10 Vital Features of Project Management Software

Project management software offers features that make it easy to manage your team’s ongoing work, from task visualization to reporting tools. choosing the best project management software for your business requires finding the features that best support your needs, including the right types of views and integrations.

This guide details the common features of project management software and how they can support workflow management, to help you better compare the tools on the market and choose the best one for your SME.

Perhaps the most fundamental feature of any project management software is project planning functionality. Most tools provide multiple views to support different types of workflow management and teams. These may include Kanban boards with swim lanes for different phases of the project, Gantt charts or timeline views for an at-a-glance view of tasks and dependencies or calendars.

According to Chris Dukich, founder of Display NOW, a SaaS platform that turns digital displays into marketing tools, the best project management software offers multiple views so companies can use it in teams.

“Because our specific team involves managing multiple other team members, we use tools like Asana and Trello that allow us to exchange multiple views, whether in the form of You like KanbanGantt charts or calendars,” says Dukich. “This helps ensure that every team member, from marketers to developers, has an adequate view of the requirements of a given project.”

In addition to tasks associated with projects, project management tools often come with more robust task management features, including the option for individuals to track their tasks and for managers to assign tasks based on current workloads.

Task cards are highly customizable, including basic details as well as the option to add custom fields and information based on project needs. These details may include:

• Due Dates
• Task dependencies
• Description of the task
• subtasks
• Labels or labels
• Progress Monitor

While most project management tools include basic task features, customization and more advanced functionality—like dependencies or guest collaborators—may only be available with paid plans. Be sure to compare what’s included when choosing a membership level with your project management software.

Time tracking is an important part project managementenabling managers to ensure that resources are allocated equally and efficiently. Instead of having to switch between tools, the best project management software offers the ability to track employee hours right in the software.

For example, ClickUp has a built-in time tracking feature. Managers can view employee workloads to better assign new tasks, track billable time for billing purposes, and create custom time sheets for each employee. This functionality can help allocate work, identify bottlenecks, and streamline payments. (Try ClickUp for free.)

When planning a project, you often need quick access to various documents, spreadsheets, and other key files. The right project management software allows you to attach these important documents directly to tasks, making sharing easy across your team.

However, keep in mind that most tools may limit the size and number of files you can upload, depending on the software and subscription level. For example, Notion allows file uploads of up to 5MB for free users, but offers unlimited attachments to paid members.

>> MORE: The best project management software for small teams

Calendars, Kanban boards, and other tools are useful for checking project progress, but sometimes you need a clearer, faster summary. This is where dashboards come in.

Most project management software includes a dashboard that gives you a snapshot of your project’s status. The dashboard shows important metrics such as task completion, meeting deadlines, and division of labor. Whether you’re tracking a single project or juggling several, dashboards can adjust to show you exactly what you need, depending on your choice of software.

Smooth communication is essential to keeping any project on track, but constantly switching between apps to talk to the team can really slow things down. Fortunately, many project management tools come with built-in communication features. They allow you to discuss tasks or projects directly, tag stakeholders with important updates, and set notifications for specific progress milestones.

What’s more, some project management systems offer guest access, which can be a game-changer. With this feature, even people outside your team or company can check the progress of the project and receive alerts about crucial developments.

See what the platforms are rating the best project management software for collaboration.

Keeping to budget is a priority for any business, both within a specific project and for a team as a whole. Tools like Wrike allow managers to set project budgets and track planned and actual costs directly on tasks, while also providing high-level views of remaining budget percentages.

Bonus budget tracking features include the ability to set hourly rates to automatically calculate cost along with time tracking tools and the ability to customize which users can view financial information.

Built-in reporting is also a nice feature for project management tools. Instead of exporting data and compiling custom reports, creating graphs and visualizations or spreadsheets, some software will automatically generate reports and allow managers to customize the data in them.

“The monitoring and reporting capabilities within the systems have changed the game. Doing things like pulling reports and graphs for specific tasks, time frames and productivity levels allows us to take information and make decisions immediately,” says Dukich.

For example, Asana lets users create bar, pie, or line charts that show metrics like task completion, assignee workload, or time spent for a quick view of the most important data. (See our full Asana review.)

Project management software can already streamline workflows, but automation takes it a step further. Many tools have built-in or custom automation functionality, taking manual work out of menial tasks like moving task cards, scheduling work, or notifying teams of progress.

Like many other features, automation functionality is often limited by the membership level you pay for, with the most usage and customization available to higher paying users.

With Mondayfor example, the Standard plan ($12 per seat per month when paid monthly) only allows up to 250 automation actions per month, while the Pro plan ($19 per seat per month when paid monthly) allows up to to 25,000 automation actions per month. (Try it free for months.)

Finally, the ability of your project management software to integrate with the other tools your business uses is a great feature.

“Integrations with other tools like Slack and Google Workspace greatly improve communication and task management,” says Dukich. “Always switching from one platform to another is quite unprofessional and wastes time, because it is much better to be able to integrate everything in one platform. It saves time and increases team collaboration.”

Tools like Trello integrate easily with both partner programs like Jira or Confluence and third-party software like Dropbox or Salesforce.

The best project management software has basic task management functionality, including multiple project view options and resource management tools. Additional features to look for include reporting capability, automations, and integrations with third-party software your company uses for other tasks.

Choosing a project management software with features that support your business can ensure that your projects run smoothly, but it will also require you to keep an eye on your budget. Note that some features are only available at more expensive membership levels, so finding a balance between functionality and affordability is key.

Shop and compare prices of the best project management software.

Almost all project management software has basic features such as customizable tasks and project views. Unique features include automatic report generation, integrations with other software, and even generative AI tools for creating tasks or checking existing work for errors. Learn more about current trends in the project management space.

The main functions of project management software include resource allocation, task management and progress tracking. Other common uses for these tools are time tracking and budgeting.

A project management framework it encompasses the processes and tools used to plan and execute a project from start to finish. There are many popular frameworks, including scrum, waterfall, and agile methods, that focus on different priorities and best support different types of teams.