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Time Tracking
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Billable vs Non Billable Calculator

Harvest is a powerful tool that helps teams and freelancers accurately track and differentiate between billable and non-billable hours, preventing revenue loss.

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How much revenue is your team leaving on the table?

Most agencies run at 55-60% utilization. Even a small improvement means significant revenue. See what closing the gap looks like for your team.

Number of people who track billable time
$
Blended rate across roles (junior, senior, lead)
55%
Percentage of total hours that are billable. Industry average is 55-60%.
75%
A realistic target for service businesses is 70-80%.
Monthly revenue gap $0
Revenue at current utilization $0/mo
Revenue at target utilization $0/mo
Extra billable hours needed per person/day 0h
Annual revenue opportunity $0

Start tracking team utilization

Walk through the entire flow below. Start a timer, check your reports, and create a real invoice — all in three clicks.

Go ahead — start tracking!

One click and you're timing. Try it right here: start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Harvest.

  • One-click timer from browser, desktop & mobile
  • Works inside Jira, Asana, Trello, GitHub & 50+ tools
  • Duration or start/end — your call
  • Day, week & calendar views to stay on top of it all
  • Friendly reminders so no hour gets left behind
Acme Corp
Website Redesign
Homepage layout revisions
1:24:09
Content Strategy
Blog calendar planning
1:30:00
SEO Audit
Technical audit report
0:45:00
Brand Guidelines
Color system documentation
2:15:00
Logo Concepts
Initial sketches round 1
1:00:00
Today's total 6:54:09

Understanding Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours

Billable hours are the cornerstone of revenue generation for service-based businesses, as they represent the time spent on tasks that can be invoiced to clients. These include activities like client meetings, project deliverables, and client-specific research. Non-billable hours, however, encompass necessary internal tasks such as administrative duties, internal meetings, and professional development, which cannot be billed directly to clients. Understanding this distinction is crucial for businesses aiming to optimize their time management and profitability.

Misclassifying even a few hours each week can lead to significant revenue losses. For example, a 10-person firm could lose over $200,000 annually due to poor time tracking and misclassification. Harvest addresses this challenge by providing tools that help teams accurately track and differentiate between billable and non-billable hours, ensuring no potential revenue is lost due to oversight.

The Financial Impact of Time Tracking

Accurate time tracking is vital for maintaining profitability. Businesses can lose up to 25% of potential revenue due to inadequate tracking of billable vs. non-billable hours. Increasing the billable utilization rate from 65% to 75% can add $20,800 in annual revenue per consultant billing at $100/hour. Essentially, the billable utilization rate measures the percentage of total work time spent on billable activities, making it a critical metric for profitability.

Harvest facilitates this by offering detailed reporting features that allow businesses to pinpoint inefficiencies and optimize billable hours. With insights into billable vs. non-billable time, companies can adjust strategies to improve their utilization rates and increase their effective bill rate (EBR), ultimately maximizing revenue.

Optimizing Time with Harvest's Tools

To ensure accurate billing and maximize revenue, it's essential to adopt best practices for time tracking. Real-time tracking captures 95-98% of billable hours compared to the significantly lower capture rates of end-of-day or end-of-week tracking. Harvest supports this by providing one-click timers and manual entry options, allowing users to track time as it happens or retroactively.

Harvest also enables users to categorize tasks efficiently, distinguishing between billable and non-billable activities. This categorization is vital for producing accurate invoices and analyzing profitability. The platform's detailed reports provide insights into how non-billable hours impact overall project profitability, offering businesses the data needed to make informed decisions and improve their bottom line.

Industry-Specific Considerations

Different industries have unique requirements and benchmarks for billable hours. For instance, law firms often set targets between 1,800 to 2,200 annual billable hours, while consulting firms aim for a 70-80% billable utilization rate. Understanding these benchmarks is crucial for businesses to maintain competitiveness and achieve desired profitability levels.

Harvest provides the flexibility needed to accommodate various industry standards and regulatory requirements, such as those mandated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). By offering customizable time tracking and reporting features, Harvest ensures that businesses across sectors can meet their specific compliance needs and optimize their operational efficiency.

Billable vs Non Billable Tracking with Harvest

See how Harvest tracks billable vs non-billable hours, providing insights into profitability and time management.

Harvest interface showing billable vs non-billable hour tracking

Billable vs Non Billable Calculator FAQs

  • Billable hours refer to time spent on tasks that can be invoiced to clients, such as project work and client meetings. Non-billable hours involve internal tasks necessary for business operations, like administrative work and professional development, which cannot be billed to clients.

  • To calculate billable hours, track all work time, filter out non-billable activities, and sum the time spent on client-related tasks. Harvest provides tools to streamline this process, ensuring precise tracking and billing.

  • Separating billable from non-billable hours is crucial for accurate invoicing and profitability analysis. Misclassification can lead to revenue loss, making it essential to track these hours accurately with tools like Harvest.

  • Increasing billable hours involves optimizing work processes and minimizing non-billable time. Using tools like Harvest, you can gain insights into time use, allowing you to focus more on client-related activities and improve utilization rates.

  • Non-billable hours can significantly affect profitability if not properly managed. Harvest provides detailed reports that highlight how non-billable time impacts revenue, helping businesses adjust strategies to enhance profitability.

  • Harvest integrates with a variety of tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira, allowing seamless time tracking across platforms. This integration ensures that time data is accurately captured and synced with your existing workflows.

  • Yes, Harvest allows you to track expenses alongside billable hours, providing a comprehensive view of project costs and profitability. You can capture receipts and manage expenses directly within the platform.