I tried Homeschool Tracker twice. The first time was many years ago before they had the online version and the second time was with the online version. I couldn't stand it (twice). They seem to make simple things extraordinarily complicated. I've also tried other homeschool schedulers in passing, and they all had issues that made me cranky.
Over the years, I've developed a system where I use Excel to create lists of the things I want to get done. Then each week I use the lists to make a plan in pencil (so I can change things easily). This system seems to give me the best of both worlds--a planning piece that ensures I can get everything done during the year (at least in theory!) as well as the flexibility to change things week to week (the weekly plan) as well as day to day (by erasing what I've written in pencil).
I then keep the weekly schedules as a primary record of what we've done.
In grades K-8, I would write an annual report, which was a narrative about how the year went in each subject followed by a listing of all resources used. I can't tell you how many times I've referred to these reports over the years.
For high school courses, I keep a yearly gradebook in Excel, with one worksheet per course. I list the assignments and the grades and the weighting. At the end of the year, I calculate the grade for each course and print out the gradebook and keep it, along with course descriptions and the weekly schedules in a binder.
I arrange my transcripts by subject for college applications. The transcript includes what you think of as a transcript followed by course descriptions (a few sentences about what was done and then a listing of materials used).
For reference, I've just finished my 12th year of homeschooling. My older son graduated from our homeschool in 2014 and was accepted at his first choice school (as well as all the other schools he applied to, except for one where he was waitlisted). My younger son started high school coursework this past year.
