Best Time Tracking Software for Engineering Consultancies

Website: https://www.getharvest.com/

Best for: Billable hours and invoicing for small to mid-size firms

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Clear billable and cost rates per person; invoicing built in from tracked time

Cons: Timesheet approvals need Enterprise at $14; Flex usage fees can add cost beyond the seat price

Harvest suits consultancies that want time tracking to end in an invoice without extra steps. Teams starts at $9 per seat per month on annual billing, or $11 monthly, and the free plan covers one seat and two projects. Engineers can run one-click timers or fill in weekly timesheets, set billable and cost rates per person, and send invoices from hours already logged.

Enterprise starts at $14 per seat per month on annual billing, or $17.50 monthly, and adds timesheet approvals, profitability reporting, an activity log and single sign-on. Harvest also notes that Teams and Enterprise accounts can carry Flex usage fees for active projects, clients, tasks and invoicing, so the seat price is the starting point rather than the full bill.

Website: https://toggl.com/

Best for: Simple timers and clean reports

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: One-click timer on web, desktop and mobile; clear team reports without monitoring features

Cons: Timesheet approvals need Premium at $16; no invoicing built in

Toggl Track is the easiest tool here to get engineers to use every day, and that matters because a tracker only works when hours are logged on time. Starter costs $9 per user per month on annual billing, or $12 monthly, and adds billable rates, rounding, project estimates and team reports. Toggl Track states an explicit anti-surveillance position, with no screenshots, keystroke or webcam monitoring.

Premium costs $16 per user per month on annual billing, or $24 monthly, and adds labour costs, profitability reports, fixed fee projects, timesheet approvals and single sign-on. Firms that bill by the hour can stay on Starter, while firms that need approvals and margin reporting should budget for Premium. There is no invoicing inside Toggl Track, so invoices still need an accounting tool.

Website: https://clockify.me/

Best for: Low-cost tracking at scale

Starting price: $3.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Lowest entry price in this list; free plan covers up to 5 users

Cons: Free plan capped at 5 users; invoicing needs Standard at $5.49

Clockify is the budget pick for consultancies that need many seats without a large monthly bill. Basic costs $3.99 per seat per month on annual billing, or $4.99 monthly, and adds billable rates, required fields, time estimates and project templates. The free plan covers up to 5 users, though reports cover at most 31 days at a time. For 20 engineers, Basic costs $79.80 per month on annual billing.

Standard costs $5.49 per seat per month on annual billing, or $6.99 monthly, and adds invoicing, timesheet approvals, time off, overtime and QuickBooks sync, which is the tier most consultancies will actually need. Pro costs $7.99 and adds project budgets, labour cost and profit reports, scheduling and expenses. Clockify is a tracker first, so its reporting is less deep than a full professional services platform.

Website: https://www.bigtime.net/

Best for: Full professional services billing

Starting price: $20 per user/month

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Utilisation and profitability reporting built in; invoicing tied directly to tracked time

Cons: Entry price is higher than a simple tracker; higher tiers are quoted rather than published

BigTime is built for professional services firms, including engineering consultancies, rather than adapted from a general timer. Essentials starts at $20 per user per month and includes time and expense management, project portfolio management, billing and invoicing, automatic reconciliation and a QuickBooks integration. Time feeds straight into invoices, and utilisation reports show who is billable and which projects are over budget.

Advanced, Premier and Enterprise add multi-currency invoicing, custom cost and rate management, project budgeting and multi-level approvals, with some tiers quoted by the sales team rather than published. Resource Management is a separate module, so firms that want staffing and forecasting should ask for a quote that includes it. BigTime has no free plan, only a free trial and a demo.

Website: https://www.bill4time.com/

Best for: Time and billing in one place

Starting price: $39 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Time tracking, invoicing and client portal in one tool; QuickBooks integration included

Cons: Entry price of $39 is high for engineering firms; no free plan, trial only

Bill4Time keeps the whole chain, from timer to invoice to payment, inside one product. The Time and Billing plan costs $39 per user per month on annual billing, or $49 monthly, and includes time tracking, task management, client management, a client portal, expense management, invoicing, payment processing and a QuickBooks integration. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card is needed.

The price is the main drawback, since $39 per seat is more than four times the entry price of Harvest or Toggl Track, and a 20-person firm would pay $780 per month on annual billing. The higher tiers are aimed at legal work, with Legal Pro at $59 and Legal Enterprise at $89, adding trust accounting and LEDES export that most engineering firms will not use.

Website: https://www.timesolv.com/

Best for: Detailed billing with volume discounts

Starting price: $49 per user/month

Free plan: Free trial (10 days)

Pros: All billing features on every plan; volume discounts for larger teams

Cons: Starts at $49 per user per month; no free plan, trial only

TimeSolv prices by the number of users, with volume discounts as the team grows, and its pricing page states that pricing starts at $49 per user per month, with a free trial available. The vendor also lists a 25 percent discount on the first year for annual plans. TimeSolv includes multiple billing types and split billing for all users, and it offers TimeSync desktop capture that works offline.

For an engineering consultancy, the value is in billing depth rather than a low seat price, since $49 per user per month means a 20-person firm pays $980 per month before any discount. The Pro and Legal plans differ mainly in legal features such as conflict checking, so a non-legal firm should check which plan matches its work. There is no free plan, only a 10-day free trial.

Website: https://everhour.com/

Best for: Tracking inside project tools

Starting price: $8.50 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timers live inside Asana, Jira, Trello and ClickUp; one Team price includes every feature

Cons: Team plan has a 5-seat minimum; free plan has no integrations

Everhour puts the timer inside the project tool the team already uses. Timers appear inside Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Trello, Notion, Monday, Linear and GitHub, so engineers log hours against the task they are already looking at. Team costs $8.50 per seat per month on annual billing, or $10 monthly, and includes native integrations, billable rates, project budgets with alerts, invoicing, expenses, time approval and single sign-on.

The free plan covers up to 5 seats with time tracking, projects, tasks and reports, but it has no integrations, billing or invoicing. Team has a 5-seat minimum, so the smallest account costs $42.50 per month on annual billing even for a team of two or three people. Everhour has little to offer a firm that does not already manage work in a supported project tool.

Website: https://www.paymoapp.com/

Best for: Projects, time and invoicing combined

Starting price: $10.90 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Project management and time tracking in one tool; timesheet reports and estimates on Plus

Cons: Timesheet approvals need Pro at $16.90; Solo plan is limited to 1 user

Paymo combines task and project management with time tracking and invoicing, which suits consultancies that want one tool for planning and billing. Plus costs $10.90 per user per month on annual billing, or $15.90 monthly, and is the first plan that allows unlimited users, clients and projects, with timesheet reports, estimates, expenses, recurring invoices, integrations and API access.

Solo costs $5.90 per month on annual billing, or $9.90 monthly, but it is limited to one user, three clients and five projects, so a team cannot use it as its entry price. Pro costs $16.90 per user per month on annual billing and adds Gantt charts, task dependencies, employee scheduling, timesheet approvals and leave management. A consultancy that needs approvals must budget for Pro, not Plus.

Website: https://hubstaff.com/

Best for: Activity tracking and contractor payouts

Starting price: $4.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Activity levels, screenshots and automated timesheets; contractor payouts built in

Cons: No free plan, trial only; Starter caps screenshots at 500 per seat per month

Hubstaff combines timers with activity tracking, which suits consultancies with remote staff or contractors who need clear records of work. Starter costs $4.99 per seat per month on annual billing, or $7 monthly, and includes time and activity tracking, automated timesheets, app and URL tracking, screenshots and client invoicing. Grow costs $7.50 and Team costs $10, while Enterprise costs $25 per seat per month on annual billing.

There is no free plan, only a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, and every published plan has a 2-seat minimum, so a solo user still pays for two seats. Starter caps screenshots and app tracking at 500 per seat per month, and six add-ons cost extra per seat per month, so a fully equipped Starter seat can cost far more than the $4.99 headline. Hubstaff also handles contractor payouts from the same record.

The table uses annual billing rates from the vendor pricing pages we checked on 2026-11-12, before taxes and add-ons. Compare the tier you actually need, not the entry number, because approvals, profitability reporting and resource management often sit on a higher tier.