Harvest

Overview

Harvest was founded by Danny Wen and Shawn Liu in New York City in 2006. It is a time tracking and invoicing platform in the productivity space, combining time logging, expense management, project budgets, automatic invoicing and team capacity planning into one flow so professional teams turn "hours" directly into "revenue". Today it serves more than 70,000 company customers.

Harvest covers five platforms - web, desktop (Mac/Windows), iOS, Android and a browser extension - with one-click timers, weekly/daily timesheets, calendar integration, automatic invoicing and 40+ official integrations. The platform was acquired by Bending Spoons and continues to iterate on its core time tracking and invoicing capabilities. For hourly-billed consulting, design, development and legal teams, Harvest is an end-to-end solution from time logging to payment; see automated invoicing and billing systems for billing workflow design.

Key Strengths

• Five-platform time tracking: One-click timers on web, desktop, mobile and browser extension, plus calendar integration to log time straight from calendar events, so nothing gets missed.
• Automated hours-to-invoice pipeline: Invoices are generated from tracked time and expenses with online payment and overdue reminders, reducing manual reconciliation; see automated invoicing and billing systems to optimize collections.
• Quantifiable budgets and profitability: Track costs and margins by project and client with real-time over-budget alerts, using data to guide scoping and pricing; set measures with OKR and KPI metrics.
• Team capacity and utilization: Forecast plans future workload and staffing while live utilization views prevent overloading or idle time.
• 40+ integrations: Native connections to Asana, Trello, Slack, Stripe, QuickBooks and Xero let teams plug in without changing existing workflows.

Product Ecosystem

Harvest Time Tracking

The core timer supports one-click timers, weekly/daily timesheets and calendar integration, organizing hours by client, project, task and tag with role-based rates, forming the data foundation of the billing chain.

Harvest Invoicing & Payments

Invoices are auto-generated from time and expenses, clients can pay online directly, and the system sends overdue reminders and supports recurring retainers for faster collections.

Harvest Reports & Budgets

Time reports, project profitability and team utilization views, with budgets set by hours or fees and alerts before overruns, help managers track project health.

Harvest Forecast

A scheduling tool for planning future staffing, holidays and hours across projects, with scenario modeling to balance workload and delivery commitments.

Harvest API & Integrations

An open API and 40+ official integrations cover project management, accounting and payment tools, plus custom report exports and data sync.

Limitations

• Free plan limits: The free plan allows only 1 seat and 2 projects, so multi-person teams need a paid plan from the start, a higher bar than some free competitors.
• Per-seat plus usage pricing: Base fees are per seat while extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks are usage-based, so costs grow with team size - evaluate in advance.
• Clear financial boundary: Positioned as billing rather than full accounting, deeper bookkeeping, tax and general ledger still require QuickBooks/Xero.
• Lighter mobile experience: Complex reporting and permissions are less convenient on mobile; heavy data management is best done on web or desktop, and remote team management tools comparison helps weigh alternatives.

Use Cases

• Hourly-billed teams (consulting/design/development) (recommended ★★★★★): A mature timer-to-invoice-to-payment loop is the standard fit; see freelance work management tips to get started.
• Freelancers (recommended ★★★★): The free plan's 1 seat and 2 projects cover early needs, with automatic invoices to manage personal billing.
• Small agencies (recommended ★★★★): Budget and profitability management across clients and projects shows the true return of each engagement.
• Organizations needing full accounting (recommended ★★): Harvest focuses on billing, so deep financial workflows need dedicated accounting software.

Pricing

Note: Annual billing gives a 20% discount; a 30-day free trial needs no credit card. Extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks are usage-based; see the official site for details.

FAQ

• How do I choose between Harvest, Toggl Track and Clockify? Harvest stands out with timer + invoicing + budgets in one, ideal for hourly-billed teams that issue invoices; Toggl Track and Clockify lean toward lightweight tracking and free quotas - compare by collection needs in productivity tool collection.

• Is the Harvest free plan enough? The free plan offers time tracking, invoicing and expenses for 1 seat and 2 projects, enough for individual freelancers to start; upgrade to Teams ($9/seat/mo, annual) for multi-user collaboration and unlimited projects; for personal billing workflows see freelance work management tips.

• Can Harvest generate invoices automatically? Yes. Invoices are auto-generated from tracked time and expenses, clients can pay online, and the system sends overdue reminders and supports recurring billing; see automated invoicing and billing systems.

• How strong is Harvest's integration support? Harvest provides 40+ official integrations and an open API covering Asana, Trello, Slack, Stripe, QuickBooks and Xero across project management, accounting and payments, syncing time data into existing workflows; build your stack with remote team toolchain.