Free project management software for small business

The key facts

• Project management tools run tasks and timelines — who does what by when. Free tiers and free tools here are genuinely usable for small teams.
• Inventory operations run records — quantities, movements, orders. A task board cannot hold stock truth, and a stock record cannot schedule tasks.
• BSimple's "projects" is neither: it groups installed assets and consumed parts under a customer for lifetime history — record-side, not scheduling.
• The honest note: BSimple is not free ($180/mo AUD up, trial); the free PM route is listed here because it is genuinely good.
• The full picture: how the inventory record works is the hub page for everything above.

What free project management tools actually do

Project management software keeps the work record: task boards, deadlines, assignments, comments, timelines. Free tiers of the major tools are genuinely usable for small teams, and several open-source options exist for teams that would rather self-host — for coordinating jobs, launches and renovations, free PM tools are a legitimate answer, and this page has no reason to talk them down. The broader free-software-for-business map puts them among the other free categories.

What they do not do is hold stock truth. A task saying "install 20 meters of fencing" tells you nothing about whether 20 meters exist, where they are, or what the last job consumed. The moment a project involves materials, tools or installations, a second record — the operations record — is needed, and the seam between the two is where the real design decision lives.

Where BSimple's "projects" fits — and does not

We build BSimple, so weigh that, and the naming deserves disambiguation: BSimple's projects layer is not project management software. There are no task boards, Gantt charts or assignments. What it does: group inventory and on-site assets under a customer for lifetime management — reserve items without consuming stock, install and consume on invoice approval, and keep warranty and service history per job. It is the record side of jobs that consume materials: trade installations, fit-outs, equipment servicing.

The pairing that works: a free PM tool runs the work (who, what, when), and the operations record runs the materials (what exists, what each job consumed, what to reorder) — with invoices pushed to Xero or MYOB (US integrations rolling out). BSimple claims no formal integration with specific PM tools; the seam is stated rather than implied. The trade-pattern pages show the shape in practice, and the trial tests it on your real jobs.

Choosing honestly between the two

Ask which record is failing: if jobs are late and tasks fall through cracks, that is the work record — free PM tooling is a fair answer. If materials vanish, quantities lie and reorder decisions are guesses, that is the operations record — spreadsheets up to a point, then systems. Businesses over a certain volume need both, and the cost of each is modest compared to the confusion of using one for the other's job. The stage-based guide and the free-options ledger keep both decisions honest.