Maximizing Productivity and Precision with Harvest at a Software Development Agency

At our software development agency, accurate billing and operational transparency aren't just good practice—they’re essential for building trust with clients and optimizing internal workflows. Over the past few years, Harvest has become the backbone of our time tracking, invoicing, and productivity reporting systems.

In this post, we’ll share how we use Harvest to drive both financial clarity for executives and real-time project visibility for engineering leadership.

For CEOs & CFOs: Billing with Confidence

Challenge: In fast-moving client engagements, ensuring every invoice reflects real work—not just time—can be challenging. Especially when scopes shift, new features are added mid-sprint, or multiple consultants touch the same deliverable.

How we do it in Harvest

• Detailed Time Entries: Every hour logged includes context— we include notes tied to commits, tickets, or deliverables. No more vague "dev work" entries.

• Easy Invoice Generation: We turn time reports into branded invoices with a click, customized per client agreement (fixed rate, hourly, retainer).

• Audit Trail: Need to justify a sprint extension? Pull up detailed logs for any time period or consultant.

For CTOs & PMOs: Real-Time Insight for Stronger Delivery

Challenge: Engineering leaders need to know who’s doing what—now—not two weeks after a sprint ends. Waiting for retros is too late.

How we do it in Harvest

• Live Timesheet Views: We review daily entries during standups to quickly unblock developers and balance workloads across teams.

• Budget Alerts: Harvest warns us when we’re nearing budget caps—ideal for fixed-fee projects or retainer tracking.

• Reporting by Task & Role: PMOs love the ability to filter logged hours by role (e.g., frontend, backend) and task type (e.g., bug fix, feature).

💡 Pro tip: We export weekly time reports by project and include them in client status updates. It shows transparency and reinforces the value delivered.

A Culture of Accountability, Without Micromanagement

The real magic? Harvest supports our culture of autonomy. Developers don’t feel watched—they feel trusted. But as a leadership team, we still get the insights we need to:

• Prevent overwork

• Stay on budget

• Plan sprints realistically

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re leading a 10-person agency or managing multiple dev squads across time zones, Harvest offers the clarity and control needed to keep projects profitable and productive. For us, it’s not just a time tracker—it’s a strategic asset.

Take It Further with Daily Standup Automation

If you're already using Harvest to track time and gain visibility, the next step is making that data actionable in your team's daily flow.

Agencystandup syncs with your time tracking and project tools to generate smart, automated standup updates—so your team starts each day with clarity, and your PMs can skip the spreadsheet wrangling.