Whether you are an individual handling a private project or a company running several projects with different clients and teams, you can use project planning software. Liquid Planner puts the project planning tasks you need online in an easy to use interface. Liquid Planner is organized in containers for task lists, projects, folders and clients and you use these to manage your schedule. It’s easy to start a project and then add tasks which you can see in an easy to understand outline view.

Tasks can be grouped in different ways, either by priority or by clients, projects and folders. Each of these has advantages depending on whether you want to focus on what is most important or get a snapshot of particular areas of work. One of the great features of Liquid Planner is that it allows you to set flexible start and finish dates for projects, recognizing that not every project will begin or end exactly when you plan. This is a good, flexible planning tool and if you are comfortable with outlining and tree-like views, you will find it easy to use.

Practical Uses:

• Track tasks company-wide to get an overview of project planning
• Manage projects for several clients
• Share documents with colleagues and clients and keep track of all changes within the Liquid Planner system
• Keep track of an entire team’s schedule from a single interface

Insider Tips:

• Use a single workspace for your company to facilitate scheduling and viewing scheduling
• Put a watch on items of interest to get immediately up to date with current progress
• Change groupings to see different views of the tasks and projects under way
• Make notes on documents shared within Liquid Planner so that all discussion is collected in a single space
• Find any item easily by using the search tab to search within the text for specific phrases

What we liked:

• You can be a member of several workspaces at once
• You can create time sheets within Liquid Planner and link them to billing
• Collaboration is easy because notes and links can be attached to all systems within Liquid Planner
• Deleted items can easily be retrieved

What we didn’t like:

• Those who have trouble reading Gantt charts may find it difficult to understand the schedule view

Alternatives:

• @Task – www.attask.com
• Basecamp – www.basecamphq.com
• Clarizen – www.clarizen.com
• Daptiv – www.daptiv.com

Company Info:

• Launched: January 2008
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington
• Founded by: Charles Seybold, Jason Carlson
• Web site: www.liquidplanner.com

Costs:

• Free to use for 30 days, $25-$35 per month thereafter

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)