Time Tracking with Harvest

Since I started working for myself almost 6 months ago, I’ve had to get to grips with running a company myself, and I must admit that the paperwork was one thing that stopped me from making this move sooner! I’ve kept everything in order and I’d like to mention one tool which has helped me hugely with that: Harvest.

Each morning I log in to harvest and get an overview of my world:

This lets me see how the invoicing is going, and also the hours for the day/week/month … which of course serves to remind me that I didn’t fill in my timesheet yesterday :) The timesheet itself is great – super-simple, accessible, and even I’ve managed to keep it up to date. There is a week view which is simply a grid (client names removed and I’d like everyone to admire my new 40-hours-a-week lifestyle):

It shows totals for activity and day, and the grey hours are the ones I’ve invoiced for – you can invoice and “lock” the hours so it’s easy to keep track of which have been invoiced and which haven’t.

The invoicing has been a gift as well, rather than messing about with document templates, Harvest does them really nicely and I can see what’s outstanding, overdue, paid, etc.

I got started with Harvest because their free option was enough for me to get started – when I began the business I had absolutely no clients and nothing planned so I didn’t have any cash to spend, and importantly Harvest allowed unlimited invoices which was ideal for me as I was doing bits and pieces! Within a few months though I upgraded to a better account which only allows a few users (which is fine, there’s one of me) but allows me to have more clients/projects and so on. So far, it’s been a great tool and I thank the good folk across at Harvest for making it available :)

4 thoughts on “Time Tracking with Harvest

  1. I’ve been using harvester as well after you mentioned it in a tweet.

    Well pleased with it for time tracking, but I’m afraid I’m still mucking about with document templates for my invoices. (although I do use harvester to calculate everything, just don’t use the generated pdf)

    But that’s because it’s not in the format which is standard for the netherlands. Although they have said in the forums that more customizable invoices will be a feature in the future.

    None the less, makes keeping track of hours much easier!

  2. Just wanted to say thanks for writing about how using Harvest has been going for you – we’re thrilled it’s been such a win for your business!

    @Erik We do hear you, and a more customizable invoice is definitely on our most requested feature list, and we do hope to bring that to Harvest in the future.

    Please feel free to get in touch with us if you do have any questions – we’re constantly improving things here, and we love to hear from our users!
    Karen, Harvest Community Manager

  3. Erik: The invoices seem to be formatted fine for use here in the UK, and I’m enjoying using the format – hope they update soon so you can use them too!

    Karen: You’re welcome! I found it hard to get information about the tools other consultants were using when I started out, so I have been trying to share my own experiences for anyone who comes along after me.

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