Managing a business is no cakewalk for any entrepreneur. Not everyone has a natural talent to understand the various responsibilities that come under the ambit of business management.
Don’t worry! This guide to What is Business Management will help you understand what it takes to help an organization grow and prosper.
First, let’s get clear with the basics.
For any type of business to prosper, it is essential to streamline all its operations effectively to achieve the desired result.
So, you want to know what is business management? Here’s the answer.
Business Management comprises a set of different activities that help in the effective planning, organizing, and smooth running of a business.
However, you need a professional who can handle day-to-day business operations with ease – A business manager.
The end goal of every business is to generate profit. The person who has to ensure this happens to be none other than a business manager.
The business manager is a professional who oversees an organization’s employees and day-to-day operations. Their primary responsibility is ensuring that all business activities remain streamlined at all times.
Business Managers ensure this by executing relevant operational strategies, conducting employee performance reviews, and keeping a tab on everyday activities. They also have to search for opportunities to grow the business and achieve its objective.
Apart from this, Business managers keep an eye on all ongoing projects to determine any area of improvement and identify potential roadblocks.
Still, there is a certain set of skills that all business managers need to possess. Let us see what these are.
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A business manager has to supervise different teams to help them achieve the desired business goal.
Therefore, anyone looking to get into one of the many business management jobs should definitely possess the skills mentioned below;
A business manager has to communicate with project team managers, stakeholders, and higher management. Business managers have to form a positive and trustable relationship with the employees, management, and business owners.
They need to remain connected with the organization’s employees and stakeholders through phone, email & chat. But, for this to happen, they must possess excellent command over verbal and written communication.
| Stat Fact: 71% of employees feel productive when they are well-connected to their colleagues – The Connected Culture Report |
A business manager has to set a budget for a project and ensure it gets completed within that budget. They have to ensure the project teams work according to the allocated budget. There are many business management tools that can help them perform this task with ease.
Being able to manage the project budget ensures the team completes it within the deadline and it is delivered to the client on time.
A big responsibility on the shoulders of every business manager is boosting the morale of the workforce in the organization. Motivated employee will always give their best in comparison to undervalued employees.
Business managers can do this by interacting with every team socially, providing opportunities for career advancement, and recognizing high-performance team members.
Business managers have to communicate regularly with different departments in an organization. Sometimes, they have to be the mediator between two departments that don’t see eye to eye on a project.
It is essential the departments have trust in the business manager. For this, business managers should organize team-building activities and social events. This helps them know the employees on a personal level.
Business managers play a vital role in handling day-to-day tasks for a business. However, at the same time, they also need to focus on the bigger picture.
They need to ensure that every task completed by a team helps bring the organization closer to its business goal.
A business manager must have a vision of how the decisions made today would impact the business’s future in the coming years.
Business managers have to don many different hats at the same time. For this, they have to effectively organize and prioritize time to ensure every task is completed on time.
A capable business manager must be able to delegate tasks to different team members with ease. It requires them to know the individual skills of every team member before assigning tasks.
Business managers have to make decisions that have a huge impact on an organization’s future. This includes making quick decisions regarding a project or completing a task without spending too much time on it. They have to think quickly about the pros and cons of a decision.
For this, business managers need to develop a keen eye regarding what is happening in the company. This helps them detect any problems and take corrective measures before it is late.
These are the essential skills that a business manager should have to excel at what they do. But, there is one more which can help them cover a long journey with the organization.
| Business Administrator | Business Manager | |
| Definition | A business Administrator is responsible for running a business’s day-to-day operations. | The business manager focuses more on overall leadership to help an organization grow. |
| Skills | Analytical, Strategic planner, detail-oriented, Organized | A motivator, Creative and innovative thinker, Ability to see the bigger picture, Able to delegate tasks |
| Career Options | Staff accountant, Business analyst, Marketing specialist, and HR administrator | Operations manager, Financial reporting manager, and management analyst |
Still, there are business owners who think that business management is just a single industry. That is not so.
So, knowing about its various types will help you understand what is business management especially if you are just starting out as a business manager.
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Although, there are many types of business management; given below are some of the major ones.
Financial management strives to create a balance between profit and risk to ensure profit for the business. It requires business managers to plan, direct, and coordinate with investing, banking, insurance, and other financial aspects of the business. There are three key elements of financial management – planning, control, and decision-making.
HR (Human Resource) management deals with a business’s hiring, training, and retention of an employee. It is not the sole responsibility of the HR department to hire, retain and recruit new employees. The managers of every department are equally responsible for these as it impacts the future growth of an organization.
Operations management requires business managers to ensure that all departments of an organization are functioning efficiently. For this, they have to deal with numerous departments and formulate the best business strategies and processes. The operations teams have to ensure proper acquisition, development, and utilization of resources the business needs.
Marketing management takes into consideration the practical application of a business’s marketing resources. There are four core areas of marketing management – Company, Collaborator, Customer, and Competitor analysis.
Brand management, Marketing strategy, and pricing are also three core components of effective marketing management.
The success of every business depends on its marketing, financial, and operational strategies. This is where strategic marketing comes into the picture. Strategic management refers to the application of strategic thinking to leading an organization.
This type of business management relies on questions like – Where does a business want to reach and how can it reach there?
To succeed in any type of business management described above, business managers have to be aware of a few practices.
Given below are 5 of the best business management tactics every business manager should use to help an organization grow.
No business has ever reached its goal without active and hardworking team members. Business managers have to engage with team members from every department.
A motivated and enthusiastic team member is more likely to help the organization achieve its business goal as opposed to an alienated worker who is more interested in a paycheck.
Some business managers feel that connecting or praising team members on a personal level undermines their authority, but this is not so.
Nothing can replace the motivation an employee feels after being praised for a job well done. Rewarding employees who help a business grow has a positive impact on others.
Many business managers believe that getting to know the employees makes them look weak, which is absolutely wrong.
Without the ability to be open and share their ideas regarding how a business should go, some business managers lose the trust of the team. This has a negative impact on the project’s and company’s future, not to forget it also impacts employee morale.
Business managers need to be quick when it comes to adapting to the latest technology. It sends a positive message to the customers as well as company employees.
For example, in today’s world, it is vital for every business to not only have a website with smooth navigation and valuable content. Business managers need to ensure that customers can connect with them from anywhere and at any time.
In the long run, if a business wants to stay ahead of the competition then managers have to take up the mantle of adapting to the latest technology in their industry.
Many businesses are not able to meet their goals due to a lack of clarity amongst managers who either don’t understand the organization’s vision or are confused about how to achieve it.
To counter this issue, organizations should help them understand a few key concepts;
Answering these questions gives business managers a clear idea about the company’s vision, mission, and its values.
There are different ways through which a business manager can help an organization grow and achieve its goal.
Let us now take a look at the different management styles.
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Whether a business manager leads a department, team, or entire organization, it is vital to get familiar with the different management styles.
Knowing about these is an important part of understanding what is business management at its core.
That said, given below are 8 business management types a business manager can adapt to.
The democratic management style helps create a bond of trust and mutual understanding between an organization’s employees and the upper management.
The leaders usually seek input from the employees before making a business decision. Business managers who follow this management style are open to experimenting with new ideas.
Business managers who adopt the Laissez Faire management style do not believe in micromanaging employees.
Employees have complete freedom when working on a given task. It is the best management style when it comes to managing a team of highly experienced professionals.
Autocratic business managers believe in focusing on results and efficiency. They micromanage the workforce to ensure that everyone follows the organization’s policy.
This management style comes in handy when there are inexperienced employees who need clear and strict instructions regarding a task.
The collaborative management style requires coordination between managers, supervisors, and employees to attain a common objective.
In this management style, all the employees from different departments work together to ensure the organization achieves its business objectives.
Business managers who possess the qualities of a sports team coach can adapt to the coach management style. They have to focus on an employee’s development and know what motivates every team member.
Coach management style helps managers identify the strengths and weaknesses of every team member. It helps push an employee to perform beyond their limitations and improve their chances of growth.
A transformational management style is an approach that business managers use to help an organization move in the right direction.
A transformational business manager not only supervises the various changes taking place in an organization. They also help in managing employee morale which might go low during such times.
The bureaucratic management style requires business managers to assign tasks to employees within a well-defined hierarchy.
This management style requires a focus on rules and procedures rather than collaboration. It is quite successful in heavily regulated industries but not so much in creative industries.
Managers following a transactional management style believe in improving employee performance through bonuses and incentives.
They act as mentors and provide explicit instructions to increase performance and help employees meet the business’ expectations.
It has become easier for business managers to handle small as well as large teams within an organization with the help of various Business Management Systems available.
Whether you own a small online store or multiple ventures, there is a lot you need to do to handle both. It is here that having a well-defined business management system can help manage difficult tasks easily.
By definition, a Business Management System refers to a set of tools for planning and implementing the various policies, guidelines, and procedures of an organization to execute its business plan.
Having a Business Management system lays down a solid foundation for the successful implementation of strategic and tactical business decisions to meet its objectives.
One of the best and most exceptional business management systems that are utilized by leading businesses like Taco Bell and NASA is ProofHub. It helps business managers handle project tasks, and ensure task deadlines are met by every team in the organization.
ProofHub is a cloud-based business management system that helps businesses keep everything organized in one place.
It is one of the best tools for business managers to streamline daily business operations and assign tasks effortlessly.
That is not all! Given below is how ProofHub can help manage businesses with ease.
ProofHub lets project and business managers create, manage, and track assigned tasks with ease. The Kanban boards and Gantt charts help plan and lay down every task in a visually appealing manner.
It lets you set task deadlines, get instant notifications regarding a task, and check out the overall project workflow.
ProofHub keeps every project team member on the same page with its effortless collaboration capabilities.
It also offers Live Chat and Discussions to let project managers connect with team members round-the-clock.
Notes in ProofHub lets managers jot down vital information in one place and share it with the team members.
ProofHub timer tool lets managers keep track of the time spent by a team member on a particular task.
The time logging, monitoring, and reporting feature help increase employee accountability. The Timesheets in ProofHub help display time logged in by a project team member.
ProofHub comes with many advanced features like Time Tracking to help you keep track of every task in a project.
ProofHub comes with smart file storage, versioning, and sorting capabilities. Its file management system offers 100 GB of file storage space for all projects.
This business management tool lets managers upload files, and divide them into separate folders. ProofHub also provides the option of attaching files in team chat and discussions.
The Project Reports feature in ProofHub lets managers know if a project is completed on time or lagging behind.
It gives them enough time to take the appropriate action before things go out of hand.
ProofHub’s Activity Tracker makes it easier to keep track of any modifications or changes done to a project file.
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To be a business manager requires an entrepreneur to develop many skills apart from being a business owner. With the right business management system by your side, handling day-to-day business operations are way easier than imagined.
There are six vital components that contribute to effective business management. These include strategy, marketing, finance, human resources, technology, and operations.
To become a proficient business manager, there are 7 skills you need to learn:
* Sound decision-making
* Self-Awareness
* Building Trust
* Becoming a good communicator
* Regular Check-Ins
* Self-Reflection
* Business Management Training
Yes! Like every profession, business management is a skill required to succeed not only in the corporate world but also other industries like:
* Non-Profits
* Public Service
* Entrepreneurship
* Private Consultancy
Imagine you walk into your office and see your team all charged up, happy, and eager to do their work. Everyone is just so motivated to perform well. And the best thing is that you didn’t even have to put in any effort to achieve this.
Sounds amazing, isn’t it?
Well, let’s get ourselves a reality check now. In order to keep your team feeling motivated, engaged, and driven, you need to put in a lot of thought and effort.
If your team members are unhappy with their jobs, it will undoubtedly show in their work as they won’t feel motivated. And if your team members don’t feel motivated, they don’t perform well, meaning low productivity and efficiency.
On the other side, if your employees are engaged, the workplace will change for the better because everyone will actually be happy and motivated. Moreover, you’ll see your employees working harder and contributing more to the collective well-being of the business.
Okay so before we move forward with the importance and ways to keep your employees engaged and motivated, let’s first understand what employee engagement is.
The concept of employee engagement refers to how enthusiastic and committed an employee is to their work. Employees that are engaged are concerned about their work and the success of the organization. An engaged employee is in it for more than just a salary and may believe that their performance and, by extension, their well-being, are directly related to and essential to the success of their organization.
It refers to how devoted employees are to the business and its success. It also takes into account their level of commitment to doing their work on time, their level of agreement with the company’s values, and their level of teamwork and cooperation. Employee engagement, therefore, encompasses much more than just whether a person likes their job.
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Employee engagement is important for many different reasons. First, there is a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and engagement. If your team members are unhappy with their jobs, it will undoubtedly show in their work as they won’t feel motivated. Employee productivity is low when they aren’t performing well due to a lack of motivation.
The office will become a more positive place to work if your staff members are motivated and excited to be there and part of the team. Plus, you’ll have improved collaboration and enhanced productivity. Employee engagement is simply a smart business sense happy, motivated, and involved employees are more likely to put in more effort and contribute more to the overall success of the company. People that are invested in the team feel like they are a part of it, and they cooperate to assist your company to achieve its goals.
Although it may seem difficult to change every employee’s attitude increasing engagement doesn’t have to be a laborious process. Many small initiatives can add up to make a massive difference. Here are some awesome ways to do so.
Professional growth is crucial, but it’s practically impossible without fostering personal growth! Get to know your team members personally and learn about their interests, passions, and extracurricular activities in order to support their personal development. Try to consider whether other aspects of the company could be more suitable for each employee based on their individual interests and objectives, or whether they might be interested in taking on extra duties for their own growth.
Finding out more about your employees can also assist you in determining the kinds of training programs that would be advantageous to them and assist them in gaining new abilities and competencies that will satisfy both their professional and personal needs.
Supporting your employees’ personal growth demonstrates your commitment to seeing them succeed, which is likely to motivate them to put in even more effort.
Employee motivation to be productive and perform at their jobs would likely be low if they don’t feel appreciated for their efforts. If employees don’t feel like they are being seen or heard, they feel demotivated. It becomes a negative domino effect because if they don’t feel like the work they are doing is important and appreciated, their willingness to make an effort drops, which impacts the quality of their work.
A lack of recognition undoubtedly leads to disengagement. To avoid this, make sure that you are recognizing, rewarding and appreciating your team for their hard work! There are many ways to do so: Verbal recognition means taking a few minutes to tell a team member how much you appreciate their work. Select a couple of positive characteristics from their work so that the interaction is personal and meaningful. You can give gifts, bonuses, and various other monetary benefits as well.
For bigger accomplishments, consider opportunities for career advancement, added responsibility, or perhaps even finishing the work day early to celebrate a win.
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Another way of keeping your employees engaged is to make sure that you provide them with all of the tools and resources accessible to them that will help them be more productive and more successful. Providing your team members with the right tools and resources is going to empower them to do their work more efficiently and will also make them feel that you care about their individual productivity. Additionally, it will provide them the choice to decide which tools or resources will best support them in carrying out their particular job tasks and responsibilities.
For instance, a tool like ProofHub helps teams to manage their tasks, projects, communication, files, and more in a centralized platform. Using a complete project management solution leaves no room for confusion and makes way for maximum productivity as well as transparency.
ProofHub is an award-winning project management and team collaboration software that offers a wide range of employee recognition and communication tools in a centralized location. ProofHub enhances team engagement by providing timely and swift communication and collaboration solution.
Let’s explore ProofHub’s employee engagement and communication features in more detail.
Team building activities are the best way to keep your employees engaged as it brings them together by letting them collaborate with each other. Through fun activities, they get a chance to know each other in a different light other than the work environment. The main advantage of team building is that it increases employee engagement and loyalty, both of which are crucial for the growth and success of businesses.
An engaged employee will always be dedicated to the success of the company and is excited about work. Also, team-building activities or events allow people to socialize and have friends at the workplace, which is one of the driving forces for people to stay engaged. If the work environment is friendly and welcoming, employees are more likely to stick around and work harder.
You can organize various team-building activities and games like a treasure hunt, the barter puzzle, truth and lie, and more in order to create a fun environment at work. You can also organize employee recognition events, celebrate festivals, and go out on team lunches as well as office trips.
Everyone is aware of how monotonous and boring repetitive tasks get after a point. Employees will become disengaged if you expect them to complete every work they are given according to a rigorously organized pattern.
It is important that you let your team members take a creative approach in order to do some repetitive tasks in a different way. This helps your team members to stay motivated throughout as they do not have to deal with the same old boring tasks every day.
There is nothing wrong with giving your team members the freedom and autonomy to the work in their own way. This creative freedom in the workplace contributes to their professional development, as they’re pushed to think outside the box.
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Hope that you now understand why it’s crucial for employers to encourage employee engagement and how to go about it. Long story short, it encourages your staff to be productive and work harder for organizational success.
Every single employee, from the company’s owner to the most junior employee, wants to feel heard, respected and trusted. They would like to think that the work they are doing is worthwhile and that their time is valued.
These employee engagement strategies will help you boost workplace productivity, increase profit and provide your company with a good reputation.
The four key drivers of employee engagement are:
1. Fulfilling work relationships
2. Belief in leadership
3. Relationship with the manager
4. A clear vision and purpose
5. A sufficient degree of autonomy
Employee engagement is critical to any organization’s success and highly engaged employees lead to increased employee retention, improved employee performance, and better quality of work.
Some examples of employee engagement are:
1. Implementation of empathic leadership
2. Implementation of active listening
3. Consistent employee appreciation and recognition
4. Providing employees with a competitive salary and benefits package
A good employee engagement helps you analyze and improve your employees’ involvement and enthusiasm in their work and the workplace to everyone’s benefit.
Asana vs. Monday can be termed as the comparison feature of two of the most popular and widely used project management software giants.
And we chose to come up with a detailed comparison analysis so that all you project management players can discover which tool suits their needs the best.
Let’s start with a brief introduction to both Monday and Asana before exploring the differences between these tools. Read on to find out more about it.
Asana is a software-as-a-service platform that is designed to help teams easily manage and collaborate on all their tasks and projects in one place. Using Asana, you can easily organize the project, prioritize tasks, collaborate with others, and track progress from start to finish.
Asana capacity planning helps users to manage resources, monitor the team’s workload, and streamline communication.
Monday is a cloud-based Work Operations System that allows teams to customize workflows, which helps to boost their efficiency, alignment, and productivity. Monday.com enables teams to adapt to varying needs, create transparency, collaborate, and avoid manual grunt work.
Let us dig deeper into asana versus Monday and explore what makes them different from each other.
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Both Asana and Monday.com offer a wide range of advanced features to individuals and teams to facilitate efficient and streamlined work processes, work coordination, and collaboration.
Each tool offers a free plan as well as different pricing plans to suit the varying requirements of different individuals and teams.
Let us understand each tool in depth so that you can have a better understanding of how each application works so that you can make a well-informed decision.
Task management is one of the core features of any good project management software.
Asana workflow management allows users to create tasks and them to team members, set deadlines, and keep track of tasks through the list, boards, and timeline view. With Asana workflow automation features like Rules and custom templates you can build custom in minutes and save your team time.
On the home page, you can see “to-be-completed-soon” tasks in the ‘My task’ tab. You can click on any task to view its details and attach documents for collaboration.
Asana’s Work Graph model allows teams to stay in sync, hit deadlines, and reach their goals.
Like Asana, monday.com also offers task management features, and tasks are named as “pulses”. You can create tasks, assign them, set deadlines, track them, and create dependencies.
The task overview features allow you to track the task progress and task statuses keep you updated on the task’s completion rate. You can view your tasks/projects as Charts, Gantt, Calendar, Timeline, or (per member) Workload.
While both Monday and Asana offer a number of task management features to teams, ProofHub offers a more comprehensive solution. Let us find out how.
Basic workflow consists of two stages- To-do and Done.
Kanban workflow gives you the flexibility to make as many stages as you want, according to your requirements.
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Asana encourages seamless cross-team collaboration. Asana Flow is a suite of new features that is purpose-built to encourage efficient coordination for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Asana Flow allows teams to create processes from start to finish while giving team members clarity on how their tasks seam with the overall workflow in one place.
Workflow builder visualizes and creates powerful automated workflows, so you can create effective processes that connect teams across all levels within your organization.
Monday.com offers various inbuilt, fully-customizable collaboration templates that you can install in one click and adapt to your needs. For example, a team task management template gives you a clear overview of what your team needs to get done each week.
Other useful features that Monday offers to teams for improved collaboration are – work management, file sharing, integration with video conferencing apps, instant messaging, and cloud storage.
As compared to Asana and Monday.com, ProofHub offers a wide range of collaboration features in a centralized location to users. Using these features, you can seamlessly collaborate on tasks and projects from any location, on any device.
Monday.com offers you the time tracking column, which lets you keep track of the time spent on each task. Whenever you start a task, click on play to start the timer. Once you stop working on the task, you can pause the timer and start it anytime again.
Asana does not have an in-built time tracking feature. You can integrate with other platforms to avail of this feature. For example, Clockify integrates with Asana, which enables you and your team to track time on tasks straight from Asana, for free.
ProofHub, with its inbuilt time tracking tool, offers you more functionality as compared to both Monday and Asana. Here’s all that you can do with ProofHub’s time tracking feature.
Asana does not offer a dedicated file management tool. At best, you can take notes in a task or store ideas in a project. Asana offers integrations with other file sharing/storing apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, which allow you to organize all your files in a single place.
Monday, on the other hand, allows you to upload your files, share them with your teammates and collaborate on them altogether. Business teams can use monday.com as cloud document management software, allowing them to integrate the management and storage of files directly within their teams’ workflows.
ProofHub’s inbuilt file management tool offers a single hub to project teams to create, upload, store, organize, and collaborate on files in real time. You don’t need to integrate with a separate file management software.
Here’s all you can do with this file management tool.
Asana allows users to take notes on a task or store ideas in a project. Some users may find it not very structured and the search is nowhere close to Google.
Monday.com offers easy, intuitive, ready-to-use “Meeting Notes” templates that users can use to organize and share meeting notes. You can customize your chosen template, and create a tailored plan that suits your requirements.
ProofHub’s note-taking software offers you more flexibility as compared to Monday and Asana.
When it comes to user-friendliness, Asana is one of the best. Intuitive interface makes navigating the tool a breeze for users. Its advanced search function lets you instantly find team members, tasks, and appointments.
Monday, on the other hand, is also an easy-to-use application, but its interface is harder to get used to. New users can take some time, but others can start using it without any training or prior experience.
ProofHub has a simple learning curve and its neat, intuitive interface makes it effortless even for new users to get familiar with the tool within minutes. Users can easily access any feature from the “Me view” page, and manage various aspects of their work in a single location.
Users can easily access ProofHub on their mobile devices from any location as the tool is available as an app for iOS and Android devices.
Monday.com offers 24/7 customer service through Email, Forum (FAQs), Knowledge Base, Phone, and Chat.
Asana does not offer any phone support. You can contact its customer support through Email, Forum (FAQs), Knowledge Base, and Chat.
ProofHub prefers to use the term “customer success” as the tool takes a customer-centric approach that goes beyond just offering technical support. ProofHub ensures that clients are provided with exemplary customer support provisions.
Focus of ProofHub’s customer success teams is on providing well-detailed, walkthroughs, onboarding, suggestions, training, and best practices to users as per their unique requirements.
With ProofHub, support teams can easily communicate with clients, stakeholders, and other team members. With countless features for teams of all kinds and sizes, it helps support teams navigate through data easily and communicate smoothly
Pricing plans offered by monday.com are:
Pricing plans offered by Asana are:
Keep your entire team, clients, and stakeholders on the same page with ProofHub. Seamless collaboration guaranteed! Sign up and SAVE BIG!
While both Monday and Asana offer per-user pricing plans, ProofHub offers fixed pricing plans without any restrictions on the number of users you can add. When you compare the number of features offered by ProofHub at reasonable prices, you will find it to be a more value-for-money tool than Asana and Monday.
ProofHub offers two pricing plans:
1. Essential plan (Core features): $45 per month, when billed annually, unlimited number of users
Some Core features include:
2. Ultimate Control plan (Core + Premium features): $89 per month, when billed annually, unlimited number of users.
Some Premium features include:
Monday –
“Some things don’t work the way I want, especially when linking parts, duplicate columns don’t show up on your smartphone so you can’t link two things to see both in the Related Items column. There are certain restrictions when using on Monday. Switching to the user interface can be difficult. It took some training to get used to the new setup.” – G2 Review
Asana –
“I think that Asana is great for casual users and organizations that are small or operate in small teams. When it is scaled up however, I find that it is lacking in certain functionalities that are present in its competition.” – Capterra review
Asana and Monday are two different tools in terms of functionality while also sharing some common features. Monday.com has a bag full to offer in terms of features and project views, Asana offers additional features you’ll not find in Monday.com. That said, both tools have a steep learning curve, are not easy to get started with for new users, and can overwhelm you with more-than-required features.
This is where using flexible, simple-to-use project management and team collaboration software like ProofHub can be of great benefit to those who are not quite satisfied with either Asana or Monday.com.
A simple learning curve, seamless user experience, a suite of tools under one virtual roof, and excellent customer support make ProofHub an automatic choice over Asana and Monday.com.
Both tools offer a suite of unique features for project teams with different requirements. monday’s 24/7 support gives it a slight advantage over Asana.
ProofHub, with a wide range of features, flat pricing models, ease of accessibility and usage is the best alternative to Monday or Asana.
No. Monday.com offers more features than Asana. When it comes to features, support, integrations, and ease of use, Monday.com has a clear edge over Asana.
If you’re seriously considering investing in good time management software then this article is for you. Whether you’re a freelancer wanting to stay organized when on a tight schedule or a project manager looking to efficiently utilize your team’s work hours, effective time management is the need of the hour.
You might be looking for some effective time management tips for work, but using top-rate online time management tools is the best way to make sure your valuable work time is not wasted.
No matter how you work, you would need time management apps to track how much time you are spending on what activities while at work. Time management refers to how you schedule and organize your time for different activities but at the same time, there are several challenges in how you manage your time.
If you want to build a team that is effective in time management, I have summed up the top 17 time management tools that are considered as the best in the market today.
Here is a quick overview, followed by their best features and pricing.
17 Time Management Tools That Can Help You Right Away
When it comes to efficient project management and seamless team collaboration, nothing beats ProofHub. This all-in-one offers project teams of any size, across various industry verticals, a suite of advanced features put in one place including powerful time management software.
Ironically, in this age of hectic work schedules, 82% of people don’t have a time management system.
If your team is consistently struggling to meet deadlines and you have little idea of how much time your team members are spending on different tasks and projects, using the best online time management tool is the best thing you can do right now.
So, how does ProofHub’s time-tracking system solve your time management woes?
Let’s understand how it works and helps businesses and their employees be more productive.
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DeskTime is a desktop and mobile time tracking app for companies and freelancers. It’s filled with practical tools for anyone who wants to get more out of their time spent at work. This includes powerful features for productivity measurement, attendance tracking, and effective workflow management that boosts performance for teams and individuals alike.
DeskTime has integrations with project management apps that allows users to connect the time tracker with widely used tools like Asana, Basecamp, Jira, Trello, and GitLab, as well as Google and Outlook Calendars.
Here’s what makes DeskTime so popular.*
Hubstaff’s employee time tracking software allows the team to track work hours spent on every single project and task. Employees can choose when they want to record their time and also track how much time they spent on a particular task or project.
Here’s what makes this online time management software so popular.
Pricing: Basic plan at $7/user/month and premium plan at $10/user/month.
Calendar is the best solution for simple and easy scheduling. It also adds helpful features such as a unified online calendar, time-usage analytics, and finding mutually agreeable meeting times easily. No other calendar tool offers all of these features together. Calendar’s unified dashboard allows users to view all of their different calendars across Google, Outlook, and Apple in one user-friendly interface.
Calendar also offers all of the scheduling tools you and your team need to effortlessly fill up a customized dashboard. Calendar accomplishes this via the use of emailable smart links. These smart links display your availability — at all times and across all of your different calendars — making it brain-dead simple for the recipient to select and click a suitable time slot. Easy, one-click booking eliminates phone calls, email ping-pong, and scheduling mistakes.
Calendar smart links are available in several different styles that include one-on-one meetings, round robin, and multihost. Multihost provides links that display the availability of multiple people that can be checked using one link. Group scheduling links enable multiple people to book the same time slot, making it the perfect solution for scheduling training sessions or webinars.
What makes Calendar stand out in the crowd?
Pricing: Calendar offers a limited free plan. The standard plan is priced at $6 per month per user. Calendar also offers a Pro Plan priced at $8 per month per user. Discounts are available for schools, non-profits, and larger teams.
Toggl makes time tracking so simple that teams love using it. This is a time tracking app that integrates with different project management systems. Toggl also has integrations for Chrome, Mozilla, Android, iPhone, and desktop
Here’s what makes Toggl so popular as one of the best tools for time management today.
Pricing: From $9 /user/month.
Zapier is an online automation tool that can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks. With tools like Zapier, you can connect and automate your apps with just a few clicks. With Zapier, you can search for your favorite apps and choose from a list of “Zaps” (integrations), or create your own workflow.
Here’s what makes Zapier so popular.
Pricing: Starter plan at $19.99 per month, billed annually.
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Focus booster is one of the most reliable time management software available today. With Focus booster, you can stop procrastinating and track your time to achieve more, understand how you use your time and feel satisfied knowing you are productive. Focus booster is ideal for freelancers, students and driven individuals, anyone with big goals.
Here’s what makes Focus booster so popular.
Pricing: Individual plan at $2.99 and a professional plan at $4.99.
TimeCamp allows you to track time and assign it to tasks in multiple ways. The most common is the manual timesheet, thanks to which you can either enter the duration for the desired task or use a classic start/stop method with our timer. It uses time-tracking for billing clients, measuring project profitability, or paying employees at the end of the month.
Here’s what makes TimeCamp so popular.
Pricing: Basic plan at $5.25/user per month and Pro plan at $7.50/user per month.
Clockify is a time tracking solution that is 100% free, full-featured for teams. It is designed for teams that can be used in the cloud or installed on Mac, Windows, or Linux OS. Clockify’s free plan includes unlimited core functionality as well as unlimited users, unlimited projects, and many other features.
Here’s what makes Clockify so popular.
Pricing: Unlimited users, free forever.
Talk of the best tools for time management and TSheets cannot be far behind. TSheets by QuickBooks offer easy time tracking through a web, mobile and time clock kiosk. Employees can clock in or clock out with just one click. This is the highest-rated app on top review hubs.
Here’s what makes TSheets so popular.
Pricing: Premium plan at $8 per user, per month +$20 base fee per month.
Teamdeck.io is a child of Apptension – product design and software development company that works with Uber, Netflix, Spotify. Teamdeck.io is resource management software with time management features.
Pricing: $ 3.99 / team member / monthly
Monday.com is rated as one of the popular tools for time management and a cloud-based work operating system that provides the ideal platform for time management for small to large businesses. With monday.com, users can add code-free automations to their boards to minimize human error and dedicate more time on the work that makes an impact.
Besides time management, monday.com also allows users to communicate and collaborate in one shared workspace. It also integrates with the tools you already use to help you streamline your workflows to get more done in less time.
Users can track time from any location at any time using the mobile app version.
Here’s what makes monday.com so popular.
Pricing: Basic plan at $39 per month, Standard plan at $49 per month, Pro plan at $79 per month, Enterprise plan is available on quote.
Monitask is a time tracking, task management, and productivity monitoring application created for organizations and companies that employ a remote workforce. This application can capture computer screenshots randomly or at intervals assigned by the employer.
Employers can see the employee’s timeline to see how much time was spent on different projects, websites visited, applications that were running, and the employee’s activity level.
Here’s what makes Monitask so popular.
Pricing: Professional version at $2.99 per user/month, Hosted version is available on quote.
Tmetric is a simple and accurate employee time tracking software that sets you free from tedious time tracking. It has a clean interface that provides great control over project budgets and time intervals.
The software easily lets you monitor working hours, breaks, attendances, and leaves, so you can pay employees accurately and boost individual productivity day in and day out.
Here’s what makes Tmetric so popular.
Pricing: Business plan is at $7 per month and the Professional plan is at $5 per month.
RescueTime is a powerful time tracking and distraction blocking software that provides accurate and intelligent insights into websites and applications your employees use during work.
RescueTime is a feature-rich tool that blocks distracting websites to help users to focus on important tasks on hand. This application allows users to set smart goals on how they want to spend their time. It has all the right tools and data to help employees be at their productive best.
Here’s what makes RescueTime so popular.
Pricing: Premium plan is at $9 per month/user.
Chrometa is a passive time-keeping app that can automatically capture the tasks that you and your teams work on. This application runs in the background and records your billable time. Chrometa also captures phone calls and text messages to turn time on a mobile device into billable time.
This software is ideal for project managers, accountants, lawyers, and freelancers who can track which web pages, programs, and URLs were visited by their team members.
Here’s what makes Chrometa so popular.
Pricing: Standard plan is at $19 per user/month, Plus plan is at $29 per user/month, and Premium plan is at $49 per user/month
If you need to track time, create professional invoices, or keep a closer eye on your labor costs, Harvest is one of the most simple-to-use tools to manage time.
Here’s what makes Harvest so popular.
Pricing: Free for 1 person, 2 projects. And Pro plan at $12 per person per month.
Time is money. Save it to earn it! Get started for FREE!
If you want to be more productive at work, you’ve got to ace time management. It will benefit you in several ways – improve your chances of professional growth and success, reduce undue stress, and work on things that really matter.
The key is to dedicate your valuable work time to tasks and projects that deliver high value while eliminating time-wasting activities that hamper your productivity. Using the best time management apps will enable you to understand where all your valuable time is going.
Go ahead, and pick the tool that you think offers you more bang for your buck. In other words, a tool that offers a suite of features, including that time tracking, to help you have greater control over your work. Good luck!
Time management is important to help you prioritize your work and save you from unnecessary stress at work to achieve better results.
1. ProofHub
2. DeskTime
3. Hubstaff
Here are important features to consider when choosing the best tools for time management:
1. Pricing
2. Tracking features
3. Learning curve
4. Compatibility with devices
5. Reporting feature
Time management is important in the workplace to ensure proper utilization of employees’ work time so they can meet deadlines and be more productive.
It’s no secret that proficiency in Gantt chart tools is a prerequisite for project managers today.
To succeed as a project manager, you must be at your best every day, from planning resources to motivating your team and guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
However, you should know that the ability to use the right tools for project management is what differentiates a successful and an average project manager.
You might consider Gantt chart alternatives, but it’s far more likely that you’ll be able to make your project management efforts considerably more effective if you use Gantt chart software.
So, let us go over all you need to know about the best tools for the Gantt chart without further ado.
A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of a project schedule that displays a sequence of tasks or activities against their set timelines. The left of the chart displays a list of activities while the horizontal bars represent the progress of tasks, time estimates, dependencies, scheduling, and the task owner(s).
To summarize, Gantt chart project management tools illustrate the amount of work completed in relation to the time allocated for a particular work.
ProofHub can help you plan and schedule your project tasks using Gantt charts. Start your free trial today!
When building and managing complex projects with multiple contributors and dependencies, PERT charts (which break down tasks into milestones) and Gantt charts (which show how long each task should take) are crucial project management views that map, organize, and carry out the work across your team.
Read more: PERT Chart V/s Gantt Chart: A First Glance Comparison
Best tools to create a Gantt chart allow project teams to:
Now you might have built a decent amount of understanding of how Gantt charts can be brilliant additions to the tools that you are using to manage your projects.
It is time we dig deeper and explore the leading Gantt chart tool that can help you and your company stay on top of their game and beat your competition when it comes to project management.
Following are the top 16 best Gantt chart tools that you can use to level up your project management and become a star performer:
Over the years, ProofHub has gained worldwide popularity as one of the most reliable Gantt chart apps. Being a full-fledged project management software, the Gantt chart maker tool available in ProofHub has everything that a project manager should look for. You can completely rely on it to supervise all your project tasks and keep an eye on multiple project timelines from a central place.
The thing that makes ProofHub a go-to Gantt chart tool for project managers in any type of business is its simple and easy-to-understand user interface. In other words, you can start exploring all the features of ProofHub without the need for any special knowledge because the software has little to no learning curve. With ProofHub’s Gantt chart tool, you can understand the workflow of a project, know the responsibility of each team member, and identify any overlap between tasks in a timeline view.
With a bird’s-eye view of all the Gantt data you can precisely track the development of your project. Join ProofHub today!
ProofHub allows you to create a project roadmap that is a high-level overview of the project’s goals and deliverables graphically presented on a timeline. ProofHub allows you to create tasks within a project and you can even break an individual task into easily manageable subtasks. Moreover, you can assign a single task to multiple assignees or assign multiple tasks to a single assignee. You can even drag and drop tasks on the Gantt chart as the work changes.
Another amazing thing that you can do with ProofHub’s Gantt charts is to associate milestones with tasks, which will make it easier for you to monitor the progress of the project. Also, milestones will help you and your team to have a sense of accomplishment and acknowledge the progress of the project. Besides, you can also track progress in percentage to know precisely the work that has been completed and the work that is remaining.
Once you have set all the details of the tasks and their dependencies on the Gantt Chart, you can highlight the critical path with a single click. The critical path will let you easily recognize the status of the tasks that affect the completion of the project.
You may need the Gantt charts of your projects in the form of documents for different purposes like resource management and planning, etc. ProofHub gives you the option to export your Gantt charts and even print them so that you can use them in meetings without the need to log in to the project management software.
Often you and your team members want to have some sort of conversation regarding a task. ProofHub not only allows you and people on your team to communicate directly with one another using the built-in chat interface but also through discussion topics and comments.
You or any of your team members can leave a comment on a task and even tag someone in the comment using @. So, you never have to worry about leaving behind communication even when managing your tasks in the Gantt chart view.
While using a Gantt chart, you can view a specific task to attach a file to it. You can either upload a file from your system’s local storage, ProofHub’s cloud storage, or from a third-party storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. This will make it easier for all the concerned people of a task to access the file that contains all the work.
ProofHub gives you the power to manage your tasks single-handedly using the Gantt chart tool. But what if you want to share the progress of your project with the clients or stakeholders over a meeting?
Well, the project management software has a solution to this as well. By using the reporting feature, you can generate detailed project and resource reports with a single click. As a project manager, you always stand in a secure position whether you want to manage your project or want to share the progress of your projects with others.
Pros:
Cons:
ProofHub offers a free trial for its new users; the platform has two pricing plans, Essential & Ultimate Control with flat pricing that cost $45 and $89 every month that is billed yearly.
Still skeptical of ProofHub’s abilities? Take a look at all these additional features that ProofHub can offer you!
GanttPRO is one of the Gantt chart tools that offers online project management solutions based on Gantt charts. You can use this tool to get better results when you are managing projects. Its user interface is interactive and you can plan and control multiple projects at once using this Gantt chart tool. GanttPRO also allows cascade sorting for easier following and understanding of the project planning process.
As you might expect, you can use GanttPRO to prioritize tasks, set task dependencies, and track the progress of tasks. Additionally, the tool can assist you with resource planning and resource management while making sure that you use all the resources wisely.
Pros:
Cons:
Team (For 5+ users) – Available for $8.90 per user per month
nTask is a robust project management tool that helps you manage your timeline with the help of Gantt charts. It gives interactive Gantt charts with drag and drop functionality, and the ability to create task dependencies and sub-tasks. This software allows you to ideate, plan, execute and monitor your projects within just one platform.
nTask comes with several other features to make your project successful, such as; task management, time tracking, meetings management, team collaboration, and budget tracking. It can be integrated with your favorite applications in just a few clicks.
Pros:
Cons:
Premium – $2.99/user per month.
Celoxis is a project management system that will make it easier for you to manage your projects with its Gantt charts. The software allows you to build dynamic project plans that automatically adjust to the changing conditions on which the project’s completion depends.
Celoxis also comes with resource management features that make it easy to allocate resources to each task based on certain parameters like availability, skills, etc. The Gantt charts offered by the software are fast and support thousands of tasks at a single time.
Pros:
Cons:
Cloud (min. 5 users) – $25 per user per month
Bringing together multiple tasks, timelines, and teams is what Gantter excels at. The tools offer Gantt charts that are really easy to use and you can start managing your projects with them any day.
Gantter is one of the Gantt chart tools that allows you to link tasks hierarchically and you can track tasks, costs, resources, and baselines for your projects. Also, it has 600+ community-contributed templates that you can use to organize and manage your projects.
Pros:
Cons:
Standard – Available for $5 per user per month
Rational Plan is yet another powerful project management software that works fine as a Gantt chart tool. You can use its Gantt charts to finish your projects on time and within the predetermined budget.
By making the use of Gantt charts in Rational Plan, you can visually represent the schedule of your project as a timeline chart. The Gantt chart will display all the important information about the tasks of a project such as estimated duration, task sequence, etc.
Pros:
Cons:
Cloud – Production Plan (min. 5 users) – Available for $19 per user per month
Instagantt is among the popular online Gantt chart tool that comes with many powerful scheduling features like milestones, task dependencies, and start & due dates for tasks. The tool also supports the division of tasks into subtasks to make task management easy for you.
You can also track the progress of tasks in percentage and even prioritize tasks and estimate the associated risks. With Instagantt, it is easy to get accurate details of the workload on each member of the team and manage your resources efficiently.
Pros:
Cons:
Standalone version for multiple users – Available for $5 per user per month
OpenProject is a software that managers trust to simplify the overall process of project management. The Gantt charts are really useful to create a project timeline and visualize project plans.
You can schedule the tasks of your project and see the steps required to finish the project successfully. The tool also allows you to select the zoom level of the Gantt chart to see daily to yearly project progress.
Pros:
Cons:
Enterprise (min. 5 users) – Available for €5.95 ~ $6.40 per user per month
An interactive user interface, practical Gantt charts, and smooth operation are what define ClickUp. The project management software features Gantt Charts that you can use to streamline your project tasks.
You can rely on ClickUp’s Gantt charts to assign and organize all the tasks of a project. The software allows you to assign start and end times for tasks, and track the progress of a task.
Pros:
Cons:
Unlimited – Available for $9 per user per month
Smartsheet is a collaboration and work management app with integrated Gantt charts that helps you to move faster and achieve more. The app allows you to quickly create Gantt charts having a spreadsheet-like interface for all of your projects and work management needs.
With this Gantt chart tool, you can easily handle complex projects by breaking down their timelines into tasks. Moreover, you can set time constraints for each task and assign dependencies to ensure the timely completion of tasks.
Pros:
Cons:
Standard – Business – Available for $25 per user per month
Workzone is a robust project management tool that has been around for the last two decades. It has a built-in Gantt Chart tool to help project managers see project tasks and projects over time. You can build and edit projects directly from our interactive Gantt Chart – allowing you to visualize changes immediately to a project schedule.
Using Workzone’s intuitive Gantt charts, you can have a Birds-eye-view of any project, quickly assess a timeline of tasks, adjust the task dependencies, and make changes as per changing work schedule. You can match resources with the upcoming workload by checking the graphical depiction provided by Gantt charts.
Pros:
Cons:
The Professional plan is priced at $34 per user/month.
Project Insight is an enterprise-level web-based project management software to help teams of any size work better. Project Insight has Gantt charts and a comprehensive set of features, which you can use to delegate tasks, monitor productivity, and collaborate effectively and easily with your team members, clients, and stakeholders.
Using Project Insight’s Intelligent Scheduling, which includes the Gantt chart feature, you can easily schedule and adjust project timelines. You can also shift groups of tasks automatically with predecessor/successor links, drag and drop tasks to easily and quickly update your projects, and import and export projects from Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel with just a few clicks.
Pros:
Cons:
Free basic plan is available. Growing teams can add more features and functionality to the basic plan by paying $3 per user/month.
Easy Projects is built for project management and professional service teams to help them efficiently and quickly plan projects and deliver their best work. Easy Project has easy-to-build interactive Gantt charts to bring visual planning to the forefront. The Gantt Chart tool allows you to drag and drop items onto the timeline.
It also enables you to see if more work can be assigned to some employees, and which employees have already got their plates full of tasks. Interactive Gantt charts in Project Insights give you an accurate sense of the timeline to be expected and highlight dependencies that will prove to be critical throughout your project.
Pros:
Cons:
The Team plan starts at $24 per user/month.
Microsoft Project is a reliable and one of the most preferred project management software for project managers managing any type of project. With integrated planning tools including intuitive Gantt charts, Microsoft Project enables you to easily plan your projects with the power of dynamic scheduling based on effort needed, project duration, and allotted team members.
MS Project is now available as a simple cloud-based Office-365 subscription that enables users to access the software via mobile apps or desktops and collaborate with team members in real-time. This is an easy-to-start and simple-to-use software that enables all team members to update tasks simultaneously so you can collaborate on projects even when your team members are working from different locations.
Pros:
Cons:
Project Plan 1 is priced at $9.01 per user/month
SmartDraw is a Gantt Chart tool that allows you to effortlessly switch between two different views of your project—a Gantt chart and a mind map. Powerful and easy to use, SmartDraw makes it easy to brainstorm projects, run meetings, manage deadlines, and create reports. Simply input your information and SmartDraw’s built-in automation does the rest.
SmartDraw focuses on charts, not project management. This software solution is ideal for teams that produce a lot of flowcharts, floor plans, organizational charts, and diagrams. SmartDraw also has the capability to be integrated with other tools like Excel, MS Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Pros:
Cons:
For single users, the pricing starts from $9.95 per month, billed annually. For 5 plus users, the pricing starts from $5.95 per month, billed annually.
Another online Gantt chart tool that has made it to this list is TeamGantt. It not only helps you plan and manage your projects but also makes project scheduling an effortless activity. Also, you can invite your team members and co-workers to view and edit a Gantt chart.
It is easy to create tasks for your project and add them to a Gantt chart. You also have the flexibility to manage workloads for each individual on your team and make sure no one gets stressed out.
Pros:
Cons:
Advanced Team (Up to 8 people) – Available for $134.60 per month
Gantt charts are revolutionary in the sense that they make it possible for you to get vital data about your projects at a single place.
Additionally, it is easier to analyze and understand project data available in the visual form that Gantt charts provide.
Now, you still may be wondering how Gantt Charts can be a real help for you as a project manager. Well, below are some of the key benefits of Gantt charts that will bring some more clarity to you:
Gantt charts allow you to have a clear overview of tasks along with additional details such as task assignees, start and due dates, etc.
You can also track the progress of tasks in real-time and even modify schedules according to the changes in deadlines.
Managing tasks is much more effective when you can visualize them in a timeline view.
When you have accurate information on how your resources are occupied in different project tasks, you can allocate your resources more efficiently.
Also, you will have a clear knowledge of who’s working on what. This will help you to make sure that you do not overwork any of your team members.
By examining the Gantt chart of a project, you can easily estimate when your resources will become available and plan resource allocation in advance.
Want to manage your project resources efficiently using a Gantt chart? Switch to ProofHub!
Have you ever missed a deadline because you weren’t able to identify and set dependencies between certain tasks?
Well, this is where Gantt Charts come in extremely handy. As you know, many tasks of a project depend on one another and thus, it becomes imperative to make such dependencies visible to avoid delays.
For instance, there may be a task in a project that cannot be started until some other task is completed.
With a Gantt chart, it is possible to set dependencies among tasks and visualize those dependencies to ensure that tasks don’t get delayed due to negligence.
For projects with limited tasks and limited assignees, it’s easier for you and the people on your team to coordinate with one another. However, team collaboration becomes a challenge when you are dealing with complex projects that have a ton of tasks to manage.
A Gantt chart will come to your rescue in this situation too by providing you clear information on who’s working on what. It is also possible for your team to access Gantt Charts to know what tasks they’ve been assigned to and the deadline for each task.
When each member of your team knows their assigned tasks and the people with whom they need to coordinate, the overall team collaboration becomes better.
ProofHub’s Gantt Charts help you to manage your projects, tasks, and team from a single unified common interface. Sign-up for your FREE trial today!
Gantt charts are among the most useful tools that you need to utilize as a project manager. A Gantt chart app provides you the vantage point from which you can see each and everything about your project, and even visualize how your project is moving towards its successful completion.
While you certainly want to try all the best project management tips and tools, it’s the Gantt chart tool that you just can’t afford to miss if you want to make your project management efforts more fruitful.
Gantt chart software is a software used to display a timeline of events. The timeline is divided into bars, representing the duration of the task and its start date.
Gantt charts allow you to manage time and resources in a project. They enable you to track progress and understand when the project will be completed within a given timeframe.
You can create Gantt charts with ProofHub, which provides Gantt chart templates that can be customized by adding more tasks or milestones.
Things to look out for in online Gantt chart tools are: 1. Multiple assignees
2. Baseline
3. Milestones
4. Vertical line marker
5. Task dependencies
6. Statuses
You need a web based Gantt chart tool for planning & scheduling projects to map out how long a project should take, figure out required resources, and plan task dependencies.
Gantt charts are less complex than PERT charts, easier to read, and project managers can adjust tasks, set dependencies as the project progresses.
Task allocation in project management.
This is probably the most vital phase in project management that no project manager can afford to go wrong with. Yet, some project managers fail to utilize human resources to the best of their ability.
Why? Because they are not good at it. As simple as that.
As the Chief Marketing Officer of ProofHub, our organization’s foremost priority is to identify each employee’s unique strengths, and capabilities, and allocate tasks accordingly.
Right from day one, we are proud of the fact that we have never encouraged multitasking at the workplace.
And this is one of the reasons why our workforce, our greatest strength, continues to thrive in a highly competitive yet considerate environment at ProofHub.
That said, task allocation is much more than assigning the right tasks to the right people. There is a task allocation system that an organization needs to put in place to achieve desired results.
Do you want your organization to excel at task allocation?
Do you want to know how you can do better task allocation?
Do you want to know what is the best task allocation tool?
Relax. This article will provide all the information you’re looking for. Put everything aside and read till the end and I am sure you will benefit in more ways than one.
Let’s get started.
You don’t have to read a definition by an expert project management guru to understand what it is all about. As the term suggests, task allocation is the process where employees are assigned relevant tasks, according to their skills and capabilities. Tasks are allocated in a way that the workload is distributed properly so that some employees do not feel overburdened with the work in hand while others are not left with too little work to do.
There are times when human resources can be scarce in project management. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a project manager to ensure tasks are allocated at the right time to the right people within the project schedule.
Task allocation, when done correctly, with the help of efficient task allocation software, can deliver benefits to organizations in more ways than one.
Here, I will share with you some benefits of task allocation that are too worth ignoring.
Smart task allocation helps organizations utilize their resources optimally, which is one of the most effective ways to achieve set goals. Assigning tasks according to employees’ skill sets and capacity ensures that the quality of work is not compromised as it is performed by experts in that particular domain.
Incorrect utilization, like assigning irrelevant tasks, assigning more tasks than your workforce can handle, or even assigning little work to some employees can affect the morale and decrease the productivity of your team.
Using task management software eliminates such possibilities as every employee gets a fair share of the workload.
“Distribute workload evenly among your employees. Switch to ProofHUB ASAP.”
When people don’t know who’s supposed to work on what, it’s easy for tasks to get overlooked.
By assigning tasks to employees, you can assign tasks to one or more people, thus ensuring a clear distribution of responsibilities in one place. Everyone can see who’ll be working on what, and there’s no scope for employees ignoring relevant tasks intentionally. Task allocation fixes job accountability.
Task allocation involves assessing available resources and allocating them to projects and tasks as per their specialization and competency. This will help you delegate tasks to the best people for the job. Better delegation of tasks means no team member feels left out or overworked, which is also crucial for a better employee retention rate.
With better task delegation, project managers know whom to ask questions in case tasks are not completed in time, by the assignees.
Using excel sheets for task allocation is a thing of the past. Spreadsheets are prone to human errors besides being vulnerable to damage or theft. On the other hand, using a task management tool allows project managers to have a Bird’s eye view of all task-related data at a centralized location.
Kanban boards display which stage the task is in, Timesheets display how much time is being spent on performing assigned tasks, Table view lets you create your to-dos, and Gantt charts allow you to set dependencies between tasks and easily adjust your plans as work changes and deadlines shift.
When employees are assigned relevant tasks that suit their expertise, they feel motivated to do their best and prove their credentials. It also reduces the case of passing on the task to people who do possess the right skills to do it.
Also, project managers are in a better position to identify top performers, mediocre performers, and poor performers based on their performance.
Smart task allocation means efficient utilization of resources, which eventually leads to a significant reduction in the wastage of time and money. When skilled people are assigned relevant tasks, they can perform them in less time while making the most of available resources.
Allocating tasks through task management software helps to bring down business costs. For example, overutilization may lead to employee burnout as well as increased payout in case you pay over time.
Smart task allocation leads to better project profitability because you choose the best people for a given task. And it’s not easy when you have to manage 100-plus employees. Top-rated task management tools like ProofHub give you a good overview of the resources available at your disposal.
You can see who is available for a particular task, create tasks and subtasks, assign them to individuals or groups, set time and dates, set time estimates, track time spent, create recurring tasks, and attach files in one place.
We know how task allocation brings many benefits to organizations and their project teams. The question is how to get better at task allocation. Well, you don’t need to hire an expert in this field to achieve this goal.
As a project manager and team leader, how you allocate tasks across the team members is a critical factor in your organization’s overall success. Task allocation needs to be done smartly.
You would want people to do what they’re good at, so the quality and quantity of work are not compromised in any way.
Let’s take a look at some tried and tested tips to better task allocation in project management.
As the adage goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Project managers need to create a concrete task allocation plan that outlines the following questions along with the right answers.
You want certain people to do certain tasks and you have shortlisted them in your plan. However, have you checked on them to find out whether they will be available to do planned tasks? It could be that their schedule is already packed to an extent that they’ll not get adequate time to dedicate themselves to a given date and time. So, make sure that you identify available resources so that you can plan and allocate tasks effectively.
Before your team commences on a project, schedule a group meeting and let every participant know what the outcomes would be. Every participant should know about his/her role in the project, but the manager should also see to it that there are no unrealistic expectations and goals.
Progress of the project and tasks should be apprised at regular intervals and so should the individual performance. This will help in checking whether your team is on the right track to meet the set project goals.
With remote work and social distancing applicable in many organizations, maintaining clear communication with all team members is critical to promote intra-team transparency. Having one-on-one conversations with team members about their share of the workload is vital to motivate and engaging employees.
As a manager, you also need to be an attentive listener to your team’s suggestions, ideas, and concerns. ProofHub’s Group Chat feature allows managers and team members to send and receive instant messages for the exchange of information.
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It always helps to divide big, complex tasks into smaller, manageable subtasks to make things easier and clear for project participants. It becomes easier to manage your workflow in case some tasks are to be rescheduled.
Also, creating to-do lists can reduce confusion and stress by bringing order into your workflow. The tick on the box makes you feel more satisfied and accomplished that you have completed some or most of your tasks. ProofHub offers features like Stickies and Bookmarks, which allow users to create To-Do lists.
As mentioned before, we, at ProofHub, never advocate and practice multitasking. We believe it halves the potential of your workforce when they have to perform multiple things at once. In project management, multitasking can plummet your team’s morale, productivity, and utility. These all can stoop down to an all-time low. Multitasking kills fair and even distribution of workload. Agreed, at times, it is difficult to avoid multitasking, but stay away from it whenever you can.
Smart task allocation cannot be achieved through spreadsheets. When it comes to project management, there’s so much for project managers to manage and supervise. You have to create tasks, divide them into subtasks, assign them to individuals or groups, set time estimates, and track their progress. Can you expect spreadsheets to help you perform all of these functions? I guess we know the answer already.
ProofHub is an award-winning team collaboration and project management software that helps project managers in more ways than one. Be it project planning, execution, sharing, and collaboration on tasks and projects, ProofHub allows project managers to have ultimate control over teams and their performance through powerful features in a centralized location.
So, how does ProofHub simplify task allocation? ProofHub’s strength lies in its long list of powerful features that cover almost every aspect of project management including task management.
Let’s take a look at all those advanced features that help project managers to evenly divide and allocate workload to the right people within the team. Using ProofHub, project managers can have a Bird’s eye view of all tasks-related activities from a single location.
Task allocation remains a challenge for even seasoned project managers, especially when you have to manage multiple projects and a plethora of tasks at once. ProofHub’s task management feature simplifies the entire process of task planning and assigning most easily and efficiently.
Using this thoughtful feature, project managers can create tasks and assign them to individuals or groups in one place. You can fragment large tasks into small, manageable subtasks. You can add labels, set the start and due dates, set time estimates, track time spent, create recurring tasks, and attach files, ensuring a clear distribution of job responsibilities in one place.
ProofHub’s all-new Table View easily removes the painstaking tediousness of dealing with unorganized tasks. With Table View, project managers can assign and organize tasks to bring more clarity to task allocation.
You can categorize different types of tasks, which makes it easy for assignees to understand what tasks have been completed and what tasks are still pending. The table view has functionalities that will ease down the exhausting process of searching for assigned tasks from a long list through color codes and categories.
Project managers can be used by project managers to give their team a clear idea of which task is a priority.
ProofHub’s table view offers the following features:
The default fields offered in various PM tools may not be adequate when you feel the need to add more details to your tasks. Custom Fields in ProofHub enable you to add detail to your tasks according to your workflow requirements. Custom fields are descriptive spaces that allow you to add information that is unique to your project. Using this feature, project managers and team members can add the following custom fields:
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Let’s take a look at the benefits of using Custom Fields in the task allocation process.
With ProofHub’s Smart Task Allocation system, you can define roles, create private and group task lists, and give access control to only selected people who are assigned to do certain tasks. You can create custom roles and assign them to the team members, and choose what they get access to according to their responsibilities.
You can create Private Tasks and keep information limited to specific people whenever you want. IP Restriction feature enables you to restrict access to only selected IP addresses to avoid unauthorized access to keep your data secure.
Kanban boards in ProofHub allow project managers to visualize and prioritize tasks according to the project requirements. You can divide your workflow into as many sections as you want. Kanban boards give you a clear view of which task is in which stage. See work moving through multiple stages. Every time the task is moved to another stage, all people who are assigned to the task get notified. This helps to check the project’s progress as well as improve transparency within the team.
Gantt charts in ProofHub allow you to visualize and plan tasks to stay on your schedule. You can set dependencies between tasks and change your task allocation plans as work changes and deadlines shift. Set task dependencies, highlight critical paths, associate milestones, track progress, drag and drop tasks as work changes, export or print Gantt charts, and see all your Gantt data in one central place.
As a project manager, you should know where your team is spending all the time, how much time each task is taking to complete, which tasks are running on time, and which ones are running behind schedule time. ProofHub’s Time Tracking Software empowers project managers to keep all their time data in a central place.
Here’s what you can do with ProofHub’s time-tracking software.
The Notifications feature in ProofHub makes it easy for both project managers and team members to get updates every time the task stage is changed, the task is assigned, or someone mentions other team member’s names in the comments to give instructions about tasks. You can get notifications even on the go through the app, desktop, email, and mobile notifications.
ProofHub’s Project Scheduling Calendar offers a single location to project managers and team members to schedule events, tasks, and milestones. You can set automatic reminders for recurring tasks, events, milestones, and tasks. You can have multiple views – daily, weekly, 2 months, and monthly. A Bird’s eye view for all calendars enables you to see all tasks, events, and milestones, without having to jump through projects.
The success of your project depends on the task allocation system that you execute in your organization for project management. It’s quintessential to assign tasks to the right people so they can do the work with minimal errors, in a quick time.
Using the best task allocation software can put aside your task assignment woes if you’re struggling with it. ProofHub offers powerful task management features in a centralized location and can be used easily by both project managers and team members.
Fixed pricing plans make ProofHub an affordable yet effective solution to all your task allocation problems. So, what are you waiting for?
Give ProofHub a try today and you’re likely to stick to it for a long time to come!
Task allocation is the way tasks are selected and allocated evenly and fairly to individuals and groups.
Task allocation is important because it encourages transparency and job accountability within teams as everyone knows what to work on and when.
Identify available resources
Task allocation is not a straightforward task. Learn to improve task allocation with the best software for simplifying complex task allocation systems.
Microsoft Project is touted as one of the finest project management software that assists project managers in developing plans, assigning resources, tracking progress, managing budgets, and analyzing workloads.
Although it is still riding high on its popularity, there are plenty of Microsoft Project alternatives offering amazing features and advanced functionalities. That’s why we have made a list of 10 incredible tools worthy of being called Microsoft Project alternatives.
The list is unique as each MS Project substitute has something or other that sets it apart from others on the list. By no means is this list comprehensive of all MS Project alternatives, but it definitely includes some of the best.
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Microsoft Project comes in handy when you want to plan and manage a project, but it is not the only tool that has that functionality. There are some reasons why many starts looking for a Microsoft Project alternative.
Let’s see what these are.
1. Steep Learning Curve
Put simply, Microsoft Project is not for beginners. The program is very technical and not at all user-friendly. It is easy to understand for those with some experience in project management, but not so for someone with a non-tech background.
2. Poor Team Communication
Internal communication is a struggle when it comes to Microsoft Project. There is a high chance you would have to choose another messaging tool like Outlook, Teams, or Skype for team communication. Searching for the best Microsoft Project alternatives makes more sense than using an add-on.
3. High Price
Microsoft Project is a bit pricey for a project management tool, especially when it is so hard to learn and lacks team communication. Moreover, you have to pay for each license, be it cloud-based or on-premise solutions.
4. Difficult to Share Data
Sharing data is not something you should use Microsoft Projects for. So, if you work with an Apple product, sharing data using this tool is out of the question. It is a major reason why many people are searching for Microsoft Projects Alternative to handle daily tasks.
5. No Integration
Microsoft Project does work fine with other Microsoft products, it is not the case with non-Microsoft tools. So, if you want to integrate with Salesforce or Slack; it is better to find an alternative that gets the job done. We know now why so many people are searching for MS Project alternatives on Google. But, you should also know about the factors to consider when searching for alternatives to software like Microsoft Project.
Given below are 4 major factors you need to consider when searching for a Microsoft Project Alternative.
1. Ability to Manage Tasks & Teams
MS Project’s limitation in relation to the features it offers and integration is what drives project managers away from it. For example, sharing the MS Projects task board at meetings is not recommended as there is too much technical jargon.
Businesses searching for a project management tool expect it to manage work teams and accomplish daily tasks without any complications. A decent MS Project alternative should make it easy for companies to handle daily tasks and teams.
2. Agile Features
Businesses are working on ensuring minimal waiting time when responding to a customer’s query. The modern workforce also prefers flexibility over stagnancy, which requires the use of Agile project development methodology.
Unfortunately, Microsoft Project is not ideal for Agile management purposes. There are many apps like Microsoft Project that can easily switch to Hybrid management. All you need to do is ensure they can perform Agile management steps. Take a look at how they organize graphics and their level of interaction.
3. Data Safety
Every process taking place within a project management tool is internal. There should not be any space for someone outside of the organization to get access to a project’s details. Unfortunately, MS Project data security is not that solid.
Many MS Project alternatives use cloud technology to help businesses manage daily tasks and projects. This not only makes sure the company’s data is out of the hands of 3rd party individuals. It also makes it easier for them to remain focused on the task at hand. Even members from other departments cannot have access to the information for another team.
4. Pocket-Friendly
Users are willing to pay more for a high-quality product, it is the same with an MS Project alternative. A product with a high-quality score is likely to get a user to pay more than their budget.
A Microsoft Project alternative with more practical and functional capabilities is likely to attract the target users towards it.
So, if you are looking for the best MS Project alternative, keeping in mind these 4 factors would ensure you invest in the right tool.
Now, it is time we take a look at the several Microsoft Project alternatives.
ProofHub is an all-in-one project management software that comes with a myriad of powerful features. This MS Project alternative brings together everyone from your team members to clients to projects at a centralized place. In ProofHub, you can create tasks, assign them to multiple team members, and track the progress of projects. With its amazing markup tools, you can review and share feedback quickly and easily.
ProofHub is quite versatile as it offers features like that Gantt charts, Online discussions, Notes, Reports, and more. These features help you stay on top of your projects and make way for seamless collaboration with your peers and colleagues. Moreover, it is also available as a mobile app for Android and iOS users.
Pricing: A free trial is available for new users. For information on our pricing plans, kindly visit our pricing page.
Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Workzone is powerful and easy-to-use project management software with project dashboards and portfolio views to give you full visibility across all projects. As an MS Project alternative, Workzone provides robust features designed to be used successfully by the entire team, even those with no background in project management.
Microsoft Project’s advanced features are meant for formally trained project management professionals, while Workzone’s feature set was designed to be easily adopted by the entire team. Workzone includes five star customer service as rated by its users. In fact, Workzone has a battle-tested approach that includes comprehensive onboarding and unlimited support. Pricing: From $24/user/month
Pricing: Plan starts from $24/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.7 out of 5
GanttPRO is a robust project management tool based on Gantt charts. If you go searching for its reviews, you will find out that lots of GanttPRO users name the software as the best Microsoft Project alternative. The tool comes with a myriad of project management features including task management, progress tracking, resource and time management, team collaboration, portfolio management, and more.
GanttPRO offers an intuitive interface with a short learning curve. This is definitely a game-changer in comparison with MS Project. Moreover, team collaboration is a breeze with this Gantt chart maker what you can’t say about Microsoft Project. The price looks much more attractive. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are also available.
Pricing: Plan starts from $7.99/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.8 out of 5
ActiveCollab is a great Microsoft Project substitute as an effective project management tool and software that fosters collaboration and teamwork. It brings all your data in one place accessible to every team member where they can easily communicate with each other. ActiveCollab, very smartly brings work management, time-tracking, and invoicing together with the help of cloud technology.
ActiveCollab runs in the cloud like most browser apps today, but you can also install it on your own server – this is what makes it a great Microsoft replacement. That’s the reason it’s been trusted by more than 200,000 teams.
Pricing: Its monthly plans start from $25 per month.
Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5
As the name suggests, the software has been designed specifically to enable collaboration and teamwork among team members working together. The MS Project alternative, Teamwork Projects is a world-class project management and productivity tool that helps you to get organized and get stuff done. It allows you to define project tasks, assign them to people and track the progress of tasks.
The main features of Teamwork include task lists, time tracking, file-uploads, and messages. High-level security is its another plus along with its compatibility with Web, Windows, Android, and iOS devices.
Pricing: Premium plan starts at $15/month.
Capterra Rating:4.5 out of 5
Basecamp is a great Microsoft Project replacement as it could be easily used by small businesses, large enterprises, and freelancers as well. Different people with different roles, responsibilities, objectives use Basecamp to work towards a common goal of finishing a project together.
Basecamp features include interactive Gantt charts, recurring tasks, calendars, project templates, and scheduling capabilities giving it an edge over other MS Project alternatives. Its operating system is supported by Windows, Android, iPhone/iPad, and Mac.
Pricing: Starting from $99/month.
Maybe Basecamp is not your happy place for collaboration. Why not give it a try to Basecamp alternatives?
Capterra Rating:4.3 out of 5
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Trello is an effective MS Project alternative that lets you organize, work more collaboratively, and get more done. It uses the idea of boards for projects and cards to keep things on track. Trello offers a developer API section where users that have coding abilities can develop apps and plugins.
Trello has some distinguished features that make it an awesome MS Project alternative such as drag and drop functionality, in-line editing, data filtering, archiving of card records, SSL encryption of data among others.
Pricing: Business plan starts at $9.99 per user/month (when paid annually)
Capterra Rating:4.5 out of 5
If MS Project is easily accessible and affordable, Clarizen has all the important functionalities that a project manager need. Unlike MS Project, it isn’t complicated and cumbersome. You can manage projects and connect the enterprise – all from a single collaborative place.
The robust alternative to Microsoft Projects can manage a gamut of activities that you need to plan, execute, and monitor projects. It streamlines processes like time tracking, risk management in a centralized place making a room for more visibility across other processes.
Pricing: You can request pricing by visiting Clarizen’s website.
If you are looking for an MS Project substitute that enables you to do the right work at the right time, you must try LiquidPlanner. The interesting thing about this project management software is that it works on predictive scheduling and ranged estimates.
In LiquidPlanner, plans are built on priorities, so that you and your team can focus on the right work. When things change, smart project schedules automatically predict reliable finish dates. Big names like that of Cisco, Daimler, and Thermo Fisher Scientific use this tool to plan and execute their work.
Pricing: The standard plan costs $9.99 per user per month.
Capterra Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Mavenlink is a single application that unites project management, time tracking, resource planning and more into one place. Advanced analytics and powerful business intelligence (BI) engine qualify it to be as a perfect MS Project alternative.
Stay a step ahead of resource demand with role based-estimating and BI that forecast future planning. Manage multiple tasks with ease by visibility into the performance and status of projects across your portfolio.
Pricing: The basic plan starts at $19/month.
One particular thing where Project Insight lack from other is advanced insights at every stage of business. This is where Project Insight comes into the picture. Whether starting with a few features or creating a centralized hub for your enterprise, it fits any team and project size.
It comes with a simple and user-friendly interface where you get different views of project progress and statuses. Project Insight also offers real-time reporting and offers a secure way to share data.
Pricing: Business plan starts at $45 per user per month.
Capterra Rating: 4.4 out of 5
It is an end-to-end business management solution for professionals and creative services that help to streamline work and eliminate routine tasks. As a Microsoft alternative, its main features include work scheduling, invoicing time-tracking, and project management. You can also add tasks, link them to clients, and grant different levels to users in this cloud-based software.
Scoro is known for its budgeting and invoicing capabilities. Bring structure to your work with its ability to manage and sync multiple calendars in one interface. Moreover, it can be easily integrated with apps like MailChimp, Dropbox, Outlook, and more.
Pricing: Its pricing plans start from $22 per month.
Capterra Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Smartsheet is a flexible spreadsheet-based work management tool designed to help work teams track projects. You can use this tool to enter a variety of project-related details like description, status, due dates, and who has been assigned to complete a task. Smartsheets also lets you attach files, add comments, and request updates among other things. It also lets you generate custom reports that collect data from sources within multiple sheets.
Smartsheet is not only a simple work management tool. It comes packed with many powerful features like multiple views that include a grid, card, project, and calendar view. It also helps work teams with real-time reporting, workflow automation, smooth internal and external collaboration, and integration with Google Drive, Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack, and more.
Pricing: Plan starts from $7/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Monday.com is also a good alternative to Microsoft Project management software. It is a project management software that helps customize workflow, offers task automation, and helps users remain aligned and updated on a task. Users of agile project management would like its Kanban boards for task management and customized dashboard to track task progress in real-time.
A major benefit of using Monday.com is its intuitive UI, which is something Microsoft Project does not offer. Monday.com also offers an easy onboarding experience, different task views including timeline, list, map, calendar, and Kanban boards, tons of integrations, and customizable workflows.
Pricing: Plan starts from $8/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Wrike is a project management tool that helps with planning, tracking, and analyzing projects. It offers a plethora of project management features to customize workflow, dashboards, reports, request forms, and much more to handle a project in multiple ways. Wrike also lets project managers invite freelancers, clients, teams, and contractors to use the tool for free.
Wrike is an all-in-one platform and among the best Microsoft Project competitors. It offers work management features for scheduling, planning, and managing daily tasks in real time. Wrike also offers teams easy task management, team collaboration, resource optimization, reports, portfolio management, and lots of customization options.
Pricing: Plan starts from $9.80/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Toggl Plan is another project management tool and one of the MS Project competitors. It helps you plan, prioritize, and complete projects without overburdening the team. It offers a color-coded UI to help users grasp information with ease. Toggl Plan also offers multiple task management, workload management, project timeline, and the drag-and-drop option to create multiple tasks.
Toggl Plan simplifies task scheduling and planning through checklists, memos, milestones, multiple assignments, and a clear overview. It offers a birds-eye view of the assigned tasks in a chronological timeline with color coding.
Pricing: Plan starts from $9/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Zoho Projects is one of Microsoft Project’s competitors. It offers Kanban boards to help organize tasks, a social feed to get task updates, and forums for discussions. Zoho Projects helps connect teams to improve productivity. It also offers Gantt charts and a timesheet feature for team managers to keep track of how much time a team member spent on their task.
Zoho Projects offers Kanban boards that help classify and organize tasks according to their status. It also offers social feeds to keep track of activity streams and status updates about particular tasks. Zoho Projects also offers a wide range of charts and reports for efficient resource management.
Pricing: Plan starts from $350/user per month
Capterra Rating: 4.2 out of 5
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There are plenty of other alternatives to Microsoft Project out there. Before you make the final call, try at least a few of them.
Do you think we have missed out on any MS Project alternatives? Let us know in the comments below.
Microsoft Project is a project management software that helps project managers develop a schedule, assign tasks, track progress, and analyze daily workload.
The biggest drawback of Microsoft Project, especially when compared to other project management tools, is that it does not offer real-time task updates without integrations.
Some of the best Microsoft Project alternatives are ProofHub, Wrike, Asana, GanttPro, Teamwork, Basecamp, and Zoho Projects.
Microsoft Projects costs $10 per user per month.
All the MS Project alternatives mentioned above offer some amazing features. However, if it were to come down to the best then it would be ProofHub.
“Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate the love of God and family and to create memories that will last forever. Jesus is God’s perfect, indescribable gift. The amazing thing is that not only are we able to receive this gift, but we are able to share it with others on Christmas and every other day of the year.” – Joel Osteen
As Christmas and New Year come knocking on the door, it’s time for businesses to invest time in choosing the best Christmas gifts for employees and coworkers that reflect your utmost value and regard for them.
Whether you operate a startup or a Fortune 500 company, it’s always a good idea to show your appreciation for employees by giving them meaningful gifts at the end of the year.
Choosing Christmas gifts for employees should not be just another custom for you where you pick random gift items that might not even serve them any purpose.
Thinking outside the box is the key here when shopping for office Christmas gifts for coworkers.
You should use this opportunity to put considerable thought into the gifts you give to your employees.
The best bet would be to choose gifts based on your employees’ personal likes, preferences, and lifestyles.
Sounds overwhelming? No, it need not be. We’ve made this task easier and pretty straightforward for you.
How? We’ve covered the best Christmas gift ideas keeping in mind that workplaces comprise men and women, young and veterans, flashy and sober.
Read on to know more about it.
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Your employees spend a considerable amount of time at their workstations. There are many tech gadgets and office gifts that can help them be more efficient even if it’s in the slightest way.
1. A memory foam seat cushion and lumbar pillow: Sitting consecutively on an office chair takes its toll on the body. Memory foam seat cushions and lumbar pillows are removable, and washable, and make sitting a comfortable experience even for a longer duration.
2. A chic desk organizer: This Christmas gift for employees can never go out of style. This thoughtful Christmas gift idea will help your workforce keep desk space neat and well organized.
3. A vacuum-insulated travel mug: Let your coworkers enjoy hot coffee or tea any time of the day with a vacuum-insulated travel mug. Its leak-proof slider lid ensures there are no spills on the desk and fits well enough in car cup holders too. One of the most thoughtful Christmas gift ideas for coworkers indeed!
4. Soothing Desktop Diffuser. A pleasant aroma-filled environment is known to help people feel relaxed, calm, and less stressed at work. Conveniently sized, LED Essential Oil aromatherapy diffuser fits neatly on an employee’s desk and works with an outlet or USB. It is portable, which means that your employees can use it in the office as well as while working from home.
5. Tech Lovers Box: The “Tech Box” contains some useful items that will be ideal for both in-office and distributed teams for their everyday work. A cable organizer, blue-light blocking glasses, a portable charger, a leather mousepad, a daily planner, etc, are some items that employees from any team could use for day-to-day projects.
Send personalized, heartfelt Christmas wishes for your team members to complement the beautiful gifts you give to them.
6. Happy Hour Box: Counted among the most popular office Christmas gifts for employees and coworkers, the Happy Hour Box is an appreciation gift that your team can enjoy during lunch, after work hours, or at a team toast. The pack contains a tumbler, a fun game, and a healthy pack of snacks that will help your employees recharge their batteries after an exhausting day at work.
7. Flavored Popcorn Gift: Popcorn and movies are synonymous, but for so many office people there are few things better than a flavored popcorn box. This simple, cost-effective, and delicious Christmas gift idea comes with one popcorn popper and four different flavors of popcorn.
8. Organic Tea + Cookies Gift: An increasing number of employees are taking to organic foods because of the array of health benefits they have. Tea and cookies is probably the favorite combo for office employees for decades. Sending this healthy office Christmas gift will help your employees have a healthy, calming tea break along with delicious cookies.
9. Chocolate Gift Box: Chocolates are a staple gift item and Christmas celebrations would be incomplete without them. However, you can give a beautiful sugar-free chocolate box to your employees to ensure they can enjoy it without added calories.
10. Acupressure Mat: Sitting on the desk for prolonged periods can result in sore muscles and joints, especially in the neck, back, and shoulder regions. Gifting your hard-working employees an easily storable acupressure mat will help them to relax muscles and improve blood circulation after laying down on it for 10-20 minutes.
11. Natural body care kit: Help your employees take care of their personal grooming needs with a complete shower kit containing body wash, face wash, body scrub, and body lotion. While choosing this particular Christmas Gift idea for employees, it is recommended to pick a brand that offers cosmetics made of natural ingredients that are not harmful to the skin.
12. Gym subscription package: It is a thoughtful Christmas gift idea for coworkers and employees that shows how you want them to be in their physical shape. It’s likely that some of your employees have skipped subscribing to gym membership due to cost issues. What better time to surprise and delight them no end with a gym membership plan that will motivate them to work out and improve their overall health?
13. Gadget charging station: A gadget charging station is considered among the trending office Christmas gifts for employees who are always asking for chargers from colleagues as their batteries run low! The best thing about this convenient gift idea for employees is that it can charge multiple devices simultaneously while eliminating tangled charging chords from the work desk.
14. Decorative lunch box: Lunch boxes are not just for school-going kids! A decorative lunch box helps your employees to bring handmade food to the office and makes it easy to differentiate their lunch boxes in the community refrigerator.
15. Stainless steel barware set: An elegant stainless steel barware set is a thoughtful and long-lasting Christmas gift idea for both employees and coworkers who like to host home a happy hour or make specialty cocktails. You can also include a bottle of liquor and a cocktail recipe book to make it an awesome gift idea for the festive season.
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These days there are plenty of office Christmas gifts for employees and coworkers, available in both local retail and online market stores. However, your gifts should always come from the heart and there should be a thought behind what you choose to give to your employees this festival season.
When giving Christmas gifts to employees, try to speak with them personally for a few minutes and tell them why they deserve this gift. This gesture will make them feel special and create a lasting impression on them.
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‘Tis the season to be jolly and the office Christmas party is the perfect way to get into the festive spirit. Whether you’re looking for a fun and relaxed gathering or a more formal event, there are plenty of ideas to make the most of the season. From classic games to festive decorations, here are 15 office Christmas party ideas to make the most of the festive season and get everyone in the holiday spirit!
With the right combination of activities and treats, your colleagues will be talking about the party for weeks to come.
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Let’s be honest! There is no one activity that every team member would enjoy. But, it does not mean that you cannot have an office Christmas party.
That said, given below are some really cool 15 office Christmas party ideas for 2022 you can count on.
Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like decorating the entire office to invite the Christmas spirit. Let teams set the holiday vibes by setting aside a day right after Thanksgiving, and adore the office with festive decorations.
Allow your employees to deck the walls, and desks with stockings, snowflakes, and string lights. Set aside a little extra time for everyone to decorate the Christmas tree with their names on it.
This activity requires you to pick a random co-worker’s name to become his/her Secret Santa. Then, you are provided with a list of gift ideas to choose from to give to their chosen giftee. The giftee has to guess which member of the group was their Secret Santa.
However, trying to guess what gift to buy can be a bit of a challenge, especially when you are not sure of what the other person likes. Luckily, there are some gift ideas that can fit into your budget. These can be a wireless adapter and charger, a Woodwick candle, Succulents, a novelty mug, or assorted holiday chocolates.
Its’ the Holiday season! Who doesn’t love eating mouth-watering holiday treats to feel warm and fuzzy? Potlucks are amongst the most pocket-friendly office Christmas party ideas as the employees contribute by making the best holiday treats.
You can create a sign-up sheet with the names of all the participants who plan to bring something. To make it easier, you can ask some team members to bring appetizers, ask some to bring the main dish, and some for dessert. To ensure the venue remains clean, order disposable cups, plates, and napkins.
Why not use this Christmas to give back to the community? You can set up a Christmas charity event for your team. There are many charities employees can work with or contribute towards.
From shelters for the homeless to food banks; there is no end to how much one can contribute to the betterment of the needy. Help your employees plan a food drive or join a charity run marathon.
Holiday and Christmas movies have a genre of their own. The movie screening is also another fantastic idea for employees to socialize, especially if they are introverts. You can use the conference room or hire a projector and large screen for this. Give employees a list of holiday movies to choose from.
Some of the best Christmas movies are A Christmas Story, Klaus, It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Add in some popcorn with red and green sprinkles to complete the Christmas vibes. Now, if there is a movie-lover crowd in the workplace, you can also plan one movie for every week of December.
Organizing a Gingerbread house decoration contest brings back nostalgia to the office Christmas party. It is also a unique office Christmas party idea to try. Break down employees into different teams. Let each team design the best and most colorful Gingerbread house with all the decorations.
You can offer kits or offer fresh Gingerbread so that everyone has an equal chance to compete. Before giving out awards, set up categories like the most innovative decoration, the funniest, and the most stylish.
Organizing games will surely make this office Christmas party memorable and fun for everyone. You can organize a casino night where employees can dress up as characters from a Christmas movie and play casino games. Now, whether it is real-money put on the line or not; the main idea is for everyone to have a fun time.
One of the most famous work Christmas party games and activities is Murder Mysteries. Come up with the perfect Christmas night murder plot and let the employees take up different characters – from the one who committed the crime, the witness, to the detective who cracks the case. Give them clues to uncover the truth behind the crime.
Nothing says “fun and adventure” more than a Scavenger Hunt. You can organize an office Scavenger hunt for coworkers by dividing them into groups of small teams. Give each group a list of items and tasks to complete.
Give them a list of items, words, or things to find. You can also ask a team member to act something out. To ensure there is no cheating, ask the participants to take pictures of the completed tasks. The first group to complete all the tasks wins.
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Photo Booths are one of the most creative ways to have unforgettable memories with your colleagues this Christmas. So, why not avail the opportunity? For this, you can set up a photo booth with a winter-themed background and ask everyone to be their goofy self.
You can also stock the area with Christmas-themed pros to elevate the photos. No one can beat the fun factor that comes with standing with your office friends and having silly photos clicked.
Making delicious treats is one of the best office Christmas party ideas that can improve workplace bonding amongst different teams. For this, you can hire a chef for a day to help employees take their culinary skills to the next level.
Choose a menu that works for everyone, and share the same with the competing teams. After hours of work in the kitchen, teams can sit together in the cafeteria, enjoy tasty meals, and have a good bonding experience.
Office Christmas party is the best time for you to say Thanks to all the teams that have added value to help the organization grow. Why not use it to reward those whose hard work helped the business achieve success?
Use this occasion to give your employees a special gift. It can be cash prizes, tickets to a game or movie, a free Christmas dinner voucher, digital photo frames, a fully paid vacation, or an infusion water bottle. Let this celebration be not only about games, food, and fun; but also about how important they are to the organization.
This one is a cross between office Christmas decorations and secret Santa. Make a team with only 2 employees in it. But, instead of gifts; participants decorate work desks for the assigned colleagues.
You can create a time schedule where the assigned employee (whose desk is being decorated) has to be away from their workspace. Make other coworkers keep the name of the decorator a secret. Once decorations are done, the person has to guess who did the work.
Why not try the most interactive office Christmas party ideas? Aka, a Christmas carnival. It becomes even more fun with kids in attendance. You can organize Christmas-themed games like throwing darts at balloons, and ring toss.
Give out rewards like giant candy canes, Santa, and reindeer toys to get everyone excited about winning. Have team members build a North-Pole-styled funhouse or a Christmas-themed village out of cardboard.
Snowball fights are amongst the best holiday season activities. But, what if we said that you can organize an indoor snowball fight event? Sounds impossible? Here’s how you can make it happen.
Purchase indoor snowball fight kits consisting of soft cloth balls. Split the employees into different teams. Now, give each player a set number of snowballs, blow the whistle and watch your employee’s competitive side come out. Those who get hit are out. Call timeout when everyone is out of snowballs and reset.
Tree decoration competition is amongst the most popular office Christmas party ideas in 2022 that encourages your team to unleash their inner productivity and team-building skills.
For this, you would need;
Let the teams bring ornaments with them to decorate the design. The whole point is to capture the attention of the judges and coworkers.
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Your company employees have been part of dozens of office Christmas celebrations in the past. These office Christmas party ideas will definitely make yours fun, memorable, and above all unforgettable for everyone. You might have to go a few miles extra for planning the event, but this will definitely make the employees feel more valued and appreciated.
The holiday season is here! Santa is preparing to drop Christmas goodies at your home!
Everyone will get busy decorating the Christmas tree at home, preparing gingerbread, and being someone’s secret Santa.
However, it is the workplace where everyone spends the majority of their time. How do you plan to celebrate this 25th December with your co-workers?
We are sure you have Googled “office Christmas decor ideas 2022”, but could not find anything that meets your expectations.
Don’t worry! We have a list of Christmas decoration ideas you can use to prepare the workplace for the good times.
So, we have come up with some amazing Office Christmas Decoration ideas that will add the fun factor to workplace Christmas celebrations.
Send a “Merry Christmas” Announcement to your entire team with ProofHub! Start your free trial!
Given below are 11 office Christmas decoration ideas you can use to have unforgettable celebrations at the workplace.
Use these office Christmas celebrations to decorate the office door and impress clients, and visitors. For this, you can hang a Christmas wreath on the door or wrap tiny stuffed animals to add a little fun vibe to the place.
Make paper flowers and hang paper lanterns on the door to welcome whoever comes to the office. You can also choose traditional decoration items like paper-made Santa, and reindeer to put on the door. Bows and ribbons are affordable items you can use to decorate the reception area.
In addition, here’s how you can decorate the reception area for the office Christmas celebrations.
Christmas celebrations might remain incomplete without a Snowman!
To make this Christmas office decor, you need a lot of cotton and decorative colors. Create the base of the snowman with cotton and make the entire body from the same material.
You can use paper to mimic the nose and the eyes by molding it in those shapes. For more details, you can also add a belly button.
How about creating a Christmas tree with nothing but only paper? Doing so might seem a bit hard, but it is economical and above all – an eco-friendly way to celebrate Christmas.
Just collect every scrap of unused paper, then purchase a stick and scissors. Now, all you need to do is cut the paper into different sizes of rectangles and one star.
Later, stick them onto a wooden stick and put the star on the top. You have a Christmas tree that is not only unique but made without spending any money.
If this seems like a hassle to you, you can choose artificial Christmas trees. These are becoming a popular alternative to purchasing a live tree.
Snowflakes are a fun way to decorate your workplace for Christmas celebrations. You can suspend them as ornaments on the Christmas tree or the ceiling. These are also amongst the best office Christmas decoration ideas you can use for the office reception area.
You can also include a snowflake pattern bowl and keep candies for customers or clients. That is not all! You can use this Christmas decoration idea for decorating the entire workplace. Here’s how.
Use this idea to decorate individual workspaces, meeting rooms, and other spaces. You can suspend red and white snowflakes from the ceiling.
No! We are not talking about actually “hanging” Santa! It is simply one of the most popular office’s Christmas decoration ideas.
All you need to do is hang a Santa toy on top of the ceiling of every work desk. Decorate every cubicle with candy canes, snowmen, and Santa toys.
In addition, you can also make every desk shine by decorating it with fairy lights and garlands. It will lighten up the otherwise boring workspace everyone is tired of.
If yours is an open office space, then decorating it for the Christmas celebrations might be a bit hard. It is harder when you want to execute a uniform Christmas decoration idea.
So, for you to execute this idea, you can:
The tinsel town idea works for every room in the office, be it the conference room or the reception area.
Nothing captures the spirit of Christmas more than strands of brightly colored lights! For this, brightly colored white bulbs will help you add a subtle glow to make the busiest of workplaces a little warm.
The best thing about string lights is they are lengthy and flexible. You can plug them in just about anywhere in the entire office. Choose a string with bulbs that light up intermittently to brighten up the area around it.
You can devote one part of the office or cubicles to set up the nativity scene depicting the birth of baby Jesus. It is one of the best office Christmas decoration ideas to celebrate the best time of the year without losing sight of its true meaning.
For this, you can create figurines from wood, cardboard cutouts, or make puppets from old fabric.
Do you keep mints or candies on your work desk? Create a winter or Christmas-themed bowl. Let the workplace Christmas celebration be one filled with happiness and lots of sweets.
For this, you need to fill an assortment of colorful candies and other sweet treats in the custom-made bowl. Share it with co-workers and share sweet memories you made in and outside the workplace. You can keep peppermint and cookies that would make even Santa’s mouth water.
You can also pack different bowls with sweets of the same color and place them on everyone’s desk as a Christmas surprise. Or, you can use these Christmas wishes to employees as a token of appreciation for their hard work throughout the year. You can wish your entire team the best on any occasion with the help of Announcements on ProofHub.
Remember, Santa comes with a bag full of chocolates and candies for everyone. So, Christmas celebrations at the workplace would also be incomplete without gifts. From small to big size boxes, you can choose all sorts of cardboard boxes and fill them with gifts for the teams.
At the end of the day, you can give these as Christmas presents to everyone. You can also order a Christmas flower bouquet and get them delivered to everyone’s desk.
This one is for photography lovers! All you need are some unforgettable moments captured with your co-workers from an earlier office trip or the last Christmas party.
Wait! There’s more! We all know how wreaths add a whole new meaning to Christmas celebrations. So, now’s your chance to take this one step further. Add some memorable photographs to the wreaths to make them a bit personal.
Christmas is a time for everyone to be happy and enjoy the day with their family, friends, and colleagues. These fascinating and unique office Christmas decoration ideas will help you get over the mundane and add a little coziness and warmth to the workplace.
Christmas really is a season of giving, right? Make sure everyone on your team is aware of what is expected of them in advance. Assign tasks, review them, and determine which deadlines must be completed and when. It allows you to streamline your work while also taking time off to play.
We hope that you have a happy holiday season and that all of your tasks are performed efficiently and cheerfully.
