Priority Matrix is a time management tool – and much more. It has many features that you would also expect to find in a project management platform.
The aim of the platform is to help you store your tasks, search them for the next priority and track the time it has taken to complete work. The return on investment in the software comes from the accuracy in the billing of time used and the capacity to reflect on the efficiency of time spent.
It is an unconventional app in that it organizes your tasks in a four-quadrant grid, which is aimed to help you prioritize activities. First, you set up a project and then you link tasks to this project. Then, you can categorize these tasks into one of four boxes.
What you call these boxes is up to you but the idea is to use these to set a level of importance from critical to not immediate. You can resize the quadrants, so you can customize this user interface the way you want – and you can do this for each different matrix you set up for each project.
Priority Matrix Features
Task Allocation
You can add colleagues to your team, even if collaborators do not have a Priority Matrix account. You can choose to allocate a point person to complete a task, as well as add followers – or people who may want to track the progress of the task.
In the Business level app, you can see your tasks mapped out on a Gantt chart. This allows you to see a day, week or months in advance – on any project.
File Sharing
You can add notes, dates, comments on progress including effort estimates, files and more to the tasks that you allocate or have been allocated to you. These attachments are then made available in searches.
You can drag files to projects that they are relevant within. When synced across devices the files appear on all devices, whether it is a mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, or Android.
Master List
This list gives an overview of all the projects and the progress being made.
Task Categorization
You can categorize tasks by level of priority. You can also use icons to distinguish the most important tasks or tasks related to a specific activity within the project.
The icons include a green check mark, red exclamation point, clock face, light bulb, envelope and dozens more.
Filters
It is possible to search through tasks based on assignees and by what they are working on. There are tags, as well as filters, to sort and search tasks.
Reports
There is access to instant daily, weekly or time specific reports to track the status of the team or track the status of the project. This would help with performance reviews of individuals in the company. These productivity reports can be delivered to your email or when you demand it in-app.
You can also access project history streams to keep up to date with what is happening in an instant.
Communication
There is an in-app chat facility, with the ability to chat in the app by replying to project items or item progress. This communication is stored and offers an in-depth history of the project.
You can add a percent complete figure to each task, to communicate to others how well the project is moving along.
As well as these features, you can work offline if needed and the security of information is assured, using 256-bit SSL/TLS encryption.
Priority Matrix Pricing
The Business Class app, which is the full-featured solution, costs $24 per person per month and is billed annually. If you choose the Enterprise solution, you are given a customised quotation.
For this higher level of package, you receive a dedicated account manager, unlimited storage, users, and collaborators. You also receive API access, which allows for automation and customisations.
Priority Matrix vs Scoro
Priority Matrix is a time management app that works to save you time and money by helping you prioritize the work you do. The focus is on the search capabilities and the project history stored, which can be searched to understand what can happen next.
It is unconventional in that it demands you consider prioritization in terms of four categories – which can be customised but still demands you work with four categories.
Scoro is also a time management app but it works to save you time and money by tracking actual and billable time and then transfer these hours to an invoice. It literally manages the business of getting money for the time you have spent working.
So, instead of saving you time by helping you search for and prioritize tasks, it helps you make money by invoicing, offering reminders for late invoices, scheduling recurring invoices and emailing these to clients. There is also project management tool that will help you plan and track work – but the essential focus is on getting paid.
In terms of organizing your work, Priority Matrix is superior, as it offers tools for sorting and filtering tasks and sharing these with a team. Scoro offers a simple to-do list but essentially it is about billing customers and tracking the invoices.
Priority Matrix allows you to indicate how much of the project is left to complete with the percentage indicator but this is a crude tool based on guesswork. Scoro is much more useful, tracking actual time taken and giving reports on efficiency as well as money earned.
There is room for both apps in anyone’s business software toolkit but realistically Scoro is an app that does what it says – offering end to end work management. Priority Matrix in comparison is no more than an advanced to-do list.
Priority Matrix Alternatives
Trello
Trello is a project management application that can be used anywhere through a web browser. It is similar to Priority Matrix in that its aim is to organize work but instead of prioritizing tasks the idea is to organize it into a pipeline or a workflow.
The platform is organized into boards, lists, and cards. The idea is to simulate the whiteboard in the corner of the office with the columns and the sticky notes that get moved between columns depending on the progress of the task.
Trello is free and in its free form doesn’t offer much different from Priority Matrix. There is the chance to communicate, set deadlines, colour code cards, allocate team members to cards.
It is just a different way of organizing your thoughts. However, when you subscribe and get access to the Power-ups, Trello becomes a much more fulfilled project management software.
With the integrations that these Power-Ups offer the software can become pretty much everything you need it to – and a cost of $9.99 per user it is far more reasonable than Priority Matrix.
Toggl
Toggle is a time tracking software that is effective because it integrates with most of the other top project management platforms, such as Trello, Scoro, and Asana. This elevates its features and makes it a much more useful tool.
Its main features include online and offline time tracking, reports of the team progress and unlimited projects and sub-projects time tracked accurately. Time is tracked via a schedule and a timer.
The platform is focused on making a professional more efficient through the thorough tracking of how a team uses time, as opposed to the focus on prioritization in Priority Matrix.
Although much of the functionality of Toggl is focused on time and its success comes from integration with other software, the price reflects its limited use. It is only $9 per user per month, which can easily be returned by more effective meeting practices alone.
Active Collab
Active Collab combines billing and project management in a single application. It allows the planning and tracking of projects, much like Priority Matrix, creating tasks with multiple users and deadlines.
You can also filter tasks by users, dates, and labels. There is a Gantt-like timeline, a shared calendar, and place for comments.
Added to this is the benefit of time tracking and invoices, which elevates it above the functionality of Priority Matrix. At $25 per month for 5 users, this is a reasonable cost for a lot of functionality.
Overall
Priority Matrix is a simple app that can sync your workload over many devices. There is the chance to create projects and within this create tasks that are then prioritized in the four boxes.
This can all be customised, with the title of the boxes being in the control of the user. Whether being stuck to four boxes for the organization of tasks is useful is another question.
It may be that you only want a list or you want 6 boxes – in the end, you would have to adapt your way of working to the organization of the application. The option to attach files to the tasks and to comment on these tasks helps to organize workload well.
The application does exactly what it presents itself to do, though the cost is high for the features you are given.
And if you’re not convinced after reading our Priority Matrix review, check other Project Management platform reviews for a comparison.