Harvest
Time Tracking
Sign up free

Convert Time to Invoice

Harvest turns tracked time into professional invoices, solving the challenge of revenue leakage due to unreported billable activities.

Try Harvest Free

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 Time: The Foundation of Your Invoice

Effectively converting time to invoice begins with understanding billable time. Billable hours are those spent on tasks directly chargeable to a client, as opposed to non-billable hours, which include internal tasks like administration. Mismanagement of this distinction can result in revenue leakage—up to 1-5% of total revenue due to inadequate tracking methods. Accurate time tracking thus becomes crucial not just for billing, but for maintaining healthy cash flow and client trust.

Setting appropriate hourly rates is another cornerstone. This involves determining rates based on expertise, market standards, and desired profit margins. For industries like legal services, billing in 6-minute increments is common. Properly managing different rates for various clients or services can be a complex task, but it is essential for precise billing. Using tools like Harvest can streamline this process by allowing flexible rate settings per project or client, ensuring that all billable time is captured and invoiced accurately.

Streamlining Your Time Tracking Process

Efficient time tracking is the backbone of accurate invoicing. Real-time tracking, as opposed to manual entry, significantly reduces the potential for errors—up to 15% of activities can go unreported with inadequate tracking. Harvest offers one-click start/stop timers that automate logging, ensuring that all billable activities are captured as they occur. This minimizes the risk of revenue loss and enhances the accuracy of your billing process.

Consistency in time tracking is vital. Establishing standardized methods and descriptions for tasks across your team prevents discrepancies and maintains uniformity in billing. Regular review and auditing of timesheets are recommended to ensure compliance and accuracy. Harvest also facilitates this by providing detailed reports that allow project managers to review time entries, enhancing accountability and transparency.

Crafting the Perfect Time-Based Invoice

Creating a professional and transparent invoice is essential for timely payments and client satisfaction. An effective time-based invoice should include key elements such as business and client details, unique invoice numbers, issue and due dates, and a detailed breakdown of services. This breakdown should list each task, date, hours worked, and the applicable rates.

Harvest simplifies this process with its comprehensive invoicing features. You can use detailed invoice formats to itemize tasks and hours, an approach particularly beneficial for freelancers in creative industries. Additionally, Harvest supports automatic tax calculations, which can save time and reduce errors. By using invoice templates, businesses can ensure consistency and efficiency in their invoicing processes.

Automating and Optimizing Your Billing Workflow with Harvest

Automation is key to reducing administrative burdens and errors in the invoicing process. Manual invoice processing can take an average of 25 days and cost businesses between $12 and $40 per invoice. Harvest provides automation solutions that streamline the conversion of tracked time into invoices, helping businesses save time and reduce costs.

Key features of Harvest include integrations with popular tools like QuickBooks and Stripe, which enhance its utility for managing varied billing rates and multiple clients. Harvest also offers detailed reporting and client portals, which improve transparency and client relationships. By automating these processes, businesses can overcome common invoicing challenges such as inaccuracies and delays, ensuring a smooth and efficient billing workflow.

Convert Time to Invoice with Harvest

See how Harvest converts tracked time into detailed invoices, enhancing billing accuracy and cash flow.

Harvest interface showing time conversion to invoice

Convert Time to Invoice FAQs

  • To convert tracked time into an invoice, first sum up all billable hours for each project or client. Then, multiply these hours by the agreed hourly rate and add any applicable taxes or fees. Harvest simplifies this by allowing you to automatically generate invoices from tracked time, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.

  • The best way to track billable hours is through real-time tracking tools like Harvest, which offers one-click timers and detailed reporting. This minimizes errors and ensures all billable activities are captured accurately, preventing revenue loss from unreported hours.

  • Yes, Harvest allows you to set specific billing rates per project or client, making it easy to manage multiple clients with varying rates. This flexibility ensures your invoices reflect accurate charges and prevents billing discrepancies.

  • A time-based invoice should include business and client details, a unique invoice number, issue and due dates, and an itemized list of services with descriptions, dates, hours, rates, and line totals. Harvest's invoicing features support these elements, ensuring clarity and professionalism.

  • Automation reduces the time and cost associated with manual invoicing. Tools like Harvest automate data capture, rate application, and invoice generation, significantly reducing errors and administrative workload. This leads to faster payments and improved cash flow.

  • Accurate time tracking is essential for billing because it ensures clients are billed correctly for the work performed. Inaccuracies can lead to disputes, delayed payments, and potential revenue loss. Harvest's real-time tracking and detailed reporting help maintain billing accuracy.

  • Harvest offers numerous invoicing benefits, including automated time conversion, customizable billing rates, and detailed reporting. These features enhance billing accuracy, reduce manual errors, and streamline the invoicing process, ultimately improving client trust and cash flow.