Harvest
Time Tracking
Sign up free

Best Time Tracking App for Billing Clients

Businesses can lose up to 30% of billable revenue without proper tracking. Harvest integrates time tracking with billing to ensure every minute counts.

Try Harvest Free

What should you charge per hour?

Most freelancers and consultants dramatically undercharge. This calculator accounts for what most people miss: non-billable time, taxes, and overhead.

$
Accounting for vacation, holidays, sick days
60%
Most freelancers can bill 50-70% of their time. The rest goes to admin, marketing, proposals, and learning.
$
Software, insurance, equipment, accounting, taxes beyond income tax, etc.
Your break-even rate $0
Recommended rate (+20% buffer) $0
Billable hours per week 0h
Equivalent daily rate $0

Start tracking your billable hours

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

The Indispensable Link: Why Time Tracking is Crucial for Client Billing

Effective time tracking is essential for accurate client billing, helping businesses avoid significant revenue loss. Studies reveal that agencies can lose between 15% and 30% of their billable revenue due to inconsistent tracking. This underscores the importance of capturing every billable minute to improve financial health and client trust. By ensuring all work is tracked and billed correctly, businesses can increase their profitability and optimize resource allocation.

Incorporating a time tracking system like Harvest can mitigate these losses by offering automated timers and detailed invoicing capabilities, ensuring that every billable task is accounted for. With Harvest’s comprehensive tracking, businesses can identify inefficiencies, such as unauthorized non-billable hours which, in some cases, account for 30% of time that could otherwise be billed. This not only enhances transparency with clients but also strengthens the business’s financial foundation.

Core Capabilities: What to Look for in a Billing-Integrated Time Tracking App

When selecting a time tracking app for billing clients, key features must be considered. A reliable app should provide multiple time capture methods, including real-time timers, automatic tracking, and manual entry options. This flexibility ensures that no billable hour is lost due to memory decay, which can account for over 10% of missed billable hours.

Harvest excels in this area by allowing users to distinguish between billable and non-billable hours with flexible rate settings per project or person. It also facilitates seamless invoice creation directly from tracked time, which is crucial in maintaining consistent cash flow. The app supports essential integrations with tools like QuickBooks and Asana, further streamlining project management and financial operations. With Harvest, businesses gain access to robust reporting features that highlight project profitability and team utilization, essential for strategic decision-making.

Mastering Accuracy: Best Practices for Effective Time Tracking and Invoicing

Accurate time tracking is the cornerstone of effective invoicing. Adopting the "track as you go" principle is crucial, as it prevents the common issue of forgetting to log billable hours. Implementing automated systems like those in Harvest ensures precision and reduces administrative overhead.

Businesses should standardize time tracking processes across teams to maintain consistency. Regular reviews of time entries against project estimates allow for adjustments that refine future pricing and project management. Harvest supports these practices with detailed invoicing options, including automated billing cycles and digital payment processing, making it easier to manage cash flow and minimize payment delays.

Tailored Solutions: Industry-Specific Time Tracking and Billing Needs

Different industries have unique time tracking and billing needs. For example, legal firms require precise record-keeping for compliance, often billing in six-minute increments. Consulting firms and creative agencies need to track profitability and manage multiple client engagements efficiently. Harvest offers customizable solutions that cater to these specific requirements, such as tracking time at a granular task level and supporting fixed-fee project management.

Freelancers and small businesses often prioritize ease of use and affordability. Harvest addresses these needs with a straightforward interface and flexible pricing plans, including a free 30-day trial. This allows businesses of any size to implement effective time tracking and billing practices without a steep learning curve, ensuring that even the smallest operations can benefit from professional-grade tools.

Harvest: Best App for Billing Clients

Discover Harvest's seamless integration of time tracking and billing features, showcasing automated timers and detailed invoicing.

Screenshot of Harvest time tracking and billing features

Best Time Tracking App for Billing Clients FAQs

  • A time tracking app for billing clients should include real-time tracking, ability to distinguish between billable and non-billable hours, customizable invoicing, and integration with accounting and project management tools. Harvest offers all these features to ensure accurate and efficient billing.

  • Time tracking improves billing accuracy by ensuring that all billable hours are recorded and invoiced. This prevents revenue loss, which can be as high as 30% for some businesses. Harvest's automated timers and detailed reporting help maintain precise records, reducing disputes and enhancing client trust.

  • Yes, Harvest enables users to track time across multiple clients and projects simultaneously. This flexibility ensures comprehensive coverage, allowing businesses to manage diverse projects efficiently without missing any billable time.

  • Real-time timers capture work as it happens, reducing the risk of forgotten hours and memory decay, which can result in losing over 10% of billable time. Harvest's one-click timers ensure that every minute is accounted for, maximizing billing accuracy.

  • Yes, Harvest offers a free 30-day trial with no credit card required. This allows businesses to explore its features, including time tracking and billing, to see how it can fit their needs before committing to a paid plan.

  • Harvest supports different billing rates based on project types or individuals. This feature allows businesses to set flexible rates, ensuring that billing aligns with the unique demands and pricing structures of each project.

  • Harvest integrates with numerous project management and accounting tools like Asana, Trello, QuickBooks, and Xero. These integrations streamline billing by automatically syncing time tracking data, reducing manual entry and potential errors.