Best Time Tracking Software for Agencies: Compare the Top Options

The best time tracking software for agencies makes it easy to record billable and non-billable hours, connect time with client projects, monitor project budgets, and create reports that support billing and planning. The right option depends on your agency’s billing model, current software, team size, and preferred way to track time.

Teamwork may suit agencies that want time tracking and project management in one platform. Harvest focuses on time, reporting, budgets, and client billing. Clockify offers a broad free option, while Timely focuses on automatic time capture. Agencies that already use a project management platform may prefer an integration-focused tool such as Everhour.

Best Time Tracking Software for Agencies at a Glance

No platform is best for every agency. A small creative team replacing spreadsheets has different needs from an agency managing complex budgets, approval workflows, and several billing models.

Software	Best for	Tracking approach	Key agency features	Free plan or trial	Main limitation
Teamwork	Time tracking and project management in one platform	Timers, timesheets, and manual entry	Project time, budgets, billable work, reports, and resource features that vary by plan	30-day trial	May be more complex than a standalone tracker
Harvest	Straightforward time tracking and client billing	Timer and manual entry	Project budgets, reports, invoicing, and accounting integrations	Free option and 30-day trial for paid plans	Not a full agency project management system
Clockify	Agencies seeking a broad free starting point	Timer, timesheet, calendar, and manual entry	Unlimited time tracking, projects, tasks, and clients on the free plan; advanced controls require paid plans	Free plan	Some permissions, budget, approval, and reporting features require an upgrade
Toggl Track	Simple time entry and flexible reports	Web, desktop, mobile, browser extension, and manual entry	Billable time, reports, project estimates, and team features that vary by plan	Free plan for a limited number of users	Advanced agency controls may require a higher plan
Timely	Automatic and AI-assisted time capture	Automatic desktop activity capture with reviewed timesheet entries	Budgets, rates, costs, reports, and planning features that vary by plan	14-day trial	No permanent free plan
My Hours	Project budgets and flexible client work	Timer and manual entry	Clients, tasks, billable rates, budgets, reports, approvals, and invoicing features	Free for up to five users and a 14-day Pro trial	Advanced financial controls require a paid plan
Everhour	Agencies keeping an existing project management tool	Web, desktop, mobile, browser extension, and embedded integrations	Budgets, reports, billing, invoicing, and native project management integrations on the paid plan	Free for up to five seats and a 14-day full-feature trial	Native integrations require a paid plan with a minimum seat commitment

The official Teamwork pricing and plan comparison confirms that time tracking is available across its plans and supports timers, timesheets, reminders, and project reporting.

The current Harvest pricing explains its time tracking, team reporting, invoicing, and accounting or payment integrations.

According to the official Clockify free-plan documentation, the free version supports unlimited time tracking and unlimited projects, tasks, and clients. Permissions and management controls vary across its paid subscriptions.

The My Hours pricing page states that its free plan supports teams of up to five users. The Everhour plan comparison also lists a free option for up to five seats, while its Team plan includes native integrations, budgeting, billing, and invoicing features.

Product information in this guide was verified using official platform sources in July 2026. Pricing, plan limits, and features can change, so confirm the latest details before purchasing.

Diagnose the Agency Problem Before Choosing a Time Tracker

The right time tracking software depends on where your current process breaks down. Forgotten time entries require different features from inaccurate client invoices, project overruns, disconnected reports, or poor team adoption.

Review your current process before comparing tools:

• Are time entries missing or submitted late?
• Do team members use inconsistent client, project, or task names?
• Are billable and non-billable hours classified clearly?
• Does someone spend too much time preparing billing reports?
• Do projects exceed their hour budgets without an early warning?
• Can managers compare estimated and tracked hours?
• Is the same information entered into several platforms?
• Do reports contain data that nobody uses?
• Is one person responsible for reviewing and correcting timesheets?

Software cannot fix an unclear project scope, incorrect rates, or poorly organized tasks. A detailed report will still be unreliable when the underlying time entries are incomplete or assigned to the wrong project.

For example, a small creative agency may track employee hours in a spreadsheet and then clean up each entry before billing. That agency should prioritize simple approvals, clear client reports, and invoice exports. It may not need activity monitoring or complex resource scheduling.

Standalone Time Tracking or an All-in-One Agency Platform?

A standalone time tracking app usually fits agencies that are satisfied with their current project management software. An integrated platform may fit agencies that want to manage tasks, tracked hours, budgets, resources, and client work in the same system.

Decision factor	Standalone time tracker	Integrated agency platform
Setup effort	Usually lower	Usually higher
Current software	Adds to the existing stack	May replace part of the stack
Time-tracking depth	Often more focused	Varies by platform
Project management features	Usually handled through integrations	Often built in
Data fragmentation	Depends on integration quality	Usually lower within the platform
Learning curve	Often simpler	May be steeper
Migration requirements	Usually limited	May be significant
Best fit	Agencies keeping their current tools	Agencies consolidating operations

Do not choose an all-in-one platform only because it has more features. Added functions may increase cost, create duplicate workflows, or make adoption harder.

For example, a digital agency that already manages every client project in another platform may need only a dependable timer, browser extension, and native integration. An agency trying to replace separate task, resource, budget, and time systems may need a broader platform.

Agencies considering that broader change can also compare the best project management tools for agencies. That page covers task management, collaboration, planning, and project delivery, while this guide remains focused on time capture, billing, budgets, and reports.

How This Guide Evaluates Agency Time Tracking Software

This guide compares each platform using publicly available product information across five practical areas: capture, classification, control, connection, and clarity. 

Capture

Capture covers how team members record work. Methods may include:

• Start-and-stop timers
• Manual entry
• Desktop and mobile apps
• Browser extensions
• Calendar-assisted entries
• Automated reminders
• Automatic activity capture
• AI-assisted timesheet suggestions

The best method is one the team can use consistently without adding excessive administrative work.

Classification

Time entries become more useful when each one connects to the correct client, project, task, and billing status. Agencies may also need notes, tags, custom rates, or separate categories for internal and non-billable work.

Poor classification can produce detailed reports that still fail to answer basic questions about project effort or client work.

Control

Control includes project budgets, timesheet approvals, user permissions, locked entries, budget warnings, cost rates, and billable rates.

These features become more important when several team members work across the same client accounts or when tracked time supports invoices and project-level reporting.

Connection

A time tracker should work with the agency’s existing project management, accounting, invoicing, and calendar systems. The number of listed integrations matters less than whether the required integrations transfer the information your agency needs.

Test essential connections during the free trial instead of assuming that every listed integration supports the same fields or workflow.

Clarity

Reports should help agency leaders understand where time went and what decision to make next. Useful reports may show:

• Hours by client, project, or task
• Billable and non-billable work
• Estimated versus tracked hours
• Project budget use
• Unbilled time
• Client-ready time details
• Labor costs or project profitability when supported

Profitability reports depend on complete time entries and accurate financial inputs. Software cannot correct unreliable revenue, cost, or rate data.

Operational reporting often overlaps with marketing reporting. Agencies that rely on tracked time to evaluate client work may also need accurate analytics, conversion tracking, and SEO reporting to understand whether that work is producing measurable results. 

The Best Agency Time-Tracking Tools by Use Case

Teamwork: Best for Time Tracking and Project Management Together

Teamwork’s time-tracking tools connect time entries directly with projects and tasks. Its official documentation describes timers, bulk time entry, timesheets, automated reminders, billable and non-billable reporting, and exports.

Time tracking is available across Teamwork plans, while financial and resource features depend on the selected tier. Teamwork is worth considering when an agency wants project delivery and time data in the same platform.

An agency that already has a project management system may find a standalone tracker easier to adopt. Teamwork currently offers a 30-day trial, but agencies should confirm its current plans and pricing before purchasing.

Harvest: Best for Straightforward Time Tracking and Client Billing

Harvest’s time-tracking and billing plans focus on recording hours, reviewing team data, monitoring project budgets, and turning billable work into invoices.

Its current Teams plan includes team reporting, capacity information, invoicing, and integrations with platforms such as Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Deel.

Harvest may fit agencies that want a focused time and billing tool without moving all project delivery into a new system. Prices, integrations, and plan inclusions should be verified through the official Harvest pricing page before publication or purchase.

Clockify: Best for Agencies Seeking a Broad Free Option

The Clockify free plan includes unlimited time tracking and an unlimited number of projects, tasks, and clients. Team members can record time through web, desktop, and mobile tools.

The free plan is a practical starting point for agencies that need basic time capture without immediately paying for advanced controls.

However, the Clockify plan comparison shows that some project permissions, budget functions, approvals, activity controls, and advanced reports depend on the selected paid plan.

Agencies should compare the exact tier they need rather than choosing Clockify only because the basic plan is free.

Toggl Track: Best for Simple, Low-Friction Time Entry

The official Toggl Track feature overview lists web, desktop, mobile, and browser-based time tracking. Its features include manual and timer-based entries, customized reports, billable rates, integrations, and team controls.

The Toggl Track pricing page lists a free option for teams of up to five users. Paid plans add more project, approval, reporting, and team-management functions.

Toggl Track may suit agencies that prioritize simple time entry and flexible reports over a complete set of resource-planning or agency-management features.

Timely: Best for Automatic and AI-Assisted Time Tracking

Timely’s Memory tracker works in the background to record activity from desktop applications and websites. Users can review captured activity and turn it into timesheet entries.

Timely also describes AI-assisted timesheets, project budgets, rates, reports, and planning features. Automatic capture may reduce reliance on memory, but it does not remove the need for review.

Team members still need to assign each entry to the correct client, project, task, and billing category. Timely currently offers a 14-day trial, while its official pricing page does not list a permanent free plan.

My Hours: Best for Project Budgets and Flexible Client Work

My Hours organizes time around clients, projects, tasks, and billable rates. Its platform supports timer-based and manual entry across web and mobile tools.

The official My Hours billable-rate documentation explains how rates can be assigned and used within projects. Published features also include project budgets, reports, approval workflows, costs, and invoicing functions that vary by plan.

My Hours is free for teams of up to five users. Agencies should review the current My Hours plan options to determine which billing, approval, reporting, and financial controls are included.

Everhour: Best for Agencies Keeping Their Project Management Tool

Everhour’s project management integrations are designed to add time tracking to platforms such as Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Basecamp, Trello, Monday, Notion, GitHub, and Linear.

Its paid Team plan includes native integrations, billing, budgeting, invoicing, reports, resource planning, and advanced permissions. The free plan includes basic time tracking, projects, tasks, reports, and data exports, but it does not include the same native integration functions.

The official Everhour pricing page lists a free plan for up to five seats and a 14-day full-feature trial. Its paid Team plan carries a minimum seat requirement.

For example, an SEO agency using Asana or ClickUp for recurring client tasks might value an embedded timer and project budget data more than another task-management system. The agency should test the required integration before committing.

Match the Software to Your Agency’s Billing Model

Time tracking matters across several billing models, but agencies use the data for different decisions.

Billing model	Main time-tracking priority
Hourly work	Accurate billable entries, rates, approvals, and billing exports
Fixed-fee projects	Estimated-versus-tracked hours and budget warnings
Monthly retainers	Time by client, service, campaign, or deliverable
Mixed billing	Flexible rates, classifications, and reports
Internal work	Clear non-billable categories and capacity visibility

An hourly agency may use approved tracked hours to support accurate client invoices. A fixed-fee agency may compare tracked effort with the original estimate to identify scope or delivery issues.

A retainer-based social media agency might review time spent on content creation, approvals, reporting, and client communication. Those hours do not determine the monthly invoice, but they can support future scope and workload discussions.

Time should not become the agency’s only measure of value. Agencies that need payment collection, recurring invoices, expenses, or wider billing functions may also need dedicated invoicing software for client billing.

How to Test Time-Tracking Software Before Rolling It Out

Test two or three shortlisted platforms with a small group before moving the entire agency. Use similar projects and tasks in each system so you can compare the results fairly.

Run a Small Pilot

Choose two or three team members, one internal project, and one client project. Avoid moving every client, user, task, and historical record during the first test.

Test Real Agency Tasks

During the pilot:

1. Start and stop a timer.
2. Enter time manually.
3. Correct a missed or inaccurate entry.
4. Mark work as billable or non-billable.
5. Create or test a project budget.
6. Export a client or project report.
7. Use the required browser and mobile tools.
8. Test the most important integration.
9. Review which activity or personal data the platform records.
10. Calculate the cost for the current and expected team size.

Practical note: Test the full workflow, not only the timer. A platform may make tracking easy but create friction when managers approve entries, correct project assignments, prepare client reports, or transfer data into billing systems.

Review Adoption and Data Quality

Ask pilot users whether time entry was clear and whether corrections were easy. Managers should check whether the resulting data answers real questions about clients, budgets, billing, and workload.

A polished dashboard has limited value when entries are missing, misclassified, or too vague to interpret.

How to Measure Whether the New System Is Working

A time-tracking rollout is working when the agency receives more complete and useful data without creating unreasonable administrative work.

Review measures such as:

• Expected timesheets submitted
• Entries submitted by the agency’s chosen deadline
• Entries requiring correction
• Uncategorized or unassigned time
• Estimated versus tracked project hours
• Budget warnings identified before project completion
• Time needed to prepare billing reports
• Team feedback about ease of use
• Manager confidence in reports
• Duplicate tools or manual steps removed

Do not adopt a universal completion or utilization target without checking whether it fits your roles, billing model, and definition of available work time. Establish an internal baseline, review the pilot, and decide what improvement would justify the cost and effort.

Limitations, Privacy, and Employee-Monitoring Concerns

Time tracking, automatic activity capture, attendance tracking, and employee monitoring are not the same. Agencies should confirm exactly what each platform records and which optional features are enabled.

Review whether a platform collects screenshots, application or website activity, keyboard or mouse activity levels, GPS data, or device information. Team members should understand who can access the data, whether they can correct entries, and how the organization plans to use the information.

Automatic activity records do not prove productive output. More monitoring also does not automatically create better management.

Employment, notice, consent, privacy, and recordkeeping requirements may vary by location, working arrangement, and tracking method. Legal or compliance review is required before publishing specific legal guidance or introducing monitoring that may affect employee rights.

Final Checklist for Choosing an Agency Time Tracker

Before selecting a platform, confirm that it:

• Fits your billing model
• Works with your current project management system
• Separates billable and non-billable work
• Makes manual corrections easy
• Provides the reports your managers need
• Supports project budgets when required
• Has acceptable privacy controls
• Works on the devices your team uses
• Fits your current and expected team size
• Has been tested with real client and internal work
• Does not duplicate another platform without a clear benefit
• Has current pricing and features confirmed through official documentation

Conclusion

The best agency time tracker depends on the problem you need to solve, how you bill clients, which tools you already use, and what information your managers need. Shortlist two or three options, run a limited pilot, and compare data quality, adoption, integrations, privacy, and total cost before committing.

Accurate time records are only one part of reliable business measurement. ChitChat Marketing can help businesses review conversion tracking, analytics, and marketing reporting to build a clearer view of website and campaign performance. Request a consultation to discuss your marketing measurement needs.

FAQs

Can time-tracking software create invoices automatically?

Some platforms can create invoices from approved billable hours. Others send time data to an accounting platform or provide reports that must be entered into another system. Confirm whether invoicing is native, integration-based, or limited to a paid plan.

Can an agency use free time-tracking software with a large team?

Some free plans support larger teams, but they may restrict approvals, project budgets, permissions, integrations, invoicing, or advanced reports. Compare the functions your agency needs rather than choosing a plan only by its user allowance.

Is AI time tracking the same as employee monitoring?

No. AI-assisted time tracking may suggest entries based on calendars, applications, documents, or recorded activity. Employee monitoring may include screenshots, GPS, website histories, or activity scores, depending on the platform and its configuration.

Can time-tracking software calculate project profitability?

Some platforms combine time entries with revenue, billable rates, labor costs, and project budgets to produce profitability reports. The result depends on complete time records and accurate financial inputs.

How often should agency employees enter their hours?

The right schedule depends on the agency’s workflow and type of work. Shorter intervals may reduce reliance on memory, but the process should remain practical enough for team members to follow consistently.