The best time tracking software for an agency is the one that shows hours against what each client agreed to, so you spot overservicing before the month ends. Hourly shops can start with a simple tracker, retainer agencies need limits and alerts, and bigger teams usually want time inside an agency platform.
It's the last week of the month and you're looking at a retainer client who's been lovely to work with. The team's been busy on their account all month. Then someone pulls the timesheet and it turns out you've spent far more hours on them than the retainer covers. The work's done, the client's happy, and you've quietly given a chunk of your margin away again.
That's the moment agency owners go looking for time tracking software. It's rarely about whether people clock in. It's about knowing which clients make you money and which ones eat your team's week. Below are nine tools, in no particular order and with no crowned pick, grouped by how your agency bills and how big the team has grown. Some are built for or widely used by agencies, others are general trackers, and I've said which is which.
Hours logged versus hours agreed
Here's what catches most agencies out. Logging hours is only half the job. A timesheet tells you what already happened. What you need is those hours set against the retainer or the scope each client signed up for, while there's still time to do something about it.
A simple tracker will happily record every minute your designer spends on a client, and show you a tidy report afterwards. That's useful, but by the time you read it the overservicing has already happened. The tools that help agencies most either put limits and alerts on each project, so someone gets a nudge when a client nears the agreed hours, or they sit inside a wider agency platform where time is one module next to resourcing and finance.
So before you ask any vendor about their timer, browser extension or mobile app, ask one question: can I see time against the agreed hours for each client, at a glance, before the month is out? If the answer's a report you have to build yourself every Friday, you'll stop building it by week three.
The second thing to watch is billable versus non-billable time. Pitches, internal meetings, admin and that new-business deck all take hours that no client pays for. If your tracker lumps everything together, your utilisation looks healthier than the truth, and you can't tell whether the problem is one greedy account or too much unbillable work across the team.
Choose by how your agency bills
You bill by the hour and you're a small team
If most of your work is billed on hours worked, you mainly need clean timesheets and an easy route from hours to invoice. These are general trackers rather than agency tools, and that's often the better fit for a small shop. Clockify is a simple timer and timesheet app for logging hours across projects. Harvest pairs time tracking with reporting and online invoicing, and its own headline promises to turn hours into profit. Paymo covers client work from tasks and time through to invoices, which suits a team that doesn't want a separate project tool.
You run retainers and need warnings before the hours run out
Retainer agencies live or die on seeing the limit coming. Everhour is the clearest fit here: its own page puts billable hours and threshold alerts at the front, and it works inside Asana, ClickUp, Monday and Jira, so the team tracks time where they already work. Toggl Track lists creative agencies among the industries it serves and adds capacity planning and project profitability to the timer, which helps when you're juggling several retainers across the same people.
Your people forget to track at all
If the real problem is blank timesheets, an automatic tracker can help. Timely describes itself as automatic time tracking for consultancies, agencies and SaaS businesses, and pitches its AI tracker as the end of manual timers. It's built with agencies in mind, so it's worth a look if chasing timesheets every Friday is your biggest headache.
You're a growing agency running resourcing and finance too
Once you've got several teams, you'll want time tracking to feed resourcing and finance rather than sit in its own app. Productive calls itself agency management and professional services automation software, running resources, projects and finances in one platform. Scoro lists agencies among the firms it serves and pitches projects, resourcing and finances across teams and offices. Accelo is a professional services platform rather than an agency-only one, connecting projects, resources, financials and forecasting. In all three, time is one module among many, so they're a bigger change than swapping a timer.
If you're weighing one of these platforms for project work as well as time, our round-up of project management tools for creative agencies looks at the same problem from the delivery side.
All nine side by side
| Tool | Kind of tool | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Accelo | Professional services platform | Projects, resources and financials connected for client work |
| Clockify | Simple time tracker | Timesheets and work hours across projects |
| Everhour | Tracker with limits and alerts | Billable hours and threshold alerts inside your project tool |
| Harvest | Tracker with invoicing | Turning tracked hours into reports and invoices |
| Paymo | Tracker with projects and invoicing | Client work from tasks and time through to invoices |
| Productive | Agency management platform | Resources, projects and finances in one platform |
| Scoro | Professional services platform | Projects, resourcing and finances across teams and offices |
| Timely | Automatic time tracking | Capturing hours without starting and stopping timers |
| Toggl Track | Tracker with capacity planning | Employee hours, capacity and project profitability |
On free options, as of Nov 2026: one simple tracker in this list names a free plan with core time tracking, one retainer-focused tracker says it's free for small teams, one platform states nothing on its home page, and the rest name a free trial. If you're only after a free starter tracker, our list of free time tracking tools covers that end in more depth.
The nine tools, in no particular order
Accelo
Best for: Professional services firms that want projects, resourcing, financials and forecasting joined up, with the vendor pitching it as a way to protect margins.
Clockify
Best for: Teams that want a simple timer and timesheet app to log hours against projects, with core tracking on a free plan as of Nov 2026.
Everhour
Best for: Teams already running agency work in Asana, ClickUp, Monday or Jira that want billable hours and threshold alerts tracked inside those tools.
Harvest
Best for: Small shops that bill by the hour and want time tracking, easy reporting and online invoicing in one place.
Paymo
Best for: Small teams managing client work end to end, from tracking time and tasks to delivering projects and issuing invoices.
Productive
Best for: Agency owners and consultancies that want resourcing, projects and finances run from one platform, with time sitting inside it as one part.
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Scoro
Best for: Growing firms with several teams or offices that want projects, resourcing and finances on one platform the vendor says is built to scale.
Timely
Best for: Consultancies and agencies whose people forget to start timers, since the vendor pitches it as AI time tracking that ends manual tracking.
Toggl Track
Best for: Retainer shops that want to track team time, plan capacity and see project profitability without moving to a full agency platform.
Questions to put to every vendor
Demos tend to show the timer. Steer the call towards the parts that decide whether a client is profitable.
- Show me one retainer client. Can I see hours used against the agreed hours for the current month on one screen, without exporting anything?
- What happens when a client nears the limit? Who gets told, and how early can I set the warning?
- How do you split billable and non-billable time? Pitches, internal meetings and admin need their own place, or your utilisation numbers mean nothing.
- Can I set different rates per person or per client? Ask the vendor to show it, not just say yes.
- How does time reach the invoice? Check whether invoicing is built in, or whether the hours go out to your accounts software.
- Will my team use it? Ask for the browser extension or the integration with the project tool they already work in, and test it with your busiest account manager.
A word on utilisation
It's the share of your team's hours that clients pay for, and agencies track it because a busy team isn't the same as a profitable one. If one person spends half their week on pitches and internal work, that's a staffing and new-business question, not a timesheet one.
Don't turn time tracking into a stick. People round down when they feel watched, and then your numbers lie to you. Explain that the point is to protect the team from overservicing and to scope future work better, and you'll get far more honest timesheets. For a broader view of trackers outside the agency world, see our main guide to time tracking software, and if invoices and admin are the next thing on your list, our piece on AI for agency invoicing and admin picks up from there.
My plain advice for agency owners
If you're a small team billing by the hour, don't overbuy. A simple tracker with clean reports and invoicing will do the job, and you can move up later. If retainers are your bread and butter, pick something that warns you before a client runs past the agreed hours, because that warning is worth more than any timer feature.
If you're running several teams and you already feel the pain of resourcing in one place, finance in another and time in a third, that's when an agency platform earns its keep. It's a bigger switch, so trial it with one or two real client accounts and the person who does your month-end. Whatever you choose, make billable and non-billable time separate from day one. Tax and invoicing rules vary by country, so check with your accountant or the local tax authority before you rely on any built-in invoice settings.
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Frequently asked questions
What should agencies look for in time tracking software?
Look for hours shown against each client's retainer or agreed scope, alerts before a client runs over, and a clear split between billable and non-billable time. A timer on its own only tells you what happened after the fact.
Is a simple time tracker enough for a small agency?
Often, yes, if you bill by the hour and the team is small. Once you run several retainers, you'll want limits and warnings per client so you catch overservicing during the month, not after it.
What's the difference between a time tracker and agency management software?
A time tracker logs hours and reports on them. Agency management or professional services platforms put time inside a wider system with resourcing, projects and finance, so hours feed straight into planning and profitability.
How do agencies track retainer hours?
Set the agreed hours for each client as a limit in your tracker, log all client work against that project, and turn on an alert when usage nears the limit. Review it weekly, not at month-end.
How do I get my team to fill in timesheets?
Make it easy and explain why. Use a tool that sits inside the project app they already use, or one that captures time automatically, and be clear that the goal is protecting their time from overservicing, not watching them.
Should non-billable time be tracked?
Yes. Pitches, internal meetings and admin take real hours, and if you don't track them your utilisation looks better than the reality. Keep them in their own category so client reports stay clean.
