[verdict][curated prompt][source: tallymeter.com]
Can I vibecode Tallymeter?
// buildable in a weekend, but real gaps stay open
The solo core is a weekend build and nobody should pretend otherwise: a timer, projects with hourly rates, and uninvoiced hours rolled into a numbered PDF. What survives the rebuild is the boring half · two-way Jira worklog sync that reconciles ticket by ticket without double-counting, a hosted MCP server and scoped API tokens your agents can reach from any machine, and invoice numbering plus VAT and bank details that hold up when an accountant reads them. Full disclosure: this entry was submitted by the person who builds Tallymeter. Same rubric as everything else on the list, and the honest answer is that a freelancer billing one client can absolutely one-shot the part they use.
confidence: high
what it is: Time tracker that turns tracked hours into numbered client invoices, with a REST API and MCP server so AI agents can log their own time
Buildability index · an editorial game
- Price 10 $/month · per seat weight: plus 1
- Time weekend weight: plus 2
- Category finance and accounting no weight
- Moat integrations · execution quality weight: minus 2
- Confidence high weight: plus 1
- What you lose 5 items weight: minus 2
- Site tallymeter.com (si apre in una nuova scheda) no weight
They cancel out. This is where it comes down to how much the subscription annoys you.
Gioco editoriale: il verdetto dice se un agente può, l’indice se conviene.
What you build
Start and stop a timer against a project, fix entry descriptions after the fact, then roll every uninvoiced hour into a sequentially numbered PDF invoice at the project's rate.
what you need
- an always-on box if you want the timer off your laptop
- PDF generation
- Jira API credentials if you want worklog sync
- backups you actually test
Submitted by its own builder, judged by the same rubric · the solo core really is a weekend.
The prompt
A weekend with a coding agent. The gaps that stay are right below, under “what you lose”.
Build me a freelance time tracker that produces invoices, like Tallymeter. Requirements:
- Node + Express + better-sqlite3, one process, server-rendered pages on
localhost:4820. No accounts, no telemetry, everything stays on my machine.
- Tables: clients, projects (hourly rate, currency), entries, invoices.
- One timer, big start/stop button on the index page: starting a new one stops
the running one first, so two can never run at once. Entries store
description, project, started_at and ended_at as ISO-8601 UTC.
- Let me edit a finished entry's description in place, and add one after the
fact with a duration in minutes for the call I forgot to track. Entries
already on an invoice are frozen, reject the edit.
- An /unbilled page: finished entries with no invoice_id, grouped by project,
hours shown as "3h 25m" and the money at the project rate.
- Invoice a project's unbilled entries: one line per description with decimal
hours, sequential INV-2026-001 numbers that are never reused even if I delete
a draft, bank details and VAT rate from config.json, rendered to
./invoices/INV-2026-001.pdf with puppeteer. Stamp invoice_id on what it billed.
- Out of scope: multi-user accounts, payment collection, mobile apps. Skip them.
- README: config.json fields, where the PDFs land, and a warning that the
sqlite file is the only copy of my billing history · tell me to back it up.Curated prompt: written and reviewed by hand for this app. In English on purpose — it is the language coding agents work best in.
What you lose
- two-way Jira Cloud worklog sync that reconciles ticket by ticket
- a hosted MCP server and scoped API tokens agents can call from anywhere, with per-agent attribution
- invoice numbering, VAT and bank details that survive an accountant handoff
- shared team workspaces and per-member unbilled totals
- managed hosting, nightly backups and a phone-sized UI for starting a timer away from your desk
Why people still pay
The timer is a weekend. The failure modes are not. Uninvoiced time that silently double-counts against a Jira worklog, an invoice sequence with a gap in it, or a laptop that was asleep when the agent tried to log its hours are all problems you discover on invoice day, in front of a client. A business billing real money for hours generally decides that maintaining the thing that produces its invoices is not the hobby it wants.
moat: Integrations Execution quality what a moat is
integrations + hosted agent access
Free alternatives
Not in the mood to build it? These already exist, they are free or open source, and we checked them one by one.
Rejected (1) — and why
- solidtime (si apre in una nuova scheda) — A polished timer with an API, but it stops before invoices.
Who has already built it
Starting from here is still vibecoding: the prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.
- kimai (opens in a new tab) — mature self-hosted multi-user time tracking with timesheets, reports and invoices (alive)
- solidtime (opens in a new tab) — modern open-source time tracker, the closest self-host starting point (alive)
What it costs in a year
10 $/mese 120 $/anno
Listino 10 $ al mese a persona su Tallymeter. L’anno è dodici mesi pieni, senza sconti annuali.
Do you agree?
The vote balance
Ancora nessun voto: il tuo è il primo.
Nessun voto ancora — il primo pesa.
