Find the best Time And Expense Tracking Software

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BigTime

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

4.6 (635 reviews)

50 recommendations

BQE CORE Suite

BQE’s powerful all-in-one platform and expert support give Architecture, Consulting, and Engineering firms the intuitive tools they need to meet the demands of their firm, empower their team, maximize profitability, and deliver su...Read more about BQE CORE Suite

4.5 (738 reviews)

26 recommendations

Polaris PSA

Polaris Self-driving PSA by Replicon harvests 100% accurate business data in real-time, does the heavy-lifting analysis, and provides recommendations for proactive decision-making. SmartBeats constantly harvests data from us...Read more about Polaris PSA

4.6 (208 reviews)

7 recommendations

Scoro

Scoro is a comprehensive work management software specifically designed to cater to the unique needs of service businesses that have grown weary of dealing with disjointed systems, unpredictable workloads, and shrinking profit ma...Read more about Scoro

4.6 (233 reviews)

5 recommendations

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Project Insight

Project Insight (PI) is award-winning work & project management software that helps companies manage and visualize projects, allocate personnel, streamline accounting, and track what work is being done throughout their entire orga...Read more about Project Insight

4.4 (60 reviews)

4 recommendations

Beyond Software

Beyond Software is a project accounting and management software system available for small to mid-size companies. The system allows organizations to manage and execute around their projects by increasing visibility and creating ac...Read more about Beyond Software

4.7 (7 reviews)

4 recommendations

Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike

4.3 (2590 reviews)

3 recommendations

Sage Timeslips

Never lose another second of billable time! Timeslips is the leading time tracking and billing solution for attorneys, accountants, and consultants. Timeslips is built for any business needing to capture their time, deliver profes...Read more about Sage Timeslips

3.9 (257 reviews)

3 recommendations

Kantata

The Kantata Professional Services Cloud is purpose-built to help organizations with 50 to 5000+ employees unify resource management, project management, financial management, business intelligence and team collaboration all in one...Read more about Kantata

4.2 (607 reviews)

2 recommendations

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

4.5 (193 reviews)

2 recommendations

MindSalt Time & Expense

MindSalt is a user-friendly time and expense tracking solution that caters to teams of all sizes. With the simple-to-use interface and features, MindSalt empowers users to effortlessly manage projects and resources. Users can gain...Read more about MindSalt Time & Expense

4.7 (22 reviews)

2 recommendations

Ruddr

Ruddr is the modern professional services platform for small-to-midsize teams (5-1,000 users). Ruddr is the product of choice for customers ranging from marketing agencies to management consultancies to software development shops....Read more about Ruddr

4.9 (22 reviews)

1 recommendations

QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks Time is a cloud-based time tracking solution that helps owners and managers keep track of employees in real-time from their web or mobile applications. It provides mobile time tracking for employees who either work remo...Read more about QuickBooks Time

monday.com

monday.com is an award-winning work and project management platform that helps teams of all sizes plan, prioritize, manage, and execute their work more effectively. The platform offers solutions for a wide range of use-cases such...Read more about monday.com

FreshBooks

FreshBooks takes billing out of your hands and puts it on autopilot. Set up automated invoicing, online payment options (ACH and Credit Card), and late payment reminders to get paid 2x faster. Next, boost team productivity with pr...Read more about FreshBooks

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a range of project management to...Read more about Smartsheet

Time Tracker

Time Tracker is an employee time and attendance tracking solution designed to simplify employee tracking and reduce administration using automation functionality. With Time Tracker, businesses are able to examine and track employe...Read more about Time Tracker

Toggl Track

Toggl Track is a cloud-based time tracking solution for teams of 1 to 1000. Getting started is as easy as clicking the start button on the timer. Users can track work tasks to evaluate their productivity or calculate the profitabi...Read more about Toggl Track

ClockShark

ClockShark is a cloud-based time tracking system that helps businesses in the construction and field service industries to manage their mobile workforces. Features include time and attendance tracking, employee scheduling, emailed...Read more about ClockShark

Hubstaff

Whether businesses are starting up a new team or looking for a better way to manage employees, Hubstaff has everything required to run teams confidently. With the innovative and robust time tracking and task management solution, e...Read more about Hubstaff

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

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.

  • 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.

  • 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.