Are you in need of an open source task manager? TaskFreak is definitely one solution. I came across this project recently and took a tour through the Demo and it seems promising. You can create tasks and order them by priority and deadline. You can also organize your tasks by project and context. It’s setup for Multi-Users so it could work well for your business and your employees. Here’s a shot of the interface. If you check out the demo you will find out how simple it is to use:

I’m thinking about giving this software a try for some of the designers and programmers that I outsource to. I’m thinking that the simplicity of this program may be perfect with my interaction with some of my people. If you have any experience using this software your feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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Group Office is an open source calendering and email web based client. Think of like Outlook only online and web based so that you can access it anywhere. It’s also free and open source unlike Microsoft Outlook. And even better, it’s not just a calendar and a email client. It also has project management and tasks to allow you to run your business. It’s setup for multi user so that you can have your whole staff run it. And because of it’s contributing community there are many Modules that have been created to add new and more functionality to your Group Office system.

Web based is the way to go! And so is open source. Group Office is a great tool to keep business overhead costs low and to keep your small business effective. Click here to for more information on how to get Group Office and click here to get to their demo of the application.

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I have setup ActiveCollab for an Internal Project Blog at my job PatientDocs.com. I have been reading various articles and blogs that are talking about “Internal Blogs” that companies are using for internal communication and projects. Then my slow brain put two and two together. ActiveCollab is just as much a “blog” as it is a project management tool. And that’s why I have naturally fallen in love with it so much. It’s RSS capabilities as well as it’s Messages feature are the two features I use the most. But instead of just having a regular blog, you have some additional project management type features to go along with ActiveCollab like milestone management and task management. If you have plans on setting up an Internal Blog within your companies walls for project purposes, use the open source ActiveCollab solution and you won’t be disappointed. You will find that you will get the communication effectiveness that you get from a regular blog and the task management and tracking that you get from an ERP or CRM. ActiveCollab open source project management software can be found at www.activecollab.com

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Timetrex.com is an open source payroll and time management system built in PHP and MySql. The system helps you with the following…

• Scheduling
• Payroll
• Job Costing
• Attendance
• Invoicing
• etc.

For companies looking for a solution in this area, Timetrex could be an great solution. Go to www.timetrex.com to see their website and download the files. Installation instructions are provided.

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ActiveCollab, the open source project management software that I have previously discussed in this blog, has recently given a new business venture of mine great new opportunites for success. I have taken on a new project management position with a company called PatientDocs, a company that builds websites and online forms for people in the medical industry. I have setup ActiveCollab to help our team manage all of the new projects for our new clients as they come in. This task is originally why I setup the program.

In setting up the support and customer service infrastructure for PatientDocs, I came across another way ActiveCollab can help me and my business. I created a project called “support” and gave permissions for all members of my custoner service team for that project. The team uses the “messages” feature of collab to submit “tickets”(customer requests). Then tickets are responded too using the discussion thread for each message. It’s Genius! I’m sure i’m not the first who thought of it. But it’s still a great use of a great project management tool.

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Google provides a free calendar system called Google Calendar. It’s free when you sign up for your free Gmail account. This tool, along with many others, just makes Google “da bomb” I guess you could say. There are so many calendering systems that are being developed on the internet today. Both Open Source and Proprietary. So many of these calendars come with so many bells and whistles. Many of which, will never be used by most small business professionals. Meanwhile, Google Calendar has managed to build a very stable, workable, simple yet complex at the same time calendaring system that’s free for all who want to use it.

The way I use Google Calendar for my business is by managing my own calendars as well as calendars for my employees. In my Google Calendar account, I am able to setup as many calendars as I want. I can name them what I want. Then best of all, I can share those calendars with whom I choose. And best of all, I did not need to spend the time or effort, to setup or build my own calendar system on the web. Instead, I took a few seconds to setup my calendars and “bam”, I was good to go. I find Google Calendar very helpful in scheduling out my time as well as the time of my employees. I recommend you give it a shot. Click here to learn more about Google Calendar.

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