Collaboration software for teams that deliver client work

Collaboration software is any application that lets several people work on the same job without being in the same room: they discuss it, share the files, split it into tasks and record who decided what. Collaboration tools range from a chat app to a shared document, a task board or a portal the client opens. Most teams use several at once.

For a team that delivers client work, such as an agency, a studio or a consultancy, collaboration covers five things, and all five have to stay connected:

• The conversation: questions, answers and the decision they end in.
• The tasks: who does what, by when, and what depends on what.
• The files: the brief, the latest version and the contract behind the work.
• The approvals: who said yes, to what and when.
• The client: what they were promised, what is ready and what they still owe.

Team collaboration software serves the people inside the company. Client collaboration is the part the client sees. A change agreed on a call has to reach the task, the right file has to sit next to it, and the client has to know where the project stands without someone writing a status email every Friday.

Collaboration tools fall into four broad kinds, plus the video calls almost every team already has. Chat apps carry quick conversation. Documents, wikis and whiteboards hold longer thinking and shared editing. Task and project tools turn agreed work into owners and dates. Client-facing portals show each client their own part of the work. Each kind solves a real problem, and each leaves a gap that client teams usually fill with email.

What switching between collaboration tools costs

Each tool works well on its own; the cost appears in the gaps between them. Tasks sit in one tool, the brief in email, files in a shared drive and hours in a spreadsheet, and every move between them is a place where a change can be missed. Decisions are made in chat and stored nowhere. Files sit in folders the next person cannot find. None of this appears on an invoice, but it shows up as rework, a missed deadline or a promise nobody wrote down.

One example: Lost & Found, an 18-person creative agency in Tbilisi, moved tasks, client records, time and attendance, expenses and invoices out of six tools, Slack and Discord among them, into PLYNTUM in 10 days. The hardest part was not the import but habit: work handed out verbally or in chat stays outside the system. Lost & Found’s CEO is PLYNTUM’s founder, so this is an account of the first workspace, not an independent review. See customer stories.

PLYNTUM is business management software for agencies and service companies. Collaboration is not a separate app inside it: it is attached to the record the work belongs to. A task has an owner, a date, the client brief, its files and its discussion. The task belongs to a project and the project to a client, so a month later the conversation and the decision are still next to the work and the hours logged against it.

Comments, team chat and channels

Team chat, channels and comments are included on every plan, so the discussion about a task stays with that task. Expanded chat and channels are in development and not available today.

Tasks, files and decisions on one record

Tasks, subtasks, assignees, deadlines and dependencies are on every plan, shown as a list, a board, a calendar, a week view or a timeline of the same tasks. Files attach to the task or client they support, so the source of a decision is easy to check. File storage is 1 GB during the trial; paid-plan storage is listed as planned. More on projects and tasks.

Requests and approvals with a recorded decision

Team requests, such as leave, remote work, equipment or a general approval, go to a manager or a higher role, who approves or rejects them. The decision stays with the request, and workspace audit records show who changed what and when. Requests and approvals are on every plan. From Core, a manager also approves each person’s week of logged time, which locks it. Client change requests are not a request type: an agreed client change is added to the project as its own task. More on requests and approvals.

A separate workspace for each company

If you run more than one company, each gets its own workspace with its own clients, projects, members and permissions, under one login. A role in one company does not carry over to another, and data is not shared between workspaces. The interface is in English and Georgian, and Google sign-in and two-factor authentication are on every plan. More on workspaces.

Client collaboration in PLYNTUM runs through the client portal, included from the Core plan. Each client gets a private link to their own projects with status and deadlines, their invoices, payment history and outstanding balance and, on a retainer, the monthly fee and the deliverables contracted each month. The client needs no account and no password. Owners and managers create the link from the client’s record, can see how many times it was opened and can revoke it at once.

The portal shows one client’s records and nothing else: tasks, internal notes, team discussion, logged time, costs and rates stay inside your team.

What the portal does not do

The portal is read-only. Clients do not comment, upload files or approve work inside PLYNTUM, and there is no proofing or markup on designs. Client feedback still reaches you by email, on calls or in your proofing tool. The habit that makes this work: when you and the client agree a change, add it to the project as its own task, with an owner and the files it came with, so the decision lives on the work rather than in an inbox. See the client portal and client records.

PLYNTUM is priced per workspace, not per person, and each plan includes a set number of members. For a 10-person team that wants client collaboration, the plan is Core: $150 a month, or $120 a month billed annually ($1,440 a year), for up to 10 members. Core is the first plan with the client portal, and it also adds timesheet approval and recurring invoices. Team chat, comments, files, tasks and team requests are on every plan.

• Launch: $55 a month for up to 5 members. No client portal. The only plan with a free trial: 7 days, no card.
• Core: $150 a month for up to 10 members, 25 active clients and 50 projects. Client portal included.
• Scale: $450 a month for up to 25 members, with no limit on clients, projects or boards.
• Intelligence: $1,050 a month for up to 50 members.

Annual billing is 20% less than monthly. If you run two companies, each workspace has its own plan. Current plans and limits are on the pricing page.

PLYNTUM covers the collaboration that belongs to client work: the task, its discussion, its files, the decision and the client’s view. Know the gaps before you move anything across, and keep the tools that do these jobs better.

• Video calls. Use your existing video-call tool for meetings, then write the decision onto the task. SMS and telephony are not included in any plan.
• Real-time document co-editing. PLYNTUM is not a document editor. Keep proposals, strategy documents and shared spreadsheets in the editor you use now, and attach the final file, or a link to it, to the task.
• Whiteboards. Use your existing whiteboard for workshops and visual planning, and turn the outcome into tasks.
• Proofing and file versions. Clients cannot comment on artwork inside PLYNTUM, and there is no file versioning. Review happens in your proofing tool, in Figma or by email.
• A company-wide messaging platform. Expanded chat and channels are in development. If your team depends on a messaging platform and its integrations, keep it and move task discussions first.
• Integrations. There are none today. Connections such as Google Drive, Google Calendar and Slack are planned, not available.
• Client email. Inbox channels are a separate rollout, and the CRM does not email proposals to clients yet.

When another option is the better choice

• You do not deliver client work. A team that only needs to talk and share documents may be served by a chat app and a document editor.
• Your clients must approve designs inside the tool. Keep or choose a proofing tool; PLYNTUM has none.
• You want to start free. PLYNTUM has no free plan; the Launch trial lasts 7 days.

Collaboration habits change faster when you move one project than when you move the whole company. The plan below takes five working days and starts with the client project that generates the most messages. Data import and export are on every plan, so existing tasks can follow later, once the team is used to the new routine.

1. Day 1: workspace and people. Create a workspace for each company, invite the team and check each person’s role.
2. Day 2: one live project. Build a board for a current client project, give every open task an owner and a date, and attach the brief and files to the tasks.
3. Day 3: one rule for talk. Agree that anything about a specific task is written on that task. General conversation can stay where it is for now.
4. Day 4: one request type. Route leave or remote-work requests into PLYNTUM and name who decides.
5. Day 5: the client view. On Core, create a portal link for one client, open it yourself and check what the client will see before you send it.

At the end of the week, list what still happened in chat or email and decide whether each item belongs on a task. For a small team that runs clients, hours and invoices in one place, the small business management software page covers the rest.

• Client portal software for service businesses
• The work carries its context.
• Know the relationship and the result.
• Give every request a clear destination.