Harvest vs. WorkflowMax vs. Zoho Invoice

Harvest is ideally suited for a variety of scenarios, particularly in the realms of freelance or consulting work, where accurate hour tracking for billing is crucial. It excels in small to medium businesses managing team projects, allowing for effective resource allocation and time management across multiple concurrent projects. For budgeting and forecasting, Harvest provides valuable data, aiding in accurately estimating the duration and cost of future projects based on past data. It's also highly beneficial for remote or distributed teams, thanks to its cloud-based platform that facilitates seamless coordination. Additionally, its detailed reporting features enhance client transparency, fostering trust through clear communication of time spent on projects. However, Harvest may be less suitable for larger enterprises with complex integration needs or specialized industries requiring more niche features. Small startups or individuals on tight budgets might find the cost challenging, especially if they don't fully utilize all its features. Lastly, for those needing only basic time tracking, simpler or free tools might be more appropriate, making Harvest an unnecessary expenditure for basic needs.

Incentivized

WorkflowMax is very well suited for a business that wants to track time billed by project, to have an easy way to generate invoices for those projects, and to keep track of overall productivity and invoice status. I imagine it can also be adapted to different types of businesses that deal in goods rather than services and time. I am not sure for which scenarios or businesses the program is not appropriate.

Incentivized

Zoho Invoice streamlines invoicing, payments, and customer interactions, improving financial health and saving time, money, and energy. It ensures billing accuracy, reduces errors, and streamlines client billing by tracking goals and streamlining invoice generation. Zoho Invoice focuses on automation and invocation management to efficiently complete multiple tasks. Zoho Invoice has all the features needed for an invoicing system, but it could be better at integrating with other CRM platforms and simplifying taxation.

• Offers several options on using the tool, for example, you can use the app on your phone, the app for desktop, or simply have the website open.
• The timer integrates with other platforms. For example, our team uses Asana as our project management tool. Now, in real-time, I can know which projects my team is working on and whether we're implementing good time management strategies to meet our goals.
• The summary break downs are wonderful! You can view an individual's hours as well as project hours. There are even notifications you could receive when your team is getting close to reaching the allotted time for a client's project.

Incentivized

• You can customize the notifications and this has helped us enormously to schedule dates that we overlooked. Also the templates are customizable which gives the company its own branding on its reports.
• It is integrated with the Xero platform which makes it very useful to streamline the processes of billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, petty cash flow and all the accounting and administrative area.
• It also has a very complete mobile version, where we can be present and monitor the progress of projects in real time, no matter where we are.

Incentivized

• Multiple payment platforms integrated for ease of client payment.
• You can create different hourly rates for various tasks or individuals within an organization.
• You can attach files to your invoices.
• Clients get their very own log-in.
• Ability to create credit notes.

Incentivized

• I’m still trying to figure out how tasks best associate to a specific project. There’s a couple different places to edit that and I’m a little confused as to best practice.
• Does not integrate into basecamp which is our project management system

Incentivized

• Currently the timesheet function allows staff to input time for overlapping periods which can cause some headaches when it comes to payroll and invoicing. We understand this is being addressed.
• The amount of flexibility in the product can create some challenges when setting up the jobs database at the onset. It is a daunting challenge but worthwhile when completed correctly and rolled out across the firm. Adding new jobs is much easier.
• No search function to find a specific job, you have to scroll through all jobs allocated to you.

Incentivized

• Time tracking, though easy enough, could be simplified. Having the ability to change default settings when entering time could save a few keystrokes.
• The ability to automatically take unbilled hours and pull into a new invoice seems to be there, but it is a bit cumbersome. It also defaults to too much detail. Having the ability to customize would be great.
• The ability to auto-BCC yourself on all invoices sent out would be a nice feature.

Incentivized

Because we can't imagine being without it!

Incentivized

Again, just a minor compatibility issues using with other platforms such as Basecamp, but it does do everything promised. The only downfall we have found is having to create a job in both platforms and then connecting them later vs being able to create a project once and having them automatically connect.

Incentivized

It's easy to use and provides me with instant online access to the management of my business whether I am at my desk or overseas

Incentivized

Zoho invoice has changed my expectations of what services like this can be. Providing something as simple as invoicing for small businesses who are struggling to find places to cut costs at such a reasonable rate is life-changing for some businesses. I know it was for mine. We saved so much that we did not have to cut in other areas. That has helped to keep us in business and grow it as well.

Incentivized

They're very responsive and do their best to answer whatever questions we've had. Sometimes, the question or request we've made is for a feature that doesn't yet exist, however in most cases those features have been built later and did eventually address our need.

Incentivized

The support team are excellent. The only downside is that you can't phone them!

Incentivized

Decide how to breakdown your ongoing jobs - are they monthly recurring or annual broken into chunks? What are you going to give clients i.e. how will your proposals and invoices look?

Incentivized

Harvest is significantly better than Jira. I think Jira's is not originally intended to be used as a time logging/management system, but we had been previously using it as that. It was much clunkier, and many employees had a difficult time using it as a user interface goes. Harvest is much more user friendly and has simplified the daily time-logging process for everyone in our office

Incentivized

WorkflowMax is much much easier than Streamtime, much more affordable and easier to try out and see if it meets your needs. Streamtime is a great comprehensive product but we lost a year's subscription in investment because we couldn't get answers to the support questions we needed and they had a no refund policy!

Incentivized

Google Drive stored my invoices in one accessible location but required more time and maintenance. I didn't want to invest the time into building out sheet functions to carry over figures across sheets, so I researched invoicing options. I am already a fan of Zoho services, so it was an easy decision to try out their Invoicing site. Same login, the same level of support, free trial. No risk! I was pleased to find the solution on my first try.

Incentivized

• Harvest has improved our payment schedules. Since we switched, we get paid for projects much sooner.
• Harvest has saved us a ton of time with payroll. We are able to track our users time and pay them appropriately based on their billable hours.
• Harvest is becoming a lifesaver around tax time. The reporting features have allowed us to pull reports for our tax accountant.

Incentivized

• Max enables Loan Assistant to invoice very quickly and easily and integration with Xero for card payments brings our cashflow forward.
• Max enables the Loan Assistant team to manage their workflow in an efficient and productive way. The team all work from home. It is the centre of our Loan Assistant universe.

Incentivized

• Zoho Invoice has created a positive impact by allowing us to successfully organize and track online payments and invoices.
• Zoho Invoice has saved us both time and money by making our invoicing business processes automatic and effortless.
• Zoho Invoice has created a positive return on our investment many times over. It's increased business functions to help generate more profits in shorter periods of time.

Incentivized