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Harvest?
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69 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Use a service like Harvest to time track. It allows both you AND the client to understand where the money's going.
In my opinion, flat rate billing is an invitation to problems. What if the client needs more revisions than your flate rate allowed for? What if the project runs over by 300%? 500%? Many freelancers end up destroying client relationships over this kind of stuff, branding the client a grinder or user, when in actuality it was their billing process that created the problem by not being flexible to client needs.
I've used Harvest to handle billing, invoice, client management, time management, etc.... Pretty easy and free to use for 1 person, 4 clients, 2 projects after that it starts at $12/mo for unlimited use.
Question: What's a good clocking in+out/timesheet/timekeeping app that works both in iphone, androids and web? Simple to use. Data exportable or loaded in a spreadsheet/file I can access. At the very least something I could press a start and end button and it notes the date and time. Asking before I do the search since someone may already be using this. Thanks in advance.
Update: Thanks all. Will be reviewing Harvest and Toggl. Unfortunately not Minute dock since it doesn't have apps.
You should probably take a look at project pricing options. You've gone fixed fee, which is typically what you do when you are producing a standardised product with few variables to tweak, and you've been through the process a bunch of times.
A fixed fee that includes a month of troubleshooting would leave you a exposed.
https://www.getharvest.com/resources/project-pricing
Actual numbers, nobody can guess. Depends on complexity, your experience, country the client is in, what the client can afford to pay, the reasons you're doing this, how extensive the documentation you produce will be... how long is a piece of string, really.
I'm not the person you asked, but have a look at something like Harvest, which is free to use to track your hours per day against a specific project and/or task and can be used to generate invoices as well. I used this at the free level for awhile before deciding to upgrade to a paid version ($12US/month) when I had more projects to track than the free version allowed. You have the choice of writing in your hours against specified tasks (which is what I do), or you can turn it on when you start a task and off when you stop, so that it tracks the actual timing.
I have always used harvest for work and I've also found that it's great at tracking personal time too. Harvest to track my time, and google calendar for planning blocks of time. Having a rough plan helps. I review my time very briefly daily and set aside an hour to plan out my week every Sunday.
https://toggl.com/ is pretty good especially the integrations (say Google docs, it adds a start/stop on the top right of the doc, and it captures the window title/document name - same for spreadsheets etc)
I'm pretty sure the Toggl desktop app can track all apps too, so you could track time spent in email accurately.
https://www.getharvest.com/ gets decent reviews also
I use Harvest to track time, expenses, and invoice people. It was pretty modern 3 years ago or whenever I started, now I'm sure there's better options, but it does the job and comes across as professional. It's free. People can pay me via Paypal / Stripe if I want them to, which is nice.
We use Harvest in our shop and we really like it. It has mobile apps (android, iOS), desktop apps, and a web interface along with an API. It meets all of your basic requirements (projects, tasks, and statistics) but I don't think it does categories. However they do have 'Clients', which you can group projects under.
I've even built a custom app for their api that let's you create presets (common project/task setups) for quickly starting timers/etc as well as automatic timer starting/stopping based on wifi/geofences/bluetooth beacons.
My coworkers use Harvest. I haven't used it, so I can't really comment too much on it. However, it seems very effective and user-friendly
It's online based with a monthly fee (though a free version exists with limitations): https://www.getharvest.com/
I used Get Harvest for time tracking and invoicing for years:
It makes that process a breeze. It's easy to set up clients, split up work tasks with different rates, estimates and retainers and it generates all kinds of reports.
The first bit sounds like a standard timekeeping / invoicing app or service is what you need. We use Harvest at work and while it's not 100% perfect, it pretty broadly fits those criteria and is likely to be quite good for something a law firm where potentially they bill in very small chunks so you can run a timer while they're working on for a client and bill to the minute.
As for the calendar and dashboard, again, it sounds like this is something that's likely to exist as a CRM app or SAAS tool so it might be worth searching for those based on requirements rather than looking to build everything from scratch?
Inspiration wise, I got tired of Dribbble a long time ago as there's so much obviously fake-it-til-you-make-it type work that's never going to see the light of day in production and while looking jazzy has a lot of limitations when it comes to inspiration for real world products.
Instead, I've actually found Pinterest to be a pretty good source of ideas, layouts, UI components etc and their search is actually good so worth checking that out for ideas too.
I use Perfex to track time spent on tasks and projects for my clients, see this review for more details. It is a self-hosted customer relationship and project management software and has lots of features.
Also Harvest looks promising.
I'm using Harvest online service (https://www.getharvest.com/).
It has a free plan (2 projects, unlimited clients, unlimited invoices) and you can email invoices for free as well (invoice will be attached as a PDF). I don't use their "projects" I just have clients. "Projects" is related to time-tracking, but I have a desktop app for that.
Oh, with time tracking I used to use quite a lot of different things. Timer & spreadsheet, a few different android apps, a few desktop apps, IDE integrations (like Wakatime)...
However, lately, I am using Harvest and I like it a lot. They have a pretty simple, straightforward interface, where you can also manually edit things, a mobile App, and a Github Integration which I am a fan of. Oh, and it's also free for your first 2 projects.
I have had some good experience with Harvest (https://www.getharvest.com/). They have basic invoicing, recurring billing, retainers, estimation-to-invoice, and integrated time tracking. For their paid version, they can also connect to Quickbooks for taxes and do projection on spending and income.
You can also set yourself up as a "Worker" and set your hourly rate or different billing methods. So if you do time keeping with the app, the invoices will automatically be created for you and can be sent to the client based on your rate.
Payment options are PayPal(business or personal) and Stripe.
Free full features for 30 days then limited to 5 clients but still free invoicing. Right now, its about $126/year for a single person with unlimited clients, projects, and invoices. You pay just $108/year for additional people if you only need 2. They do have tiered pricing for different size teams.
Yep. If you're doing computer based stuff then services like https://www.getharvest.com/ can be very useful (they have a free tier too). Basically they have a timer you can run that's really easy to set up, fixing up your hours when the timer was inevitably forgotten isn't an excruciating exercise, then generating and sending the invoice, tracking the state of the invoice, etc are really streamlined. I used to have a lot of trouble with the invoice and time-tracking stuff too but this helped me quite a bit.
I'd suggest looking at Harvest (referral link, gives you a $10 credit). They have retainers built in, see: https://www.getharvest.com/help/invoices-and-estimates/managing-invoices-estimates/how-to-create-and-draw-from-retainer
What helped me out was using a time tracker. The one I use is Harvest (https://www.getharvest.com). It is free for 1 project, which is just work, for me.
I use it to track the time spent on each project, as well as time I spend in meetings, doing administrative tasks like email, and "consulting", as I also have people who come by to ask my questions while I'm busy.
It took some time to work it into my flow. But what it helped me realize is how much time is actually being lost to distractions that are not immediately project related.
I keep my phone on me at all times at work so I can open Harvest and start a new timer whenever it feels like I might be held up for more than a moment.
My categories Project A Project B Project C Project D Administrative tasks Meetings Consulting
You can add notes to timed tasks. So when a distraction comes up I start a timer and add the name of the person to it and a summary of why they needed my attention.
Been using Harvest since the beginning of 2014, and really happy with it. The first pay level works fine for me, and for the first time, both sending estimates and invoicing clients was a breeze. I'm a big fan of Harvest
To add a bit, if this something where you want to submit invoices and get paid, you can integrate stripe with something like harvest: https://www.getharvest.com/blog/2012/10/stripe-harvest-online-invoicing/
Or square has it built in.
You could achieve a lot of this implementing a harvest/forecast integration. Check out the brief webinar and see some of the dashboards the integration offers
https://www.getharvest.com/forecast/webinars?wvideo=7x479midgt
My company uses Harvest. As a user, I think it's pretty good. We are hourly consultants, so we have to track all of our time. Everything is on the cloud. The company has been using it since its inception when there were only four people, so I assume it is not expensive.
Here is their page: https://www.getharvest.com/
I have no financial or any other interest in Harvest.
After reading the title I thought that this somehow about harvest as in "apple harvest" or "harvest season" :D.
For the others: Harvest seams to be also the name of a online time tracking service https://www.getharvest.com/harvest-time-tracking
>Using Harvest for a year or so. For a single user, it is free and quite simple to use. https://www.getharvest.com/ent ?
Using Harvest for a year or so. For a single user it is free and quite simple to use. https://www.getharvest.com/
Our company uses Harvest, and it works fine in my opinion. I’m an employee so I’m not sure of pricing for it. I looked at their website and it may be free for a single user
Eu sou fã do Harvest. No meu caso preciso de marcar o número de horas por dia a trabalhar e a app deles dá para fazer isso e no fim do mês crio uma fatura com o número de horas que trabalhei.
Acho que há outros que até ligam logo à AT mas eu gostei deste e acabo por fazer 2 faturas: Uma no Harvest para enviar à empresa e outra no Portal das Finanças só para comunicar os valores às Finanças
I've never really used it on mobile so I'm not sure how mobile friendly it is, but I use Harvest Forecast (https://www.getharvest.com/forecast) for an overview of how many hours are allocated each day. I find it useful for scheduling.
Perhaps something like that would work for you.
Not for auto detailing and I'm in Canada so my info might be useless to you.. I use Harvest for my manual invoices (ie people that will pay cheque/cash/emailtransfer), and I use Wave for people that want to pay via CC (keep in mind they charge ~3.5% fees on CC).
Wave is handy for CC payments because I set monthly charges and their invoices/emails/reminders look nicer, but I'd rather have the extra 3.5% in my pocket lol. Whatever you do avoid PayPal.
There are a lot of good web-based invoicing tools, but the one that might work best for you is Harvest which is free for up to two projects. Harvest will email an invoice to an email address of your choice, but you'll still have to provide a voided check (cheque? "SIN" suggests you might live in Canada) and the other information to the person that requested it. Never email your social insurance/social security number to anyone, obvs. :)
Hope that helps!
It's a problem of habit/discipline. There are now a lot of SaaS solutions to reduce the tediousness of time entry. They help, but you still need to instill that discipline. My discipline comes from the fact that if I don't record my time accurately, I can't bill it. If I can't bill my time, I don't eat. I like to eat. :)
I provide professional services billed at an hourly rate (measured in tenths of hours...i.e. 6 minute increments). This means that I have almost no chance of capturing all of my time spent on a matter unless I am running a timer while I am working on a given task. My brain turns to mush if I try to recreate my day later for purposes of billing. Obviously, the longer I wait the worse it is.
There are lots and lots of time billing SaaS services out there. Many offer mobile apps that you can use to run a timer while you are out and about. These apps / services make it easier to record time because you can set up your clients/jobs ahead of time, and specify the client/job when you first start the timer. Then it runs, and you can stop when you are done, add notes, and be done. At the end of your billing cycle all of the time entries will be ready to be invoiced.
I use Harvest but there are many many options out there.
Good luck.
I don't know about you, but I like getting paid and keeping accurate time sheets... shout out to Harvest, it's free for 1 person and up to 2 projects which is great for a developer starting out. If you upgrade to Pro it's $12/month for a solo dev and will track an unlimited number of projects. I would group this in with project management software.
Disclaimer: I still use the free tier because I tend to delete projects out of Harvest when I'm done working on them and sign my work over, but if I ever found myself juggling more than two projects at a time, I'd probably upgrade, it would be worth it.
I currently use Harvest and I'm very happy with it for tracking billable hours for client projects.
Harvest has a timer that can be activated on either the computer or mobile device. As one other person mentioned, it is necessary to choose a project to time. At least for me, this is an advantage because I need to provide accountability by project to clients. Since you mentioned billable hours, you might also need this. If not, then you could always setup one single project to track all your billable hours. In fact, if you only needed one project then you could get by totally on the free plan.
One of the key features for me in Harvest is the reporting and ability to generate invoices based on the time tracked.
Hope that helps,
Dan Mergence Systems
This is very true. Just do the leg work and find an alternative. I do this for my company and our clients: Let me know if you want any help.
My favorites are:
We use Asana for project managment then connect that to Harvest app for timekeeping, reporting, and invoicing. Here is the report for project profit that may serve your needs - https://www.getharvest.com/features/projects
I run a web dev business and we all work remote. Some software we use:
Slack for chat https://slack.com/ Google's Gsuites for Email and documents and Google Meet (video chat) Harvest for time clock https://www.getharvest.com/ We use another thing or two (like github) but that's not relevant for your line of work. Those 3 services alone will get do a lot for you.
I was actually going to recommend Harvest and I see someone else below already did. I'd use it even just for regular invoicing alone. It's just too simple and has great reminder features and works well for getting online payments out of people. Way easier than invoicing with something like quickbooks and perfect for a small website business. https://www.getharvest.com/
I've used Harvest in the past (free to use if you have under 2-3 clients, paid thereafter). There's also Freshbooks which I've heard good things about too but I've never used it. Another thing to note about being 1099 is to do quarterly estimated taxes so it'll be easier come April.
As others have stated it's good to have detailed records of your expenses, invoices, etc that you can fall back on and also provide to your CPA (highly suggest a CPA to guide you through this!). For me, personally, I never separated out the earned income I made (even when I was also working W2), but if it's easier for you then you should go for it. I only stashed away my estimated taxes in another account for simplicity.
I've been using https://www.getharvest.com/ for years. It's free if you only have a small number of clients. There's a system tray timer toggle with shortcut keys and it'll tell you when you've been idle for e.g. 10 minutes and if you want to take that time off the clock.
It says it's a 30 day trial, but it's actually unlimited for 1 user w/ few projects/clients. You might actually be able to get it to do your calculation by putting in your annual salary as a project budget.
How many people are you? How many projects? How complex is your use case? Are you looking for integrations with your current software setup (e.g. ERPs, to-do management, etc)?
If your use case is super simple, just use Toggl.
If your use case is pretty simple, I can't recommend Harvest enough. Super useful for my freelancing gigs.
...but you could have found all this through Google. Have you really not found anything after hundreds of websites?
That looks good for timesheets, but I was hoping to find something that can integrate that timesheet data with a little more project management, so that I could also add material costs, and maybe attach a couple of files to organize my projects, etc. Something like Harvest for small construction companies.
Noi, in ditta, utilizzavamo Harvest, adesso utilizziamo myHours.
Non ho mai gestito le commesse, quindi attribuivo solo le ore alla commessa giusta, e quindi non so quanto rompimento di balle sia utilizzarlo a pieno.
My hours è un po' più bruttino ma free; Harvest è meglio, ed ha anche un app per cellulari, e la possibilità di far partire timer
Ah, that sucks, we use it at work but don't schedule weekends, had no idea it wasn't possible do to, kinda weird actually.
Edit: couple of months ago someone said they might implement weekend scheduling, you should ask them about it, maybe they are almost done with implementing :) https://www.getharvest.com/blog/2017/02/choose-days-people-work-forecast/
I use Harvest + PayPal & Stripe so people don't have to worry about logging in and can pay with whatever method they choose. This makes it extremely easy to lookup/duplicate past invoices, create retainers and pull tax info.
I also use WHMCS for hosting clients and usually just add one-offs for them to their next bill, or generate an invoice immediately, as appropriate.
The main thing about PayPal is to not keep a large balance in your account, in case they decide to freeze it for some reason.
You should be able to document how long it currently takes for both the ticket work & the invoicing. Sign-up for a free trial of something like https://www.zendesk.com/ & https://www.getharvest.com/. It'll take you an hour or 2 to configure them. Then run through the process & show how much time is saved. That gives you a quick prototype of how it would look to automate, and then you can get approval to spend time to look at other alternatives if needed (full PSA).
Note that there's a harvest app for zendesk where techs can log time directly within the ticket.
And wow...I feel for ya...
+1 to harvest - here's a link to get a free 30 day trial and $10 in credit.
Have been using Harvest for time tracking and invoicing for nearly 2 years now. They have been updating the software regularly and it's incredibly robust while also staying user-friendly. Integrates directly in with QuickBooks Online and Xero if you are doing the invoicing bit, and if not, well it's definitely the best time tracking software on the market. I have tried most of the alternatives.
Mobile app is great too. Very to-the-point and you can add specific tasks to favorites and quickly start tracking your time in 2 clicks. Also being able to assign different dollar values for different tasks within a project is incredibly useful.
EDIT: oh shoot! I read that as monthly billing.. Not as monthly bills. I'm an idiot.. Whelp, my comment about using QuickBooks Online still stands for bills. As for billing, which you aren't really looking for, here's my suggestion rather than deleting it.. Whoops..
We use Harvest for a few reasons. Recurring invoicing is absolutely great. Set it and forget it. Automatically integrates in with QuickBooks Online (which we use). Allows them to pay via credit card using Stripe or PayPay/PayPal Business (PayPal Business only takes a flat $0.50 fee per payment). Both of these are up to if you choose to enable them or not. If you just want to collect payments via check, you can just disable it.
On another level, Harvest is great at time tracking. So when working on projects I monitor my time. I bill clients differently depending on the type of work (consulting/it support/web development/marketing) and Harvest makes that very user-friendly.
Invoices are very professional and their mobile apps are awesome too. Can't recommend it enough tbh, have been using them for 2 years now.
What do you already use for time tracking or invoicing? They likely have expense tracking built in where you can upload hard copies.
I use Harvest (free) for my time tracking and invoicing and save everything in there. The mobile app lets you add PDFs / photos / take a photo during expense creation, make expenses billable, not billable (deductible), etc.
I don't use Bonsai (invoicing & contracts), but I may switch one day if I have downtime to revise my business side of things, but they sent a good list of Freelancer tools in a newsletter a bit ago: https://www.hellobonsai.com/best-freelance-tools. Might help you find some alternatives as well.
IF you're looking for a GREAT cloud based billing/time tracker App, Harvest is awesome, and integrates with Trello. Great, clean, invoices too, even in the free tier.
I used to use Dwolla but apparently their payment terms have changed since I last used them around 2 years ago. They were substantially better than PayPal as all they charged was $0.25 a transaction.
Since then I've been paid mostly with checks. With the occasional online payment via the Stripe Integration in Harvest. It also has a PayPal integration but I've avoided PayPal since my first client.
For the longer term clients I get paid via Automated Clearing House payments. I used a form similar to this to setup the ACH but made sure my lawyer approved of the terms.
How many SaaS ERPs are there? I'm sure it's a lot, but most of them are focused in specific verticals/industries. Think, for example, Harvest for companies that bill by the hour (eg law firms).
Since these SaaS are closed source, it's not transparent to see what lang are they coded with, but a fair share of them should be PHP.
Now, why SaaS? Well, if it was a software package you could download and had to activate using a license, there would be Nulled versions in a matter of hours.
Not sure if you'll be able to find one that fits both of those needs - personal finance and hours tracking are two different things.
For hours tracking I like Harvest and for personal finance the common suggestions are Mint and You Need a Budget.
Thanks obou for starting this thread.
I use Trello + Pomello. Love it; has boosted productivity in my home business.
I have several clients that I do various billable tasks and projects for. I bill them monthly using Nutcache.
I would like to find a way to transfer the time recorded on each card to client invoices on Nutcache.
I'm testing Toggl - it has a start stop button on the active card. Using that means I need to start both Pomello (for pomodoro method I need) and Toggle. I can them export the reports from Toggle.
Better would be something like Harvest offers: https://www.getharvest.com/trello. Like Toggle it tracks time from within the cards and it ends up in the invoicing software - if I was using Harvest.
It seems like I can change invoicing to Harvest or use another Pomodoro app plus Nutcache's time tracking (but I love Trello + Pomello).
I've posted to both Pomello and Nutcache folk. I would love to hear other suggestions/solutions.
Not freshbooks!!!
If all you need is time tracking and invoicing, Harvest is a great little app. Free up to a certain number of clients and it integrates with bookkeeping systems like QBO, Xero, etc.
We used Harvest!. It is browser based but they also have apps for iPhone, Android, Mac, Chrome etc.
Free account gives you 4 clients and 2 projects. Paid versions start at $12 a month for unlimited projects and clients.
I've used Harvest for about three years. Free for very limited account (4 clients, 2 projects), $12/mo for unlimited projects and clients, and I've always found it has just the right amount of features for time-tracking and invoicing (and tying into Stripe or PayPal if you want to offer your clients the option to pay you online)
I thought getting this job was a fluke - applied to an online posting, had no prior knowledge of anyone at the company.
No one looked at my resume - I have a blog where I tried to write things that were generally useful to others, and that became people's first introduction to me. (Highly recommended to start writing/publishing online, btw. Makes it easy for people to determine if they think they'll get along with you well without having to go out on a limb and have a conversation.)
We employ a guy from Canada, Italy, and two in the UK, and just hired a guy in Pakistan. There are definitely companies out there that will work with non-US staff. (https://www.getharvest.com/ is one of them - hiring a DB guy.)
I know it can be super frustrating, /u/criticdanger, but in a way, that's a good thing. Everyone else gets discouraged, and you can keep plugging away.
One more thought - written communication is obviously key when working remotely. Work hard to convey warmth while being clear and concise. Few people write well. If you write well, you are shooting to the top of the list.
BTW - I mentioned it before, but now I'm at my computer. Read and follow the instructions here: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/video-how-to-use-natural-networking-to-connect-with-people/
Even if none of the people you meet with can place you in a job, you'll sharpen so many intangible skills while you're meeting with people that you'll be able to crush any interview out of the park.
You got this.
I use Harvest, and only pay the actual Stripe fee's. I imagine freshbooks and other invoicing offers Stripe integration as well, but Harvest is free for the basic plan and you can send quotes/invoices, etc..
Stripe is flexible enough you could also roll your own payment form if you wanted to. Plasso is unnecessary and it's taking a lot @ 3% on top of Stripe.
Harvest is pretty good and has enough features to cover most needs.
I always found it a little complicated or convoluted, but then I wasn't the one managing it, so maybe its fine from that aspect.
> The folks that "charge hourly" that are making lots of money aren't punching a clock.
What about time tracking software like this? Is that different than what you're talking about?
> So the irony of you suggesting my post wasn't "well thought out" is thick with irony.
the irony of my irony is ironic? might want to rephrase that, I have no idea what you're saying.
Lastly what point are you going after? What's the joke here? "poor people lmao"?
Rescuetime does this. I also use Harvest for work time tracking, but it's more of a manual start stop timer deal for tracking hours per project.
Harvest (https://www.getharvest.com/) is great for this - you just start a timer when you start working, stop it when you're done. You can give each client or project its own hourly rate, and then create invoices for each client whenever you like. You can have it automatically round for you, and more.