Useful Tools To Manage Projects And Processes In Your Small Business

Managing multiple projects or even getting on top of your first project is definitely a cumbersome task to lead and succeed. This is where picking the right kind of project management tools or a combination of them will make your ride less bumpy and more efficient.

Basecamp
“Projects manage themselves with basecamp”, the caption they mention, rightly means what it is capable of. A simple tool with easy to use features makes it a widely used tool for managing projects. It comes with features like to-do lists, message boards, milestones, file sharing, time tracking, project overviews, commenting, writeboards, chats, time, and so on. There are also third party tools like AgileAgenda, Roadmap, etc., which integrate with basecamp, giving you more feature and flexibility.

“Basecamp is so simple you can’t do anything wrong. It’s addictively easy-to-use”

–Robert Hof, Business Week

Deskaway
It is a simple and affordable way to manage your projects. It offers you wide variety of features like Project Collaboration using project listing, milestone tracking, time sheets, and the likes; General Collaboration through contacts, status updates, blogs, etc.; Reporting using projects reports, backups and so on; Mobile setup for iPhone, and many other useful features are available. All these go in to create a very useful project management tool for your business needs.

ActiveCollab
“The project management & collaboration tool that installs on your server or local network”

You can start any number of projects on activecollab and manage them using the powerful features provided by it. Some of the main features include file sharing, discussions, invoicing, time tracking, email integration, unlimited storage, and so on.

Less Accounting
As the name suggests it is designed to lessen your accounting hassles. It comes with simple and easy to use features to make your accounting process easier. Key features include recording and categorizing expenses, invoices, see who owes you money, project and category based expenses, creating proposals, data import, third party integrations, etc. Overall a great tool for accounting.

Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a progressive alternate for people using spreadsheets for managing tasks and projects. It combines the features of traditional project management software and spreadsheet easiness, to give you the best of both worlds. As it is simpler to manage it saves you lot of time and also removes the chaotic clutter of all the fancy features and graphics associated with other project management tools.

Other notable tools that you can use are: Springloops, Jumpchart,Tracproject, 5pm, Huddle, Teamwork, Central Desktop and so on. It is recommended that you choose an application which best suits your business and which is simple to use and easy to move on from your existing system, this will make the transition easy and less cumbersome for your staff.