11 Best Harvest Alternatives

Harvest is a popular time tracking software for agencies, but there are some downsides: basic reporting, lack of task management, and separate resource planning.

This article will compare the best time tracking & billing alternatives and an all-in-one agency management option.

If you’re looking for a reliable tool that can replace Harvest, look no further than Productive.

What are some of Productive’s benefits as a Harvest alternative?

For one, it’s a one-stop shop for agency management. This means that you’ll be able to integrate your project management and resource planning with your budgeting and billing in a single platform.

This helps you:

This is combined with advanced reporting and forecasting, so you can gain insights into all your platform activities.

Migrate your data from Harvest to Productive.

Now, let’s explore some of Productive’s features in more detail:

Productive’s Time Tracking helps you focus your work instead of checking the clock or trying to remember what you did at the end of the day or the week.

In comparison to Harvest, Productive also offers improved visibility into your time-related metrics. You can view integrated tracking data on both full-time employees and contractors in the Company time tab.

You can use the integrated timer to track work as it’s being done — there’s also a desktop widget, so you don’t have to browse through your tabs.

There’s also manual entry for those who prefer to input entries at a later time.

Project managers can approve time entries (individually or in bulk), as well as set a time after which timesheets are locked for editing.

This improves accuracy and project tracking control. 

With Productive’s Project Management, you can collaborate with your team members and track overall project progress. This is equivalent to Harvest’s services, but with the added benefit of communicating with team members through the comment section.

You can also set task priorities, assign or tag team members to notify them of updates, estimate completion time, create to-dos or dependencies, and more.

You can switch between multiple project views for a high-level overview of your progress. These include: List, Kanban, Gantt, Workload, Calendar, and more.

There are also Docs, which you can use to simultaneously work in the same document with your coworkers. AI is available directly from your pages to help you create and format your pages.

Employee scheduling and resource planning in project management are really important parts of business management. With Harvest, you’d need to get a separate tool, Forecast, to get these essential functionalities.

With Productive, your budgeting and Resource Planning are already connected in a single platform.  You can easily schedule your resources, manage availability, and get insights into utilization.

Another great feature is Forecasting. By combining your scheduling and budgeting data, it predicts budget burn, revenue, and profit margins in a simple chart to help you avoid roadblocks and get successful project delivery.

Time-off management is another essential feature for resource planning and it’s integrated in Productive’s Resource Planning.

Productive offers a variety of HRIS integrations so you can sync your time-off types and more, such as Breathe, BambooHR, Rippling, Humaans, and many more.

With Productive’s Budgeting, you can set up and track budgets and profitability across projects or on a higher level, which makes it easier to gain valuable insights and optimize business processes.  

You can also split complex projects into multiple budgets for streamlined cash flow management — for example, design, development, and maintenance phases. In Harvest, you’d have to create multiple projects instead, which can be confusing.

With Productive’s Reporting feature, you can easily create detailed reports using data from time sheets and budgets. You can choose some of the preset report templates or customize your own template.

You can forecast your metrics (revenue, utilization, profit margins), compare scheduled vs. actuals, control your real-time budget burn, and make sure your agency is on the right track.

Billing dozens of clients and projects doesn’t have to be a pain or take days. With Productive’s Billing feature, you can create brand-friendly invoices, check your invoice history and see if any of your clients have outstanding payments that need to be settled.

Productive also includes accounting integrations with Xero and QuickBooks. 

Additional features include: Client Portal, Sales CRM, Revenue Recognition, Automations, Permission Builder

Productive offers various integrations with HR, accounting, and collaboration tools.

Integrations include Slack, Google Calendar, and Outlook for scheduling and updates; Xero and QuickBooks for accounting; BambooHR, Breathe, and SAP for HRM; Jira and Memtime for time tracking; and more.

You can go for a free 14-day trial before you decide to check out a paid plan.

There are some differences between Harvest and Productive. To help you migrate your data and get used to Productive quickly, we’ve created some useful resources, including:

Hubstaff is a time tracking software that allows users to track time, manage projects, and monitor employee productivity. A cool feature is the ability to track time on desktop, web, and mobile apps, which makes it easy to stay productive even if you’re on the go.
 
Key Features:

All in all, Hubstaff is a fair choice for agencies looking for Harvest alternatives. You have all the basic features and integrations that’ll make your day-to-day agency management easier. Users like Harvest because of its easy-to-use interface and helpful customer support. Some customers complain about occasional glitches in the software and difficulties with payroll integration. 

Wrike is a project management software that includes time tracking features. The software is known for its intuitive user interface, customizable workflows, and lots of integrations. Wrike allows users to keep track of time spent on tasks, create reports, and set up billing rates for each project. 

Key Features:

Wrike is a solid Harvest replacement that offers many of the same features. Customers like the flexibility for various types of teams and intuitive user interface. However, users have mentioned issues with customer support response times and the steep learning curve for new users.

Additionally, Wrike only offers budgeting as part of its most advanced pricing tier. Compare this to Productive, where budgeting is available in all of the plans.

Everhour is a simple time tracking tool and budgeting software that integrates with popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up budgets, and create custom reports. 

Key Features:

Everhour is a good Harvest alternative option since it allows employees to track hours across projects and tasks. Customers are generally happy with the project management software integration and time tracking, but some users mention occasional glitches in the software and difficulty setting up certain features.

Timecamp is a cloud-based time tracking solution with project management features that offers good support for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, Timecamp offers features for invoicing, payroll management, and team management so you can monitor your team productivity.

Key Features:

Timecamp is a solid option for agencies since it offers a free basic plan for unlimited users so you can see if the tool works for you. Users highlight the user-friendly interface and affordability. There have been complaints about occasional technical issues and limited integrations, though.

DeskTime is a time tracking and productivity monitoring software that allows users to track time on tasks, monitor employee activity, and create custom reports. The software offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes, including employee monitoring which is useful for monitoring remote teams. 

Key Features:

DeskTime is a good choice for a productivity tracking and alongside customer support, that’s what user like the most. Customers have complained about occasional technical issues and difficulties with project management features.

TMetric is a time tracking software that offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, TMetric offers features for invoicing, team management, and productivity monitoring which is especially helpful with assessing employee performance.

Key Features:

TMetric is a solid tool that covers most of the basic features you need for your daily agency operations. Customers like the tool’s ease of use and flexible time tracking options, but have expressed dissatisfaction with software glitches and difficulty with invoice generation.

Clockify is a time tracking software that offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, Clockify offers features for invoicing, team management, and productivity monitoring.

Key Features:

Clockify is a good option because the basic time tracking features are free, so if you’re just getting started it’s nice to have the option to try out a tool for free. Customers like its user-friendly interface, time tracking and reporting features. Customers have complained about limited customization options for certain features and a lack of project management functionality.

QuickBooks Time is a cloud-based time tracking solution that offers a good balance of many features that adjust to businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, QuickBooks Time offers features for team management, scheduling, and productivity monitoring.

Key Features:

QuickBooks is generally a fair choice when it comes to tracking time and billing, since it integrates so well with QuickBooks. Still, customers have complained about its lack of automation features, difficulty with navigation and organization of data.

If you want to learn more about accounting software, we have a detailed comparison of Netsuite vs QuickBooks.

Replicon PSA (Professional Services Automation) is a cloud-based software designed specifically for professional services organizations. Replicon PSA includes features such as time tracking, project billing, and resource planning.

Key Features:

Replicon PSA is a good choice for organizations that offer professional services thanks to its fair amount of features. Users like the reporting feature and their customer support, but some have complained about the steep learning curve and difficulty with optimization options.

Check out our Replicon competitors article to learn more.

Paymo is a cloud-based project management and time tracking software designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The software offers a range of features that help businesses manage their projects, team collaboration, and finances. 

Key Features:

Paymo is a solid choice for medium-sized companies since it covers more than basic time tracking. Customer like the value for money they get, but some have complained about software glitches and customer support taking too long to respond.

There are loads of great alternatives to Harvest, each with their own unique set of features aiming to help you run your agency more efficiently.

It’s important to consider what the specific needs of your are, as well as alignment with your long-term goals and plans before you decide to settle on a time tracking software. It’s essential to educate your employees on how to properly use the software you decide on, so they can use it to its full potential. 

There are great options for simple time tracking like DeskTime or Clockify, but if you’re looking for an end-to-end agency management software, you might want to consider Productive.

See how easy it is to migrate from Harvest to Productive and book a demo today.

It’s difficult to say what is a “better” software than Harvest because it all depends on the specific needs and preferences you have for your agency’s teams. You definitely have other time tracking tool options such as Productive, Clockify, and DeskTime. These tools offer the same capabilities and even some additional features, so you can be sure you’re going to find a tool that suits your agency.

Yes, there are free time tracking tools available similar to Harvest, such as Wrike and Timecamp. These tools offer time tracking but also some other features like tracking billable hours, generating invoices, and tracking projects and productivity. 

Harvest is a legitimate software that’s been around since 2006. It offers features that’ll help you with managing the basic tasks and pain points in your daily agency life. The features include: time tracking, invoicing, project management, and reporting to help businesses manage their workflow and finances efficiently.