All records in Harvest — clients, projects, tasks and people — can be either deleted or archived. In this post, I’ll explain the difference between deleting and archiving.

Deleting

Before a record in Harvest has any time or expenses tracked against it, it can easily be deleted by clicking the Delete link for the record under its profile in the Manage section of Harvest.

Archiving

Once a record has time or expenses tracked against it, then the Delete link for that record changes to an Archive link. Archiving a record preserves the time and expense entries for that record in your reports, but also allows you to get it out of the way when it’s no longer required.

When a record in Harvest is archived, the record moves from its Manage screen to an archived list. For example, when archiving a project, that project will be removed from the Manage > Projects screen and can be reactivated by clicking the Manage Archived Projects link. This same process is used for clients, tasks and people.

Including archived items in reports

Even though a record in Harvest may be archived, you can still report on time and expense entries for that record without reactivating it. To do so, select the Include Archived Items In Filters option when creating a detailed report.

Archived users and your Harvest subscription

The cost of a Harvest subscription is calculated based on the number of active users in your account. You can have as many archived users in your account as required.

After you archive a user, you can adjust your subscription on the Account Settings screen, or you can invite a new user to fill the empty space in the subscription. This is especially useful for companies that have part-time or seasonal staff, because one user spot can be used for several people without increasing the cost of the subscription.

For more help with Harvest, be sure to check out our Getting Started info and help documentation at http://getharvest.com/help/.