Information contained in this post is based on publicly available documentation as of the most recent publish date. Products and features are continually updated and we will make an effort to update the information in this post to reflect those changes.
Having the right tools to support your professional services business is non-negotiable. It allows your team to dedicate its full attention to your clients. If you’re noticing inefficiencies, witnessing frustrations over communication or struggling to scale, now might be the time to search for software that can handle your needs — one built specifically for client work.
There’s a large pool of work management tools out there, and two you may want to consider are Accelo and Teamwork. But your time is valuable, and you shouldn’t have to spend it deciphering the differences between these two popular work management platforms.
Instead of digging for details, read below to discover which is right for you.
Teamwork is a project management solution built for client-based businesses. The software encourages internal and external collaboration with various task organization views and unlimited client access. It offers time tracking and schedule forecasting to help professional services teams balance their workload, plus budget and profitability tracking.
Teamwork's project dashboard (Image from G2.com)
Along with a free plan for up to five users, Teamwork has three paid tiers:
Teamwork integrates with 100+ apps, including:
Teamwork's profitability dashboard gives an overview of each project's performance.
(Image from Teamwork.com)
Real user reviews of Teamwork vs. Accelo reflect the strengths of each platform. Both offer complex task organization, employee time tracking, profitability management and client access.
They’re neck-in-neck for project management software and monitoring and resource management, and there are quite a few features by which they can’t be compared because Teamwork’s offerings aren’t as extensive as Accelo’s. Some users are frustrated by Teamwork’s removal of key features for loyal customers.
While Teamwork may seem to offer some of the features you need now, evaluate its potential to grow with your business.
Accelo should be on your shortlist when considering alternatives to Teamwork. Accelo excels at listening to our clients and their business needs, as evidenced by how long users stay with the platform and consistent recognition based on real user feedback — including G2 badges.
Let’s look at some of the reasons users prefer Accelo over Teamwork.
Accelo's Activity stream displays a client's entire history, including emails sent and received.
While Teamwork is an option if you primarily need a project management tool with file sharing and task assignment tracking, users note that, in its current form, the platform cannot be a go-to platform for everything a business needs.
Accelo is an end-to-end software supporting every intricacy of internal communication and stage of the client relationship. Its more robust automation and powerful API open the door to endless workflow possibilities that help streamline your existing business processes.
While its intuitive project dashboards make managing project progress and checking project status simple in Teamwork, these functions aren’t tied to other parts of the client journey like they are in Accelo.
Business leaders and project managers need comprehensive visibility — another area in which the two platforms differ. Teamwork offers resource management for internal visibility, but it doesn’t quite stack up to Accelo’s Activity Stream — specifically, the user-favorite email capture functionality that allows all parties to keep an eye on external communication history.
This is a particularly essential consideration if you run a remote team, for which communication about complex projects and client interactions should be easy and efficient.
Teamwork’s core platform doesn’t offer any sales functionality, but there is a separate CRM that some people like for its visualization of the sales pipeline and custom fields. While you can transition some information over from the CRM to Teamwork when it’s time to create a project, there isn’t a seamless process for creating, sending and accepting quotes. Thus, there are still some manual steps required in the handover from Sales to Project Management.
In contrast, you can use Accelo to manage the full sales cycle from the moment you land a new opportunity. Check your sales funnel on the Sales dashboard to get a sense of the mix of leads your team has now. When they’re ready, your team can make use of Accelo’s easy quote creation, quote acceptance via the client portal and one-click quote-to-project conversion to minimize the time between closing a deal and working on a new client’s project.
Both Teamwork and Accelo have built-in billing and invoicing and a way to manage recurring client contracts without an integration.
Accelo's Retainers product allows you to customize retainer periods and keep track of usage for each client, so it's built to support your most valuable long-term relationships.
While it’s probably not first on your list of components of great software, a friendly user interface can make a big difference in terms of how hard or easy it is to train your team or add on new functionality as you grow. Not to mention, a clunky UI can extend the time it takes to complete basic tasks, reducing overall efficiency.
Real users have mixed opinions on Teamwork’s UI. Some users say it’s simple and user-friendly, but others find it disjointed and outdated.
Accelo’s users, on the other hand, rave about the platform’s intuitive design.
Now that you understand how Accelo and Teamwork compare across some of the most critical areas, it’s time to explore how each could function for your business.
We recommend scheduling a demo of Accelo to solidify your decision and get any questions answered.
