Paymo is a collaborative work management platform that helps track team progress, collaborate in context, and make smarter decisions. It acts as a single source of truth, where project planning, resource scheduling, file proofing, time tracking, and billing feed into each other to co-exist under the same roof.
$0
Up to 10 users
Smartsheet
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.
Beautiful interface throughout, easy setup, most natural progressions are fluid and easy to use. Browser functionality allows us to use it cross-platform. Very reasonable pricing model as well. We have had a little trouble using Paymo for the entire creative process to have proofs reviewed and approved. Also, have to use external forms to have work submitted from campus.
For teams and users who are very familiar with Excel and its mode of operation, Smartsheet will feel like a walkover. If you have a number of users who use Excel or Google Sheets for their personal project management then you will find this tool to be very useful and somewhat familiar.
Teams that may be used to other project management suites or styles would find Smartsheet a bit challenging to adapt to, as formulas and formatting can be challenging to adapt to.
The ability to code exactly what time I worked on a project enables me to bill clients more accurately and within different minimums, which besides more accurately tracking time, this has been extremely helpful as I negotiate contracts for services and offer different deals with potential clients. Some are billed to the minute, some in 15-minute minimums, and some in 20-minute blocks.
The live reports are great, showing time spent in the minimums that I've set, while also including as much detail as I wish to share.
I've now started just writing my notes into the tracker, which are then carried into the live reports - this eases my needing to send logs to clients, as well as helping me to keep projects on track.
It would be really helpful if on the timer tool, they asked you to switch projects when you stop the timer, so it could fill that time in right away for you.
I never use the 'My Tasks' because I don't fully understand how to integrate it to be useful to what our purposes are in Paymo. Some Youtube tutorials might be helpful
Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded
Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency
It definitely meets our needs as far as organizing and archiving our tasks and files. As we train more staff to view it, I see opportunities for more improvement, which I am sure this program can handle. I look forward to seeing continued improvement from Smartsheet on their capabilities and functionality.
It is a complete, a bit overambitious app but with many features that are needed. I didn't need most of the features but managed to make the most of the two I was using. Also, I think it is a well-rounded app and I am considering moving some team collab there.
Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions
Good! Fast, excellent, speedy responses. They always wanted to know why and how they could improve on something (good on receiving feedback, too). Not that they were much needed, but my limited experience with them is good; they were really keen to understand what the problem was really about and how they could help with it.
I give this rating because it fills a niche in the market. MS Project scares many away from proper task management but there are limited tools our there, especially cloud-based that are mobile-friendly. Smartsheet fills this market gap, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. IT is not fair to compare it to MS Project, but fairer to see what gaps it fills.
It's absolutely paramount to take a few minutes to actually play with the software. It's nearly impossible to do anything wrong or make a mistake which cannot be fixed easily. Under the help menu is Live Training option. After you familiarize yourself with the commands, watch the live training for some in depth understanding of how to make the software fit your needs perfectly.
We still use Trello and Slack, but Basecamp and HubSpot are too much for our operation to manage or integrate. Paymo is missing some of the tracking features of HubSpot and isn't as universally used as Basecamp but we've been with them for 8 years and they seem to know what matters most to their user base
Jira and Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for Google Drive - I would say that Google sheets and Smartsheet are almost identical in my opinion when it comes to functionality. Personally I prefer to manage smaller projects via Google Drive, but it is a personal preference!
Gives me more accurate time that I've spent on projects compared to older methods I've used.
Has data that I can pull together, for example my boss wanted to know the percentage of time I'd spent working on projects for one client compared to everything else - I was able to give them an accurate percentage.
Forces you to stay on top of jobs, which can lengthen the time to complete something
