Harvest
Time Tracking
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Billable Hours Tracker for Digital Marketers

Harvest solves the challenge of unbilled hours, which can cost digital marketing agencies 15-30% of revenue, by providing accurate billable hours tracking.

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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

Why Accurate Time Tracking Matters for Digital Marketers

Effective time tracking is crucial for digital marketing agencies to maximize profitability and ensure accurate client billing. Without robust systems, agencies can lose between 15% and 30% of their billable revenue due to unbilled hours. This can significantly impact financial benchmarks, as only 35% of marketing agencies consistently achieve these targets. Implementing a reliable time tracking tool like Harvest can help digital marketers improve billing accuracy and project profitability by offering detailed insights into time allocation across various campaigns.

Time tracking also enhances resource management and client transparency, providing data for future project estimations. Approximately 80% of timesheets require corrections, highlighting the need for real-time tracking solutions to reduce errors. Harvest offers one-click start/stop timers and manual time entry, ensuring that all billable hours are captured accurately and efficiently, preventing potential revenue loss.

Features to Look for in a Billable Hours Tracker

When selecting a billable hours tracker, it's essential to consider features that cater specifically to the needs of digital marketers. A good tool should offer project and task categorization, real-time tracking capabilities, and support for billable versus non-billable classification. These features help in generating precise invoices and managing client expectations effectively. Harvest excels in these areas with its customizable billing rates based on project type or client agreements, ensuring flexibility and accuracy in billing.

Additionally, integration with existing marketing software is vital for streamlined operations. Harvest integrates with popular project management tools like Asana and Trello, as well as accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero. This integration capability reduces duplicate data entry and creates a unified workflow, enhancing overall productivity in marketing teams.

Optimizing the Billing Process with Harvest

Optimizing the billing process is a critical aspect of managing a digital marketing agency. A significant portion of work time, estimated at 36%, is spent on administrative tasks, making it crucial to streamline these processes. Using a tool like Harvest can automate time tracking and invoicing, allowing agencies to focus more on strategic activities. Harvest enables the creation of professional invoices directly from tracked time, minimizing manual entry errors and disputes.

Moreover, Harvest provides real-time budget monitoring with alerts, helping agencies prevent overspending on marketing projects. Detailed reporting on time allocation across different strategies allows for data-driven decisions, improving resource allocation and project outcomes. This not only enhances efficiency but also boosts the return on investment, which can range from 200% to 400% for agencies adopting such tools.

Overcoming Challenges in Time Tracking Implementation

Implementing a time tracking system can face challenges such as employee resistance and concerns over micromanagement. To address these issues, it's important to communicate the benefits of time tracking clearly. Harvest offers intuitive features like one-click timers that make the process seamless for users, thereby reducing resistance and ensuring high adoption rates.

Regular training and support are also crucial in overcoming these challenges. Harvest offers comprehensive reporting that can be used to review and analyze time logs, catching errors early and optimizing workflows. By focusing on broader trends rather than individual scrutiny, Harvest helps agencies use time tracking data to improve overall team performance and client satisfaction.

Track Billable Hours with Harvest

See how Harvest tracks billable hours for digital marketers, integrating with tools like Asana and Trello for seamless project management.

Harvest dashboard showing billable hours tracking for digital marketers.

Billable Hours Tracker for Digital Marketers FAQs

  • Digital marketers can track billable hours effectively using tools like Harvest, which offers one-click timers and manual entry options. This ensures that all hours are accurately logged and billed, reducing revenue loss due to unbilled hours.

  • Look for features like project/task categorization, real-time tracking, and integration with marketing tools. Harvest provides these along with customizable billing rates and detailed reporting to enhance billing accuracy and project management.

  • Harvest integrates seamlessly with popular marketing and project management tools like Asana and Trello. This integration helps streamline workflows and reduces the need for duplicate data entry.

  • Using Harvest for time tracking in marketing offers benefits such as accurate billing, enhanced client transparency, and improved resource management. Its detailed reports and real-time budget monitoring help agencies optimize their operations.

  • Yes, Harvest can optimize administrative tasks by automating time tracking and invoicing processes. This reduces the time spent on non-billable tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategic activities.

  • Harvest ensures accurate invoicing by allowing users to track billable hours by client and campaign. This feature, combined with customizable billing rates, ensures that invoices reflect the exact work done, reducing billing disputes.

  • Agencies may face challenges like employee resistance and data entry errors. Harvest addresses these with user-friendly features and comprehensive training, ensuring high adoption rates and accurate data tracking.