For the non-technically inclined, HTTPS (SSL) is a security layer which ensures that the server your browser is communicating with belongs to Harvest (and is not an impostor) and also encrypts your communication with Harvest servers, to prevent eavesdropping.

What does this mean for you?

For the majority of Harvest customers who access Harvest using a modern web browser (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 and above, Chrome, Safari, etc) this change should be totally seamless and you’ll not need to do anything.  Depending on which browser you use, you might notice a new hint in your address bar that your connection to Harvest is now secure.

Here is an example of an HTTPS hint in Firefox 3

Do you use one of our Harvest widgets?

• If you use the Mac widget, you don’t need to do anything differently, it’ll work the same as it does now.
• If you use the Yahoo widget, you’ll need to check the “SSL” checkbox on the widget options after we make the change September 1st.
• If you use the Vista gadget, you may actually need to re-install the Vista gadget after we make the change September 1st.

Have further questions?  Feel free to contact us.

Technical Information for Harvest API integrators and authors of Harvest API clients

For Harvest customers who have integrated Harvest into other systems using an API client we need to make sure that your integration continues to function properly. We’ve begun reaching out to authors of popular Harvest API clients already. Many thanks to Zach Moazeni, Brian Glass and Matthew Denton for helping test their Harvest API clients so far. We will update this post with any update news on these clients.

If your Harvest API integration has in the past communicated over HTTP (ie: not HTTPS) with Harvest, from September 1st onwards these requests will be met with an HTTP 302 redirect to the HTTPS location of your Harvest subdomain. Your API client will need to support SSL as well as follow these HTTP 302 redirects, to continue to communicate with Harvest. Please open a support ticket if you need any help with this, or have any questions about supporting SSL.

Technical note: Why are we using an HTTP 302 redirect and not an HTTP 301 or an HTTP 303? We suspect there may be API clients which will follow a 302 and may not follow a 301 or 303. An API client which will obey any redirect on the 3xx class is a good idea. Please contact us for more details on this issue.

Developers, have any further any questions? Please visit the Harvest forum.

Create Your First Retainer

1. Go to the new Invoices > Retainers section.
2. Click on Create Retainer
3. Fill out your retainer invoice like a normal invoice.
4. The payment you record on the retainer invoice will be saved into the retainer funds.

Invoice and Draw From Your Retainer

To invoice the client your hours and draw from the retainer, simply create an invoice for the project hours, like you normally would. Harvest will show you a list of retainers to draw from – all you need to do is to choose the retainer, and Harvest will automatically draw from the funds and update the retainer balance.

What is a Retainer, Anyway?

A retainer basically works like a deposit for future invoices. The tricky part is: the money you receive for a retainer/deposit is not an income (yet). The money becomes income later, after you put in the work.

Here’s a simple example. Let’s say you and I are on a retainer agreement. You invoice me for a $5,000 deposit, and I write you a check for that amount. That $5,000 should not be counted as an income in your books. Now let’s say you work for 20 hours for me in July, and you invoice me for those 20 hours – which comes to $2,000. You will then draw from the retainer amount I paid you, producing:

We’re excited to announce that we’re now able to bring all of the benefits of our Google Apps integration to our existing customers!

You can read the full description of the Harvest Google Apps integration on our previous blog post about it, but here are the highlights:

• Single sign on for all employees via their Google Accounts
• Submit timesheets directly from Gmail
• Export timesheet reports into Google Docs
• Get Quick links to Harvest in relevant emails

The installation process is much the same as what we outlined previously for new customers, and you can watch the video to get an idea of what the the signup process, and the overall integration, will look like.

To enable your Google Apps integration, go to the Harvest Google Marketplace Page, and click Add it now.  Enter your Google domain information, and you will be led through the integration setup process from there.

A few things to note:

• Once you sign up, anyone who is on your Google Apps domain and has a Harvest user account will automatically have the Google Apps integration enabled.
• During the setup process, you’ll be prompted to import new users from Google to Harvest, which will allow you to create new Harvest users from your Google users.

We’re thrilled to expand our Harvest Google Apps integration, and as always, don’t hesitate to share your feedback and suggestions with us.

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Harvest for Google Apps. Google Apps users can now easily add Harvest to Google Apps via the Google Apps Marketplace.

One caveat: this integration right now only works for new users who are signing up for Harvest via the Google Apps Marketplace. We’re working on making this connection available to current Harvest customers as well. Linking existing accounts to Google Apps is more complex, but rest assured that we’re working on it, and will have it available soon!

UPDATE: This integration now works for existing customers as well, check out our blog post about how Existing Harvest Customers Can Now Utilize Google Apps Integration.

There are three main points of integration between Harvest and Google Apps:

Submit timesheets directly from Gmail
Harvest can already send out reminders to users who have not submitted their timesheets. With our integration, we made timesheet submission even easier for users, by allowing them to enter and submit timesheets directly within the reminder email. It’s a really convenient way for everyone to get their timesheets in, which leads to more prompt and accurate tracking of your time.

Export timesheet reports into Google Docs
A lot of our users already take advantage of our CSV and Excel exports so they can further manipulate their data, so we’ve decided to make it easy for users to export the reports to one more spreadsheet application: Google Docs. Instead of having to download the CSV and then upload it to Google Docs, users can now bring reports into Google Docs with just a single click.

Quick links to Harvest in relevant emails
Based on the context of your emails, we can show the “Quick Links” to jump right into Harvest. So if you email a colleague about filling out timesheets, we show them a quick link to Harvest at the bottom of the email so they can easily access their account.

And of course, once connected, users can take advantage of the single sign-on integration and jump directly into Harvest from Google’s universal navigation. This means users can be in Gmail, or Google Docs, and with a couple clicks, jump right into Harvest without having to re-login.  Here’s a quick video which demonstrates how it all works:

Update: Harvest for Google Apps is also covered on the Google Enterprise Blog and the Official Google Blog.

You can change the order of items on an invoice, with just a few quick mouse clicks. While adding or editing an invoice, click the “Reorder Rows” link and the individual rows will become sortable. Just click and drag a row to change it’s position on the invoice.

When you’re done moving items, you can simply save the invoice, or click “Done Reordering” to continue editing the invoice details.

We hope you find this new invoice improvement useful. As always, don’t hesitate to share your feedback and suggestions with us.

To access this feature, you’ll first need to upload some receipts.  Once you’ve done that, generate an expense report under the Reports > Expense tab. In the Export dropdown menu, select the Export Receipts as PDF link. A PDF containing all expenses that have receipts will be generated. The report contains summary information about the expense as well as the receipt image. If you upload receipts as PDFs with multiple pages, then you’ll see each page of your original PDF receipt printed in this report as well.

If you haven’t tried uploading receipts with your expenses, give it a try today! You can upload several image formats or PDF files directly on the Timesheets > Expenses tab, or via the iPhone application.

Follow Harvest on Twitter for realtime status reports. Thanks for your support as we improve Harvest!

Our redesigned sign in page can now be customized with your company’s logo. This means that your employees and contractors will have instant recognition of your company branding, and they’ll feel reassured that they’re signing in to the right place.

Adding a logo (or other graphic element) is easy as can be – just sign in to your account and follow these simple steps:

1. Go to Manage > Account Settings
2. Click the Edit Preferences button
3. Next to the “Logo” option, click “Choose File” and navigate to a file of your choosing.

The space for your logo is 160×160 pixels wide. Uploaded images may be smaller than that – and larger images will be resized. Please note that this feature is not currently available for free accounts.

We hope you like this new bit of customization, and let us know if you have any questions or thoughts about the feature.

We have implemented an update to Harvest that now gives you the option to Export to Excel (as a native Excel file), or you can select Export to CSV, to continue exporting the same way you have been.

We hope you find this update useful, and let us know if you have any questions!

This update to the Expenses page allows you to upload images or PDFs of your receipts, up to 10MB in size. We’ve also added a handy lightbox viewer for seeing your receipts quickly, as well as a link to print receipts right from your browser.

Coming soon, we will be implementing the ability to include receipts with invoices, but we thought we’d let you get first crack at this new development, so that you can get started in uploading your receipts!

We hope this is helpful, and please let us know if you have any feedback – we’re all ears!