ProActive Software ProWorkflow
ProActive Software ProWorkflow
A single freelancer can stay on top of her work with a to-do list and a spreadsheet, but the owner of a small business with employees and contractors to oversee, as well as clients to bill, needs a more powerful collaboration service solution. ProWorkflow covers all the bases. It’s complex, and even imposing, but it includes tools for task and project management, quote-issuing, billing, time-reporting, and just about everything else a business needs. It’s a strong contender against Editors’ Choice winners Zoho Projects and Teamwork Projects.
Price and Plans
ProWorkflow offers three paid plans and a 14-day free trial that can be extended to 30 days. The Solo tier offers 5GB of storage, ten projects, and a single user for $10 per month. However, it does allow for unlimited numbers of contractor and client accounts, allowing one individual to manage a small company.
The next tier is Professional, which includes 25GB of storage and unlimited projects. At this tier, the pricing changes to $20 per user per month. Also at this tier, ProWorkflow adds access to quotes and invoicing plugins, for a flat $10 each.
The Advanced tier is intended as more of an enterprise-level tool for a minimum of five users at $30 per user per month. This tier includes 50GB of storage, unlimited projects, and the quotes and invoicing plugins. It also unlocks administrative tools to customize organizational charts and such, and it includes powerful project templates to easily reproduce frequently used workflows.
It’s worth noting that personal user training and over-the-phone tech support (during New Zealand working hours) are available to all users at all levels. ProWorkflow also has numerous explanatory videos available on its website.
Clarizen also costs $30 per month, but you’ll have to pay for the first 36 months up front. LiquidPlanner is also very similar to ProWorkflow, but is slightly more expensive at $39 per month and has a higher minimum user threshold for the highest tier. Editors’ Choice Zoho Projects offers 15GB of space and limits you to 50 projects at its highest $40 per month tier, but includes bug tracking, built-in chat, and a very rare totally free version of the software to try.
Features and Interface
ProWorkflow’s default scheme is bold orange and grey, but everything—from the colors, to the logos, to the login and logout URLs—can be edited from the settings pane. Across the top are tabs for all the features available, including a clock to track time on a project and a powerful search tool. The green plus button is a shortcut for creating anything in ProWorkflow.
The layout can be overwhelming at first, but you can customize views for different employees and even whole groups of employees. For example, you could limit your interns’ views to only projects and tasks, and change their level of access—like removing the ability to write or edit. You can then save those settings, and use them for other employees. Neat.
The Home section shows off an overview of all the work within the company, broken down by due date. You change views to see only the work assigned to you, or another employee. A dashboard panel on the left breaks down the progress of tasks and projects, as well as a running tally of time billed, invoices issued, and quotes made.
Most of the action in ProWorkflow happens in projects, which are like landing pages for groups of tasks. At the top of each project are its vital statistics: who owns the project, how long it is expected to last, and how much it will cost. Below is a snapshot view of every task and subtask in the project, which can be expanded to show uploaded files, the discussions happening about each task between assignees, and more. Just below is an editable Gantt chart that adjusts the timing of the tasks above.
At the bottom of the page is a kind of birds-eye view of the entire project, intended for project managers but beneficial to anyone involved. Here, you’ll see the full text of every comment on every task within the project, threaded and organized by task. You can also view every file associated with the project, as well as time totals and any associated invoices.
You can create tasks individually and without a project template, but doing so doesn’t make a lot of sense. Creating individual tasks requires filling out a lengthy form, plus each task must be assigned to some project—even if it’s a catch-all like “general work.” This is very different from the light-weight task-management service Asana, in which tasks are entirely fungible and can exist on their own. One thing I really like about tasks in ProWorkflow is the ability to assign single tasks to multiple individuals. This removes the problem of having duplicate tasks and assigning them to several individuals to account for shared responsibility.
It’s much easier to create tasks as part of projects, where you can import entire templates made up of dozens of tasks and associated subtasks. The drag and drop interface makes fine-tuning the tasks, and their hierarchies, very simple.
One thing ProWorkflow does very well is let you engage with your work in the way that works best for you. You can, for instance, record your time using the built-in timer, or enter it manually for each task. Alternatively, you can use the Time tab to record billable time as you would on a paper time log. It’s all recorded and cross-referenced, giving the user many ways to accomplish the same goals.
Tasks and projects work with the invoice, quotes, time, and reports features to manage just about every aspect of your business. But ProWorkflow goes further with its Contacts and Notes sections. The latter can be built out into a searchable archive of critical company information, such as best practices or how to order new office supplies. With Contacts, you have a record of every person you’ve added to your company already, plus associated clients and contractors. You can also include private notes about users outside the company—say, coffee preferences.
Apps and Integration
In addition to all of these features, you can use Zapier to connect ProWorkflow to other apps and services. This service is a little like IFTTT, allowing actions in one service to trigger actions in another. ProWorkflow also offers a fully documented API, and it encourages users to develop tools as they see fit. If that’s not quite your style, an app store offers premade plugins for additional functionality.
ProWorkflow does have a presence on the Android and iOS app stores, but its mobile apps consist of only a contacts app so you can keep your work names, numbers, and addresses within easy reach. The company currently has no plans to bring its project management software to mobile. However, the service is built entirely on HTML 5, and offers a powerful mobile site. A representative of the company explained to me that this approach means that users can be assured of the full ProWorkflow experience on whatever device they choose.
Built for Work
Our Editors’ Choice awards go to project managers Zoho Projects and Teamwork Projects, for their streamlined design and flexible support for small teams, respectively. Still, with tools for just about every aspect of your business, ProWorkflow is built for work and is worth serious consideration. It’s a soup-to-nuts solution, managing everything from your headcount, to your billing, to your day-to-day activities. It is complex, and probably too much for a self-employed individual or a small, internal team trying to keep track of their to-dos. ProWorkflow comes into its own when managing not just a handful of employees, but outside contractors and clients as well.
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