Project Time Tracking & Timesheets
Project Time Tracking & Timesheets Comparison
How to compare project time tracking products: the capabilities we check against each vendor’s own documentation, and the products verified so far.
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LeadChange may earn a fee when you request pricing through our site or follow a sponsored link. Rankings never depend on whether a vendor pays us.
What we compare
No project time tracking product is verified yet. These are the capabilities each one will be checked against, in the vendor’s own documentation.
Capabilities in the comparison
Timers and timesheets
Captures time through timers, daily or weekly timesheets, mobile and browser entry.
Client, project and task codes
Organizes time by client, project, phase and task, with billable and non-billable categories.
Billable and cost rates
Applies rates by person, role or project to value time for billing and costing.
Timesheet approvals
Routes timesheets to managers or project leads and locks approved periods.
Budget tracking
Tracks hours and fees against project budgets with alerts.
Invoicing from time
Creates invoices from approved billable time and expenses.
Profitability and utilization reports
Reports margin by project and client, and billable utilization by person and team.
Accounting integration
Syncs clients, invoices and payments with accounting or ERP systems.
Edit history
Records who entered, changed and approved each time entry.
How to choose project time tracking & timesheets software
Project time tracking succeeds only if people actually log their time, so ease of entry matters as much as reporting. Choose on how quickly time gets captured, how rates and budgets are modeled, and how cleanly approved time flows to invoicing and accounting.
Bring a real project to the demo, with its rate card and budget, and ask the vendor to track a week of time, approve it and produce the invoice.
Fast time entry
Time logged days later is less accurate and often under-reported, which means unbilled work.
Client, project and task structure
Reports are only as useful as the structure time is logged against.
Billable rates and cost rates
Profitability needs both what you charge and what the time costs, by person, role or project.
Timesheet approvals and locking
Approving time before invoicing catches errors, and locking prevents edits after billing.
Budget tracking and alerts
Overruns found at month end are too late to fix.
Invoicing and accounting integration
Re-keying approved hours into invoices creates errors and delays cash.
Requirements by company size
Small businesses
- Timers and weekly timesheets that take seconds
- Billable rates and invoice creation from tracked time
- Accounting integration
Watch out for
- Paying for resource planning you will not use
- Per-user prices that jump when you add part-time staff
- No timesheet reminders, so time goes unlogged
Mid-sized companies
- Approval workflows by project or manager
- Budgets with alerts and profitability reports
- Role-based billable and cost rates
Watch out for
- Reports that cannot combine billable and cost rates
- Approved time that can still be edited
- Separate tools for time, expenses and invoices
Enterprises
- Integration with ERP, project accounting and HR systems
- Audit trail of edits and approvals
- Multi-entity, multi-currency rate cards
Watch out for
- Time codes that drift out of sync with the ERP
- Weak controls for contract or audit requirements you must meet
- Long implementations for features a simpler tool already covers
Red flags
- Time can be edited after approval or invoicing with no history
- Rates can be set only per person, not per project or role
- No reminders or reporting on missing timesheets
- Invoices must be built manually from exported hours
- The tool is pitched to hourly payroll without overtime, break or rounding rules
- Activity capture is on by default with no clear employee notice
How we research
Ranked by the LeadChange Score, computed only from verified facts: capability coverage (30%), pricing and value (20%), integrations and API (15%), security (15%), fit and support (10%) and data confidence (10%), times a category fit. Products with too few verified facts are not scored yet and come last. Payment never changes a score or a position.
Facts, not impressions
Every input is a fact verified against vendors’ official documentation, with the date we last checked it.
Missing data is never assumed
Unverified items are left out of the score and lower its coverage; below 60% coverage a product is not scored yet.
Independent of revenue
Rankings never depend on whether a vendor pays us.
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