What is our primary use case?
I was using Zoho Projects previously, but my company still owns many integrated software solutions. I needed the ability to track time within Zoho Projects that automatically streams into invoicing for clients, which is what I have been utilizing it for. I have a couple of smaller marketing clients. My process is that when I receive an email from a client, I put it into a Google tasks list, and then Zapier integration automatically makes it into a task against which I can associate time when I work to complete that task, thereby getting all of that information into Zoho Invoice for seamless invoicing capability.
I am using Zoho Projects through Zoho only. I do not have a private server or anything of that nature.
Only one user is using Zoho Projects in my organization, and that is me.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Zoho Projects that I have found is its time tracking. Zoho Projects is very vast and has large capabilities with very newest features and settings, but the time tracking has been the most valuable, and having that directly sync up to Zoho Invoice is essential.
The benefits that I have seen from using Zoho Projects are accuracy and time tracking; my clients really enjoy it. It is linked up to Zoho Invoice, which allows for invoicing where clients can go and see the invoice via PDF. They can utilize the PDF to forward to their accounts to properly aggregate costs against the business. The online feature of being able to pay their invoice online is really convenient for them.
What needs improvement?
I am used to working in To Do, which is a very fast platform. You can essentially copy and paste a range of tasks with various details and paste it directly into the platform, which allows it to handle them very quickly and accurately. Zoho Projects is much more enterprise-focused, so the functionality and flow is a little more restricted than I would enjoy. It has all of the same fields, but those fields are somewhat harder to get information into and out of than many other project management platforms.
As for features with Zoho Projects, the time tracking capabilities are very robust, but the method by which I start and stop the timer is not very fluid. As far as features I would like integrated, I am uncertain; rather, I see features that could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Zoho Projects for a couple of months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have faced no issues with the stability of Zoho Projects; I found it to be quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is difficult to assess because I am so accustomed to how much easier it was to derive the information I needed through To Do. I personally think that To Do is slightly more scalable; it works a little more easily in that regard. I can go straight from ideating within a spreadsheet to implementing within the project management much easier in To Do than in Zoho Projects. I certainly think Zoho Projects is scalable, but it is not a normal project manager where you would check off a task when it is complete. You have the variation of how done an actual task is, reaching one hundred percent before it would be considered a closed task. In some ways, for a small business, I feel Zoho Projects is a little too scaled and a little too enterprise. If I rate the scalability of Zoho Projects, I would probably rate it between a six and a seven.
How are customer service and support?
The deployment process for Zoho Projects is pretty easy to implement. However, there are some nuances that required getting on the phone with support. Their support is phenomenal; their agents realize that part of the reason I am likely to call is because I need Zoho Projects to work in conjunction with other integrated apps. With one agent, I was able to solve the issue that I was having with the tracking rates for Zoho Invoice. It was really seamless support throughout the process of getting everything set up, which could have certainly been a big failing on their part because it does have very nuanced settings depending on how I would like to configure my project.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I switched to Zoho Projects for the seamlessness of its time tracking capabilities into invoicing. Invoicing was proving to be difficult with Autodesk.
What about the implementation team?
I completed the deployment myself as I am a one-person operation.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before going with Zoho Projects, I evaluated several different options while looking for the most reliable solutions. I evaluated time tracking in To Do, I did so in Asana as well, and I looked at Monday.
What other advice do I have?
I would mention to other users who would like to start working with Zoho Projects to utilize the support available as much as possible to make their life easier. That was a big portion of what made things more seamless for me. Zoho Projects requires maintenance; I am consistently having to log time to tasks rather than just being able to check them out, and I have to go back and monitor the list constantly to make those particular tasks one hundred percent complete. I rate this product a seven overall.