Best Apps to Track Work From Home Hours in Australia (2026)

What makes a good WFH hours tracker?

A good tracker helps you keep a record of the actual hours you work from home, made at the time, for the whole year. That’s what the ATO asks for under the fixed rate method. Estimates and four-week samples aren’t accepted.

The ATO doesn’t approve or endorse any record-keeping app, so no app on this list is “ATO approved”. It does list logs from time-tracking apps as one kind of record. The question is which app you’ll actually keep using. We make WFH Diary, so we’ve stuck to facts each provider publishes, checked on 6 November 2026.

The options at a glance

The big difference is how hours get recorded: typed in by you, logged with a tap, worked out from a typical week, or recorded by your computer.

myDeductions (the ATO app)

myDeductions is the ATO’s own free record-keeping tool, inside the ATO app, and it’s the sensible default for most people.

• Best for: anyone who wants a free tool from the ATO and will enter hours each day.
• Platform: the ATO app for iPhone and iPad (iOS 16 or later) and Android.
• Price: free.
• How hours are recorded: you record your hours daily and it keeps a running total. A November 2025 update added work-from-home hours entry. If you use the fixed rate method and upload your records, the hours are pre-filled into myTax.
• Worth knowing: records are stored on your device. You can back up to your own iCloud or Google Drive and email a CSV. The ATO says to record on one device all year, because sets of records can’t be combined.

WFH Logbook Australia

WFH Logbook Australia is a free phone app made just for logging work-from-home hours.

• Best for: people who want a dedicated, free logbook on their phone.
• Platform: iPhone and Android.
• Price: free. Its site says “No hidden fees. No subscriptions. No limits on exports.”
• How hours are recorded: you set your typical schedule, then log each day with one tap and edit entries later. Entries are timestamped, and it shows an estimate of your fixed rate deduction.
• Worth knowing: it exports PDF logbooks, and your data is stored in the developer’s cloud.

WorkMate

WorkMate is a paid record keeper that covers work-from-home hours, car trips and receipts together.

• Best for: people who also need a car logbook or want receipts in the same place.
• Platform: you sign up on its website. Its home page doesn’t list app store versions.
• Price: paid, after a 7-day free trial, with no lock-in contract. Prices weren’t shown on the pages we could read, so check its pricing page.
• How hours are recorded: you log your hours as you work, then export a “Tax Pack” for yourself or your accountant.
• Worth knowing: it includes a 12-week vehicle logbook that works out your work-use percentage.

wfhhours.com

wfhhours.com is a web calculator that estimates your work-from-home hours. It’s useful for planning, but an estimate isn’t a record.

• Best for: getting a rough idea of your hours and deduction, for example to compare with the $1,000 standard deduction.
• Platform: any web browser. It keeps your settings in your browser on that device.
• Price: no price is shown.
• How hours are recorded: you choose a date range and hours per day, and it takes out weekends, public holidays, office days and leave.
• Worth knowing: the ATO doesn’t accept estimates for the fixed rate method. You still need a record of your actual hours, kept at the time. The site itself calls its deduction figure an estimate only.

A spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is free and works as a diary if you fill it in each day you work from home.

• Best for: people who already keep a daily timesheet, or work from home on set days.
• Platform: Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
• Price: free. Use our WFH diary template.
• How hours are recorded: you type start and finish times and breaks.
• Worth knowing: the risk is catching up from memory. See WFH Diary vs a spreadsheet.

WFH Diary

WFH Diary is our Mac menu bar app. It records your hours automatically while your Mac is in use, and you confirm each day.

• Best for: people who work from home mostly on a Mac and find they forget to log hours.
• Platform: Mac, macOS 14 Sonoma or later. There’s no phone version.
• Price: free to track. Pro adds PDF and CSV reports and Suggest past hours (suggestions from file activity that you check, marked added later) for A$14.99 a year or A$39.99 once.
• How hours are recorded: automatically, with idle, lock and sleep detection. It asks about pauses over 15 minutes, and you confirm each day was at home.
• Worth knowing: it records when your Mac is in use, not what you do. It doesn’t see work away from the Mac, such as phone calls on a walk, unless you answer a pause as worked or add the hours.

General Mac time trackers, such as Timing

Mac time trackers like Timing record your computer time automatically, but they aren’t built for the work-from-home tax claim.

• Best for: freelancers and teams who want detailed time by project or client.
• Platform: Mac, with a web app for your phone.
• Price: Timing’s Professional plan is US$10 a month, with a 30-day free trial that needs no credit card.
• How hours are recorded: automatically, by app, document and website, and it detects when you stop using the Mac.
• Worth knowing: logs from a time-tracking app are a type of hours record the ATO lists. You’d work out which hours were at home, the rate and the bills yourself. It also records which apps, documents and websites you use, which is more detail than a tax record needs.

Which should you choose?

Choose the one you’ll keep using every day you work from home. A complete simple record is worth more than a clever one with gaps.

• Want free and from the ATO: myDeductions.
• Want a free dedicated phone logbook: WFH Logbook Australia.
• Need a car logbook too: WorkMate.
• Work on a Mac and forget to log: WFH Diary.
• Disciplined and like spreadsheets: our template.

From 2026–27, if your work expenses come to less than $1,000, the standard deduction may be higher than an itemised claim. Keeping the record keeps that choice open. Try the deduction calculator.