I’m in the process of building a multi-VA business and have been looking at project management tools I can use to oversee the business and keep track of who is doing what and when. I will sub most of our work out and take a 10%-15% fee to cover our admin etc. In exchange for that I plan to make certain resources available to the Vas that I sub to. One such tool will be an online project management tool.

The idea here is that I set up each new client and give read access to the client and read / write access to the VA(s) assigned to that client / project. That way everyone stays in touch, everyone uses that same platform and it makes things easy for me to manage.

Anyway, I narrowed my search down to three main contenders, Basecamp, Teambox and Intervals.

I put together an email setting out what I wanted to do and sent the same email to all three at the same time. I wanted to see how they suggested I use their platforms to best achieve what I wanted to do. Also I wanted to test their customer service. For me customer service is a big deal. It doesn’t matter how good their software is, there will come a time when you need to ask questions, or ask for help and in my experience, when those things do happen you need answers fast!

Anyways, from what I’ve read on here and elsewhere Basecamp seems to be the most popular (although I’ve not actually tested the software out for myself yet). However, I sent the original email about 4 days ago now and so far I still haven’t had a reply from them. Bit disappointing!

The first to respond was Intervals. They said their software would do everything I wanted So these guys are the front runners at the moment. Has anyone used them?

Second to respond was Teambox. They said their system would ALMOST do what I wanted. It does everything EXCEPT it would not give read only access to clients. Clients would have full read/write access to projects. Although they, did offer to make some kind of tweak for me, which I thought was very helpful. Again has anyone used them?

Price-wise both Teambox and Intervals have different pricing structures. Teambox is free for the first 5 users and up to 5 projects. After that you pay $5 per month, per user, up to 500 users, with unlimited projects. Intervals charge based on the number of projects. The Basic package is $20 per month, for up to 15 projects. They don’t have a free version, but they do offer a 30 day free trial.

So on the face of it, I'm inclined to go with Teambox based on functionality, feedback and price. Although Intervals is a better fit functionality wise, it will work out more expensive when scaled up. Anyone got any views on this?

I currently us myIntervals and I LOVE their software. I did a trial of about every PM software out there about a year ago and I found that myIntervals was best suited to how I ran my VA practice.


To me a big deciding factors were the comprehensive reporting capabilities of myIntervals, the invoicing, and the ability for clients to access the PM software and add, reply, comment on tasks. Several of the other PM programs will allow client access but they cannot comment on tasks. (Unless you pay for them to have full access, like one of your VA's.)


Personally I did not like Basecamp. It thought it was too expensive for the features available.


Another PM I used in the past was WORKetc. I left because they did not have the ability for clients to comment on tasks. I know they have added many features recently, it may be worth looking into this PM. There customer service was always pretty good.


Best of Luck,


Julie

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Julie | Virtual Resource Services, Inc (VRSI)
http://www.vrsioffice.com

Originally Posted by vrsi-office

I currently us myIntervals and I LOVE their software. I did a trial of about every PM software out there about a year ago and I found that myIntervals was best suited to how I ran my VA practice. To me a big deciding factors were the comprehensive reporting capabilities of myIntervals, the invoicing, and the ability for clients to access the PM software and add, reply, comment on tasks. Several of the other PM programs will allow client access but they cannot comment on tasks. (Unless you pay for them to have full access, like one of your VA's.) Personally I did not like Basecamp. It thought it was too expensive for the features available. Another PM I used in the past was WORKetc. I left because they did not have the ability for clients to comment on tasks. I know they have added many features recently, it may be worth looking into this PM. There customer service was always pretty good. Best of Luck, Julie

Julie, thanks for the reply. Basecamp have now replied to me, but I agree with you, they are a bit pricey for what they offer. I will take on oard what you've said and do a trial of myIntervals. Another one I might try is Avana. Read about it on here yesterday. It's supposed to be very good.


Paul

Originally Posted by vrsi-office

I currently us myIntervals and I LOVE their software. I did a trial of about every PM software out there about a year ago and I found that myIntervals was best suited to how I ran my VA practice. To me a big deciding factors were the comprehensive reporting capabilities of myIntervals, the invoicing, and the ability for clients to access the PM software and add, reply, comment on tasks. Several of the other PM programs will allow client access but they cannot comment on tasks. (Unless you pay for them to have full access, like one of your VA's.) Personally I did not like Basecamp. It thought it was too expensive for the features available. Another PM I used in the past was WORKetc. I left because they did not have the ability for clients to comment on tasks. I know they have added many features recently, it may be worth looking into this PM. There customer service was always pretty good. Best of Luck, Julie

Thank you so much for all the information you have provided on intervals. I am in the process of setting my new VA company up and have decided to use this program due to your recommendation and spending time researching what the company offers.

I use TeamBox personally and love it. I actually find it useful that clients can write on the project - I actually encourage it as it frees up my inbox and keeps all communication in the project files there for easy reference by everyone.

I use Basecamp as a client for another supplier and have to say I find TeamBox much more user friendly and just, well, nicer. Much better customer service too.

Like Julie I did trials of most of the different systems and TeamBox was just what I preferred, but it might be that you like something else more (I'm very visually stimulated, TeamBox was much more visually appealing than any of the other systems I tried) so it is always good to try them and see what you are comfortable using.

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Callie Willows