Harvest AI is currently in beta. If you do not see it in your account, you will be given access in the coming weeks.

Harvest AI is a built-in assistant that lives right inside your Harvest account. You can ask it questions about your work, get help finding your way around Harvest, and — when your account allows it — have it take everyday actions for you, like logging time or drafting an invoice.

This article walks through three things people ask about most: what happens to your conversations, what Harvest AI can actually do, and the permissions that keep it safely inside the lines.

Your conversations and your data

We know that an AI assistant is only worth using if you can trust what happens behind the scenes. Here’s exactly how your conversations are handled.

There are really two separate things going on, and it helps to keep them apart:

• The transcript saved in Harvest. Your conversations with Harvest AI are saved to your Harvest account so you can come back and revisit them later. They’re tied to you and your company — only you can see your own conversations.
• What the outside AI service does. The replies you get are generated by an external AI provider. We work with that provider under a zero-retention agreement, which means your messages and Harvest AI’s replies are not kept by them once the reply has been sent. This is built into our agreement with the provider — it isn’t something you need to switch on or configure.

Conversations are kept only as long as they’re useful

Harvest automatically and permanently deletes a conversation 90 days after its last activity. The clock is based on the last time something happened in that conversation — every time you send or receive a message, it resets. So an ongoing conversation sticks around, and one you’ve stopped using is cleaned up on its own. This tidy-up runs automatically every day.

Delete a conversation yourself, anytime

You don’t have to wait 90 days. You can permanently delete any of your own conversations at any time from the sidebar. We’ll ask you to confirm first, and then the conversation and all of its messages are removed for good — this can’t be undone.

Note: Deleting is different from archiving. Archiving simply hides a conversation from your main list to keep things tidy, but the conversation is still there and can be brought back. Deleting removes it permanently.

Export a conversation

Want to keep your own copy of a conversation? You can export it as a downloadable file. Exporting works one conversation at a time, and you can only export conversations that belong to you.

If an account is closed

If a company’s Harvest account is deleted, its Harvest AI conversations and messages are removed along with it.

What Harvest AI can do

Harvest AI works with the information already in your Harvest account. Here’s what you can turn to it for.

Find answers about your account

Ask about your projects, clients, tasks, people, rates, time entries, running timers, project budgets, invoices, and expenses, and Harvest AI will answer using your own Harvest data. For example, you might ask what you tracked yesterday, whether a timer is running, or how a project’s budget is looking.

Get answers to “about my data” questions

You can ask analytical questions — totals, breakdowns, and summaries across your account — and Harvest AI will pull the numbers together for you (when reporting is available on your account).

Get how-to help

Not sure how something in Harvest works? Harvest AI can search Harvest’s Help Center and point you to the right articles.

Make changes for you (when your account allows it)

When it’s enabled for your account, Harvest AI can take real actions on your behalf, including:

• Logging time, and starting or stopping timers
• Editing time entries
• Creating and editing expenses
• Creating tasks
• Creating and editing clients
• Creating projects
• Creating draft invoices, including from your tracked time

Prepare bulk changes for your review

For larger changes — like assigning people or tasks across projects, or other bulk updates — Harvest AI prepares the change and shows it to you as a preview first. Applying it is always a separate step that you take yourself. Harvest AI never applies a bulk change automatically.

A few things Harvest AI will never do

These are firm guardrails:

• It creates invoices and estimates only as drafts — it never sends an invoice or estimate for you.
• It never charges cards.
• It never deletes your records.
• Bulk changes always wait for you to review and apply them.

Permissions: Harvest AI stays inside your lane

Here’s the most important thing to know: Harvest AI can never do anything that you couldn’t already do yourself in Harvest.

Harvest AI acts as you. It can only see and change exactly what your own Harvest role and permissions already allow, and every single action it takes runs through the same permission and account checks as the normal Harvest screens. If you can’t do something in Harvest yourself, Harvest AI can’t do it for you either.

A few details that follow from this:

• Members can do less than administrators, just as they normally would in Harvest. Some change-making abilities also depend on your account having the relevant feature turned on.
• Availability is set by an administrator. An admin can turn Harvest AI on for the whole account, or for administrators only. If you don’t have access yet, you can ask your account’s administrator to turn it on for you.

Note: Harvest AI treats anything it reads from your account — names, notes, and other details — purely as information. If your data happens to contain text that looks like hidden “instructions,” Harvest AI won’t act on it.

Frequently asked questions

Who can see my conversations?
Only you. Your conversations are tied to your own account and aren’t visible to other people in your company.

Does the AI provider keep my messages?
No. The external provider generates the reply and, under our zero-retention agreement, does not keep your messages or the replies afterward. The transcript you can revisit is the copy saved in your Harvest account.

How long are my conversations kept in Harvest?
Each conversation is automatically and permanently deleted 90 days after its last activity. Any conversation you’re still using keeps resetting that 90-day window.

Can I delete a conversation right now?
Yes. You can permanently delete any of your own conversations from the sidebar at any time. We’ll ask you to confirm, and it can’t be undone.

What’s the difference between archiving and deleting?
Archiving hides a conversation from your main list but keeps it, so you can bring it back. Deleting removes it permanently.

Can I save a copy of a conversation?
Yes — you can export one of your own conversations as a downloadable file, one conversation at a time.

Can Harvest AI send an invoice or charge a client?
No. It only ever creates invoices and estimates as drafts, and it never sends them or charges cards. You stay in control of sending and payments.

I don’t see Harvest AI in my account. How do I get it?
Harvest AI is currently in beta, so for now it’s only available to some accounts. If it’s available for your account, an administrator turns it on from there — so reach out to your admin and let them know you’d like to use it. We’re rolling it out gradually, so it may become available to your account over time.