Time tracking workflow: Uninvoiced hours to lines
Invoice your Harvest hours from InvoiceQuickly without billing them twice
This workflow takes billable, uninvoiced time and expenses from a Harvest Detailed time report, turns them into line items on an InvoiceQuickly invoice that you check before sending, and then marks the same entries as invoiced in Harvest. InvoiceQuickly does not connect to Harvest: you move the figures yourself, by typing them into the invoice editor or by pasting a short summary into the AI draft box. Harvest can already create invoices from tracked time, so this is for people who want every client invoice, payment link and client portal in InvoiceQuickly while Harvest stays the record of their hours.
How it works
Using Harvest with InvoiceQuickly, step by step
Step 1: Run a Detailed time report for the billing period
In Harvest, go to Reports > New report > Detailed time, choose the Timeframe, filter to the client and project, and click Run report. Then use the Show menu to keep only billable and uninvoiced hours. Administrators can run the report for every project, Managers for projects they manage and their assigned people, and Members only for their own time.
Step 2: Export the entries, and the billable expenses
From the Export menu, choose CSV or Excel. Harvest says these files hold more detail than the screen, including rounded hours and billable amounts. Export > Custom lets you pick and order the columns; Harvest's pricing page lists custom exports as an Enterprise feature. If you bill expenses, repeat the same filters on Reports > New report > Detailed expense, where only billable expenses can be marked invoiced later.
Step 3: Total the hours for each invoice line
Open the file in a spreadsheet and sum the hours by task or by person, whichever your client expects to see. If time rounding is on in Harvest, sum Hours Rounded, because Harvest calculates the Billable Amount column from it. Multiply each total by its rate and check the result against the summed Billable Amount before you type anything into InvoiceQuickly.
Step 4: Build the invoice in InvoiceQuickly
Choose New Invoice, pick the client and set the same currency as the Harvest project. Under Line Items, enter a Description (task and date range), the hours as Qty and the billable rate as Rate; add each billable expense as its own line with Qty 1. Or paste your totals into the Describe what you need to bill box and choose Generate draft: that text is sent to OpenAI, and every drafted line must be checked against your spreadsheet.
Step 5: Save, send and collect payment
Choose Save as Draft to review later, or Create and email invoice on Pro to send it with the PDF attached. On the Free plan, download the PDF and send it yourself. On Pro you can also add a Stripe or PayPal payment link for the balance and share the client's portal link.
Step 6: Mark the same entries as invoiced in Harvest
Run the Detailed time report again with the same filters, open the Actions dropdown, choose Mark hours as invoiced and confirm. Harvest locks those entries against editing and, on Time & Materials projects, subtracts them from the uninvoiced amount. Do the same for expenses on the Detailed expense report. Only Administrators can do this step.
What you get
What this Harvest workflow gives you
What you get
- Every client invoice comes from one tool with one numbering sequence, including clients whose work you never tracked in Harvest
- Harvest stays the record of hours and rates, and its uninvoiced amount still drops once you mark the entries, so its reports reflect what you billed
- The spreadsheet check (hours times rate against Harvest's Billable Amount) catches rate and rounding mistakes before the client sees them
- On Pro, the invoice goes out by email with the PDF, appears in the client's portal, and can carry a Stripe or PayPal link to your own account
- No credentials to share between the two tools: the hours travel in a file you exported and can keep alongside the invoice
- An optional AI draft can turn a pasted summary of hours and rates into lines, which you review before saving
Best for
- Freelancers who track some clients in Harvest but bill others on fixed fees or quotes, and want all invoices and numbering in one place
- Consultants and small agencies who want clients to see invoices and receipts in InvoiceQuickly's client portal and pay through a Stripe or PayPal link on Pro
- People on Harvest's Free plan, which its pricing page lists as 1 seat and 2 projects, who want fuller invoicing without upgrading Harvest
- Monthly or milestone billing where a handful of grouped lines per invoice is enough detail for the client
- Not a fit if Harvest already invoices your clients the way you want: its own invoices pull in tracked time, mark it invoiced and record online payments without any copying
- Not a fit if you need one invoice line per time entry over long periods, retainers drawn down on the invoice, or more than one tax rate per invoice
Reference
Where Harvest export data goes on an InvoiceQuickly invoice
Use this when you read a Detailed time or Detailed expense export and fill in the invoice editor by hand.
| Harvest export data | InvoiceQuickly field | How to handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Client | Client on the invoice | Pick an existing client or add one. The Free plan allows 5 clients. |
| Project and Task | Line item Description | Write one line per task or person, for example Website refresh: Development, 1 to 31 Oct 2026. Descriptions can be up to 1,000 characters. |
| Hours, or Hours Rounded when time rounding is on | Qty | Enter the total for that line. InvoiceQuickly stores two decimal places, so 18.25 is kept exactly but 1.333 becomes 1.33. |
| Billable rate | Rate | One rate per line. If people or tasks bill at different rates, split them into separate lines. |
| Billable Amount | Not entered | InvoiceQuickly calculates each Amount as Qty times Rate. Use Harvest's figure only to check yours. |
| Billable and invoiced status | Not entered | Use the Show menu filters (billable, uninvoiced) before exporting, so the file only holds time you can bill. |
| Time entry notes | Description or Notes | Summarise them. The invoice Notes field holds up to 5,000 characters; it is not a place for every entry. |
| Date | Description | State the period in the description. The invoice's Issue date is the day you bill, not the day the work happened. |
| Project currency | Currency | Match it. InvoiceQuickly invoices in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, INR or PKR, and neither tool converts currencies. |
| Billable expense amount (Detailed expense export) | A separate line | Qty 1, Rate equal to the expense amount, and a description such as Stock photo licence (billable expense). |
| Cost rate and Cost Amount | Leave out | These are your internal costs, not what the client pays. |
Scroll sideways to see every column.
Hours Rounded, Billable Amount and Cost Amount are column names Harvest's help centre uses for these exports. Other headers depend on the export type and, with Export > Custom, on the columns you choose, so match the rows above to the header row of your own file.
Reference
Worked example: one month of Harvest time on one invoice
Example data only: the client, project, hours and rates are invented to show the arithmetic. The Harvest project bills by task rate, time rounding is set to 15 minutes, and the Detailed time report is filtered to 1 to 31 October 2026, billable and uninvoiced. Each Qty is the sum of the Hours Rounded column for that task.
| Line description (InvoiceQuickly) | Qty (hours) | Rate (USD) | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website refresh: Design, 1 to 31 Oct 2026 | 12.50 | 95.00 | 1,187.50 |
| Website refresh: Development, 1 to 31 Oct 2026 | 18.25 | 120.00 | 2,190.00 |
| Website refresh: Project management, 1 to 31 Oct 2026 | 3.75 | 80.00 | 300.00 |
| Stock photo licence (billable expense) | 1 | 45.00 | 45.00 |
| Subtotal | 3,722.50 | ||
| Tax (0% in this example) | 0.00 | ||
| Total | 3,722.50 |
Scroll sideways to see every column.
Check before sending: the three time lines add up to 3,677.50, which should equal the summed Billable Amount in the Harvest export for the same filters, and the expense should match the Detailed expense report. After sending, mark those time entries and that expense as invoiced in Harvest.
Setup
Setting it up
Before the first invoice, check three things in Harvest. First, your role: Administrators can run and export every report and mark hours as invoiced; Managers can export for projects they manage but cannot mark anything invoiced; Members only see their own time. Second, the project: tasks must be billable on that project and rates must be set, otherwise the Billable Amount comes out as zero. Third, time rounding: an Administrator can see it under Settings > Preferences. Rounding changes the Hours Rounded column and new Harvest invoices, but not the Detailed time report you view on screen. Next, decide which tool invoices each client. If a client has a Time & Materials recurring invoice template in Harvest, it will keep creating draft invoices that pull in all uninvoiced billable hours tracked before each invoice date, so remove it or move that client to InvoiceQuickly completely. In InvoiceQuickly, the Free plan covers 5 invoices in total with PDF download; Pro ($9/month) adds email delivery, the client portal and Stripe or PayPal payment links. Try the whole loop on one short period first: export, invoice, send, then mark invoiced and confirm the lock icons appear on the Detailed time report.
Good practice
Best practices
Give each client one invoicing tool
- Double billing almost always comes from both tools invoicing the same client. Pick one per client and remove any Harvest recurring invoice template for clients you bill from InvoiceQuickly.
Mark invoiced straight after you send
- Use the same Timeframe and filters you exported with, then Actions > Mark hours as invoiced. Harvest only records an invoice ID for entries pulled onto its own invoices, so keep the export file named with the InvoiceQuickly invoice number, such as INV-0042.
Use one hours column all the way through
- If rounding is on, use Hours Rounded for every line, since the Billable Amount is based on it. Mixing raw and rounded hours is the most common reason the two totals disagree.
Group lines, then send detail separately
- An InvoiceQuickly invoice holds up to 100 lines and cannot carry extra files such as reports. Group by task or person, and if the client wants every entry, send the Harvest Detailed time report as a PDF alongside the invoice.
Check the tax rate covers every line
- InvoiceQuickly applies one tax percentage to the whole invoice after any discount, expense lines included. If reimbursed expenses should not be taxed in your country, bill them on a separate invoice with 0% tax.
Lock closed periods on Harvest Enterprise
- Timesheet Lock stops anyone adding or editing time and expenses on or before a chosen date, which keeps hours from changing after you invoice. It needs the Timesheet approval module, which Harvest's pricing page lists as an Enterprise feature.
Troubleshooting
Common issues
The InvoiceQuickly total does not match Harvest's Billable Amount
- Check, in order: that every line uses Hours Rounded when rounding is on; that people or tasks with different rates are on separate lines; and that no quantity lost precision, since InvoiceQuickly keeps two decimals. Then confirm the report still shows billable, uninvoiced hours only, with the same Timeframe as the export.
The Billable Amount column is zero or blank
- Harvest only calculates billable amounts when the task is billable on that project and a rate is set. Fix the project's tasks or billable rates in Harvest, run the report again and re-export before you build the invoice.
There is no Mark hours as invoiced option
- Only Administrators can mark hours or expenses as invoiced or uninvoiced. Managers and Members can run and export reports but not change the status, so ask an Administrator to do this step after each invoice is sent.
A Harvest draft invoice holds the same hours
- Usually a Time & Materials recurring template created it. Decide which invoice the client gets. If it is the InvoiceQuickly one, delete the Harvest draft (Actions > Delete, then type DELETE); Harvest unlocks its hours and marks them uninvoiced. Then mark them invoiced yourself and remove the template so it does not happen again.
Scope
What this workflow does not do
- InvoiceQuickly has no connection to Harvest: hours, rates and invoice status never move between the tools unless you copy them.
- InvoiceQuickly has no timer, timesheets or expense tracking, and cannot import a CSV or Excel file into line items.
- Marking entries invoiced in Harvest is a separate manual step, and Harvest will not store the InvoiceQuickly invoice number against them.
- An InvoiceQuickly invoice holds up to 100 lines, one tax percentage, one discount percentage and quantities to two decimal places, with no file attachments.
- Payments you record in InvoiceQuickly, by hand or through a Stripe or PayPal link, do not appear in Harvest's invoice or payment reports.
Questions
Harvest and InvoiceQuickly: questions
Does InvoiceQuickly connect to Harvest or import its CSV?
No. There is no connection, no importer and no timer in InvoiceQuickly. You export from Harvest, then type the totals into the invoice editor or paste a summary into the AI draft box. Nothing moves between the two tools unless you move it.
Harvest already creates invoices from tracked time. Why use InvoiceQuickly?
If Harvest invoices all your clients well, keep using it. InvoiceQuickly suits people who also bill work they do not track in Harvest and want one invoice list, or who want InvoiceQuickly's client portal and Stripe or PayPal links on its $9/month Pro plan. The cost is a manual step: you copy the hours and mark them invoiced in Harvest yourself.
How do I make sure the same hours are not billed twice?
Never invoice the same client's time in both tools. After sending the InvoiceQuickly invoice, an Administrator runs the Detailed time report with the same filters and chooses Actions > Mark hours as invoiced; Harvest locks those entries and removes them from the uninvoiced amount. Remove any Harvest recurring invoice template for that client. On Harvest Enterprise, Timesheet Lock can also freeze the period.
Can the AI draft turn my Harvest export into line items?
It can draft lines from text you paste, up to 5,000 characters, so paste your grouped totals (task, hours, rate) rather than the raw export. The text is sent to OpenAI. Always include the rate: if a line has no amount, the draft estimates one. Check every line against your spreadsheet before saving. The Free plan stops after 3 AI drafts, while Pro drafts are unlimited.
Should I use Hours or Hours Rounded?
Use Hours Rounded if time rounding is on in Harvest, because the export's Billable Amount and Harvest's own invoices use rounded time. Either way, use the same column for every line.
Can I bill Harvest expenses this way too?
Yes. Run the Detailed expense report with billable and uninvoiced selected, add each expense as a line with Qty 1, then mark the expenses as invoiced in Harvest. InvoiceQuickly invoices cannot carry receipt images, but Harvest's PDF export of the expense report includes them if the client needs copies.
Sources
Official documentation
The Harvest steps on this page follow these official pages. Menus and plan limits change, so check them before you rely on a detail.
- Harvest Help Center: Detailed time and detailed expense reports (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: Can I write off time or manually mark it as invoiced? (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: How does time rounding work? (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: How to create a single invoice (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: Recurring invoices (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: Understanding Timesheet Lock (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest Help Center: Is there a free version of Harvest? (checked 2026-10-28)
- Harvest pricing and plan comparison (checked 2026-10-28)
Create your first invoice
The Free plan covers 5 invoices in total with PDF download. Pro is $9/month for unlimited invoices, email delivery and Stripe or PayPal payment links.
Start freeLast verified: October 2026