The clock just turned 5pm, and if you are like us, everything you have worked on all day has instantly evaporated from your mind (yes, this just happens, we don't need alcohol). Luckily, we left all those papers on our desk, the scribbled whiteboard, and a monitor-o-sticky notes to help us figure out where we left off.

5pm by QG | Software is a web-based project management suite that provides us the tools needed to get back on track at 8am.

The underlying features of 5pm are fairly standard in the project management world. You create projects and assign them to one or more users or groups. The project can have a deadline, a client, and a priority level. Once you have created a project you can add items such as tasks and files. Tasks can be assigned to individual team members and emails can be sent to the group when tasks are completed. etc...

To help visualize your project over the course of its life, there is a timeline feature that shows your projects and tasks in a "Gantt" style chart. In addition, there is a reporting section that can help determine who is completing their projects on time and who isn't.

Intervals is a web service for tracking time spent on projects and related tasks. It lets you add/manage tasks among team members, budget project costs, create invoices, share project-related documents, and create a variety of reports.

The service has four business plans (ranging from $20 to $175 a month), and an individual plan that is free (though limited). The top two plans offer SSL and significantly more storage space for documents. All plans support web timers (to track how long you spend on a given project), but you can also enter time manually if you hate working to a clock.

Intervals is offering a 30-day trial on it's business plans, and they don't ask for payment info until after your trial (so they won't do the devious automatic billing without you being well aware of what you're getting in to).

After all that teasing, 37signals has flipped the switch on a major upgrade to Backpack, their incredibly popular web-based PIM service that can store and organize lists, notes, pictures and files. As if features like sharing / collaboration and mobile phone access weren't cool enough, this major release takes Backpack productivity to entirely new heights.


One of the most interesting on the list of new changes is a much-updated UI, from a movement of the toolbar to the top of the pages (pictured) to the much-requested ability to drag and drop any list, note, pictures or file from one page to another. While the toolbar's new location initially feels like a good move, we find ourselves missing the authority of the previous design, as the buttons to create new lists and notes stood out a bit better.


Almost as drool-worthy as drag and drop abilities, users can now also search across all their Backpack pages. A new searchbox mounted in the upper right (directly underneath the 'Make a new page' button) should satisfy most users who use Backpack for more than a few tidbits of info. Searching seems pretty zippy, and your search term is highlighted among the listed results.

Continuing the healthy list of changes are other welcome new features, such as multiple photo galleries per page and RSS feeds for shared pages so you can keep an eye on changes made by everyone else. Altogether, this is a great update and we're very satisfied with the new features. With accounts ranging in price from 'free' up to $14/month, we recommend Backpack more than ever for anyone from casual users who need a simple web-based locker for storing bits and pieces of their daily adventures, to power users with a serious case of GTD or project management on their back.

Okay, confession time. Despite being an early adopter for most things, I hadn't caught the basecamp train and got on board. Why you ask? I had no good use for it, though it is an excellently crafted application. I love software, and thus I checked it out, but for some reason I didn't see how its use would fit into my busy life, until now.

Becoming a self-employed web developer threw my daily routine out the window in a big way, and my preciously corporate sanctioned work-flow as well, giving me a new set of problems. One new problem I've had is process tracking, central information storage and updating, and project management. If this sounds like three problems, you're right, but they are tightly connected.

Having many projects and lots of information to track, share, and modify, basecamp handles with ease and makes me work less and takes care of these problems without taking too much of my time. I am finally "with it" when it comes to project management.

Developing software is no picnic (as you know), but now at least I know where the utensils are. Try eating potato salad without a fork, and you'll get the idea. If you haven't checked out basecamp (by 37 signals) it is worth it, there is a free account, awesome simple tutorial videos, and a great application to help you track life and work.

If you are with it, and use basecamp religiously (or casually), do you have tips for a basecamp beginner like me, or ideas to get more out of basecamp? We're all ears.

It's been a while since we've mentioned FreshBooks, the web 2.0 project tracking and invoicing app for freelancers and small businesses alike, but an upcoming v3.8 release is a great excuse for a refresher. FreshBooks is already pretty packed with features like creating, sending (via mail or email) and managing invoices, tracking time on projects, accepting payments and even sending late notices, so this v3.8 upate is more about refining features. Specifically:

• You can easily add staff members to any or all projects, making it far easier to bring on new personnel.
  
• Items can now be inserted into the middle of invoices, with AJAX goodness for updating the page and not interrupting your workflow.
  
• Timesheet details can be filtered by project or client, allowing you to track down just what you need.

The 'what's coming' list offers a bit more to sink one's teeth into, however, with features like quotes and estimates, future revenue reports and account statements to display all money owed and paid for a client.

FreshBooks version 3.8 lands Tuesday, April 17th 2007, and the actual update is scheduled to occur between 6:30 am and 8:00 am EDT.

WeBreakStuff has officially launched their project management solution called Goplan today. The online software is pinned right beside Basecamp, how will it fair out?

Like Basecamp, Goplan's project management solution allows teams to build an area where they can collaborate, manage files, chat and manage timelines through a calendar. Depending on what plan is chosen, teams using Goplan can also:

• Manage multiple projects
• Manage task lists
• Issue tracking
• Publish public facing project news
• Synchronize calendar's
• Real-time chat with project members
• Control who sees what and how
• Store project-related files in a secure environment
  

GoPlan is powered with Amazons EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) and their S3 (Scalable Storage Service) as well. The team has been working with a beta account for the past year, and launched the initial alpha on Amazons technology. WeBreakStuff chose to go the Amazon route because they didn't want to be affected by slow servers, thank goodness. Goplan will also use the much talked about OpenId in the future, supporting the ability to use your same login account info for other websites.

Pricing for Goplan's online project management tool ranges from a free two project account with no chat or calendar features, to an unlimited account featuring unlimited projects and 80GB of storage for $100/month. Is it a Basecamp killer? Highly unlikely, but now they have some serious competition in the new cleanly designed Goplan.

When Google Code popped up last week, the comparisons to SourceForge were rampant, and deservedly so. Google Code does everything (well, most things) that SourceForge does, Google-style. But how does Google Code really compare to SourceForge for actual open source project management? The anonymous blogger at //engtech has a good overview of of Google Code and how it compares to the SF juggernaut. He says that Google Code is easy to use and that "at the very least it lowers the barriers for project management. That might means more FOSS projects, but also a lot more crap to sift through."

The OmniGroup is setting out to beta release its "Mysterious New Product" OmniPlan software tomorrow, July 26. The product is a project management based application that lets users come under budget and on time. Not much information has been released about the product.

There is a private beta of the application that has been going on, with some outstanding reviews for ease of use, and capabilities. This is sure a welcome addition to the project management scene, especially if it really aids in coming in under budget, and on time! Omni currently produces application for Mac OS X only, so chances are, PC users are out of luck.