Harvest + Basecamp = Low-cost Project Solution

I'm very much liking Basecamp for most project management tasks, but I'm just not seeing where the extra expense is justified to get the time tracking included. Not only do I not report on time in the same context as I track projects, but the Basecamp time tracking feature is pretty lame.

You basically just enter the number of hours and a note about what you did. That's it. The system puts in your name and there is no other info you can include. If you want an invoice to be created off the time tracking you can export a csv file, but then you have to manually create the invoice out of the stack of records with these random notes signifying what was done.

Compare that to Harvest's time tracking service, which feeds directly into an invoice that the system will even send to the client for you, along with follow up notes after a pre-determined period you set, until you mark the invoice as paid. Harvest allows you to set up standard tasks for a given project or all projects, enter the rate charged for the task (my company uses hours, but could be by other units also), then log your time on your desktop by selecting the task from a drop down then clicking a button in a widget to start the timer. When you are done simply click the timer again to stop it, and presto, your hours have been entered in Harvest for that task.

You can also log in to add time, and add notes to any task to supplement whatever is in the task name. Then invoicing the client is as simple as selecting what time period to invoice for and pressing send. The invoice goes out with your logo, messages, and invoice as PDF, plus imbedded in body of email. Perfect! And all for anywhere from just $12/month for one user to $5-9/month per user for 10 or more users.

True, Basecamp's time tracking comes at an extra cost of just $26/month for unlimited users, but in this case you truly get what you pay for. It is simply too limited an option in it's utility to be worth even $26/month, no matter how many scattered employees I was trying to track time for.

The fundamental Basecamp approach is the reason its time tracking feature isn't all that great. They offer all around collaboration as a project management method. For my company, time tracking is a part of invoicing, not project management. But for some companies they want to see the time being logged against a project within the context of the project itself. Instead of for invoicing, they track time to see how many hours are being done on a project by all the people involved.

The good news is, Harvest can receive time tracking information from Basecamp, so if you do have a reason to want time tracking in the project management system, you can still send the info over to Harvest for invoicing. You could then have just a single user Harvest account for the person who generates the invoices.

Another cool integration is that you can even use Twitter to send time updates from the road from your mobile phone. So if you aren't going near a laptop with wifi access anytime soon and don't want to have to write your time down somewhere for entry later, just twit it straight into Harvest from your car!

With the use of Harvest for time tracking, I can use the $24 monthly Basecamp account, and have a complete time tracking and invoicing solution. If one only worked on one or two projects at a time he/she could even use the free Basecamp account, though that is not the case for me. I am a real fan of both software services, and don't mind flipping between them to get the best of all worlds, instead of limiting myself to an integrated service that causes me to compromise on each feature.