I love tools that allow my team to stay organized and productive. Over the past few years, I’ve experimented with a number of project management apps, including Trello and SmartSheets, but time and time again, I keep coming back to Teamwork. Teamwork has become my all-time favorite tool for collaboration, project management, and task lists. It allows me to create a hierarchy of projects, milestones, task lists and sub-tasks for both my internal team and my clients.
Teamwork’s intuitive user interface and user-friendly navigation lets me see the status of each and every project at any time. I can customize the view or use boards to keep my projects super-organized.
How We Use Teamwork at Number Nerd Bookkeeping:
At Number Nerd, we use the “free” teamwork account, which comes with two projects. We use the first project for clients and create an individualized tasklist for each one. We use the second project for internal administrative task list(s). Members are invited to view only the projects that they are involved in.
My Favorite Teamwork Features:
- Pre-defined tasks templates: To save time, we create project templates for repeatable processes. Templates ensure we perform consistently on similar projects and don’t miss any steps. I love saving time, and this is the ticket to do so! In fact, I’ve put together some amazing templates for end-users, bookkeepers and CPA’s that will be available for purchase on the Number Nerd website in the next few months.
- Organization:
- Chat features: We minimize our Inbox overload by chatting about projects directly from within Teamwork. All of our conversations are saved by project so we can easily retrieve details.
- Members can pick up tasks. We keep a running list of follow-up items that fall outside our monthly bookkeeping checklists. My team can pick up items from the unassigned task list as time allows during their week.
- Email reminders. We start each week with a consolidated list of everything we need to do for every client.
- Time tracking:
- Estimate vs. Actual Tracking. Teamwork allows participants to track how long they think a task will take versus how long it actually takes to complete it.
- Estimating future projects: Project managers can easily use historical project data to provide more accurate project estimates and timelines.
- Billable time. Not only can you track your time within Teamwork, but you can send invoices directly from the application, as well. You can export your time tracking data into popular third-party apps like Harvest, QuickBooks, Freshbooks, and more!
A Few More of My Favorite Things:
- Their 5-Start Technical Support. Teamwork has a support team that is available 24/7 by email. That means when I run into a burning question at 7 pm, I don’t have to wait until the next day to get my questions answered. Their team has always responded lightening fast to any questions or problems that I have.
- The Mobile App. The Teamwork Mobile App comes in handy for receiving notifications on the go. If I’m out and about, I can also easily check the status of a project or answer a client question. If I receive a project-related phone call, I can also easily log my time into that project.
- The Chrome Extension and Connect from Gmail. Teamwork is available to me everywhere – including my browser and my inbox! I love the ability to turn an email directly into a task, assign it and give a due date without having to switch apps.
If you’re managing multiple projects, to-do lists, or a virtual team, be sure to give teamwork a try! It has saved our team countless hours and makes sure we all know what the priorities are for our work week.
