Teamwork

Teamwork Review: Purpose-Built Project Management for Client Services Teams

Teamwork occupies a specific niche in the project management market: it is the most feature-complete tool for agencies and professional services firms that bill clients by the hour. While monday.com and Asana offer time tracking as bolt-on features, Teamwork built its platform from the ground up around the premise that project management and client billing are inseparable for service businesses.

Origins and Market Position

Founded in Cork, Ireland in 2007 by Daniel Mackey and Peter Coppinger, Teamwork has grown into a 200+ person company serving 20,000+ organisations worldwide, with a particular concentration in digital agencies, consulting firms, and IT service providers. Its product suite includes Teamwork Projects, Teamwork Chat, Teamwork Desk (helpdesk), and Teamwork CRM — making it a genuine alternative to the multi-tool stacks many agencies cobble together.

Time Tracking and Billing

Teamwork's time tracking is genuinely excellent. Hours can be logged against individual tasks, projects, or time logs directly — a flexibility that matches how different team members prefer to work. Built-in timers run within the interface without requiring a separate app. Budget tracking compares logged hours against project budget in real time, flagging projects approaching their limit before they exceed it.

The profitability reporting layer — available from the Deliver plan and above — calculates project margin based on billable rates, logged hours, and project budget. For agency principals who need to know which client accounts are profitable and which are eroding margin, this is a decisive advantage over competitors that require external tools or spreadsheet exports to calculate the same data.

Retainer Management

Teamwork's retainer module is the most complete in any mainstream PM tool. Agencies can configure recurring retainers with a set number of hours per period, track hours consumed against the retainer, roll over or reset unused hours per contract terms, and report on retainer utilisation across the entire client portfolio. For agencies managing 20+ monthly retainers, this eliminates the spreadsheet tracking that otherwise becomes a significant administrative overhead.

Client Collaboration

The client portal lets agencies assign clients as Company users with selective visibility — clients see only the tasks, files, and messages explicitly shared with them. Clients can update task statuses, upload files, and leave comments directly in the portal without seeing internal team notes or admin settings. This is a cleaner separation than many competitors offer.

Interface and Usability

Teamwork's interface is functional but shows its age relative to newer entrants. The navigation structure is more complex than monday.com, and some views feel cluttered at first. Most users become fluent within a week, and the UI has improved with each major version. The mobile app is competitive with the category average.

Support

Teamwork's support team, based primarily in Cork, has a strong reputation across third-party review platforms. Response times for chat and email support are consistently faster than larger competitors, and the knowledge base is comprehensive. For agencies that need timely help during client delivery, reliable support is a differentiator.

Verdict

For agencies and professional services firms, Teamwork is the strongest purpose-built choice in the category. Its time tracking, billing, retainer management, and client portal depth is unmatched. For non-service-business use cases, monday.com or Asana are typically better fits.

Score: 7.9/10 — Category-leading for agencies; strong value at mid-tier pricing; interface less modern than top competitors.