Best time tracking software for agencies that bill by the hour

Short answer: If you only need to track hours and invoice them, pick Harvest (simplest invoicing, QuickBooks and Xero sync) or Clockify (lowest price). If your team already plans work in another project tool, pick Everhour. If you want time, projects, budgets and invoicing in one agency tool, look at Productive or Teamwork.com. If you want each client's hours on their client record, with a portal where clients see them, look at Teamo.

Disclosure: I co-founded Teamo and Opsters, the agency Teamo was built out of. Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 26 October 2026.

Which time tracking tools fit an agency that bills by the hour?

The price below is the cheapest plan that includes billable rates and invoicing, per user per month, billed yearly, with the monthly price in brackets.

Harvest

Harvest is a time tracker with invoicing built in. You track time against clients and projects, then turn unbilled hours into an invoice in a few clicks. Invoicing is on every plan, and billable and cost rates for a team start on Teams ($9 a user per month yearly, $11 monthly). Its QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations copy invoices and recorded payments into your accounting tool.

Fits: a small agency that wants time tracking and invoicing in one simple tool, with nothing to set up. Limit: profitability reports (margins by client, project or team) and approving hours before billing are on Enterprise ($14 yearly, $17.50 monthly), and plans below Enterprise get up to 4 custom reports. Harvest has no CRM or task management.

Toggl Track

Toggl Track is built around a simple timer. Billable rates start on Starter ($9 yearly, $12 monthly). Invoices are built from a report and downloaded as a PDF, and Starter and up can send them to QuickBooks Online.

Fits: teams where getting people to track at all is the hard part. Limit: Toggl's own help says an invoice in Toggl and the copy in QuickBooks are not connected, so a change in one is not made in the other. Fixed fee projects, profitability reports, timesheet approvals and different rates per project member are on Premium ($16 yearly, $24 monthly).

Clockify

Clockify is the cheapest option here. Billable rates start on Basic ($3.99 yearly), and invoices made from tracked time and expenses start on Standard ($5.49 yearly, $6.99 monthly), which also adds approvals and rounding. Invoices can be sent to Xero, with the payment status coming back; QuickBooks receives time entries rather than invoices.

Fits: a price-sensitive team that needs solid tracking and basic invoicing. Limit: budgets, labor cost and profit, expenses and multiple currencies are on Pro ($7.99 yearly). Every active or invited user takes a paid seat. Clockify shows prices in your local currency, so check the page in yours.

Everhour

Everhour adds time tracking inside the project tools agencies already use, such as Asana, ClickUp, Jira and monday.com, so people track time on the task they're working on. Invoice amounts are calculated from your rates per project, member or task, and invoices export to QuickBooks Online, Xero or FreshBooks, with the status synced back.

Fits: an agency that already plans its work in another project tool and doesn't want to move. Limit: the Team plan ($8.50 a user per month billed yearly, about $10 monthly) has a 5-seat minimum, so a 3-person agency pays for 5. The free plan has no integrations.

Timely

Timely's Memory tracker tracks work automatically, so people fill in less by hand. Billable rates are on every plan. Invoices are built from unbilled hours and sent to QuickBooks Online as drafts, with the payment status synced back.

Fits: teams that forget to start timers. Limit: Starter ($9 yearly, $11 monthly) allows 5 users and 20 projects and has no "Mark as billed" or QuickBooks sync, which start on Premium ($16 yearly, $20 monthly). Timely has no task management of its own.

Productive

Productive is agency management software: a CRM with deals and pipelines, projects and tasks, budgets, resource planning and a full invoicing module with credit notes and retainer invoicing. Invoices can be sent to accounting tools, including Xero and QuickBooks Online.

Fits: an agency that wants sales, delivery and billing in one tool and has someone to set it up. Limit: rate cards, recurring budgets for retainers and billable time approvals start on Professional ($25 yearly, $29 monthly). Revenue forecasting is on Ultimate, which has no public price. There is no free plan.

Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com is project management built for client work, with time tracking included. Billable time and its reports start on Basics ($9.99, minimum 3 users). Invoicing from logged time, retainers and the QuickBooks integration start on Accelerate ($24.99, minimum 5 users, billed yearly).

Fits: an agency that needs full project management and is fine paying for it. Limit: with the 5-seat minimum, invoicing costs at least $124.95 a month. Profitability insights are on Optimize, which has no public price.

Teamo

Teamo is client and project software for service businesses, and time tracking is one part of it. In Teamo, hours are tracked on the client's own record, next to their deals, tasks, invoices and, with the Inbox add-on, their emails and WhatsApp messages.

What that gives an agency, beyond the timer:

• Hours left on every client. Add a formula column on the client record that subtracts billable hours worked from paid hours, then sort, filter and chart clients by it.
• Clients see their own hours. A client portal can show the time logged on that client's work, with totals and a date range the client can change, so "how many hours have we used?" doesn't need an email.
• A warning before a retainer runs out. An automation can fire when a client's hours left change, with a condition such as "less than 5", and notify the account manager.
• Time on the right level of detail. A timer starts with one click on the client, on a task under it, or on a step under the task, and every entry still belongs to the client.
• Billable decided once. Billable is a default per module, client, task or step, and the most specific one wins, so a fixed-fee client or an internal fix is never billed by mistake.
• Invoices from a template. An invoice is a document template whose variables fill in the client's name, billable hours, rate and amount. Export it as PDF or Word, send its public link, or let an automation tool such as Make.com send it through Teamo's API.
• Answers without building a report. Ask Amo, the AI assistant, how many billable hours a client had last month, or have it log time for you.
• Import past time entries. Past time entries from another tracker can be imported through the API, and a re-run import skips what it already brought in.

Admins also get a Reports tab that filters by client, person, billable time and date range, and exports Excel (durations as numbers) or PDF. Starter costs €10 / $12 per team member a month billed yearly, or €13 / $15 monthly, with time tracking on every plan.

Fits: an agency on retainers or hourly work that wants each client's hours, work, invoices and conversations in one place, and wants clients to see their hours themselves. Limit: it is not an accounting tool, and today there is no built-in QuickBooks or Xero sync and no payment links. It can connect to QuickBooks or Xero through its API and webhooks, directly or through Make.com, and our team can help set that up. Time is tracked with timers or added by hand; nothing is captured automatically. Reports are for admins only.

How our own agency uses it: Inside an automation agency: from signed deal to paid invoice without losing track. The full method: How to track billable hours per client and turn them into invoices.

Do you need a time tracker or an agency management tool?

A time tracker (Harvest, Toggl Track, Clockify, Everhour, Timely) does one job well and is quick to roll out. Its weak point is that the client list lives in two places: in the tracker and in your CRM or project tool. You keep them in sync by hand, and you can't see a client's hours next to their deals, tasks and invoices.

Agency software (Productive, Teamwork.com, Teamo) puts time on the same records as the rest of the client work, so retainers, profitability and follow-ups are on one page. Productive and Teamwork.com cost more per seat than a tracker, and any of these tools takes more setup than a timer alone.

A rule of thumb: if fewer than five people track time and your projects are simple, a tracker is enough. If you run retainers, several people work on each client, and you already copy client details between tools, agency software is usually worth the extra setup.

How did we pick these tools?

We picked the tools agencies billing by the hour most often compare, and checked each one on:

• Billable rates per client, project or person
• Turning hours into invoices, or at least an export an invoice can be built from
• Syncing with QuickBooks or Xero, and what actually syncs
• The plan you need for those features, not the cheapest plan on the page
• Seat minimums and per-user caps
• Whether time is tied to a real client record or only to a client name

All prices are from each vendor's own pricing page on 26 October 2026, in the currency the page shows, before tax.

FAQ

What is the cheapest time tracker with invoicing? Of the tools here, Clockify Standard, at $5.49 a user per month billed yearly ($6.99 monthly), is the cheapest plan that creates invoices from tracked time. Harvest includes invoicing on every plan, but billable rates for a team start on Teams at $9.

Which time trackers work with QuickBooks and Xero? Harvest and Everhour sync invoices with both. Clockify sends invoices to Xero and time entries to QuickBooks. Toggl Track and Timely send invoices to QuickBooks Online. Check which plan the sync needs, as it is often above the entry plan.

Does Teamo create invoices? Yes, as documents, not as an accounting record: Teamo doesn't take payments. You save an invoice as a template, and its variables fill in each client's name, billable hours, rate and amount. You export it as PDF or Word or share its public link. Teamo also connects to QuickBooks, Xero and other accounting tools through its API, and the Teamo team can help set that up.

Do I need timesheet approval before invoicing? It helps once several people bill the same client, because a manager checks hours before the client sees them. In Harvest, Toggl Track and Productive it is on a higher plan; check before you choose the entry plan.

What is the difference between a time tracker and agency management software? A time tracker records hours and turns them into invoices. Agency management software also holds the clients, deals, projects and budgets, so the hours sit next to the rest of the client work.