The 7 Best Time Tracking Apps for Accountants and Bookkeepers on a Mac in 2026

Harvest is the best pick for most accountants and bookkeepers who bill by the hour, because it turns timers into invoices and connects to QuickBooks and Xero. Timing wins if you want an automatic, Mac-only record that stays on your machine unless you turn on sync. Clockify suits firms that need cheap seats and a choice of hosting region. Dayflow is a free memory aid, not a billing tool.

This ranking is for accountants, bookkeepers and small-firm staff who work on a Mac and bill clients by the hour, or who need hours behind a fixed fee to see whether an engagement pays. The job is specific. A day spent switching between client ledgers, email, bank feeds and phone calls has to become clean entries per client, and the tool doing it should not spread client data to more places than it needs to. Most Mac time trackers were built for agencies and software teams, so we ranked these seven on billing and confidentiality first.

Dayflow is our product, so read its placement with that in mind. It ranks fifth. It is free, open source and keeps its screen recordings on your Mac, which scores well on confidentiality. It does not win the two criteria that matter most to a billing practice: it cannot create invoices from tracked time, and it has no firm-level timesheet approvals or team reports. It also records your screen, which is a confidentiality trade-off of its own, covered below.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price
Harvest	Invoicing clients from tracked hours	One-click timers, timesheets, calendar	Free (1 seat, 2 projects); Teams $9 seat/month billed annually
Timing	A private, automatic record on one Mac	Automatic capture of apps, websites and documents	Professional $9/month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly
Clockify	Small firms that want cheap seats and a hosting region	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk, desktop auto tracker	Free up to 5 users; Basic $3.99 seat/month billed annually
Toggl (formerly Toggl Track)	Firms that need approvals and profitability reports	Timers, timesheets, calendar, background tracking in desktop app	Free up to 3 users; Starter $9 user/month billed annually

Quick picks by use case

Best for billing: Harvest. It turns tracked time into invoices with online payments and lists QuickBooks and Xero integrations. The free plan covers 1 seat and 2 projects; Teams is $9 per seat per month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly. If you want options beyond it, see our list of Harvest alternatives for Mac.

Best for confidentiality on a single Mac: Timing. Tracked times stay on your Mac unless you opt into sync. Professional is $9 per month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly, with a 30-day trial and no free plan. Our Timing comparison covers how it differs from Dayflow.

Best for small firms on a budget: Clockify. Free for up to 5 users, with invoicing and approvals from Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually. You can choose EU (Germany), UK, US or Australian hosting. More in our Clockify for Mac page.

Best for firm reporting: Toggl. Premium, at $16 per user per month billed annually or $24 billed monthly, adds timesheet approvals and profitability reports. See Toggl for Mac.

Best free memory aid: Dayflow. $0, MIT licensed, with an optional Pro plan at $20 a month. It catches the work you forgot to time, but does not bill it.

Cheapest invoicing: TimeCamp. Starter lists invoicing at $3.99 per user per month billed annually.

How we compared them

Six criteria, weighted for people who bill clients and handle their financial data:

• Billing and invoicing (25%). High scores go to tools that hold billable rates and produce invoices from tracked time; low scores go to tools where hours have to be retyped into another system.
• Confidentiality and data location (25%). High scores mean data stays on your Mac, in a region you choose, or on your own servers; low scores mean vendor cloud storage plus screenshots of whatever is on screen.
• Capture completeness (15%). High scores catch the five-minute client call and the quick reconciliation fix without you remembering to start a timer; low scores rely entirely on manual starts and stops.
• Firm workflow (15%). High scores include timesheet approvals, profitability reports and accounting integrations; low scores are single-user only.
• Mac fit (10%). High scores have a native Mac app that runs on the machine you actually work on; low scores are web-first with a thin wrapper.
• Cost for a solo or small practice (10%). High scores give a working billing setup for one to five people at a low monthly cost; low scores require a pricier tier before the features above appear.

Each tool was compared from its vendor’s own pricing and product pages as they read on October 4, 2026, and Dayflow from its 2.2.0 release and published policy. No benchmark was run, and the scores behind the ranking are judgments.

The 7 best time tracking apps for accountants and bookkeepers on a Mac, ranked

1. Harvest

Harvest is a timer-based tracker built around getting hours onto an invoice.

You capture time with one-click timers, daily or weekly timesheets, or by pulling entries from a connected calendar. Apps run on the web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and in browser extensions, so a quick timer on your phone after a client call is easy.

For accountants, the pull is the billing chain. Harvest invoices from tracked time with online payments, tracks expenses, and lists accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero. Enterprise adds profitability reporting and timesheet approvals, which matter once a manager signs off staff hours.

Pricing: Free at $0 forever for 1 seat and 2 projects, with time tracking, invoicing and expenses. Teams is $9 per seat per month billed annually ($108 per seat) or $11 billed monthly. Enterprise is $14 per seat per month billed annually ($168 per seat) or $17.50 billed monthly. Enterprise Plus is custom. The trial is 30 days with no credit card.

The honest limit: there is no automatic activity capture listed, so a forgotten timer is lost time, and no AI features are listed. Two projects on the free plan will not cover a bookkeeper with several clients. The site footer names Bending Spoons as the operator.

Pick it if you bill hourly and want tracked time to become an invoice with as few steps as possible.

2. Timing

Timing is a Mac-only automatic tracker that records what you work on without a timer.

It logs time across apps, websites and documents, down to specific URLs and Mail threads, and also accepts manual entries. iOS activity import and call tracking are listed too. On top of that record, it offers AI activity summaries, AI-powered suggestions for time entries and an MCP integration on all plans.

For this audience, two things stand out. First, the vendor states that tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync, although all plans list Sync & Cloud Backup as an option. Second, it has billing status tracking and customizable reports with report rounding, plus a GrandTotal invoicing integration depending on plan.

Pricing: Professional is $9 per month billed annually or $11 billed monthly. Expert is $11 billed annually or $14 billed monthly. Connect, which adds shared team projects, is $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 billed monthly. The trial is 30 days with no credit card.

The honest limit: there is no free tier, Professional covers 1 Mac with limited web app access, and invoices come through an integration rather than built in. If you use the AI features, check the vendor’s privacy page for how that processing is handled.

Pick it if you want an automatic, private record on your own Mac and are happy to pay for it.

3. Clockify

Clockify is a timer and timesheet tracker with an unusually generous free plan and a choice of where your data is hosted.

You can enter time by timer, timesheet, calendar or kiosk, and the desktop app has an auto tracker. Activity monitoring is offered on Pro. Apps cover the web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and browser extensions.

For a small firm, the hosting choice is the confidentiality feature that matters: data can be hosted in the EU (Germany), the UK, the US or Australia. Invoicing, time off and approval workflows arrive on Standard. Enterprise adds SSO and audit logs, which a firm with formal access controls may need.

Pricing: Free at $0 for up to 5 users. Basic is $3.99 per seat per month billed annually or $4.99 billed monthly. Standard is $5.49 or $6.99. Pro is $7.99 or $9.99. Enterprise is $11.99 or $14.99. The CAKE.com Bundle is $12.99 or $15.99. The trial gives 7 days of Pro features with no credit card.

The honest limit: invoicing and approvals need a paid plan, it is still primarily timer and timesheet based, it is a cloud service, and no AI features are listed.

Pick it if you run a small office, want invoicing for a few dollars a seat, and care which country holds your data.

4. Toggl (formerly Toggl Track)

Toggl is a timer-based tracker, now combined with project planning, that names law and accounting firms among its target customers.

Time comes from manual and real-time timers, timesheets and calendar integrations. The vendor also lists automated background tracking and a timeline in the desktop app. It states that it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes, which makes it easier to roll out to staff who would object to monitoring.

For firms, the value is in reporting. Billable rates and team reports come with paid plans. Premium adds timesheet approvals, profitability reports and Jira and Asana integrations. Toggl AI answers natural-language questions about workspace data, and there is an MCP server and an AI Task Creator.

Pricing: Free at $0 for up to 3 users. Starter is $9 per user per month billed annually or $12 billed monthly. Premium is $16 billed annually or $24 billed monthly. Enterprise is contact the vendor. Paid plans have a 30-day trial.

The honest limit: billable rates require a paid plan, the free tier stops at 3 users, and it is a cloud service. The vendor details we compared did not list invoicing, so if you need it, see the vendor’s pricing page at toggl.com.

Pick it if you manage a team and need approvals and profitability by client more than invoices.

5. Dayflow

Dayflow is a free, open-source Mac app that records your screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a readable timeline.

There is no timer. You open Dayflow at the end of the day and see what you did, including the short client calls and quick fixes that never got a timer. You can export a date range as Markdown from Settings, which gives you a draft to turn into timesheet entries.

On confidentiality, full screen recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac. With Local AI, a model runs on your Mac through Ollama or LM Studio and screenshot analysis stays on-device. If you use your own cloud provider or Dayflow Pro, selected screenshots leave the Mac. The full breakdown is on our local and cloud processing page.

Pricing: $0, MIT licensed. Dayflow Pro is $20 a month. It needs macOS 14 or later.

The honest limit: no invoices, billable rates, payroll approvals or team reports. It records everything on screen, including client financials, and AI summaries can miss or misread work.

Pick it if you already have a billing tool and want a private record of the hours you forget to log.

6. TMetric

TMetric is a timer-based tracker aimed at agencies, consultancies and other client-facing teams.

You start and stop a timer or add manual entries, and a timer button appears inside 50+ web apps, which helps if you work in browser-based accounting software all day. The Business plan adds app and site monitoring, activity levels and optional screenshots.

Accountants get client invoicing, billable rates and project budgets on Professional. Business adds a time off module, team timesheets and integrations with Jira, Redmine and ClickUp. The free plan includes API access and exportable reports, which is useful if you want to move hours into another system yourself.

Pricing: Free at $0 for up to 2 seats. Professional is $5.83 per seat per month billed annually or $7 billed monthly. Business is $7.50 billed annually or $9 billed monthly. Enterprise is custom. The trial is 14 days, extendable by 7.

The honest limit: invoicing needs a paid plan, the free plan keeps only 7 days of activity data, it is cloud based and primarily timer driven, and no AI features are listed. If a manager enables screenshots on Business, client screens end up in the vendor’s cloud.

Pick it if you are a two-person practice that wants a free start and cheap invoicing later.

7. TimeCamp

TimeCamp is a team-oriented tracker that mixes timers with automatic app and website tracking.

Its desktop app tracks apps and websites and assigns time to projects by keywords, alongside manual timers and timesheets. An AI Time Tracker suggests timesheet entries from activity. Screenshots are optional and admin-enabled. Apps cover the web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

For firms, Starter brings invoicing, attendance and time off. Premium adds budgets, billable time and resource planning, and the pricing page appears to list app and website tracking from Premium, so confirm that before you buy. Ultimate adds screenshots, timesheet approvals and expenses. The confidentiality outlier is Enterprise, which offers self-hosted deployment and private cloud.

Pricing: Free at $0 forever with unlimited users. Starter is $3.99 per user per month billed annually or $5.49 month-to-month. Premium is $6.99 or $9.99. Ultimate is $9.99 or $13.99. Enterprise is on request. A trial is offered on paid plans; the length was not stated.

The honest limit: the AI Time Tracker is billed separately by token usage, which the vendor estimates at about $6 per user per month, with $10 in trial credits. Default hosting is the vendor’s cloud.

Pick it if your firm wants invoicing at the lowest per-seat price, or needs a self-hosted option.

Full comparison table

Tool	Price	Automatic capture	AI summaries	Where data lives	Open source	Platforms
Harvest	Free (1 seat, 2 projects); from $9 seat/month billed annually	No, timers, timesheets and calendar	None listed	Cloud	No	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Timing	From $9/month billed annually; no free plan	Yes, apps, websites and documents	AI activity summaries and entry suggestions	Local, optional sync	No	Mac
Clockify	Free up to 5 users; from $3.99 seat/month billed annually	Auto tracker in desktop app; activity monitoring on Pro	None listed	Cloud, EU, UK, US or Australia	No	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Toggl	Free up to 3 users; from $9 user/month billed annually	Background tracking and timeline in desktop app	Toggl AI answers questions about workspace data	Cloud	No	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Dayflow	$0; Pro $20/month	Yes, a screen frame every 10 seconds	AI-written timeline (local, your provider, or Pro)	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; cloud analysis optional	Yes, MIT	macOS 14+
TMetric	Free up to 2 seats; from $5.83 seat/month billed annually	App and site monitoring on Business	None listed	Cloud	No	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
TimeCamp	Free; from $3.99 user/month billed annually	App and website tracking, listed from Premium	AI Time Tracker, token-billed	Cloud; self-hosted on Enterprise	No	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android

Do accountants need a timer to bill by the hour?

A timer gives you the cleanest billable entry: client, task, start, stop. Harvest, Toggl, Clockify and TMetric are built around that, and for hourly billing it is the format your invoice needs anyway. The weakness is human. A client calls while you are mid-reconciliation, you answer an email about a missing receipt, you fix a miscategorized transaction from the client’s portal, and none of it gets a timer.

An automatic record fills those gaps. Timing logs which document or Mail thread you were in, and Dayflow shows a timeline of what was on screen. Neither one knows which client a call was for unless the screen made it obvious, so you still review before you bill. Our guide to building a Mac timesheet without manual entry walks through that review step, and our timesheet template works if you want a plain format.

In practice, many solo practitioners do best with both: a billing tool for the invoice and an automatic record to catch what slipped. If you mostly bill fixed fees, the automatic record alone can tell you whether a monthly engagement is profitable. Our real hourly rate calculator does that math once you have the hours.

Is it safe to track time on a Mac full of client financials?

It depends on what the tool captures, and the seven tools fall into three groups.

Timers only store what you type. Harvest stores the entries you create. Toggl adds background tracking in its desktop app but states it takes no screenshots and records no keystrokes. The exposure is mostly client names and task notes in the vendor’s cloud, which is the same exposure as your practice management software.

Activity trackers store app, window and URL names. Timing, Clockify’s auto tracker and TimeCamp’s desktop app record what you were using. Window titles and file names often include a client’s name, and a URL can point straight into a client’s books. Timing keeps this on your Mac by default. Clockify lets you pick a hosting region. TimeCamp offers self-hosting on Enterprise.

Screen capture stores what was on screen. TMetric Business and TimeCamp Ultimate offer optional screenshots, uploaded to the vendor. Dayflow captures the screen by design and stores recordings on your Mac. With its Local AI mode, analysis stays on-device too. With your own cloud provider or Dayflow Pro, selected screenshots leave the Mac. Under the privacy policy, Pro deletes screenshots after processing and may retain activity data for sync, and your own provider has its own terms. If you ask a cloud AI assistant about your Dayflow data, that conversation is not local. We cover the details in Is Dayflow safe?

Before turning on any capture beyond timers, check your firm’s data-handling policy and your engagement letters. A tool that keeps data local is easier to square with those than one that uploads screenshots, but local storage still means client data sits in one more place on your disk.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

You need invoices. Dayflow cannot produce one. Harvest is the better tool here, with invoicing on every plan including free, and QuickBooks and Xero integrations.

You manage staff hours. Dayflow has no approvals or team reports. Toggl Premium adds approvals and profitability reports, and Clockify adds approvals from Standard at a lower per-seat price.

You want a private automatic record with billing features. Timing tracks billing status, rounds reports and keeps data local by default. If you want automatic capture tied to billing on a single Mac, Timing wins.

You cannot have client screens recorded at all. Some firms rule out screen capture entirely. Toggl, which states it takes no screenshots, or Harvest, which records only what you enter, fit that rule. Dayflow does not.

Your office runs Windows, or an older macOS. Dayflow needs macOS 14 or later. Clockify covers Mac, Windows and Linux on its free plan.

How much do they cost?

Tool	Free plan	Entry paid plan	Higher plans
Harvest	Free: 1 seat, 2 projects	Teams: $9 seat/month billed annually, $11 billed monthly	Enterprise: $14 annually, $17.50 monthly; Enterprise Plus: custom
Timing	None (30-day trial)	Professional: $9/month billed annually, $11 billed monthly	Expert: $11 annually, $14 monthly; Connect: $16 user/month annually, $20 monthly
Clockify	Free: up to 5 users	Basic: $3.99 seat/month billed annually, $4.99 billed monthly	Standard $5.49/$6.99; Pro $7.99/$9.99; Enterprise $11.99/$14.99; CAKE.com Bundle $12.99/$15.99
Toggl	Free: up to 3 users	Starter: $9 user/month billed annually, $12 billed monthly	Premium: $16 annually, $24 monthly; Enterprise: contact vendor
Dayflow	$0, MIT licensed	Pro: $20/month	None
TMetric	Free: up to 2 seats	Professional: $5.83 seat/month billed annually, $7 billed monthly	Business: $7.50 annually, $9 monthly; Enterprise: custom
TimeCamp	Free forever, unlimited users	Starter: $3.99 user/month billed annually, $5.49 month-to-month	Premium $6.99/$9.99; Ultimate $9.99/$13.99; Enterprise: on request; AI Time Tracker billed by tokens

For a solo bookkeeper, the cheapest setup with real invoicing is TimeCamp Starter at $3.99 a month billed annually, or Harvest Teams at $9 if you want the QuickBooks and Xero connection. Add Dayflow at $0 with Local AI if you want an on-device record to catch unlogged hours.

The bottom line

If you bill by the hour and want invoices from your hours, pick Harvest. If confidentiality comes first and you work alone on one Mac, Timing gives you an automatic, local record with billing status. A small firm that wants low per-seat cost and a choice of hosting country should start with Clockify, and one that needs approvals and profitability reports should look at Toggl Premium. Dayflow belongs next to one of those, as a free, local memory of the day rather than the system that bills it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best time tracking app for a solo bookkeeper on a Mac?

If you invoice from tracked hours, Harvest is the simplest fit. Its free plan includes invoicing but caps you at 1 seat and 2 projects, so most bookkeepers with several clients will move to Teams at $9 per seat per month billed annually. If you would rather have time recorded automatically and kept on your Mac, Timing starts at $9 per month billed annually.

Which time tracker connects to QuickBooks or Xero?

Among the tools in this ranking, Harvest is the one whose own pages list accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero. The other vendors' pages we compared did not list those integrations in the details we used. If an accounting integration decides your choice, confirm the current list on each vendor's site before you commit a whole practice to it.

Is Dayflow good for billing clients by the hour?

Not on its own. Dayflow has no invoices, billable rates or timesheet approvals. It records your screen and has AI write the day into a timeline, which helps you remember a forgotten call or a quick client fix. For billing, Harvest beats Dayflow because it creates invoices from tracked time. Some people run Dayflow alongside a billing tool to catch missed entries.

Which time tracker keeps client data off the cloud?

Timing states that tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync. Dayflow stores its screen recordings and timeline on your Mac, and its Local AI mode keeps screenshot analysis on-device. TimeCamp offers self-hosted deployment on its Enterprise plan. Harvest, Toggl, Clockify and TMetric are cloud services, and Clockify lets you choose a hosting region.

Do any of these time trackers take screenshots?

TMetric lists optional screenshots on its Business plan and TimeCamp lists admin-enabled screenshots on Ultimate. Toggl states it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes. Dayflow captures one screen frame every 10 seconds by design and stores recordings on your Mac. If client financials are on your screen, any screenshot feature puts that data somewhere, so check your firm's policy first.

What is the cheapest time tracker with invoicing?

On the pricing pages compared, TimeCamp Starter lists invoicing at $3.99 per user per month billed annually, or $5.49 month-to-month. Harvest's free plan also includes invoicing, but only for 1 seat and 2 projects. TMetric Professional adds invoicing at $5.83 per seat per month billed annually, and Clockify adds it from Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually.

Which time tracker is best for a small accounting firm with staff?

Toggl Premium, at $16 per user per month billed annually, adds timesheet approvals and profitability reports, and Toggl names accounting firms among its target users. Clockify is cheaper, with invoicing and approvals from Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually, plus a choice of EU, UK, US or Australian hosting. Harvest Enterprise adds profitability reporting and approvals.

Can an automatic time tracker replace a timesheet for client billing?

It can draft one, but you should still review it. Automatic trackers such as Timing record which apps, sites and documents you used, and Timing lists billing status tracking and report rounding. Dayflow writes a readable timeline you can export as Markdown. AI summaries can miss or misread work, so check entries against your own memory before anything goes on a client invoice.

Does Dayflow work on Windows for the rest of my firm?

No. Dayflow runs only on macOS 14 or later. If your firm mixes Mac and Windows machines, Clockify, Toggl, Harvest, TMetric and TimeCamp all list both Mac and Windows apps, and Clockify, TMetric and TimeCamp also list Linux. Timing is Mac only as well, so neither of the two Mac-only tools on this list covers a mixed office.