We here at Web AppStorm love a good project management app and the one we’re going to be looking at today, activeCollab, is not just a project management resource but also a way to collaborate, work with clients and invoice, all in one great app. Yes, it’s another project management app and another invoicing app, but it happens to be a really nice one, one that’s definitely worth looking at, even if you think you’ve already seen all that project management and invoicing apps could offer.
So, without further ado, let’s dive straight in.
First Thoughts
activeCollab is a web-based project management utility which is used by over 10,000 businesses and organisations, including Adobe, the BBC, Cisco, Nokia and Texas Instruments, to name but a few. You can sign up for a free, no commitment 30-day trial on their website to see if it’s the perfect match for your company, too. Once you’ve entered your details, you’ll get your own subdomain (usually yournamehere.tryactivecollab.com) where you and your team can log in directly without going to the front page, just like many other professional web apps.
The home page of activeCollab.
Once you’ve signed up, your activeCollab dashboard pops up with a list of any recent activities in the log on the left half of the screen and system notifications and other tasks and projects that you are working on on the right half. Along the left-hand side you’ve got your toolbar, giving you quick and easy access to the various sections of activeCollab such as your active projects, invoices, reports, and more.
The main screen of activeCollab, with an overview of your recent activities on the left and any system notifications or notifications from tasks and projects on the right.
The interface is nice and uncluttered, making it very easy on the eye as well as giving you a quick overview on what’s going on with your tasks and projects. It’s taken design cues from modern Mac apps like Twitter for Mac, as well as traditional professional web apps, giving it a nice overall design.
Planning and Adding a Project
Adding a project in activeCollab is really easy, and you’ve got lots of options to help customise your project exactly to your liking. Once you’ve selected a name for it, you can go ahead and give it a description, add a leader on the project, and even enter a project budget and the client for which the project is for.
Creating a new project in activeCollab.
Once the project has been set up, you can now go about customising it and adding various aspects, such as outlines, milestones and discussions.
The options you get with a new project.
activeCollab allows you to invite an unlimited amount of users to any particular project, making it great for large organisations (the unlimited users come in both price plans) and the permissions system means that the system administrator can control exactly who sees what (projects can be hidden or password-protected against unauthorised access). Each “role” in activeCollab (which defines the permissions on who can see what) can be tailored exactly to individual demands and I was impressed with this flexibility – some project management apps have just standard permissions, not customisable ones like the ones here.
Each project in activeCollab can be categorised so you don’t lose track of it, and individual projects can be assigned to individual clients. This is especially useful when it comes to sifting through projects and working out what services need to be billed to the client.
Managing a client project in activeCollab.
Executing a Project
activeCollab allows you to break up long projects into individual milestones which can then be placed onto your project’s timeline. This gives people working on the project a clear goal and also avoids the need for having lots of individual projects, decluttering your screen and making it simpler to track the work that has been done.
A project outline showing the individual tasks with their status.
The outline view shown in the screenshot above allows both the user and administrator to quickly manage all of the project’s milestones, tasks and subtasks. Each individual task in the project can be categorised and labeled, added to a milestone and divided into sub-tasks. activeCollab also enables discussions for each task – absolutely great for group collaboration, as it helps you avoid the need for countless e-mails across the office.
Another fantastic feature about activeCollab is the ability to filter tasks. This filter is based on a set of rules (which can be defined and customised) that help to monitor progress on that project.
A filter applied to the tasks in a project, showing exactly who is working on what.
A filter could show, for example, which team member is working on each task or the individual statuses of each task in the project (e.g. In Progress, On Hold, Cancelled and so on). Custom filters can be saved for re-use or added to the home screen for quick and easy access – a very nice touch.
Time Tracking & Estimating
Being able to time track and provide accurate estimates to your clients is extremely important, as it gives them a solid idea on the amount of work expected on a particular project and activeCollab manages this really well. The developers have written a special app for both Windows and Mac (an older version is available for Linux systems) called activeCollab Timer which tracks time spent on a particular task or project then automatically sends it to your activeCollab account so you don’t have to manually enter the time spent on each task.
The Timer app, which keeps track of how long you've spent on a particular task or project then automatically sends the data straight to activeCollab.
activeCollab also provides accurate time estimates to help with client quotes. These estimates keep your project under control and also helps you to identify problems early on (e.g. if a particular task took longer than originally planned).
Budgeting
activeCollab lets you easily see exactly where your company’s resources are being spent on that particular project and whether the project is either over or under-budget. Expense and time monitoring is performed in real time and gives you a precise overview on how the project’s resources are being managed.
The budget overview feature shows you any recent activities on the project (along with the amount of billable hours), the progress and how much of the original budget has been used up.
Any time records or expenses can be filtered based on multiple criteria (such as by client, expense category, status and so on) and client invoices can be created based on billable records, a feature I find extremely useful (and one that other project management programs seem to miss out). You can also create reports based on the budget overview, which can then be exported to a spreadsheet program such as Excel, iWork Numbers, or even Google Docs Spreadsheets.
Invoicing
Of course, once you’ve completed your project, you’ll want to bill it to your client! As mentioned above, activeCollab can create invoices based on billable records (or the number of billable hours per project), so you don’t have to mess around working out how much to charge – the seamless integration makes this task a piece of cake. Invoices can also be created from project expenses (for example, external services used in a particular project) and of course, you can combine the two.
A draft invoice in activeCollab created with already existing project data
activeCollab features a built-in invoice designer where you can customise virtually every single aspect of your invoice, from the initial design and layout to the company logo and background design. Invoicing is done straight in the application and once an invoice is sent out, activeCollab will mark that project as invoiced. Invoices can be exported as PDF or mailed directly from the application, whereby the client then receives a link to click on to view that invoice. To help with the accounting, activeCollab can integrate with both Paypal and Authorize.net and, with a bit of coding trickery, most other payment gateways.
Final Thoughts
While looking through activeCollab for this review, I was amazed by its ease of use and the smooth integration with virtually every aspect of the program. There’s absolutely no jumping back and forth through the program as once you’ve completed something, it gets updated throughout the system. The interface is really simple and, unlike some project management programs which overwhelm the user, activeCollab manages to hit the nail on the head with the balance between straightforwardness and compelling features.
activeCollab’s pricing strategy is also commendable – unlike other project management apps (where you often pay a monthly subscription) – you pay a one-off flat fee (and you even get a whole year’s worth of free support thrown in as well) and that’s it (unless you want additional support, which costs $99 per year). A flat fee doesn’t tie you into any lengthy contracts with monthly payments – simply shell out the dough and you’re off.
activeCollab gets a highly commendable 9 out of 10 score from me, as for web-based project management with a built-in invoicing system, you’d be hard-pushed to find better alternatives out there.