Harvest

Harvest is time tracking software that turns logged hours into invoices, aimed at businesses that bill clients for their time. It has been around since the mid-2000s and has stayed deliberately narrow: track time against clients and projects, watch budgets, add expenses, send the invoice. It is not trying to be a project management system, and that focus is the main reason people pick it.

What you can actually do with it

The core loop is simple: set up clients and projects, get the team logging hours, then bill from those hours.

• Track time wherever people work. Web, desktop and mobile apps support running timers or entering hours after the fact, with reminders for people who forget.
• Bill against project budgets. Projects can be set up hourly or on a fixed fee, with budget alerts that warn you before a job quietly goes over.
• Approve timesheets. Managers review and approve submitted time before it feeds invoicing, which stops mistakes reaching the client.
• Capture expenses with receipts. Team members attach receipt photos to expenses so billable costs get onto the invoice rather than being forgotten.
• Invoice and collect payment. Invoices generate from tracked time and expenses, go out by email with reminders, and can be paid online through Stripe or PayPal.
• Report on where time goes. Reports cover project profitability, team capacity, uninvoiced hours and cost by client, and can be scheduled to arrive automatically.
• Connect it to the tools you use. Integrations include Asana, Trello, Slack, QuickBooks Online and Xero, so tracking can start from a task and finish in your accounts.

Who it fits best

Harvest fits professional services firms that sell hours: design and marketing agencies, consultancies, law and accounting practices, architects, and small software teams doing client work. It works from a single freelancer up to teams of a few dozen, and is especially good where several people bill to the same project and someone needs to see whether it is still profitable.

It is a weaker choice for businesses that need shift scheduling, clock-in terminals or payroll-grade attendance tracking, and for internal teams who do not bill anyone and just want productivity metrics.

Things worth knowing before you commit

• It is not a project management tool. There are no task boards or dependencies, so you will still need something like Asana, Jira or Trello alongside it.
• Resource planning is a separate product. Forecast, the scheduling and capacity tool, integrates with Harvest but is bought and managed on its own.
• Pricing is per seat. Everyone who logs time needs a paid seat beyond the very limited free tier, so cost scales directly with headcount rather than usage.
• Invoicing is straightforward rather than powerful. It handles time-and-expense billing well, but complex retainers, multi-currency setups and detailed accounting rules may push you toward dedicated billing software.
• Adoption is the real hurdle. The reports are only as good as the tracking, and getting a whole team to log hours honestly is a management problem no software solves for you.

Alternatives to compare it against

Toggl Track is the closest comparison for straightforward time tracking with a generous free tier, though billing is lighter. Clockify goes further on free usage and attendance-style features if budget is tight. If you want time tracking built into project management and resourcing, Teamwork, Productive or Scoro cover the whole agency workflow in one system at a higher price and setup cost. Harvest is the right answer when tracking billable hours and invoicing from them is the job, and you would rather keep project management separate.

Plan limits, seat pricing and included features change over time. Check Harvest’s own pricing page before deciding.

Further reading

• Time Tracking Software for Accounting Firms: A Comparison Guide — a like-for-like comparison for practices that bill by the hour.
• The 7 Best Project Management Software for Businesses in 2024 — covers the task-management side Harvest deliberately leaves out.
• Project Management Software Integrates with QuickBooks: A Guide — relevant to getting Harvest’s invoices and time data through to your accounts.
• 7 Key Features of Top Resource Scheduling Software — what to look for in the capacity planning Harvest sells as a separate product.

Have you used Harvest?

One sentence is enough. Would you pick it again, and why or why not? We publish the critical reviews too — that is the point.