In my case of work, I use Microsoft Project and Excel quite extensively. MS Project to track schedule, resource, etc. Excel is somewhat our unofficial to-do list. I would prefer we move to Basecamp, then I can cut down list and items to review each week.

We use activeCollab for basic project communication - it works very well for us because we can not just brand it but make a custom interface for it, as well as having our data on our own server. As for time tracking, we didn’t have much need for it. However, We’ll be using aC for that as well, at least for now.

Basecamp, Freshbooks, Quickbooks, and an accountant.

We are just learning how to put this combination of project management/billing web applications and desktop accounting software together to best serve our clients we and now we don’t know how we ever did with out them.

This is a timely post. I’ve worked at three places with a variety of tools the most effective seems to have been a similar combo to what you outlined with the addition of MS Project for the overall plan. Personally I’ve always wanted at tool that can do it all, however is this the holygrail? The two I researched and liked were AtTask and Creative Manager Pro. Hope these names help in your search.

We use our own internal system for time tracking (called PUNCH). It’s a great system for tracking work hours. We use BaseCamp to collaborate with clients and MS Project for project plans.

Rachel, how good is your experience with harvest?

We use Merlin (OS X only), svn for versioning system of documents and Billings (OS X only) for time tracking and billing.

I’m testing now Basecamp for a personal project to see if it fits my needs (free one-project account).

If you’re on a Mac, for pure project management, I’d recommend Merlin (ugly icon but great app). OmniPlan would be nice too if it supported multiple projects, but it doesn’t so it’s pretty much useless…

On the time tracking/accounting side, unfortunately I’m still stuck with QuickBook (PC version). I utterly hate this program but there’s just no viable alternative I know of that does everything…

Excel?  That sounds painful… ;)

On the basecamp side of things, a more full feature/integrated solution you might like:

http://www.joyent.com/connector

Sharepoint custom lists—they are the primitive sharable database you’ve always wanted.  Anything you can track in a spreadsheet you can track, better, in a SP list.  You can manage the data in MS-Access if that’s convenient (it is for me), and generally the integration with Office is strong.

Google Sites may be a good competitor, I’m going to try them out; they have a “list” feature that may compare.  Structured data—where you control the structure—is key.  File-sharing and calendaring and threaded discussions are nice too, but nothing beats a genuine database, that is customizable and has easy out-of-the-box sharing.

I use basecamp and backpack mostly. We have a horrid tool called Daptive (formerly eProject) that is used by project managers in my company, but it has a poor interface and the worst performance of any tool I’ve used. Stay away from it.

When we’re working on sprints (agile dev), we also have Trac—http://trac.edgewall.org. It’s useful to manage projects and track time on a ticket-basis, which works well with dev tasks, but I don’t feel it’s the best tool for designers.

This week I came across a new service called http://www.rescuetime.com - I’m very impressed with how it’s tracking things so far. If time tracking is important to what you are doing, it may be a good thing to try (though Basecamp has also recently implemented a new function that can help people track what’s going on, it’s not as passive as Rescuetime and you can’t quantify time spent).

We actually use JobPro, great tools, lets you do anything…

http://www.jobprocentral.com/

I am a freelancer - and I work alone. But still I use these tools to keep on track.

Project Management - ProjectPeir (activeCollab clone)

Time Tracker - Tiker(My own custom tool)

GTD Todo List - Nexty

Hi Rachel, You should consider Project123 as they offer all the features which you mentioned (plus more if you’re willing to upgrade). Budgeting is right on and with the Timesheeting module, you can track staff budgets as well.

Schedule tracking, resource allocation and forecasting is all pretty standard and whats even better is that you don’t have to keep switching back and forth between programs. The file upload is great too, which allows you to attach files to projects…eliminating emails.

Thanks for these recommendations. Keep ‘em coming!

Pricing: custom numbers.app worksheet

Project Plans:  OmniPlan

Job Tracking, Resources, new biz pipeline, deliverables sharing: custom-built web app (we like basecamp, but we homebrewed so it could start at the sales phase and go all the way through to our portfolio and website post-mortem)

We use trac (http://trac.edgewall.org/) and mingle (http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-project-intelligence) for agile dev, ticketing, version control, etc. Neither is perfect but they are both pretty solid and awesome.

We don’t track hours, we track allocations and weeks, so it’s pretty much manual - end of the job you actualize on a number-of-weeks bases, since everyone lies on timesheets anyway.

I’m a big fan of Jot.com, though it was bought by Google recently and became Google Sites. I don’t think they have the project management and bug tracking functionality that jot.com had (yet) but i hope they have it soon!

Uzi- We like Harvest so far. We’re trying to figure out how to get the information that people put into Harvest into our custom Excel spreadsheets.

Central Desktop is the best thing I’ve seen, and trust me, I’ve looked at a lot.  Makes Basecamp look like a kindergarten level toy.

I’m not affiliated with the company - just a huge fan.  The UI is a little dry, but advanced functionality wins out in the end for me.

Used Harvest, but have found that TSheets has more bells and whistles to help me track my time easier.

Ironically enough, I checked out another company (http://www.activecollab.com/) that had recently started a year or two ago - and they’ve has completely redone their web site and product UI and it’s just…beautiful.  They take 37 Signals out into a back alley and give them a well deserved punch…

There’s also individual product solutions like Scalix (http://www.scalix.com/) that does email across enterprises (no more Mac/PC Outlook related battles).  I do think shared groupware workspaces like ActiveCollab are the wave of the future - at least in enlightened companies.

Thanks for this; we are looking for new tools. To help out, I created a summary list of the tools mentioned so far. I though other readers might like it too:

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/default.aspx MS Project

http://office.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ MS Sharepoint - is an integrated suite of server capabilities

http://quickbooks.intuit.com QuickBooks The Easiest Accounting Software to Help Your Business Succeed

http://trac.edgewall.org Trac - The Trac Project

http://www.activecollab.com/ activeCollab is a project management and collaboration tool that you can

http://www.attask.com/ @task is project management software that helps companies get work done. With

http://www.backpackit.com/ Backpack is Basecamp for your life.

http://www.basecamphq.com/ Basecamp Basecamp takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration.

http://www.billings2.com/ Billings streamline quoting, time-tracking and invoicing.

http://www.centraldesktop.com/ Central Desktop provides simple project collaboration tools for business

http://www.creativemanagerpro.com/ Creative Manager Pro. - Ad Agency Software and Project Management

http://www.formassembly.com/time-tracker Time Tracker (?)

http://www.freshbooks.com/ Freshbooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service that saves you

http://www.getharvest.com/ Harvest Track time, log expenses, invoice clients, keep track of account

http://www.jobprocentral.com/ JobPro Central’s Business Management Software will organize any company

http://www.jot.com/ Jot.com You’ll love the new Google Sites

http://www.joyent.com/connector Joyent Connector is our collection of easy-to-use Web-based

http://www.merlin2.net Merlin 2 - Home Merlin 2 - The project management software for Apple Mac OS X.

http://www.novamind.com/merlin Merlin Project Manager for MacOS X Merlin Project Management Software

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan OmniPlan Project management made painless

http://www.project123.com Project123 is an online project management solution for business managers,

http://www.projectpier.org ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, self-hosted PHP application for managing

http://www.rescuetime.com RescueTime is time management software that helps individuals and businesses

http://www.tsheets.com TSheets - Track time from any computer or cell phone.

cheers,

-Bryan

Thats a great list, Bryan. I’ll just add:

http://goplan.info

We built goplan for ourselves about 2 years ago and last year we officially launched it as a product, that much like Basecamp you can have a paid subscription to (there’s a free plan as well, obviously). It’s good to have an idea of what people are looking for too, because we’re building Goplan’s next major iteration and input like this is always welcome.

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We use OnStage Team Collaboration.  The free version is fantastic!

We evaluated that product but went with Pacific Timesheet instead (http://www.pacifictimesheet.com). We needed payroll (Lawson) and iPhone support, and wanted a web-based software solution. I highly recommend them!

Jamil

Pacific Timesheet - Web Time Tracking Software

I would like to suggest HourDoc’s Time Tracking Software. www.HourDoc.com is right treatment for time and labor management processes has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for Freelancers, supervisors, employees and HR and payroll managers. They offer free application to companies less than 50 employees. You must Try it!

I would add another tool that’s very cost-effective with premium features. iFreeFace (http://www.ifreeface.com) iFreeFace enables you to set daily time limits on distracting websites, email and games, or to block them at any time in order to get things done. iFreeFace saves you 2 weeks a year if you typically spend more than 3 hours a day online and save one hour a day by using it.

You can also track where your time has been spent - but it only tracks the sites and apps you nominate. iFreeFace has one-time registration, is free to try out and free to register if you share your unique referral link with 60 people. It never sends out data over the internet, and data is only ever visible to the person who installs it. It can dock to the side of your desktop or minimize to the taskbar, you can make it transparent or customise with art or any photo you want.