Agency time tracking software
TL;DR: Agencies do not have a time tracking problem, they have a proof and utilisation problem. Pick the tool that makes billable evidence easy to produce and tracking easy to do — adoption beats features every time.
Generic time trackers record hours. Agencies need something narrower and harder: proof of what was delivered against a client budget, utilisation per person, and profitability per account. This guide covers what separates agency-grade tracking from a timesheet, and how to get a team to actually use it.
The shortlist
Short answer: LemLedger if you need billable proof and a client-ready record of work on flat pricing, Harvest if you want the simplest tracker that invoices, Toggl Track if adoption is your problem and you bill elsewhere, Productive or Scoro if you want time, budgets and invoicing in one agency platform, and Everhour if your work already lives in Asana or ClickUp. Creative teams should optimise for one-click timers, media and production teams for flat pricing that includes freelancers, advertising teams for retainer burn-down.
Agency time tracking software compared at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Pricing model | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| LemLedger | Proving billable work to clients with a clean activity record | Flat pricing, published on lemledger.com | Not a full invoicing or accounting suite |
| Harvest | Small agencies that want tracking and invoicing in one simple tool | Per seat, monthly or annual | Utilisation reporting is basic |
| Toggl Track | Teams where getting anyone to track at all is the hard part | Per seat, generous free tier | Billing and budgets live somewhere else |
| Productive | Agencies wanting time, budgets, resourcing and invoicing in one platform | Per seat, annual commitment typical | Heavier rollout; more tool than a ten-person shop needs |
| Scoro | Larger agencies running retainers and profitability reporting together | Per seat, minimum seat counts apply | Setup and configuration take real time |
| Everhour | Teams already working inside Asana, ClickUp or Jira | Per seat, monthly | Weak as a standalone tool outside those integrations |
Pricing models are shown rather than figures, because vendor prices change. Check each vendor's own pricing page before you buy.
Track against budgets, not just projects
A retainer with no burn-down is a scope-creep invoice waiting to happen. The tool must show hours consumed against the agreed budget in real time, and warn before you cross it rather than after the month closes.
Utilisation is the number that matters
Billable hours divided by available hours, per person, per week. Without it you cannot tell whether you need to hire, whether someone is drowning, or which accounts quietly lose money. Any tool that cannot produce this report is a timesheet, not an agency tool.
Adoption beats features
The most sophisticated tracker is worthless if half the team fills it in on Friday from memory. Favour whatever makes starting a timer nearly free — a browser extension, an integration inside the tool people already work in, or automatic capture — over a longer feature list.
Client-facing output
The moment a client questions an invoice, you want to send a clean record of what was done, when and by whom, without reformatting anything. Check what the export looks like before you buy, not after the dispute.
What systems support time tracking and billing for agencies?
Three shapes exist. All-in-one agency platforms (Productive, Scoro, Teamwork) track time and raise the invoice. Time-first tools (LemLedger, Harvest, Toggl) track well and export to your accounting software. Accounting-first tools bolt a timer onto invoicing and usually track badly. Pick by which half you care about more — the joins between the two are rarely the problem people expect.
What is the best billable tracker for creative, media and production agencies?
Creative teams need timers that start from inside the tool they live in, because nobody stops designing to fill in a form. Media and production teams need per-shoot and per-day tracking with freelancers included, so flat pricing matters more than per-seat features. Advertising teams need retainer burn-down above everything else. Same category, three different buying criteria.
Do you need agency timesheet software as well?
Usually not separately. A timesheet is a view of tracked time, and any agency-grade tracker can produce one for payroll or client sign-off. Buying a standalone timesheet tool alongside a tracker means the team enters their hours twice, which guarantees one of the two is wrong.
The checklist
- Budget burn-down per client and per retainer
- Utilisation reporting per person per week
- One-click timers where the work happens
- Client-ready export of billable work
- Flat pricing so contractors can track too
- Locking of past periods once invoiced
LemLedger — Prove your work. Track every hour.
Client activity ledger for agencies. Track hours, deliverables, and prove your work.
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Ask us directlyFrequently asked questions
- What is the best time tracking software for agencies?
- The one your team will actually use. Beyond that, prioritise budget burn-down, utilisation reporting and client-ready exports — those three separate agency tools from generic timesheets.
- How do agencies calculate utilisation?
- Billable hours divided by total available hours for the period, per person. Most agencies target 70-80% for delivery staff; consistently above that usually signals an overload rather than efficiency.
- Should agencies use per-seat or flat-rate time tracking?
- Flat rate, if the option exists. Per-seat pricing discourages tracking for contractors and part-timers, which is exactly where untracked billable hours go missing.