Harvest renewal coming up? A checklist before you renew

Updated October 2026 · Sources: Harvest pricing page, BBC News

Since Harvest moved to a seat price plus usage billing, the hard part of a renewal is that you can't easily tell what you'll pay. Harvest doesn't publish its per-unit usage rates, and customers told the BBC about renewals going from $130 to $2,110 a month. Harvest said it emails customers 30 days and 10 days before renewal. If you've had that email, or expect it soon, here's what to do with the time.

1. Find your renewal date

It's in Harvest's billing settings, and on last year's receipt. Annual plans renew on the anniversary of your purchase, not on a fixed date, so check your own account rather than going by when other people got their notices.

2. Count what might be metered

On paid plans Harvest lists additional invoices, projects, clients and tasks as billed by usage. Before you talk to anyone, write down your own numbers:

• Active clients and active projects
• Tasks in use across projects
• Invoices sent in the last 12 months, and the total you invoiced
• Seats, and how many of them are actually used

These numbers are what a usage price is calculated from, so they're what you need to sanity-check any quote.

3. Archive what you don't use

Old projects, finished clients and unused tasks may count toward usage. Archiving them is quick and costs nothing, and you keep the history.

4. Ask for the renewal price in writing

Contact Harvest support before the renewal date and ask for the exact amount you'll be charged, with the breakdown. If the answer is vague or comes too late, treat that as your answer.

5. Export your data now, whatever you decide

In Harvest go to Reports → Detailed time, choose All time, then Export → CSV. That one file has every time entry with its client, project, task, notes, hours, rate and invoiced status. It's your backup, and it's what every alternative imports from. Export your invoices too if you need them for your records.

6. Decide before the renewal date, not after

Once an annual plan renews, the money is usually spent for the year. If you might switch, run the alternative alongside Harvest for a week before the date: import your history, track a few days of real work, and send one invoice.

Want a flat price instead?

Hourflat is time tracking and invoicing at $6/seat/month with nothing metered: unlimited clients, projects, tasks and invoices. It's free during early access. The Harvest CSV import brings your clients, projects and history across in a couple of minutes, and entries Harvest marked as invoiced stay invoiced, so nothing is billed twice.

Start free, import from Harvest Try the demo first

Questions about moving over? Email byron.wells@kivamail.com and I'll help you get your data across.