HubSpot Project Time Tracking: How to Track Time to Projects

To accurately account for all your billable hours on a project in HubSpot, you need to be able to automatically track time at the project level.

Otherwise, there’s a big risk of inaccuracies in your budget versus actuals, for example, if you’re manually inputting that time from siloed timesheets. 

Exporting your siloed time-tracking data to the corresponding projects is also an unnecessary waste of time.

Instead, it’s more effective when your team can track their time in a couple of clicks, with these hours immediately allocated to the correct project. That way, you can get accurate status updates on your projects in real-time. 

If you want project-based time tracking like this, you’ll need some sort of time management software that integrates seamlessly with HubSpot. 

With these types of productivity tools, you won’t have to export any data yourself to get a view of your team’s billable hours at the project level.

So when you want to track time within your projects in HubSpot, what do you do? How do you set that up? 

Here you’ll find the ins and outs of how to track time against your projects in the HubSpot environment.

The problem

HubSpot does not have a built-in time tracker for projects. If you want to be able to allocate your teams’ hours to the correct projects in HubSpot, you’ll need to use a time-tracking app with a native HubSpot integration.

Another issue is billing on HubSpot support tickets which are billed hourly. You need to be able to integrate tickets with your time tracking tool to pull in the name of the ticket and company, to help track invoices correctly and bill according to the parameters of the service agreement.

So whether you’re tracking time from the Sales Hub or in the Service Hub, HubSpot project time tracking requires that these hours get allocated to the correct project. Luckily, there are currently a handful of time-tracking tools that will help you do just that. 

Software options for project time tracking in HubSpot

As of this article, there are just seven options for project time tracking in HubSpot without going through a third-party connector like Zapier or Unito. 

With these solutions that are natively designed to sync with HubSpot, your time tracking can automatically be tied to the correct project or task out of the box.

If you are using one of these apps, you can easily allocate your teams’ hours correctly to the correct project, and in some cases, the correct ticket in the Service Hub. 

Here are the 7 native HubSpot project time tracking apps available today in the HubSpot marketplace:

1. PSOhub

PSOhub was specifically created to fill in the gaps between HubSpot and project management, and tracking time to projects is just one example of the strength of its HubSpot integration. 

More than just time-tracking software, PSOhub provides an all-in-one solution for project management that includes contracts, invoicing, and more. 

To track time to projects in HubSpot with PSOhub, simply convert your deal into a project to begin logging hours. 

You can also track support tickets in the Service Hub with just a click, and automatically put this with the corresponding contract. That means you’ll never miss a billable hour based on your service agreement. 

Pros:

• Automatically track time to the correct projects
• Track time directly on tickets in the Service Hub
• Two-way sync between Deals and Projects
• Set up automated invoicing from billable hours
• Self-driving time tracking

Cons:

• Over $20 per user/per month

Works with all HubSpot plans? Yes

# of installs: 500+

Cost: Starting at $25 pu/pm billed annually

How users rate PSOhub’s HubSpot integration: Currently, the verified user rating according to HubSpot Marketplace is 4.6 based on 31 reviews.

2. HourStack

HourStack is time-tracking software that syncs with HubSpot Tasks to track time against projects. You can also use tasks within HourStack itself, as it’s a highly-rated task management tool that will let you create, assign, and track tasks, so you can customize your team’s workflows. 

To track time on projects with HourStack, you’ll input your project information into HubSpot Tasks. Whenever you create a new one, you can click once to copy this task to HourStack and begin logging time from there. HourStack timesheets will automatically populate with hours spent on the corresponding tasks from HubSpot. 

Pros: 

• Affordable
• Track time on HubSpot tasks to tie to projects
• Handy task timers
• High-rated for task management

Cons:

• No time tracking on HubSpot tickets

Works with all HubSpot plans? Yes

# of installs: 100+

How users rate HourStack’s HubSpot integration: Only 2 verified user reviews for this integration are currently on the HubSpot Marketplace, including one 1-star rating and one 5-star rating.

Cost: Starts at $9 pu/pm billed annually

3. Accelo

Accelo is a full-fledged project management platform that offers a two-way sync with HubSpot, making it one of the top options on our list. 

One of the big selling points of Accelo is its easy-to-use billing feature that can get you paid faster for billable hours in HubSpot. 

Go faster everywhere with the automation Accelo is known for, and smoothly go from projects to HubSpot and back again in just a couple of clicks. 

Accelo connects with HubSpot tasks which can then be automatically allocated to the correct project. Because it’s a two-way sync, you can also push your tasks from Accelo into the HubSpot timeline.

Pros:

• Easy-to-configure automation
• Good UX for HubSpot users
• Integrated billing
• All-in-one project management

Cons:

• Over $20 pu/pm

Works with all HubSpot plans? Yes

# of installs: 300+

How users rate Accelo’s HubSpot integration: There are now just 5 verified user testimonials on the HubSpot Marketplace ranging from 1 star to 5 stars.

Cost: Starts at Plus subscription for $24 per month.

4. StopWatch

StopWatch lets you track time on tickets in the Service Hub, which is great for professional service businesses like IT providers. However, it’s important to note that you can track time to deals and tickets, but not a project per se. 

For StopWatch to work for project-based time tracking, you’ll have to treat deals like projects. This should work fine for sales and marketing, but other service-based businesses like creatives and designers may need something else. 

Also of note, StopWatch is not compatible with all HubSpot subscription tiers. You need an Enterprise plan with access to Custom Objects in order for it to work.

Pros:

• Track time on support tickets
• Integrates with workflows in Marketing Hub
• Handy timers for productivity
• Affordable

Cons:

• Need HubSpot Enterprise for access to custom objects
• No project function- have to track time to Deals

Works with all HubSpot plans? Enterprise only

# of installs: 400+

How users rate StopWatch’s HubSpot integration: There are now only 4 verified user reviews ranging from 1 star to 5 stars.

Cost: Starts free, but timers are only included in the Unlimited version (around $12 pu/pm billed annually).

5. BigTime

BigTime is a bonafide PSA solution, meaning it’s designed to help automate processes for professional service businesses. Like PSOhub and Accelo, BigTime provides all-in-one functionality for project management.

Although BigTime’s HubSpot integration is only one-way, it’s sufficient to track your time to projects and stay constantly in the loop of project status.

With BigTime, your team can easily log hours towards projects; all you have to do is convert your HubSpot deal to a project in a couple of clicks. 

The major drawback is that BigTime does not share information the other way, which limits the all-in-one functionality of being able to go seamlessly from sales to project and vice versa.

Pros:

• Automatically turn deals to projects to track time in a snap
• All-in-one project management
• Trigger project creation based on the deal stage
• Multi-currency

Cons:

• Doesn’t push data to HubSpot (one-way sync)

Works with all HubSpot plans? Yes

# of installs: 50+

How users rate BigTime’s HubSpot integration: There is just one verified user review on the HubSpot Marketplace that gives this 2 out of 5 stars.

Cost: For time tracking, you need Essentials which is $20 per user/per month.

6. Projectworks

Projectworks is another project management tool that offers HubSpot-integrated time tracking. To track time to a specific project, like other solutions on this list, you’ll need to first convert your deal to a Projectworks project.

From there, team members can use the browser extension to log billable time super easily. The downside is there’s no mobile app to support project-based time tracking, so you’ll need to make sure you’re near your computer. 

Because Projectworks offers invoice management, you can go from an hour worked to an hour paid without data re-entry with their easy invoice approval process.

FYI, this HubSpot integration requires workflows that are not available in any of the free HubSpot plans.

Pros:

• Includes invoicing
• Start-stop timers for productivity
• Comprehensive resource management
• Syncs all HubSpot companies & contacts

Cons:

• Doesn’t push data to HubSpot (one-way sync)
• Expensive
• No mobile app

Works with all HubSpot plans? No

# of installs: 50+

How users rate Projectworks’ HubSpot integration: There are currently just four verified user reviews on the HubSpot Marketplace that range from 2 out of 5 to 5 out of 5 stars.

Cost: Starts at $33 per user/per month billed annually. 

7. Heeros PSA

The last native project time tracking app for HubSpot hails from Finland and is yet again, a PSA solution. Heeros PSA doesn’t have a ton of installs, but it provides a robust two-way sync between multiple data points in the HubSpot CRM.

To leverage project-based time tracking with Heeros, you’ll convert your deal into a project. What’s great is that the project side will share back with HubSpot, creating a closed loop for sales, marketing, and projects.

Heeros PSA comes with invoicing out-of-the-box and the HubSpot integration is easy to set up. To get more complete project management functionality, however, you’ll need to upgrade to their Business plan. 

Pros:

• Two-way sync between deals and projects
• Automations galore
• Real-time resource allocation
• Mobile app

Cons:

• Limited integrations

Works with all HubSpot plans? Yes

# of installs: 20+

How users rate Heeros’ HubSpot integration: Heeros is a smaller company than the others on our list, and as of yet, there are no verified reviews for their HubSpot integration in the app marketplace.

Cost: Starts around $20 per user/per month billed annually. 

Don’t let billable hours slip through the cracks

When your team can seamlessly track time to the right project in HubSpot, you never have to worry that billable hours may have slipped through the cracks.

Project time tracking in HubSpot will let you see project status as it happens, and in many cases, help you leverage real-time resource allocation.

Unfortunately, HubSpot does not offer native time tracking for projects. Instead, you have to bring on an integrated tool to do that for you.

As of this article, there are currently seven software options that provide a native integration that will let you track time to projects in HubSpot. We hope you’ve garnered some insights from our breakdown of the costs and pros and cons of each.