Team Manager Version 2.5

1. Project Center - Create, edit, delete, and view projects. Projects can be categorized for grouping and cross-project reporting. New in Version 2: Archive Projects - so that they remain in the system, but don't show in the list of active projects.
    
2. Collaborative Project Management - In shared mode (optional), project management can be a joint responsibility where every task-owner can create and manage his/her own tasks; ideal for independent project teams. In managed mode, everybody still has access and can view updates in real-time, however, assigning tasks, changing the scope, etc. are the responsibility of the project manager only, or assign CoPMs to share this responsibility with a select few.
    
3. Project Files - Share files relevant to the project and its team members. The rules are simple. Every team member can upload files, and every team member can download any file. No one can overwrite files (identical file names are accepted and the system distinguishes via time stamp and uploading user). Files can only be deleted by their owners, the original uploader. All project files will be deleted, when the project gets deleted.
    
4. Project Plan - Add, delete, and edit tasks. Tasks are displayed in a Gantt Chart or a Table View from which you can select any task for further details and activities, such as assigning tasks to team members, setting dependencies between tasks, submit plan changes, report progress, and view the predicted duration. Remember: Although Project Plan is one of the key features of Team Manager, its use is optional. In other words, for very simple projects, it may be sufficient to use Action Items (instead of Tasks), and some of the collaboration features to get things done just fine.
    
5. Templates - if your projects are somewhat repetitive either as a whole or in part, you can store plans as templates for re-use. When creating a new plan, or when adding tasks to a plan, you can then insert previously stored templates as building blocks.
    
6. Skills & Rates - You can specify skills and hourly cost rates per skill per person to plan your project cost. Each task can have a required skill so that you only assign people with that skill. You can also specify hourly billing rates per skill for each project, thereby enabling extended billing reports for income, for cost, and for profit analysis. 
    
7. Action Items - Manage Action Items. Action Items are similar to tasks in the sense that they describe something you need to "do" and complete by a given date, however, they are not part of a schedule, and they do not have prerequisites or dependencies. Sometimes, a project may not be complex enough to warrant a real Project Plan, in which case it's nice if you have some place where you can assign and track "things to do". Even if you have a full plan, a project still develops action items that are not necessarily items of any duration. For example, if part of a project would be to go visit existing customers for a requirements analysis, buying airline tickets, or making hotel reservations, it would not make much sense to have this in a Project Schedule -  these are much better  candidates for action items for the office manager. Action Items also allow forwarding of items to different people allowing for a mini-workflow. This can be utilized for handling change orders, bug reports, improvement suggestions, etc.
    
8. Team Calendar - A calendar that shows all dates and events pertaining to the current project. It shows the start dates and end dates for all tasks, all deadlines of action items, dates of online conferences, and all additional team events. The calendar view thereby gives you a good chronological overview of what's going on at any given time. Hyperlinks lead directly to the source of the information.
    
9. Message Board - A bulletin board to share and discus any project related matter publicly. Since the posts stay alive until the project gets deleted, it is a good reference also for people joining a team in the middle of the project. Compared to the online Conference (Chat), a message board does not require people to discus topics live - meaning you can answer a question a day later.
    
10. Conference - Online chat provides an efficient way of communicating with people in different locations in real-time. It's like a conference call, only that you can read instead of hear what is being said. The benefit is that people can actually "talk" simultaneously, that everything is recorded, and that meeting minutes (aka Transcripts) can be produced with a mouse click. Stored transcripts appear in the team calendar and the conference transcript archive, and they can be recalled by any team member for reference. A great feature, if people not present during the conference need to catch up. It also allows to document instructions, decisions, issue resolutions, etc. Conference transcripts cannot be deleted. They are deleted when a project gets deleted.
     
11. Reports - Provides numerous reports to summarize a project's data. The reports range from simple task lists to reports that focus on performance, on financial variance, on the chronology of events etc. Reports are sorted and grouped by Task ID, Category, Assignee, and Status. Multi-Project Reports allow for overview across multiple activities. Reports support Microsoft Excel and import into Microsoft® Project.
     
12. Resources - The all new resources module will show the current occupation/availability of all team members on a daily basis. If you include a plan with not-yet-assigned tasks, the system will make automated assignment suggestions based on availability and skill. Team Manager maintains a resource pool that can be shared across multiple projects.
     
13. Inbox - Team Manager has a built-in messaging system. The purpose is not to replace your email system. Its main purpose is to keep record of project related messages and to keep track of the dates and times when messages were sent, and when they were read by their recipients. When logged in, you will receive a notification alert (within one minute) when a new message arrives in your Inbox. The internal messaging service is therefore also useful for inviting Team Members to ongoing online conferences, etc.
     
14. My Documents - A place where you can store personal files, interim files, and any other files you would like to be able to access from remote. E.g. if your project includes visiting customers, and - let's assume you don't have a laptop when you visit, accessing a PPT presentation from your personal file store over the web may be just the right solution.
     
15. My Tasks - A list of tasks that you have been assigned to. The list includes tasks from all projects you are a team member of. From here you can also file progress updates for each of your tasks. In collaborative projects, team members can also add new tasks from this section. In Version 2, tasks can be grouped by Project, Custom Field, Confirmed vs. Planned, etc.  An indicator shows whether tasks are dependent on other tasks, and what their current progress is.
     
16. My Action Items - A list of action items assigned to you or created by you. These include project action items and action items you have created as personal items. More details about action items, see above.
     
17. My Calendar - A calendar that shows all dates and events pertaining to you. It shows the start dates and end dates for all tasks assigned to you, all deadlines of your action items (both personal and project related), and all personal events.
     
18. My Time Off - In Version 2 you can now plan for time off, this includes not only bank holidays, vacation, or sick days, it can also include any other time that you are not available for project work. Time Off can be paid time off, such as vacation, or unpaid time off, such as working part-time. Team Members can request time off and managers can approve time off.
     
19. My Time Sheets - In Version 2, we have introduced time sheets. Every confirmed task shows up in your time sheets. By default you see a list of tasks that are planned for the current week, however, you can also select and add tasks from previous or future weeks, if you need to report time you spent ahead of schedule, or past schedule. Time sheets can be filled incrementally, i.e. daily, weekly, or whenever you know how much time you have spent on a particular day and task. Time sheet elements remain editable until they get approved. Time sheet data is also used for the billing reports.
     
20. My Expenses - Every project and every organization incurs expenses other than the accumulated cost of time spent. The new Expenses module allows you to file your expenses, whether project related or not, and for each expense item you can specify whether it's refundable to the employee, and whether it's billable to the client. Management can approve these expense reports. A separate expense summary report is available with output into Microsoft Excel for viewing and printing.
     
21. Contact Manager - allows to manage an unlimited list of contacts. Contacts are not necessarily users of the system, but they can be customers, billing addresses, prospects, subject matter experts, vendors, travel agencies, you name it. Each contact can be linked to one or more projects. Each contact can also have an unlimited list of Notes attached - shared amongst Team Members.
     
22. General Notes - In Version 2 many data items, i.e. tasks, action items, messages, bulletin board topics, and files can have notes attached. Notes can be contributed by everyone that has access to view the item. Notes are sorted in descending order, meaning the last one is always shown first. Data items that have notes attached show a notepad icon in yellow (or green). Moving the mouse produces a tool tip indicating the date and time of the last contribution. Notes can be used to describe changes made to a file, explain progress details of tasks, or to add external HTTP links to other web sites. 
     
23. Navigation Links - Version 2 supports freely defined navigation links between tasks, action items, messages, bulletin board topics, and files. Similar to Notes, Links are sorted in descending order, meaning the last one is always shown first. Data items that have links attached show a notepad icon in blue (or green). Moving the mouse produces a tool tip indicating the date and time of the last link added. Navigation Links are useful, if you want to attach files or directories to a task, if you want to link tasks to action items, or if tasks need to be linked to a message board discussion, etc.
     
24. Glossary - this module allows you to maintain an online dictionary of terms and explanations used in your organization. It helps new staff members getting up to speed faster and it promotes everyone using the same language. Features include wildcard searching, cross referencing, categories, and HTML formatting.
     
25. Admin Features - Manage System Users and System Configuration. This includes email notification options, system maintenance, and, of course, managing user accounts and each user's role.
     
26. Organizational Groups - Run multiple independent virtual groups of Team Manager on the same server. This is helpful if you have separate departments with separate sets of team members, managers, and projects.