EPM5700 Project Management: Cost Management Software Evaluation Report

This report evaluates cost management software, focusing on Trigger, TimeCamp, and Hubstaff. It begins with an introduction to cost management and its importance in project success, followed by a literature review of available software options. The report then selects and critically analyzes the three chosen software tools, examining their features, strengths, and weaknesses. A weighted criteria matrix is established to evaluate the software based on factors such as ease of use, security, cost, adaptability, and integration. Each criterion is justified, and the matrix is used to compare the software, leading to recommendations for project managers. The report also addresses potential problems and pitfalls in cost management and concludes with a summary of findings and suggestions.

Running head: Cost management
Cost management technologies
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Aim of the Investigation.........................................................................................................3
Significance of this investigation...............................................................................................3
Literature review........................................................................................................................4
List of available software for cost management....................................................................4
Software Selection for evaluation..........................................................................................4
Critical analysis of the selected Software..............................................................................5
Trigger................................................................................................................................5
TimeCamp..........................................................................................................................5
Hubstaff..............................................................................................................................6
Identifying and setting Criteria for Evaluation......................................................................6
Weighting for each criteria.....................................................................................................7
Justification of weighting criteria for each software..............................................................8
Problems and pitfalls................................................................................................................11
Recommendation......................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................12

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Executive Summary
Every project manager need to be in charge of routinely regulating and monitoring the cost
performance of the project. There exist a list of cost management software or tools, that can
turned out to be helpful for gracefully planning and controlling the cost or budget of the
project that can hike the bottom line of a business. However, while choosing the cost
management software, it is vital to identify and weigh several factors, including the number
of clients, projects, users etc. This report will discuss three most appropriate cost
management tools among the list of existing tools. In addition, the different criteria of the
chosen tools will be evaluated using a weighted criteria matrix.

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Introduction
Before undertaking any project work it is necessary for the organizations to define the
appropriate objectives for avoiding the cost over runs. A well-explained project is beneficial
in facilitating suitable management of the costs by converting the particular project a
profitable and successful one for the organization (Smith 2014). Adoption of a graceful cost
management system can impede the identification, collection, classification as well as
collaboration of all the information that are necessary in controlling, taking and planning the
decision for keeping the cost in a desired limit (Hwang and Ng 2013). The process of
managing the cost is carried out in three ways, which are estimating the cost, determining the
budget and controlling the cost. However, there exist a list of software such as, Hubstaff,
Trigger, Harvest, TimeCamp and many others for making the organizational cost
management process easier (Khodakarami and Abdi 2014). This report will focus on the list
of available software in the market and the most appropriate software. A critical analysis of
the selected software is going to be explained here.
Aim of the Investigation
The aim of this research is to list and identify the appropriate cost management
software, which will accelerate the project costing process of the organization.
Significance of this investigation
This research will helpful for the project managers to gather an idea about the
emerging cost management tools. In addition, this research will suggest three best cost
management tools along with their criteria evaluation, which will be helpful for the project
managers to choose the suitable one for their project.

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Literature review
List of available software for cost management
Cost management plays the vital role in enhancing the efficiency, profitability and
sustainability of a business (Santos and Ferreira 2013). However, the process sometimes
might be a challenge to correctly manage and forecast the project costs. Therefore, while
searching for an efficient cost management tool, it is necessary to focus on a series of aspects,
including the sustainability, size, type, ease of use and price of the business (Gido, Clements
and Clements 2014). Managing the project cost is a complex activity; nevertheless, there
exist a number of software that can enhance the particular process. These are as follows;
 Genius project
 Avaza
 Easy Project
 Harvest
 Hubstaff
 Trigger
 TimeCamp
Software Selection for evaluation
Cost management can be explained as one vital part of the management accounting
that allows an organization or a business to predict the impending expenditures for reducing
the chances of over budgeting (Rahman, Memon and Karim 2013). The organizations use
different cost management software for examining the profitability of an undertaken projects.
These software allows a businesses to identify and estimate the cost associated with a
particular project, and compare the cost with the calculate profit (Allen et al. 2015). From the

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above mention software, three most efficient cost management software are, trigger,
TimeCamp and Hubstaff.
Critical analysis of the selected Software
Trigger
As one highly affordable software for the cost management, Trigger intended to
initiate the process of invoicing, organizing, collaborating and tracking and make these
processes simpler for the organization as well as the clients (Head 2014). One important and
unique feature of this software is to uphold the ability of adding the clients to the dashboards.
This allows the clients to keep an eye to the project progression. It provides free packaging
options with the time tracking capabilities to the project manager as well as the clients (Aaij
et al. 2013). In addition to this, the particular cost management software also provides real
time progress updates of the project by combining several projects related data such as,
logged hours, target hours, tasks, average hours per employee and many others. Apart from
that, other features third party integration and intuitive interface adds more values to the cost
management techniques (Liberatore and Pollack-Johnson 2013). Despite of having several
accelerating features the complex invoicing and limited customer support sometime hinders
the functionality of the particular software.
TimeCamp
Like the trigger software, TimeCamp is another cost management software that is
very much helpful for the small businesses to gather profit by the monitoring total amount of
time and expenses associated with the undertaken project (Sprenger et. 2016). The project
managers can consider the historical information for predicting the appropriate amount of
expenditures required to accomplish a particular project. In addition to that, the clients can

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also take benefits of the automatic time tracking feature of the TimeCamp’ by just making a
single click on the start timer function. Starting from the billable hours, the team members
can successfully monitor their productivity and easily create professional invoices for the
users (Kosozhikhin, PASQUIER-ROCHA and GREMAUD 2018). However, unlike the
trigger software for cost management, this particular software do not provide any facility for
the client to track the project time and cost and do not offer free packaging for the clients.
Nevertheless, this software provides one month free trial and an amount of $12 per month
after that (Cawston et al. 2013).
Hubstaff
Another cost management software named Hubstaff is considered to be the heavy-
hitting cost management tool, which truly packs a punch. Apart from providing a plethora for
managing the project cost, this software but also advantageous for the project managers to
gather the online activity of the employees and the clients (Sever 2019). In addition, with the
adoption of the Hubstaff software the project managers can set budget or identify the cost of
the project by analysing its complexity and time. Similar to the Time camp software, it does
not provide any free package to the user (Dasig Jr 2014). Rather it provides the package at
just five dollar per month, which is very less as compared to the package provided by the
Time camp. In addition to that, it handovers the project screen shorts to the project managers
in every stage of the progress (Ståhl and Bosch 2014).
Identifying and setting Criteria for Evaluation
Though the chosen cost management technology are comparatively efficient for
managing the project cost and helping the project managers to complete the project within the
time; yet, like every other software, these software also have some challenges that sometimes
hinder the cost management activity (Ong et al. 2013). However, the criteria of the chosen
software has explained below on basis of which they will be evaluated,

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 Ease of Use: It will explain the simplicity of the software that is how easily the
organization can use the particular software to perform the necessary work.
 Security: Regardless of the type, it is vital for every efficient software to be secure so
that the data and information stored and processed in it, remains safe from any kind of
unethical cyber activity.
 Cost: The cost of a software comprises with the total amount of budget required for its
installation and maintenance.
 Adaptability: This explains that the chosen software should be efficient to track more
than just the bugs. In addition to the bugs, tracking several other type of issues for
example, the change requests support calls, and feature requests is necessary. It is
vital for the project team to identify the fact that the software they are adopting for
their cost management, should contain different templates for tracking different type
of issues.
 Integration: Sometime there might be necessity of integrating the software with other
software or management tools, configuration management software, requirement
management tools or else different project management tools, and help desk
applications, for enhancing the project management activity. Hence, evaluating
whether the software is open to integration or not is necessary (Miguel, Mauricio and
Rodríguez 2014).
Weighting for each criteria
The weighting of the above discussed criteria can be done by using a weighted criteria
matrix (Anjum, Haque and Ahmad 2013). A Weighted Criteria Matrix can be explained as
one decision-making tool, which can be used to evaluate the potential options against the
series of weighted factors (Hwang and Ng 2013). The most common use of this matrix

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include deciding among the optional solutions and choosing the highly efficient software
applications to be implemented in the organization (Anand et al. 2014).
Criteria Weight of Software
Trigger TimeCamp Hubstaff
Ease of use 20 25 20
Security 25 30 25
Integration 20 20 15
Adoptability 15 15 20
Cost 20 10 20
(Table 1: Weight criteria matrix of cost management software)
Justification of weighting criteria for each software
The weighting criteria in the above table can be explained as follows;
Software Criteria
Integration Ease of use Adoptability Cost Security
Trigger It can be
integrated
with several
software like
Jira, Xero,
Freshbooks,
Slack, Saasu,
Google,
Highrise,
Dropbox,
The simple
installation
and fault
detection
feature of this
software
make it
prominent to
use.
It is efficient
to undertake
a project
from
planning
stage to the
final invoice
by
gracefully
managing
The feature of
providing free
packaging
system to the
customer
makes it cost
efficient.
Provides
high
security to
the data
with
recovery
and backup
facility.

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Bugsnag,
Basecamp,
and Zapier to
manage the
project cost.
every stage
of the
project
(Sharp,
Peters and
Howard
2017).
TimeCamp It can
integrated
with software
like,
Basecamp,
HipChat,
Xero, Pivotal
Wrike,
Zendesk,
Redbooth,
JIRA
Assembla,
Podio,
Redmine,
Freshdesk,
Tracker,
Smartsheet,
QuickBooks
It is
comparatively
easy to use as
it depends on
the past
storage
information
of the client
and projects
for managing
the cost.
Provides
time
tracking
with
accounting
integration,
invoice and
time sheet
management
(Binder
2016).
It provide 30
days free trial
to the
customer and
$12 after that,
which make it
comparatively
less cost
effective than
others.
The data is
secure by
the SSL
certificate.

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Online,
Harvest,
Salesforce
Sales Cloud,
Trello, Mojo
Helpdesk,
Toggl,
ActiveCollab,
Wunderlist,
Google
Calendar,
Slack, Zapier,
QuickBooks,
Todoist,
Hubstaff
It can be
integrated
with the
followings;
Quick books,
Zapier,
Google
Calendar,
Helpdesk and
others.
It provides
multi-
platform,
high user
Interface and
fast loading
of the data
with efficient
time tracking.
It allows to
set the
budget
limits
depending
on the time
or cost and
allows easy
adjustment
and
It provides a
14 days free
trial and a
price of $5
after that,
which is
comparative
less than
others.
In order to
ensure
security, it
undertake
the
followings;
Data
encryption,
Strong
passwords,

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managing of
the budget.
Access
controls,
Detailed
audit and
system
logs,
Network
security
(Table 2: criteria analysis)
Problems and pitfalls
While carrying out this research, the measure problem that might encounter is lack of
breakdown of the project. Since this is a huge project; therefore it is vital for the project
managers to break the entire project into smaller tasks, which will be helpful in the timely
and successful completion of the project. In addition to that, lack of efficient project plan and
inefficient formal documentation can also hinder the smooth running of the project.
Recommendation
In order to manage the project cost, the above suggested tools are efficient. However,
for overcoming the potential challenges, regular software maintenance is necessary (Young
2016). Apart from that, for improving the time tracking, the organizations can choose
different time tracking applications along with the above tools. In addition, for gathering
more project cost information and managing those, integrating the above tools with other
tools such as, Google calendar,Avaza, Trello and many others is vital(Sears et al. 2017).
However, between the above three, Hubstaff can be recommended as the prominent tool for
managing the project costs. Moreover, to avoid the pitfalls, in this project, effective division