Honest Review:

Harvest

By Asim Qureshi, CEO Jibble

June 6th 2023

As a CEO of a time tracking software company I need to know what my competitors are up to. That means I’m often researching about and/or playing around with their products, you know, it’s part of the job. Here, I share my findings of that research, giving credit to those competitors where credit is due and being honest about which products I believe you really need to avoid. And so, there you have it, this review, and in it, I try to be honest, fair, and insightful…

This review covers:

• Overview
• What Users Like
• What Users Don’t Like
• Pricing Plans
• Standout Features
• Positive User Highlights
• Negative User Highlights
• Ratings from Other Reviews

Overview

Have you guys checked out Harvest? It’s a web-based time tracking application. I have to say, I’m impressed by its features. The simple interface makes it easy to use for both newbies and seasoned professionals.

One of the things I love about Harvest is its invoicing feature, which makes it easy to keep track of expenses. Plus, the time-off scheduling and expense reports features make it an all-in-one tool for managing your work hours. Harvest’s time tracking feature allows users to track their work hours from multiple platforms like desktop, mobile, and browser. Along with mobile apps available on iOS and Android devices, the desktop version works with most browsers and operating systems. And, the real-time view of what others are working on makes collaboration and time management a breeze.

However, I would like to mention that there are a few glitches with the app. Time stamps don’t auto-update days when switching from desktop to mobile, and the app tends to lag at times. Also, at US$10/seat, Harvest is a bit pricey for both small and large companies. And let’s be honest, the interface is a bit bland.

What Users Like

• Ability to create budgets for projects
• Segregate time spent on a project
• Create and send invoices 
• Intuitive reports
• Easy to use

Pricing Plans

Harvest offers two pricing plans, Free and Pro. With the Pro plan starting at US$10.8/seat/month, users can track as many projects as they want and get additional features like unlimited invoicing, expense reports, and time off requests, while with the free plan, they can only track one. 

Free: This version is limited to one seat and 2 projects.

Pro: For US$10.8/seat/month, the Pro version has unlimited seats and projects. 

Standout Features of Harvest

1. Time Tracking Activity Feed 

With the time tracking activity feed, employers can easily keep track of their team’s projects and deadlines, ensuring everyone is working towards the same goals. This feature allows users to see the current status of a project, how much time has been spent, and how much is remaining. Additionally, it offers transparency and accountability among team members, as everyone can see how much time is dedicated to each task. This feature helps identify areas where team members may need extra support or where processes can be streamlined.

2. Powerful Reporting Engine 

Harvest’s reporting engine is a robust platform that delivers valuable business insights and analytics through its reports. The software adjusts budgets as team members log their time, enabling users to keep their projects on track and profitable. The reports allow users to see which projects and tasks consume the most time, impacting costs. They are interactive, allowing users to filter, sort, and export data to external apps like Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or PowerPoint.

3. Multi-Device Time Tracking

Harvest’s multi-device time tracking feature enables users to quickly track their work hours from three different platforms: the browser, desktop, and mobile. This feature ensures that users can track time regardless of their location. The desktop version of the application is compatible with most browsers and operating systems, and the mobile app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices. 

4. Easy-to-Use Invoicing and Collection of Payments

Harvest’s invoicing process is simple and user-friendly, allowing users to create and send invoices easily. The software eliminates manual entry by automatically pulling in the team’s time and expenses. 

Additionally, Harvest integrates with online payment systems like Paypal and Stripe.

Selected Positive User Feedback: 

• “Easy to use and easy to maintain.” Jessica D. (Source Capterra)
• “This is a user-friendly time tracker, and I’ve been using it off and on for over 10 years.”  Noelle B. (Source Capterra)
• “For clients that prefer to pay by credit card, it allows you to deliver the invoice via a web portal with the ability to pay via PayPal with your cc.” Will T. (Source Capterra)
• “Another useful feature is being able to set budgets for every project, so you can have a quick overview of how much you have spent and can still spend on a project.” PJ G. (Source Capterra)
• “Very easy to use. Great for professional services organizations that employ different billing models. Reliable – uptime is high. Integrated timesheet and estimate approval and invoicing.” Alex T. (Source G2)
• “Has an option for making notes and leaving comments next to each project so that I know the exact tasks that I was working on.” Tetiana K. (Source G2)
• “Precise time tracking – By rounding up to the next 6 minutes (1/10th of an hour), it makes for easy time tracking and efficient money-to-time billing.” Alan B. (Source TrustRadius)
• “Easy to create invoices.” Brian M. (Source TrustRadius)
• “Tracking billable time – You can set different rates for different people on each project. Or you can charge for the task type. It also will track expenses that you can bill to clients.” McKay S. (Source TrustRadius)
• “Connects easily to other important software we use, such as Asana.” Blythe W. (Source TrustRadius)
• “For admins, the info collected is quantified in a very visual and excellent way allowing us to track time and project expenses.” Amy H. (Source GetApp)
• “The customer service is always quick to respond and has very clear answers.” Lisa D. (Source Get App)
• “You can compartmentalize the time you spent on a project and also view which aspects you spent the most of it, which is great for making adjustments.” Gina L. (Source GetApp)
• “Harvest also makes it really easy to create and send invoices by automatically pulling your billable time. Another plus is seeing when a client views your invoice!” Sarah M. (Source G2)
• “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 grow substantially.” Seamus M. (Source Capterra)

Selected Negative User Feedback: 

• “My biggest complaint is the bland interface. The response time for clicking on most things is between 1 to 3 seconds. It’s almost as if every click is being sent to a server, and the UI only updates when the server responds.” Sebastian R. (Source Google Play)
• “I prefer the older version. The new “improved” version is clunky.” Ansel S. (Source Google Play)
• “Huge downgrade with the new UI. Now it opens to a home screen instead of the time screen, and it requires extra clicks to adjust timers. The notification with the ability to modify a timer is gone.” Andrew N. (Source Google Play)
• “Autopay could be easier to implement and it doesn’t auto update the days.” Brie G. (Source TrustRadius)
• “Hanging issues. No way to batch-assign time to multiple employees.” Joe H. (Source TrustRadius)
• “The mobile app lacks a lot of the functionality that the website offers. If I were to change anything, I’d definitely update the mobile app.” Lynzee J. (Source TrustRadius)
• “ The software hangs alot. No chat feature. Do not auto update the days.” Joann E. (Source G2)
• “Needs more payment methods, including cryptocurrency.” Eric K. (Source G2)
• “Harvest doesn’t support multiple billing entities. If you work from a more complex organizational structure, then Harvest is not for you.” Bjoern S. (Source G2)
• “I dislike the cost. It is very pricey to have each employee have their own Harvest login!” Alice Faye (Source G2)
• “The reporting dashboards are limited; I would love to see more visual ways to interpret my data. Would also love to be able to add recurring expenses within the system.” Chelsea G. (Source G2)
• “I still feel that the project setup scenarios could be simplified and/or streamlined.” Will T. (Source Capterra)
• “Could use more customizing of expenses and taxes and better user interface, the current user interface is bland.” Ken S. (Source Capterra)
• “No real-time phone support. Originally, Harvest had real-time phone support, but a while back, they (suddenly) changed their phone support from real-time to only scheduled appointments.” Lisa S. (Source Capterra)
• “The biggest drawback of Harvest is the price for what you get. For a product that does basically one thing, it costs about as much as the Google office suite.” Steve M. (Source Capterra)
• “Very pricey in terms of the competitors on the market.” Jahangir A. (Source Capterra)

Ratings from Other Reviews

(As of 04/08/2023)

• Capterra: 4.6/5
• G2: 4.3/5 
• TrustRadius: 8.6/10
• GetApp: 4.6/5 
• Google Play: 3.1/5
• Apple Store: 4.0/5

Final Thoughts

Harvest is a good time tracking app that caters to both freelancers and businesses.

I find Harvest’s time tracking tool very helpful as it identifies who needs more work and who’s already swamped. Businesses can conveniently track working hours from desktop, mobile, and browser using its time tracking feature.

Moreover, Harvest’s reporting feature provides in-depth insights into costs and profitability – highly beneficial for businesses. Additionally, the invoicing functionality is a real time-saver since it automatically generates invoices by pulling timesheet information.

However, as good as Harvest is, there are a few cons to note. Firstly, its price point is on the higher side, at US$10/seat/month. Secondly, the interface can be a tad bit bland. Lastly, I noticed that the software doesn’t auto-update days, and there are hanging issues – irk.

To conclude, I’d say Harvest is a great tool for managing your work hours, expenses, and invoicing. But if you’re in search for something with a little more pizzazz and affordability, you may want to keep looking.