Running a business is easier said than done. Sometimes you feel intimidated and end up putting in a lot of energy and time than required. You are drained instead of feeling productive. You might be doing great with your emails and spreadsheets, but it can be daunting at the same time. Imagine you want to share a project document with one of your team members. Rampaging your email or searching all the folders in your system is just too much when you can create, share and manage all the documents in one place and allow anyone you wish to view those documents. If this makes sense, then it’s time for you to get used to a project management tool.
You might own a Marketing agency, an IT service company, an E-commerce company, an Engineering & production company, a multi-media company or any other business. A well-defined workflow, connected team and organized workspace are everything a project management tool can help you set up.
With the right tool, you can seamlessly work on your project, foresee its future and make informed decisions. It puts everything in perspective so that you, as a project owner, know what exactly is going on.
So many project management tools are available in the market, and they come with various capabilities. Selecting the right tool is easier, given you have a little clarity about your requirement.
So I’m here to tell you some important features to look for before choosing the right tool.
Task management
A project is a set of tasks that helps you achieve a desirable outcome. Tasks are the building block of any project. Within a project management tool, you should be able to create as many tasks, add subtasks, assign tasks to the team members, set deadlines for the tasks, update the status for completed and ongoing tasks, set priorities, and create milestones. Different views for tasks like lists, tables, boards, and timelines are an added advantage. Look for a project management tool that supports everything you need to manage tasks effectively.
Project templates
Project management tools should offer pre-built templates for various use-case and services. Templates can save a lot of your time. Instead of building the process from scratch, all you need to do is choose a template that align well with your team’s needs, and you are good to go. You should also be free to customize any template you choose.
Time tracking
Project management tools with time tracking features are delightful. I cannot stress how easy it is to come up with the billable hours, identify your potential bottleneck that consume more time, calculate the total time spent on the project, and estimate time for future projects. It can also help you identify who can do a particular task within lesser time, and there you go, you got the best man for the job.
Dashboards
Dashboards helps you visualize your entire project in one single place with data-driven information. For example, a chart of any data set, progress of tasks, milestones achieved etc. Project management tools should provide customizable dashboards allowing you to choose what you want to see.s
Communication and collaboration
Communication and collaboration are crucial, and do not give any excuse for missing out on any pressing issues your project should face. The project management tool should allow you to connect and collaborate with your team globally. Idea sharing, communicating updates, file sharing across the team, and chat rooms are a few collaboration feature that a project management tool should provide.
Document management
Within a project management tool, you should create new documents, share them with the team members, work on documents simultaneously, track versions of the documents, save them at one location, and provide access to anyone you want. Document management must be made easy with everything on a single platform.
Invoicing
We often miss out on important feature while picking the right project management tool. Project management tools shall not only be limited to planning a project and closing out but the important part of getting paid. Many software such as Monday.com has features to create an invoice. It allows you to choose and upload your company logo, add billing details, invoice line items, fee/tax, change currency, add signature, and notes and helps you download the invoice and share it on the go.