Handl vs Harvest: Use One, or Use Both?
Harvest is genuinely one of the best time tracking tools out there. If your team tracks hours and you need clean timesheets to invoice from, Harvest does that job well. But invoicing is secondary for Harvest — it's built around tracking time, not managing a billing relationship. No milestone billing, no client portal for approvals, no change order workflow, no automated payment reminders that actually think. Handl integrates with Harvest directly, so you can keep using Harvest for what it's good at — tracking time — and let Handl handle how that time translates into invoices, approvals, and getting paid on time.
How they stack up
An honest look at where each tool wins.
See the difference for yourself
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Simple pricing vs. per-seat costs
One flat price for your whole team, or pay more for every person who touches an invoice.
- Free: 1 seat, 2 projects
- Pro: unlimited
- Industry-leading time tracking
- Expense tracking
- Invoicing from tracked hours
- Team reporting
What are our strengths?
Both tools do some things really well. Here's where each one shines.
- Milestone billing built for project-based work — split a project into phases, bill each one on completion
- AI-driven payment reminders that actually chase clients — not just an overdue notice
- Client portal where clients approve quotes, review invoices, sign change orders, and pay
- Digital signatures on proposals and change orders — proper paper trail
- Change order workflow that documents scope additions cleanly
- Project health scoring gives an early warning on cashflow or delivery risk
- Revenue forecasting tied to project pipeline
- Flat $29/month regardless of team size — Harvest's per-seat model gets expensive fast for growing teams
- Integrates with Harvest — bring in tracked hours and manage the billing layer on top
- Genuinely best-in-class time tracking — clean, fast, reliable
- Team time visibility is excellent for managers tracking utilisation
- Simple, polished UI that teams actually use consistently
- Timesheet-to-invoice in a few clicks for hourly billing
- Strong integrations with accounting, PM, and payroll tools
- Free plan for solo operators with basic needs
- 30-day free trial
- Long track record — widely trusted by agencies globally
- Harvest Forecast add-on for capacity planning
When to choose each tool
Choose the right tool based on how your agency bills and what problems you're solving.
When to choose
Handl
Your agency is doing project-based or milestone-based work and time tracking alone doesn't solve your billing problem. You need to send a proposal, get sign-off, bill at project phases, handle scope additions with documented change orders, and chase payments without sending awkward manual emails.
If your team already uses Harvest, you don't have to stop. Handl integrates with Harvest — tracked hours can feed into Handl's billing workflow. But Handl takes over the parts Harvest doesn't cover: the client-facing experience, the milestone structure, the approval chain, the reminders, and the connection to your accounting software (Xero or MYOB) on the back end.
For a growing agency billing more than a handful of clients, the flat $29/month rate also makes more financial sense than Harvest Pro's per-seat pricing as headcount increases.
When to choose
Harvest
Harvest is the right call when time tracking is your primary need. If you bill purely by the hour, your invoicing is straightforward, and you want clean timesheets your clients or accountant can see — Harvest does all of that better than anything else at its price point.
Solo operators and very small teams can often get by on Harvest's free plan. If your billing is simple and you just need to know where your hours went and get a basic invoice out the door, Harvest is more than enough. Handl starts to earn its place when the billing relationship gets more complex — phases, change orders, approval workflows, chasing payments.
Frequently asked questions
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