Summary:  Project management software that doesn't cost a lot and delivers value.

A new release from LiquidPlanner last week got me thinking about the various options available to the project managers out there that don't have access to an expensive piece of management software or just need something for a brief period of time.

Here are a bunch of features that might resonate with you (especially if you are now not using anything for that huge remediation project, or three of them).

Top Level Features

Project & Portfolio Views - View high-level overviews or task-level details of your project schedules in one easy-to-manage space.
 
Multi-level Organization - Create clients, projects, and tasklists so you can view, filter, and zoom in on tasks at any level of detail, no matter how complex the work.
 
Drag-and-Drop Prioritization - Change the order of scheduled tasks in a snap by dragging and dropping items as priorities shift.
 
Real-time Scheduling - No matter how many people are working on your plan at once, rescheduling happens automatically and on the spot, so you’re always up to date.
 
Schedule Flow-Around - When a task or project gets delayed, your next-highest priority work will automatically jump ahead in your schedule.
 
Dependencies - Create dependency links between tasks assigned to different owners so you can build realistic schedules.
 

Team management
 
Assign & Prioritize Tasks and Projects - Easily assign items to individual resources and prioritize work for your team across projects. Drag and drop items to adjust schedules as needs change.
 
Trusted, Flexible Team Model- Include off-shore resources, contractors, or consultants in your secure project space. LiquidPlanner is always on so you can connect, disconnect, and invite new members at any time.
 
Automatic Resource Balancing - LiquidPlanner ensures that each team member is scheduled to be working on his highest-priority task at all times, so no one is ever sitting around waiting for something to do.
 
Personalized To-Do Lists - Each user of the system has his own, customized view of their tasks in priority order, so he can get to work on the right stuff right away.
 
Email Notifications - Get updated via email when a task is completed, assigned, commented on, and more. Stay connected to your projects even when you're not logged into to the system.

Secure Project Portals – Share a streamlined view of individual projects with external clients or stakeholders (and collaborate with them) in a secure way. Keep them in the loop on projects without having to spend hours creating separate status reports, and exchange files, comments, schedules, and notes on projects in a centralized place
 
Twitter-like Commenting – Through a dashboard-based chat application, team members’ comments and questions related to tasks and ideas are integrated directly into the project plan.
 
Wiki-like Project Details & Document Sharing– Create a single source of project truth by keeping all communication, descriptions, documents, and links related to a task or project attached directly to the item right in the project plan.
 
50 GB of Document Storage –Store documents of any type in the cloud, so they're accessible wherever you go and directly linked to the relevant tasks or projects in your plan.

Track time

 Professional Timesheets – Team members can track their time in whatever increments make the most sense (minutes, hours, days, etc.), right in the project plan. Managers get an easy way to view how resources are being utilized.
 
Timesheet Review - Jump to the time period or team member you need and quickly process timesheets for billing.
 
Timesheet Export – Export timesheets to Quickbooks, CSV, or XML format for integration with your billing system. Sort, analyze, and review data by client, project, resource, time period, and more.
 
Project & Workload Analysis- View the amount of work assigned to each team member on a project and make critical decisions about resource needs and task assignments. Includes burn-down charts, graphs of total work completed, and a map of each project's scheduled completion dates over time.

Competitors in this space include Basecamp, Clarizen, Huddle, and Viewpath.