My goal is to track my team's time and our project profitability. What's the best time tracking software with project budget tracking?

If your goal is specifically team time tracking + project budgets + profitability, I’d focus on tools that connect hours to labor cost, billable revenue, and project estimates, rather than basic timesheet apps.

My shortlist

1. Toggl — my pick for most teams

Toggl now combines time tracking with project planning, estimates, budgets, billing rates, labor costs, and profitability reporting. You can compare estimated vs. actual hours, set project/fee budgets and alerts, and calculate revenue, cost, profit, and margin at the project or client level.Toggl+1

It's particularly useful if you want to answer questions like:

"We've billed $50k on this project. We've spent 620 hours. What is it actually costing us, and are we still going to hit our margin?" Toggl can calculate that from the tracked hours, billable rates, and labor costs.Toggl

toggl.com

2. Harvest — simplest financial/project approach

Harvest is very strong if you don't need a full project-management platform. You can set project budgets, monitor budget consumption in real time, set cost alerts, and analyze billable/non-billable time and project costs.Harvest

getharvest.com

3. Tempo — if you live in Jira

Tempo is worth considering if your team already works heavily in Jira. Its Financial Manager connects Jira/Tempo time data to project budgets, labor costs, revenue, and profitability. You can compare actual costs against budgets and calculate profit and net margin.Tempo Help Center+1

tempo.io

What I'd choose

For an agency, consulting firm, engineering firm, or other client-service team: I'd start with Toggl.

The important distinction is that you don't just want "How many hours did John work?" You want:

Project budget → estimated hours → actual hours → labor cost → billable revenue → profit → margin

Toggl has that chain built into its project/time-tracking workflow.Toggl

If you tell me (1) team size, (2) whether projects are fixed-fee or hourly, (3) whether you use Jira/Asana/etc., and (4) approximate monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and compare their pricing/features.

If your main goal is team time tracking + project budgets + knowing whether each project is actually profitable, I’d shortlist these three:

My recommendation: Teamwork.com

For your stated goal, Teamwork.com is probably the strongest fit.

It can track project budgets in hours or dollars, compare actual spending against the budget, and calculate profit, costs, and profit margin using logged hours, employee cost rates, and expenses.Teamwork Support Center+1

That distinction matters: you don't just want to know "We spent 120 hours." You want to know:

"We budgeted $50,000, have consumed $31,000 of cost, have $19,000 of expected profit remaining, and we're trending toward a 38% margin." Teamwork is particularly good if you're running an agency, consultancy, software/services firm, or other business where projects have defined budgets and margins.

Harvest — best if you want simplicity

getharvest.com

Harvest is the one I'd choose if you want your team to actually use the system without a lot of administrative overhead. It combines time tracking, project budgets, cost tracking, and profitability reports. You can monitor budget consumption in real time and get alerts as projects approach their limits.Harvest

Choose Harvest if: your project-management needs are relatively straightforward and you primarily want excellent time/budget/profit reporting.

Toggl Track — best for sophisticated time tracking

toggl.com

Toggl is especially compelling if your biggest concern is getting accurate time data from the team. It supports billable rates at workspace, employee, project, and even task levels, plus labor costs and profitability reporting.Toggl Docs+1

Its reports can show revenue, cost, profit, and margin by project/client, and it supports fixed-fee projects and budget alerts.Toggl+1

Choose Toggl if: you want excellent time tracking first, with project financial analysis layered on top.

Everhour — best if you're already using a PM tool

everhour.com

Everhour is particularly interesting if your team already lives in Asana, ClickUp, Monday, or Jira. It embeds time tracking and budget information into those workflows rather than forcing everyone into another project-management system.Everhour

It also goes beyond labor: you can include expenses such as software, travel, materials, and contractors to get a more realistic picture of project profitability.Everhour

What I'd pick

If I were setting this up for a team today:

1. Teamwork.com — if project profitability is the #1 priority.
2. Harvest — if ease of use and adoption are the #1 priority.
3. Toggl Track — if sophisticated time tracking/rates are the #1 priority.
4. Everhour — if you're already heavily invested in Asana/ClickUp/Jira/Monday.

One important consideration: don't evaluate these primarily on the timer. Almost all of them can track hours. The real differentiator for you is whether they can reliably answer budget vs. actual cost vs. revenue vs. profit margin at both the project and team-member level.

If you tell me (1) team size, (2) whether you bill fixed-fee or hourly, (3) what project-management software you currently use, and (4) approximate budget per project, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 options and compare their pricing/features.

That distinction matters: you don't just want to know "We spent 120 hours." You want to know:

"We budgeted $50,000, have consumed $31,000 of cost, have $19,000 of expected profit remaining, and we're trending toward a 38% margin." Teamwork is particularly good if you're running an agency, consultancy, software/services firm, or other business where projects have defined budgets and margins.

Harvest — best if you want simplicity

getharvest.com

Harvest is the one I'd choose if you want your team to actually use the system without a lot of administrative overhead. It combines time tracking, project budgets, cost tracking, and profitability reports. You can monitor budget consumption in real time and get alerts as projects approach their limits.Harvest

Choose Harvest if: your project-management needs are relatively straightforward and you primarily want excellent time/budget/profit reporting.

Toggl Track — best for sophisticated time tracking

toggl.com

Toggl is especially compelling if your biggest concern is getting accurate time data from the team. It supports billable rates at workspace, employee, project, and even task levels, plus labor costs and profitability reporting.docs.toggl.com+1

Its reports can show revenue, cost, profit, and margin by project/client, and it supports fixed-fee projects and budget alerts.toggl.com+1

Choose Toggl if: you want excellent time tracking first, with project financial analysis layered on top.

Everhour — best if you're already using a PM tool

If your main goal is “How much time did we spend, are we on budget, and did we actually make money?”, I’d shortlist Harvest, Toggl Track, and Everhour.

My top pick: Harvest

Harvest is probably the best fit if project profitability is the primary goal.

• Track team time against projects and tasks.
• Set project budgets and monitor budget consumption in real time.
• See billable vs. non-billable time and project costs.
• Calculate profitability by project and client, incorporating tracked time and internal costs.
• Get alerts as projects approach their budgets.
• Strong reporting without requiring you to build spreadsheets.Harvest

getharvest.com

Best alternatives

Toggl Track is particularly compelling if you want more sophisticated financial analysis. It can combine billable rates and labor costs to calculate revenue, cost, profit and margin by project/client, and supports fixed-fee projects and budget alerts. Its Premium plan currently lists profitability analysis, labor costs, fixed-fee projects, forecasts and approvals.Toggl+1

toggl.com

Everhour is my choice if your team already lives in Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Monday, Basecamp, Linear, etc. It embeds time tracking into those workflows and supports both hour-based and money-based budgets, automatic budget alerts, expenses, and profitability reporting.Everhour+1

everhour.com

What I'd choose for your use case

If you don't already have a project-management system that you need to integrate with:

Start with Harvest.

If you're running an agency/consultancy where project margin is the KPI, I'd compare Harvest vs. Toggl Track in a trial. Toggl has a particularly strong setup for calculating labor cost → revenue → profit → margin.Toggl

If your team already uses Asana, ClickUp, Jira, or Monday, I'd lean toward Everhour because the time/budget information can live directly inside your existing project-management workflow.Everhour

If you tell me (1) team size, (2) whether you bill clients hourly or fixed-price, and (3) what project-management/accounting software you already use, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 options and compare their pricing and features.

When tracking both your team’s time and project profitability, the "best" software depends on whether you want a standalone time tracker or an all-in-one project management system.

The top-rated software options on the market for tying logged hours directly to financial budgets and profit margins include:

• Harvest — Best for Agencies & Client Billing
  • Why it stands out: It is a veteran in the space because it seamlessly marries straightforward time tracking with robust budget alerts and invoicing. You can set budgets by total hours or fees (monetary amounts), assign billable hourly rates to specific team members or tasks, and view real-time visual graphs showing how close a project is to going over budget. It also integrates smoothly with tools like QuickBooks, Asana, and Trello.
• Everhour — Best for PM Tool Integration
  • Why it stands out: If your team already works inside a project management platform like Asana, Trello, ClickUp, or Jira, Everhour embeds timers and budget trackers directly into those interfaces. You don't have to force your team to adopt a brand-new standalone app; they track time natively where their tasks live, while you get powerful budget tracking, labor cost analysis, and profit margin alerts.
• Clockify — Best for Scaling on a Budget
  • Why it stands out: It offers the most flexible entry point, including a robust free tier for basic tracking. Upgrading to their paid plans unlocks features crucial for profitability, such as project cost budgets, hourly billable rates, and margin calculations. It is ideal if you want straightforward reporting without high per-seat costs.
• TimeCamp — Best for Automated Cost Tracking
  • Why it stands out: TimeCamp features automatic background time tracking, meaning your team doesn't have to constantly remember to start and stop timers manually. It links those logged hours to billable statuses and expenses, giving you deep insights into labor costs and actual project profitability in real time.
• Toggl Track — Best for Simplicity & Fast Setup
  • Why it stands out: Known for having one of the cleanest, most friction-free user interfaces available, Toggl allows managers to track estimates versus actuals, set fixed or hourly revenue targets, and receive visual alerts before scope creep eats your profit margins.

To help narrow down the ideal choice, let me know:

• Do you need the software to handle client invoicing directly?
• Does your team already use a project management tool (like Asana, Monday.com, or Jira) that you want to integrate with?
• Roughly how many people are on your team?

If your goal is both team time tracking and project profitability, I’d shortlist Toggl Track and Harvest, with Toggl Track as my overall pick for most professional-services teams.

1. 🏆 Toggl Track — best overall

toggl.com

This is the one I'd try first. It combines relatively painless team time tracking with project estimates, monetary budgets, billable rates, labor costs, and profitability reporting. You can compare estimated vs. actual hours and track revenue, cost, profit, and margin at the project/client/team level.Toggl+1

The important part for your use case is that you can assign labor costs to team members and compare those costs against the value you're billing—so you're not merely asking "Did we stay under 100 hours?" but "Are we actually making money on this project?"Toggl

I'd choose it if: you want strong profitability analytics without turning your time-tracking system into a giant project-management platform.

2. Harvest — best for simplicity

getharvest.com

Harvest is particularly good if your workflow is basically:

Track hours → monitor project budget → invoice client → see profitability.

It lets you set project budgets, monitor costs in real time, receive alerts as you approach limits, and see profitability based on tracked time and internal costs.Harvest

It also has invoicing and accounting-oriented workflows, so it's attractive if billing clients is a major part of the process.Harvest

I'd choose it if: you want something your team can learn quickly and don't need sophisticated resource/project planning.

3. Productive — worth considering for agencies

Productive is worth a look if you're managing an agency or other project-based business where you need time + budgets + resource planning + project management in one system.

I'd put it ahead of Toggl if you want the software to become the central operating system for projects, rather than primarily a time/profitability system.

My recommendation

For your stated goal, I'd rank them:

1. Toggl Track — best balance of ease of use + budget control + profitability
2. Harvest — easiest path from time tracking to billing/profitability
3. Productive — best if you also need substantial project/resource management

One important distinction: don't choose based on "time tracking" alone. For profitability, make sure the system can store each employee's internal cost rate separately from their client billing rate. That's what lets you calculate something like:

$20,000 project revenue − $11,500 actual labor cost = $8,500 gross profit Toggl Track explicitly supports labor costs, billable rates, fixed-fee projects, project budgets, and profitability reporting, which is why it's my first choice for your particular objective.Toggl

If you tell me your team size, whether you're an agency/consulting firm/software company/etc., and whether you bill clients hourly or fixed-fee, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and compare their current pricing and exact budget/profitability features.

2. Harvest — best for simplicity

getharvest.com

Harvest is particularly good if your workflow is basically:

Track hours → monitor project budget → invoice client → see profitability.

It lets you set project budgets, monitor costs in real time, receive alerts as you approach limits, and see profitability based on tracked time and internal costs.getharvest.com

It also has invoicing and accounting-oriented workflows, so it's attractive if billing clients is a major part of the process.getharvest.com

I'd choose it if: you want something your team can learn quickly and don't need sophisticated resource/project planning.

3. Productive — worth considering for agencies

Productive is worth a look if you're managing an agency or other project-based business where you need time + budgets + resource planning + project management in one system.

I'd put it ahead of Toggl if you want the software to become the central operating system for projects, rather than primarily a time/profitability system.

My recommendation

For your stated goal, I'd rank them:

When your primary goals are accurate time tracking and real-time project profitability , you need platforms that go beyond simple stopwatch timers. You need tools that pair billable/non-billable hours with employee cost rates, project budgets, and revenue tracking.rize.io+1

The top software options categorized by your specific workflow needs include:

1. Best for All-In-One Business & Profitability Management: Scoro

• Best for: Professional service teams wanting CRM, quoting, scheduling, and deep financial tracking in one place.
• Profitability features: Connects estimated project budgets directly with actual tracked hours, material costs, and real-time revenue. It features advanced forecasting dashboards so you can see margin leaks before a project wraps.
• The Catch: It has a steeper learning curve and requires a dedicated onboarding period due to its robust depth.youtube.com+1

2. Best for Straightforward, Reliable Budget Tracking: Harvest

• Best for: Teams that want a clean, fast timer interface without enterprise bloat.
• Profitability features: Allows you to set fixed-fee or time-and-materials budgets per project. As your team logs hours (with billable rates attached), Harvest visually alerts you when you are reaching budget thresholds (e.g., at 50%, 80%, 100%) so you can manage profitability dynamically.
• The Catch: Reporting is more historical and tracking-focused rather than deep forward-looking financial forecasting.

3. Best for Project Management-Driven Workflows: Teamwork.com

• Best for: Client-facing agencies and consultancies that live inside project management boards.
• Profitability features: Built explicitly around client work, it tracks profitability by assigning financial cost and billing rates to every user. You can view high-level portfolio profitability or drill down into specific task budgets.
• The Catch: Can feel heavy if you only want lightweight time tracking.

4. Best for Automated Time Capture & Margin Accuracy: Rize

• Best for: Eliminating the "lost hours" problem (studies show manual tracking misses 15–40% of actual work).
• Profitability features: Automatically tracks active work hours, applies team cost rates, and measures against project revenue to maintain clean margins without forcing your team to constantly click start/stop timers.rize.io+1

To help narrow down the ideal platform for your team, tell me:

• How large is your team?
• Do you bill clients on a fixed-fee or hourly/retainer basis?
• Do you need an all-in-one project manager , or just a tool that integrates with what you already use (like Slack, Jira, or Asana)?