I’ve been juggling multiple client projects recently (a mix of internal and external), and I’ve hit a familiar wall—too many spreadsheets, too many tools, and not enough visibility. Every team is using a different platform—some are in Asana, others on Excel, and some just winging it over WhatsApp.
I’m curious—how are you all managing:
Task delegation across teams
Timelines and progress updates
Client communications
Keeping records or proof of work for billing/tracking
Is there any one tool that’s been reliable for handling all this in one place? I don’t mind if it’s a bit complex upfront—just want something that actually helps long term and scales decently.
I’m testing a few tools at the moment—some promising, but each seems to lack
one key feature.
Would love to hear what’s worked for you (or what to avoid too).
Try Monday.com, it works well for tracking your pipeline, poeple assigned to the tasks in the pipeline, comms with clients and billing. you can try the free version to understand if it meets your needs
Well, I use Joplin with their Inline Todo Plugin: centralized notes, documentation, and task management in one. Joplin is not going anywhere, given the no of contributors. Mkdocs for my technical documents and Joplin for everything else. I avoid spreadsheets like the plague.
You can declare Confluence-style tasks from anywhere in Joplin, and they will be auto-managed on one sheet.
Use cloud storage/s3 for sync.
I have settled with Joplin after going through multiple tools and getting frustrated with one thing or the other.
Avoid:
obscure tools, web-based ones (almost always no way to export/migrate your data)
Look For:
Opensource (duh!), ability to export/migrate your work (if need to), privacy oriented (https://www.privacyguides.org/)
I haven’t tried Asana yet, though I’ve seen it pop up a lot in discussions like this. I’ll definitely give the free version a look—curious how it compares in terms of handling dependencies and cross-project visibility. Good to know the mobile app is solid too—that’s a big one when things move fast.
One thing I’ve been struggling with is finding a tool that handles both internal project planning and external client deliverables without needing to duct tape 3–4 platforms together. ClickUp came close for me, but it got a bit too heavy when the team wasn’t fully onboard.
Appreciate the tip—have you been using Asana for long-term projects or mostly task tracking?
—Trent
That’s a solid setup, thanks for sharing!
I’ve used Joplin too—mainly for capturing meeting notes and research. Didn’t know about the Inline Todo plugin though—that actually sounds super useful. I love the flexibility of writing things in context without switching tools.
Totally agree with you on avoiding obscure or overly locked-down web apps. That’s been one of my biggest frustrations: you invest time into a platform, and then there’s no clean way to export your work if you outgrow it.
That said, I’ve started bumping into limits when it comes to team-level project tracking**—especially with clients or multiple contributors involved. Joplin’s great for personal flow, but once timelines, assignments, or client approvals enter the picture, it gets a bit tricky.
Are you working mostly solo or with a team? Just curious how you handle shared visibility and task accountability when things grow beyond your own dashboard.
—Trent
Hey, thanks for jumping in!
I haven’t used Monday.com myself, but I’ve heard good things—especially for sales pipelines and client comms. Might give the free version a spin just to see how it compares.
I’ve been using ClickUp for a while now. I really like how flexible it is—everything from tasks to docs to time tracking in one place. But to be honest, it can get overwhelming when multiple departments (especially non-technical folks) are involved. Some of the views get cluttered fast if the setup isn’t super clean.
I’m still exploring a couple of tools that handle more structured timelines and reporting across projects—stuff that works well for both tech and non-tech teams. It’s tricky to find the right balance between ease of use and real visibility.
Have you used Monday with mixed teams before? Curious how well it holds up when the team isn’t all in the same workflow mindset.
Ok I understand what you mean. before I explain what I use, I think what you are looking for is not a tool but a tried and tested philosophy and I think you need something like a kanban board to better manage your tasks.
You might not find that in a standalone app; a better approach would be to self-host something. Before I switched to my current solution, I had a self-hosted instance of https://kanboard.org/ simple and easy.
I have now switched to self-hosted GitTea instance for project-related tasks, even if it has nothing to do with development, I just create a repo with project-related things and create issues for tasks. But believe me, Kanban board is what you are looking for…
I’m just someone genuinely trying to streamline my workflow across a few client projects—and figured the forum would be a great place to hear what others are doing. If my posts felt a bit “structured,” it’s probably because I’ve been testing different tools lately and trying to organize my thoughts clearly (before I forget them).
Appreciate you checking in though—always good to keep the community clean and real!
That’s really interesting—thanks for sharing your setup!
To be honest, I haven’t used a proper Kanban board yet (outside of to-do style task lists), but I’ve heard a lot about how helpful it can be for visualizing workflow. Your point about it being more of a philosophy than just a tool really resonates.
I’ve been testing out a platform called Celoxis recently—it’s not self-hosted, but it offers multiple views (including Kanban), along with deeper features like Gantt charts, time tracking, and client access. For someone like me juggling multiple client projects, it’s been helpful to have structure without feeling too locked in.
Still learning as I go—but it’s been interesting to see how these different tools shape how we actually think about managing work.
Curious—was the shift from Kanboard to GitTea mostly for simplicity, or did it help you centralize everything better?
—Trent
Appreciate the input!
I’m actually open to both self-hosted and SaaS right now—just trying to figure out what scales better if I start looping in more clients or collaborators down the road. Obsidian is really nice though—I’ve used it a bit for personal notes but haven’t tried the Tasks plugin yet. Sounds perfect for solo workflows.
How do you handle deadlines or client feedback with Obsidian? Do you pair it with anything else for communication or tracking, or is it mostly just for your own internal notes/tasks?
—Trent
That’s really cool—and impressive to hear it’s working well at that scale!
Honestly, I love hearing how tools get used in totally different ways. Sometimes the simplest use cases (like a to-do list) end up being what people stick with the most. I’ve definitely been guilty of overcomplicating setups in the past when a simple list would’ve done the job.
Are you mainly using it within one team, or is it rolled out company-wide across different departments?
Simplicity and usecase (manage my code and projects in one place). Btw if you decide to go git route, you can always create private repos in github and gitlab and use issues to track project and collaborate.
Haha, fair point! I’ll tone it down next time—guess I got carried away trying to connect all the thoughts. Appreciate the callout
But seriously, curious to hear what’s been working for you—especially if you’ve found something that keeps project tracking simple without bouncing between 5 different tools.
That’s a solid setup—especially being able to manage both code and project tasks in one place. I’ve used GitHub issues a bit before, mostly for dev-related work, but haven’t tried it across mixed teams.
Curious—have you found non-developers (like design or marketing folks) comfortable with using GitLab or GitHub for project tracking? Or is it more of a dev-only space in your case?
I’ve been on the lookout for something that can support that technical + non-technical collaboration without losing people along the way, Appreciate the tip either way—definitely a good route for code-centric teams!
Yeah, I’ve heard great things about Notion—super flexible and clean UI. But yeah, the pricing can definitely add up, especially if you’re trying to scale it across multiple teams or clients.
Did you end up customizing it a lot for task tracking and timelines? I’ve seen people use it almost like a CRM or even a full-on PM tool, but I wonder how well it holds up when you’ve got a mix of internal + client-facing workflows.
Would love to hear how you’ve set it up (or what you’d do differently if starting from scratch). I’m still exploring options that balance structure with usability—especially something that non-technical folks won’t hate using.
Sorry for the delayed reply. yes we use monday with mixed teams , we will have to stabilise the teams process and get them to agree. So Monday is a flexible tool where your teams can suggest changes and everybody gets to agree at some point. if there are still holdouts then its a personality problem and not a tool one
. Been great at both
