7 Best Time and Expense Tracking Software (2026 Comparison)

Every hour your team spends working affects your business profitability. But without knowing where that time goes, how much each project costs, and which expenses should be billed to clients, it is difficult to measure true project performance.

Many businesses still rely on separate tools for time tracking, expenses, and invoicing, creating gaps that lead to missed billable hours and inaccurate billing.

The right time and expense tracking software connects hours, expenses, budgets, timesheets, and invoices in one workflow. According to industry reports, businesses can lose a significant amount of revenue each year due to poor time tracking and inefficient billing processes.

In this guide, we compare the best solutions to help businesses find tools that improve visibility, reduce manual work, and turn tracked time into profitable client work.

What Makes a Good Time and Expense Tracking Software?

Time and expense tracking software records billable hours and project costs in one system and moves both onto client invoices. Vendors also call it time and expense management software.

Five features separate a complete time and expense software from a timer with an expense field:

• Timer and timesheets. One-click timers, manual entry after the fact, and a weekly timesheet view.
  
  
• Expense capture with receipts. Receipt upload or scan, categories, and a billable flag on each expense.
  
  
• Approval workflow. A manager reviews hours and expenses before either reaches an invoice.
  
  
• Invoicing from tracked data. Approved hours and billable expenses move onto an invoice without retyping.
  
  
• Accounting integrations. QuickBooks Online or Xero sync keeps the finance side current.
  

Every tool in this list meets at least four of the five. The comparison table and the individual reviews show where each one falls short.

Quick Comparison of the Best Time and Expense Tracking Software

The table shows the type, free trial, and starting price for each tool, with links to the full reviews below.

The 7 Best Time and Expense Tracking Tools, Reviewed

Each review covers verified pricing, key features, pros and cons, a best-fit note, and user feedback, starting with OneSuite as the Technext-built option.

1. OneSuite

OneSuite is an all-in-one client portal and business management platform built by Technext for agencies, consultants, and freelancers.

Timesheets, expenses, and approvals sit in one Track section next to projects, CRM, contracts, estimates, and invoicing, so tracked hours and costs never leave the system where the work is managed.

A team member logs time and expenses, a manager approves them, and the approved entries land on a branded invoice, a recurring invoice, or a retainer balance.

Key Features

Timesheet

• One-click timer: Start a timer from the main header or inside a task so the time is tied to the work from the first second.
  
  
• Manual entry: Add hours after the fact against any project for work that was not timed live.
  
  
• Timer controls: Pause, reset, discard, or save a running timer.
  
  
• Day, Week, Calendar, and List views: Switch between four layouts of the same entries, with a running week total.
  
  
• Copy from previous day: Bring yesterday’s rows across instead of re-entering the same projects.
  
  
• Work notes: Attach a note to each entry so the hours carry context to the invoice.
  
  
• Billable and non-billable marking: Flag each entry so only billable time reaches a client invoice.
  
  
• Billing rate per entry: Set an hourly rate on the entry so billable value is calculated the moment time is logged.
  
  
• Log time for a collaborator: Leads record hours on behalf of a team member.
  
  
• Estimated against actual: Logged hours sit next to task estimates for project costing.
  
  
• Teammates selector: Review another person’s timesheet from the same page.
  
  
• Grouping, filtering, and editing: Group and filter entries and edit individual rows.
  
  
• Bulk submission: Submit many entries for review at once.
  
  
• Approvals: Managers review, approve, or reject submitted hours in the Approvals module, singly or in bulk, before anything is billed.
  
  
• Availability status: Team members update their availability from the timesheet area.

Tasks

• My Tasks widget: Upcoming, Overdue, and Completed tabs on the dashboard, with a refresh control.
  
  
• Seven-day view: Tasks due in the next seven days, grouped by day as Today, Tomorrow, and the weekday.
  
  
• Task rows: Each row shows the task name, its project or category, the due day, and a checkbox to mark it done.
  
  
• Add a task: A shortcut at the bottom of the widget creates a task without leaving the dashboard.
  
  
• Recently Completed feed: Finished tasks grouped as Yesterday, Earlier this week, and Earlier, each with the assignee, the project, and the hours logged.

Projects

• Projects area: Sits under Organize in the sidebar next to Tasks, so project and task work share one section.
  
  
• Ongoing Projects count: A dashboard card with the live number of active projects, beside Active Clients, Total Revenue, and Pending Invoices.
  
  
• Project on every task: Each completed task carries its project name, so the feed doubles as a per-project activity log.
  
  
• Customizable dashboard: A Customize control rearranges the project and task cards.

Estimates

• Search and export. Find an estimate by keyword and export the list.
  
  
• New estimate. Create a quote for a client before the work starts, with an auto-numbered ID from EST-0001 onward.
  
  
• Open and All views. Switch between the estimates still in play and the full history.
  
  
• Estimate list. Status, issue date, ID, client, subject, and estimated value in one table, with a per-row action menu.

Pros and Cons

Best for: Agencies that want timesheets, expenses, approvals, and invoicing in one platform alongside projects, CRM, and a client portal.

User feedback: 4.8/5 on G2 from 15 reviews.

“The ease of managing projects, clients, and various aspects of operations has been remarkable.” Product Design Lead

OneSuite reviews on G2

View OneSuite →

2. Harvest

Harvest is the reference point for time and expense tracking software aimed at small teams.

It has tracked time since 2006 and pairs the timer with expense capture and invoicing on every plan, including the free one.

The product stays narrow on purpose: hours, expenses, invoices, and reports, with everything else handled through integrations.

Key Features

• Timers in the browser, desktop, iOS, and Android apps
• Expense entries with receipt attachments, marked billable per project
• Invoices built from tracked time and expenses, with online payment through Stripe
• Timesheet approvals and profitability reports on the Enterprise plan
• More than 50 integrations, including QuickBooks Online, Xero, Asana, and Slack

Pros and Cons

Best for: Small agencies and consultants that want reliable time and expense tracking with invoicing and already run projects elsewhere.

User feedback: 4.6/5 on Capterra from 652 reviews.

3. BigTime

BigTime is time and expense software built for professional services firms: consultancies, accounting practices, and engineering and architecture offices.

Time and expense entry, invoicing, and QuickBooks sync are in every plan.

Higher tiers add project budgeting, cost and rate management, multi-currency billing, and multi-level approvals.

Key Features

• Time and expense entry on web and mobile, with automatic reconciliation
  
• Custom invoice templates and a self-service client portal on Advanced
  
• Multi-currency expenses on Advanced and multi-currency invoicing on Premier
  
• DCAA compliance option for government contractors
  
• Integrations with QuickBooks, HubSpot, Salesforce, Jira, and Sage Intacct by tier

Pros and Cons

Best for: Consulting and accounting firms with 10 or more billable staff that need approvals, budgets, and accounting sync.

User feedback: 4.6/5 on Capterra from 662 reviews.

4. FreshBooks

FreshBooks approaches time and expense tracking from the accounting side.

It is a bookkeeping and invoicing product first, with unlimited time tracking and expense tracking on every plan.

Hours and receipts flow into invoices, and invoices flow into the books, so the finance picture stays in one place.

Key Features

• Receipt scanning that captures merchant, totals, and taxes
• Bank and credit card import with daily transaction updates
• Billable expenses with markup pulled onto invoices
• Mobile timer and expense capture on iOS and Android
• Expense categories organized for tax filing

Pros and Cons

Best for: Freelancers and small firms that want expenses, time, and invoicing inside their accounting software.

User feedback: 4.5/5 on Capterra from 4,526 reviews.

5. Scoro

Scoro is agency work management software that places time and expense tracking next to quotes, project budgets, and margins.

Time entries link to project budgets, approved timesheets move to invoices, and the Bill and Expense Management module records project costs.

Scoro sells modular plan bundles, so the features a team gets depend on the bundle.

Key Features

• Timesheets with retrospective logging and calendar-based time capture
• Billable and non-billable tracking with utilization dashboards
• Timesheet approvals before invoicing
• Project budgets that prefill timesheets with planned work
• Scoro AI with monthly credits on every plan

Pros and Cons

Best for: Agencies with five or more people that want project finance, not only time and expense capture.

User feedback: 4.5/5 on Capterra from 262 reviews.

6. Paymo

Paymo combines project management, time tracking, expenses, and invoicing for small teams and freelancers.

Time comes from a browser timer, a desktop tracker that records activity automatically, or the mobile apps, and timesheets convert to invoices in a few clicks.

Expenses attach to projects or work items and carry tags for filtering.

Key Features

• Paymo Track desktop app for automatic activity capture on Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Multiple parallel timers and bulk time entry
• Estimates that turn a project, its hours, and its costs into a quote, then an invoice
• Invoice templates in 15 languages and 85+ currencies, with recurring invoices
• QuickBooks Online, Xero, Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net integrations

Pros and Cons

Best for: Freelancers and agencies under 10 people that want projects, time, expenses, and invoicing without a finance-heavy setup.

User feedback: 4.7/5 on Capterra from 686 reviews.

7. TimeCamp

TimeCamp is time tracking software with billing, budgets, attendance, and an expense tracker on the upper tiers.

The AI time tracker captures app, website, and calendar activity in the background and fills timesheets without a timer.

Expenses attach to projects with receipts and appear on reports and invoices when marked billable.

Key Features

• Custom billing rates per user or project, with billable and non-billable separation
• Expense entries with category, project, amount, and receipt attachment
• Budget alerts with real-time spend against budget
• Attendance, overtime, and leave tracking
• Timesheets locked after manager approval
• 50+ integrations, including Jira, Asana, Trello, QuickBooks, and Xero

Pros and Cons

Best for: Teams that want low-cost time tracking with attendance and add expenses on the Ultimate plan.

User feedback: 4.7/5 on Capterra from 599 reviews.

Real-World Proof: How Technext Built OneSuite’s Time Tracking

Technext designed and built the time tracking feature inside OneSuite, so the flow described in entry one is a product decision rather than a marketing line. The brief was to treat every time entry as a financial event instead of a stored duration. Each entry attaches to a task from the moment the timer starts, carries a billable flag, and rolls into a timesheet that a manager approves in one click.

Approved billable entries and expenses move to a branded invoice with the project, rate, and totals already filled in, or draw down a client retainer. A live dashboard shows who is tracking time, current workload, and project progress while a project is still moving. The feature worked across time zones from the first release, since OneSuite’s agencies and their teams rarely share an office.

The same engineering team handles custom builds for other companies, from healthcare audit dashboards to ERP interfaces. The Technext page on OneSuite client portal software covers the rest of the platform.

How to Choose the Right Time and Expense Tracking Software

Start with the billing workflow: The tool has to produce the invoice the client receives, or sync cleanly with the tool that does. A timer with no path to an invoice creates a manual step every month.

Check where expenses live: OneSuite, Harvest, and FreshBooks track expenses on every plan. Paymo excludes them from the free plan, and Scoro and TimeCamp reserve them for their top tiers. Match the tier to the need before comparing prices.

Confirm the approval step: Agencies that bill client hours need a review between the timesheet and the invoice. Harvest Enterprise, BigTime Premier, Scoro End-to-end, TimeCamp Ultimate, and OneSuite Pro include one. Paymo and FreshBooks list none.

Test the mobile app: Field teams and consultants log expenses at the point of spend, so a time and expense tracking app on iOS and Android matters more than the desktop view. Every tool here except OneSuite ships both today.

Price at the real tier and team size: A $3.99 headline price becomes $9.99 once expenses are added. A five-user minimum turns a $17 seat into an $85 monthly floor. Compare the tier that has the features, multiplied by the seats.

Check reporting and exports: Billable against non-billable, budget against actual, and a QuickBooks or Xero export cover most agency needs. A related Technext roundup of agency time tracking software covers tools with deeper profitability reporting.

What you need	Best choice in this list	Reason
Time, expenses, projects, CRM, and invoicing in one login	OneSuite	Single $9 seat, retainers and client portal included
Simple time and expenses with invoicing	Harvest	Expenses on every plan, 30-day trial
Approvals, budgets, and QuickBooks sync for a firm	BigTime	Multi-level approvals and rate management
Expenses tied to bookkeeping	FreshBooks	Bank feeds, receipt scanning, billable markups
Project budgets and margins for an agency	Scoro	Budgets, utilization, approvals
Fastest timesheet to invoice for a small team	Paymo	Automatic tracker, invoices in 15 languages
Lowest per-user cost with attendance	TimeCamp	$3.99 entry, expenses on Ultimate

Need a Custom Time and Expense Tracking System? Hire a Technext Developer

Off-the-shelf tools fit most agencies. They stop fitting when rates and budgets follow a project model the vendor never planned for, when approvals have to match an internal process, or when tracking has to live inside a product a company sells to its own customers. Technext builds custom time and expense modules, reporting dashboards, and accounting integrations for those cases, and built the OneSuite feature described above.

Talk to Technext about a custom time and expense build.

Email reza@technext.it with a short description of the workflow, or book a call.

Book a 30-minute call →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is time and expense tracking software?

Time and expense tracking software records billable hours and project costs in one system and turns both into client invoices, with approvals and accounting sync on most paid plans.

Is there free time and expense tracking software?

Harvest, Paymo, and TimeCamp offer free plans. Only Harvest includes expenses on its free tier, for one seat and two projects.

Which time and expense tracking software includes invoicing?

All seven tools here include invoicing, though Scoro leaves it out of one bundle and TimeCamp leaves it out of the free plan. A separate Technext post covers project management software with invoicing.

What is the best time and expense tracking software for small business?

Harvest and Paymo for teams under 10, FreshBooks for owners who bill from their books, and OneSuite for agencies that also need a client portal and CRM.

Does time and expense tracking software integrate with QuickBooks or Xero?

Harvest and Paymo connect to both directly, TimeCamp exports to both, BigTime syncs with QuickBooks on every plan, and Scoro sells both as add-ons. FreshBooks is accounting software itself.

How is OneSuite different from a standalone time tracking tool?

OneSuite keeps timesheets, expenses, approvals, and invoicing inside the same workspace as projects, CRM, and a client portal. The trade-off is a mobile app still listed as coming soon.

How do I hire a Technext developer for a custom time and expense build?

Book a call through the Calendly button above or email reza@technext.it with the workflow and timeline. Technext reviews the requirements and replies with a scope.

Final Thoughts

The right time and expense tracking software depends on where the invoice gets made. Harvest and Paymo fit small teams that want the shortest path from timer to invoice. FreshBooks fits owners who work from their books. BigTime and Scoro fit firms that need approvals, budgets, and margins.

TimeCamp fits teams watching per-seat cost. OneSuite fits agencies that want timesheets, expenses, and invoicing inside the same platform as projects, clients, and a client portal. Pick the tier that has the features, price it at the real seat count, and run the trial with one live client project before switching.