Dennis Field
We get asked a ton from our clients, network of designer and entrepreneurs. What tools do you use for invoicing, project management and other day to day tasks? We figured if they are asking, other companies may be curious as well. This is a perfect case for a blog article. So here we go.
After continuously testing all the different tools available for small businesses, we knew we needed to find the tools to keep us moving. We needed tools that were cost effective and allowed us to offer our clients the services they expect. We at Greenline Creative have broken these tools down to our favorites that we use everyday. These tools are explained below.
Estimates and Billing:
As you already know, we are huge fans of Freshbooks. You can view our previous blog to find out why. Even though we love Freshbooks and feel it is a great tool for small businesses, we are currently transitioning away from it. Why are we making the jump? It is simple. Our company is growing beyond what Freshbooks allows us to handle for Project Management. We needed something a bit more robust and cost effective.
Introducing Harvest. Harvest has all the tools that Freshboooks has, and a bit more to suit our needs here at Greenline Creative. You can still create Estimates, Invoices, Log Expenses, but beyond that you can Attach files to Estimates and track the hours on a project much more detailed and effectively. The Time Tracking and Reporting feature is the single reason for our switch. We now have our team tracking hours for every projects and it is no longer a chore. See more on this later.
Project Management:
It is simple. The more projects you get the more you have to manage. So how do we keep your projects on track and moving here at Greenline Creative? As any web company knows, there are always a ton of stages to juggle throughout a project and that is the main struggle. So we needed to find a solution capable of all the little tasks. We again tried Basecamp, Teamlabs, Wunderlist amongst a few other gems. Ultimately these solutions were either too large, or to small for our needs. They are however, really great applications. So what did we settle on?
We welcomed Action Method to the team with open arms. Here is why. We needed a solution super flexible and very light weight. The team likes how this solution does not interupt their chosen workflow unlike some of the others we tested. Action Method has also been great for storing documents for all team members to access at anytime, and it is really easy to delegate simple and large tasks to members of the team quickly.
Client Approval:
How do you manage client approval at Greenline Creative? We know web is full of changes and process, so it was important to find a way to streamline this process, but also allow for the client to get a clear idea as to how the project is going to flow form start to finish. Sure we could send comps over via pdf, and ask for feedback in a document, but realistically that does not work. So what do we use?
We have had great success with a solution called Invision App. This services allows us to start in wireframes and move right to comps easily and effectively with one single link. Feedback is stored in the system along with the ability to update comps on the fly. The mobile support is also great for those iPhone or mobile app projects. So if you are searching for a way to keep things organize we recommend it.
Budget Tracking:
Any owner or project lead knows how much of a challenge it can be keeping an eye on a budget for a project. Small or large it is never an easy task. This requires teams to submit time and run reports, etc. Who wants to do that at the end of the day, or on a Friday at 5pm when your ready to leave?
We sure don’t. So we use Harvest. As I mentioned above, we wanted to talk more about Harvest, because when it comes keeping an eye on a budget it is great and can not be matched by Freshbooks. Harvest allows us to get a detailed view of every project or staff member's time. We have the ability to view hours spent on a specific task, and can also see how many hours are left on a project as a whole. Harvest will even send a handy email reminder if we are getting close to the hours allotted for a project. With the handy little iPhone app, tracking time is easy anywhere your team is.
Sales & Client Relationship:
You can not succeed in business if you are not watching your pipline and have solid relationships with your clients. This is why a CRM is really nice. Again, as a small business we found Salesforce, just a tad bit too bulky. We tried a few lighter solutions such as Highrise, Pipedrive, but decided they were not the perfect fit.
With some more digging into the CRM tools available, we settled on a service called Nimble. What is Nimble you ask? It is a CRM that hooks up to a variety of social media platforms such as twitter, linkedin, and facebook. With so much of a company's activity spread out all over the web, this gives us a nice snapshot of their needs and activity so we can leverage key opportunities. The added Deals feature allows us to manage the process of a sale very easily.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we want to say that these are the tools that we use, they may not be the tools that fit your work flow. The easiest way to find out if they are a fit is to try them. Many of these services have either a 30day free trial or offer a free account. So try them out and cancel at any time.
We hope you find these tools recommended, at the very least helpful. We are only able to touch the surface of these tools in a blog, but would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to comment below.
On another note. We are in no way affiliated with any of these services above. We just want to help spread the love for such great products that allow us to focus more on our solutions and not so much on the day-to-day tasks. As we've grown, I am sure our needs will change and so will the tools we use to run our business. We will try to keep this blog updated and relevant.
