Top Apps for Tracking Time, Invoices, and Expenses

Let’s be honest. The administrative side of running a business or freelancing often feels like a tax on your productivity.

You finish a brilliant project, only to spend an hour deciphering your scribbled time notes, stitching together an invoice, and wondering if that coffee meeting was a business expense.

I’ve been there. After six years of building online businesses, managing affiliate campaigns, and coaching entrepreneurs, I’ve learned one non-negotiable truth: you cannot scale what you cannot measure.

And you certainly can’t measure it with a scattered system of sticky notes, spreadsheet tabs, and inbox receipts.

Tracking time, invoices, and expenses isn’t about bean-counting. It’s about clarity. It’s about knowing exactly where your profit comes from, which clients are truly valuable, and how to price your services for sustainability.

When you systemize this trifecta, you buy yourself the most precious commodity: focused time to grow.

Based on my hands-on experience, here’s a breakdown of the top apps that will transform your back-office from a burden into a seamless, automated engine.

Why This Trio is Your Business Foundation

Before we jump to the tools, let’s cement the why. These three functions are deeply interconnected.

• Time Tracking: This is your reality check. It shows you the gap between what you think a task takes and what it actually takes. This data is critical for accurate project pricing, client proposals, and understanding your own capacity.
• Invoicing: This is how you get paid. A smooth, professional invoicing process speeds up payments, reduces awkward follow-ups, and projects competence.
• Expense Tracking: This is how you protect your profit. Capturing every deductible cost ensures you keep more of what you earn and makes tax season a breeze, not a nightmare.

The right apps don’t just handle these tasks separately; they let them talk to each other. Time entries flow into invoices. Receipts are matched to expenses and categorized for taxes. That’s the harmony we’re after.

Category 1: Mastering Your Minutes (Time Tracking Apps)

These tools go far beyond a simple stopwatch. They provide insights into your productivity and profitability.

Top Pick: Toggl Track

If you’re starting out or value dead-simple usability, Toggl is your best friend. Its browser extension and mobile app make starting and stopping a timer effortless.

The real magic is in the reports.

You can see at a glance which projects or clients consume your week, helping you make informed decisions about where to focus. It’s perfect for solopreneurs and small teams who need clarity without complexity.

For Power Users & Agencies: Harvest

Harvest has been a staple in my toolkit for years. It does everything Toggl does, but its native integration with invoicing is where it shines.

You can track time against specific projects and budgets, then with a few clicks, turn that tracked time into a polished, detailed invoice.

It also integrates beautifully with tools like Asana and Slack. If your workflow heavily involves billing clients by the hour or on retainer, Harvest is a powerhouse.

Bonus Consideration: Clockify

Need a robust free plan? Clockify is it. It offers unlimited users and unlimited tracking on its free tier, which is almost unheard of.

While its interface can feel a bit more utilitarian, the value is staggering for bootstrapped startups or teams watching every penny.

Category 2: Getting Paid Faster (Invoicing Apps)

Your invoice is often the last touchpoint a client has with you on a project. Make it professional, clear, and easy to pay.

Top Pick & My Personal Workhorse: FreshBooks

I recommend FreshBooks to more freelancers and service-based business owners than any other tool. It’s intentionally built for us.

Creating a professional, customizable invoice takes minutes.

You can set up automatic payment reminders, see when a client has viewed your invoice, and accept credit card payments online—which dramatically speeds up your cash flow. Its expense and time tracking features are also solid, making it a great all-in-one contender.

The Seamless Ecosystem: QuickBooks Online

If your business is more complex, involves inventory, or you have a dedicated bookkeeper, QuickBooks Online is the industry standard for a reason.

Its invoicing is powerful, but its real strength is how everything connects—sales, expenses, payroll, and taxes—in one ledger. It’s less intuitive than FreshBooks, but more comprehensive.

I typically advise entrepreneurs to graduate to QuickBooks once they have consistent revenue and need detailed financial reporting.

For the Global Freelancer: Wise (formerly TransferWise)

This is a specialist pick, but invaluable if you have international clients. You can create invoices in multiple currencies.

When clients pay, they can pay in their local currency to your Wise account, where you get real, mid-market exchange rates (far better than PayPal or bank transfers).

You can then convert and hold funds in different currencies. It’s a game-changer for managing international finances.

Category 3: Taming Receipt Chaos (Expense Tracking Apps)

No more shoeboxes. No more photo albums on your phone. These apps capture and categorize on the go.

Top Pick for Automation: Expensify

Expensify is famous for its “SmartScan” technology. You take a photo of a receipt, and it automatically extracts the date, vendor, amount, and even categorizes it.

For frequent business travelers or anyone with a high volume of receipts, this automation saves hours. It also handles mileage tracking and can create expense reports for reimbursement in seconds.

The Simple & Integrated Choice: Receipt Bank

Receipt Bank follows a similar “snap-and-forget” principle as Expensify. Its standout feature is its deep integration with cloud accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks Online.

The data flows directly into your books, perfectly categorized. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it link between your receipts and your accounting system.

The Free & Effective Option: Your Mobile Wallet

Don’t underestimate a simple, manual process if you’re just starting. Create a dedicated email folder for receipts.

When you get a digital receipt, forward it there immediately.

For paper, use your phone’s notes app to take a photo and log the amount and category right then. The key is the immediate action. Consistency with a free system beats a fancy app you never use.

How to Make Your Choice: A Practical Framework

Don’t just pick the shiniest app. Ask yourself:

1. What’s my biggest pain point right now? Is it lost billable hours, slow-paying clients, or tax-time dread? Solve that first.
2. What tools do I already use? Check for integrations. If you live in Google Calendar or Asana, an app that connects there will see higher adoption.
3. What’s my budget? Most of these apps offer free trials. Test them. The cost is usually worth the time saved and the peace of mind gained, but start where you are.

FAQs

Can’t I just use one all-in-one app?

Absolutely. FreshBooks or QuickBooks can handle all three functions decently well. I often recommend starting with one of these to keep things simple.

As you grow, you might add best-in-class specialized tools (like using Toggl for time tracking but piping the data into QuickBooks for invoicing).

How do I get my team to actually use a time tracker?

Frame it as a tool for their benefit and project clarity, not just micromanagement.

Show them how it protects against scope creep on client projects and ensures the team’s hard work is accurately billed and profitable. Choose a tool with a fantastic mobile/app experience to reduce friction.

Is this overkill for a solo freelancer with just a few clients?

Not at all. This is the time to build the habit. Systems that scale are easiest to implement when your volume is low.

Starting professionally from day one makes you more credible and sets you up for stress-free growth.

Conclusion

Investing in the right set of tools for time, invoices, and expenses isn’t an operational detail—it’s a strategic move.

It’s about replacing guesswork with data, anxiety with organization, and administrative dread with automated ease.

For years, I’ve seen the relief and empowerment that comes when an entrepreneur finally gets a handle on these fundamentals. It creates space—mental space and actual time—to do the work that truly moves the needle.

What’s one hour of administrative chaos you could eliminate this week by trying just one of these tools?