20 January, 2026

If you’re a freelancer or if you run a small business, chances are that you need to keep track of the time that you spend on client projects (and the tasks that make up the work for those projects). That’s never a fun prospect, and there are more than a few ways to do that. Some are cumbersome and some are easier than others.

More than a few apps track your time working are available for the Linux desktop. One that I’ve been using recently is Valot.

Let’s take a look at it.

Getting Valot

The easiest way to install Valot is to use your Linux distribution’s software centre. If it’s not available, you can install it as a flatpak using this command in a terminal window:

flatpak install flathub com.odnoyko.valot

Once it’s installed, start Valot. You see a window like this:

Using Valot

What I’m about to describe is the way in which I set up and used Valot while writing this post. What you do may differ. You have been warned.

To use Valot, you need to set up clients, projects, and tasks. Let’s start off with adding a client.

Click Clients in the navigation pane on the left of the application window. On the screen that displays, click Add client. In the window that pops up:

• Enter the client’s name.
• Set your hourly rate.
• Select their default currency.

Here’s what that looks like:

Then, click Create Client.

Next, add a project by clicking Projects in the navigation pane. From there, click Add project. In the window that pops up:

• Enter the name of the project.
• Select a colour to identify the project.

Here’s what that looks like:

Then, click Save Changes.

Finally, add tasks to a project by typing the name of the task in the field at the top of Valot’s window (that field displays no matter where you are in the application). Here’s an example:

Click the folder icon beside the field and select a project with which to associate the task. Then, click the Client icon and select a client for whom the work is being done.

When you press Enter, Valot creates the task and starts the timer to track the time you spend on it. If you don’t want to track time at the moment, click the Stop tracking button to pause the timer, as shown below.

To restart the timer, click the Start tracking button beside the task.

While you can have multiple tasks in the task list, Valot only lets you track time on one of those tasks. That helps you focus on that part of a job and not try to multitask.

As you’re working, the time you’re spending on a task displays in the application’s title bar and in the Quick Stats section below the navigation pane.

Viewing Reports

Valot offers a simple but effective report of the work you’ve done. Here’s an example:

You can display information for a particular period, project, or client. You also get a view of the total time spent, and money earned, on a project as well as a listing of the tasks you’ve worked on.

You can also export a report as a PDF file. If Valot can’t generate a PDF (and I don’t know why that was happening), it opens an HTML version in a web browser. From there, you can save the report as a PDF.

A Quirk or Two

Valot does one or two things that I found … well, interesting. First, as I mentioned above the application starts a task immediately after you add it. I’d prefer Valot to only add the task; I’ll start it when I’m ready.

When I edit the name of a project on the Projects screen, the dialogue that pops up is in German. Here’s an example:

I’m hoping that’s just a small bug.

Final Thoughts

It took a little while for me to get my head around Valot. That wasn’t because the application is complex, but because I didn’t have an accurate mental model of how I’d set up and use it. Once I had that model, Valot became easier to use.

If I ever go back to serious freelancing, Valot will be one of the tools I’ll consider using to track my time.