Harvest

Pros

Harvest is just really really really easy to use. Setting it up is fast and painless, administering jobs is easy, filling out timesheets is easy. Our team had a hard time tracking time prior to Harvest, and once we started using this software it became (almost) painless overnight.

Cons

It isn't really a "con" but Harvest is built to serve agencies who have multiple clients and bill them for work performed. We are an internal department within a company, so we had to work around some of the structural elements built into Harvest, but it was no problem. We easily adopted the platform to meet our needs.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Harvest

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

simple to use and integrates to other project management tools, sits as an app or can be used on a browser - includes a mobile app so can track time when out the office on client meetings / visits

Cons

time tracking continues unless you stop the timer so on occasions you close down for the day and if you forget the timer running it will continue until the following day! id does email you but if you don't look at the email then you miss it!

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

I like how if you have to manually enter the number of minutes into the system and it converts the time to the decimal percentage for you. Harvest doesn't make you have to stop and figure it out yourself

Cons

Very touchy. If you accidentally hit enter or esc you must start all over

Pros

Ease of use. Theres basically nothing you can do wrong.

Cons

The small amount of functionalities and the lack of customization possibilities.

Pros

The integration with other tools like Trello, Asana, and QuickBooks is seamless, allowing for a more streamlined workflow. Additionally, the reporting feature is robust, providing detailed insights into how time is spent, which is crucial for billing clients and managing productivity and what not.

Cons

While Harvest is great overall, it has a few drawbacks. The most significant one for me was the limited functionality of its mobile app. While it works well for basic time tracking, some of the more advanced features, like detailed reporting and invoice generation, are better suited for the desktop version. Depends on what year are you reading this things ofcourse might have gone better.

Additionally, the pricing structure might feel a bit steep for freelancers or small teams, especially when compared to other time-tracking tools that offer similar features at a lower cost. However, comparing features alone doesn’t always capture the full experience of how smoothly the software works in practice.

Pros

Intuitive interface for tracking time on each project, eh? Powerful tools to generate professional invoices, and the price is right, bud

Cons

The interface could be a bit more modern, hey? And some advanced features require a paid subscription

Pros

I love the invoicing option within Harvest.

Cons

Wish I could name projects the same name just with different codes

Pros

Really easy to track your time against multiple clients and projects.

Cons

There is a limited amount you can do on the free version, but would recommend the paid version as it is really helpful for tracking.

Pros

intuitive, easy to use software. easy to learn

Cons

when tracking time for the week, i cant add notes. i can only add notes when tracking time for the day

Pros

I like drilling down to specific details about a project while tracking my time; Harvest lets me bill to a project and add auto-populated info about what I'm working on so I can report this info to clients.

The mobile app ran well on my Android phone and was helpful away from my desk.

Cons

I had to manually round my time (our organization bills in increments). This would be a helpful feature if Harvest could do this automatically.

Pros

Working in a creative field, I am a person who detests tracking time and invoicing. It takes me out of flow and into a space that doesn't really foster creative ideas or spark the imagination. Harvest makes the process about as painless as possible (let's be real, tracking time will never be entirely painless) and frees me up to focus on what I do and how I best deliver value to my clients and team. For clients that prefer to pay by credit card, it allows you to deliver the invoice via a web portal with the ability to pay via PayPal with your cc.

Cons

I still feel that the project setup scenarios could be simplified and / or streamlined. I've used Harvest for over 10 years and they have consistently added features and addressed certain gray areas that the software couldn't really account for, but I do think that if they were rebuilding the platform knowing what they know now, they would make it even more straightforward and simple from that standpoint.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

I started using it because I did not find the timekeeping functions of Quickbooks easy enough to use. On that point, Harvest is much better--it is excellent at keeping track of time. In addition, Harvest makes it quite easy to bill clients for time and to follow up with repeated billings if needed.

Cons

I'll mention two things. First, the method of dealing with retainers needs some serious work to be useful for lawyers. If I have an outstanding invoice and a client sends me a retainer, I cannot have payment toward the invoice taken out of the retainer without a fairly convoluted process. Second, it is hard to integrate with Quickbooks. I need Quickbooks (or I suppose, something similar) to keep track of all my financial records. But when I am using Harvest for timekeeping and billing, I wind up making many of the entries twice.

Pros

We were able to implement Harvest within an hour and train all staff within another hour. The ease of use is excellent, and reoccurring invoicing has been super helpful.

Cons

We've had a few issues with numbered invoices going from 100 to 400 (example) and support wasn't the easiest to work with.

Pros

Number 1: great value for the money. So much capability in one product, for a very low monthly fee.
Number 2: They are constantly adding new features, but not half-baked ones. I get the impression the the product and engineering teams are very good at what they do.

Cons

Could use more customizing of expenses and taxes - I'd like to be able to add fees to invoices that are not taxes - like markups for Stripe fees.

Pros

Harvest fits my business model. I'm a consultant who also does installs, repairs, and remote support. It's simple to set up Harvest with your client list, hourly rates, products and services. Once set up, tracking time and expenses is even simpler! They have a web interface and a mobile app. The mobile app duplicates most of the web features and is very handy when on-site - a couple taps selects the client and starts the clock.

Creating invoices is a matter of running an Uninvoiced report, clicking the customer you want to invoice, and editing the items, descriptions, prices and tax rates. Then save the invoice and either email it directly to the recipient or save as PDF to print or attach later.

Harvest can connect to Trello, Quickbooks, Xero, Stripe, PayPal, and about 80 other online applications, and has a programming API if you are so inclined. It only took me an evening to write a script to insert all my Harvest-tracked time into my CRM app's notes.

Cons

Everything is tracked as a project. To enter time, you first have to create a project to track it. Even if you are doing a one-off visit, you cannot track that hour or two until you have created a new project for that customer. It would be helpful to be able to log billable time directly to a customer.

Pros

Especially after a recent update, I like how easy the timer is to work with. Simply select the project I'm working on and start the timer. While I'm working it stays on in the background. If I get called away from my desk for some reason, and I forget to stop the timer, it recognizes the inactivity and checks in with me upon return. That's super handy - if I was off the computer on a call related to the project, for example, one button click and it will continue timing including the 'inactive' time. If I got called off to a different project, I can easily put the minutes/hours of 'inactive' time on the appropriate project. If I got called away by something totally unrelated to work, I can toss the accumulated 'inactive' time and either keep working or stop the clock when I get back. It also sends an email reminder after several hours of inactive time - like when I quit working for the day and forget to clock out. No more guessing!

Cons

There is sometimes a disconnect between the desktop app and the website. I can't remember why but once in a while I'll have to check on the site while the app is running (like to read notes associated with a project) and there were some discrepancies. They always sorted themselves out, but for a couple minutes it was confusing. It's not a huge issue so long as you remember to give the site time update with the app.

Pros

It's really easy to use and set up. I've been using it for a few years now and it always works great. Harvest has a web platform and also a mobile app, both of them work great with no issues so far. The mobile app is very well done and has most of the features you can find on the desktop version.

It has a great feature that notifies you by email when you've forgotten your timer on for a long period of time. It also notices when you're not at the computer and asks you if want to add the time that you were away or subtracted from the current count.

You can edit previous counts and you can group them based on different categories you set up. It also works great with Asana. You can start a timer directly from within Asana, linking the Asana task to the Harvest timmer. It works very well.

Cons

I had two things to mention here that are not bugs or issues, just things that my current workflow would require for a smoother process.

1. I've been using Harvest with two teams / companies and I have to switch back and forth between their accounts which is a bit cumbersome.

2. I wish you could filter more precisely the weekly / monthly overview. I can't separate task and groups as much as I need, in order to get a better understanding of how much time has been tracked for a specific category.

Pros

There is so much to love about Harvest! First, it works, really really well. You set up your project - and YES projects can have sub-projects - and you start your timer. As long as you can remember to start and stop your timer, this is perfect. Every two weeks, or every month, when you need to send invoices, all you do is "create an invoice" and the software auto-generates the invoice, in as much or little detail as you'd like, taking all your time and translating that into a professional invoice. I love the graphics that help track how much money you are making. AND you can even input what you are spending versus what you are charging, in order to ensure that you are actually charging enough to cover all your costs. There is a great place to input expenses and receipts -- this software does it all, for a quite affordable rate.

Cons

The most challenging thing about this software is that you MUST set it up correctly. Take the time at the beginning to get your rates set, ensure that what is a 'billed' and a 'not billed' expense are correct. At the beginning, I was often accidentally putting time into 'not-billed' tasks, when it was just my mistake in setting up my categories.

Pros

Harvest is perfect for tracking time, especially on a project by project basis. It is great for marketing agencies that work under retainer and have to report time spent on specific projects. It is pretty simple to track hours and view hours tracked by teammates and be able to report directly to the client. It is an easy way for managers to track other employees. The invoice feature is great if you use it.

Cons

It almost has TOO many features. Ease of use is great for employees who are simply logging hours, but is very complex and sometimes difficult for the project managers to keep up with. It would be nice if others could add projects (and possibly have to have manager approval) and not have to be added solely by the project managers. It would also be nice to have more of a warning prior to renewing membership. In my instance, we no longer needed to utilize the software, but randomly received a charge on our credit card without prior notification that the program was up for renewal.

Pros

So overall I'm not a fan. That said, documenting expenses is the best I've ever seen in Harvest. It's really well done and simple. Nice and clean, get your photos, get your monies and go. Big fan.

That is where my love affair ends with this app.

From an administrative point, maybe there are incredible advantages over other offerings. The world may have never experienced such a revolutionary piece of software and I, in turn, am a simpleton; stuck in a world of misunderstanding.

Cons

If you write a app which tracks hourly time and tries to put it into buckets for easy expensing, the time-tracking app should be simple for the multitude of non-admin users. Simply put, it's cumbersome and annoying.... and I say that because someone is going to take stronger language less seriously.

Forget the fact that you have to enter in time _Daily_. When I say daily, I don't mean that you click on the day, you do the thing and save. I mean that it shows you one day per page at a time. No calendar to quickly go through a week, no monthly review where you can quickly fill in gaps. One page == one day. You can bring stuff over from the last-entered day, but the hours aren't filled in... just the buckets. This leads to an incredibly slow, painful, and frankly uninteresting experience. For a bunch of users who want to do their job instead of fiddling around with tracking how long they've done their job, asking them to use Harvest is basically asking them to make none of their time billable unless threatened with homelessness. It's incredibly painful to use.

To be sure, I'm not a fan of time-tracking apps anyway. I akin them to asking your employees to lie to you and giving them a form in which to do it... but Harvest makes the fun of lying to your employer the low-light of your day. It's not fair.

Pros

The multiple devices and ways to launch the tracker make it fit within our workflow, from phone, tablet, browser, or our PM software, time tracking is easy.

Cons

Takes a little time to set up and use efficiently but once you start people getting used to the system it has a good learning curve.

Pros

I learned about Harvest through the integration with Asana. Although my team doesn't use it for billable time, we do track hours for projects so that we can understand what portions of our product pipeline are consuming the most time, so we're utilizing just one small portion of the overall functionality, which includes different clients, rates, and other features consultants or freelancers would need. That said, what I like the most is the slick integration with Asana right in the app, and the clean clear reporting in the Harvest tool itself. We don't tend to use the mobile app our our usage, but it seems quite good as well.

Cons

The biggest drawback about Harvest is the price for what you get. For a product that does basically one thing, it costs about as much as the Google office suite. The hardest part is that they added a new forecasting tool as a separate product and then that costs an additional monthly fee per user, so instead of extending the capabilities of Harvest itself and giving you more value for your money, they froze the Harvest feature and decided to charge more (fortunately it's an opt-in instead of just raising the prices for all).

Pros

This is the most user-friendly time tracker I have ever used, and I've been using it off and on for over 10 years. It is very simple to integrate with other platforms, and it's very easy to go back and adjust if you forget to add time or turn off the tracker. Most of all, the reporting is incredibly easy to use. I can pull reports based on time frame, client, project and tasks. It's an excellent time tracker and I can't recommend it enough.

Cons

The only issue I have really had is with the Asana integration. It doesn't perfectly and seamlessly integrate with Asana tasks. When I turn on the time tracker in Asana, sometimes it pulls the wrong client. I have to pay attention to that. Thankfully, it is easy to fix, but it does seem like a glitch.

Pros

I like how employees can track time based off of categories, so it is clear during week-end review where all their time has been allocated. Categories can be broken down by department and project, so billable hours are also clear. Time sheets and project-based hours can easily be exported which makes payroll very seamless. I also like the expense tracker feature as well.

Cons

It is a bit tricky to get used to at first, employees also agree that navigating Harvest as a new user can be a bit overwhelming. I wish there were also more integrations with expense tracking, so accountants can directly receive the expenses for their upcoming payroll. I also wish time off had more integrations, because integrating our HR software to time off tracking would make it more consistent with our records and eliminate the need to check both applications.

Pros

Harvest is incredibly easy to use, and doesn't try to be more than it is. It is perfect for tracking time (the iPhone app is great, too, as it allows you to start and stop time on the go) and expenses, and conducting billing. It also has a surprisingly great reporting section, which is helpful for understanding your own productivity and opportunities. Harvest is also wonderfully customizable to fit your office's individual needs.

Cons

This is so nitpicky, but that is because Harvest is so great, and has so little to improve upon: I wish there were multiple pre-set messages you can send. The current system allows for a thank you message and a "balance due" message. Our office, like many law firms, I imagine, has two balance due messages: money due for work performed, and money due to maintain a required trust deposit. Currently we have to manually change this. Not at all a deal breaker, but it would be a very welcome update in the future.

Pros

Harvest has the best time-tracking in the industry, their Mac app is perfect for capturing time throughout the day (and even has a built-in notification if it thinks you've left it running and will auto-adjust accordingly if you let it). It also has deep integrations with other Project Management tools that mean you can easily track time wherever you are. And then you have estimates and invoicing - which again, seamlessly integrate with the time tracking functionality to make your life easy.

Cons

It'd be great if they had an estimate to project function that could auto-setup a job when an estimate is approved. Currently this is the only manual feature. Retainer reports are also a little confusing as they don't obviously isolate actual payments from retainer balance updates.

Pros

1.Time tracking: Harvest is particularly effective at tracking time for individuals and teams, providing users with detailed reports that help them manage their time more effectively.2.Project management: Harvest's project management features are powerful and user-friendly, allowing users to easily collaborate and manage tasks across multiple projects.3.Invoicing and payments: Harvest streamlines the invoicing process, making it easy to send invoices to clients and track payments.4.Integration: Harvest integrates with a wide range of other software and tools, including accounting and CRM systems, which can help businesses manage their operations more efficiently.

Cons

1.Pricing: Harvest can be expensive for businesses that need to use multiple features or have a larger team.2.Limited customization: Some users may find that Harvest's features are too rigid and don't allow for enough customization to meet their specific needs.3.Reporting limitations: While Harvest provides detailed reports, some users may find that the reporting functionality is limited in certain areas.

Pros

I started my marketing agency in 1999. I used manual, paper solutions for time tracking for the first few years. After much research we found Workamajig in 2004 to switch to an online solution. It served its purpose for many years but everyone struggled with it and found it not user friendly at all. After many attempts we found Harvest in 2018. I played with it for a few days at the end of a month then ripped the bandaid and switched to it on the 1st of a month. It was SO user-friendly everyone loved it out the gate and we have never looked back. It's so great for time tracking and quick insight into projects and budget status at the client, project and task level. I love it!

Cons

It's very hard to complain about Harvest. I really love it. I do wish it had the ability to set budgets for staff by clients/projects so we can see how booked up our team is and better manage their time allocation. There is a second-party project Harvest syncs with to try to do this, but it does not work the way we needed it to so we dropped it after a brief trial.

Pros

Harvest certainly offers a very user-friendly interface. When you log on, it's immediately apparent how to use the software for the basic need of time tracking. The interface is set up to reflect the current week, with the days of the week displayed left to right, and the time you've tracked for each day displayed below it. Each day is broken up into time tracked according to a specific project. If using Harvest in the way our company does, you can create project codes to reflect different projects, so you'll be able to track how long you or your employees are spending on individual projects, or even separate types of tasks within that project.

Cons

I do wish there was a a sort of "Week So Far" tracker feature, that appeared as its own tab in the top menu bar, or perhaps was totaled at the bottom of the screen on the current day's time sheet. At the moment, if you'd like to see the hours you've spent on different projects summed up so far in a given week, you would have to either click into each day, and add up the hour totals yourself, or you go to the "Reports" tab, then click on "Team," then click on your own name under that, where then you would be able to see the total number of hours you've spent on different projects that week. This seems like a simple feature that should be more accessible, or at least more clear to navigate to.

Pros

1) Clean, simple, easy to use interface for daily time tracking.
2) Ability to monitor team's time real-time
3) Ability to track real-time billable Revenue
4) Invoicing features
5) inexpensive

Cons

1) No real-time phone support.
Originally, Harvest had real-time phone support, but a while back they (suddenly) changed their phone support from real-time to only scheduled appointments. We've often found that support appointments are not usually available until a while later in the same day, or often the next day, which has been difficult because there is no way to get quicker phone support if needed. Appointment blocks are limited to 15 minute, and in our experience, once 15 minutes is up, the rep will say they have to go because the appointment is over, even if the issue has not been resolved yet.
2) Unfortunately, we've found that so far, Harvest's features have not been keeping up well with the industry's transition to fixed-fee pricing. Though the did add fixed-fee features (thank you!), unfortunately, we found that they did not really work well for tracking fixed-fee projects:
- There is currently no way in Harvest to have recurring, monthly fixed-fee projects (so that you can track time/expenses against these.)
- There is currently no way in Harvest to track actual time/costs against fixed-fee project fees
- There is currently no way in Harvest to add a one-time fixed-price charge for a project (i.e. one day of Bookkeeping at $ amount.) Support told me that the only way to do this is to add these charges as expenses. However, expenses are not included in the revenue reports that we rely on to run the practice, because they are seen as expenses and not revenue.

Pros

This software is part of my everyday use, and it just works 100% of the time. When you are managing various clients and tasks, the interface makes it dead simple to task-switch and start logging hours in a different or for a different client. And when it's time to assess how many hours are left to spend on a client, the analytics reporting is easy to understand and offers several great ways to manipulate the data.

Cons

There are features I don't use—mainly the expenses feature—so I cannot speak to how that works. Everything else, however, just works.

Pros

It's simple to keep track of harvest time. Multiple projects and tasks can be created and assigned to various members of your team. It is possible to keep track of the time spent by each individual and compare it to the total number of hours allotted for the project.

Cons

An outdated and unfriendly user interface. That would be a great and eye-catching interface to view, in my opinion. As a result, it would be the same as receiving a service or conducting research!

Pros

We spent a long time using Harvest with the development team, it gave us an order of the order of time that we carried out in the work group, it had a good way of measuring what we did, it had real tracking in which you started by turning on the PC and finished turning it off. This somewhat automated the records.

Cons

Extremely basic reports, we believe that it was necessary to obtain more than just time and tasks in the report but rather to obtain access indications of collaborators and in the parts when entering each collaborator who made it, perhaps we needed a little more from harvest.

Pros

Harvest is a super-simple app which manages all our client payments and invoicing/reminders for our clients and integrates with Stripe for a seamless payment process. We use it every day and can bill clients in $ or other currencies easily, and provide them downloadable pdf's, payment portals and other functionality (using external app integrations) with ease.

Cons

The in-built feature set is quite limited. To get integration with contract software, proposal software etc. you need further subscriptions with other companies. It would be ideal if it was all built-in. Also, it's missing a huge feature which should be standard on all invoicing apps - The ability to send automated client statements. At any time we may have 5-20 invoices outstanding for some client accounts and, even after 4 years using Harvest we have to manually send links and individual invoice reminders. It's by far the biggest downside of the software and is a big limitation.

Pros

Harvest is a convenient tool for keeping tabs on time and money spent on various projects and clients. We use it to monitor expenditures in real time and to plan for future initiatives by analyzing past work and resources.

Cons

There have been no problems where I have been unable to complete a task. There aren't any serious issues, however, the platform might need some further functionality since it's so basic.

Pros

One of the things I liked most about Harvest software was its comprehensive time tracking and invoicing features. The software provided a user-friendly interface that made it easy to log hours and track time spent on different projects. The ability to assign specific tasks and set project budgets helped in managing and allocating resources efficiently. The invoicing functionality was also impressive, allowing me to generate professional-looking invoices based on the tracked time and expenses. The integration with popular payment gateways made it convenient for clients to make payments online, streamlining the billing process.

Cons

One thing I liked least was the limited reporting capabilities in the lower-tier plans. Advanced reporting features, such as custom reports and deeper analytics, were only available in the higher-priced plans. This made it challenging to analyze project data and generate in-depth reports for detailed insights. Additionally, the mobile app had some occasional performance issues, such as syncing delays or occasional crashes. However, these issues were not frequent and did not significantly hinder the overall functionality of the software.

Pros

Reporting is a big asset especially virtually. you can easily assign task to individual developer or to the whole team. Track them what is going on and allocate and manage the budget. It is intelligent enough to suggest what part of your project is infected or going strong and you can make your decision accordingly.

Cons

Not very easy to work on it initially but once you are familiar with it then it is going along very nicely. There is need of improvement in there mobile app and also costing is bit tricky as rate change is not very helpful. Moreover for user or developer it is hard to catch his time sheet as summary is not very helpful.

Pros

The best part about this software--the price. There is a free option for new freelancers, and for my first year, I strictly used that. Even the free version is highly robust. However, I quickly realized I needed something a bit more custom, and I've upgraded to the paid version, but even that is very reasonable.

Cons

I don't really like that you can't send contracts. I feel like if the program includes estimates, it should also have a contract-sending option. I understand it integrates with other contract platforms, but those were so very expensive-—or just didn't appeal to me.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

I used Harvest mainly for time tracking purposes at a past place of employment, and found the interface to be very easy to navigate. We were easily able to integrate corresponding tasks to the specified amount of time (ours was tracked on a minute by minute basis, so 0.7, 0.22, 0.59 etc). I also found it extremely handy to be able to have a stopwatch feature to track time when there are longer tasks (such as a meeting or a project that will take several hours in one stretch).

Cons

As mentioned above, though I found the stopwatch feature to be very efficient, it's not extremely practical for any role where you're touching multiple different projects at any given time (ex. an account or project manager). For a designer, this feature would be perfect. It would be interesting to see whether the same concept COULD be applied to a project management type job. Additionally, I found that it is extremely easy to forget to actually STOP the stopwatch feature, so more often than not I found myself with a task that ran over 500 minutes long because I forgot to manually adjust the feature. It may be helpful to implement some sort of feature that has a pop-up effect after 30mins or an hour, asking the user if they're still working on the specific task (like they do with some movie streaming services).

Pros

Exceptionally easy to use. Intuitive interface design that's obviously been user tested and refined. Every button and feature is exactly where you'd expect it to be.

Cons

This software does one thing really well – timekeeping. We've tried using solutions that try to do more and have gone back to Harvest because there's nothing we don't like about it.

Pros

I love how easy Harvest is to use and set up for your business. It's simple to create projects as they have enough detail. It's simple to switch tasks while time tracking.

Cons

I did not like the limit on profiles for the free version. I guess I see the why but if you have an established business, you can't just try it out with a full client list.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

I like its intelligent approach and the ability to track our time, expenses and billing in detail. Harvest gives us a clear view of our resources, allowing us to make informed decisions and stay in control. I also value the security it offers, with measures such as two-factor authentication and data encryption, giving us peace of mind in protecting sensitive information.

Cons

It needs to improve its ability to generate customized reports. Sometimes, we run into limitations when we want to customize reports to fit our needs exactly.

Pros

Harvest is straightforward and easy to use. First-time users find it easy to learn navigating the platform. It can also be seamlessly integrated to project management programs such as ClickUp. It also has a built-in Invoicing feature for bout hours and expenses. Another awesome feature is being able to set budgets for every project, so you can have a quick overview of how much you have spent and can still spend on a project.

Cons

What I liked the least about Harvest is that once a person or a project has logged hours, the only option you have is to archive them, and not delete them. It seems to just clutter the workspace. One improvement that can be done is having a prompt whenever the tracker has been on for more than 5 hours, just to check if the timer has been left on, because sometimes we still forget to turn off the tracker.

Alternatives Considered

Pros

We used Harvest at our company for multiple years - it provides a great option for the team to track time across multiple projects and ensure project management and billing have hours for billable reference. It's cost is accessible to many organizations and the functionality works as expected.

Cons

Their native reporting didn't meet our needs so it required us to pipe this data into our data warehouse to then create our own visualizations, insights, dashboards, BI systems, etc. We began to outgrow Harvest due to additional needs outside of Harvest's core offering. Our financials were also in a different system which didn't allow us to utilize the billing features to their full potential

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

This software has been a game changer for our company. The best feature is how intuitive it is. It knows when you've been idle and makes it easy to stop the timer and remove the idle time. So many times people forget to turn off their timers and this makes management a breeze.

Cons

I wish the initial use of the software was more intuitive, meaning, if you are typically starting your time every day at the same time, I'd like for it to present a notice like, "Would you like to start your timer?". That way if you forget to start tracking on a Monday morning, it's got your back.

Pros

Harvest is easy to use, streamlined, with just the features I need and none of the features I don't. I primarily use it for time tracking and invoicing for my freelance business. There are enough configuration options for me to customize my time tracker and invoices for every client, and it takes just a minute or two to set up clients and send invoices.

Cons

Recently I've moved toward a monthly invoicing cycle, and there is no way for Harvest to automatically generate an invoice on the first of the month for all of the time tracked in the previous month. It's a small annoyance to make/send the invoice myself but a little more automation here would be welcome.

Pros

Harvest is an ideal time tracking and billing platform for small- to mid-size companies. Individuals track their time in the desired increments, and then can sub-track their time to particular projects or disciplines. For instance, if tracking time for Client A, time can be segmented into "Client A > Project Review," "Client A > Web Development," "Client A > Business Development," etc. It can flex to accommodate multiple professional disciplines, and provides tallies / time breakouts for each user. On the backend, fairly rich data can be gathered from the platform to analyze time distribution and analysis.

Cons

It requires time to setup and administrate multiple users, especially if it's one person doing this job. Additionally, to do it well, it requires a thoughtful plan to provide the necessary taxonomy of clients / projects / billing to be used across the organization. It is not as robust as other big, enterprise-caliber time tracking platforms (like Salesforce), but for an organization <50 users, it's a great solution.

Pros

You can track your time and expenses from literally anywhere with relative ease. Harvest provides: Desktop apps for Windows and Mac, browser extensions, and mobile apps for Android/iOS.

Cons

There are few small things here and there which don't impact the performance of the product but would be nice to have. For example you can create and send estimates but you cannot convert estimates into invoices. Also, some reports can be very long and they can't be filtered.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Harvest

Pros

-Intuitive user interface
-Cute motivational quotes and illustrations
-Great native desktop experience on the Mac
-Wonderful integrations with other software, including Harvest's Forecast, Xero accounting and Stripe
-A multi-functional API and mobile apps (IOS and Android)!

Cons

- No automated sales tax - or integration with automated sales tax providers (Avalara, Tax Jar, etc.) on invoices
-Team pricing could be better and also would be great if there were a tier between free - two projects and unlimited projects.
-No offline functionality on the desktop

Pros

This is a very intuitive tool that allows you to track time from any device, without any complications. I like that it provides automatic reminders that keeps our work team alert. It is very useful to verify the workload of each employee and reorganize the operational capacity. It facilitates the planning of all activities with excellent filters that help optimize our organization.

Cons

This time tracking solution has worked very well, I just wish it incorporated more customization options.