Honest Harvest Review: Pros, Cons, Features & Pricing

How I Tested Harvest

I evaluated Harvest’s web, desktop (macOS), and iOS mobile app over several days using both admin and employee accounts. I tested the platform’s overall usability, individual features, approval processes, and cross-platform syncing. I also looked at how Harvest handles real-world scenarios such as “accidentally” leaving a timer running, recording idle time, or attempting to access unauthorized information without the necessary permissions. 

Harvest Pricing

Harvest offers 3 pricing plans: Free, Teams, and Enterprise.

I found Harvest’s pricing structure straightforward, with clear options for solo users, growing teams, and larger businesses. 

The Free plan, for instance, is an excellent entry point for solo freelancers, providing essential time tracking and basic reporting capabilities at no cost. 

Harvest also offers a 30-day free trial (no credit card required), which is a great way to explore the platform before committing to a paid plan. The Teams plan is sufficient for small- to medium-sized teams, while the Enterprise plan matters more once you need tighter approvals, profitability tracking, and stronger oversight across larger teams.

When comparing Harvest to similar tools, I thought it provides good value for money for smaller teams. However, costs start to add up for larger teams, who may benefit more from a flat or hybrid pricing structure or from access to more features (like scheduling and communication tools) for the same price. 

*All prices mentioned are per month, billed annually. As of June 2026.

Harvest Usability and Interface

Harvest’s sign-up and onboarding process took me a few minutes and about 8 steps before I could fully access the dashboard. The early steps were standard enough: account setup, company details, team size, industry, teammate invites, and intended use cases. A couple of screens felt unnecessary, though. For example, the “How did you hear about us?” question was mandatory and felt oddly forced during onboarding. 

Also, Harvest pushed a billing details screen before I could fully access the dashboard, which felt slightly misleading at first. Thankfully, I could simply close the pop-up and continue using the trial normally.

Once I reached the homepage, the interface felt cleaner and more modern than when I tested Harvest last year. The home screen initially showed the day view of my timesheet. I could switch between day, week, and calendar views, and set up integrations with Google Calendar and Outlook.

The older top-bar layout has been replaced by a left sidebar that’s easier to navigate. It displays key sections like Track, Organize, Bill, and Review. Under those sections, I could access relevant features, such as Timesheets, Expenses, Team, Clients, Projects, Tasks, Invoices, Estimates, Approvals, Reports, Integrations, and Settings. 

Shortcuts for time tracking and invoicing are also pinned prominently at the top, which I found convenient.

The Team tab let me add employees, and, honestly, despite being time-consuming, it was one of Harvest’s strengths. I could manually add teammates, assign employee IDs, import datasets, or bulk-import users via CSV files. For each employee, Harvest allowed me to customize several aspects, like Basic Info, Rates, Assigned Projects, Assigned People, Permissions, and Security. 

I could configure detailed settings, such as employee type (employee or contractor), time zone, roles, weekly capacity, profile photo, and pay rates. 

Permission levels were also more advanced than I expected. The platform includes 6 built-in roles ranging from Member to Administrator, and supports custom permissions. I tested permission controls, and they worked well. My employee account only saw the sections, reports, and projects assigned to that role. There wasn’t really a way to “sneak into” restricted areas because those options simply didn’t appear in the interface at all, which I appreciated.

Now here’s where I think there’s scope for improvement. 

Harvest focuses heavily on presenting an uncluttered view, offering only daily and weekly views. I’d have also appreciated a monthly calendar view, as I’ve seen with other platforms. This could have helped me view an entire pay period without switching between weekly timesheets. 

Additionally, the interface lacked color coding, which I typically find useful for distinguishing between different clients, projects, tasks, and sub-tasks.

Harvest also offers just 1 workspace to manage multiple clients and projects, which can get confusing. And, there’s no dedicated notification center to view all updates (such as timesheet submissions and invoice reminders) in one place, which helps ensure nothing is missed. 

Finally, Harvest’s clear interface and high-contrast colors work well for some users with visual impairments. But it lacks dedicated accessibility features, such as screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and customizable text sizes, which is disappointing. 

Harvest mobile app

Harvest offers apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, plus a Chrome extension. I used the Harvest iOS app and found that it mirrors the web version to a significant extent, maintaining core functionalities like time tracking, expense logging, and invoice generation. This ensures users can manage their projects and tasks seamlessly across devices.

The mobile app is intuitive, enabling users to start and stop timers, log expenses, and view reports. Plus, you can add a Siri shortcut to start or stop the timer. However, I found the layout cramped, and navigating between features required more taps than the web version, which might slow down productivity for some users.

While the app tracks time both online and offline, other features require an active internet connection to sync data. This can be inconvenient for users needing full functionality in areas with poor connectivity.

Harvest Core Functionalities

Time tracking and timesheets

Time tracking

Harvest offers several methods for tracking time, including a manual entry system, a timer, and the ability to track time against specific projects and tasks. Its user-friendly interface minimizes errors, with time tracked to the nearest minute.

During testing, the timer itself worked reliably across web, desktop, and mobile. Syncing was near instant between devices, which made switching platforms feel seamless. I also tested offline tracking, and the timer continued working properly and synced once I had internet connectivity again.

However, I noticed that the timer continued tracking even when I turned off my computer, which could lead to inaccuracies.

For manual entries, the process is straightforward. I just filled in the project details and the time spent. This flexibility allows you to track time accurately, even if you forget to start a timer.

Time verification and compliance tools

I also tested Harvest’s idle detection on the desktop app (macOS), since the feature isn’t available on the web version. When my computer stayed idle, Harvest correctly showed a pop-up asking whether I wanted to remove the idle minutes, stop the timer, continue tracking, or create a separate time entry. The feature worked well overall, though I would’ve liked to have more visibility into how often idle time is detected and whether employees chose to keep or remove those idle minutes.

Harvest also sends reminder emails when a timer has been running for too long. In my testing, I received an alert after a timer had been running for over 10 hours, though the timer itself continued running until manually stopped.

Though Harvest lets you set capacity limits, it doesn’t automatically notify you when you’re going above your allotted time. Plus, it doesn’t automatically calculate overtime, which can be a drawback for organizations that must comply with overtime regulations.

Finally, unlike some other time tracking tools like Connecteam, Harvest doesn’t offer GPS tracking. For businesses that must verify the location of their field workers, this could be a significant limitation. Likewise, Harvest still lacks workforce-focused controls such as geofencing, shift enforcement, attendance verification, and other tools designed to verify when and where employees are working.

Timesheets

Harvest offers a timesheet view where I can see the entire week at a glance. However, a monthly view filtered by clients, roles, tasks, and projects would be useful, as sifting through different projects to find the required information can sometimes be frustrating.

Another thing I disliked was that, as a manager, I could only approve a timesheet or email the relevant employee if any timesheet required modification. There’s no proper reject option or direct correction workflow built into approvals, which can create unnecessary back-and-forth.

That said, one small thing I noticed and appreciated during testing is that running timers don’t appear in approvals or submitted timesheets until the timer is actually stopped. This helps prevent partially tracked or accidentally running sessions from getting submitted prematurely.

Projects and task management

Harvest’s project organization tools were impressive, especially for managing billable client work.

I could assign teammates to projects, set projects as billable or non-billable, configure hourly or fixed-fee budgets, add retainers, assign tasks and subtasks, and control who could access each project. 

What I liked most was how connected everything felt. Tracked time, expenses, invoices, estimates, approvals, profitability, and reports are all naturally tied back to projects instead of feeling disconnected like I’ve seen in other apps. 

Harvest supports budget alerts when projects exceed a specified percentage threshold. Project overruns and exceeded hours were clearly visible inside reports and project views, 

Permissions inside projects also worked very cleanly during testing. Once I removed an employee from a project, the project disappeared entirely from their account view.

Another thing I was happy to see was that Harvest offers task management. I created tasks such as Site Supervision, Equipment Setup, Material Inspection, and Client Meetings, each with a separate billable rate. That worked well for tracking labor categories and billing clients accurately.

Overall, though, Harvest didn’t feel like a true project management system. There are no Kanban boards, scheduling tools, built-in chat, route planning, or deeper collaboration features. Task management was also basic, with no way to add detailed notes, checklists, or photos to tasks. I could track time spent on tasks, but I couldn’t monitor task completion progress or status updates in real time. The enforcement side also felt lightweight overall. 

Invoicing, payments, and estimates

The ability to generate invoices automatically based on recorded timesheets and associated expenses honestly felt like one of Harvest’s strongest and most polished areas. During testing, I found it particularly beneficial in maintaining a smooth workflow. 

Types of invoices include:

• Recurring invoices: Automatically generate and send invoices at regular intervals.
• Retainer invoices: Bill clients in advance for ongoing services, deducting time and expenses from the retainer amount.
• Fixed-fee invoices: Bill clients a flat amount regardless of tracked hours.
• Time and materials invoices: Automatically generate invoices directly from tracked billable work.
• Manual invoices: Build invoices completely from scratch using custom line items.

The platform also provides customizable invoice templates that include detailed item descriptions, tax calculations, and branded elements to keep the invoices professional and consistent with company branding. 

While testing invoice customization, I could easily change company colors, logos, invoice messages, reminder emails, translations, item types, and the overall invoice appearance. The white-labeling options were better than I’ve seen in other platforms.

Additionally, Harvest allows you to create and send estimates to clients, who can then approve or decline them, making it easy to get project agreements in place before work begins. I tested estimates as well and liked that they could smoothly convert into projects and later into invoices, which made the workflow feel connected from quote to payment instead of juggling separate systems.

You can also track payments directly within Harvest, with support for partial payments and the ability to see which invoices are overdue. This makes the follow-up process straightforward. I also noticed that Harvest separates uninvoiced work into the Reports/Invoicing section, alongside newer financial views like Receivables, making projected revenue easier to monitor.

While Harvest integrates with payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, the functionalities are fairly basic. For instance, there’s no option to automatically charge clients’ cards or accounts, which means each payment must be manually initiated by the client. 

Harvest supports multiple currencies, which is great for international businesses, but the lack of language options can be a barrier when dealing with clients who prefer invoices in their native language.

Expense tracking

Expense tracking within Harvest is integral for maintaining a clear view of project costs and ensuring accurate client billing. The platform lets you log expenses directly, attach receipts, and categorize these expenses under specific projects or tasks.

This functionality integrates directly with the time tracking and invoicing features, which simplifies the process of charging clients for out-of-pocket expenses incurred during a project. I tested both billable and non-billable expenses, and pulling those costs into invoices worked smoothly overall. Syncing between web, desktop, and mobile also stayed consistent during testing.

While Harvest allows you to categorize expenses, the options and depth of analysis are somewhat basic. For businesses that require detailed cost accounting or more sophisticated expense management, the features might feel limited. 

Also, there’s no built-in workflow for expense approvals within Harvest. Managers can review expense entries, but there still isn’t much deeper enforcement or multi-step approval logic for organizations with stricter reimbursement processes. Harvest doesn’t actually process reimbursements or payroll either, so businesses still need separate tools to complete those workflows.

Integrations

One of Harvest’s strongest points is its ability to integrate seamlessly with a wide range of other tools businesses commonly use, including: 

• Project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Basecamp.
• Accounting software such as QuickBooks Online and Xero.
• Communication tools like Slack.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) systems like Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Developer tools like GitHub and Bitbucket (for tracking time spent on issues and pull requests).
• Automation platforms such as Zapier.

Connecting Google Calendar and Outlook was straightforward during testing, and syncing across devices stayed reliable overall.

That said, it came as a surprise that payroll remains largely outside the platform’s scope. While Harvest integrates with accounting systems in QuickBooks Online and Xero, payroll still needs to be processed separately.

Harvest Security Features

Harvest implements several technical measures to protect user data.

• SSL encryption ensures all data transmitted between the user and server is secure. This encryption helps safeguard sensitive information from unauthorized access.
• 2-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide 2 forms of identification before accessing their accounts. During testing, I could enforce account-wide 2FA requirements for all teammates directly in the security settings, which I liked as an admin. Harvest also warns admins that users without 2FA enabled will immediately be signed out once enforcement is activated.
• User roles and permissions are well-defined within Harvest, allowing administrators to control who has access to specific data and functionalities. 
• It also supports Google sign-in enforcement and SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) for Enterprise accounts. However, SAML configuration is only available after upgrading because of the more extensive enterprise security setup required.
• GDPR compliance ensures that user data is handled in accordance with stringent privacy laws.

However, Harvest does not officially position itself as HIPAA-compliant, and its legal terms specifically caution against storing protected health information (PHI) on the platform. This could be an important limitation for healthcare organizations handling sensitive patient data.

Harvest Reporting and Analytics

Harvest offers solid reporting tools for managing day-to-day operations and ensuring projects are tracked against budgets and timelines. 

The reporting interface is intuitive, with visual aids like graphs and charts that help break down data in an easily digestible format. This makes it straightforward to track your projects’ health, ensuring that they remain profitable and on schedule.

Here are the various reports available in Harvest:

• Time Report: Provides a summary of the total hours worked, broken down by client, project, or team member, which is helpful for a quick overview of time allocation.
• Detailed Time Report: Lets you view all time entries, filtered by parameters such as date range, project, client, or team member. It’s useful for reviewing specific work periods or activities.
• Detailed Expense Report: Lists all recorded expenses, which can be filtered by date range, project, or team member, providing a clear view of project costs.
• Invoice Detailed Report: Breaks down each invoice by line item, providing detailed information about billed time and expenses.
• Uninvoiced Report: Displays all uninvoiced time and expenses for projects and clients, ensuring no billable work is missed and helping identify potential revenue gaps.
• Payments Received Report: Lists all payments received from clients, showing the details of each payment and helping track revenue and outstanding balances.
• Contractor Report: Summarizes the hours contractors have worked, providing insights into contractor contributions and aiding in managing contractor-related costs.
• Activity Log: Tracks operational activity across time entries, approvals, and projects. During testing, I could see who started or stopped timers, edited time entries, submitted or approved timesheets, created projects, assigned tasks, and added team members. I found this useful for operational visibility and accountability without making reports feel overly cluttered.

Harvest also offers profitability reporting for Enterprise plans, along with custom exports, visibility into approvals, and receivables tracking. 

Once generated, these reports can be exported in various formats, such as PDF or CSV. Or, you can print them directly to share insights with stakeholders or integrate data with other tools.

However, Harvest’s reporting does have limitations. Reports, although detailed, aren’t generated in real time. This delay can sometimes hinder making immediate adjustments in fast-paced project environments. Also, Harvest lacks AI-powered reporting capabilities found in some competitors like Jibble.

Harvest Customer Support

Support is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET, which Harvest now clearly states on its contact page. During my interaction with Harvest’s support team, I contacted support early Monday during business hours and received a thoughtful, detailed reply in about an hour. The response quality was genuinely helpful, though response times could still be faster than those of some competing tools I’ve tested.

Although they don’t offer a traditional chatbot, the support widget lets you submit questions directly through live chat/contact forms, and replies are sent by email from a real support agent. The quick response I received from a human agent was impressive and ensured my issue was addressed promptly.

Harvest’s help center is quite comprehensive, allowing users to search for answers to almost any question they might have. The articles are detailed and cover a wide range of topics, from basic functionality to advanced features.

Harvest also offers onboarding webinars, video tutorials, status-monitoring pages, and integration-specific documentation, which makes the support ecosystem feel more complete than basic email support alone.

The lack of phone support might be a drawback for users who prefer direct, verbal communication for resolving issues. Likewise, businesses operating outside US business hours may experience slower response times because support is not available 24/7. 

What are Harvest’s Review Ratings from Review Sites?

(As of June 2026)

Harvest App Review

Harvest is ideally suited for freelancers, consultants, and small to medium-sized businesses that need an efficient tool for basic time tracking, project management, and invoicing. During testing, the platform felt polished, reliable, and easy to navigate, especially around invoicing, permissions, and reporting. 

However, the per-user pricing can become expensive for larger teams. Harvest also lacks workforce-focused features like GPS tracking, scheduling, geofencing, overtime tracking, built-in communication, and deep operational management tools. Businesses looking for an all-in-one solution might want to look elsewhere.

Connecteam: The Better Harvest Alternative

While Harvest is great for freelancers and small teams, Connecteam is simply a better choice for businesses that manage hourly employees, track fieldwork, or need scheduling and communication tools built in.

Connecteam’s GPS-enabled employee time clock shows exactly where your team is when they clock in and out (no extra hardware required). You can even track their real-time location throughout the shift using breadcrumb technology and restrict unauthorized punches through geofencing. What I like most is that location tracking is active only during work hours, which helps protect employee privacy.

All tracked time is automatically compiled into timesheets for payroll. Plus, Connecteam integrates with leading payroll providers, so you can export and run payroll in just a few clicks.

The built-in employee scheduler is easy to use. You can drag and drop shifts, build recurring templates, notify employees of updates, and even assign specific jobs or tasks per shift. The auto-scheduling feature is a big time-saver, too. It factors in availability, qualifications, and shift preferences to build schedules for you.

Employees can request time off or swap shifts directly in the app. You can review and approve requests instantly, and the schedule updates in real time. This makes shift management much smoother for everyone involved.

One of the biggest advantages Connecteam has over Harvest is team communication. Harvest doesn’t include any built-in chat or updates. With Connecteam, you can send messages, images, documents, and even create group or 1-on-1 chats, all from the same app your team uses to clock in.

I also appreciate Connecteam’s pricing. There’s a generous 14-day free trial and a free-forever plan for small teams. Paid plans start at just $29/month for up to 30 users, with each additional user costing only $0.80/month, making it far more scalable than Harvest’s per-user pricing model.

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