In this buyer’s guide, we compare Harvest with two other best time tracking software tools, Mavenlink and Toggl. We decided to compare these 3 firms due to their excellent customer reviews and solid reputations as good tools for business.

Please note that this program is best for freelancers and specialist businesses like design companies and advertising businesses. For scheduling hourly employees, you’d be better served to look at our Employee Scheduling Software guide. Or look here if you need a completely free downloadable period sheet sheet template.

Best Time Tracking Software For Small Businesses: Harvest

Harvest is the overall best option for small businesses because it offers top-of-the-line features at a reasonable price. It’s over 80 integrations, advanced reporting capabilities, client invoicing, and a considerable amount of support and assistance.

Go to Harvest

Best Time Tracking Software Comparison Table

	Harvest	Mavenlink	Toggl
Price Learn More	$12/month per user	$15/month for up to 5 users for Teams $29/month per user for Project Management with Financials	$9/month per user $18/month per user for staff time management $49/month per user for company intelligence with Advanced reporting
Benefits of Use Learn More	Easy	Medium	Easy
Free Trial?	30 Days	10 Days	30 Days
Records Exact Times? Find Out More	No. Harvest records time like a stopwatch and by job, although not with time daily.	No. You are able to devote hours per resource, job, or task. There’s also a punch clock that records time like a stopwatch.	Yes. Toggl records exact start and stop times.
Reporting Learn More	Advanced reporting capabilities – filter by user, customer, project, or subtask. Integrates with sister product Forecast, real time or post mortem.	Advanced reporting capabilities – blockers plus you can run reports in real time or post mortem.	Advanced reporting capabilities – filter by user, customer, job, or keyword label; dash and weekly reports automatic.
Send Invoices to Clients? Learn More	Yes	Yes	No
Integrations Learn More	Integrates with high accounting & project management software, including QuickBooks and Xero (over 80 integrations)	Integrates with Google elements like Drive, Contacts, etc..	More than 50 integrations, including Salesforce, Freshbooks, Asana, Basecamp, and QuickBooks
Support Learn More	Free email and phone assistance from 8 am-5 pm CST	Free email & live chat 24/7	Free Twitter and email service
Website	www.Harvest.com	www.Mavenlink.com	www.Toggl.com

Best Time Tracking Software For Small Firms: Harvest

Harvest is the complete best choice for small businesses because it is reasonably priced while using top-of-the-line features, including:

More than 80 integrations, Which Makes It Effortless to work with the systems you already have
Advanced reporting capabilities, giving you the insight you really need
Client invoicing, so you don’t fall behind on accounts receivable
Ample Quantity of support and help

Employing Harvest, you are able to monitor your time and the timing of your assets (e.g. workers, contractors, and freelancers) such as a stopwatch using start and stop times. You can then use that information to make an invoice directly inside the program and ship it to your customers.

Harvest has built in reporting to examine your data so that you don’t have to. You can set hourly and fee-based budgets to monitor your projects’ progress, and you can run reports on billable and nonbillable time for specific employees, tasks, customers, and projects.

Harvest has both digital and live individuals as part of its customer care group, allowing you as the business owner to find out in how that you wish to (online or using a voice guiding you). Harvest’s interface is also easy to read, cheerful in its own vivid orange and orange interface without being tough on the eyes also enables a virtual tour before you sign up for whatever. It also has a free 30-day trial, no credit card required, meaning no hidden fees.

The downsides to Harvest are a few. However, it can lack 24/7 live service, which might be an issue if you’re a small business owner who is a night owl, and in addition, it lacks the capacity to track time daily (it operates like a stopwatch). If you have teams throughout time zones, both of these could be issues.

Go to Harvest

Best All-In-One Time Tracking Software: Mavenlink

Mavenlink is just as it’s explained –a maven or expert–in being a complete small business software system. It allows you to do All the following in 1 program tool:

Time Tracking
Project Management
Accounting
Business Intelligence Reporting
Get templates, such as for monitoring PTO

While Mavenlink supplies a complete platform for companies, Harvest focuses on businesses that already have bookkeeping software, project management software, etc.. You can just use the Mavenlink Project Accounting feature if you would like to really hone in on just time-tracking and invoicing.

An all-in-one tool such as Mavenlink has pros and cons. On the other hand, it lets you quickly, effectively, and conveniently complete all business tasks without ever leaving one instrument. On the downside, if you’re trying to find a more incremental approach and already have systems that you prefer for accounting, project management, or business intelligence reporting, Mavenlink is not the ideal choice. It is best for a newer company or a company proprietor who is fully ready to change over to everything being in one area. The biggest advantage is for users who intend to use the software to get all of its features, including accounting. Should you have to brush up on your own accounting, check out our Small Business Bookkeeping and Accounting Guide.

Mavenlink also has exceptional live customer service 24/7 and has a fantastic onboarding procedure; you truly feel like they really roll out the red carpet to help you succeed.

The downsides of Mavenlink are a higher price tag also, of course, it’s a bit harder to understand thanks to all of the bells and whistles. It will also lack time tracking by day, very similar to Harvest, also operates like a stopwatch as well. Finally, Mavenlink lacks any integrations which Harvest offers.

Visit Mavenlink

Best Time-Tracking Software for Ease of Use & Setup: Toggl

Toggl keeps it simple — easy pricing, simple exact time-tracking with start and stop times, and it integrates with over 50 additional systems, making it easy to set up with everything you already have. Toggl is also amazingly easy to learn and won’t take hours away from your team in order to get on board and monitor their time.

However, Toggl will lack the ability to bill, which means that you must integrate some sort of invoicing program or accounting software like QuickBooks. It also has the simplest customer support alternatives and primarily caters to the online learner who can use email or Twitter to get what they need.

But if all you want is a means to keep track of your employee, if they are next for you or across a sea, Toggl is a good alternative and you are able to implement immediately.

Stop by Toggl

In-Depth Overview: Harvest vs. Mavenlink vs. Toggl

This buyer’s guide covers the best time-tracking software from the dozens of options out on the market. Time-tracking software can provide excellent insight into wherever your business dollars are going, with uses which range from decreasing resource inefficiency to exact client billing. While time-tracking applications might appear difficult to set up, these three companies make it easy, and the benefits to your business and bottom line are abundant.

Price

Price will be the most crucial problem for many small business owners, and for time-tracking software, the array of prices accurately reflects the program’s capabilities. While assessing your budget is important, matching the software to your requirements is also.

If you’re the only user, your cost will be reasonable across the board; it is once you put in on users where you may need to do some math.

Harvest: Harvest is $12 per month, per person for the Solo plan and also the Team plan that will be for two or more individuals. Both programs include an infinite number of jobs. A free version can be available for 1 user which limits you to 2 jobs for up to 4 customers.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink is $15/month for up to 5 users for $ and Teams 29/user a month for Project Management with Financials. This difference between both of these programs is the financials software which comes as part of the bundle, which can also look after your accounting requirements just like a Quickbooks program. Mavenlink also includes two upper tiered plans which are meant for bigger businesses and also have customized pricing.

Toggl: Toggl is $9/user per month for their basic package. The packages upgrade with additional features, most of which revolve around security of the period logged, at $18/user a month to the upgraded Individual package after which $49/user/month for the Business package. You can try any of the paid programs for free for 30 days, or you’ll be able to use the limited capability, totally free version of Toggl that allows up to five users.

Ease of Use

Ease of use is a challenging area to write about for this software as it correlates directly to the intricacy of the qualities. We’ll elaborate on the ease of use out of a business owner’s standpoint and from an end employee’s standpoint.

Harvest: Harvest includes a sleek yet daring interface that really works to incorporate user experience design into its stage. From a business owner side, Harvest is rather simple to use but there are several details you want to ensure are complete (that, by obeying the training, is simple to do). From a worker side, it’s as easy as a client-dedicated stopwatch-aka very simple!

Mavenlink: Mavenlink is most difficult to use from the the business proprietor and the employees’ perspective. By no mean techy or super difficult, it’s by far the most complicated of the products from either side only because of how it allocates resources (i.e. billable versus non-billable hours are both listed, and from client/task type).

Toggl: Toggl is incredibly simple to use and actually can certainly serve its purpose for precise time-tracking of your resources. Their tagline is”as simple as Twitter” and their goal is to”drive a stake in the heart of timesheets” so that your workers will actually use the software. It’s very easy to use from the business proprietor and end worker’s standpoints.

Time-Tracking Ability

The whole purpose of time monitoring software is to monitor your own assets’ (i.e. workers, contractors, freelancers) time (and your own) and to then evaluate if your organization is functioning effectively, if your projects are getting done on time, and if you’re accurately billing your clients for their time.

Note: Not one of our options include place stamping so you can understand where your employees are while they log moment. If you want some choices with that, have a look at this table under.

Harvest: Harvest operates more like a stopwatch, where resources can clock time. This system works good, especially for remote/virtual tools where time zone doesn’t have any bearing. But exact start and stop times like 7:17 am — 9:36 am are not available.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink operates like a stopwatch, similar to Harvest. Exact start and stop times aren’t available. But, Mavenlink adds to the feature of being able to allocate hours to sources, creating a limit to the amount of time that tools can log on a certain project.

Toggl: Toggl lets your resources (and you) record time with exact start and stop times, which can be useful when you have individuals working everyday. Toggl tracks your team’s log ins by the hours you might set or might require for certain projects, clients, or for collaboration purposes, i.e. 8 am — 5 pm EST..

Report Generation Characteristics

Report generation, although not the sexiest feature, may be the most valuable from the long term for your small business owner. Having the ability to see patterns in how your time is used (and also the time of your resources) lets you make critical changes that impact your bottom line.

Harvest: Harvest has advanced reporting capabilities, such as invoicing features. Harvest also allows reports to be run instantly, so you are able to run reports even while your resources are functioning.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink operates similarly to Harvest in this respect. However, the distinction between Harvest and Mavenlink is that Mavenlink has everything in 1 location, including accounting applications with business intelligence reporting, which explains the higher cost.

Toggl: Toggl has coverage capabilities that span the basics of what a small business owner may want–time and money by resource, job, and client, in addition to a handy dashboard for the business owner to learn what’s happening in real time and also to inspire employees for efficacy.

Invoicing Capabilities

In the long run, the simple aim of all time monitoring software is to enable you, as the business owner, to see reports about the hours worked by your staff and also to use those reports to invoice clients. You can watch the productivity of individual workers or of your business as a whole. You may also see a breakdown on time spent on each project, which is useful for invoicing.

Harvest: Harvest has direct invoicing incorporated into the program, making it easy for you to manage your accounts receivable. It is possible to accept payment with PayPal, Stripe, and much more (although it isn’t clear what”more” means). You might also track expenses readily through the program, which has picture receipt tracking.

Mavenlink: Like Harvest, Mavenlink additionally allows for direct invoicing of customers via its own software. Mavenlink also has capabilities for multiple currencies, sales tax, and modifications to contracts through its invoicing capabilities.

Toggl: Toggl does not have a feature which allows invoicing directly to customers. However, Toggl most likely will integrate with your current billing applications, like QuickBooks. Once you’ve connected QuickBooks into Toggle, learn how to make & send invoices in QuickBooks inside this step-by-step video tutorial.

Integrations

Depending on how long you have been in operation, you might have many other applications elements in place, ranging from accounting software like QuickBooks to project management software such as Basecamp. If you have systems like these in place, you are likely to have to integrate them together with your time-tracking software to prevent double-billing and other troubles.

Harvest: Harvest has over 80 integrations, such as accounting software Xero and QuickBooks as well as project management software Basecamp, Trello, and Asana.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink incorporates with everything Google (Drive, Contacts, etc.) and also with 8 other popular tools, including SalesForce, QuickBooks, and Expensify. However, since Mavenlink is a project management platform combined with time monitoring and accounting, it doesn’t support as many integrations as Harvest or Toggl do.

Toggl: Toggl supports 50+ integrations, including Asana, Basecamp, Freshbooks, iCal, Github, and TeamWeek. All of these integrations are included with all plans except the free edition.

Mobile App

If you have remote resources, young employees, or a mix of both, you will certainly want a time-tracking software that links to their smartphones, so that employees can track time anywhere. Employees can then also subtly track time whilst on the move or in a client meeting, making your invoicing more precise for time actually spent with a client.

Harvest: Harvest has all-encompassing apps, including iPhone, Android, and even the Apple Watch for time tracking. The program is a sleek black, white and orange and divides by customer, which makes it rather user-friendly and simple to read.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink does have a program for iPhones and Android; nonetheless, I needed to dig with client service to find this out. There also is no preview for how the program works or its interface.

Toggl: Toggl includes iPhone and Android apps to support time monitoring while on-the-go. Your workers’ time entries are synced in real time when from a mobile device. Offline support keeps your resources logging time when out of Wifi or mobile coverage areas.

Client Service & Onboarding

Customer support is always important when choosing applications. If you’re paying for a system, somebody should be present to assist you along if you have problems or a fire alarm catastrophe with it. Luckily, all these software tools offer excellent customer service, but in varying forms.

Harvest: Of the three companies reviewed, Harvest is the only one that provides live telephone support, which can be a major advantage for small business owners. They have telephone support from 8 am — 5 pm CST, free email support with answers guaranteed in”a couple of hours,” along with a lot of help articles, files by topic, and webinars. Harvest is the happy medium with live support and online help easily available.

Harvest includes a more passive linking system with welcome mails that include links to training and a button to start your first project. This button then adds on pop-ups as you log in to make your first job, which makes it simple to follow along.

Mavenlink: Mavenlink includes 24/7 free live chat and email service. It also has a huge selection of online materials such as webinars along with a knowledge base site with articles and FAQs. Mavenlink is great for the business owner who understands no such thing as”working hours” and may be establishing a system at two am.

Mavenlink felt a bit more like that they roll out the red carpet to greet you as a new client. My phone rang within 10 minutes of signing up with an account agent asking me when I wanted a live tour/demo. Live chat greets you on their site each single time you log in also. As a writer, I enjoyed this feature however, as a business owner, I could see this being slightly over the top.

Toggl: Toggl has free email service and aid articles, including a Toggl Base site. Toggl additionally boasts Twitter support with responses”within minutes” of producing your query. In case you have their Business Plan, your inquiries always go to the front of the customer support queue. Toggl is a bit more hands-off in client support, preferring emails and Tweets, and is fantastic for a business owner who doesn’t want his telephone ringing or any pop-ups to annoy him. But if you like to pick up the telephone and talk to somebody, Toggl isn’t the best choice.

Toggl uses passive onboarding as well, similar to Harvest. The company sends a welcome email with hyperlinks to online training along with its own aid center.

All Time-Tracking Software Options

Harvest, Mavenlink, and Toggl represent the range of the greatest time tracking software currently offered. In our view, they are great examples of the kinds of software available, which range from simple like Toggl to complex capacities like Mavenlink.

There are a number of cases though where using a more specific time-tracking software may better meet your requirements. Or if you’re looking for applications which also helps with scheduling employees, have a look at our article on Best Employee Scheduling program.

We looked at several different kinds of systems when exploring this guide and found that some may meet your company needs better than others.

Here’s the full list of time-tracking software systems we looked at:

Full Time Tracking Software Table

	Finest For	Description
Harvest	Overall Use	Intuitive user functions, analytical reports and invoice clients.
Mavenlink	New Business	One-stop store, includes bookkeeping, project management, time tracking and invoicing.
Toggl	Simple To Use	Get employees monitoring time ASAP with small training.
TSheets	Shift-Based Employees	Includes job scheduling, shift swapping and simple payroll.
ActiTIME	Simplicity	Finest for QuickBooks users because of ease of integration.
Hubstaff	Freelance-Based Staff	Perfect for companies distribute all over the globe.
TimeSheets	Time & HR Option Together	A full size solution; HR, time tracking, payroll.
Paymo	Conventional Project Management & Techies	Perfect for software or web development teams.
TimeCamp	Remote	Track websites and applications users are spending time on (productivity).
TrackingTime	Teams Who Need Organization	For teams who need a ladder.
SpringAhead	Organizations With Varying Time-Tracking Requires	For teams who need multiple time-tracking Modes
ClickTime	Firms Who Require Straightforward Time-Tracking	Fundamental time-tracking software good for time sheets and real time management