Issue Tracking + Time Management + Billing = smRty

We're working on a new service that we hope will have some interest for people like freelancers and other "loose associations" of professionals.

In my experience as a product director for web and software applications, there's often been a lack of easy, unified tools to keep track of a project and communicate with other project participants in a central, unified way.

Of course there are several project management software packages like Microsoft Project, but they (as MS products often do) share a common thread, they're generally too complicated and laden with features to be useful to the average user doing smaller more routine tasks... Great if you're doing a massive product launch for a new OS or you need to build a factory, but for the average $1000 website or timing how long you worked on some copy... It's a little overkill.

We needed a simple way to comment on things, exchange screenshots, keep track of our time and generally have a central repository for information related to a project.

We came up with smrty.com

By combining a discussion thread type interface that allows you to upload files, with a timer... We solved the problem of sorting through emails trying to find the latest comments or last change to the graphic... It allowed us to work with parties all over the world in an easy and manageable way.

We added RSS feeds to all of the issues and comments keeping track of our projects was easy using our favorite start page or RSS reader.

Of course once you've timed how long you're working on a project, the next logical step is to tie that into an invoicing solution. We designed it so that you can easily input the hourly rate for you and everyone else working on the project and have a consolidated bill created for your client.

In other words... My client is REALTORX, I bill at $50/h, My web designer bills at $65/h and my graphics person bills at $40/h, we also have to researchers making $20/h.

At the end of my billing period I simply review all the time on the project, make any adjustments I need to and then, generate a bill for my client. All of my sub contractors can also create an invoice for me, and the whole process is available for viewing online by any of us.

So... A short invoice simply stating the total times for each participant is created, any of which can be drilled down to reveal the full "play by play" of what they were working on.

We have lots of ideas for future improvements (like being able to clock in and out with your mobile phone) but we feel that the system is functional enough to be useful to others now.

As such we're launching it in the next week or so and would really appreciate any feedback you might have on it. It's free to set up your first project (and future ones are only $1/month).

Hope you like it.