Time tracking · 5 min read # The Consultant's Guide to Time Tracking: Choosing the Right Software 🕰️ Updated on: January 6, 2026 Created on: June 14, 2018 · Written by: Timely Team ![The Consultant's Guide to Time Tracking: Choosing the Right Software 🕰️](/cdn/639875e4f6c08005cfe19845_6257f2528a399528688b04e1_624c4a77027d4631cb912351_6230a05929f1f6774de36e23_622f69e00c9cf23efd3c749f_612286fe20e4ae83c4584e35_5e0f0edff72aff95824939a0_time-tracking-consul.webp) Whether you work independently or as part of a consulting firm, your success hinges on accurate, reliable time tracking. Achieving this shouldn't sacrifice your efficiency—or sanity. That’s why we developed Timely—the premier **consultant time tracking software** that automatically captures every minute you spend on multiple clients and projects in the background while you work. ## The Time Tracking Tool for Consultants 🛠️ Timely automatically records all your work activities across web and desktop. Now, you can track, report, and bill for all clients and projects from one place. ![Screenshot of a task planning software interface, showing a timeline with various projects and tasks labeled such as 'The Digital Alchemy Project', 'SEO Enhancement', and 'Client Communication', designed as a time tracking tool for consultants, with icons indicating different team members assigned to tasks](/cdn/65fd81bf84403db39c4687b8_invoice.webp) ### **An Accurate Account of All Your Time ⏰** By automating time tracking in the background, Timely ensures no detail is forgotten. In a few clicks, your tracked activities can be transformed into accurate time sheets, or even let Timely's AI handle it. This sets a new standard for accurate invoicing, ensuring you're paid for all your billable work. It’s a game-changer, especially for firm-based consultants focused on hitting accurate utilization targets. ![Composite image showing a detailed time management interface with multiple applications like Slack, Asana, and Notion, tracking activities such as 'Client Updates,' 'Content and Ads optimization,' and 'Campaign setting.'](/cdn/65fd81d88b3d4cb057e23de4_save-hours.png) ### Estimate with Confidence 🔍 Whether you bill by the hour or not, knowing how you spend your time is critical for estimating fixed-price work and retainers to ensure a profitable return. Timely allows you to tag and track specific project phases, providing invaluable insights for setting accurate estimates. ![Dashboard view of a branding project within a time tracking software, highlighting logged hours and financials, with status updates including approved and rejected tasks, facilitating users to estimate project timelines and budgets with confidence.](/cdn/65fd81f307e674a8cb97c6ec_billable-details.webp) ### Track Budgets in Real Time 💰 Timely helps you monitor both time and money, staying on top of retainers and internal budgets from a single powerful dashboard. This **consultant time tracking** tool gives firms a real-time look at project performance, guiding profitable project delivery. ![Bar chart and profile interface of a time tracking tool displaying hours logged per week for multiple users, with indicators for overtime and overscheduling, designed to track budgets and workloads in real time.](/cdn/65fd821330b7d28d2d554bbe_empower-people.webp) ### Work Naturally 👩🏽💻 With Timely, forget about starting and stopping timers. This **time tracking software for consultants** handles everything for you, so you can focus on what really matters. Interact with the tool as much or as little as you like, and since it captures everything as you work, there's no need to interrupt your flow with manual logging. ### Report in Seconds ⚡ Timely lets you create and send custom reports that detail your time on specific projects, proving your value and focus to clients. This feature is also great for quick time sheets and project updates to senior management. ![Screenshot of a digital time tracking reports page showing timesheet entries for various tasks and projects, indicating both billed and unbilled work, allowing users to generate comprehensive reports in seconds.](/cdn/65fd822db4588991ed9256a6_reports2.png) ### **Improve Your Efficiency and Productivity 💪** Timely gives you complete control over your time, allowing you to optimize every second. See where you're spending time, identify distractions, and measure performance against forecasts. For many consultants, seeing their efficiency visualized is a major productivity boost. ![Graphical cards representing daily work logs with time and earnings for tasks like consulting and agency projects, laid out in a calendar view to improve efficiency and productivity tracking](/cdn/65fd82492a421a5313cde9dd_timeline.png) ### **Work on the Go 🚅** Designed for the active consultant lifestyle, Timely is available on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Move seamlessly between your devices, ensuring your **consultant time tracking** is always accurate, whether you're in the office or on the move. ## Why Consultants Love Timely ❤️ Consultants across all industries choose Timely for accurate, effortless time tracking. From billing accurately and estimating confidently to simply wanting to boost personal productivity, Timely is the smart choice for **time tracking software for consultants**. ### Firm-based consultants > “Automatic time tracking is huge for me! I was really struggling to add up my daily hours in Toggl, and find Timely to be much more user-friendly.” > – Anissa, clean energy consultant > “Monthly invoicing was always a pain spent trying to remember what I’d done throughout the month. Timely’s AI and automation now collects my time and it backs it up for me, making time sheet reporting so much easier. A definite time saver!” > – Janos, information security consultant > “My firm’s time tracking tools are cumbersome and lack basic integrations. With Timely, I can track work down to the applications used and easily plan time for future weeks.” > – Brandon, software consultant > “Timely makes it so much easier to plan my week, track time for each task, and then click a button for monthly invoicing.” > – Nicole, construction consultant > “Time management is my Achilles heel, but Timely makes it sosimple. It gives me a great overview of how I spend my time and helps meidentify time thieves.” > – Jon, corporate innovation consultant > “I switched from Toggl for Timely’s automation – it provides all the information I need to submit time info into our SAP system.” > – David, management consultant ### Independent consultants > "Timely doesn't just track my time; it also encourages me to plan in advance, helps me track budget spend and really simplifies client reporting. It’s saved me time and heartache!" > – Ashley, humanitarian consultant > I tell friends and colleagues all the time that they need to use Timely to track their time. It helps me plan and manage my time, and stop me kidding myself that I'm being productive when I'm just being busy. For colleagues new to WFH during the pandemic, I think it's a great tool to keep them focussed and for their managers to keep them on track too! Aside from tracking billable time for clients, it helps me understand how accurate my quotes are (turns out I’ve been spending way more time than I ever estimated and quoted). > – Cath, textiles and design consultant > “Timely helps me prove how productive I am to my clients.” > – Jacob, IT consultant > “An amazing tool for tracking working hours and comparing budget estimations against the real costs.” > – Guilherme, marketing consultant > “I charge jobs by the hour and found myself just guessing totals. Timely may well double my income and helps me prove to clients why I am now charging more.” > – Anthony, town planning consultant > Timely is the tool I've longed for since the late 20th century. It's a total game changer, not only in business applications, but in gaining perspective on personal priorities as well. > – Jay, marketing consultant > Tracking time across multiple clients was taking me way toomuch time. Once I tried Timely I realized it was precisely what I needed. Youmake my professional life easier to administer – automated time tracking that’seasy, simple and elegant. > – Joe, primary education consultant > “Since I began using it, Timely has kept me focused, on-track and accountable for everything I do each day. I love the ability to track whatever I do!” > – Abigail, marketing consultant > “I started using Timely for my consultancy work, but have started using it for close to everything I value in life. It’s just the best way to plan and track your valuable time.” > – Jens, public sector consultant ## 🔗 **Elevate Your Consultancy Practice** **Looking to increase your client billings and gross margins?:** [**Discover How at Timely's Consulting-Hub**](/consulting-hub/)**.** Try Timely today Discover the power of **Timely's** automated time tracking now! [Start your free trial](https://app.timelyapp.com/join)[Book a demo ![Icon of calendar](/cdn/678e8b2f757ed42b5c05c7f2_calendar_light-grad_1_.svg)](/book-a-demo/) [30 people or more? Get a personalized introduction to Timely](/sales/) Accurate billing Project profitability Strict anti-surveillance policy Trusted by 5000+ businesses globally Keep reading ## Related articles - [Time tracking · 2026 Harvest Pricing: How Much it Costs After the Increase · Harvest pricing in 2026: the Free, Teams and Enterprise plans, the new usage fees for projects, clients and invoices, and what customers really pay. · Read more ›](/blog/harvest-pricing/) - [Time tracking · An Honest MyHours Review (2026): Features, Pros, Cons & More · An honest My Hours review for 2026: what users like about its tracking, budgets and support, and where reports, invoicing and mobile fall short. · Read more ›](/blog/myhours-review/) - [Time tracking · 2026 Apploye Reviews: Insights from Real Users · Real 2026 Apploye reviews: what users like about its tracking, monitoring and pricing, and where reporting, mobile and integrations fall short. · Read more ›](/blog/apploye-reviews/)