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Time Tracking
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Billable Hours Tracker for Bookkeepers

Harvest is the ideal solution for bookkeepers facing revenue loss due to inefficiencies in tracking billable hours. Its seamless integration with accounting software ensures accurate billing.

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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 Strategic Importance of Time Tracking for Bookkeepers

Effective time tracking is essential for bookkeepers to prevent revenue leakage and optimize client billing. Studies indicate that professional services firms can lose 15-25% of billable hours due to inefficient tracking, translating to significant revenue loss. Delayed time entry can further exacerbate this, with up to 50% of billable hours potentially unbilled by week's end. Therefore, having a reliable time tracking system is crucial for capturing every billable minute and ensuring accurate invoices.

By using a tool like Harvest, bookkeepers can enhance profitability by understanding where their time is spent and optimizing pricing strategies and project management. This not only boosts productivity and efficiency but also improves client trust and transparency through detailed, accurate invoices backed by clear time logs.

Essential Features of a Billable Hours Tracker for Bookkeepers

For bookkeepers, a robust billable hours tracker must offer features that cater specifically to their professional needs. Harvest excels with its flexible time entry options, including one-click start/stop timers and manual entry, along with mobile app capabilities for tracking on the go. This functionality ensures that all billable activities are captured accurately.

Furthermore, Harvest allows users to categorize time entries by client, project, and specific tasks, facilitating precise invoicing. With customizable billing rates, bookkeepers can set different hourly rates per client or project, ensuring accurate revenue calculations. The tool also provides robust reporting and analytics, generating insightful reports on billable hours, utilization rates, and project profitability.

Best Practices for Implementing and Maximizing Your Time Tracker

To maximize the benefits of a time tracker, it’s essential to establish clear policies regarding billable activities and time entry standards. Encouraging real-time tracking, as opposed to retrospective logging, can significantly improve accuracy. Regular review and approval workflows, where managers verify submitted timesheets, are also vital for maintaining data integrity.

Harvest supports training and communication efforts by ensuring all team members understand how to use the software effectively. By leveraging data generated from Harvest’s reports, bookkeepers can make informed strategic decisions regarding pricing, resource allocation, and business growth.

Compliance and Ethical Considerations in Time Tracking

Compliance with labor laws and ethical standards is paramount in time tracking. The Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires detailed record-keeping of hours worked, and Harvest facilitates this by maintaining comprehensive audit trails. This ensures that bookkeepers adhere to regulations like the FLSA, which mandates keeping payroll records for at least three years.

Harvest's capability to record time in small increments, such as 6-minute intervals, aligns with industry-specific standards for accounting and legal firms. This feature, coupled with data security measures, helps protect sensitive client and employee information, ensuring that bookkeepers maintain ethical standards in their practice.

Harvest's Billable Hours Tracking

Explore how Harvest tracks billable hours for bookkeepers, offering seamless integration with accounting tools for accurate billing.

Screenshot of Harvest tracking billable hours for bookkeepers

Billable Hours Tracker for Bookkeepers FAQs

  • Bookkeepers track billable hours using time tracking tools like Harvest, which offers one-click timers and manual entry options. By categorizing entries by client and project, bookkeepers ensure precise invoicing and profitability insights.

  • A billable hours tracker for bookkeepers should include real-time tracking, integration with accounting software, customizable billing rates, and detailed reporting. Harvest provides these features, enhancing both accuracy and efficiency.

  • Yes, Harvest integrates seamlessly with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero, streamlining the billing process and ensuring accurate financial records.

  • Time tracking improves productivity by capturing every billable minute, reducing manual errors, and speeding up the billing process. It also provides insights into workflow inefficiencies, enabling bookkeepers to optimize resource allocation.

  • Harvest offers flexible time entry, project categorization, and customizable billing rates. Its detailed reporting enhances transparency and accountability, while integrations with accounting software ensure seamless billing.

  • Harvest ensures accurate invoicing by allowing users to categorize time entries by client and project, track billable vs. non-billable hours, and generate professional invoices directly from tracked time.

  • Harvest offers a free 30-day trial, allowing users to explore its full range of features for tracking billable hours before committing to a subscription.