Purchased by Xero in 2012 for NZ$6 million, WorkflowMax is another project management app often compared to Trigger.
We can understand why: both Trigger and WorkflowMax combine time tracking with project management and invoicing (direct to Xero), so on the surface, they have a lot of similarities.
But once you get past the Xero copy-cat screens, you’ll soon realise why we think Trigger (homegrown in Brisbane, Australia) is the best alternative to WorkflowMax (headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand).
1. Modern UI/UX design
One of Trigger’s strengths is its modern user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). WorkflowMax’s old style interface might be acceptable for tradies or accountants who potentially don’t need to prioritise design, but it’s not the best option for creative agencies and marketing consultancies who want to invite their clients into their project management platform.
A quick search on Google shows we’re not alone in our thinking:
“We think WorkflowMax is brilliant for construction, manufacturing and trades related businesses…” says an accounting firm source who conveniently omitted any recommendation for other specific industries.
Another source said, “…the UI is one of WorkflowMax’s least effective tricks. I wouldn’t call it ugly, exactly, but it is a far cry from systems like [insert competitor names - Ed.], whose interfaces are a joy to work with. Operations in WorkflowMax seem to require more clicking/searching/window opening than would be ideal.”
2. Kanban boards (including an ability to easily switch between Kanban and list views)
Trigger offers Kanban boards, whereas WorkflowMax does not. But on top of that, Trigger offers the ability to easily switch between Kanban and Task List views for a project at any time.
This also makes Trigger a better alternative to Trello (which only offers Kanban boards), as well as a better alternative to Asana (which offers both Kanban and list views, but makes you choose one view only at the time you create a project).
3. Better ability to manage your email notifications
In WorkflowMax, you can only select “on” or “off” for your email notifications. This is not very flexible because in a large team, “all” could mean 100’s of notifications each day/week and “off” could mean you are not kept updated at all.
In Trigger, we give you lots of options. You can set your email notifications to:
- Real time updates
- Group updates every five minutes
- Daily updates
- No updates (unless you are @mentioned, so you don’t miss something important)
4. Optional ability to show clients their billable info, target hours and logged hours
Thanks to a great suggestion by some of our customers, we recently added the optional ability to show clients their billable information (ie. the amounts they are billed, not an internal employee cost), target hours and logged hours.
This adds a whole new level of transparency for modern agencies and consultancies who wish to share and collaborate openly with their clients.
5. Free timer app
If you’d like the ability to track time without needing to open the Trigger or WorkflowMax applications, you’ll need a timer app.
WorkflowMax currently offers the ability for you to pay one of six external vendors (Actual, Eon, Adobe time Tracking widget, Timeslice, Prod Timer and Time Doctor) and then integrate your timer app with WorkflowMax.
Trigger, on the other hand, is launching a 100% free timer app in mid 2017 (so you do not have to pay an external vendor for the privilege of tracking your time in what is already a time tracking application).
6. Built-in reporting
Both Trigger and WorkflowMax offer various management reports (including CSV reports). We think our reports are more useful.
Current Trigger reports include:
- Company, Project, Task, Task Description, Status, Assignee, Due Date, Logged Hours, Total Hours, Employee, Employee Hours
- Tag, Company, Project, Task, Task Description, Status, Assignee, Due Date, Logged Hours, Total Hours
- Company, Project, Task, Billable Status, Logged Hours
- Uninvoiced Companies with Billable items
- Timesheets (by Company, by Date and/or Employee)
- Monthly revenue
- Billable hours
- My hours
We’ll also be launching a new Reports tab for our Trigger customers in June/July 2017 with even more insights to help business owners know what’s really going on in their business.
7. Ability to adapt quickly to your requests
Unlike some of the big guns in the time tracking and project management industry, we move fast at Trigger and can quickly adapt to your requests. We’re adding customer-requested features and improvements all the time, so if you have a great idea, get in touch here.
Want to try Trigger?
Don’t just take our word for whether Trigger is the best alternative to WorkflowMax.
