Find the best Project Tracking Software
What is project tracking software?
Project tracking tools allow managers to compare actual project metrics—such as costs, schedules and personnel—to estimates established during the planning phase. Managers then use this data to report back to stakeholders on the overall health of the project.Compare Products
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monday.com
monday.com
monday.com is an award-winning work and project management platform that helps teams of all sizes plan, prioritize, manage, and execute their work more effectively. The platform offers solutions for a wide range of use-cases such...Read more about monday.com
BigTime
BigTime
BigTime is an online time and billing solution designed to serve professional service firms like accounting, engineering, government contracting, legal and IT services. The integrated solution offers features like time and expense...Read more about BigTime
Adobe Workfront
Adobe Workfront
Adobe Workfront is a collaborative work management solution that addresses the challenges of disconnected teams, siloed tools, and the relentless pace of enterprise work. Workfront includes capabilities to capture and plan, assign...Read more about Adobe Workfront
Wrike
Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike
Workzone
Workzone
Workzone is a project management solution that offers document management, project collaboration, customizable reporting, resource and task management and time tracking. The software is cloud-based and offers automated emailed rep...Read more about Workzone
Project Insight
Project Insight
Project Insight (PI) is award-winning work & project management software that helps companies manage and visualize projects, allocate personnel, streamline accounting, and track what work is being done throughout their entire orga...Read more about Project Insight
Smartsheet
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a range of project management to...Read more about Smartsheet
Scoro
Scoro
Scoro is a cloud-based professional services solution for small to midsize companies in advertising, consulting, IT and other industries. The solution provides a control hub that displays pending tasks, account information, key pe...Read more about Scoro
KeyedIn
KeyedIn
KeyedIn Enterprise is a dynamic PPM software for growing and scaling, results-driven PMOs. KeyedIn Enterprise transforms the way a PMO delivers insight led-decision making across value based outcomes. With strong user adoption, ex...Read more about KeyedIn
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
FunctionFox is a cloud-based time tracking and project management application, offering timesheets and estimates, as well as scheduling, task assignment, and reporting. FunctionFox’s capabilities are suited for the billing a...Read more about FunctionFox
WorkOtter
WorkOtter
WorkOtter is a SaaS project, resource, and portfolio management solution built for teams of 50-200 who demand a simple, sensible, and supportable PPM alternative. Touting over 50 gorgeous, configurable, and full animated dashboard...Read more about WorkOtter
Trello
Trello
Trello is a visual collaboration tool for planning tasks and projects. While commonly used by agile software development teams, the solution is also used in other departments such as marketing, sales, support and HR. The web-based...Read more about Trello
Jira
Jira
Jira Software is a business process management tool used by agile teams to plan, track and release software. Jira Software supports Scrum, Kanban, a hybrid model or another unique workflow. Jira enables users to create project r...Read more about Jira
Asana
Asana
Asana is the perfect platform to help you manage and implement your IT projects across your organisation. Asana helps teams orchestrate their work at scale—from daily tasks to strategic initiatives. With Asana, teams are more con...Read more about Asana
Evernote Teams
Evernote Teams
Evernote is a web-based project management tool that offers project collaboration, scheduling and task management functionalities within a suite. This solution is designed to cater to businesses of all sizes. Evernote allows ...Read more about Evernote Teams
QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time is a cloud-based time tracking solution that helps owners and managers keep track of employees in real-time from their web or mobile applications. It provides mobile time tracking for employees who either work remo...Read more about QuickBooks Time
ClickUp
ClickUp
ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries. Features include communication and collaboration tools, task assignments and statuses, alerts and a task toolb...Read more about ClickUp
Todoist
Todoist
Todoist is a to-do list and task manager for professionals and small businesses. Combining tasks, projects, comments, attachments, notifications, and more, Todoist lets users streamline their personal and team productivity and wo...Read more about Todoist
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a project management software designed for enterprises of all sizes. The tool includes project scheduling features, which allow management to create a project schedule, define and assign each project task, man...Read more about Microsoft Project
Notion
Notion
Notion is a digital workspace that lets small to large businesses streamline and manage notes, tasks, projects, records, calendar and more. Key features include portfolio tracker, designer templates, database management, documenta...Read more about Notion
Buyers Guide
Last Updated: March 16, 2023Once a project is underway, it’s essential for managers to monitor work and keep teams on track to meet deadlines. What’s more, managers must keep internal and external stakeholders up to date on the progress made against initial baselines set for the project’s scope, budget and timeline.
That’s where project tracking software comes in. Managers use project tracking tools to maintain a bird’s-eye view of project progress, track key performance metrics and report back to stakeholders.
We’ve created this Buyer’s Guide to help you understand project tracking systems and how they fit into the larger project management software market. In it, we’ll cover:
What Is Project Tracking Software?
Common Functionality of Project Tracking Software
What Is Project Tracking Software?
Project tracking tools allow managers to compare actual project metrics—such as costs, schedules and personnel—to estimates established during the planning phase. Managers then use this data to report back to stakeholders on the overall health of the project.
Tracking systems are designed to improve efficiency by automating the data-capture process. This saves time managers would otherwise spend tracking down status updates and collating that information into progress reports.
These tools are more high-level than dedicated time- or task-tracking applications, which only track one of two things: the hours accrued by employees, or the progression of tasks. Project tracking systems, on the other hand, help managers monitor overall progress—from total work completed to hours logged to budget expenditures.
The “project tracking software” category encompasses a variety of tools: from basic dashboards to advanced reporting and analytics (see next section).
Basic project tracking capabilities include:
Data capture
Dashboards/project status overview
Deadline, timeline and milestone tracking
Dashboard view in Asana
More advanced tracking systems will offer all of the above, in addition to such capabilities as:
Report generation
Summary of resource utilization (billable versus non-billable hours)
Comparisons of actual versus estimated ROI/profit margins
Dashboard screen in Clarizen
Common Functionality of Project Tracking Software
Project tracking software typically includes some or all of the following capabilities:
Dashboards | Provide an overview of current projects and their status, often highlighting impending milestones and tasks nearing their due date. Some dashboards also include an activity stream or notification center. |
Gantt charts | Also integral to project planning, Gantt charts provide visualizations of the project schedule and show task progress/completion rates. Tasks are displayed as horizontal bars across a calendar or timeline, and are shaded to represent the percentage complete. |
Reporting | Gives a snapshot of the current status of key metrics, such as ROI/profit margins, resource and budget utilization and overall project health (including identified risks and corresponding risk management plans). |
Analytics | Some systems include analytics and business intelligence capabilities, often coupled with reporting tools, that help users identify trends across teams and projects. These insights help businesses make more informed decisions in the future. |
Key Purchase Considerations
Here are a few considerations buyers should keep in mind when selecting a project tracking system:
System complexity and pricing. There are many systems with project tracking capabilities, but the pricing and depth of functionality varies considerably. For example, it’s common for vendors to include dashboard functionality in their starter packages, but offer reporting only in their mid- or top-tier packages.
Reporting features may often come at a higher price—but we know from a 2015 analysis of project management software buyers who contact Software Advice that this is actually their preferred tracking method, over dashboards and Gantt charts.
Top-Requested Project Tracking Functionality
Source: 2015 Project Management Software SMB Buyer Report
Given this, buyers should carefully evaluate their needs and choose a system with functionality that supports their workflows. Many vendors offer free trials or product demos, which allow businesses to test out a product before purchase to ensure it aligns with their processes.
Cloud-based systems. Cloud-based project management solutions are becoming increasingly popular. They offer users a number of benefits, including:
Remote access (often including native mobile apps for iOS and Android)
Lower upfront costs (since updates and system maintenance are handled by the vendor)
Manageable recurring costs (since monthly or annual subscription pricing is standard, which includes updates and maintenance costs)
Additionally, cloud solutions are typically offered in several different functional tiers. This allows businesses to purchase a system with only the capabilities necessary at the time, then scale the system as their needs change.
For project tracking, this is especially useful: Managers can start out with basic dashboard tracking, then increase their investment over time to a tier that offers Gantt charts and/or reporting and analytics.
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