380k people in 16.7k businesses in 215 countries. According to reports, this time tracking software is used to track approximately 393k projects so far.

As Wikipedia puts it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeskTime):

DeskTime is an automatic time tracking software headquartered in Latvia, that analyses employee productivity. The company was founded in 2011 and is a part of Draugiem Group. The main office of the company is located in Riga and since 2012 it’s CEO has been Artis Rozentāls.

What are the most important characteristics of DeskTime?

Here are a few of the best features found in DeskTime app:

Automatic time tracking:
- Time tracking starts as soon as the computer is turned on, with no need for manual input or human mistake.
URL and app tracking:
- Extensive information on the apps and websites that workers use and visit, as well as the activities they’ve designated for their off-time.
Document title tracking:
- View document titles in applications like Word, Excel, Google Docs, and others to see which individual documents are being worked on.
Idle time tracking:
- Track time spent away from the computer during work hours to detect long breaks, unneeded meetings, or suspected work hour misuse.
Project time tracking:
- Keep track of how much time you spend on projects, both individually and as an organization. This will help you estimate project expenses and assign hourly rates to all participating individuals.
Automatic screenshots:
- View random screenshots of workers’ screens to check for suspicious behaviour or monitor troublesome employees, and utilize the blur tool to safeguard privacy.
Absence calendar:
- Enter staff absences such as vacations, sick days, parental leave, business travels, and more into an absence calendar for better HR planning and transparency throughout the company.
Shift scheduling:
- Use assigned shift scheduling to manage staff shifts, or turn on the capability to enable workers to request certain shifts.
Invoicing:
- Create invoices for customers depending on the amount of time they spend working on various projects. For auto-generated invoices, employee rates can be determined automatically.

How can DeskTime assist you in being more organized and productive?

Allegedly, with DeskTime, you can get about 30 percent increase in productivity with:

Better time management choices,
Recognizing computers’ usage patterns,
Improving the work plan and execution,
Examining what’s keeping you from getting things done in your work day.

Also, DeskTime seems to help with being more organized. This can be achieved by:

Keeping track of procedures and objectives,
Successfully leading your team,
Time and project monitoring that can be set automatically,
Better understanding how to schedule shifts and absences.

Reduce your company’s monetary and time losses with DeskTime:

Tasks and projects are given priority; time is set aside for them,
Insight into project resources that is accurate,
Based on evidence, make educated judgments,
Invoice your customers properly.

Who can benefit the most from using DeskTime?

Teams:

With easy time monitoring software, you can become more organized and aware of how your staff is functioning on a daily basis. Plan and create shifts, measure employee productivity, utilize the project tracking function to see who is working on what and for how long, and much more.

Businesses:

From a single dashboard, manage your company’s human resources and financial flow. Track your team’s productivity with the DeskTime time tracking software, keep a watch on outsourced personnel with screenshots, manage your tasks, calculate project expenses, generate invoices, and more.

Enterprises:

Enjoy VIP service and tailored onboarding while getting a full picture of your company, workers, procedures, and progress. Assign managers to keep tabs on their teams, utilize the screenshots function to hold employees accountable, use shift scheduling to manage varied work hours, and projects to keep track of spending, among other things.

Agencies:

In one spot, keep track of your team members, remote employees, and freelancers. Track their time, utilize screenshots to ensure that everyone remains on track, and use the cost calculation function to compute their salary. Increase workflow efficiency and always meet your customers’ deadlines.

Freelancers:

Never be underpaid for the time you put into your clients’ projects again. Timesheets are generated, exported, and sent to the customer to track time spent on particular projects. Then, to produce and send invoices, utilize the cost calculation and invoicing functions.

How much does it cost to use DeskTime?

DeskTime has 4 different pricing plans: Lite, Pro, Premium and Enterprise.

DeskTime Lite is a free plan. This pricing plan is for one user only. It supports automatic time tracking and app tracking, and has a dedicated mobile app.

DeskTime Pro costs $7 per month for every user. This plan also comes with automatic time tracking and app tracking. Additionally, it supports URL monitoring, productivity calculation, idle time reports and project time tracking.

Premium plan comes with everything included in DeskTime Pro, plus some other benefits such as automatic screenshots, absence calendar, shift scheduling, invoicing, company integrations, offline time approval and IP restrictions. This plan costs $10 per month per user.

DeskTime Enterprise is the plan with most benefits. It costs $20 per month per user and includes everything from DeskTime Premium, plus VIP support, personalized onboarding, unlimited projects, unlimited tasks, unlimited data history and custom API functionality.

You can sign up to each pricing plan for free, with no credit card information required. Duration of the DeskTime free trial is 14 days.

What is the difference between monthly and annual DeskTime payment plans?

On the first day of each month, the monthly billing plan charges your payment method. When compared to the monthly plan, the annual payment option charges once a year on the start date of the plan and includes a free month of membership.

What platforms are supported by DeskTime?

DeskTime is presented as a single time tracking app for desktops and mobile phones. DeskTime for desktop supports Linux, MacOS & Windows, while for mobile phones supported platforms are iOS & Android.

Is it possible to deceive or hack DeskTime?

Yes. DeskTime may be tricked by using the AFK-Assistant desktop program.

This is how it works:

Sign up for a 14-day free trial of AFK-Assistant,
On your Windows, Mac, or Linux device, install and run the AFK-Assistant program,
While you’re away from the keyboard, start producing keyboard and mouse activity.

AFK-Assistant is a cross-platform desktop program that simulates human activity on the computer, and assists users in creating activity reports in any time management software.

The provided 14-day free trial will allow you to try the program without having to pay anything up front.

How can AFK-Assistant trick DeskTime app?

DeskTime, like any other time management program, generates activity reports by tracking mouse and keyboard activity. Employers are then given summaries of these findings.

AFK-Assistant allows you to create activity reports without using a keyboard or mouse.

Instead, while you’re on a break, mouse and keyboard are “used” by the AFK-Assistant software. Your time monitoring tool then “records” mouse and keyboard activity produced by AFK-Assistant and saves it alongside the actual, user generated input.

AFK-Assistant works for you when you are away from the keyboard. It’s almost as if you had a personal assistant.

Will there be a noticeable difference in the activity reports?

No. To give flawless activity reports, all AFK-Assistant software versions are modified and tested. Aside from that, there are app settings that allow users to fine-tune the app’s behavior in order to provide activity reports that more accurately represent genuine user activity.

This implies that you can utilize AFK-Assistant regardless of your workflow or job description.

It is understandable that various activity reports would be created for people with varying job descriptions, reflecting real mouse and keyboard activity while working. You may match such reports as precisely as possible using the AFK-Assistant settings option.

Will the AFK-Assistant app be detected by DeskTime?

No. As long as AFK-Assistant is utilized appropriately, it will stay unnoticed.

Here’s how to do it:

Before any time tracking begins, make sure AFK-Assistant is already running.
Use the AFK-Assistant settings panel only while not monitoring time.

There are no active windows in the AFK-Assistant program so, technically, AFK-Assistant is not “running” at all, which is why it cannot be detected.

Some customers, though, want to be certain that AFK-Assistant activity won’t be caught by their time monitoring software, and there’s some good news here, too:

Every AFK-Assistant user has the option of ordering a custom, private AFK-Assistant application version, having the same price as the official editions. Custom app names and icons are used in all private AFK-Assistant apps. Any potentially detected action cannot be attributed in any way to AFK-Assistant.

Simply contact our support staff and explain your app name request to get a personalized AFK-Assistant application. Our customer service staff is accessible to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How does AFK-Assistant handle DeskTime screenshots?

Without having to worry about the screenshots feature, AFK-Assistant can assist you in hacking DeskTime app.

This is how it works:

AFK-Assistant will transition between the open programs on your computer using the focused app switching capability, making DeskTime screenshots distinct from one another.
AFK-Assistant may periodically change the focused browser tab using the browser tab changing function, resulting in a discrepancy between screenshots generated by your time tracking program.
Even if the focus is transferred back to the same open program or browser tab, DeskTime screenshots will appear different with bi-directional horizontal and vertical mouse scrolling.

AFK-Assistant editions, features and pricing:

Personal

$9.99 per month

- 10 days Free Trial

Enterprise

$17.99 per month