Sean KiddInnovation Program Manager| Louisville MSDLouisville, USA
I have a newly created PM team and I am looking for the most budget friendly software that I can use to track hours spent on multiple projects. I want to be able to show weekly and monthly reporting on how that time is being spent. I would love recommendations. Saving Changes...
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Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Great question — and congratulations on building your new PM team!
Time tracking can be a game-changer not just for accountability, but for uncovering trends, identifying bottlenecks, and optimizing future estimates.
The key is choosing a tool that balances ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and insightful reporting — especially when team maturity is still evolving.
Here are a few budget-friendly options I've seen work well across different project environments:
- Clockify: Free tier covers unlimited users and projects, with clean weekly/monthly reports and optional tags for categorization.
- Toggl Track: Very intuitive; strong for individual tracking and quick adoption. Free plan is solid, but premium adds project dashboards.
- Harvest: Slightly more advanced with invoicing features; great if you ever need to tie time to cost/revenue.
- ClickUp or Trello + Time Tracking Power-Ups: If you’re already using task boards, these can integrate nicely to track time alongside task progress.
A few tips:
- Start simple — especially if your team is new. The less friction to adopt, the more accurate the data.
- Define what “useful data” looks like upfront (e.g., per project? per team member? billable vs non-billable?).
- Use reporting not just to audit, but to improve — trends in overworked areas or underestimated tasks can shape your future planning.
Good luck — setting this up early is a strong foundation for a high-performing team!
It's been almost 7 years since I worked at a company that was concerned with tracking project team hours, and even then it was only for capital projects. We used Jira. If you have less than 10 people that need to use it, they have a free version, but there is some administrative burden (or there was, at the time).
We use ClickUp at my current employer. It has time tracking capabilities and is pretty easy to administer. I believe they offer a free version, with limitations (we use a paid version), but I can't recommend it for more than task and basic project management - it's not the most robust project management tool, but it meets our needs. As a collaborative task management tool, its pretty good. Saving Changes...
Shea KileyEducator| Massachusetts Department of CorrectionMassachusetts, United States
ClickUp did really satisfy some team needs in the past. I liked the mobile app features in the field. I was on multiple projects using Clockify in the past. I would swipe in and enter a code to define the project team and work done. Payroll was always confused by the self reporting issues. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Sean, at our organization, we use Harvest, and it's worked really well for tracking time across multiple projects. It's user-friendly, budget-friendly for small teams, and offers solid features like timers, manual time entry, and project/task categorization. One of the things we find especially useful is the reporting functionality as you can easily generate weekly or monthly reports to see how time is being spent across projects or by individual team members.
Harvest also integrates with many popular project management tools like Trello, Asana, and Slack, which makes it easier to fit into your existing workflow. They offer a free trial, so it’s worth exploring to see if it fits your team's needs. Saving Changes...
Totally agree, surveys are helpful, but long-term tracking really shows if changes stick. I usually pick one or two simple metrics that relate directly to the feedback, then follow up with short chats to see how things are going. Saving Changes...
Hernan NuñezService Delivery Manager| DXC TechnologyCiudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jira offers a robust foundation for managing tasks, sprints, and workflows, but its real strength lies in its ability to evolve with your team. While it doesn’t include native time tracking, it integrates effortlessly with tools like Tempo Timesheets, Clockify, and Harvest, allowing you to monitor hours spent across multiple projects and generate detailed weekly or monthly reports. These integrations are plug-and-play, meaning you won’t need to invest in heavy customization or additional infrastructure.
Beyond time tracking, Jira’s compatibility with platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Confluence, Google Workspace, and Power BI creates a unified environment where communication, documentation, and analytics flow naturally. For a team focused on operational excellence and service delivery, this kind of interoperability is a game-changer—it reduces silos, accelerates decision-making, and ensures that every hour logged translates into measurable impact.
From a cost perspective, Jira is refreshingly scalable. The free plan supports up to 10 users, making it ideal for pilot teams or early-stage rollouts. As your needs grow, the Standard and Premium tiers offer advanced features like automation, granular permissions, and enhanced reporting—still at a fraction of the cost of enterprise-grade platforms. This flexibility allows you to start lean and expand only when the ROI justifies it.
In short, Jira isn’t just a tool—it’s a strategic ally. It empowers your PM team to track time with precision, report with clarity, and integrate with the tools that drive your broader IT ecosystem. For a leader like you, focused on transformation and narrative impact, it’s a platform that supports both the operational and storytelling sides of service delivery. Saving Changes...
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