One Man Driven Project Management, Customer Management, Help Desk, and Issue Tracker (bugs)

Question

Hi all,

I am a single person with a pretty large client base. I am currently doing everything via email and basically losing my mind.

I am curious if anyone out there who freelances AND maintains their client's sites/projects uses any sort of combo of tools or a single tool... Paid or free... to aid in keeping more hairs on their head and organizing their workflow?

Here is what i am familiar with/currently use:

• Redmine: PM, issue tracking, basic(!!) customer mgmt.
• Pivotal Tracker: PM, Issue tracking

Thank you so much.

Answer 1

You should have a look at FogBugz, the issue-tracking/project management app of Joel's company. It's very usable, and there is a free hosted version for a one-man act.

Answer 2

All in One Tools:

• Basecamphq http://basecamphq.com/

Organising:

• MindMaps e.g. http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Project Planing:

• OpenProject http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/files/
• Gantt Project http://www.ganttproject.biz/
• Microsoft Project

Tracking your ToDos:

• OneNote
• Outlook
• Spreadsheets (Excel / OpenOffice Calc)

Source Code management:

• GIT
• SVN
• ... whatever

Bugtracker:

• trac
• mantis
• redmine
• ... whatever

There are lots of tools to choose from.

But they can only help if you change the way you work.

Answer 3

I use Gemini, with some OneNote, Word and Outlook for CRM.

Answer 4

activeCollab could be a good option.

Answer 5

I am not a freelancer, but we use VisionProject to keep track of all project, client communication, etc. It works great and can be configured to suite just the way you work.

Answer 6

I use clockingit.com. Free (with hosting), accessible via web browser. It is basically issue tracker with time tracking, but you can put customers there as well. You can also create gantt graphs.

Answer 7

For free/open source take a look at OpenAtrium. It's a project management app built on Drupal so it's got a good foundation and community behind it.

For a paid service take a look at Intervals. It's a project management app that also includes time tracking and task management and is targeted at developers.

Answer 8

I would suggest taking a look at CodeSmith Insight. It is a help desk with advanced application integration, so it can manage your email, crash reports, and user feedback all from one location. It normalizes data and keeps track of your users, stacks duplicate exceptions, allows you to register and use multiple email addresses, and prioritize your cases.

Best of all, it's free to get started.

Answer 9

For time tracking, I know someone who made prickle.