What is project profitability software?
Project profitability software refers to a specialized computer application or system designed to analyze and measure the financial performance and profitability of individual projects within an organization. It provides comprehensive tools and functionalities that enable businesses to track, evaluate, and optimize the financial aspects of their projects.
What features should a project profitability software include?
A typical project profitability software includes features such as:
- Cost tracking and revenue management: The software tracks project-related expenses, including labor costs, overheads, subcontractor fees, and other direct and indirect costs.
- Combining time tracking with costs of work, allowing the managers to see the status of their budget and current project costs in the real time.
- Resource allocation: The software helps businesses optimize resource allocation by analyzing project staffing, assigning resources efficiently, and identifying potential schedule conflicts.
- Revenue forecasting: It planning the finances for future period without sudden drops in profitability.
- Project financial analysis: The software calculates and presents key profitability metrics, such as gross margin, net profit, or return on investment (ROI), to assess the project's financial viability.
- Performance dashboards: It offers visual dashboards and customizable reports that provide real-time visibility into project financials, allowing stakeholders to monitor progress and make informed decisions.
Project profitability software: reviews and ranking
The list of desirable features in project profitability software is long - but is there a tool that have them all?
We have analyzed them to find the best option for IT services industry, and here are our findings!
Project profitability software: comparison
Primetric
General overview
Primetric is a project profitability software specializing in organizing, processing and calculating the key data on project’s costs and incomes. The tool offers a comprehensive approach to this subject, providing the managers with both detailed information on costs of every working hour and every overhead and the financial information of the company as a whole.
Additionally, Primetric was perfectly tailored to the needs of an IT company. With different billing types, advanced project budgeting and customizable reports, the tool provides a complete overview of every single operations, whether past, current or future. As a result, executives and managers can use the tool to make informed decisions and lead their businesses to brighter future.
Features
- full cost and income tracking for both projects and the company as a whole,
- finances closely tied to the tracked time and wages or hourly rates (depending on the type of employee); this feature also includes billable and non-billable hours.
- resource allocation that can be based on the costs of work suitable for a given project,
- comprehensive project financial analysis with settlements, and overheads, both one-time and recurring,
- enormous reporting feature with both financial information (i.e. profitability report, project progress report, costs of unutilized time, and more), and other useful data (i.e. utilization, timesheets, etc.),
- seamless integration with other leading tools, including Jira.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- comprehensive approach finances, resource management and business management as a whole,
- financial features to variety of different use cases common in services companies,
- finances combined with resource planning,
- advanced and smart reports with numerous customization options,
- quick and seamless integrations with other leading tools,
- a number of additional features, including capacity planning, skill management, timesheets, time tracking, and more.
Cons:
- high entry threshold mitigated by extensive training and consultant support,
- large number of features users need to familiarize themselves with.
Wrike
General overview
Wrike is a project management software that offers tools for project and finance management. With its budgeting and financial management tools, users can create and manage project budgets, allocate resources, and track expenses in real-time. Reporting and analytics capabilities provide insights into project costs, revenue, and profitability, allowing stakeholders to monitor financial performance.
However, that’s where Wrike’s capabilities end. The tool only offers basic budgeting with no billing types or overheads that may have a drastic impact on project’s profitability. Additionally, project managers would also find it hard to spot that difference, as the tool’s reporting only offers basic overlook of the finances, with no in-depth analysis of costs of the benched employees or additional expenses. As a result, Wrike can only successfully operate in less complicated projects.
Main features
- project management,
- task creation,
- build-in time tracking,
- progress monitoring,
- role-based access.
Pros and cons
Pros of Wrike:
- workload management features for mid-range managers,
- Kanban and Gantt view,
- numerous integrations.
Cons of Wrike:
- complex, but also complicated workload view,
- high entry threshold,
- limited financial features,
- not suitable for larger companies,
- unintuitive interface.
Mavenlink
General overview
Mavenlink is a project management and project profitability software that offers a wide range of features for project planning, execution, and collaboration. With project budgeting and real-time financial tracking, Mavenlink enables teams to stay within budget and maximize profitability. The reporting and analytics features provide insights into project costs, revenue, and profitability, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions.
Still, despite its attempts to include the financial features in the tool’s scope, Mavenlink mostly focuses on resource planning and project scheduling. As a result, financial options are only an addition to these parts of the system. They are also incapable of providing the managers with a bigger picture of all the incomes and costs in their company, greatly limiting their decisionmaking possibilities.
Features
- resource management,
- operations management,
- project accounting,
- business intelligence.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- complex resource management feature,
- intuitive interface.
Cons:
- known bugs and crashes,
- limited design of reports and Gantt charts,
- some features are only available in higher plans,
- limited overview of finances,
- no billing types, overheads or other advanced details.
TogglTrack
General overview
Toggl Track is a time tracking software that focuses on the wages and their impact on project profitability. One of the key features of Toggl Track is tracking the time spent on various project tasks and activities, helping to calculate labor costs and assess resource utilization. By gaining insights into the actual time invested in projects, organizations can better evaluate project profitability and make informed decisions.
However, while such a focus on one side of the finances might be useful for some managers, one could easily argue that TogglTrack is more of an accounting tool. While it certainly has its advantages on a basic level, executives would probably need to have some additional information to make the right decision - and this software won’t be able to provide them with many valuable insights.
Features
- project budgeting,
- payroll,
- basic financial reports,
- billing and invoicing.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- includes project accounting,
- focuses on the connection between work and its costs.
Cons:
- accounting-centered approach,
- very limited reporting with no bigger picture of the company’s finances,
- requires additional modules to include other key features.
Clockify
General overview
Clockify is a time tracking and productivity software. While it is primarily known for its time tracking capabilities, Clockify also includes features that contribute to project profitability management.
One of the key features in Clockify related to project profitability is its accurate time tracking functionality. Users can track the time spent on various project tasks and activities, allowing for precise measurement of labor costs and resource utilization. Clockify also offers some basic financial reports based on the tracked hours.
However, that’s where Clockify’s offer ends. While the tool can certainly be customized to fit a few more advanced features, such as overheads, it is certainly not suited to providing managers with bigger picture of all of their operations. It also may be difficult to analyze project’s financial performance in the tool, as there are only a few tools that can help users do so.
Features
- time tracking,
- reporting and timesheets,
- management.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- good time tracking,
- extensive resource management features.
Cons:
- very limited finances with some minor customization options,
- only basic reports,
- poor UX,
- the app tends to freeze at times.
Choose a comprehensive tool - choose Primetric!
Still don’t know which project profitability software to choose?
Take an even closer look at one of them!
Book a demo with Primetric, meet with our advisors and explore all the features with your own use cases and problems - we are certain we can solve them in a flash!
