A task management app for small business owners who are the bottleneck
Klusko is a task management app for small business teams, with the chat in the same place. It gets the jobs out of your head and onto a list your staff can see without ringing you.
Free for up to 10 people. Every plan is free during early access.
To do 3
Doing 2
Done 2
Hollis Dental rang. They want the window vinyl up before their open evening on the 16th.
Quote for Hollis Dental window vinyl is mine, they’ll have it tomorrow morning
I can fit on the 14th if it’s printed by the 13th
Perfect. Put that date on the task so I stop asking you.
When every question ends with your name
Say you run a seven-person sign and print shop. It’s 7.40 on a Tuesday and your phone has already gone twice: has the Café Rosa proof been approved, and who’s got the van keys. You know both answers. That’s the problem.
In most small firms the job list lives in the owner’s head, plus a notebook, plus a few emails flagged in a colour that used to mean something. Staff can do the work. What they can’t do is see it, so they ask you, and every job waits until you’ve answered. A task management app for small business teams fixes the seeing part. Each job gets a name, a person and a date on a board everyone can open, and your phone rings a little less.
Only a little. Customers will still ring.
Getting the jobs out of WhatsApp
The staff WhatsApp group probably started as a way to say someone was running late. Now it holds a photo of the finished fascia at Marsh Lane, three versions of a price, and a long argument about the radio. Find the vinyl order in there on a Friday afternoon. We’ll wait.
Klusko gives the work its own place. Jobs go on the board in tasks, and the talk about them goes in a channel in team chat. When someone types @ and picks a job in a message, it becomes a link to that task, so “[Book MOT for the Transit] done, it’s Thursday” puts the answer next to the job. Keep email for customers and suppliers; that’s what it’s good at. If you’d like the longer argument, we wrote up why tasks get lost in chat.
Task management app for small business, no training day
Nobody in a seven-person firm has a spare Thursday for software training, and they shouldn’t need one. You create the company account, make one project called This week, and type in the jobs you’re carrying around. Then invite people by email. They land on a board with three columns and their name on some cards, and the Today view under My work shows each person what’s theirs.
We’d give it a fortnight before you judge it. The first week is mostly you typing things in. By the second, people start moving their own cards to Done, and that’s when you find out it works.
The Free plan covers up to 10 people and 5 projects. There’s an iPhone app in testing, not on the App Store yet, and no Android app, which matters if half your team carries Samsungs.
Questions from small businesses
How long does Klusko take to set up?
About as long as it takes to type in the jobs you’re currently carrying. There’s nothing to configure first: create the account, make a project, add the work, then invite your staff by email. Put aside an hour for the first go. Most of that hour is remembering what you promised people, which is useful anyway.
Do my staff need to be good with computers?
No. If they can use WhatsApp they can use Klusko. The board is cards in columns, you drag a card to Done when it’s done, and chat works like any other messaging app. The one thing to teach is the habit: put the job on the board instead of asking the boss about it.
Can we still use WhatsApp?
Yes, and you probably will, for the odd “running ten minutes late”. What changes is that job talk moves into Klusko, where each conversation sits next to the task it’s about and nothing disappears under a photo of someone’s lunch. Klusko doesn’t connect to WhatsApp, so the move is a habit you agree as a team.
How much does it cost for a small business?
Nothing for up to 10 people on the Free plan, which includes chat and Board, List and Calendar views. Team costs £5 per person per month billed yearly, or £6 monthly, so seven people is £35 a month. Right now every plan is free because billing hasn’t launched, and the pricing page has the full breakdown.
Keep reading
Task management
One owner per task, due dates, priorities and a Today view for each person.
Take a look →Too many apps: how tool sprawl creeps into a small business
Nobody decides to run a ten-person business on six apps. It happens one sensible decision at a time. Here’s what it costs, why we built one app instead, and when you shouldn’t listen to us.
Read it →Family businesses
Get the jobs off the kitchen table and out of the family WhatsApp.
Take a look →Get the klus done.
Klus is Dutch for a job that needs doing. Klusko is free for up to 10 people, and every plan is free while we're in early access.