Time And Expense Tracking Software

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Zoho Invoice

FrontRunners 2022

Zoho Invoice is a 100% free cloud-based invoicing solution designed to help small businesses with invoicing, tracking expenses and, accepting online payments.Key features include project billing, time tracking, reporting, customiz...Read more about Zoho Invoice

Elorus

Elorus is an online invoicing, time-tracking, billing and expense management platform. At heart, it is the ideal professional solution for every freelancer, small business and creative agency. Since 2014, Elorus has been working h...Read more about Elorus

4.87 (94 reviews)

Harvest

FrontRunners 2022

Harvest is a cloud-based time tracking tool designed for businesses of all sizes. The solution provides timesheet and invoicing features for small businesses and freelancers. Key features include time and expense management, team ...Read more about Harvest

Timely

Timely is a project management software, which helps businesses of all sizes allot and schedule tasks to team members and track deliverables to visualize projects. It allows administrators to balance resources across various clien...Read more about Timely

Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a provider of cloud-based financial management and accounting software. Sage Intacct's software solution is suitable for small to midsize accounting firms and can provide financial reporting and operational insight...Read more about Sage Intacct

4.16 (339 reviews)

9 recommendations

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Planview Daptiv

Changepoint PPM is a time and expense management solution designed to help project management office (PMO) leaders, resource managers and executive stakeholders manage hybrid or strategic portfolios, resources and project costs. A...Read more about Planview Daptiv

4.53 (75 reviews)

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PROMYS

Promys provides CRM, help desk and PSA business software solutions to VARs, resellers and solution providers in the information technology, managed service provider, audio-visual and physical security markets. Promys provides soft...Read more about PROMYS

4.71 (29 reviews)

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NetSuite SRP

NetSuite Professional Services Automation is used by professional services organizations to optimize their project-based operations. The software offers integrated project management, resource management, project-based accounting ...Read more about NetSuite SRP

3.83 (12 reviews)

7 recommendations

BigTime

FrontRunners 2022

BigTime is an online time and billing solution designed to serve professional service firms like accounting, engineering, government contracting, legal and IT services. The integrated solution offers features like time and expense...Read more about BigTime

4.58 (585 reviews)

45 recommendations

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Dovico

Small businesses require big data to scale and improve. Dovico Timesheet helps growing companies with project time and cost data reports that provide insights into labour availability and billable or non-billable project health. T...Read more about Dovico

4.35 (68 reviews)

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time@work

time@work by systems@work is a cloud-based time and expense management solution that helps in resource allocation, billing, reporting and accounting. The solution caters to various industries such as healthcare, banking, insurance...Read more about time@work

5.00 (1 reviews)

Kantata

The Kantata Cloud for Professional Services is a powerful collection of operational management, resource optimization, business intelligence, integration, and workflow automation functionality that optimizes resources and elevates...Read more about Kantata

4.18 (577 reviews)

6 recommendations

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Emburse Abacus

Abacus is a cloud-based T&E solution that offers midsize teams a highly efficient way to track and control expenses, reimburse employees, and book travel. Employees use a mobile app to submit expenses right when they happen. ...Read more about Emburse Abacus

4.38 (57 reviews)

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Rydoo

Rydoo is an expense solution that helps high growth and enterprise businesses reduce admin work and easily process employee expenses. It lets users scan and digitize receipts using a mobile app for Rydoo Expense to scan and extrac...Read more about Rydoo

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CloudBlue PSA

CloudBlue PSA is a hybrid professional services automation (PSA) solution that helps cloud-based managed service providers and software companies of all sizes to manage their business operations. The solution can be deployed eithe...Read more about CloudBlue PSA

4.52 (23 reviews)

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actiTIME

actiTIME is time tracking software that combines time, team and project management functionality. Keep control of your projects with task estimates, deadlines, workflow statuses and monitor your projects’ health with time and fi...Read more about actiTIME

4.60 (85 reviews)

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WorkflowMax

Workflow Max is a cloud-based workflow and job management solution designed to serve small to midsize service-based businesses. Along with key project management capabilities, the solution provides quote creation, timesheets, job ...Read more about WorkflowMax

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TimeLive

TimeLive by Livetecs is a cloud-based Time-tracking, Project Management solution for small to large-scale enterprises in consulting, software development, travel, technology, manufacturing, retail, and marketing. The solution can ...Read more about TimeLive

4.48 (27 reviews)

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AccountSight

AccountSight is a cloud-based professional services automation (PSA) solution targeting startups and other growing businesses. Key features include applications for project management, time tracking, billing and invoicing, expense...Read more about AccountSight

4.94 (48 reviews)

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FunctionFox

FunctionFox is a cloud-based time tracking and project management application, offering timesheets and estimates, as well as scheduling, task assignment, and reporting. FunctionFox’s capabilities are suited for the billing a...Read more about FunctionFox

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Buyers Guide

Last Updated: November 23, 2022

An important aspect of managing the costs of a project is tracking employee time and external expenses separate from other projects or operational costs. Although young companies are usually able to get away with using Excel spreadsheets and standard bookkeeping software to track all this information, as professional service businesses grow and start changing how projects get assigned, they often find these tools to be insufficient for their needs.

The solution is software that’s specifically designed to track the time and expenses associated with each project. But with so many time management systems on the market, picking the right one can be a challenge. With that in mind, we’ve written this buyer’s guide to help you as you start to narrow down your choices from the hundreds available.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Time and Expense Tracking Software?
Common Features of Time and Expense Software
Time and Expense Software Benefits
What Type of Buyer Are You?

What Is Time and Expense Software?

Time and expense report software gives professional services organizations the ability to monitor and control the labor and costs associated with every project. This, in turn, helps streamline their invoicing, improve bid accuracy and reduce unnecessary costs.

Time tracking software is often used as part of a comprehensive professional services automation (PSA) suite, which would also include features that support project management, help desk, resource management and customer relationship management, among others.

Screenshot of time card in BillQuick

Screenshot of time card in BillQuick

This type of software can be deployed in the cloud, or on premise. In the case of the former, the software is hosted online and accessed via Web browser. On-premise deployment, on the other hand, means the software is installed manually on a user's local servers and run directly on the user's machine. An online time tracking system may be preferable if you need remote access or prefer a lower up-front cost (since pricing for web-based systems is usually by annual or monthly subscription, rather than purchasing a license in full up front).

Common Features of Time and Expense Software

Features and functionality of time and expense reporting software include:

Punch-clock and manual time entry The most basic functionality, which free and high-end products alike will provide: the ability to electronically clock in and out and to manually enter or change clocking times as necessary. The more advanced the product is, the more likely it is to offer PINs, magnetic card reader hardware, automated start/stop capability (e.g., clocking out when your computer goes to sleep) or other features.
Expense tracking Monitor costs of materials, tools etc., with the ability to tie them to individual projects or to general expenses.
Project-based accounting If you’ve got 15 employees each working on five different projects, accurate time reporting requires knowing which projects they were working on when. So this feature is there to help you track revenues and expenses by client and project and then export in a way that your accounting software can understand.
Workload management Some time and expense tracking software can help you monitor the bandwidth of each employee, providing clear reports that show you which ones are working on which projects, how much time they’re dedicating to each one, where they’re heading and when and when they complete a certain project. This helps streamline employee assignments, and becomes especially useful as company sizes grow into the hundreds of employees.
Resource planning An advanced feature, this uses historical data and analytics to improve your ability to estimate any given project. This impacts the accuracy of your bids and optimizes your budgets, so you never end up taking a loss on a project again.
Mobile integration Since many consulting companies travel extensively, the ability to integrate this software with your mobile device is often essential.

Time and Expense Software Benefits

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should implement a dedicated time and expense software system, consider the following benefits it can bring to your business:

  • It makes the tracking process more accurate. Thanks to all the features we described in the previous section, the tracking process is less error-prone compared to manual methods.
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  • It simplifies workflows. This is especially true if employees in one company are currently using separate spreadsheets or systems to report work time. When you have to combine disparate documentation, you’ll often have to check records against each other to ensure accuracy. A unified solution makes it faster to evaluate the entire company’s progress when it comes to time and expense reporting.
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  • It will help you better manage resources. Once you’re able to see time and expense information at a glance, you’ll be able to better plan or avoid employee overtime.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

  • Specialty buyers. Although time and expense reporting is generally considered a feature of PSA software, it could also be considered a function human resources or accounting, and similar features can be found in any number of other specialty suites, including construction software, manufacturing software or others. If you fit into one of these categories, take a look at those buyers guide to see if other solutions might be more appropriate for your needs.
  • Large professional services firms. Large consulting operations likely won’t be happy with a basic time and expense tracking program. With the right resources, a more comprehensive PSA solution like Clarizen or AtTask would be a much better fit.
  • Medium or rapidly growing professional services firms. We usually find that this is the sweet spot for the best-of-breed time and expense tracking programs. These will be focused on optimizing the features described above, and are designed to take medium-sized businesses to the next phase of their growth cycle. Example products include Deltek Maconomy, Replicon Web TimeSheet and Sage Timeslips.
  • Small businesses and solopreneurs. There are a number of free solutions, both for computers and for smartphones, which perform the basic functions listed above. Even with cross-user compatibility, these subscription-based solutions are very affordable for companies on even the tightest budget. Products to consider include 1DayLater and Harvest.