So i have built a basic switch with a timer to keep track of how long the compressor is running that we use for our business . The ideal plan would be to take the value of the timer out put maybe send them to a server or something via an esp8266. Was thinking google or something just to store the entry for each time the compressor is running to keep better track of hours spent on a job. The ideal situation would be to use an ios app. Seeing how we pretty much use iphones its convenient however i think it costs money to put an app up and download it even if i have made it myself and going on two or three phones, i could be wrong though. in general an app would be ideal because its easy to pull up and would be nice to add notes beside the time entry.
with all that being said its easier to say this is how i want it to be then what might actually be possible with trying to avoid subscription fees to use a server or fees to use an app.
anyways you guys probably get the idea of what im going for, any guidance on how to approach this would be a huge help
I agree. Some esp8266 modules have large amounts of flash memory (up to 16MB) which can be used to store files. The esp could monitor the switch and record the times in a file in this flash memory. It can also summarise and display this data in a web page that you can access from smartphones or PCs while connected to the local network (outside local network more difficult, but not needed?). None of this would cost anything to run.
However, I guess you have little or no experience with electronics or coding, and this will require both, it is not a beginner's project. There is a section on this forum where you could offer money for someone to do the design and coding for you. But if you are willing to put in the effort yourself, you can get lots of help and advice in this part of the forum.
Take a look at Blynk: collect data with arduino/wemos/esp whatever, upload data and display it on your iphone/ipad. Pretty straight forward to implement, very reasonable cost. (You get an initial free budget, and your project should not even need more.) Clone your finished „app“ to share with others. Easypeasy.
Of note when storing frequently changing information like logging a total run time: flash memory only supports a couple thousand writes. What the ESP calls EEPROM is a single sector on its flash drive, so that also supports only a couple thousand writes.