Harvest Time Tracking Review (& Who It’s Really Best For)

A lot of small companies have been researching Harvest recently, primarily because of its reputation as a premier time-tracking and project-management tool. But before you invest in yet another piece of software, let’s take a look at some of its key features and see if Harvest will meet the needs of your business.

This is our comprehensive Harvest time tracking review for 2024.

Key Takeaways

• Harvest is primarily designed for freelancers, consultants, and small to medium-sized businesses. It offers easy time tracking, invoicing, and reporting features.
• Harvest supports multiple devices and also integrates smoothly with tools such as Asana, Trello, and Slack.
• The setup is straightforward and user-friendly, but it might not be the best fit for larger organizations.

Introduction to Harvest Time Tracking

Harvest is a comprehensive solution that supports time tracking, automated invoicing, and report generation for teams. It offers a 30-day free trial with all of its features unlocked, which is a great way to see if this kind of technology is really going to work for you.

Its seamless integration with popular tools like Asana and Slack also makes it very useful for companies that are already using these technologies on a daily basis. Its user-friendly design reduces any kind of specialized training you might expect and that makes it particularly attractive for those with less technical expertise.

Functions such as email notifications for running timers and weekly time summary reports all serve to simplify the overall process of tracking time and negotiating projects. But, the real question is going to be if it will be right for your particular needs.

Many people seem to like Harvest’s easy-to-use user interface, and administrators appreciate that it is a powerful, centralized time-tracking tool. Other features, such as customizable invoicing templates, make this a potentially ideal tool for small—to medium-sized businesses.

Target Audience and Use Cases

Harvest certainly has a target audience – freelancers, consultants, and small to medium-sized businesses. Larger companies may find it too cumbersome to use and not equipped with the kind of power they expect. Solo professionals and small businesses can easily keep track of their time spent on various projects, ensuring accurate billing and efficient time management.

More than 70,000 companies trust Harvest to track time efficiently and accurately, but it is important to note that Harvest might not have everything you need. In particular, it lacks extensive employee management capabilities like scheduling or built-in communication tools.

Harvest’s focus on time-tracking, invoicing, and direct payments makes it ideal for small and medium-sized businesses. It is easy to use and powerful enough for anything other than a large company. Another benefit is that your employees won’t need to deal with hours and hours of training.

Larger organizations that often require time tracking features like GPS tracking, overtime tracking, and task management will find Harvest’s offerings somewhat limited, but it provides a robust and user-friendly solution for its target audience.

Installation and Initial Configuration

The first thing you should know about Harvest is that it is very easy to set up. Simply create an account, sign in, and set up the initial configurations. From there, you can begin adding projects, tasks, and team members. You can do this either manually or by importing the data from another tool.

A real benefit of Harvest is that it is easy to implement and not a lot of training is required. If you have a small business or even if you are a single freelancer, this is a huge time saver. Additional features, such as allowing for recurring projects, mean that you will save even more time down the line.

A small investment of time in the setup process will pay benefits for years to come, especially for those who have never used a time-tracking program before. With its intuitive user interface and ease of implementation, Harvest is certainly a user-friendly option for those looking to streamline many aspects of their business.

User Interface and Experience

The clean, minimalist design of Harvest’s user interface makes navigation easier and reduces the learning curve for newcomers. The dashboard is organized into several key tabs, such as:

This type of logical layout helps keep multiple projects running smoothly and allows users to focus on their work without getting bogged down by complicated menus.

The design may not be the most modern as it doesn’t include the type of color coding that most of us are used to, but it is built to be accessible for those with visual impairments. High-contrast colors can aid users with visual impairments, but the lack of customizable text sizes is a notable omission.

It’s more important than ever to have all of your software in the cloud and available on a wide variety of mobile devices. The Harvest mobile app version closely mirrors the web version and includes time tracking, expense logging, and invoice generation. The mobile app layout can feel cramped and is a little more difficult to navigate, but the overall user experience is positive.

Multi-Device Accessibility

Harvest offers time tracking on multiple devices, including desktop, mobile, and web browsers. This multi-device accessibility is a significant advantage for businesses with on-the-go requirements, and its desktop versions for Windows and Mac make it even more versatile.

The mobile app is available for both iPhone and Android and supports offline time tracking, with data syncing later when an internet connection is available. This feature is invaluable for users who need to track time without constant internet access.

Core Features Overview

So, let’s get down to the core features of this product. In a nutshell, Harvest aims to offer a well-rounded solution for time tracking, invoicing, and reporting. These key features include various time-tracking methods, customizable invoicing templates, and robust reporting tools. Harvest aims to be an all-in-one tool for solo professionals and small to medium-sized businesses.

It is easy to generate time reports that show how much time was spent on particular projects or tasks and by which team members. These reports can also be customized with several filters and exported in formats such as PDF or CSV. This means that your reports will be easy to send to others and important to other programs.

Time Tracking Methods

Harvest offers multiple time tracking options, including manual entry and timers. This flexibility is particularly useful for those who need precise time tracking on various tasks throughout the day. Users can also track time across all projects and turn that data into detailed reports or invoices.

One unique feature of this product is its ability to track internal costs and visualize project progress. This obviously helps with budget monitoring and providing a clear view of a budget. The manual entry system and timers are complemented by the ability to batch assign time, making it easy to log hours for multiple tasks at once. For those who are working on several projects at once, this feature is a real game-changer.

Some key features of Harvest include:

• Flexibility and ease of use
• Ability to track time and expenses
• Integration with other tools and platforms
• Reporting and analytics capabilities

Harvest has one limitation that really stands out and that is its inability to include GPS tracking and advanced task management capabilities, however, the benefits of this project still make it a great choice for many companies.

Invoicing and Payments

Harvest’s invoicing and payment features are designed to make financial management as seamless as possible. The software offers customizable invoice templates, allowing users to add branded elements and tax calculations to their invoices. Users can create and send invoices for tracked time in just a few clicks, all while using customizable templates.

Its support for partial payments and the ability to see which invoices are overdue is another benefit. This feature helps businesses maintain a clear view of their cash flow and ensures that payments are collected promptly.

Harvest’s ability to automatically calculate the amount due based on tracked hours simplifies the invoicing process. This obviously reduces the risk of errors and saves significant time for HR and accounting departments. You can also integrate Stripe and PayPal to promote quicker payments, and all invoices can be sent directly to QuickBooks Online and Xero.

Reporting and Analytics

Harvest offers comprehensive time-tracking reports that help project managers and team leaders better understand how time is being spent across various tasks and projects. These reports are fully customizable, allowing users to filter the data by:

• timeframe
• team
• clients
• projects
• tasks

The visual aids that Harvest includes make it easier to analyze data and identify trends. This means that businesses are better able to understand their capacity, optimize resource allocation, and make informed decisions for future projects. Some key reporting tool features:

• Graphs and charts that provide a visual representation of data
• The ability to export reports in PDF or CSV formats
• The option to share insights with stakeholders or import data

Harvest’s reporting and analytics features also provide valuable insights, including:

• Detailed time reports that help users keep projects profitable
• Visual aids that inform future project scopes and estimates
• Improved productivity and efficiency

Real-World Usage Scenarios

It’s worth taking a look at how Harvest works in the real world. Many businesses struggle with inaccurate project cost negotiations and the time-consuming nature of completing timesheets. Harvest handles all of this by making time tracking quick and easy so more time is spent on the core business.

A consulting firm that uses Harvest to track the time spent on client projects and track expenses has found that the product helps them to negotiate project costs more accurately with clients while making sure that billable hours are actually billed.

Integration with Other Tools

It is important for all of your software to work together, so Harvest is able to smoothly integrate with various tools such as Asana, Trello, and Slack. In fact, it supports more than 50 integrations, making it very simple to work into your existing infrastructure.

Harvest also integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero, simplifying financial management and invoicing. PayPal and Stripe are also supported which means that your bills will get paid quicker and more efficiently. Although Harvest claims to fully integrate with QuickBooks and Asana, some users have found this to be somewhat difficult.

Harvest does have one drawback and that is its lack of direct payroll integration. This can be a big limitation for businesses that require comprehensive employee management features. However, Harvest’s API allows users to build custom integrations, and time and expense data can be exported to Excel or CSV.

While Harvest has a lot to offer, you should be made aware of some of its limitations, including:

• Limited reporting capabilities compared to other time-tracking software
• Inability to track time offline or without an internet connection
• A steep learning curve for new users
• Lack of advanced project management features

In spite of all of these, the ability of Harvest to connect with various tools makes Harvest a powerful and flexible time-tracking solution for businesses of all sizes.

Overall Assessment and Value for Money

Harvest’s pricing model is well-suited for small to medium-sized teams and comes with a free trial. The basic plan is designed for single freelancers with one or two projects, and the Pro plan can handle unlimited seats and projects at a cost of $10.80 per seat per month. This price is based on the annual plan and includes a 30-day free trial. The annual price includes a 10% discount, and no credit card is required.

Because of this type of pricing, larger teams may find this product to be far too expensive. But, for individual entrepreneurs or small freelancing groups, it is ideal. The features offered by Harvest, such as detailed time tracking, customizable invoicing, and robust reporting tools, seem to justify the pricing.

Recommendations and Alternatives

For those who are looking for alternatives to Harvest, Clockify is a viable option. It is an excellent choice for businesses requiring advanced time-tracking capabilities like GPS tracking and screenshot recording and is more suitable for small businesses seeking an affordable time-tracking solution.

Toggl Track is another time-tracking tool that offers powerful reporting and analytics tools to help businesses understand productivity trends and optimize project efficiency. Toggl Track includes a variety of advanced insights to improve productivity, resource allocation, and expense tracking.

While Harvest has a lot to offer, those requiring more extensive project management and team collaboration features might find Toggl Track is a better choice. We even did a whole comparison of both tools if you want to get more details.

Summary

As we have learned, Harvest Time Tracking is a comprehensive tool designed to simplify time tracking, invoicing, and reporting for freelancers, consultants, and small to medium-sized businesses. It provides a user-friendly interface, customizable invoicing templates, and robust reporting features, which means that it is the perfect choice for any business that is looking to streamline its processes. There are some limitations, of course, such as the lack of advanced employee management capabilities and direct payroll integration, but its flexibility and ease of use make it a strong contender in the time-tracking software market.

Harvest certainly delivers on its promise of making time tracking, invoicing, and reporting as effortless as possible and is a viable choice for those looking to improve their productivity and efficiency.

Frequently Asked Questions