NetSuite Time Tracking: Setup, Apps & Best Practices (2026)

Time tracking isn't optional for services firms

In a professional services firm, time is inventory. Every hour a consultant spends determines billing, utilization, project profitability, and resource planning. Unlike a product company where inventory sits on shelves, services inventory expires every day — an unbilled hour today is gone forever.

TL;DR: NetSuite provides native time tracking through weekly timesheets with billable/non-billable classification, multi-level approval workflows, and direct integration with invoicing. The native interface lacks timers, modern UX, and strong mobile support -- third-party apps like Harvest, ClickTime, or NetSuite OpenAir fill those gaps while keeping financial data in NetSuite.

NetSuite provides native time tracking through its timesheet and time entry system. For many firms, it's sufficient. For others, the native experience needs enhancement through third-party apps or custom configuration. This guide covers both — what NetSuite offers out of the box and how to extend it when the native capabilities aren't enough.

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Native time tracking in NetSuite

Weekly timesheets

NetSuite's primary time entry interface is the weekly timesheet. Team members open their timesheet, select the week, and enter hours by day against project tasks, support cases, or internal activities.

Each row on the timesheet represents a project-task combination. The consultant selects the customer, project, and task from dropdown lists, then enters hours for each day of the week. Multiple rows allow tracking time across several projects in the same week.

Billable vs non-billable classification happens at the line level. Each time entry is marked as billable, non-billable, or productive non-billable. These classifications drive different downstream processes:

• Billable: Flows to invoicing and counts toward billable utilization
• Non-billable: Counts as overhead (internal meetings, admin, training)
• Productive non-billable: Work that benefits the client but won't be invoiced (scope adjustments, goodwill)

Time entry fields

Beyond the basics (project, task, hours, date), NetSuite time entries can capture additional data through custom fields:

• Service type — what kind of work was performed (development, consulting, design)
• Location — on-site vs remote (relevant for billing rates and expense eligibility)
• Notes — description of work performed (useful for detailed client invoices)
• Rate override — when the billable rate differs from the default for this specific entry

Approval workflows

Time entries can route through approval before they post. The most common workflow: the team member submits their timesheet, the project manager reviews and approves, and approved time becomes available for billing and cost posting.

Multi-level approval adds a second review step — project manager approval followed by resource manager or department head approval. This is common in larger firms where the project manager confirms the work was done and the resource manager confirms the allocation was authorized.

Approval with modification. Approvers can adjust time entries before approving — changing the billable classification, reallocating hours to a different task, or modifying the service type. This handles the case where a consultant logs time to the wrong project or misclassifies billable work.

Integration with billing

Approved billable time feeds directly into NetSuite's invoicing process. For time-and-materials engagements, the billing workflow generates invoice lines from approved time entries at the applicable rate.

Rate determination follows a hierarchy: entry-specific rate override > project-specific rate > employee rate by service type > employee default rate. This hierarchy handles the complexity of different rates for different clients, projects, and service types without manual calculation.

Invoice detail level is configurable. Some clients want a summary (40 hours of development at $200/hr). Others want daily detail (8 hours on Monday, 7 hours on Tuesday, etc.) with descriptions of work performed. NetSuite's invoice templates can accommodate either format.

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Where native time tracking falls short

The native timesheet interface is functional but not modern. Common complaints from teams using it:

The web interface is clunky. Entering time requires multiple clicks and dropdown selections. For consultants who enter time daily across multiple projects, the friction adds up. The interface hasn't received a significant UX update in years.

Mobile experience is limited. NetSuite's mobile time entry exists but isn't as polished as dedicated time tracking apps. Field-based consultants who need to log time from their phones often find it frustrating.

No timer functionality. NetSuite doesn't have a start/stop timer. You have to remember how long a task took and enter the duration manually. For people who task-switch frequently, this leads to inaccurate time capture.

Offline capability is weak. Consultants working in locations with poor connectivity (manufacturing floors, construction sites, client offices with restricted WiFi) need offline time entry that syncs when back online.

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Time tracking apps and integrations

Several third-party tools enhance NetSuite's time tracking:

Timesheets.com integrates with NetSuite and provides a modernized time entry experience. It adds timer functionality, a mobile app, and a simpler interface while syncing data back to NetSuite for billing and cost posting.

Harvest is a popular standalone time tracker that integrates with NetSuite. Its interface is clean, the mobile app is well-designed, and it supports start/stop timers. The NetSuite integration syncs approved time for billing and project cost tracking.

ClickTime provides time and expense tracking with resource planning features. It integrates with NetSuite and adds utilization dashboards and capacity planning that complement NetSuite's project management.

NetSuite OpenAir is the in-family upgrade path for firms that need comprehensive PSA capabilities including advanced time tracking. OpenAir's time entry is designed for professional services firms and includes features like auto-fill from project allocations, time off requests, and sophisticated approval routing.

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Best practices

Make time entry a daily habit

The number one predictor of time tracking data quality is whether people enter time daily or weekly. Daily entry captures accurate hours while the work is fresh. Weekly "catch-up" sessions produce estimates, not actuals. The difference shows up in billing accuracy, project margin reporting, and utilization calculations.

Enforce submission deadlines. Configure NetSuite to send reminders for overdue timesheets and escalate to managers after a grace period. Some firms lock timesheets after 48 hours to prevent backfilling.

Standardize project-task structures

Consistent task structures across projects make time data comparable. If every implementation project has tasks for Discovery, Design, Build, Test, and Deploy, you can benchmark time per phase across projects. Random task naming ("Various work," "Client calls," "Stuff") produces unusable data.

Track non-billable time with purpose

Non-billable categories should be specific enough to analyze: Internal Meetings, Business Development, Training, Administrative, Recruiting, Bench. "Non-billable" as a single bucket tells you nothing. Granular non-billable tracking reveals where capacity is being consumed.

Keep rate tables current

Billing rates change — annual increases, client-specific negotiations, new service offerings. Review and update rate tables quarterly to ensure time-based billing reflects current pricing. Stale rates mean you're billing last year's rates on this year's work.

Measure and communicate utilization

Utilization is the metric that makes time tracking matter to the organization. When leadership tracks and communicates utilization targets, time entry becomes a business priority rather than an administrative chore. People enter time accurately when they understand that the data drives real decisions.

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The bottom line

Time tracking in NetSuite works for firms with straightforward requirements. For firms that need a better user experience, mobile access, or timer functionality, a third-party integration fills the gaps while keeping the financial data in NetSuite where it belongs. Either way, the cultural discipline of accurate, timely time entry matters more than the technology choice.

Frequently Asked Questions

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