The Harvest alternative for when the invoice is no longer the end of the road
Harvest does exactly what it promises: track hours, watch budgets and get the invoice out. The trouble starts when you want to know whether the business makes money, not just whether the project got billed. That is where the parallel spreadsheet begins.
Hours, real cost, project margin, team utilisation, expenses, invoicing and P&L on the same platform.
If your priority is recording hours and getting paid quickly with a lean, proven product, Harvest is an excellent choice and hard to beat on simplicity. If you also need real project margin, team health and a financial close that does not run through a spreadsheet, Harvest stops one step short of what matters to you.
Why consultancies start looking for a Harvest alternative
The journey ends at the invoice
You can see budget consumed and amounts still to bill. What never comes out of it is the company P&L, projected cashflow or the allocation of overheads, which is what actually tells you whether the year is going well.
Margin gets calculated outside
Even with cost rates configured, you still have to cross salaries, overheads and purchases to know what each project leaves behind. That crossing ends up as a spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand every month.
Team health is barely measured
You know how many hours each person logged, but not whether they are at 60 % or 110 % utilisation, piling up overtime or blocked for days. That information stays in meetings and gut feeling.
Nothing warns you when a project turns
The budget alert arrives once the hours are already spent. There is no burn rate, no scope deviation, no estimated-versus-actual view that lets you react while reacting still helps.
Harvest and Tenki, point by point
| What you need | Harvest | Tenki |
|---|---|---|
| Product scope | Project hours, expenses and invoicing | Hours, team, profitability and finance connected in real time |
| Real cost per person | Cost rates to estimate project profit | Direct and indirect cost, margin in € and %, traffic-light per project |
| Financial close | Outside the product: you export and build the report | Automatic P&L, expenses by category and cashflow with forecast |
| Team health | Basic hours and capacity reports | Utilisation targets, worker scores, overtime and active blockers |
| Project drift | Alert as you approach the hours budget | Burn rate, scope creep and estimated vs actual, with negative-margin alerts |
| Invoicing | Invoices, reminders and integrated online payment: its strength | Client invoicing with statuses and VAT; collection handled outside |
| Integrations | Broad, mature ecosystem across the usual tools | REST API on Enterprise; standard integrations on the roadmap |
| Getting started | Self-service: sign up and you are working the same afternoon | Guided rollout in about two weeks, with the team trained |
| Your data | Export available within its SaaS model | EU hosting, daily backups and full export whenever you want |
This comparison is based on Harvest's public documentation and on our own experience migrating consultancies and agencies. Harvest and every other brand mentioned belong to their respective owners; this page is not affiliated with them. Spotted something out of date? Write to info@soamee.com and we will fix it.
When to switch and when to stay
Stay on Harvest if…
- What you need is to record hours and invoice fast, without analysing business profitability.
- You collect payment online from the tool itself and that flow is central to how you operate.
- You rely on specific integrations in its ecosystem that save you real work today.
- You are a small, stable team with few concurrent projects and comfortable margins.
Switch to Tenki if…
- You know how many hours went in, but not what each project left behind until someone builds the spreadsheet.
- You want real-time margin, with direct and indirect cost, and an alert when a project goes negative.
- You need to measure utilisation, overtime and blockers to balance workload with data rather than instinct.
- Month-end close costs you days of manual consolidation across hours, expenses and invoicing.
- You want someone to configure the platform around your projects and train the team, not a self-service start.
What migrating from Harvest looks like
Audit of how you work
We review how you use Harvest today: projects, tasks, rates, budgets and whatever falls out into the parallel spreadsheet. Free and with no commitment.
Project and cost model
We move clients, projects and tasks across, then add what was missing: cost per person, overheads and team utilisation targets.
History import
You export your time entries from Harvest and we load them via bulk CSV, preserving dates, people and projects so the history keeps its value.
Training and go live
Half an hour per person covers timesheet and timer. We stay close for the first few weeks with dedicated support and adjust whatever needs adjusting.
The modules that close the loop
Weekly timesheet, daily timer, bulk CSV import and automatic compliance.
Real-time project margin, burn rate, scope creep and utilisation.
Expenses, invoicing, projected cashflow and automatic P&L.
More than 20 connected modules: team, clients, projects and KPIs.
Pick who we compare ourselves against
Compare it against your real projects, not a generic demo
Tell us how you handle hours and profitability today, and we will walk you through Tenki with your projects, your team and your margins. No commitment, no cost.
Book a free demoFAQs about migrating from Harvest
Can you import our Harvest history?
Does Tenki invoice and collect like Harvest?
What difference will we notice in the first month?
Does the team have to change how it works?
Does it integrate with our tools?
How long does the rollout take?
Tell us your challenge. We'll propose a solution.
No commitment. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a proposal with scope, timeline and budget. No fine print.