For quite some time I am analyzing and reviewing team collaboration apps. Previously, I discussed how Asana and Wrike are different. After that, I went ahead with Bitrix24 alternatives. I began my research with Basecamp, and now I got a chance to try yet another resource scheduling software for Small Business: Paymo. I have used it for 2 years and done a thorough research of this tool to write detailed Paymo reviews.
Initially, I found Paymo has something to do with payments. Well, no. It's not remotely close to help you with payments. It is a simple software for project management client. Paymo features project management tools like resource management, time tracking and time management invoicing features as its core components. Paymo features project management tool that primarily caters to small and medium business owners to manage their teams, projects, and also the finances. All in all, Paymo make sure you spend lesser time in administrative works and focus more on operations using time tracking.
A Romania-based web application, Paymo has over 150,000 users across the globe. Whether you are a freelancer or a business owner, you won't need to worry about keeping track of your team . It will do that for your small business. Using Paymo©2020 G2.com, Inc. All rights reserved, you get the Gantt chart viewing options for your team & clients get the best visual on project task progress.
It has some interesting and new features to check out. Let's have a quick look at the features of this right tool. To explain all the app features, I will use a demo project that Paymo suggests to get a better understanding of the functionalities.
Paymo will let you take a tour of the entire new features and you will surely fall in love with its features for small business. So before you sign up, you can get an overview of what to expect from this tool. Itoffers Gantt Charts Software that helps you plan and monitor projects progress by assigning tasks. Before you sign up and create your new account with create Gantt Charts, you have to understand how Gantt Chart fit into the larger Project Management tasks.
The free version signup is the first convincing pointer. Usually, I tend to signup almost after few seconds of scrolling if it's free.
Management is one of the core features of Paymo: Project management features, Task Management, Resource Management, File Management, and Time tracking . Apart from this, other features include Project Accounting, Team Collaboration, Reporting, Invoicing, and Integrations. Time to dig into the project management features.
Paymo Walkthrough
Like I said, I will use a demo project called "Paymo Walkthrough."
The moment you signup to this management tool, you will receive a welcome email from the CEO. Such personalized emails often play a pivotal role in deciding whether to continue with the tool or drop it off then-and-there.
Coming back to the features, your dashboard will look something like this:
You can create Tasks within your project, add Milestones, track progress through the time tracking timeSheet, add files, initiate discussions and also get an overview of all the activities in the Activity Feed.
Every task has a checkbox in the task lists. You can check it off when it's done. Mostly, tasks are arranged chronologically in the task lists. However, you can alter the order by just drag and drop it to required position.
Milestones:
This small business software feature lets you know where you stand with all your projects. For instance, below you can see my project "Paymo Walkthrough" project is delayed. In the given time span I created only one project, and I have not yet completed it.
So I added a new Milestone named "Completed Review" which is now 'completed.'
This way, you can create significant milestones for your company and have them listed down here.
Timesheets:
You can easily track your work on a daily, weekly, monthly or agenda basis. Your monthly calendar will look something like this:
You can add new time entry as well as task entry. From hours to minutes, you can set up everything so that your timesheet gives you an overview. For instance, according to my timesheet above, the total time spent in this demo project is 3 hours and 1 minute. Honestly, that's the kind of precision that speeds up the work.
Files and Discussions
You can get an overview of all the files that you have attached for you and your team members while working on this project. Similarly, the Discussion tab will show you the list of discussion threads in case you need to look up for some information.
Activity Feed:
This is the place where you get all the details on who created which task and who did what next. In my case, I was just trying out the feature. Your activity feed will look almost like this, only that you will have other user names too!
Another feature that comes handy in project management app is "Project Templates." If you run all your projects in a similar way, then 'templates' can help you save a lot of time spent in creating temapltes. You can save a new project as a template that you can re-use later.
Paymo's Kanban Style reminds me of Trello. You can create a workflow and determine the sequences and steps to be followed. The work progress is transparent to everyone involved in the project. Not just this, you can easily customize your boards to suit your project needs. Don't like the Kanban style dashboard? You can always shift back to the Classic mode.
Many times you might find yourself confused as to which project is being done, which is completed, and other such factors. The software lets you have a bird's eye view of all your projects. You can see which projects have been billed and which are not, how much time spent in each project and the project status using the time tracking feature.
The last feature that makes project management seamless on Paymo is the detailed project data. You will get a snapshot of the entire details of all your projects.
Now we are aware of all the basics that we can do on Paymo. However, we are still to explore the payment and accounting part. We will come to that a little later. As of now, let's have an overview of all the features of Paymo in details.
Using Paymo we can save hours of administration and be more productive. The rich feature set offers everything we need, from invoices to advanced timesheets. Great tool. ~ Teun Lassche, T.H. Lassche Webdevelopment
Team Collaboration
Irrespective of your team or company size, you will always need to communicate with your team members for better work results. It is an easy to use software that helps in sharing, discussing and being more productive within your team.
The Detailed Task lists View option makes it easy to use software and see who is doing what in your team. Starting with the project details to the billing amount incurred, everything can be viewed. You can also decide who in your team should be notified if and when a comment is posted.
I have already mentioned about file sharing. The sharing is extremely secured, and you can have unlimited storage options as well.
Along with discussions, many times you create 'notes' that are relevant to the task or project. Sometimes you wish to keep these notes to yourself, and other times you share it with your team. Whatever you decide, Paymo gives you the liberty to do so.
Recently, Paymo also added team and resource scheduling module, which allows us to plan team's work time in advance, see who's busy and who's available etc., you can see clearly and create business plan accordingly.
Time Tracking
I have already discussed the time sheet. Here's a detailed approach to that-
You can record the time you spend on each project for later reference using the time tracking feature. This is called the 'Web timer' which you can start and stop as and when needed. Do note that time span less than a minute cannot be tracked using time tracker. I call it a web stopwatch. You can either keep it docked like the image below or detach and minimize it while it is running.
Sometimes you might forget to log in to the Paymo web application. Here's another solution for you. /=[\\'.'mk,. kn /works offline as well, making it hassle-free to track work.
No one works like a robot at a stretch. You are bound to take breaks. To suit your small power breaks and naps, Paymo lets you set idle time scheduling so that your clock doesn't run unnecessarily. The app is available on Windows and OS X.
I would say that Paymo is the only software out there that tracks time so accurate. It helps me to improve my company's workflow and to give exact reports to my customers. ~Stoyan Daskaloff, SliceCrowd Ltd.
If you are a paid user of Paymo, you will enjoy the benefits of tracking time automatically. The more manual labor goes off your shoulders, the better! The desktop time tracker tracks your work that you do on the machine- effortlessly. If you are a multitasker and juggle between a lot of works, you might forget to clock in. This easy to use Paymo software has it sorted out for you.
You can easily switch to work offline via mobile apps. It gets synchronized automatically the moment you are connected to the internet.
Team Scheduling & Management
I have already mentioned how Paymo is more about managing everything seamlessly for every company size. There are three types of user roles:
- Admin, who has the privilege of accessing all the projects as well as the company settings.
- Project managers can see information only about the projects they have created.
- Users can only access projects that are assigned to them.
You can click on the profile of a user to take a look at their performance statistics. Apart from that, the Activity Feed keeps you up-to-date. You can scroll back to read about Activity Feed.
Timesheet Reports
Tracking time, setting time, calculating time- all comes down to reporting. Paymo is a robust timesheet reporting feature with ease of use. You can create customized timesheets for your organization easily.
You can create time reports that show your timesheet data real time. Else, you can create a static timesheet report that shows report of a particular project at a particular time. All the information can be customized. With the advanced settings, you can decide what information you want to showcase in your report, like Projects, Tasks, Display Costs, entry notes, etc.
The time reports can be represented as a bar chart or pie chart. You can share the time reports, not just within your organization but also externally to facilitate customer service.
Not many team management app allows you to do accounting details like billing, invoices, etc. Paymo excels with its accounting features. Click To Tweet
Smart Invoicing
You can create an invoice for all your projects. For your internal projects, you can choose "non-billable" option. Software for Project Management, Paymo allows us to create an invoice of an accurate estimate based on your tasks, and hourly/flat rates to share with your clients.
Flexible Billing Rates
While some of your clients want you to work on an hourly basis, others want to go for a monthly model (fixed amount, with several breakups). Paymo lets you create different rate scales for different projects as per your needs and you can easily switch between to these rates for different client management. You can create a default hourly rate for every new project or decide it as per the client's project or task or your employee.
You can record all your expenses that you incur for a project and add them to your invoice to facilitate client management. Many times, you need many external add-ons that are not pre-decided but necessary for your project. You can include all these expenses in your invoice separately.
Paymo has integration with Payflow from Paypal, Stripe, Authorize.Net and PayPal. You can directly get the payment from your client. Once your invoice is paid online, the software automatically marks it as 'paid.'
You can convert your timesheets into invoices in a click. You can create invoices in multiple languages and currencies for your clients.
File Proofing
If you are into a creative field then you will know the pain of file proofing. It is not a very comfortable process to manage a section of tasks in one place and do the file proofing in another. It is time consuming and expensive.
It is where Paymo file proofing feature come to rescue. It offers several features make file proofing a piece of cake. Let's see what are those features:
- Pinpoint design changes: Use the markup tool and specifically pinpoint the regions that you want to change or edit.
- Leave threaded comments : Add comments or clarify questions or reply to the feedback with this threaded comments tool.
- Hide resolved annotations: A feedback or a comment is resolved? Simple hide it and reduce the fuss.
Paymo Add-Ons
The dedicated app for desktop and mobile will always keep you a step ahead with your tasks. You can easily complete your tasks within the given deadline, right from your smartphone or your desktop.
Paymo Widget
You can use tool on the Windows or Mac widget to stay ahead of the curve. Use the time-saving and tracking features like stopwatch, Time Sheet Editing, Gantt charts and Idle Detection to do more.
If you work on more than one project at a time, then Paymo Plus is for you. You can start this app and let it run in the background while you go ahead with your tasks. You can download the Plus app on your Windows or Mac desktop. At the end of the day, all you have to do is to match the applications/windows tiles to the correct project/task.
Paymo Mobile App
Without a mobile app, things seem like stalled. Paymo will not disappoint you here due to its ease of use. You can download the app for Android or iOS phones.
Paymo Reviews-Integrations
Paymo makes workflow seamless and facilitates the way you work. To do so, it integrates with various third party applications. Read Paymo reviews to know more.
Zapier Integration
With the zapier integration scheduling team, you get to use all the other apps like Google Apps, QuickBooks Online, Slack, Xero, etc.
Paymo is a RESTful API and uses JSON/XML for serialization. Accepted request types (HTTP verbs) include: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
The base URL of Paymo's API is SSL only. There is no way that it can be used over an unsecured https:// protocol.
For more details, you can check here.
Paymo Pricing
Paymo has a very simple and straightforward pricing plan to start with. After the 15-Day Unlimited free trial, the paid business plan starts at just $9.95/user/month.
In the Free plan, you get almost all the features.
Paymo : More than a software for project management?
It gives them a passage like a view to focus on the tasks where they can include value and the capacity to "zoom-out" to see the master plan. Time-following and task views that let you compose work in different manners are vital highlights that prevent wasted time. The application is likewise particular so that you can modify it as per your necessities. On the negative side, the mobile application is for time tracking while you can't separate the in-built structure into small and medium sized teams if you work in a vast organization.
Paymo is genuinely simple to get around with gratitude to its simple route. When you enter the application, you'll meet the Home Screen that gives you a birds-eye perspective on all you and your team's assignments regarding which are on target and pulling your work down. You'll see that the application is simple, with a few modules (Clients, Projects, Accounting). It allows you to pick which one to utilize contingent upon your work process. When you become a customer, one customer support reps will get in touch with you to make sure that you experience the most out of it. However, if you're even more a self-student, check instructional video instructional exercises with counsel from the team.
What's exceptional about Paymo is that it reunites task management features like arranging, planning, time following, and invoicing all under a single rooftop, so freelancers and teams can deal with their activities from beginning to end. Freelancers can utilize this easy to use software dto manage aily to-do lists and Kanban board to organize their work and track time against it through different time monitoring devices to make sure they get payments on time. Then again, teams can utilize the key Kanban board to plan their work ahead of time, book their accessibility through automated planning, and oversee work processes in the manage Kanban board for ease of use.
The objective clients are project-based organizations up to 20-30 clients, generally marketing and advertising agencies, web development studios, freelancers, and architects with around 10 employees. The standard-sized team is somewhere close to 5-6 clients.
Let's see what Paymo brings to your table:
Get paid more
At the point when you have a clear idea of your work time, you can get reimbursed easily and keep track of the same. Through precisely time following, Paymo permits you to catch all billable time.
Keep track of your customers
The error and communication gap can make your customer service poor. Paymo allows us to impart spotless and significant reports , keeping all partners know exactly of their project status and manage multiple projects with ease.
Stop the tumult
Dissipated files messages, utilizing different applications to deal with your activity; these are the reasons for the pressure that may prompt project disappointment.
Document Storage
Attach documents to your projects and keep track of all data in one place. Review them in your program and download them whenever you need them.
Kanban Board
Utilize the Kanban Board to make a work process, moving assignments through consecutive and intelligent steps.
The free form of Paymo allows you to deal with your projects without a problem; however, if you need much more, you can attempt the marketable strategy, which offers additional features, as cutting edge reports, boundless solicitations, costs, and estimates, in-application customer support, 50GB of capacity and third party integrations,
Paymo for Creative Companies
Watch out for the Budget
Most of the project managers in United States are associated with a ton of activities. It's imperative to monitor the task's execution to ensure you're adjusting expenses and profit. You can stop overspending from really developing and continue organizing to know what's significant along these lines.It is best suited for agencies with 5-10 employees.
Keep the Creative Juices Flowing
Paymo offers a few choices for track time, with PaymoPlus as the ideal software for graphic design individuals and upto 10 employees. The application allows them to hop, starting with one thought then onto the next, consequently starting with one task then onto the next, without intruding on their imaginative stream.
The Discussion Module
At the point when you have a smart thought, or you need to ask your partner questions about a specific client project or task, you can utilize the conversations module. That way, you will have all the task subtleties in a single spot and see everybody's input.
Project Overview
At the point when you're taking care of a ton of ventures, it's imperative to have the option to have a quick view over the task's execution and fundamental subtleties with the goal that you can focus in on what's essential and don't forfeit quality.
Documents
Struggling updating the lecture materials? Include assets under the Files area to make the course educational programs and share it with the class.
Each document is safely put away in the cloud, so students can get to them without calling or message their friends about getting their A+ notes.
Conversations
If you have to debate or conceptualize a particular point with the entire class, utilize the Discussions area. The outcome? More pleasant and noteworthy courses.
Allotted Comments
Using Paymo, you can chat in real-time continuously across offices and campuses about the most recent task updates, without losing context. Bid farewell to unproductive status meetings, for eternity.
Paymo for Website Designers and Developers
Powerful Reporting
With Paymo, project manager can make live reports that show your timesheet information continuously or live reports that catch the task status at a specific second in time. The customer will be glad to have the option to see exactly and find in detail how much time you've spent on what.
Save Time with Project Templates
If you lead your tasks likewise, you will save a ton of time by making project templates. Like this, when you do a similar job, you don't need to begin without any preparation again. You can easily switch to the formats you already have.
Precise Time Tracking
Paymo offers precise time tracking and automatic time tracking devices for a simple account with ease of use. Project manager in United States can accurately measure how much time was spent on a project level and by whom. There are no more reasons for undercharging or cheating the customer.
Following Key Project Events
It is imperative to set achievements for more perplexing long-term client project, so everybody realizes when significant project stages should be finished. Set up alerts to have everything conveyed on schedule and utilize the dashboard widget for a worldwide view.
Simple Team Collaboration
The Paymo conversation and file sharing areas make it simple for teams to share contemplations and files in a similar secure space. It is incredibly helpful for remote teams with upto 10 employees, where it tends to be hard to monitor who is taking a shot at what time.
Paymo for Marketing and Advertising Experts
Task Templates are Time Savers
If you do your projects and tasks similarly, you will save a ton of time by making project templates. Like this, you don't need to begin without any preparation. Expand on the layout you already have.
Consistent Team Collaboration
If you and your partners are taking a shot at similar projects and tasks, you can safely share files in the application or remark legitimately at a task level. It is much more valuable if the vast majority of your colleagues are working remotely.
Quick Online Invoicing
With a few tricks, you can transform your timesheet information or evaluations into an invoice. If you utilize a payment gateway, you can make invoices in Paymo and let your customers pay you directly from the invoice.
Paymo for Non-Profits
Paymo supports non-profit organizations or individuals who are doing something good. Each nonprofit organization or individual is eligible for a 50 percent discount if you are willing to mention Paymo's name as your supporter on your website.
Not all can avail of this discount. You will need to prove that you are genuinely involved in social work. For more details, check here.
The significant updates launched in 2019 will be the foundation for the features that will come in 2020. Here's what to expect next:
- Guest users who can collaborate for free in Paymo
- Invoicing module inside the mobile app
* Improved customer entry with in-application access to visitor users
* Mobile application (task management features)
* Performance changes as far as speed and strength
* Retainer ventures
* Redesigned Unbilled AR area
* Calendar view for tasks
* Copy/alter assignments in mass
I found Paymo helps customers accomplish their objective by offering them a full set of tools to eliminate tech torments and equivocalness, encourage collaboration, and create responsibility among your teams.
Lifetime Free Paymo Subscription
Paymo knows how to reward its users for their loyalty and trust. Thus, if you can write a review in any one of the platforms mentioning how Paymo has helped you, you can save $60 that will be credited to your Paymo account. You will need to write a review on Capterra, Alternativeto, G2 Crows or Chrome Web Store. Each platform has a separate requirement.
To win lifetime free subscription, you will need to write a review on all the three platforms.
Update 01-Oct-2017: Paymo has stopped this program. Now Paymo is free for 1 year for schools, colleges and universities.
The Paymo Affiliate Program
Paymo gives you the opportunity to make money as well through its affiliate programs.
- 10 percent recurring commission for your efforts.
- If more than 15 users come from your site and purchases a subscription, you get paid $13.4 every month for the entire duration of the client (28 months to 2 years).
To know how Affiliate program on Paymo works, see here.
Paymo has been the top choice for a digital marketing and advertising agency Phoenix the Creative Studio. The company recently turned up at the Canes Lions Festival, the biggest creative and design festival in the world. In this festival, their "Cannes Survival Kit" was an instant hit. The best part is, it was Paymo that helped this Montreal agency beat the big boys at the Cannes Festival of 2016. Read the full story from Fouad Mallouk, the company's president on Paymo's official Blog: How Paymo helped a Montreal Agency play with the big boys at the Cannes 2016 Lions Festival.
A quick roundup of Paymo project management tool:
Simple and easy to use software for project management, Paymo is steadily making a mark for itself in the overcrowded app market with its simple tracking project progress features and simple management solution.
The features and pricing are tailored to suit everyone making it definitely worth giving a try. If you haven't yet tried Paymo and are always price sensitive, start using it now for FREE. The one thing users love about Paymo is how easy to use it is, and I'm sure you will feel the same. Let me know in the comments if there's anything more to this tool that I have left unexplored.
Update: Paymo is committed to the new GDPR and CCPA guidelines and has ensured to respect the rights of the EU citizens. It includes (Right to Access, Right to be Forgotten & Data Portability).
Questions asked while reviewing Paymo:
Caroline is an editor and contributor to Wikipedia articles; loves writing around food, wine, and small business. For a short time, she also worked for the Polish marketing consulting firm.