Free project management software, team collaboration, automated time-tracking and invoicing tools

The problem

I run a website development and internet marketing service company with an international provider (outsourcing) network, mostly recruited from ODesk.  I need a way to effectively manage multiple concurrent projects and assure semi-automated billing to my customers, many of who pay for services on an hourly basis.

The solution

For 3 years I ran a website development firm using Basecamp project management.  Basecamp is the leader hands-down in online project management tools.  However, at $50-$150/mth for a company my size (35 to 100 open projects) it can get pricey. 

Then I found the open-source ProjectPier.  Basically a clone of Basecamp, it has all of the key functionality except for time-tracking and the ability to respond to a message by email.  It’s easy and intuitive to use for my customers, which is key.  So – I wouldn’t switch to ProjectPier if I was already running an active business with Basecamp (Basecamp kicks ass) however, if starting fresh I would use ProjectPier. 

Note also that there are dozens of free or open-source project management software apps, but none of them comes close to ProjectPier (IMHO) in terms of effectiveness and ease-of-use in the case of a distributed team that includes clients (non-technical users that can’t invest time in learning the system).  This is the Basecamp project management methodology, described below.

Time tracking and invoicing

Ability to have my contractors book time on projects and then automate the invoicing was also a key requirement. 

Basecamp has an API for which leading vendors have provided affordable tools and add-ons.  Basecamp add-ons for automated time-tracking and invoicing include (among many others) Freshbooks ($20/mth and up), that has very powerful invoicing features including the ability to automatically charge clients credit cards through your merchant account.  Freshbooks in turn integrates with numerous time-tracking tools such as Tick ($19/mth and up).

Avoid the monthly fees however with two very affordable time-tracking and billing applications for your desktop: Xpert Timer ($100 for PRO version) and Easy Time Tracking  ($50).  These are both single-user licenses which allow you to track unlimited projects and clients, and generate professional invoices.

I chose Easy Time Tracking because it synchronizes to Easy Project.Net project management system ($500 for 5-user license + Windows hosting on Godaddy $5/mth). I can import my sub-contractor hours from Easy Project.Net into Easy Time Tracking and invoice from there.  The software is very simple and intuitive to use and generates professional-looking invoices.

While I am saving up for Easy Projects.Net however ($500 is not small change), I can still manually bill my clients with Easy Time Tracking and the time-sheet information in ProjectPier.  Total cost: $50. 

Basecamp (and ProjectPier) project management and time-tracking methodology

A quick review of Basecamp for project teams here.

Work is organized into projects, which have team members (developers) and clients (client companies with multiple client users per company).

Each project has one or more ongoing message threads, in which team members and/or clients ask questions, make requests or share progress (including uploading files and artifacts).  Usually messages have a distribution list that includes everyone assigned to the project (everyone gets an email when a new message or reply is posted). Messages can be public (includes the client) or private (includes only team members).

It’s also possible to assign “ToDo’s” (tasks) to team members, log completion of them, and record hours against them.

ProjectPier doesn’t currently support logging hours, but it is possible to log hours in a private message thread, so not a big issue. 

The main issue with both Basecamp and ProjectPier where clients are concerned is getting them to post in the correct message thread (that has the ongoing dialogue) rather than in new threads.  This is easier in Basecamp since they can just respond to the system email which will post the reply to the thread (and send everyone else notification).  ProjectPier doesn’t support this.