Harvest shows clients invoices. It doesn’t show them what’s left.
Harvest is a well-designed time tracker and invoicing tool. Its client portal is one of the cleanest in the category — clients can log in, see their invoices, and pay online. The gap: Harvest’s client portal is invoice-centric. It answers “what have I been billed?” not “how many hours remain in my retainer?” Mid-cycle, when a client wants to know their balance before submitting another request, Harvest has no view for that. HourTab adds the missing half — a live balance URL per retainer that updates from your existing Harvest CSV export, with no client login required.
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Where Harvest stops and retainer clients need more
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Harvest’s client portal is built for invoices, not retainer balance.
When a freelancer sends their Harvest client portal link, the client lands on an invoice view: outstanding invoices, paid invoices, and payment buttons. This is exactly right for the end-of-month billing conversation. It’s entirely wrong for the mid-cycle question: “I want to add a project scope item — how many hours do I have left?” The client who visits their Harvest portal to check retainer hours finds invoice totals and payment status. They can’t see a running hour balance, a progress bar against their cap, or a work log of what hours have been used for. HourTab builds that view from the same time data Harvest already holds.
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Harvest’s Project Budget alert fires to the freelancer, not the client.
Harvest has a Project Budget feature that sends an email alert when a project reaches a threshold percentage of its budget. That alert goes to the Harvest account holder — you. The client never sees it. When the budget alert fires, you still have to manually notify the client that they’re approaching their retainer cap. HourTab makes the balance visible to the client continuously, without a separate notification or email. When they check the URL and see 18 of 20 hours used, the conversation about the approaching cap starts before the overage — because the client initiated it.
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Harvest’s invoice timing is monthly; retainer balance questions are continuous.
Harvest invoices are generated at the end of a billing cycle and sent as a summary. For retainer clients who want to understand their consumption week by week — to plan whether to submit a new deliverable request or hold it for next cycle — a monthly invoice summary is too late to be useful. HourTab is updated weekly (or whenever you import a Harvest CSV export), so the balance URL reflects recent activity, not last month’s invoice total. The client gets a continuous view instead of a retrospective statement.
How it works with Harvest
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Set up the retainer in HourTab. Enter the client name, monthly hour cap, and billing cycle start. Harvest keeps the time-tracking and invoicing workflow you already have. HourTab adds only the client-facing balance view.
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Export from Harvest Reports → Detailed Time and import weekly. Filter by client, billing cycle dates, billable entries only. Harvest’s CSV export is one of the cleanest in the category — date, client, project, task, notes, hours. Import it into HourTab and the balance updates instantly.
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Share the balance URL in your retainer agreement. The client bookmarks it and checks it when they want to know their balance. You keep sending Harvest invoices at month end as before. HourTab handles the mid-cycle balance question so you don’t have to.
Harvest for time tracking and billing. HourTab for the live balance your clients check between invoices.
“Harvest’s client portal is great for invoices. But when a client asks mid-month ‘how many hours do I have left?’ — there’s no Harvest view for that. I end up doing the calculation manually and emailing them.”
— Common experience among Harvest-using freelancers
HourTab turns the Harvest export you’re already running into a URL the client checks instead of emailing you.
Frequently asked questions
Does HourTab replace Harvest for time tracking and invoicing?
No. Harvest stays as your time tracker and invoicing tool. HourTab adds one layer Harvest doesn’t have: a live retainer balance URL the client can bookmark mid-cycle. You keep logging hours in Harvest, generating invoices in Harvest, and managing client billing in Harvest. HourTab receives the time data via CSV export and turns it into a client-facing balance view.
How do I import Harvest time entries to HourTab?
In Harvest, go to Reports → Detailed Time, filter by client and billing cycle dates, check Billable only, then export as CSV. Harvest’s CSV includes date, client, project, task, notes, and hours columns — all readable by HourTab. Import the CSV into the corresponding HourTab retainer. The balance and work log update immediately.
Can clients see the retainer balance without a Harvest account?
Yes. HourTab balance URLs are public links — no login or account required. Your client receives the URL once, bookmarks it, and checks it whenever they want. They see hours used, hours remaining, reset date, and a work log. They never need to log into Harvest, create an account, or navigate a portal.
What does HourTab show that Harvest’s client portal doesn’t?
Harvest’s client portal shows invoices: what the client has been billed, invoice status, and payment history. HourTab shows the retainer balance: hours consumed, hours remaining against the monthly cap, cycle reset date, and a line-by-line work log for the current cycle. These are different questions with different views — Harvest handles the billing side, HourTab handles the live balance side.