Client projects, without the spreadsheet of doom.
A project management tool for small businesses that do work for clients. Describe the job to Chip, pick a template or start blank, then keep the tasks, timeline, milestones and budget in one place.
Start with the one thing you need. The rest is there when you're ready. Free plan, no card needed. Or book a demo.
Three ways in. All of them faster than a kick-off meeting.
Describe the job to Chip ("a five-page website for a café in Westlands, launch by 24 October") and it drafts phases, milestones, tasks, owners and dates for you to check before anything is created. Or pick a template, or start blank with just a name.
- Describe it to Chip: you see the plan first, then confirm
- Use a template: tasks and milestones dated from your start date
- Start blank: only the name is needed, the rest can change later
Which projects need you today? It says so at the top.
One table shows every project with its owner, due date, progress and status, and the cards above count what's active, what's at risk and what finished this month. Overdue work is in red, so you don't have to go looking.
- Total projects, Active projects, At risk and Completed this month
- Filter by All, Mine, Active, At risk or Completed, or by owner
- A Project health chart beside the list
Work → Projects → All projects: each project's owner, due date, progress and status, including how many tasks are overdue.
Somebody already wrote the checklist.
Thirteen templates set up milestones, tasks and due dates you can change, and the ones that suit your kind of business are marked Recommended and shown first. Running an agency, a SaaS or a consultancy? There are whole-business bundles too.
- Client delivery, Website project, Marketing campaign, SEO campaign, Event planning and more
- Recommended picks based on the business type you chose at sign-up
- Agency, SaaS and consulting bundles
Projects → Templates: each template shows how many tasks and milestones it sets up, with the Recommended ones first.
A Gantt chart that tells you what will make you late.
Every task is a bar between its start and due date, milestones are diamonds and there's a Today line. Drag a bar to move it, drag its ends to resize it, and drag its dot onto another task to make that one wait. Switch on Critical path to see which tasks can't slip.
- Dependency arrows and a Critical path switch
- Zoom by day, week or month
- Move a task and choose: bring the tasks that depend on it, or only this one
Sprints if you like them. Milestones if you don't.
Working in two-week cycles? Give a sprint a goal, pull tasks from the backlog, add story points and watch the burndown. Prefer big checkpoints? Give each milestone an owner, a date and a health of On track, At risk or Blocked.
- Velocity: the average completed over your last three sprints
- Complete a sprint and send unfinished tasks back to the backlog or on to the next sprint
- The Sprints tab is there when you want it and out of the way when you don't
Find out the job is over budget while you can still do something.
Give a project a money budget, an hours budget and an hourly rate. The Budget tab shows time logged, spent so far, what's still to do and the cost to complete, with expenses read straight from Money Manager. Portfolios line every project up side by side.
- Hours burn-down against the hours budget
- Expenses linked in Money Manager, never copied
- Portfolios: health, progress, budget used and hours used, grouped by health
Projects → Portfolios, grouped by health: each project's status, health, progress, budget used and owner.
From "they said yes" to "they signed off".
A project sits between the deal you won and the invoice you send, so the handoffs are already there.
-
Plan it
From Chip, a template or a blank page.
ChipTemplate -
Do the work
Tasks, time and documents in one place.
TasksTimeDocs & Wiki -
Talk it through
Drop in from the project header instead of booking a meeting.
Drop-in -
The client signs off
Share work for approval in their client portal.
Client portal
How it stacks up against the project tools you know.
They're all good project tools. The question is whether you also want your clients, invoices and bookings in the same place.
| startbuddi | Asana | Trello | ClickUp | monday.com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, 1 seat | Personal: 2 users | Up to 10 collaborators | Free Forever | Up to 2 seats |
| Gantt or timeline | Every plan, with critical path | From Starter | Premium | Unlimited and up | From Standard |
| Project budget from your real expenses | Yes, from Money Manager | Not checked | No | Not checked | Not checked |
| Client portal on the same projects | From Starter | No | No | Guests | Guests, from Standard |
| Invoices, bookings and a CRM in the same app | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Where they're better
- AsanaUnlimited tasks and projects free for two people, and a big ecosystem of integrations.
- TrelloUnlimited Power-Ups on every plan, and the quickest kanban to learn.
- ClickUpMore views, more automations and unlimited guests even on Free Forever.
- monday.comBoard-building flexibility, and portfolio and resource management on Enterprise.
- NotionProjects, docs and wikis in one flexible workspace, with sprints and dependencies.
startbuddi is our product. Facts about other tools come from their own pages, checked on 6 October 2026, and plans change, so check before you buy: Asana pricing · Trello pricing · ClickUp pricing · monday.com pricing · Notion Projects.
Work talks to the rest of your business.
Everything below shows up on the client's record by itself, so you never piece the story together by hand.
Ask Chip. It already knows your work.
Chip works from your own records, so the answer comes with names, amounts and dates, and a next step you can take in one click.
Which plans include Projects?
Projects are on every plan, including Free, with no limit on projects or tasks. Plans differ in seats: 1 on Free, 2 on Starter, 5 on Growth and 15 on Scale. Planning a project with Chip uses Chip credits.
- FreeIncluded, free forever
- StarterIncluded, 30-day trial
- GrowthIncluded, 30-day trial
- ScaleIncluded, 30-day trial
Questions about Projects
Can Chip set up a project for me?
Do you have project templates for agencies and freelancers?
Is there a Gantt chart with a critical path?
Can I track a project budget and hours in one place?
Can I run sprints without Jira?
Can I use my own task statuses?
How many projects can I have on Free?
Run client work without the chaos.
Plans from Chip, Gantt timelines and budgets, next to your clients and your money. Free to start.
No need to set everything up on day one.
Or click around a sample account first, or book a demo and we'll set it up with you.