Opportunity cost is ignored because the lack of a time tracking system leads to the lack of understanding of per-person per-project profitability. There is one most profitable thing that a particular employee can be doing right now for the company. Building an in-house time tracking, CRM or issue management system is almost certainly not it. If you haven’t been measuring costs (i.e. tracking time) you can’t possibly know where you’re profitable and where you’re not.

This is true today, but it wasn’t true when we first built Intervals. Today, there are so many options available that it makes sense to try them all until you find one that is the closest fit for your needs. When we started building Intervals, however, there weren’t any web-based services that allowed a business to track time against projects and tasks. Applications of this sort are relatively new on the scene, and many of them are evolving from basic time-tracking services into more comprehensive apps that also do invoicing and reporting. Don’t waste your time building your own system. Find one that is a close fit, and then become an active member of its community, where you can influence the developers to build the features you need.