It’s not unheard of for a team to spend thousands of dollars annually on project management software. If you’re working with a limited budget, the good news is that you don’t have to spend that much on a top-notch project management tool. With Zoho Projects, you can get many features such as time task management, team collaboration, reports, and more at an affordable price. But can Zoho Projects meet all of your needs? We’ll break down its feature set and pricing in more detail so you can answer that question.
Zoho Projects’ Updated Features For 2021
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of Zoho projects, let’s discuss some of its newest features for 2021. If you have been considering the software for a while, these new features may seal the deal.
Zoho Projects now offers bulk shifting dates, which adds flexibility to project schedules. If you need to change the start and end dates for several tasks simultaneously, you can now do so easily. If you need to dynamically set the work hours for a daily task instead of keeping them the same, you can do so via task flexible hours.
Tracking and predicting budgets has become easier thanks to earned value management, which factors in time, cost, and schedule to help you compare actual versus planned project values.
There are also two new additions for Zoho Projects’ Enterprise customers. You can now assign teams to specific tasks, plus set workflow rules. The latter helps you save time by using automated steps to manage workflows.
Read: Best Project Management Tools for Developers
Zoho Projects’ Standard Features
Now that you see what’s new with Zoho Projects for 2021, let’s break down the standard features that make it so popular for project management.
Customizable Dashboards in Zoho
Zoho Projects has an interface that is clean and easy to decipher, even if you’re new to such software. You can customize the dashboard to your liking to reduce clutter and only see what’s relevant to your everyday needs.
Do you want to see individual workloads or timesheets as soon as you log in? Is task status your top concern? Regardless of your needs, you can tweak your dashboard to meet them.
Collaboration Tools for Project Managers
Zoho Projects is particularly robust when it comes to collaboration and communication. So if you’re seeking something to ensure everyone on your team is on the same page, you can’t go wrong here.
The workspace has a built-in chat box that makes it easy for team members to communicate without having to switch to another app. There’s an activity feed that shows everything going on with a project in chronological order, plus status updates so people can see what you’re working on. You can use forums to communicate as well.
As if those collaboration options weren’t enough, you can also start an audio or video chat through Zoho Meeting. This once again eliminates the need to open another app to communicate, as you can get it all done in one spot.
Read: What is Agile Project Management Software?
Tasks And Milestones
It’s pretty simple to get started with Zoho Projects. When you’re ready to manage a project, you simply have to:
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- Create a new project.
- Name it.
- Add a description.
- Add tasks and milestones.
When adding tasks, you can give each a start and end date instead of just a deadline. You can assign multiple team members to a task and detail how many hours per day they should be working on it.
To help analyze performance and efficiency, each task has a built-in timer. You can use it to track how much time is spent doing the task, and you can mark that time as non-billable or billable. You can view progress by having team members enter a percent completion as they work on a task too. If a project must be completed by a specific deadline, there’s also the option to use a strict timeline.
Task dependencies are another option in Zoho Projects. You can create them easily via the Gantt chart view using drag and drop functionality. And if you make a mistake in the process, Zoho added an undo button to its Gantt charts.
Project Views in Zoho
Beyond Gantt charts, Zoho also comes complete with a Kanban board and a task list view. The former uses cards to represent tasks, which it puts in different columns that correspond to different statuses, such as Open, In Progress, In Review, Closed, etc.
Read: Project Management Software for Developers: Complete Guide
Resource Management Reporting Tool
If you pay for Zoho Projects’ Premium or Enterprise plan, you can make use of a handy resource management report. Dubbed “Resource Utilization,” this report lets you know which team members have the perfect amount, not enough, or too much work. This can help you better manage workloads to improve your team’s overall efficiency while ensuring that everyone’s happy.
Zoho Apps And Integrations
Zoho has its own set of apps that you can use in Projects, such as Zoho Meeting for video conferencing or Zoho Invoice and Zoho Books for accounting. Projects also functions with Google Apps like Drive and Gmail while also integrating with other apps like Zapier, Microsoft Teams, Slack, GitHub, Dropbox, Zendesk, and more.
Time Tracking
Each task in Zoho Projects has a built-in timer. You can use that to track time spent on a task, or you can log time manually. Projects also lets you track time via a weekly log. Enter how many hours you spent on each project, and you’ll be good to go. And while those time tracking features are nice, Zoho Projects has one more that may be even better: The ability to clock in on several tasks simultaneously.
Bug Tracking
Software development teams will be pleased to know that Zoho Projects offers some bug tracking features. Bugs can be imported into Zoho Projects via JIRA, XLS, CSV, and XLSX files. You can also use Projects’ built-in IssueTracker to submit, track, and fix any mishaps during software development.
Zoho Projects Pricing
Zoho Projects offers three pricing options. With the Free plan, up to three users can manage two projects and attach files up to 10MB. You’ll also get simple task tracking and a Gantt chart viewer.
Up next is the Premium plan, which is Projects’ most popular offering. It costs $5 per user per month, with a limit of up to 50 users. You can manage unlimited projects, attach files up to 100GB, and get 20 project templates. Additional features include time tracking, custom views, subtasks and reminders, task automation via Blueprint, and more.
The final and most pricy plan from Zoho Projects is Enterprise, which costs $10 per user per month. Unlimited users can manage unlimited projects here with file attachments up to 120GB. You’ll get 30 project templates, custom fields, custom roles and profiles, global Gantt charts, workflow rules, and more.
How does Zoho Projects’ pricing compare to other project management apps on the market? Very favorably, even though its pricing has gone up over the years.
Its top-end Enterprise plan costs $10 per person per month, which is in line with competitors like GanttPRO ($8.90 per month for annual billing) and TeamGantt ($24.95 per month). Compare Zoho to higher-end project management apps like LiquidPlanner and Clarizen that can cost around $40 per month per person, and it becomes even more attractive for someone seeking a solid set of features on a budget.
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