Mavenlink

• Collaboration and integration
• User-friendly
• Support
• Features
• Affordable

Mavenlink was the first project management company to collaborate and integrate with both QuickBooks and PayPal. The software offered by Mavenlink has a 5-star rating and is used by more than 500,000 people in over 190 countries. It is also one of the highest rated apps in the Google Marketplace. The project management software is user-friendly. It can be used easily on any HTML5-enabled smartphone. All users have to do is go to the mavenlink website and log in with their password information. The website tracks time with a built-in timer to help you stack on track with projects. It also gives you the options to receive email updates and reminders either instantaneously or in bundles that arrive in your inbox once daily every business day afternoon. The software integrates fully with Google Apps so you can sync your data all in one place. You can also track expenses such as food, lodging, mileage and entertainment. The software attaches receipts automatically to your records and can be detailed with specific pricing information and additional comments. The company also sports a number of support features for its customers. Customers can reach Mavenlink representatives anytime through a 24-hour live chat button located on the right hand corner of the company's website. There is also a support page that answers frequently asked questions and tutorials that guide consumers through using the product's main features. Mavenlink also provides personal guided tours lasting approximately 45 minutes that gives a comprehensive overview of the company's software. Mavenlink software furnishes the following features as well:

• Task Management w/ Task Dependencies
• Cross-project Task Management
• Time and Expense Tracking
• Online Payments
• Custom Project Team Names, Subdomain & Branding
• Personnel Planning & Personnel Cost/Bill Rates
• Advanced Forecasting
• Rate Cards & Budgeted Projects
• Work in Progress Reports & Project Summaries
• Margin Analytics
• Accounts Receivable
• SSL Security

The software is affordable for most businesses. Users can invite clients and collaborators to join free. The company offers a free 10 day trial. Plans start at $4 per user month when you sign an annual contract. A Professional Plan is available that provides integrated financial management at $29 per user per month with an annual contract. A Premier Plan also is available that provides comprehensive business management services and consumers are encouraged to contact the company directly for pricing information.

• Bugs
• Limited functionality
• Not suitable for large companies

Mavenlink develops and updates its software features frequently, and the support forums and tutorials tend to suffer from being able to keep up with customer support help. These pages and videos are not updated as frequently as the software, which can cause customers problems when learning how to learn and troubleshoot new features as they are released. There tends to be plenty of bugs in the system to work through when Mavenlink updates its software, which is a common problem when it comes to any software updates from any company. However, Mavenlink does provide its customers the ability to contact a customer service representative and ask questions any time of day or night to help offshoot this common issue. Another problem that Mavenlink has is its limited functionality features when compared to similar products from the company's competitors. One example is in Mavenlink's accounting features. Mavenlink integrates with the well-known accounting software program QuickBooks. However, many people have expressed the desire for Mavenlink to integrate with other accounting and financial programs. While customers have expressed this desire for awhile now, Mavenlink has yet to provide its customers with other options in this area. The software provided by Mavenlink is not suitable for large companies. It does not have all the features and benefits a larger organization needs to operate efficiently and productively. For example, Mavenlink does not provide the ability for employees to submit expenses for approval by upper management. Therefore, it is best suited for small teams and start-ups due to its limitations in the financial and accounting departments.  Mavenlink also does not provide pre-made templates, but clients can create and import templates they create themselves for use in the company's software.