Welcome to Harvest! We believe time is our most valuable resource—so here’s a fast and simple guide to help you dive right in.

Looking for a demo? Check out our webinar.

In Harvest, all time is tracked to a task that’s assigned to a project for a client. You can then use that tracked time to analyze projects, manage your team, and invoice your clients.

1. Start tracking time

Head to Time > Timesheet to create a new time entry. On the Day view, click the green + Track time button. There, you can either start a timer or enter your time after the fact. Your timesheet also has a Week view, which is best for adding a lot of time at once.

Every time entry gives you more immediate and actionable insights into your project’s performance and your team’s progress. Harvest even offers automatic timesheet reminders to encourage everyone (or just yourself!) to fill out and submit timesheets consistently.

You can also track time from our desktop and mobile apps. 

2. Invite a teammate

If you’re ready to invite another person to join your account, go to Team and click the + Invite person button. (And if you’re not ready, you can always do this later!) 

While setting up their user profile, you can choose their permission level, add their capacity and roles, set their default billable rates and cost rates, and assign them to some projects or all projects. 

Once your teammate accepts the invitation, they can hit the ground running and start tracking time, too. Feel free to send along our Member resources for an extra boost.

3. Create a new project

Go to the Projects section and click + New project. There are three project types to choose from, depending on how you plan to work: Time & Materials, Fixed Fee, and Non-Billable. 

Here, you can also assign other teammates to the project, add new or existing tasks, set up the project’s billable rates, and create a budget. Once you save the project, it’ll have its very own analysis page to help you track its progress.

4. Add a new task

If your team has a list of tasks you’ll want to be assigned to multiple projects, head over to Manage > Tasks and click + New task. You can add the new task to all existing projects, make it a common task so it automatically gets added to all future projects, and set its default billable rate.

5. Customize your account preferences

Administrators can choose several account-wide preferences under Settings > Preferences. 

One, in particular, to consider during account setup is the Timer mode, which allows you to choose either Duration (for example, 5 hours) or Start and end times (9:00am to 2:00pm). Another handy account-wide preference is the Time display, where you can choose either decimal (2.25 hours) or HH:MM (2:15) format for your timesheets.

Want to dig into your specific needs? Check out these helpful guides:

• I want to… help my team consistently track time
• I want to… bill my clients for tracked time and expenses
• I want to… see if my projects are profitable