Time and Expense Tracking Apps: 27 Solutions



Time and Expense Tracking

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The easiest way for a small business to lose money is through sloppy time and expense reporting. In our fast-paced always on the run world, spreadsheets and shoeboxes just won’t cut it anymore. If you’re using either to collect information on these two key business metrics, then you should check out this list of time and expense tracking apps and solutions below.

Available online or on your mobile devices (and often on both), these apps and solutions streamline time and expense collection as well as reporting. Some even include workflow features for expense approvals and invoicing functionality so you can bill your clients directly for time spent and expenses incurred.

Because so many project management, accounting and HR/benefits solutions offer time and expense tracking functionality, we slimmed down our list by focusing on the ones that stand on their own. Rest assured however, most offer robust integration with the rest of your systems.

That said, here’s our list of time and expense apps and solutions.



Time and Expense Tracking: Time Only

The time and expense tracking solutions in this section offer time tracking and reporting only. If that’s all you need, you’ll find plenty to like here.

Tsheets

Tsheets is a robust time tracker that offers simple payroll, timesheet approvals, mobile apps and job costing reports. As you can see below, they also help you keep an eye on overtime hours:



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Tick

Tick treats your time as your inventory and it shows in all the care they take in tracking your “stock”. The truly handy feature here is the ability to track actual time against budgeted time, a feature that not only alerts you to upcoming budget issues, but also helps you plan the next project better.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Everhour

The standout feature of Everhour is its ability to integrate directly with your project management tools. Here’s an example of their integration with Basecamp:



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

WorkPuls

If you really want to know what your staff works on every moment of their day, even right now, then WorkPuls will help you do just that. As you can see below, once installed, you can keep an eye on your employee’s productivity and help them become more effective.

WorkPuls

Hubstaff

Hubstaff also enables you to keep track of what each member of your staff is working on. You can even take regularly scheduled screenshots that show you how they spend their time. One of the unique features of Hubstaff however, is how you can set up automatic payments to your staff based on the time reported in the solution.



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Chrometa

Chrometa calls their solution, “passive timekeeping” as your timesheet is created fro you as you work. This is a pretty slick take on timesheets and saves everyone a lot of time.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Zedtimesheet

Our final time tracking only app is Zedtimesheet. This app integrates directly with QuickBooks so you never have to double enter any information.



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Time and Expense Tracking: Expense Only

Expensify

As you can see below, turning in expenses using Expensify is a snap (of a phone camera). You can also import your credit card expenses directly, a true time saver.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Neat

Neat uses character recognition to turn your receipt photos into real expense data in its system. From there, they integrate with many other systems where you can communicate, store and invoice your expenses.



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

ExpensePoint

ExpensePoint enables you to upload scanned receipts as well as import your credit card transactions, but where it really shines is in its approval workflow and auditing tools.

Shoeboxed

As you can see below, you can send your piles of receipts to Shoeboxed and they will scan them in and organize them into neat little categories that you provide. You may worry that the “human touch” will make them more expensive however, their solution is priced competitively against the others on this list.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps



webexpenses

With the motto, “always exceed expectations”, your sure to expect great things from webexpenses. As you can see by their feature list below, one of the most robust on this list, they don’t disappoint:

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense brings the same solid functionality to expense management as they do to the rest of their business management suite.

ExpenseBot

Last but definitely not least, ExpenseBot offers something different from the other apps and solutions on this list: they create your expense reports for you. “We’ll read your receipts, match them to credit card charges, and identify what’s reimbursable. We then create a smart expense report for you automatically, letting you just review and submit!”



How handy is that?!

Time and Expense Tracking Apps and Solutions: Time and Expense Tracking

ClickTime

ClickTime helps you use the time and expense information you’ve collected to manage your team’s productivity and utilization more precisely. For small businesses looking to manage costs closely, that feature is super-useful.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Timesheets

Timesheets calls it’s solution, “Total Workforce Management” and, as you can see below, they offer a lot of the features and functionality you need to well, manage your workforce:



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Dovico

A full-featured solution, Dovico offers solid time and expense management including automated notifications, approval workflows, time lockouts for managing payroll cutoffs and multiple currency support.

MindSalt

A solid entry in the time and expense arena, MindSalt offers everything you need to stay on top of your time and expenses including payroll and QuickBooks integration.

GetMyTime

Despite its names, GetMyTime also offers expense management. Built to integrate directly with QuickBooks, it’s a fine choice if you use that bookkeeping solution.



Time and Expense Tracking Apps

eBillity

eBillity is sort of a hybrid. At the basic level, it enables you to manage time. As you upgrade your account however, you’ll get expense management and even invoicing:

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Time and Expense Tracking Apps and Solutions: With Invoicing Functionality

FreshBooks

One of the most well known solutions for freelancers and small businesses, FreshBooks offers an end-to-end solution for managing your time, expenses and invoices.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Harvest

Harvest is a fully loaded time, expense and invoicing solution. Their standout feature is how they enable you to track time from within a whole bevy of solutions:

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

BigTime

BigTime‘s solid time and expense management features are supported by a robust reporting functionality that truly gives you a view into your business:

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Hiveage

Hiveage enables you to manage your billing from estimate to invoice including time and expense reporting in between.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps and Solutions: Apps Only

XpenseTracker

XpenseTracker is an app for tracking and reporting expenses, mileage and time. You can create PDF reports using one of the over dozen templates supplied or create your own.

Mileage Log+

Mileage Log+ is an app for folks who need to track mileage for tax deduction or reimbursement. They offer predictive input, auto-entry, auto-calculation, and quick access to frequent trips. The app will also create useful data ready to search, sort, and generate email reports.

Time and Expense Tracking Apps

Smart Receipts Pro

Smart Receipts Pro turns your Android phone into a receipt scanner and expense report generator. All you need to do is take pictures of your receipts and email yourself a PDF and CSV file at the end of each week.

Conclusion

Whether you need to manage your time, expenses, invoices or all three, there’s an app or solution that will fit your business on the list above.

Expenses Form Photo via Shutterstock


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Matt Mansfield Matt Mansfield is the Tech Editor and SEO Manager at Small Business Trends where he is responsible for directing and writing many of the site’s product reviews, technology how-to’s, and lists of small business resources as well as increasing the reach of our content.

7 Reactions
  1. I’m with Shoeboxed and I just wanted to send a big thank you for including Shoeboxed in this list. We truly appreciate it!

    With that being said, I’d love to connect with you and be a resource for Small Biz Trends when tax season rolls around in the Spring. We love helping small business owners and solopreneurs navigate tax challenges as a tech solution, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need quotes, interviews or any other assistance for relevant articles.

    Thanks so much again, and Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂

    Best,
    Claudia

  2. Hello Matt,
    As a Social Media Manager in TimeCamp I’m quite disappointed that you didn’t list our software here. Have you ever heard about our tool? Reagarding all those features which time tracking software has to have, TimeCamp is definitely as good as those ones you mentioned, maybe even better.
    It will be really nice if you take a quick look at it on our website.

    Happy Thanksgiving,
    Ola Rybacka, SM Manger in TimeCamp

  3. Thanks for the list. This is very useful for freelancers and people who need to keep track of their time for projects.

  4. Thanks for sharing this great list. I was working as a freelancer as well as in bigger companies and I was always using and am still using http://www.timr.com
    timr keeps track of working hours and project time as well as project budgets and let’s you define hourly rates.
    It comes with a team tracking feature and mobile apps that work online AND offline
    Definitely worth every dime.

  5. Thanks for this compilation! I’m a freelancer and used Zoho myself. But now I decided to switch to MoneyPenny.me with which I’m very satisfied. I think it would also deserve a spot on the list.

  6. Thanks for the info! Managing your time and tasks is very important to ensure your productivity especially when your working online. Using web-based time tracking tools is an effective way to make sure that you are handling your time well. Websites like https://www.clockspot.com/ can help you find the best time tracking tool for your projects.

  7. Should add a third category; time, expense, and auto mileage.