Studio Management App
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- Not_Just_Another
Hi guys,
I'm looking for any kind of app/tool/program that will help organise our studio. It'd be great if I could track a project along a timeline (with milestones etc) and to see at a glance who's working on what, urgency of jobs etc...
Have you guys got any suggestions?
- plash0
ms project & bascamp come to mind
- plash0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis…
better resource
- Not_Just_Another0
thanks, but has anyone got any experience of using one?
- dropdown0
http://www.b e ha nce.com/Products/Action_Method
- max_prophet0
Basecamp for sure
- vaxorcist0
Pivotaltracker
http://www.pivotaltracker.com/he…
free and good, but possibly more web-application development oriented for startup teams
- non0
Is there something out there that actually lets you create nice invoicing templates NOT in html?
- sublocked0
Basecamp / Cashboard
- itsmitch0
Until 37 signals allows me to use my own trusted server, I'll never use their products. I do, however, love the stuff they make.
What I've found is that simple is always better. I've run through several ideas before settling on a simple wiki (DokuWiki if you're interested). It has a clean layout (at least with the theme I picked), nice search, is easy to use, is easy to get out of if you change your mind (vendor lock-in sucks). Not to mention it costs nothing and Wikis will probably be around for a long time, so the software wouldn't quickly be abandoned (it's open source!)
I have pages setup for everything from vendor lists to code snippets to notes from articles I've read online. Every project I work on gets its own Wiki page that I update regularly with notes, timelines, e-mails, decisions, to-dos, milestones, whatever. I could come back a year from now, or two years, and see exactly how a project went, what decisions were made and how to avoid problems with certain clients.
I highly recommend using a Wiki.
- why can't i easily mention thirty-seven signals on this forum? what's so controversial about them?itsmitch
- non0
Never found anything that worked for me (fully customizable pdf invoicing templates, custom taxes, french and english language support).
I do everything by hand instead, might be a bitch, but at the end of the day, everything looks better and is better understood better by the client.
tried iBiz, Studiometry, Billings, etc.
- On The Job is pretty great, plus it's on sale at mupromo.com today.welded
- Cashboard meets all of those requirements.sublocked
- welded0
BaseCamp is pretty great.
- itsmitch0
I think a lot of people are having trouble with this because they're trying to find all-in-one apps. You're probably not going to find any all-in-one apps that go beyond being mediocre. For invoicing, I use On The Job from Stunt Software, it's simple and does a good job at one thing. For information dumping and project management I use DokuWiki. For generating contracts and all sorts of other forms I've built some simple web apps that use some PHP and AJAX on my local network. For example, my contract is setup in html. If I need to edit something, change a number, delete something then I use an Ajax click-to-edit (inline editing) to quickly make changes. Nothing too fancy but I can setup a custom contract in about 10 seconds.
- And no body actually thought of doing a complete and good all-in-one app?non
- Yes, lots of people have tried. Some are still trying: http://www.yayhooray…itsmitch
- can you send us any links to going about doing this ourself. i love the ideaplash
- Not_Just_Another0
Thanks for all your help guys - will definitely look into these!
Cheers.
- Samush0
aimed at freelancers but may be of some use
http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups…this is about billings apps
http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/…
- amullins0
This one looks nice. http://marketcircle.com/daylite/…
same guys behind the billings app
- boobs0
Can software manage a Studio without all the yelling and screaming? I doubt it.