Consultants need more than a timer. You need to log hours against each client and project, keep billable and internal work apart, and turn those hours into an invoice without retyping them. Those hours are what you sell, so every hour you forget to log is an hour you never bill. Harvest’s own consultant guide puts typical agency utilization at 55–60%, against a realistic target of 70–80%.
The short version:
- Best for billing clients from tracked time: Harvest
- Best accounting and time in one app: FreshBooks
- Best for contracts, proposals, and invoices together: Bonsai
- Best free plan for a small firm: Clockify
- Best for clean reports across a team: Toggl Track
- Best automatic timesheets for a team: Timely
- Best if your work lives in Asana, Jira, or Trello: Everhour
- Best for a QuickBooks practice: QuickBooks Time
- Best all-in-one project management and invoicing: Paymo
- Best automatic tracker for a solo consultant on a Mac: Chronoid
Prices checked October 15, 2026 on each vendor’s own pricing page. Several vendors run introductory discounts; the prices below are the regular rates.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | How time gets in | Billable rates and invoicing | Free plan | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest | Billing clients | Timer, timesheet | Rates and invoices on every plan | 1 seat, 2 projects | $9/seat/mo billed yearly |
| FreshBooks | Accounting plus time | Timer, timesheet | Invoices built in | No | $23/mo (5 billable clients) |
| Bonsai | Solo consultants, full client workflow | Timer, timesheet | Invoices from Essentials | No (7-day trial) | $9/user/mo billed yearly; invoices from $19 |
| Clockify | Small firms on a budget | Timer, timesheet | Rates from Basic, invoices from Standard | Up to 5 users | $3.99/seat/mo billed yearly |
| Toggl Track | Team reports | Timer, plus desktop activity timeline | Rates from Starter, basic PDF invoices | Up to 3 users | $9/user/mo billed yearly |
| Timely | Automatic team timesheets | Automatic, AI-drafted entries | Rates on every plan; accounting sync on Premium | No (14-day trial) | $9/user/mo billed yearly |
| Everhour | Teams in a PM tool | Timer inside Asana, Jira, Trello | Budgets and invoices on Team | Up to 5 seats, no integrations | $8.50/seat/mo billed yearly, 5-seat minimum |
| QuickBooks Time | QuickBooks practices | Timer, mobile, GPS | Syncs to QuickBooks for invoicing | No | $20/mo + $10/user |
| Paymo | Projects, tasks, and invoices | Timer, timesheet | Invoices on every plan | 1 user, 1 client, 2 projects | $9.90/mo (Solo) |
| Chronoid | Solo consultant on a Mac | Automatic, with rules | Rates and invoices from Personal ($99) | No (7-day trial) | $59 once |
If you mainly need to see hours per client and project, our guide to project time tracking software compares the same problem from the project side.
What consultants should look for
- Time by client and project. One client, several projects or retainers under it, and a clear split between billable and internal work.
- Rates that match how you bill. Some consultants charge one rate everywhere. Others bill per client, per project, or per person on the team.
- A short path to an invoice. Either invoices built in, or a clean sync to the accounting tool you already use.
- Budgets for fixed-fee and retainer work. You want to see hours or money used against the budget before you go over it.
- Low effort to log time. Consultants switch between calls, documents, and email all day. If logging time is a chore, entries get skipped. Automatic tracking solves this for some people.
- Where the data lives. A detailed log of client work is sensitive. Most tools here store it in the vendor’s cloud; Chronoid keeps it on your Mac.
1. Harvest: best for billing clients
Harvest is built around client work. Every plan, including the free one, lets you set up clients and projects, mark time as billable or non-billable, set rates, use time-and-materials or fixed-fee projects with estimates, and turn unbilled hours into an invoice. It also tracks expenses and connects to QuickBooks and Xero.
It is a good default for a solo consultant or small firm whose main goal is to bill accurately and get paid. On Enterprise you also get profitability reports by client, project, task, or team, and timesheet approvals.
Downsides: The free plan allows only 2 projects. Profitability reports and approvals need Enterprise. It is a timer app, so you have to remember to start it.
Price: Free for 1 seat and 2 projects. Teams is $9 per seat per month billed yearly, or $11 monthly. Enterprise is $14 per seat per month billed yearly, or $17.50 monthly. See Harvest pricing.
2. FreshBooks: best accounting and time in one app
FreshBooks is accounting software for service businesses with time tracking built in. You log hours against a client and project, mark them billable, and add them to an invoice in the same app that handles expenses, payments, and reports for your books.
It suits independent consultants who would rather not run separate time, invoicing, and accounting tools.
Downsides: Pricing is tied to how many clients you bill: Lite covers 5, Plus 50, Premium unlimited. Each extra team member costs $11 per month. Time reporting is simpler than in dedicated time trackers.
Price: Lite $23 per month, Plus $43, Premium $70 (regular monthly rates; FreshBooks often runs introductory discounts). See FreshBooks pricing.
3. Bonsai: best for the full client workflow
Bonsai covers the steps before and after time tracking: proposals, contracts, a client CRM, time tracking, and invoices. You can win the work, send the contract, log hours, and bill from one account.
Downsides: The Basic plan includes time tracking but not invoices, proposals, or contracts. You need Essentials or higher for those. Pricing is per user, so it gets expensive for a team.
Price: Basic $9 per user per month billed yearly ($15 monthly). Essentials, the first plan with invoices and contracts, is $19 billed yearly ($25 monthly). Premium is $29 ($39 monthly). 7-day free trial. See Bonsai pricing.
4. Clockify: best free plan for a small firm
Clockify gives a small team timers, timesheets, and reports for free, across web, desktop, and mobile. Consulting features are spread across paid tiers: billable rates and time estimates start on Basic, invoicing on Standard, and time or money budgets on Pro.
Downsides: The free plan has no billable rates, invoices, or budgets, and its reports only cover one month at a time. Expect some setup work to get rates and reports right.
Price: Free for up to 5 users. Per seat per month, billed yearly: Basic $3.99, Standard $5.49, Pro $7.99, Enterprise $11.99. Monthly billing costs more. See Clockify pricing.
5. Toggl Track: best for team reports
Toggl Track is a simple timer with strong reports and apps for every platform, plus a browser extension and many integrations. Starter adds billable rates and project estimates. Premium adds fixed-fee projects, member rates, labor costs, and profitability reports. The Mac and Windows apps can also record the apps and websites you use, which helps you fill gaps when you forget a timer.
Downsides: Profitability features are on Premium. Invoices are basic PDFs made from a report. For a closer look, see Chronoid vs Toggl.
Price: Free for up to 3 users. Starter $9 per user per month billed yearly ($12 monthly). Premium $16 billed yearly ($24 monthly). See Toggl pricing.
6. Timely: best automatic timesheets for a team
Timely records your activity in the background and uses it to draft timesheet entries, which you review and approve. Teams who hate timers like it because nobody has to remember to press start. Every plan includes automatic tracking, billable rates, and project budgets. Recurring budgets for retainers need Premium.
Downsides: No free plan. Starter is capped at 5 users and 20 projects. Activity is processed in Timely’s cloud.
Price: Starter $9 per user per month billed yearly ($11 monthly). Premium $16 billed yearly ($20 monthly). Unlimited $22 billed yearly ($28 monthly). 14-day free trial. See Timely pricing.
7. Everhour: best if your work lives in a PM tool
Everhour adds a timer inside the project tools your team already uses, including Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Trello, Linear, Basecamp, monday.com, and Notion. Time lands on the real tasks, so you can compare estimates with actual hours on retainer and fixed-fee work. Budgets and invoicing are on the Team plan.
Downsides: The free plan has no integrations, which is the main reason to use Everhour. The Team plan needs at least 5 seats, so a solo consultant pays for 5.
Price: Free for up to 5 seats with limited features. Team $8.50 per seat per month billed yearly, 5-seat minimum. See Everhour pricing.
8. QuickBooks Time: best for a QuickBooks practice
If QuickBooks Online already runs your books, QuickBooks Time sends tracked hours straight into invoicing and payroll. It also has mobile tracking with optional GPS for on-site work, scheduling, and approvals.
Downsides: You pay a monthly base fee plus a per-user fee, so it costs more than most tools here. Most of its value depends on already using QuickBooks.
Price: Time Premium $20 per month plus $10 per user. Time Elite $40 per month plus $12 per user. Intuit often discounts the base fee for the first few months. See QuickBooks Time pricing.
9. Paymo: best all-in-one projects and invoicing
Paymo combines tasks, time tracking, and invoices in one app, so a small consulting team can plan work, log hours against it, and bill from the same place. Plus and Pro add project profitability, estimates, expenses, and integrations.
Downsides: The free plan allows 1 client and 2 projects, so most consultants outgrow it quickly. Intro prices rise after the first 3 months.
Price: Free for 1 user. Solo $9.90 per month, Plus $15.90 per user, Pro $23.90 per user (regular monthly rates after a 3-month introductory price). Yearly billing is discounted. See Paymo pricing.
10. Chronoid: best automatic tracker for a solo consultant on a Mac
Chronoid is the Mac app we make, so keep that in mind. It records the apps, websites, and documents you work on in the background, so you never start a timer. Rules assign that time to clients and projects for you: for example, everything in a /Clients/Acme folder, or any Figma window with “Acme” in the title. Anything that does not match waits in Unassigned for you to sort later.
Other parts that matter for consultants:
- Meetings get logged. Chronoid detects calls in Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, and Google Meet and asks which project to log them to when the call ends. You can add manual entries for phone calls or work away from the Mac.
- Retainer hours. Set daily, weekly, or monthly hour targets per project and get a notification when you reach them.
- Billing. Mark projects billable, set hourly rates, and create PDF invoices from tracked hours (Personal plan and up). See invoicing.
- Private by default. Your activity data is stored on your Mac. Multiple Macs sync through your own iCloud account, not a Chronoid server. This matters if you handle legal, financial, or strategy work.
Downsides: Mac only and one person only. There is no team view, no Windows or web app, and no free plan. It has hour targets but not money budgets. If you run a firm and need to see colleagues’ hours, pick one of the team tools above.
Price: 7-day free trial. Basic $59 once (1 Mac) covers automatic tracking, projects, rules, and hour targets, but not billable rates or invoices. Personal $99 once (2 Macs) adds billable rates, invoices, AI insights, and iCloud sync. Basic and Personal include one year of updates, and you keep your version afterwards. Lifetime is $149 once, or subscribe for $15 per month or $96 per year. See pricing.
How to choose
Choose by how you work, not by feature count:
- Solo consultant who forgets timers: Chronoid on a Mac, or Timely if you need Windows or a team later. See our guide to automatic time tracking software.
- Solo consultant who mainly wants to get paid: Harvest, FreshBooks, or Bonsai. All three turn hours into invoices without exporting anything.
- Small firm that needs approvals and per-client budgets: Clockify Pro, Harvest Enterprise, or Everhour.
- Team that plans work in Asana, Jira, or Trello: Everhour.
- QuickBooks practice: QuickBooks Time first.
During any trial, test the whole flow rather than the timer button: create a client and two projects, set rates, log billable and internal time, create an invoice or export to accounting, and check that the report is ready to send to a client without cleanup.
First-week setup checklist
- Clients first, then projects. Add each client, then its projects, retainers, and an internal project for admin and sales.
- Set rates before you track. Decide whether rates vary by client, project, person, or task.
- Pick how detailed to be. Tracking by task gives better reports but takes more effort than tracking by project.
- Make one test invoice. Check that hours, rates, and taxes come through correctly.
- Check budgets and reports. Make sure you can see remaining budget, unbilled time, and a report you would send a client.
Our billable hours calculator helps check the math, and how to track billable hours covers a simple daily routine.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time tracking software for consultants?
It depends on where you lose time today. If you forget to start timers, an automatic tracker such as Timely or Chronoid (Mac) records the day for you. If billing is the bottleneck, Harvest, FreshBooks, and Bonsai turn tracked hours into invoices. Small firms that need approvals and per-client budgets are usually better served by Clockify, Harvest, or Everhour.
Is there free time tracking software for consultants?
Yes, with limits. Clockify is free for up to 5 users, Toggl Track for up to 3, Harvest for 1 seat and 2 projects, and Paymo for 1 user with 1 client. The features consultants need most, such as billable rates, invoices, and budgets, are usually on paid plans. See our list of free time tracking software.
Can I track consulting time in a spreadsheet?
You can, and many solo consultants start there. Problems show up once you have several clients: entries get rebuilt from memory at the end of the week, short calls and emails go unlogged, and rates live in your head. An app pays for itself once it stops that leakage.
Which tools turn tracked time directly into invoices?
Harvest, FreshBooks, Paymo, Bonsai (Essentials and up), Clockify (Standard and up), and Chronoid (Personal and up) create invoices inside the app. Toggl Track makes basic PDF invoices from reports. QuickBooks Time sends hours to QuickBooks instead. If you want Timely, check its current plans for invoicing before you buy. More on this in our guide to time tracking and invoicing software.
Is Clockify actually free?
Yes. Clockify’s free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited projects. Billable rates, invoicing, and budgets need a paid plan.