Harvest

What it is

Harvest tracks time and then bills for it. That second half is the difference between it and a pure timer: logged hours and expenses turn into an invoice inside the same tool, and the invoice can be paid online. For a business that sells hours, that removes the monthly ritual of reading a timesheet and retyping it into an invoicing app.

It connects to more than 50 tools including Asana, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe, so time can be tracked next to the work and the finished invoice can land in your accounting.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits consultancies, agencies and freelancers billing by the hour or on retainer, particularly where several people work on the same client and someone has to assemble the total. The free tier covers 1 seat and 2 projects, which is enough for a freelancer with two clients to run properly at no cost.

It is a weaker fit for product businesses that do not bill time, and for teams that already have invoicing they like, where a dedicated tracker such as Toggl Track does the measuring half more cheaply. It is also not accounting: you still need somewhere for the books, such as Wave or Zoho Books.

Pricing

Harvest is freemium. The free plan is 1 seat and 2 projects, free forever, with time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking. Teams is $9 per seat per month, or $108 per year, and adds team reporting for capacity, accounting integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe, and access to more than 50 core integrations. Enterprise is $14 per seat per month, or $168 per year, and adds profitability reporting by client, project, task or team, timesheet approval and SAML-based SSO.

The two-project cap on free is what pushes most people to pay, not the seat count, so count clients rather than colleagues when deciding.

Set it up

Official guide: Quick start guide

1. Create a Harvest account. Every new account starts with a free trial that has all features. When it ends, choose the free version, which is free forever and has 1 seat (one person) and 2 projects. Every step below fits inside it, but sending an invoice needs Stripe (a service that lets clients pay online) and a Harvest fee billed separately. Your account is now on its free trial.
2. Create a project for real current work. In the "Projects" section, click "New project", pick a client from the drop-down or create one, and name the project. Select the type "Time & Materials", which means you bill tracked hours at an hourly rate. In the project form, add a task, mark it billable and enter the rate you quoted, then save the project. Your project now shows in "Projects".
3. Go to "Time", then "Timesheet". On the Day view, click the green "+ Track time" button, choose your project and task, and start a timer. Stop the timer when you finish the work. Your time now belongs to the project.
4. Go to "Invoices", then "Overview", click "New invoice" and choose your client. Select "Create an invoice for tracked time, expenses, or fixed fees" and click "Choose projects". You now see the projects that have tracked time.
5. Select the project and the hours to include, click "Review invoice" and then "Save invoice". You now see your invoice with the hours filled in.
6. Open your invoice and click "Preview". Check the hours, the rate and the due date. Preview does not send anything to your client. You now see the invoice as your client would see it.

When this works, you have a project with tracked hours and an invoice built from those hours that you can preview as your client sees it, so you invoice what happened rather than what someone remembered.

To send the invoice on the free version, connect Stripe first: click "Settings" in the upper right, then "Integrations", then "Connect" in the Stripe section.

On Teams ($9 per seat/mo ($108/yr)): team reporting (reports across everyone's tracked time) and accounting integrations (links to your bookkeeping software, so a paid invoice does not need entering twice).

Strengths and limitations

The strength is the join between hours and money. Time tracking that ends in an invoice removes the most common source of undercharging, which is work that never made it onto the bill.

The limitations are scope and tier placement. Profitability reporting, the number most agencies actually want, sits on the Enterprise tier at $14 per seat per month. The free plan's 2 projects is tight. And Harvest is invoicing, not accounting, so it sits alongside your books rather than replacing them.