Can I migrate from my current tool?

Yes. CSV importer for clients, projects, and time entries — most teams migrate in an afternoon.

Is there a desktop app?

Yes — a native macOS menu bar app on every plan. Start and stop timers, add time, and see your week without opening a browser tab. It signs in with your normal Tempough login (no separate setup), stays in sync with the web in real time, and keeps working offline — entries you log without a connection sync automatically when you're back. Download it from Settings → Desktop app. A Windows version is on the way.

Can I control what different roles see?

Yes. Permission groups bundle granular keys (view team time, approve timesheets, see project health reports, etc.) and you assign them to staff. Admins can revoke the Dashboard entirely for specific roles, or set a per-user default landing page so contributors jump straight to Timesheet and payroll goes straight to Reports.

Does everyone have to use the dashboard?

No. The Dashboard is a permission — turn it off for a role and those users land directly on their chosen default view after sign-in. Individual gauges adapt too: managers see team-wide utilization, contributors see their own.

Who processes invoice payments?

Your own Stripe account. Payments settle directly to your bank — Tempough never holds funds.

Workspace-level isolation so data never crosses between accounts. Two-factor authentication with backup codes. Scoped tokens for integrations and AI access. Every change recorded in a searchable audit log with configurable retention.

Can I connect Claude, Cursor, or Zed?

Yes. Tempough exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server from Partnership up. Each user mints a personal token in Profile → AI access — the AI client then acts as that user, scoped to their permissions. A contributor's AI sees their own time; a manager's AI sees the team. Per-token rate limits and sustained-abuse auto-cooldown built in.

What if I pick the wrong tier?

Move between tiers any time. Features turn on or off tenant-wide when you switch — data stays put, no migration, no downtime. Individual plans can upgrade to Partnership when a co-founder joins, and Partnership plans can move to Team when the business grows past two people.

Does it work for solo freelancers or partnerships?

Yes to both. Free covers the basics — timer, timesheet, projects, and CSV export — for one user, forever. Individual at $8/mo adds invoicing and QuickBooks export. Partnership at $15/mo adds a second seat for a partner or co-founder. All three plans support unlimited clients and projects; the difference is whether you need to send invoices and how many people are logging time.

Are there any add-on fees or metered usage charges?

No. The monthly price on this page is the full cost. Tempough does not charge per email sent, per API call, per integration, or per any other usage metric. No overage charges, no tiered add-ons, no "starter" features that get unlocked for extra money. If you ever see a surprise line item on your invoice, it's a bug — email us and we'll fix it.

Is Tempough cheaper than Harvest?

For most service businesses, yes. Tempough Team is $11/seat/mo billed annually with forecasting, cost rates, approvals, and time-off requests included. Harvest Pro is $13.75/seat/mo, plus Harvest Forecast is a separate purchase if you want capacity planning. Harvest is also rolling out usage-based fees on top of seat pricing, so the gap is widening.

How does Tempough's forecasting compare to Harvest Forecast?

Harvest Forecast is a separate product you pay for in addition to Harvest. Tempough's Schedule is built into the Team plan at no extra cost — same Gantt-style drag-to-schedule UI, plus tighter integration since the forecast and the actuals live in the same database. Forecast-vs-actual reports show variance per person and per project without an integration step.

What does Tempough have that Harvest doesn't?

Built-in forecasting and capacity planning (Harvest Forecast is separate). Project profitability with cost rates and margin reports (Harvest has none of this). Org-chart routing for timesheet approvals via a direct-manager field. Overtime tracking with configurable weekly thresholds and OT-aware cost math. Quotes that convert to invoices. Document distribution with optional acknowledgment workflow. A client portal for invoices and project visibility.

What does Harvest have that Tempough doesn't?

A bigger third-party integration marketplace via Zapier, more brand recognition (your CFO has probably heard of Harvest), and a much longer track record. Tempough has direct webhooks and a REST API for integrations, which is enough for most use cases but not the same as a Zapier app store.

Will my reports look the same after switching?

The standard time reports (time by person, time by project, time by client) map one-to-one. Tempough adds report categories Harvest doesn't: Margin (P&L) reports, forecast-vs-actual variance, utilization, project burn, time-flow Sankey, and a custom report builder. Harvest reports you might miss: not many — most have direct equivalents.

How long does the migration take?

For a team of 1–10 people with a year or two of history, plan on 30 minutes to a couple of hours: 5 min to export from Harvest, 5 min to add the email column, 5 min to sign up and invite the team, and 15-30 minutes for the actual imports (clients → projects → time, with a dry-run on each). Larger teams scale linearly — the import is bulk, the work is mostly checking the dry-run output.

Can I keep using QuickBooks for accounting?

Yes — that's the recommended setup. Tempough exports invoices and time as QuickBooks-formatted CSV files. Tempough is not trying to replace your accounting software, just give you better time tracking + invoicing + forecasting that feeds into the QuickBooks you already trust.

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Harvest Alternative

Looking for a
Harvest alternative?

Most teams shopping for a Harvest alternative are here for one of a few specific reasons. Tempough is built around those reasons. Here's the honest case.

Why teams leave Harvest

We're not going to pretend Harvest is a bad product — it isn't. But these are the recurring patterns we hear from teams who switch. Running a freelance practice? We have a deep dive on the audience-specific case for switching from Harvest.

1. Pricing keeps climbing — and is becoming less predictable

Harvest is rolling out usage-based fees on top of seat pricing for accounts crossing certain thresholds. The headline price you signed up for is no longer the price you pay. Tempough is flat per-seat, billed annually, with no usage fees, no per-action charges, and no surprise line items.

2. Forecasting is a separate product (Harvest Forecast)

If you want to plan team capacity alongside tracking it, Harvest charges you for two products. Tempough has the Gantt-style scheduler, capacity overrides, time-off conflicts, and forecast-vs-actual reports built into the Team plan — same price, one tool.

3. No project profitability / margin reporting

Harvest tracks revenue but has no concept of internal cost rates, so it can't tell you which projects actually make money. Tempough's Margin report puts cost vs. billable revenue side-by-side, with overtime-aware cost math built in.

4. The product has barely changed in years

Harvest is a stable, reliable, 19-year-old product — which is also a polite way of saying the roadmap moves slowly. New features in Tempough ship every few weeks; the changelog is public.

5. No built-in approvals OR time-off OR org-chart routing

Harvest does basic approvals but no time-off requests and no concept of "who approves whose timesheet." Tempough has a direct-manager org chart that routes timesheet submissions to the right person automatically, plus full PTO/sick/holiday workflows.

Want the feature-by-feature comparison?

A full side-by-side matrix lives on the dedicated comparison page.

Tempough vs Harvest →

Common questions

Yes. Tempough has a built-in CSV importer that accepts Harvest's standard exports for clients, projects, and time entries. The one extra step: Harvest's time export identifies people by name, but Tempough's importer matches on email, so add a user_email column to the time CSV before uploading (about 5 minutes for a small team). Every import has a Dry-run button that previews exactly what would land before committing.