If you're working on a reporting project or beat that requires you to keep track of many calendar events, you know how difficult it can be to keep your records straight. For example, if you're tracking the number of times a government official skips work or takes a vacation, and he's an avid golfer, you might be dealing with hundreds of calendar dates.

A wonderful new tool was just released to help reporters build chronologies. It's called TimeFlow. You can import data using CSV files, and then view your data as a timeline, calendar or any number of charts and graphs. In addition to dates, you can use text, lists (any CSV file), URLs and numbers.

TimeFlow is open source and free for you to download and use. Don't worry if you're not a web designer. TimeFlow is very easy to learn and there are great instructions on the site!

Amy Webb is a digital media consultant and the CEO of Webbmedia Group, LLC. She has also launched Knowledgewebb, a new website for multimedia training. You can follow Amy on Twitter. Webbmedia Group is a vendor-neutral company. Any opinions expressed about products or services are formed after testing, research and interviews. Neither Amy Webb nor Webbmedia Group or its employees receives any financial or other benefits from vendors.