Harvest Reviews

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

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

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The most important factor is Ease of Use and Harvest shines, the second is its integration with 80 of the top of the line of today's work tools. There are tons of features - we use Forecast and find it invaluable for Team Leaders to scope out their week's work-load and delegate. Thirdly, their customer support is brilliant - no muss, no fuss. The added bonus is that adjusting time at task once the timer has been closed is easy, and did I mention they send a friendly reminder when you've left a timer running? Oh Yes - we do that sometimes too!

Cons
It's hard to think of a really thorny issue - these guys have worked everything together slowly over the years. It's a a balanced appraoch - the Forecast Add-On is slowly expanding and deepening and there will no doubt be features added that a user would like, for example more zoom in and out to break down to week and day. That is about it really - this is solid Dev-Product, not some rushed-out-to-get-Trials company.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It does what it does and it does it best! Time tracking on projects has never been so easy for our organisation. We have used multiple time trackers, but were never pleased with the wat we neede to register the hours we make for our clients. The mac, windows and iOS/Android apps work great. New projects are available instantly and starting / pausing the time tracker is wonderfully done. Managing the projects, budgets and tasks is really easy and if you like, you can integrate it with Harvest Forecast and plan your team ahead.

Cons
Harvest lacks decent support of monthly retainer 'projects'. It's not a show stopper for us, but it makes us do manual checks of the hours we make for our clients. I would love Harvest Forecast to be part of Harvest by default instead of the invoicing functionalities, since we use other software for that.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Pros
I've used Harvest for years and I can't imagine switching to another tool. It's by far the easiest, best tool for agencies who work on multiple projects with multiple budgets. Being able to visualise your margins and where your team is spending their time is an absolute game changer. The invoices are attractive and always send reliable. The integrated payment options are intuitive and simple.

Cons
It's a bit more expensive than other tools but if you're using its full functionality it's absolutely worth it. I'd like to see more flexibility around budgeting and retainers. It has definitely gotten better with new support for fixed-fee budgets, but I would really like to see recurring retainers handled better. We currently create a new project every month for our clients on retainer, which works but is a little tedious.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The time tracking is easy to configure and works. Makes an easy job of managing my team and gathering their time.

Cons
There are a number of items... the cost is high per user. Could be very costly with a larger company. The lack of ability to track mileage properly - IRS requires that you detail a log (minimal, but details are needed). I can only enter the total miles driven on an expense item. Every other tracking app on the market allows me to enter the start and end mileage and track which vehicle it goes against. When I asked support about this, they told me it is not on their radar. Very little seems to be on their radar - after two years of using it, I have not seen any real major updates to functions.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
1. simple website design with eye-catching visualization for the essential option. 2. Can be integrated almost any latest software tools like Asana(I used to do this) is amazing sync 3. Reminder for time tracking and project reminder including project owner. 4. Can control and create layer like approval method

Cons
1. Very Pricy in terms of the competitors on the market 2. Need AI support to catch auto standard time frame for each project. 3. Apps crashed and lost time sometimes without an unknown error 4. Should work on popular project time analysis to make real-time auto time support

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The platform is very simple to use and track time manually or with a timer. I like that there is an app so that you can virtually log your time from anywhere. It is a nice platform to keep a log of time year over year for analysis or profitability.

Cons
I do not like that you cannot add new jobs from the app. Also, you cannot easily add someone as a project manager to projects once they exist from the project listing. You have to manually go into each specific project and manually check mark project admin and it takes a lot of time. There should be a way to easily do this from somewhere.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I loved how I could track my time spent on tasks in a live timer mode or I could retrofit the time accordingly based on an educated guess of a task I completed. I could easily extract my time logs to justify the costs of completing particular tasks to a client, which is massively important when it comes to software development as costs can often grown substantially.

Cons
On occasion I would have started the timer to track my work and I may have been disrupted by an important call or a task. The timer would continue to track the time which is expected, however, I have seen times whereby the tracking went over the weekend. A prompt after a particular time period such as hour intervals to check if you still need to live track should be included.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I use this tool every day to track my time when I'm doing anything for a client. The browser extension makes it quick and easy to select the project and record the hours against it. When you log in you can see how much time you've spent that week / month and download reports for the client if required. The whole team uses this and it's been really easy to get everyone set up and using it.

Cons
If you make a mistake when logging time using the extension you need to log into the interface and correct it - which can be time-consuming. It's also very easy to forget to turn the timer off so you can easily log extra time. However, they do send you an email notification to remind you about this so it's relatively easy to correct.

Rating breakdown

Pros
Harvest keeps me on time, on budget, profitable, and professional. I could not run my business without it. The price is very reasonable (I hope it stays that way!) and the support team is always fantastic. It's the one tool I use that just never has problems. With other tools and services, I lose time dealing with bugs and UI failures. But I have come to trust and rely on Harvest. And that's why I recommend it to anyone who asks.

Cons
At one time I tried to use the Mac time tracking app. I ran into synchronization issues between the 4 computers that I use regularly. I don't hold that against Harvest, and maybe it's been fixed by now. But I'm really happy with the web interface, so that's adequate for me.

Rating breakdown

Pros
I use the free version since I don't have a lot of freelance clients and it does everything I need. I like that I can just go in and create an invoice instantly, or I can track my time throughout a project when the pay is hourly (not project based) and create an invoice based on the time totals. I also like that they let you upload your personal logo and they pull it into the invoice. I think the invoice is also set up very clearly.

Cons
When you set up a project in Harvest, you are automatically the project manager and I cannot figure out how to make myself the designer and have my hours charged accordingly. I also like if you create an invoice, then have to add additional hours worked because the client asked for more edits at the end, the total time spent is not automatically updated in the invoice like it was in the first draft of the invoice and I cannot figure out how to make this happen. The software could be organized better to where you can click and edit things in-line, instead of flipping from page to page to page.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
As a freelancer who bills clients based on time spent I tried several time tracking apps, but found Harvest to be the best. Here's why: – They have a very good Mac app that is being actively developed, – The overall quality of the software is high and it's very reliable, – The free tier allows you to have 2 active projects, – Good for simple time tracking of your team, – Allows you to track expenses, – Provides detailed reports, – Does one thing and it does it really well.

Cons
– The design works, but is a bit dated, – I'd love the ability to track time on my watch, but their Apple Watch app has been discontinued, – I don't find the iOS app very useful.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Harvest is a good option when it comes to basic time management and invoicing needs. It is easy, friendly and reliable to the point of becoming addictive. It have seen it used by freelancers and small companies. You can quickly get started with tracking your time and expenses, keeping track of project progress, invoicing customers, tracking invoices and offering online payment. The learning curve is quite mild.

Cons
It would be nice to improve some of the basic features so that users have more power and granular control. For example, I would like to see the ability to mark or unmark specific hours as invoiced and to duplicate recurring invoices. They have gone slightly in this direction, but it seems their development effort is mostly spent on adding new functionality such as project management. Also, if you're only using a subset of the offered functionality, then it's not exactly cheap. However, I'm happy to pay, the quality makes it worthy.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
The fact I'm abel to efficiently and accurately track my time against a range of tasks I've previously set up makes Harvest a winner. Honestly don't know how we'd operate the studio without it.

Cons
Sometimes I forget to start the timer, so it'd be great if the app could give a nudge or something similar if a timer is not running. It does a great job of reminding you if you leave a timer running too longer, however, which is great.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
(1) User experience is exceptional. Tracking time within projects is extremely intuitive. (2) Very visual product in terms of forecasted costs on a given project. (3) Reporting is the best part - gather data based on team members, area of work, date range, etc.

Cons
(1) It appears there are multiple different funnels to get to the same information. These flows make the platform seem convoluted, redundant, and sometimes confusing. (2) Invoicing UI could be improved. For example, creating and linking invoices to projects follows a seemingly arbitrary rule set.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I like how easy it is to use. I've used it as an employee and as a freelancer. It helps you identify just how long tasks really take, and how to bill accordingly. It also helps you find ways to improve efficiency over time.

Cons
It's a little stressful the way some companies want you to use Harvest. Sometimes I forget my tracker is still running, sometimes I forget to start it. And sometimes it feels like micromanagement.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 4/10

Pros
They have hands down some of the best support of any SAAS company, and for a very reasonable price tag. I almost always get same-day answers. The basic features are very simple to use and are getting even more simple. I love that it has simple time tracking and invoicing that just work.

Cons
I wish you could style the invoices more, they look pretty bland. I also wish you could charge credit card fees to the customer automatically when they use a card (this is legal where I live in TN). And accepting e-check would be great, too. But I wouldn't be surprised if they implement some of these features, they've been requested!

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Harvest is easy to use on any platform, and has direct integrations into just about any other productivity tool you can think of. I love the Team visibility and reporting. Invoicing is super easy as well.

Cons
I wish Harvest made it easier to switch between multiple accounts (for example, business and personal) where different email addresses are used.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10