Looking for a thorough TSheets vs Harvest comparison?
TSheets and Harvest are employee monitoring and time tracking solutions that can help you track time, manage employees’ payroll, and improve time management.
In this article, we’ll compare TSheets ( now called QuickBooks Time) and Harvest — two popular time tracker apps, for their functionalities, integrations, and pricing. We‘ll also mention the best time tracking software as an alternative to these tools.
Let’s get started.
TSheets vs Harvest: An overview
| Features | TSheets(QuickBooks Time) | Harvest |
| Billable and non-billable hours | Uses Mobile app, GPS tracking, and time recording kiosk to track billable hours and tasks. | Allows you to start and stop the timer or manually enter time anytime during work hours. Also gives an overview of over or under-working employees. |
| Offline time tracking | Records employee time offline using a mobile time tracking app in case of internet connectivity issues during any work hour. | Offline time tracker syncs the offline time data with the servers once the employees are connected to the internet. |
| Project time tracking | Lets you know how much time your employees spend on different tasks by tracking time for each project. | Breaks down the time tracked for individual team members or tasks to gain insights into the project’s status. |
| Timesheets | Lets you track, submit and approve time directly from the app. | Allows you to start and stop time tracking as you work through projects and tasks to generate weekly timesheets. |
| Reporting | Generates multiple reports such as Tracking reports (time and GPS coordinates), Project reports, Payroll reports, Logging, and auditing reports. | Generates detailed reports such as Expense tracking reports, Invoice reports, Time reports, and Contractor reports. |
| Invoicing and payroll | Lets you generate invoices using integrations or an in-app invoicing feature. | Automatically converts timesheets or billable hours into invoices, which you can integrate with other accounting or payment platforms. |
| Integrations | 40+ integrations | 60+ integrations |
| Pricing | 30-day free trial and $8/user per month + $20/month base fee. | 30-day free trial and $12/seat per month for unlimited users. |
Let’s explore these features in detail.
TSheets vs Harvest: Detailed comparison
1. Tool overview
A. TSheets
Tsheets, now known as Quickbooks Time by Intuit, is an online time tracking app that monitors time from desktop or mobile devices. It helps streamline your processes, including professional services like managing payroll, invoices, and schedules.
The software has an automated time tracker feature that creates accurate timesheets and monitors various projects.
Here are some of its features:
- GPS tracking.
- Employee Scheduling.
- Interactive reports.
- Time clock kiosk.
The QuickBooks Desktop version is available on a web browser. It also offers mobile apps that can be installed on iOS and Android devices. Due to its ease of use, this tracking tool is suitable for a freelancer and startups as well as for large, medium, and small businesses.
Check out our detailed Tsheets review to learn more about the tool.
Customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (6000+ reviews)
- G2: 4.5/5 (1400+ reviews)
B. Harvest
Harvest is an online employee time tracking and timesheet software that lets you track time wherever you are. It monitors your team’s time, tracks all projects, and turns billable hours into invoices.
Some features of the time tracker include:
- Activity tracking.
- Billing and invoicing.
- Performance management.
- Attendance tracking.
The Harvest app is available for use as a desktop and mobile application and supports Mac, Windows, iPhone (iOS), and Android devices. It also has a Chrome extension.
Like TSheets, Harvest’s ease of use makes it suitable for large, medium, and small businesses like startups or even a freelancer.
Customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (500+ reviews)
- G2: 4.3/5 (700+ reviews)
Here’s a direct comparison of TSheets and Harvest’s features, which will help you decide the best tracking tool for your needs.
2. Billable and non-billable hours
The two tools use different methods for tracking time. Here’s how they compare:
A. TSheets
TSheets provides a time clock kiosk for recording the time entry. It also has a GPS tracking feature on the mobile app, which allows your employees to track time on the go.
Employees can use the app to clock in, clock out, change tasks, add notes to their time cards, and track billable and non-billable hours.
Here’s how you can record billable hours through the tracking software:
- Go to settings and select the Accounts and setting option.
- Click on the Time tab.
- Go to the Timesheet section and select Edit.
- Turn on Allow time to be billable setting.
- Click on the checkbox that says Show billable rate to users entering time (if you want billable hours to be visible to the users when they enter time).
- Click on Save and Done.
B. Harvest
Harvest time tracking software lets you track employee hours from wherever you are. You can start the timer during a task or manually enter time from your device.
It has two timer modes:
- The Duration Mode (default): Allows you to start the timer or enter your hours, and the timesheet will show the duration of the time you tracked.
- The Start and End Times Mode: Allows you to enter the time you started and stopped working on a task (e.g., 9 am-5 pm), and this data will be displayed in detail in the timesheet.
The tool gives you an overview of over or underworking employees by comparing their actual tracked time against the maximum hours that they can work.
For example, if an employee’s actual tracked time is 48 hours, but their set capacity is 30 hours, the tool immediately alerts you so that you can take the necessary action to prevent burnout of your human resources.
Quick recap
TSheets lets you decide whether to track employee hours as billable or non-billable. Harvest gives you an overview of the team’s capacity and workload according to their billable hour.
3. Offline time tracking
Here’s how the tools track offline time:
A. TSheets
Employees can use TSheets’ mobile apps available for iPhone and Android devices to track their time when they are offline.
If the employee is out of the network area, the offline time tracking feature stores all the data on the employee’s device. Once they’re back online, the tool syncs their timesheet data to the office.
This feature benefits remote teams, who may not always have a good network connection at their job site.
B. Harvest
Using the desktop app or browser version of Harvest time tracking software requires a strong internet connection, but if you lose connection in between, the timer will continue to run. Once the connection improves, you can stop or edit your time.
You can also track time and log expenses offline using the iPhone and Android apps, as the tool will sync the data with the servers once they are connected back to the internet.
Quick recap
Both tools support offline time tracking from their mobile app and sync it to the servers after the internet connection is restored.
4. Project management
Let’s look at how these tools track time for projects:
A. TSheets
TSheets project time tracking feature lets you track unlimited projects so that you know how much time your employees spend on different tasks and projects.
You can see individual projects’ status at a glance and even make necessary adjustments and use this data for accurate time management of future projects.
This feature can help improve employees’ project management skills and complete projects on time, thereby increasing productivity. You can also provide accurate estimates to your clients regarding project duration, budget, etc.
B. Harvest
The Harvest time tracker lets you monitor the time your employees spend on each project, set project budgets, and improve project management.
You can get a breakdown of the time tracking data for individual team members or tasks to gain better insights into the project’s status.
This information can help you estimate the cost and duration for future similar projects and make employee and budget allocations accordingly.
Quick recap
Harvest and TSheets can track time for unlimited projects to monitor the performance of your team or individuals. TSheets also lets you view the actual labor costs versus the estimates. This makes it a good project management tool.
5. Timesheets
Here’s how the tools compare in their timesheets:
A. TSheets
Employees can use the QuickBooks Time mobile app to clock in and out, track Paid Time Off (PTO) and sick days, add notes, and even attach images to their timesheet.
Managers can receive notifications and approve the employee timesheet from their mobile app.
Your employee can add their signature to their timesheet through the mobile app. You can also store signatures for signing off from a project.
B. Harvest
Harvest time tracking software converts all the tracked time into an online employee timesheet, an advanced feature that lets you set custom reminders and notifications.
You can view the ‘Day’ or the ‘Week’ view of your employees’ timesheets.
The administrator can customize their timesheet to decide how the time entry will be displayed.
However, the time tracking software doesn’t have a distinct feature to track your vacation time, paid time-offs, and sick days. You can add this time to separate internal projects and track time as non-billable hours.
You can do this by creating an internal non-billable project for your company and creating separate tasks for all categories, like vacation, paid time off, sick days, etc.
Quick recap
Both tools provide online timesheets for easy workflows and better time management. Additionally, while TSheets can track clock in or out, PTO, etc., Harvest time tracking software doesn’t offer this feature.
6. Reporting
Let’s check out the reports generated by the time tracking tools:
A. TSheets
TSheets reporting feature generates real-time, customizable reports, which can provide valuable business insights. You can use these reports to predict the time needed for a task, plan for payroll, and even increase your profits.
Some of the important reports include:
- Logging and auditing: Shows data such as system logs, time-off balances, time logs, etc.
- Tracking: Allows you to track certain information such as GPS coordinates, hours tracked for a team member, etc.
- Project report: Displays essential project management data like the total hours tracked against each project or customer and also the team members who worked on it.
- Payroll report: Lists working team members, the number of hours they worked, their pay rate, and the total wage.
You can download all these reports as CSV files and integrate them with other tools like payroll software.
B. Harvest
Harvest time tracking software has various in-app reports that provide accurate information regarding your team’s tracked time, expenses, invoices, and payments.
Some essential reports generated by the tool include:
- Expense reports: Generates detailed expense tracking reports for individuals, clients, projects, etc.
- Invoice report: Shows a list of each invoice issued during any specific period.
- Contractor reports: Displays all active contractors, along with their total hours and costs. You can also view archived contractors if they’ve tracked time within that specified time period.
- Detailed time report: Calculates the hours and billable information for individual clients, projects, tasks, and employees.
You can view and export these reports with or without data from other sections of the tool (like estimates, projects, and client contacts) to improve project management and gain better insights into your team’s performance.
Quick recap
Both time tracking software generate a similar number of reports. However, the type of reporting features offered are quite distinct.
7. Invoicing and payroll
Let’s compare how the time tracking tools provide invoicing and payroll:
A. TSheets
TSheets provides easy invoicing with its Xero, Gusto, and QuickBooks Online integration.
You can also use the in-app invoicing add-on to generate a simple invoice for your clients.
Here’s how it works:
- Mark the clients and project codes in QuickBooks Time as billable.
- Specify each pay rate and install the invoicing add-on.
- Once done, it will generate an invoice with all the necessary labor details.
Additionally, you can add employee data like name, hiring date, pay rate, bank details etc., to the software. Managers can transfer this employee time data to various payroll software such as QuickBooks, ADP, or OnPay, and pay their employees directly via these integrations.
B. Harvest
Harvest time tracking software integrates with accounting software like Xero and Quickbooks Online. It allows you to automatically convert the tracked billable hours into invoices.
It also gives managers more control over what information goes into the invoices by letting them create a free-form invoice. A free-form invoice starts as a blank page, so you can enter the data manually.
Additionally, Harvest lets you send invoices directly to your clients and also set up late payment reminders as per customized timeframes.
The tool also has Stripe and PayPal integrations, which means that your clients can immediately pay your invoices.
Quick recap
TSheets has a built-in invoicing feature, while Harvest lets you manually create free-form invoices. TSheets uses employee data like shifts, projects, pay rates, etc., to pay your employees directly through the integrations.
8. Integrations
Integrations make it easy to unify existing and new systems and improve project management.
Here’s a list of some of the integrations of the time tracking tools:
A. TSheets
TSheets integrates with 40+ apps and project management tools. Some of the TSheets integration include:
- Sage.
- MakeShift.
- Square Payroll.
- Asana.
- Google Drive.
B. Harvest
Harvest time tracking software has 60+ integrations with different project management tools. A few of them are:
The Harvest Button or Widget can integrate with your existing project management apps. However, if you need a stronger integration, you can use the Harvest API.
Quick recap
Harvest offers more integrations than TSheets.
9. Pricing
Pricing is a key deciding factor when selecting any time tracking tool.
Let’s look at the pricing plans of the two tools:
A. TSheets
TSheets has a free version and a 30-day free trial with no credit card information needed. The premium plan starts at $8/user per month + $20/month base fee.
B. Harvest
Harvest offers a free version of the software with a 30-day free trial. The paid plan starts at $12/seat per month for unlimited users.
Quick recap
Although both tools offer a 30-day free trial, Harvest is a more affordable time tracking software than TSheets.
2 limitations of TSheets and Harvest
We’ve compared TSheets and Harvest time tracking software based on project tracking, timesheet reporting, and various other features.
While these tools can help you with time tracking, they cannot monitor the productivity of your employees.
Let’s look at some other drawbacks of the software:
- No productivity ratings or reports: Neither Tsheets nor Harvest generate productivity reports or provide productivity ratings for websites. Since they do not classify sites as productive or unproductive, it is difficult to track employee productivity.
- No screenshots or web activity monitoring: Harvest and Tsheets do not have screenshot and web activity monitoring features. Monitoring employee activity is important to ensure that employees do not spend time on unproductive tasks like gaming or surfing their personal social media accounts during work hours.
Looking for an all-in-one productivity monitoring and time tracking solution?
A better productivity monitoring solution: Time Doctor
Time Doctor is more than just a basic time tracker, it can also monitor your employees’ productivity during work hours, which makes it a better Harvest and TSheet alternative.
What is Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is a powerful employee productivity monitoring and time tracking solution.
It provides professional services to a major company, like Ericsson, and a small business, like Thrive Market, to boost employee productivity.
The tool allows you to:
- Track time spent on each task and individual project using manual or automatic time-tracking modes.
- Monitor time spent on ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ websites and apps.
- Monitor screen activities through screenshots (optional).
- Access detailed reports regarding employee time use, website, app use, etc.
- Pay employees through different accounting gateways like PayPal and Payoneer.
Let’s look at some more unique features of the time tracking software in detail:
- Online timesheet and payroll: The tracked time is displayed as online timesheets, which can be integrated with payrolls for making easy payments (because hand-written time cards belong to the Stone Age, and we are in the Space Age!).
- Website, app monitoring, and screenshots: Website and app tracking is an advanced feature that ensures the employees don’t spend hours on unproductive sites like Netflix or gaming, etc. The optional screenshot recording further prevents time theft by capturing employees’ screen activities.
- Powerful Integrations: Time Doctor has a Chrome extension that easily integrates with and tracks time for several apps, such as Jira and Asana. It also offers integration with Google Calendar. Additionally, the tool has a desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux devices and a mobile app for Android devices.
But how much does it cost?
Time Doctor’s pricing plan starts at just $7/user per month, which is significantly lower than the other two time tracking tools. This makes it a great Harvest and TSheets alternative.
You can also sign-up for a 14-days free trial (no credit card required).
So if you need a simple yet powerful Harvest and TSheet alternative that tracks time and monitors employee productivity, we recommend Time Doctor.
TSheets vs Harvest: Final verdict
TSheets and Harvest are two robust tools for tracking time.
They perform various tasks like offline time tracking, calculating each employee’s billable hour, and generating multiple reports like timesheets to see how employees spend their time during working hours.
While TSheets and Harvest have their own advantages, their productivity and employee monitoring features aren’t as comprehensive as Time Doctor’s.
Time Doctor is also equipped with robust productivity management features like website monitoring, screenshots, and more.
So why not sign up for the 14-day Time Doctor free trial today to effectively track your employees’ productivity along with their work hours!
