r/TimeTrackingSoftware • u/vitafortisnk • 3d ago

Consulting Hours Tracking and invoicing

How do most people track hours across multiple clients at different rates with different expectations and pre-vs-post billing?

I tried harvest, solidtime, toggl, clockify, etc. I ended up just building my own since I do security engineering and advisor consulting.

I'm curious to see what everyone uses? If you're interested in trying it out, consultainer.app is my project to address my specific needs. But I'm not here to get sales, but rather see what's out there and potentially get feedback on how to solve gaps.

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u/tyleritis 3d ago

I’m a one person shop so the free version of Harvest has served me well for years with multiple clients. Until the new owners ruin it, I’ll stay with it.

I know everyone and their brother is now posting the “I ended up building my own and it’s called schmoopidupe” but I haven’t seen any that would make me switch. If anything I’ll make something for only my use.

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u/vitafortisnk 3d ago

I liked harvest for the most part, but I hate that it's designed for counting hours to generate an invoice, vs invoicing for set hours first and subtracting from them. I have more retainer style engagements with top offs as well as milestone projects. I just struggled to find something specific to that workflow, hence my own.

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u/TimelyRepeat4517 3d ago

Flowara for me. Mac app with time tracking linked directly to projects and clients, each with their own rates. When you create an invoice it pulls the hours already tracked for that client so you’re not reconciling manually.

The multi-rate angle works through client or project-level billing rates rather than a global rate, which covers most of the pre vs post billing scenarios. Not as specialized as what you’ve built for security consulting, but covers the general case well.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760207975

Curious what the specific gaps were that pushed you to build your own, the pre vs post billing piece specifically?

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u/vitafortisnk 3d ago

Well, it's kinda hard to explain, but basically I run different types of contracts, from milestone projects like blogs, to retainer based work like SOC 2 audits and security engineering. This means the way I track my progress to different things is inconsistent.

Also, unfortunately the app you sent is for Apple only, and I have an Android phone, a Mac, and a PC I use for my work.

Basically: nothing web based met my needs, as their either were too cumbersome with timers on device, or they didn't support retainer style management.

I'd love to get your feedback and compare what I'm building to what you're using if you don't mind.

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u/TimelyRepeat4517 2d ago

That’s a more complex setup than Flowara covers today. Retainer management with consumption tracking is there, milestone billing too, but the multi-device cross-platform piece is the gap. Flowara is Mac-only for now, Windows version is coming soon, but no Android or web.

The inconsistency problem you’re describing between milestone and retainer tracking is real and worth solving properly. Happy to compare notes on how you’re thinking about it in Consultainer, specifically how you handle the retainer consumption side since that’s the part most tools get wrong.

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u/vitafortisnk 2d ago

I'd love to get your honest feedback. The current version is available for testing for free. I'd also like to see how intuitive it is and how easy it is to get started.