Harvest
Time Tracking
Sign up free

Time Tracking for Engineering Firms

Many engineering firms lose thousands annually to untracked hours. Harvest provides a precise time tracking solution tailored to engineering workflows, enhancing profitability.

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

The Strategic Imperative of Time Tracking in Engineering

Time tracking is a critical component for engineering firms aiming to optimize project profitability and operational efficiency. According to the 2025 Architecture & Engineering Industry Benchmark Report, 41% of firms do not track realization, leading to significant revenue leakage. This lack of tracking can result in thousands of dollars in unlogged or incorrectly billed hours annually, severely impacting payroll accuracy and project visibility. The U.S. architecture and engineering sectors are poised to add 186,500 openings annually from 2024 to 2034, with a median wage of $97,310 in May 2024, emphasizing the high cost of specialized labor and the need for precise time management.

Harvest addresses these challenges by offering robust time tracking and budget management tools tailored to engineering workflows. With features like phase-based tracking, Harvest helps firms align time logging with specific project phases, ensuring every billable hour is captured efficiently. This comprehensive approach moves beyond basic timesheets, providing firms with the insights needed to manage their project-based work effectively.

Essential Features and Seamless Integration for Engineering Workflows

For engineering firms, seamless integration of time tracking with project management and invoicing systems is essential. Harvest excels in this area by supporting integrations with platforms such as Asana, Trello, and Slack, ensuring a unified workflow. Core functionalities include project and client tagging, role-based tracking, and mobile access, which are crucial for managing complex engineering projects. Additionally, Harvest allows for real-time notifications and PTO visibility, enabling firms to maintain a seamless operational flow.

Automated time capture is another critical feature that Harvest offers, reducing the reliance on manual entry and protecting engineers' 'deep work' states essential for problem-solving. This automation ensures accuracy and efficiency, minimizing the administrative burden and freeing up more time for billable work, which can lead to a 66% reduction in administrative overhead for small firms.

Enhancing Project Profitability and Financial Health

Capturing every billable hour is vital for engineering firms to improve their financial health and project profitability. Harvest's real-time budget tracking and visual progress bars help firms prevent budget overruns, ensuring that projects stay on track financially. By leveraging historical data, firms can make more accurate project estimates and resource allocations, enhancing decision-making and optimizing project selection based on real-time data.

Additionally, firms using integrated time tracking and billing software like Harvest have reported administrative time savings of up to 66% and a halving of billing cycles. This efficiency allows for faster cash flow and better financial management, which is crucial for identifying unprofitable projects and improving overall financial performance.

Implementing Time Tracking: Best Practices and Overcoming Challenges

Effective implementation of time tracking systems involves overcoming common challenges such as resistance from engineers who may perceive detailed tracking as micromanagement. Harvest facilitates this by offering intuitive interfaces and practical systems that promote team adoption without disrupting work processes. Establishing clear guidelines for time entry and approval workflows, as well as regularly reviewing data, are best practices that Harvest supports to enhance team collaboration and data integrity.

For small engineering firms, Harvest's user-friendly platform avoids the pitfalls of feature-heavy systems, making it ideal for firms seeking simplicity and efficiency. Additionally, Harvest ensures compliance with labor laws and regional regulations, allowing firms to maintain operational integrity while focusing on their core engineering tasks.

Time Tracking with Harvest

Explore how Harvest's time tracking solution enhances engineering project profitability by capturing every billable hour and integrating seamlessly with workflows.

Screenshot of Harvest's time tracking interface for engineering projects.

Time Tracking for Engineering Firms FAQs

  • Engineering firms should seek time tracking software that offers seamless integration with project management and invoicing systems, phase-based tracking, and role-based billing rates. Features like real-time notifications, automated time capture, and mobile access are also essential for managing complex workflows efficiently.

  • Time tracking improves project profitability by ensuring every billable hour is captured, reducing revenue leakage, and preventing budget overruns. With tools like Harvest, firms can analyze project profitability by phase and use historical data to enhance project estimates and resource allocation.

  • Spreadsheets may become inadequate for engineering firms due to their inability to handle multiple projects, frequent updates, and the need for clean support of payroll, billing, and reporting. They lack the integration capabilities and automation that specialized software like Harvest provides.

  • Harvest supports engineering-specific workflows by offering phase-based tracking, role-based billing rates, and real-time budget tracking. It integrates with platforms like Asana and Trello, providing a seamless flow of data across project management and accounting systems.

  • Yes, small engineering firms using Harvest have reported up to 66% time savings on administrative tasks. Harvest's automation and integration capabilities streamline processes, reducing the administrative burden and allowing staff to focus on billable work.

  • Harvest addresses micromanagement concerns by providing intuitive interfaces and practical systems that promote team adoption without disrupting workflows. The platform focuses on enhancing productivity and project goals, rather than simply tracking time for oversight.

  • Harvest helps engineering firms comply with labor laws and regional regulations by offering detailed time tracking and reporting tools. This ensures adherence to overtime rules, meal breaks, and other jurisdictional requirements, supporting operational integrity.