Book project costs to tasks

Hi all,

New to zoho but far from new to this sort of platform.

I've been scouring the web for a suitable platform for my growing business. I'm currently using Xero and WorkFlow Max but it lacks a key need. I signed up to zoho projects and books to test drive it and it seems that zoho is also lacking this key need!

In my experience in project orientated organisations the best workflow for project cost tracking is to create a list of tasks that people book their time to - zoho and workflow max do this as you would expect.

The thing they're both lacking is the ability to align costs with the tasks! for example a task such as 'Brickwork'. If I order 10 thousand bricks and raise a purchase order on the job, I should be able to raise it against a specific task, to track costs accurately.

I've worked for a few high profile organisations and they have all operated in the same way. The workflow is just sensible. As a project team member, I put in a request for a PO with the 'powers that be/finance team' (via line manager approval) the request includes the project name/number and also includes the subtask I would like the purchase order raising against.

Surely this is just basic? Rather than just racking up costs at the top level then trying to decipher what cost relates to what in a spreadsheet. This also applies to staff expenses!!

anybody have this issue, found a workaround or found project and business management software that accommodates this?

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