For agencies, time is money. That’s why every service-based business needs a time-tracking tool. One that will help them understand not only where team time is being spent, but also identify which clients are money-makers, and which deals turned out to be complete, and utter budget-breakers.
But choosing the right time-tracking software can be a tough (not to mention time-consuming) gig. And while there are hundreds of time-tracking apps out there, not every single one will be a good fit for your agency.
To help you out, we’ve done the hard work. In this list, we share 15 of the best time-tracking tools for agencies. We’ve ranked them in order of compatibility with agency needs and workflows. The top five are all-in-one platforms for agency management, while the remaining 10 come with a variety and mix of additional features.
1. ActiveCollab
OK, we know we’re going to get an eye-roll for putting ourselves first but hear us out: ActiveCollab is designed specifically for agencies. The time-tracking feature within the tool has been created to do more than just track task time and generate timesheets for payroll. It’s there to help you identify and analyze the projects and client accounts that are earning you money, as well as the ones that are making a loss.
One of our agency customer success stories has called our time-tracker their time management compass, and ActiveCollab as the tool that has become an indispensable part of their creative process. That right there should be enough to make you want to know more.
Standout Features
Let’s jump straight into the real-life benefits of ActivCollab’s built-in time tracker. No matter what type of agency you run, there are five things you’ll love about our time-tracking tool, that will make it stand out amongst the rest:
- Set estimates, time & compare – Before you assign a task or project, you can set an estimated time for completion. With the stopwatch, your team can start, pause, stop, and log time records on individual tasks or projects. When done, you can compare and see which tasks got out of control. That way you can investigate the causes. Was it a miscalculated estimate, an underpriced project, or something else?
- Billable & unbillable tasks – If you want to know how much time your team is spending on actual client work and how much is going towards operational business and administrative work, you can label tasks and create reports to generate exact numbers and insights into your team’s productivity.
- Set rates & turn time into invoices – Instead of adding up hours and using another tool to create an invoice, you can set predefined rates for clients or job types or tasks, and automatically create and generate client invoices they can pay online.
- Timesheets & resource management – In your team’s timesheets, you can view and monitor each individual’s productivity, capacity, and availability at any time by the hours they log. That way you can manage your team resources more efficiently. When your deadlines get tight, you can quickly identify who is at capacity so you can shuffle and reallocate priority tasks to the people who have the time to deliver, and take the pressure off those who might be at risk of burnout.
- Track project cost & profitability – The tool lets you set internal hourly rates as well as client rates so you can track profitability across all your projects and accounts. As your projects progress, the system calculates their profitability and sends alerts to notify you of risks.
Who is ActiveCollab For?
With over 50% of ActiveCollab’s customer base coming from the marketing sector, the platform has proven to be a good fit for growing agencies with 10 or more team members.
Ideally, ActiveCollab’s time-tracking software is for those agencies that want to dig deep and find out where every hour of their team’s time is going. It’s a go-to solution for agencies that want to manage time better, elevate productivity, and make better resourcing and client onboarding decisions that will drive profitability.
If you’re after an all-in-one agency operations and productivity tool, you’ll get everything you need in ActiveCollab. Working from a single software app that centralizes all your team and client operations, data, and communications, you’ll have a tool that will not only let you scale but also help you work out how.
To learn more sign up for our 14-day free trial or book a demo with one of our people to see if ActiveCollab is a good fit for your agency.
What Users Are Saying About ActiveCollab
Most users praise the tool for its intuitive design, and easy-to-learn and navigate interface, which lets them manage creative projects with just enough structure and flexibility. With over 400 online reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.5, some of the main pros and cons are:
Usual points our users are highlighting:
- Has all the key features an agency needs to manage their operations from idea to invoice in one platform at a price that’s great value for money
- Seamless connection between project, collaboration, and invoicing across the tool
- Ability to create subtasks and automatic timeline updates on task dependencies
Price
Time-tracking is available on the lowest plan which goes for $3.17 per person, per month. However, if you’re after invoicing, payments, and workload management, you’ll need to go for the bigger plans.
2. Nifty
Nifty is primarily a project management tool that comes with collaboration and built-in time-tracking.
Standout Features
When it comes to time-tracking, there are no bells and whistles here. So if you’re looking for a simple, built-in time tracker that works by clicking start and stop as you work through a task, you’ve got that covered.
However, if you’re an agency that’s after a combination of team and client management features in one tool, here are a couple of things you might like about Nifty:
- The one-click Zoom meeting button is built into the tool’s chat so you can communicate on the spot with your clients or remote team members
- Integration with Google and Outlook calendars for easier client meeting management
- Unique option to assign a column to a team member and have every new task added to that column be automatically assigned to that person
Who is Nifty For?
Nifty is a good fit for a range of use cases and industries, including digital and marketing agencies, agile and product development, and legal case management. Most of their customer base seems to be smaller businesses with up to 50 employees.
What Users Are Saying About Nifty
Nifty’s online reviews seem to lean toward an overall positive experience from agency users. With over 400 reviews, and a rating of 4.7 on G2, some of the key pros and cons include:
Pros
- Easy setup, with a slight learning curve reported by some users
- Intuitive user interface with a design several users feel is similar to ClickUp
- Good collaboration and communication features
Cons
- The documents and files section seems to have a few bugs but users can use Google Doc
- Limited third-party integrations that come at an additional cost
- Limited budgeting tools and reporting functionality
Price
While Nifty does offer a free plan that includes task management and collaboration features, time-tracking is only available on paid plans starting from $7 per user, per month.
3. Paymo
Paymo is a sophisticated time-tracking tool that also offers a mix of features most agencies need for day-to-day operations such as project & resource management, collaboration, budgeting, and invoicing.
Standout Features
If you’re after a bells-and-whistles kind of time-tracking tool, Paymo could be a good option. Their standout time-tracking features include:
- Paymo Track – This lets you run the automatic timer in the background which records all time spent on desktop apps. This feature stores all recorded activities locally, doesn’t take screenshots of employee screens, and lets the user control which entries are added to timesheets.
- Manual timer – When you want to manually track the time spent on a task and log what you were working on, you can also do that.
- Bulk time entries – When you forget to start the timer, you can log it in manually as a bulk time entry.
- Time intervals log – You can also choose a specific time interval to add to a timesheet manually.
- Pomodoro timer – If you or your team are Pomodoro Technique fanatics, you also have the Pomodoro timer which tracks your 25-minute work time and buzzes when it’s time to take the 5-minute break.
- Idle alert – The tool has idle time detection alerts which you can discard or keep.
Who is Paymo For?
Paymo’s primary target market seems to be creative and marketing agencies, architecture and engineering firms, software developers, and consulting businesses. It’s ideal for freelancers and smaller agency teams of up to 20 members that are after a tool that lets them combine task management, time-tracking, and client invoicing & payments.
What Users Are Saying About Paymo?
Paymo’s online reviews are generally positive for time-tracking and basic project management. With almost 700 reviews, and a rating of 4.7 on Capterra, some of the key pros and cons include:
Pros
- Comprehensive time-tracking features
- A combination of key capabilities an agency looks for in one platform for client & project management
- Granular project profitability dashboards and reporting
Cons
- Mobile app feels less advanced when compared to desktop
- Limited template customization
- No option to add subtasks to projects
Price
Time-tracking is included in Paymo's free plan, however, things like active timers, timesheet reports, and project profitability are only available on paid plans.
4. Scoro
Scoro is a work and resource management tool with basic time-tracking, invoicing, reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM).
Standout Features
There’s nothing spectacular about the time-tracking feature in Scoro as you only have two options. You can press start to time-track a task to completion or you can log in time manually. As a professional services tool for agencies, what makes it stand out are its:
- Unified features – If you want one tool that lets you run your agency client and project management from start to finish, it’s got everything you’ll need.
- Customer relationship management – Unlike many other professional services agency tools, Scoro comes with a customer relationship management feature that lets you view and control your sales funnel.
Who is Scoro For?
While Scoro caters to businesses of all sizes, they seem to be more suited to mid-large teams of 50 or more members. As a project and work management tool with a CRM, Scoro’s target market is consultancy businesses, but also architecture, engineering, and software development services, and large agencies.
What Users Are Saying About Scoro?
Looking at Scoro’s online reviews, their users seem to be happy with the tool’s functionalities which help streamline and centralize their service business operations. With over 400 reviews and a rating of 4.5 on G2, most of the positive reviews come from larger companies. Some of the common pros and cons marketing professionals and agencies call out in reviews include:
Pros
- CRM allows easy and convenient access to customer data
- Excellent onboarding process and support during setup
- Reporting dashboards are comprehensive and customizable but cannot be exported
Cons
- Pricing is at the higher end and the learning curve is a little steep
- Not particularly user-friendly when it comes to interface and design
- Restricted search functionality and Google and Outlook Calendar integration bugs occasionally
Price
Plans start at $26 per user, per month. However, if you want time-tracking, you’ll need to sign up for the Standard plan which is $37 per user, per month. Ouch!
5. ClickUp
ClickUp is an all-in-one project management and collaboration platform that comes with task, resource, and knowledge management features, and flexible time-tracking options.
Standout Features
As one of the biggest and most recognizable platforms in project management, ClickUp does come with some pretty solid time-tracking features and options, however, they are not advanced. Some things worth calling out for marketing and creative agencies include:
- Time-tracking Chrome extension – You can record time from a desktop, mobile, or web browser with ClickUp’s free Chrome extension.
- Sync time-tracking app – If you already have a preferred time-tracking app (Clockify, toggl, TimeDoctor, Timely, Harvest, and more), you also have the option of syncing it directly within ClickUp.
- Marketing templates – Take advantage of ready-to-use templates for marketing strategy, campaign management, content and event marketing, and creative production.
Who is ClickUp For?
The key industries for ClickUp seem to be marketing, advertising,g and software development. As for team size, the majority of their users are small businesses of up to 50 employees and some mid-market companies. When it comes to agencies, if you are looking for an all-in-one solution, ClickUp, while popular, wouldn’t be a good option as it doesn’t have invoicing capabilities.
What Users Are Saying about ClickUp
The general sentiment in online reviews seems to be that it's a great tool to organize, manage, and track work, which comes with a lot of flexibility, customization options, and integrations. With over 10,000 reviews and a G2 rating of 4.7, some of the things worth mentioning in the list of pros and cons for agencies include:
Pros
- User-friendly interface, great customer support, and easy-to-learn and adopt
- Ability to integrate with a long list of apps and tailor them to your agency's needs
Cons
- Mobile app user experience is limited and not great due to the complex interface and occasional glitches
- Bugs and glitches which seem to be a common mention across many reviews
- Because the platform is robust it can feel confronting for new users who aren’t familiar with project management platforms
Price
For time-tracking, you’ll need to sign up for one of the paid plans which starts at $7 per user, per month.
6. WebWork
Webwork is a work management platform with a focus on robust automatic time-tracking, employee monitoring, and productivity analysis.
Standout Features
If you’re an agency looking for an advanced time-tracking and remote employee monitoring tool, WebWork could be your ideal option. It’s a tool that also offers project and task management, invoicing, and a dozen integrations. Some of the standout time-tracking features are:
- Automatic time-tracking – Minimizing the chance of errors, automatic time-tracking lets your team focus on the work instead of logging time.
- Periodic screenshots – With automatic time-tracking the tool will capture period screenshots so you know what your team is working on (which sometimes may be perceived quite negatively by your team…)
- Manual time logs – You can still enter time manually or edit existing entries.
- Attendance tracking – If you’re looking for a tool that monitors employee start and finish times, this tool can track that too, and provide punctuality reports.
Who is WebWork For?
WebWork is one of the best solutions for small or medium-sized businesses in the marketing and advertising industries that want to track how remote employees, freelancers, or contractors spend their working hours, and manage their payroll. It’s a good fit for teams of 1-1000 people.
What Users Are Saying About WebWork?
Most users of WebWork seem happy with time-tracking and task management functionalities. However, the majority of reviews seem to come from the IT sector, and only a small number from agency and marketing professionals. With almost 300 reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.5, some key pros and cons include:
Pros
- Easy to use and simple user interface for time-tracking billable hours
- Affordable pricing for advanced time-tracking features and performance and productivity reports
- Easy installation and fast customer support resolution
Cons
- Software freezing issues for Mac users when screenshot captures pop up
- Some users have concerns about privacy issues as the tool captures all open websites
- Limited options of supported timezones can impact the accuracy of tracked time
Price
Time-tracking is available on all plans which start at an affordable $3.99 per person, per month.
7. Clockify
Clockify is one of the leading time-keeping apps that also offers resource management and invoicing.
Standout Features
Clockify is best known for its simple and free time-tracking tool. However, in recent years, it has substantially expanded its set of features. Some of the standout ones are:
- Time-keeping – It lets you use a standard start and stop timer and manual timer, but it also has an auto tracker which can be used on desktop and mobile devices. A few other features include idle detection alerts, offline mode, and a Pomodoro timer.
- Billing & Invoicing – You can track billable client time and invoice them all from within the tool.
- Budget monitoring – It also lets you set estimates or fixed budgets for projects and compare against hourly rates to help you understand where you might be underquoting.
- Resource management & project planning – With visual timelines of all your resources with time off logins, you can make more accurate resource allocations for client work and deadlines.
Who is Clockify For?
As a comprehensive time-tracking, resource planning, and invoicing tool, Clockify is best for small to mid-sized agencies who want a variety of time-tracking features, and possibly invoicing and resource management capabilities. It works for teams of 1-1000 people.
What Users Are Saying about Clockify
With over 9,000 online reviews and a rating of 4.8 on Capterra, most of their users seem to be happy with the product. Some of the pros and cons that are called out include:
Pros
- Accuracy of the time tracker and variety of time-tracking options
- Good reporting capabilities with customizable time reports
- User-friendly interface and effortless setup and integrations
Cons
- Difficulties in editing a time log within the app
- Errors when users change time zones
- No way to add subtasks to a project or task
Price
If you’re after basic time-tracking you’ll get that on the free plan, however, anything more such as invoicing and reporting are only available on paid plans which start at $5.49 per person, per month.
8. Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a time-tracking app that offers manual and automated time-tracking, reporting, and invoicing via integrations.
Standout Features
For freelancers and agency owners, Toggl Track comes with some valuable features that will simplify your billing and project planning. Some of the top capabilities include:
- Multi-platform time-tracking – You can track time from inside other tools such as Google Suite as well as desktop, mobile, and the web.
- Ideal for remote teams – If you work with contractors and freelancers who are offsite, it’s an easy tool to learn, use, and adapt.
- Set time-tracking goals – You can set time-based targets for goals and tasks for your team members.
Who is Toggle Track For?
As a flexible time-tracking tool, Toggl Track is ideal for small agencies of 1-50 employees, where your main aim is to identify how much time is being spent on projects or tasks so you can bill clients.
What Users Are Saying About Toggle Track?
With over 2,500 online reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.7, most of the feedback from users is positive but there are some interesting disadvantages called out. The most common pros and cons seem to be:
Pros
- Ability to attach a client time track report to invoices
- Reporting provides good insights into the distribution of time across projects
- The intuitive user interface makes it easy to learn and use
Cons
- Auto tracking can bug from time to time
- Inability to change time zones and the mobile app is a little clunky
- There is no pause feature on the time tracker so you have to add a new time log when you return to the same task
Price
You’ll get almost the full suite of time-tracking and some reporting features on the free plan, but for invoicing and team management, you’ll need to go for the paid plans which start at $9 per person, per month.
9. Everhour
Everhour is a basic time-tracking tool that offers native integrations with leading project management platforms and also provides resource planning, reporting, and invoicing features.
Standout Features
When it comes to time-tracking Everhour gives you access to the standard start and stop time, manual time entries, and a browser extension. However, some of the features worth calling out for agencies are:
- Customized time reporting dashboards – You can pull and export reports for all sorts of time data including billable vs. non-billable hours, individual and team reports, and project profit reports.
- Team & resource management – Approve timesheets, edit and lock time editing by members, add leave days, and visualize schedules and team capacity.
- Expenses & invoicing – Track and add expenses to project budgets and create client invoices.
Who is Everhour For?
If you’re a small team with 1-50 people that’s already happy with one of the big-name project management platforms and just want time-tracking capabilities with maybe some reporting and invoicing tools, Everhour could be a good choice.
What Users Are Saying About Everhour?
Most reviews highlight the integration capabilities, especially the seamless connection with Asana. With over 400 reviews and a rating of 4.7 on Capterra, some key pros and cons captured in reviews include:
Pros
- The intuitive user interface and great design make it a tool that’s easy to learn and adopt
- Solid time-tracking features that simplify the team’s monitoring of billable hours
- The vast options available in customizing time reports for teams and clients.
Cons
- Limited project management features
- Time-tracking does not work while offline so users need an internet connection to use and log time entries
- Pricey for larger teams, better suited to freelancers and small boutique agencies
Price
Time-tracking features are available on the free plan, however, invoicing is only available on the paid plan which comes in at $8.50 per person, per month.
10. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is an advanced time-tracking and workforce monitoring tool that also comes with invoicing, billing, and budgeting features.
Standout Features
If you’re after manual or automatic time-tracking, you’ll get that with TimeCamp. As an agency, some of the other features you could benefit from include:
- A mix of integrations – If you’ve already got workflows set up that you don’t want to change, TimeCamp integrates with a bunch of project management, collaboration, development, invoicing, and CRM & Sales tools.
- Guest view – If you don’t want to give clients full access to your project workflows and team boards, you can grant client guest access to keep them informed when and where needed.
- Profitability & productivity reporting – Create and export profitability and productivity reports as CSV, PDF, XLXS, or Google Spreadsheets.
Who is TimeCamp For?
Because TimeCamp, (like Everhour) doesn’t have project or task management capabilities, it’s best for agencies that either want a standalone, simple time-tracking and reporting tool or are looking to integrate it with their other workflow tools. It’s a good fit for teams of 1-50 people.
What Users Are Saying About TimeCamp?
With almost 600 reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.7, the sentiment is that most users are happy with the time-tracking functionality, but for anything more than that, the pricing plans become a little high per user.
Pros
- The free plan offers a solid amount of time-tracking features
- Easy to use, navigate, and customize to individual or team needs
- Good customer support
Cons
- Editing project or task details once time is logged is difficult
- Some issues with the desktop and app tracking
- Exported reports don’t provide as much detail as displayed on the screen dashboard
Price
You’ll get most of the time-tracking features on the free plan, however, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan for invoicing, reporting, and profitability features which start at $2.99 per person, per month.
11. Harvest
Harvest is a simple time-tracking tool that also offers reporting, invoicing, and payment solutions.
Standout Features
For an agency business that’s after a no-fuss, easy-to-use time-tracking solution, Harvest gives you access to a couple of standout features:
- Time-tracking – You can track time from browser, desktop, or mobile devices and use live timers or submit manual time logs.
- Invoicing & payments – While many simple time-tracking tools offer invoicing, only a few have payment solutions included in the bundle. Harvest offers PayPal and Stripe integrations for online invoice payments.
- Resources & profitability – The tool’s reporting features let you set and track budgets, analyze time spent on client accounts, visualize team capacity, and plan future allocations.
Who is Harvest For?
If basic invoicing and payments are just as important as having your team log in on time for project work, Harvest would be a good fit. Most of their marketing and advertising users are small to medium-sized agencies with teams of 1-500 people.
What Users Are Saying About Harvest?
Most of the online user feedback confirms the tool’s reliable time-tracking and invoicing features. With over 600 online reviews and a Captera rating of 4.6, some of the pros and cons users experience include:
Pros
- Ability to assign different levels of access to users based on needs or seniority
- Automatic invoicing for clients on retainers
- Simple design and user interface make it easy to set up and use
Cons
- You can’t split project budgets across various tasks
- Limited customization options for invoicing and reports
- Issues with app integrations
Price
For individuals and freelancers, the free plan gives you time-tracking and invoicing, but if you’re an agency or want the payments feature included, you’ll need to go for a paid plan which starts at $11 per person, per month.
12. Float
Float is a resource management platform that comes with simple time-tracking, and tools to schedule and manage your team’s work and capacity.
Standout Features
While it’s not specially designed for marketing and creative businesses, a good number of its customer base comes from the marketing and advertising sector. Some of the standout features that agencies will appreciate include:
- Easy time-tracking & timesheets – You can use the standard start and stop timer or use the built-in time-tracking pre-filled in scheduled tasks. If needed, you can also edit time logs manually, and pre-fill timesheets with scheduled allocations.
- Project planning – You can create, save, and reuse project templates and scope and estimate projects based on availability, skills, rates, and workloads.
- Resource and capacity management – View your entire team’s capacity, roles, availability, and time off. You’ll also get alerts and warnings for individuals who are over their capacity.
Who is Float For?
If you’re a small or medium agency with a team of 5-500 that would benefit from not only having a time-tracking tool but also a serious resource management and scheduling platform, Float would be a good choice. However, it can also work well for smaller teams.
What Users Are Saying About Float?
The thing most users seem to agree on is the user-friendly design that’s easy to learn and use. With over 1,600 online reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.5, some key pros and cons include:
Pros
- Simple but efficient time-tracking features
- Comprehensive resource planning, management, and scheduling features
- Filters help you compare different workflows and projects
Cons
- Task progress labels cannot be customized
- Limited functionality and clunky design for mobile devices
- Splitting tasks can be difficult
Price
Float only offers paid plans, and to get time-tracking it’ll cost you $10 per person, per month.
13. Timely
Timely is an AI-powered automatic time-tracking tool, which also offers payroll, project management, and resource planning features.
Standout Features
The standout feature in this tool is the automatic time-tracker which completely removes the need to start or log time manually, but some other things agencies will reap benefits from include:
- More accurate reporting – With an automated time-tracker, you remove the potential of errors when it comes to missed or inaccurate time logs. This means the data and reporting you get are more reliable, which also means your future planning and estimates will be, too.
- Project dashboards – You have an all-projects view to track key metrics like budget, hours, and progress, but you can also get more comprehensive information on individual project dashboards.
- Manage people & resources – View and monitor all your resources to avoid burnout, spot bottlenecks, and prevent cost overruns.
Who is Timely For?
Timely is best for small and medium-sized agencies with 1-1000 people who are after an extensive resource management platform and automated time-tracking.
What Users Are Saying About Timely?
Most users in the marketing and advertising industries praise the time-tracking functionality, and how much time they’ve been able to save on various administrative tasks they used to do manually. With over 700 reviews and a Capterra rating of 4.7 some other pros and cons include:
Pros
- Super easy to learn and use for employees and owners
- The ability to do work and not think about starting and stopping timers or logging time manually
- Project reporting to help identify which clients are being undercharged based on team time spent on tasks
Cons
- Pricey plans, especially for bigger teams
- Issues with accuracy of the Memory Tracker feature
- For invoicing, you can only integrate with QuickBooks
Price
Timely offers almost all its time-tracking features on its lowest plan which goes for $9 per person, per month.
ActiveCollab: Your All-In-One Agency Tool With Time-Tracking
For an agency, a time-tracking tool is something you simply cannot run a profitable business without. When choosing which time-tracking tool to sign up for, it’s worth taking into consideration tool consolidation options that will let you streamline, and centralize your entire agency operation workflows.
ActiveCollab is an all-in-one productivity and work management solution with time-tracking features for growing agencies. It will help you run your projects, budgets, and teams more efficiently, and simplify invoicing and client payments.
Not only will the time-tracking tool in ActiveCollab let you invoice clients more accurately for every billable hour, but it will also reveal the accounts where you might be losing money and jobs you might be undercharging. On top of that, it will help you manage your team capacity so you prevent burnout, identify your high-performers, and also provide productivity insights for better future planning.
So, if you’re an agency that’s looking to scale its operations, and consolidate its tools into a reliable one-stop tool shop make sure you test-drive ActiveCollab.
An all-in-one platform for client, work, and team management.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial or book a demo with one of our people.
