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Best Time Tracking Software for Consultants: Best Solutions

Maria, May 29, 2025
best time tracking software for consultants: stay ahead with 11 top solutions

If you charge by the hour and don’t track your time precisely, you’re either undercharging, over-servicing, or losing track of what you’re worth. Welcome to the life of a consultant. And welcome to the tools that fix that. The right time tracking software for consultants and the best time tracking software helps you:

  • Track billable and non-billable hours
  • Generate invoices from time logs
  • Keep clients updated and budgets on track
  • Avoid spending Sunday night formatting Excel sheets
  • Create a detailed feedback loop that helps you price future projects more accurately
  • A time tracker spots client creep and plug the profitability leaks

🔧 TL;DR: Best Time Tracking Software for Consultants in 2025

Tool Best For Free Plan Invoicing Notes
Everhour Solo consultants, small firms Tracks inside Asana, ClickUp, Trello
Harvest Freelancers + small agencies ✅ (limited) Solid invoicing + time tracking
Toggl Track Independent consultants Fast UI, lacks built-in billing
Clockify Free-focused users ✅ (pro) Best free tier, invoicing is limited
FreshBooks Consultant + accounting combo More accounting than tracking

💪 Why Everhour Is the Best Time Tracking Software for Consultants

Here’s why Everhour is the top pick:

  • ⏱️ Log time directly inside ClickUp, Trello, Asana
  • 💵 Mark hours as billable vs. internal
  • 🧾 Generate custom invoices in seconds
  • 📊 Track budgets, expenses, and client hours all in one dashboard
  • 📁 Clean exportable reports for clients or finance teams
  • 📈 See project health in real-time
  • 🎯 Set hourly rates per project, client, or teammate
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Everhour doesn’t just clock your time — it contextualizes it. That’s the difference between a clock and a business tool.


💡 What to Look For in Consultant Time Tracking Software

Consultants juggle multiple clients, shifting deliverables, and varied pricing models. Your time-tracking tool should support this without friction.

Look for:

  • ⏱️ Real-time tracking and manual logging
  • 💼 Billable vs. non-billable distinctions
  • 🧾 Invoicing based on time logs
  • 🎯 Hourly rate settings per client/project
  • 💰 Expense tracking and reporting
  • 📱 Mobile support (because you don’t always work from a desk)
  • 🔌 Integrations with the tools you already use (Trello, ClickUp, Slack)
  • 📊 Clear dashboards for seeing profitability per project

Also: you shouldn’t need a two-week onboarding to figure it out.


🆓 Best Free Time Tracking Software for Consultants

Being lean doesn’t mean sacrificing visibility. These free tools are powerful:

  • Clockify – Completely free, unlimited users, with tagging and reporting
  • Toggl Track – Sleek interface, great for solo users with focused workflows
  • Everhour Free Plan – Limited features, but includes native integrations with Trello/Asana and client-level visibility
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Use the free plan if:

  1. You’re just starting out
  2. You don’t need deep reporting (yet)
  3. You want to test before committing

But remember: time you don’t track = money you can’t bill.


💸 Time Tracking and Billing for Consultants

Your time tracking tool should also handle:

  1. Invoice generation based on tracked hours
  2. Custom branding on invoices
  3. Export to PDF or direct-to-client reports
  4. Stripe/PayPal integrations (for getting paid faster)

Use:

  • Everhour – Best mix of tracking + billing + reports
  • Harvest – More polished invoices, decent reporting
  • FreshBooks – Best if accounting and billing are your focus
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Freshbooks

Avoid tools that require you to export CSVs and manually calculate totals.


🤔 Consultant Use Case Scenarios (And How Time Tracking Helps)

💼 Marketing consultant: Juggling 5 clients with retainer hours? You need real-time dashboards to avoid over-servicing. Everhour lets you set budgets per client and alerts you when you’re getting close.

📊 Sales consultant: You log hours spent on coaching, sales scripts, audits. Harvest gives you a solid UI for tracking those meetings. But Everhour adds ClickUp sync and better budget views.

🛠️ Operations consultant: You’re inside the client’s ClickUp board daily. Everhour logs time right there, so you don’t double-handle time entries.

💻 IT consultant: Sometimes you work in the field, sometimes online. Clockify’s mobile app and offline logging can be helpful. But again — no real invoicing.


🔎 Why Consultants Fail at Time Tracking (and How to Fix It)

  1. Forget to trackFix: use auto-start/stop or browser-integrated tools
  2. Track but don’t invoiceFix: link your time logs to your invoice workflow
  3. Hate clunky UIs Fix: pick tools with clean dashboards (Everhour, Toggl)
  4. Don’t analyze tracked time Fix: use weekly reports to spot time drains

Time tracking isn’t just for billing — it’s for strategy.


📃 Consultant Revenue Example (with and without tracking)

💰 You bill: $100/hr

🧑‍💻 Weekly client hours: 25

🚫 Scenario A – No tracking
You miss 5 hrs/week → $2,000/month lost

Over a year? That’s a $24,000 mistake.

✅ Scenario B – You track time
You invoice all 25 hrs → Full revenue earned


Bonus: What About Reporting?

If your clients need weekly updates, or if you want to analyze where your time goes:

  • Everhour – Customizable reports, filters, export to CSV or PDF
  • Clockify – Standard reports, shareable links
  • Toggl – Visual graphs, daily/weekly summaries
everhour vs. trackingtime vs. hourstack: which time tracking tool comes out on top?
Everhour reporting page

Everhour wins here if your work is client-facing.


FAQs

1. What is the best time tracking software for consultants?

Everhour. It balances tracking, reporting, invoicing, and integrates with your PM stack.

2. Is there a free time tracker that includes billing?

Clockify has invoicing in paid tiers. Everhour includes limited invoicing in free.

3. Can I track different hourly rates per project?

Yes — Everhour and Harvest both support this.

4. What’s best for consultants who manage multiple clients?

Everhour. Clean client-level views and budget caps.

5. Is there a tool that lets me log time inside my task manager?

Everhour does this best for Asana, ClickUp, Trello.


📝 Final Word

Consulting is chaotic. Your time tracker shouldn’t be. If you want a tool that:

  • Logs hours accurately
  • Generates client-ready invoices
  • Tracks budgets and expenses
  • Works where you work (Trello, ClickUp, etc.)

Then Everhour is the best time tracking software for consultants in 2025. Period.

Maria

A dedicated content enthusiast with extensive experience in international teams and projects of all sizes. Maria thrives on creativity and attention to detail, fueled by a love for fantasy novels, music, classic black-and-white films, and always finding ways to make things better.