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Software Review
For Easy Projects .NET
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It is obvious that Logic Software Inc. has not picked up the name “Easy Projects .NET” randomly. In fact, Easy Projects .NET offers a wealth of project management features without being a complex tool to use.
Straight from the start, a “Getting Started” window pops up. It lets you toggle from a “Navigation and Usability” guide to a seven-step “Quick Tutorial”. Right off the bat, we feel the software will be easy to use. Thanks to this priceless popup window, we know how to navigate, how to use the various panels, how to configure our account, etc. This shortens the learning curve dramatically.
The cleanness of the interface is eye-catching. Once we are logged in, we notice the interface is nice and well-organized. Everything seems pretty straightforward. The “Info Panel” provides hints and tips about the current page, while the “Quick Panel” can be expended if you need to perform frequently-used actions such as adding a project, a task or a user for instance.
The main menu on top is well-grouped. Moving your mouse over the menu items is sufficient for expanding each sub-menu. This allows us to get a quick feature overview: Project, task and issue tracking, time tracking, billing, Gantt charts, dashboard, among other features. There is no doubt about this, Easy Projects .NET’s feature range is quite impressive.
Creating projects, tasks or issues is pretty straightforward. The information must be entered in one window only. Therefore, all you need to do is fill out the form and save it. The fields are identified clearly and if you need a field that is not available by default, it can be created by using the “Custom Fields” feature. Actually, “Custom Fields” can be added to projects and tasks. Payments and expenses can be managed in Easy Projects .NET. When setting up a project, several rates (among other rates: resource hourly, customer hourly and project fixed cost) may be defined and then be tracked in reports afterwards.
The dashboard is the place to go for each user to take stock of their workload. It lets users view their due, delayed or overbudget tasks in a flash. Each panel can be hidden, which is space-saving from a usability standpoint.
The “Time Logs” section is astonishing. Users can record their work hours and generate their time log history in the same window. Again, the GUI is clean, two thumbs up!
Reporting in Easy Projects .NET is impressive. The information is displayed comprehensively in all reports. They allow export to Excel or to PDF. The Gantt charts are interesting since they let you generate either a task chart, or a resource utilization chart. Finally, the “Report Generator” lets you create custom reports, in case the report you are looking for is nowhere to be found.
All in all, Easy Projects .NET makes complex project management easy. Its name says it all. .NET refers to ASP .NET, which is the programming language Logic Software Inc. wrote the application in. This puts Easy Projects .NET ahead of its classic ASP or PHP competitors, at many levels.
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