16 Best Workflow Management Software of 2024 (Free & Paid)
Are you looking for reliable workflow software to help you manage your business workflows and processes more efficiently?
Below, I’ll share 16 of the best workflow management software in 2022, their key features, pricing, and my top 5 recommendations.
Monday.com
ClickUp
Hive
Smartsheet
Teamwork
Workflow management software is a great investment for any business that wants to improve productivity and efficiency. Let me explain why.
Running a business and ensuring it meets its business goals involves a lot of tasks and activities.
There are endless emails to send and respond to, back and forth messaging between the teams involved in projects, document sharing, task and project approvals, and so on.
It is possible to manage such processes manually, but there’s always the risk of mistakes and oversight.
The best way for project managers to manage complex workflows that involve several steps and multiple parties is to use workflow management software.
Workflow management software are software solutions that help you define and automate the various processes required to achieve desired business outcomes.
With a workflow tool, you can track the progress of various projects, follow up on pending tasks, assign tasks to specific people, share files and documents between various teams, communicate with those involved in a project, and so on.
Using a workflow system is also an excellent way for project managers to maintain a better project overview, track team tasks, streamline processes, and manage projects more efficiently.
Below, let’s look at 16 of the best workflow management software to help you improve business efficiency, increase employee productivity, improve collaboration, and shorten turnaround times.
Best Workflow Management Software
Here are my top choices for the best workflow management software in 2022:
- Monday.com
- ClickUp
- Hive
- Smartsheet
- Teamwork
- Asana
- Workfront
- Process Bliss
- Clarizen
- Celoxis
- Zoho Workplace
- Next Matter
- Qntrl
- Kintone
- Kissflow
- HyperOffice
1. Monday.com
Best For High-Quality Process Visualization
My favorite thing about Monday.com is its intuitiveness, as well as the colorful boards that make it easy for you to visualize your processes and workflows. It is also an excellent workflow tool for automating your business’ core processes.
Monday.com is a flexible and versatile workflow management tool that offers extensive functionality. It is one of the best workflow management tools in the market today.
Monday.com has an intuitive drag and drop interface that makes it easy to use, even if your team has no prior experience with workflow tools. It also has a simple employee onboarding process, so your team will be up and running within a short time.
Key Features
Multiple project views
Switch between calendar, timeline, Gantt, and Kanban project views with a single click.
Compatibility with third-party tools
Monday.com allows integrations with popular third-party tools and apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Zoom, Slack, Shopify, Todoist, Dropbox, and many others.
Custom automations
Monday.com makes it very easy to create custom automations for moving a project through each phase and assigning tasks to the right person at each stage.
Customizable templates
Dozens of customizable templates allow you to set up your workflow management processes in a matter of minutes. If you need complex workflows, Monday.com also provides you with the tools you need to build your workflows from scratch.
Engaging insights
Monday.com provides you with real-time data, insights, and process quality analytics that you can use to improve decision-making and increase the efficiency of your business processes.
Pricing
- 3 Work Boards
- 2 Team Members
- Unlimited Docs
- 500 MB Storage
- 200+ Project Templates
- Unlimited Boards
- Unlimited Team Members
- Unlimited Viewers
- 5 GB Storage
- 1-Week Activity Log
- Calendar, Timeline, Map Views
- 250 Actions for Automations
- 250 Actions for Integrations
- 20 GB Storage
- 6-Month Activity Log
- Unlimited Guest Access
- 25000 Actions for Automations
- 25000 Actions for Integrations
- 100 GB Storage
- 1-Year Activity Log
- Dedicated Customer Agent
- 250000 Automations
- 250000 Actions for Integrations
- Enterprise Analytics
Find out more Monday pricing or Monday review
Monday.com has an Individual Plan that is free forever, while their paid plans start at $8 per user per month.
The Standard Plan, which is their most popular, costs $10 per user per month. There is a 14-day free trial for all paid plans.
2. ClickUp
Best For Independent Workers And Small Teams
There are two things that I love about ClickUp. First, the platform makes it easy to automate your team’s tasks, workflows, and processes. Second, it has an inclusive free plan with more features than you’ll get for free on other workflow management tools.
ClickUp is an affordable, user-friendly, cloud-based process management software and project management tool that makes it easy to manage your workflow process in an efficient and accessible way.
Key Features
Multiple project views
ClickUp offers multiple ways of visualizing your projects and workflows, including list view, table view, workload view, board view, Gantt view, calendar view, box view, activity view, and so on.
Easy automation
Easily create dependencies that you can use to set up automated workflows and streamline recurring tasks.
Robust integrations
ClickUp allows integrations with over 1000 third-party tools and apps, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Outlook, Zoom, Slack, Zapier, Amazon Alexa, HubSpot, and so many more.
Collaboration tools
ClickUp offers several tools that make collaboration easy, including file sharing, ClickUp chat, the ability to post comments and tag colleagues, and project-specific chats.
Project templates
Whether you want to create lists, tasks, or projects, ClickUp offers customizable templates that you can easily tailor to your industry and specific needs.
Pricing
- 24/7 Support
- 100 Automations/Month
- Built-in Time Tracking
- Kanban & Calendar View
- 100 MB Storage
- Live Chat Support
- 1000 Automations/Month
- Guest Access Control
- Unlimited Map & Gantt Views
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Dashboards
- 10000 Advanced Automations/Month
- Unlimited Teams
- Timesheets Integration
- Unlimited Timeline Uses
- Priority Customer Service
- 25000 Pro Automations/Mo
- Unlimited Subtasks in Multiple Lists
- API calls: 1000/Minute
- Custom Capacity for Workload
Find out more ClickUp pricing or ClickUp review
The best thing about ClickUp is that it offers a free plan that offers most of the features a smaller business might need. ClickUp is the only project management platform with such a generous free plan.
Business users who need more advanced features can go with ClickUp’s paid plans, which start at $5 per member per month.
3. Hive
Best For Startups, Operations Teams, And Marketing Agencies With Remote Teams
Hive is a great platform with excellent features, but the feature I love most is focus mode. This feature eliminates all distractions and allows you to truly concentrate on your work.
Hive is a powerful and modern process management platform and workflow automation tool that is an excellent option for startups, operations teams, and marketing agencies.
Hive comes equipped with the right set of features to help you optimize routine business workflows, manage tasks, and improve efficiency and productivity.
Key Features
Flexible project layouts
All team members can create custom dashboards to visualize projects and data in their preferred way. Options to choose from here include Gantt charts, Kanban boards, table view, summary view, calendar view, and portfolio view.
Hive forms
Hive allows you to collect data using custom forms, which you can easily build in with Hive’s drag and drop interface. Once filled forms are submitted, Hive automatically turns the details in the forms into action cards.
Focus mode
If you want to put all your focus into a high-priority task or project, Hive allows you to switch to focus mode, which mutes all chats and notifications, allowing you to work in a distraction-free environment.
Project baselines
Project baselines improve your project management by allowing you to compare project progress versus planned deadlines and milestones, which tells you whether projects are progressing as planned.
Collaboration tools
Hive provides many collaboration and communication tools, including comments, chat, Hive mail with multiple individual and shared inboxes, project permissions, card priority levels, notes, and proofing and approvals.
Integrations
Hive supports integrations with over 1,000 external apps and tools, including Microsoft and Google apps, Slack, Salesforce, Outlook, JIRA, GitHub, and HubSpot.
Pricing
- Unlimited Tasks
- 10 Team Members
- 500 MB Storage
- 400 Gantt, Kanban, Calendar Views
- Unlimited Projects
- Unlimited Team Members
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Views
- Access to API
- Dedicated Customer Agent
- Custom Analytics Dashboards
- Advanced Permission Controls
Hive has a free plan with limited features that is a great option for individuals and small teams. Their Hive Teams Plan starts at $12 per user per month and comes with a free 14-day trial, while the Hive Enterprise Plan offers custom pricing based on your needs.
4. Smartsheet
Best Spreadsheet-Based Workflow Management Tool
What I love about Smartsheet is that it doesn’t tie you to workflow and project management. You can use it for any activity within your business, from resource management to governance and administration.
Smartsheet is a project and workflow management tool that is based on spreadsheets. If you like using spreadsheet software like Excel and Google Sheets to manage your workflow but feel limited by their basic features, Smartsheet is your best alternative.
Smartsheet gives you robust project management features and advanced process improvement capabilities.
Key Features
Collaboration tools
Despite being spreadsheet-based, Smartsheet offers several collaboration features, including notes, chat, notes, file sharing, automated alerts, and shared tasks.
Advanced reporting features
Smartsheet offers compelling reporting compared to most other workflow management tools. The best part is that you can generate and consolidate multiple reports with just a couple of clicks. You can then use insights gained from these reports for process improvement.
Data security
Smartsheet offers enterprise-level security for your data, with secure data centers, two-factor authentication, and granular user access control. You don’t have to worry about unauthorized persons gaining access to your data.
Intuitive automation tools
Smartsheet has a drag and drop automation builder that makes it very easy to set up automated processes within a couple of minutes. You can use the predesign workflow templates or build your own custom workflows.
Integrations
Smartsheet allows integration with several external tools and apps, including Google Workspace, Slack, Dropbox, Jira, Salesforce, DocuSign, Adobe Creative Cloud, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and many more.
Extended functionality
Smartsheet offers extended functionality beyond workflow automation and management, including digital asset management, resource management, project budgeting, project forecasting, portfolio management, and so on.
Pricing
- 1 User + 2 Editors
- 2 Project Sheets
- 500 MB File Storage
- Several Project Views
- 100 Automations per Month
- 10 Users + 10 Paid Editors
- Unlimited Project Sheets
- 20 GB File Storage
- Unlimited Reports
- 250 Automations per Month
- Unlimited Users & Free Editors
- Activity Log
- Proofing Support
- Easy-to-Use Document Builder
- Unlimited Automations
Find out more Smartsheet pricing
Smartsheet plans start at $7 per user per month, with the recommended Business Plan priced at $25 per user per month. Both plans require a minimum of 3 users. Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial.
5. Teamwork
Best For Simultaneously Managing Multiple Projects
Teamwork is the perfect workflow tool for teams looking for ease of use, enterprise-grade features, and excellent team collaboration tools. Teamwork also has powerful process automation features.
Teamwork is an excellent workflow software that makes it easy for teams to manage multiple projects and workflows from one central place.
The platform is easy enough for novices while offering more advanced features for power users.
Key Features
Project planning tools
Teamwork offers multiple features for prioritizing, tracking, and visualizing projects, including Gantt charts, task lists, and Kanban boards.
Task tracking and management tools
Organizing and managing tasks on Teamwork is easy. You can create tasks and sub-tasks, assign these tasks and sub-tasks to specific users or teams, set deadlines for the tasks, track team tasks, and so on.
Workflow automation
Teamwork makes it easy to automate your workflows by automatically assigning tasks to users, moving projects to the next phase once specific milestones are achieved, regenerating recurring tasks, and so on.
Collaboration tools
With Teamwork, you get an impressive set of communication and collaboration features, including file sharing, in-built messaging, discussions, note-taking, and external collaboration.
Pricing
- 5 Users
- Different Project Views
- 2 Project Templates
- Time Tracking & Dashboards
- 2 Projects & 100 MB Storage
- Customer Support
- Gantt Filtering
- 10 Project Templates
- 500 Automations/Month
- 100 Projects & 50 GB Storage
- Unlimited Client Access
- 3 Custom Fields
- 20 Project Templates
- 1000 Automations/Month
- 300 Projects & 100 GB Storage
- Project Budgeting
- Unlimited Custom Fields
- 50 Project Templates
- 2000 Automations/Month
- Workdown Capacity
Find out more Teamwork pricing
Teamwork offers a free plan that is suitable for individuals and small teams with simple workflows, as well as a 30-day free trial for their paid plans, which start at $10 per user per month.
6. Asana
Best For User-Friendliness And Ease-Of-Use
Asana is one of the most popular workflow management systems, which can be attributed to its simplicity, ease of use, and robust set of features. It’s also quite affordable, making it an attractive option for many businesses looking for a reliable business process management tool.
Key Features
Multiple project views
Asana allows you to view and manage your projects using a list view, Kanban boards, calendar view, timeline view, workload view, and portfolio view.
Automation
Asana allows you to easily create custom workflows and automate processes and repetitive tasks using triggers, actions, and custom rules. Asana has an intuitive drag and drop interface that simplifies setting up automations.
Team collaboration
Asana offers powerful collaboration features, including private chat, project chat, team communication, file sharing, task assignment, task priorities and dependencies, and so on.
Integrations
Asana allows integrations with 100+ third-party apps, including Zapier, Dropbox, Google Drive, Salesforce, Zoom, Tableau, Slack, and many more.
Pricing
- Unlimited Projects & Tasks
- Unlimited Storage & Logs
- 100+ Free Integrations
- Status Updates
- Calendar View
- Unlimited Dashboards
- Workflow Builder
- Task Dependencies
- Task Templates
- Timeline & Milestones
- Workload Management
- Advanced Reports
- Built-in Time Tracking
- Create Custom Rules
- Premium Integrations
Find out more Asana pricing
The best part about Asana is that it has a free plan that is actually functional. Their Premium Plan costs $10.99 per user per month, while their Business Plan costs $24.99 per user per month. Asana offers a 30-day free trial on their paid plans.
7. Workfront
Best For Large Organizations
If you’re looking for a high-end enterprise workflow software, Adobe’s Workfront is your best choice.
Workfront allows you to manage tasks, keep track of projects, manage project budgets, review and approve tasks, and so on. Workfront is best suited for large organizations.
Key Features
Resource management
Workfront uses artificial intelligence to automatically assign tasks and activities to team members based on their skill set and availability.
Real-time collaboration
Collaborating on projects is easy with Workfront’s communication and collaboration tools, such as status updates, threaded conversations, and file management and sharing.
Consolidated task list
Workfront provides a consolidated task list that gives an overview of all projects, their priority, their schedule and deadlines, the team members assigned to each project, as well as real-time updates on any changes made to the projects.
Streamlined approvals
This is a risk-management tool built into Workfront that automates and double-checks the entire approval workflow to minimize the likelihood of costly mistakes.
Portfolio management
You can also use Workfront as a document repository where your employees can access important company documents.
Top-grade security
Workfront offers top-grade security features to keep your data safe, including whitelisted IP addresses, audit rights, and encryption at rest.
Pricing
Workfront offers custom pricing for all their plans based on your specific needs.
8. Process Bliss
Simple Workflow Management Solution for Standardizing Your Processes and Procedures
Process Bliss is a simple workflow process management platform and project management tool that allows businesses and organizations to build standardized workflows across the entire organization.
It gives all team members access to the same information and helps ensure that everyone performs their tasks following a unified workflow process standard.
Key Features
Process templates
Process Bliss allows you to create templates that tell your team members how everything needs to be done. These templates can be shared and reused for new projects and workflows.
Easy task tracking
Process Bliss ensures that everything gets done by making it easy to track tasks by their due date and the person assigned to the task at each step. There’s also a dashboard that gives you an overview of each task’s status.
Collaboration
The platform has an inbuilt communication tool where you can communicate, share ideas, and resolve issues as a team. It also records all communication, making it easier for team members to understand the context behind different requests.
Integrations
You can integrate Process Bliss with over 2,000 third-party apps, including finance software, CRM tools, and email marketing tools.
Pricing
Process Bliss pricing is very straightforward. They only have one plan, which costs $10 per user per month. They also offer a 14-day free trial.
9. Clarizen
Best For Interactive Work Planning
Clarizen is a cloud-based process management software that combines workflow management and project management into a single workflow tool.
While it offers a ton of features, Clarizen is a bit expensive compared to many other workflow management tools, which makes it suitable for larger organizations and enterprises.
Key Features
Automations
With Clarizen, you can easily automate administrative tasks and other repetitive tasks and processes, leaving your staff to focus on doing work that matters.
Multiple boards
Clarizen allows you to create different boards for each project and workflow, making it easier to organize and manage different teams, products, customers, and projects. You can also create custom workflows for each board to suit the needs and processes of each team or project.
Resource management
As a manager, Clarizen gives you complete visibility into your team’s schedule and tasks, as well as resource demands, making it easier for you to plan and allocate your staff to different activities.
Financial management
Clarizen comes with a financial tracking tool that makes it easy for you to keep projects within budget and monitor financial metrics in real-time.
Collaboration tools
With Clarizen, you get a slew of communication tools that make collaboration easy. These include a social area, a chat app, comments with support for @ replies and hashtags, the ability to organize meetings, file sharing capabilities, and a chat app.
Apps and extras
Clarizen offers an apps marketplace where you can find and install apps to add extra functionality to your Clarizen setup. Clarizen is also compatible with external apps like Google Apps and Box.com and offers an API that you can use to build your own custom integrations.
Pricing
Clarizen has two plans with custom pricing based on your needs. However, they allow you to get a feel for the platform with a 30-day free trial.
10. Celoxis
Best For Resource Management And Issue Tracking
Celoxis is a fully-featured platform for work, project, and portfolio management. It offers an impressive set of features at a competitive price and is best suited for larger organizations.
Celoxis offers more tools than a small business might need, so small business owners will be better off getting a lower-cost workflow software rather than paying for features they might never use.
Key Features
Easy task tracking and management
For each task, Celoxis allows you to give it a name, description, priority rating, planned and actual start date, budget, status, completion percentage, assignee, and so on. You can also add followers and comments to a task, upload files, and track task time.
Budgeting
Celoxis makes it easy to manage project budgets, both for a flat fee and hourly billing. While Celoxis doesn’t have an invoicing tool, it allows integration with QuickBooks for invoicing.
Scheduling and resource management
Celoxis allows you to create and manage schedules, makes automatic schedule adjustments in case of delays, allows you to view dependencies that affect schedules, and alerts you about potential problems that might affect scheduling and resource distribution.
App integrations
You can integrate Celoxis with a wide range of third-party tools, including Google Apps, Zendesk, WUfoo, Trello, Salesforce, JIRA, QuickBooks, Harvest, and GitHub.
Pricing
Celoxis has a cloud version that costs $22.50 per month and an on-premise version with a one-time payment of $450 per user. You can try Celoxis for 30 days for free without having to submit your credit card.
11. Zoho Workplace
Best For Bringing Together All Business Tasks And Activities
Zoho Workplace bundles nine different apps into one centralized platform, allowing you to amalgamate all your business tasks and activities into a straightforward workflow. Zoho Workplace brings together document management, file storage, presentation, chat, email, and other communication tools.
Key Features
All-in-one dashboard
Despite comprising 9 different apps, Zoho Workplace brings them all together in one integrated dashboard for seamless multitasking and easier collaboration. You can perform multiple tasks without having to keep switching between apps.
Robust security
Zoho Workplace keeps your data highly secured with high-level security features like two-factor authentication, password encryption, and encryption at rest and transit.
Built-in Zoho tools
Zoho Workplace is compatible with all other apps within the Zoho ecosystem, which means there’s truly no limit to what you can do with Zoho Workplace. You can create documents, create presentations, edit spreadsheets, store and manage files, hold meetings, send mail, and so much more.
Smart digital assistant
Zoho Workplace comes with a digital assistant named Zia, who acts as a data analyst, a writing assistant, and a fully-fledged assistant who can answer your questions and search for data and information from your projects and files.
Pricing
Zoho Workplace offers two plans, a Standard Plan at $3 per user per month and a Professional Plan at $6 per user per month. Zoho Workplace offers a 15-day free trial for both plans.
12. Next Matter
Best Workflow Management Software For Operations Teams
Next Matter is a no-code, cloud-based platform that allows organizations to automate their business operations. The platform is best suited for operations teams in growing organizations.
Key Features
Automated task management
With Next Matter, you can automate every aspect of task tracking and management – creating new tasks, assigning them to the right users and teams, advancing tasks to the next person in line, and sending notifications.
Drag and drop editor
Next Matter comes with a drag and drop editor that allows you to automate tasks, design custom forms, create customizable workflows, and build business processes within minutes.
Unlimited integration
Rather than rebuilding new systems, Next Matter allows integration with most of your everyday tools and systems, including Microsoft apps, Google apps, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, and many more.
Operations Experts
Next Matter gives you access to highly-knowledgeable experts who act as an extension of your team, helping you make the most out of Next Matter and achieve your desired results first.
Pricing
Unfortunately, Next Matter does not have a free plan. Their paid plans start at $990 per user per month. They also offer a free 14-day guided trial.
13. Qntrl (Formely Orchestly)
Best Workflow Management Software For Optimizing Business Processes
Qntrl is a code-free, drag and drop platform that allows businesses to optimize and automate their business workflows and manual processes.
The platform acts as a central command center for your entire business and is perfect for use in medium and large enterprises across multiple industries.
Key Features
Layouts
Layouts is Qntrl’s form creation feature that allows you to capture data that you can use to create and define workflows and processes.
Lead management
Besides being a workflow management platform, Qntrl also doubles up as a business management platform that allows you to categorize leads depending on where they are in the sales funnel and trigger automatic lead follow-ups.
Integrations
Qntrl can be integrated with Google Drive, Property Tweaker, Harvest, Slack, Dropbox, and Checklist.
Widgets
Qntrl also gives you access to dozens of widgets that you can use to add more functions to Qntrl and allow more interactions between Qntrl and external tools.
Pricing
Qntrl offers a free plan with support for up to 5 users and a paid Business Plan that costs $8 per user per month, with a 15-day free trial.
14. Kintone
Best WMS For Communication And Collaboration
Kintone is a work management software with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for non-technical users to automate workflows, build databases, create powerful apps, and quickly generate reports.
Key Features
Automations
Kintone makes it easy to automate all the tedious stuff, such as sending reminder emails, getting work approvals, passing tasks to the next person in line, crunching numbers to generate reports, and so on.
Spaces
With Kintone, you can create micro-intranets for different teams, projects, and departments within your organization. These micro-intranets are known as “Spaces.”
Collaboration tools
Kintone makes it easy for teams to communicate within context with tools such as threads, private messages, user profile walls, and in-record comments.
Pre-built apps
There are over 500,000 prebuilt apps on Kintone that you can deploy right away, rather than building your own from scratch. This allows you to get started with Kintone right away.
Integrations
Add more functionality to Kintone by integrating it with your favorite apps and tools, including Box, Ricoh, Zapier, CData, Dropbox, Evernote, Eventbrite, GitHub, and many more.
Pricing
Kintone Professional subscriptions start at $24 per user per month, while plans for educational institutions, governments, and non-profits start at $15 per user per month. The professional, government, and education subscriptions come with a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required.
15. Kissflow
Best Workflow Management Platform For Enterprises
Kissflow is an end-to-end software for workflow management, business process automation, and performance tracking with support for structured and unstructured workflows.
Key Features
Visual design process
Kissflow has a visual design environment that allows you to easily design workflows and processes and make quick changes without writing code.
Preinstalled apps
Every Kissflow installation comes with 50+ pre-installed but customizable applications, including vendor payment, purchase orders, employee onboarding, mileage reimbursement, and more. This saves you the time you’d have spent building yours from the ground up.
Advanced reporting features
Kissflow allows you to generate powerful reports and analytics that provide you with actionable insights on how to improve your business process management.
Dynamic routing
Tasks, activities, and projects are automatically assigned to the right team members based on your organization’s standard operating procedures.
Fast integration
With handy tools like Zapier, as well as Kissflow’s REST API, you can easily link your workflows with virtually any external tool or application of your choice.
Pricing
Kissflow doesn’t have a free plan, but you can try the platform for free for 14 days. Their paid plans range between $10 per user per month and $20 per user per month, with custom pricing for their Enterprise Plan.
16. HyperOffice
Best WMS With Intranet Capabilities
HyperOffice is a multipurpose online collaboration tool that brings together workflow management, project management, communication and collaboration, document management, and an intranet experience.
Key Features
Highly customizable
HyperOffice allows you to truly make the platform your own. You can incorporate your own design into the user interface, make changes to the configurations, add your company logo to the platform, and so on.
Easy task management
Creating tasks and sub-tasks on HyperOffice and assigning them to team members takes just a few clicks. You also get access to tools that allow you to monitor and track the progress of these tasks easily.
Efficient user management
HyperOffice makes it easy to add and delete users and set permissions and limitations on what different users can and cannot access.
Secure document management
With their cloud-based system, HyperOffice makes all your documents available on the go, with enterprise-grade security features to keep your company data and information from the wrong hands.
Pricing
HyperOffice plans start at $7 per user per month. All plans except the WorkMap Enterprise Plan come with a 15-day free trial.
Key Features Of Best Workflow Management Software
With so many reliable workflow tools in the market, choosing the right workflow management software boils down to your business's specific needs and requirements.
That said, some key features are a must-have when choosing workflow software. Here are some of the features you should not compromise on.
1. Cloud Access
Always go for a cloud-based rather than on-premise workflow management tool. Cloud-based platforms are cheaper, and they also allow your team to access their work on the go and provide support for remote teams, which are becoming more mainstream today.
2. Automation
There’s no point in investing in a workflow management tool if it doesn’t support automation.
A good workflow management platform should allow you to automate repetitive tasks and processes and activities such as sending notifications, generating reports, pushing tasks down the pipeline, and so on.
3. Powerful Reporting
Your workflow management software of choice should be able to generate detailed and insightful reports about active and completed tasks and processes.
Such reports can help you identify bottlenecks, areas for improvement, the productivity and performance of different employees, and so on, all of which can help you make better decisions that make your organization more efficient and productive.
4. Deadline Tracking
When your team members are working on multiple projects, getting caught up in all the work and forgetting about some deadlines is very likely.
A good workflow management tool should provide multiple ways of tracking and managing deadlines, such as notifications for approaching deadlines, calendar views, or color-coding tasks based on their deadlines.
5. An Intuitive, No Code Workflow Designer
Process owners and users create the best workflows since they have the best understanding of the processes and tasks. Here’s the thing, however. Process owners are not coders and developers; they’re often non-technical staff.
Great workflow management solutions, therefore, are those that allow just about anyone to intuitively design their workflows without the need for code.
6. Support For Integrations
Today, businesses rely on multiple tools and apps to get work done. CRM tools, document management tools, marketing automation tools, calendars and scheduling tools, and so on.
However, switching between different tools every few minutes can be tiring and distracting, leading to decreased productivity.
When choosing workflow management tools, you should go for platforms that allow integrations with the third-party tools and applications your team uses daily. This allows them to get their work done from one central place rather than jumping from one app to another.
For instance, workflow automation software that allows integration with Google Calendar can pull your scheduled tasks, activities, and meetings from Google Calendar and show them on the platform dashboard. This way, you can keep track of your to-do list without switching to Google Calendar.
7. Role-Based Access Control
Very often, workflows and projects involve sensitive information that should only be accessible to specific people, such as management.
Your workflow management system of choice should make it possible to set up different user roles with different permissions and limitations.
This makes it possible to keep sensitive information secure while giving all team members access to all the information they need to get their work done.
Benefits of Using Workflow Management Software
A workflow management solution can deliver considerable advantages to your business or organization, including:
1. Reduced Errors
Doing things manually increases the likelihood of errors, some of which can be pretty costly. However, with a workflow management system, most processes are automated, which reduces the likelihood of errors occurring.
Even when they do, it is much easier to pinpoint where the error occurred, make corrections, and, most importantly, prevent similar errors from occurring again.
2. Increased Productivity
Workflow software allows the automation of repetitive and administrative tasks. When your employees don’t have to spend hours every day sending emails, following up on tasks assigned to others, and updating information from diverse sources, they free up time that they can spend working on essential tasks that push the needle.
3. Better Collaboration
Workflow management systems bring different teams together and allow them to see what others are working on, work together on projects, share documents, discuss active projects, make approvals, and so on. This breaks down silos that exist and allows tasks and projects to be completed faster.
4. Get Better Insights About Your Business
Mapping out your business processes and automating them gives you a dashboard overview of your business operations and allows you to uncover how processes affect each other.
This can, in turn, give you insights on how to improve various processes, get rid of bottlenecks, reduce redundancies, and make your business more efficient.
5. Improved Accountability
With a workflow management system, everyone knows what each job or project entails, the team members responsible for each task within that job or project, and the due date for each task.
Having all expectations and responsibilities clearly defined keeps everyone accountable and increases trust between your team members.
Workflow Management System FAQ
Workflow management software are applications and platforms that allow businesses to define and automate their business processes, assign tasks to team members, monitor and track work-related tasks, and enhance collaboration between team members.
Some of the things that workflow software does include:
– Give you a big picture view of your workflow
– Streamline your organization’s daily tasks and processes
– Allow you to create and assign tasks
– Enable you to set up an automated process for the entire approval workflow
– Allow users to manage documents and share files
– Provides an efficient platform for managing employee onboarding
– Provide a medium for enhanced communication between individuals and teams
– Allow you to define work stages and move tasks through these stages
– Provide a system for following up on pending tasks
– Some workflow tools can be used as content management platforms for publishing and storing your organization’s digital content.
Workflow management is the process of defining the paths that data needs to follow to get specific work done and then optimizing these paths for maximum efficiency.
Some of the steps that go into workflow and process management include:
– Mapping out the path required to complete a given business process
– Finding and eliminating redundant tasks
– Identifying opportunities for improvement and bottlenecks
– Automating the process such that work can flow in a streamlined manner with minimal human intervention
Good workflow management software will usually cost you anywhere between $4 to $50 per month, depending on the features offered.
There are some reliable workflow tools that give you access to their platforms for free, but it’s good to note that most of these free plans come with limitations that make them suitable for lightweight users only.
You should also keep in mind that many workflow management systems charge per user per month, which can significantly drive up the costs.
For instance, a platform that charges $4 per month might look very cheap, but if you have 25 users, you’ll pay $1,200 every year.
A BPM framework is a management concept that puts more focus on processes rather than outcomes.
More specifically, BPM framework assesses the current state of an organization’s processes and tries to identify ways to improve the processes to make them more effective and efficient. The idea here is that more effective and efficient processes will always lead to better outcomes.
The four main types of workflow management are:
– Project workflow management
– Process workflow management
– Case workflow management
– State machine workflow management
Workflow Management Software Comparison?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. A workflow automation software that works perfectly for your company might not suit another company.
The key to choosing the best workflow management software for you is to look at factors like the specific features your organization is looking for in workflow automation software, the size of your time, the integrations you want, and the ease of use.
In addition, you should go for workflow management software that is within your budget.
That said, here are the top 5 workflow software tools you should consider using.
Monday.com
ClickUp
Hive
Smartsheet
Teamwork
We recommend trying the free plans and free trials to help you determine the best workflow management software for your needs before committing to a paid plan.
Need more information before choosing the best workflow too for your needs? Check out our comparison articles below that might help you decide between the different workflow software:
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Martin Luenendonk
Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.
This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.