Zoho Projects

We evaluated tons of online solutions for managing our small agency's projects. Most would be good at one thing, but fall down in others. Zoho Projects allows us to see projects and tasks, capture timesheets, and view resource allocations across the agency. It may be slightly on the over-powered size for just the few of us, but we want a platform that can support our growth. This seems to be the one.

The software seems to have a ton of features that we're still finding. It would be nice to have a way to make sure we're using it to it's fullest. For example, we were archiving tasks when they were complete but then realized that this process made it so timesheet hours couldn't be applied to those closed tasks. Adding a "closeout" custom status seemed to have solved it, but we'd love some info or training on best practices.

There are a ton of project management features that you find in most other PM software solutions. Zoho has bundled them into a convenient and well-priced package. We also appreciated adding another solution to our existing Zoho portfolio.
I appreciated how it is not specifically built for software development, because Agile PM can be applied to all projects, not only development.

Initial setup is a bit challenging for those with limited/no Project tracking experience. Overall, setup was reasonably intuitive. Additional "get started" training would've been helpful.

There is very little, if anything about this product that is likable. I guess, if pushed, I would say the calendar feature and the forum features are interesting but by no means makes up for the lack of features overall of Zoho Project. We are a small to medium business that recently, and regrettably, transitioned from Harvest to Zoho. There is quite a gap in pricing between the two platforms but you get what you pay for, mainly how many users you have. Zoho Project feels more like a bata test platform, then an actual product that should be live and used by any business. If you are doing very basic project management, like planning a wedding or a home renovation this tool would be good for you. But why would you pay for it when you can get any template on-line for free. The only other "pros" I could manage to list is their support. They have a help representative chat feature which is good and they are responsive. Unfortunately for them and mean most of it was used to inform me that "that feature is currently not available". Overall go with Harvest!

Does not integrate with Quickbooks. Can not add basic client contact information. Can't view all invoices that are due or in draft form (they force you to use another one of their clunky platforms). The Zoho Dashboard is terribly unhelpful and uninformative. You can not run basic reports like; time reports for team members across projects, expenses, invoiced projects, etc. You can't even simply alphabetize Client Users, so as you add clients they are sorted by when you entered them, only. You can only export information in one format and the reports provide very little (helpful) information; for example if you want to export your Clients. The report that is generated only provides the internal Client ID#, Name, User Name, Email Address, Role, Invoice. It does not provide State/End Dates, what Projects are associated with Clients, any Budget information, and so on, and so on. Invoice, Expense, and Time information are shown and available only through each individual Project. You can not see all invoices due, total amounts out standing, or time sheets across Projects and Clients. You are forced to click into each individual project to access that information and once again, the reports you are able to generate are very limited. I could go on about all the "cons" associated with Zoho Project but I don't have time.