My name is Roman, and I run Dandify Design Studio. We are working on the digital design world with the help of ActiveCollab.
The beginnings
I started my career as a design engineer in the aviation field. Once we had free time in our office, I created a 3D model and realistic render of some food and drinks in engineering CAD software just for fun. The result was outstanding, and no one believed this was possible! It was the starting point of my graphic business.
A few years later, I had a strong freelance business and a lot of customers. It was time to grow my business and start Dandify Design Studio.
I was a designer with zero management, bookkeeping, and business skills. For this reason, it was hard for me to grow. In addition, I didn't want to invest in something except my time and efforts as the risks were very high.
So I built everything with my hands and started researching different apps to help me. Of course, we used world-known applications for bookkeeping, managing, storage clouds, etc. And to be honest, we changed each of them in a few months of usage. Some were very complex, some hard to understand, our clients didn't like some, and some were expensive.
Discovering ActiveCollab
Once I tried ActiveCollab, and to be honest, it was love at first click!
Everything was very functional, simple, easy to use, comfortable, and stylish! And most importantly, all my needs are there: managing, invoicing, storage, and productivity analysis! We use only ActiveCollab for all of these.
I started using ActiveCollab in 2019. Since then, many things were changed and improved in the app, so we grew together in some sense.
ActiveCollab's most essential features for us
The primary feature we use every day here is team-client collaboration. It frees up half of my working time, as my team members can contact the client directly and vice versa. Clients love this app, too, some asking me: "Hey Roman, could you please add me to the app we used for the last project? It would be better to organize everything there."
Also, some clients don't want to use third-party or new apps, but now, I am just telling them to check and reply to notifications, emails, or the app itself. This is very comfortable and professional, as there is no need to beg the client to use the application.
The second important feature is invoicing and the ability to connect with PayPal and Stripe payment systems. Today, with the help of ActiveCollab, I'm receiving funds from all over the world twice as fast.
The reports system tracks my income and spending and calculates my teammates' salaries.
The Workload feature was a significant addition a few years ago. Now, I can easily see everyone's tasks and projects, control deadlines, and assign new tasks to employees with spare time.
ActiveCollab often saves my life with reminders about deadlines.
Today my business is based on ActiveCollab, and I can't imagine what I'd do without it! It is a good centralized place to organize and manage everything in our business. With its simplicity, every new client or employee can start using it in a minute.
