TLDR (Summary)
The best project management software for PR professionals is Plutio ($19/month).
Plutio connects campaign management to the complete PR workflow, client briefs, media contact databases, coverage tracking, time logging, and billing run from one platform instead of 6 separate tools. Campaign tasks link to client portals where updates happen, media outreach connects to contact records, deliverables attach to invoices automatically, and retainer hours track against project time. PR professionals managing multiple clients see which campaigns are profitable, where time goes, and what's due next without opening 6 different apps.
According to industry research, 60% of goes to admin instead of actual campaign work, switching tools, updating spreadsheets, chasing invoices, and reconciling time logs.
For additional strategies, read our freelance project management guide.
What is project management software for PR professionals?
Project management software for PR professionals is software that organizes campaign timelines, media outreach tasks, and client deliverables with complete visibility into hours spent and budget remaining.
The distinction matters: generic project management tracks tasks and deadlines but doesn't connect to billable hours or client invoicing. PR-focused project management connects to time tracking so campaign hours show alongside task progress, and links to billing so monthly invoices pull from logged work automatically instead of requiring manual timesheet reconciliation at month-end.
What PR professional project management actually does
Core functions include campaign timeline organization with phases like research, pitching, outreach, coverage tracking, and reporting; task assignment to team members with due dates and time tracking per task; media list organization connected to outreach tasks; and budget monitoring that shows estimated hours versus actual time logged as campaigns progress. Coverage tracking appears alongside pitch tasks, client approvals link to deliverable tasks, and billing connects to logged campaign hours.
Campaign management vs generic task tracking
Generic project management shows what tasks are assigned and when they're due. PR campaign management shows pitch rounds connected to media contacts, coverage secured linked to specific outreach efforts, and hours logged per campaign phase so monthly retainer budgets stay visible as work happens. Without campaign-specific project management, tasks appear as isolated checklist items rather than connected workflow that produces measurable coverage results while tracking billable time.
What makes PR professional project management different
PR campaigns involve multiple clients running simultaneously, each with monthly retainer hours, fixed deliverable counts, and recurring tasks like media monitoring, monthly reports, and ongoing pitching. Generic project management treats every project as a standalone effort with a single deadline. PR project management handles recurring campaign work where the same client needs 20 hours monthly for ongoing media relations, and where the same pitch process repeats weekly with different story angles and media contacts.
When project management connects to time tracking and client billing, campaign profit margins become visible, not just whether tasks finished on time but whether the campaign stayed within budget and generated profit.
Why PR professionals need project management software
PR professionals who manage beyond 3-4 active campaigns face a compounding problem: each campaign involves dozens of tasks, multiple team members, recurring deliverables, and billable hours that need tracking, and without connected project management, hours disappear into admin work that doesn't bill.
The pain multiplies with client count. First campaign: manageable in email and spreadsheets. Third campaign: status updates start taking an hour per client weekly. Fifth campaign: team members ask where files live, what's due next, and how many retainer hours remain, and answering those questions consumes time that should go toward actual media outreach and client service.
The hour-tracking problem
According to industry research, 60% of goes to administrative tasks instead of actual campaign execution. For PR professionals specifically, that means hours logged in timesheets don't match hours tracked in project boards. A team member completes a media pitch task marked done on the board but forgets to log the 2 hours spent researching journalists and drafting the email. Across 5 campaigns and 3 team members, 10-15 billable hours per week just disappear into untracked work that never gets billed.
The fragmentation problem
Most PR professionals stack 4-6 disconnected tools: Asana or Monday.com for tasks, Toggl or Harvest for time tracking, Google Sheets for media lists, email for client updates, Dropbox for campaign assets, and QuickBooks for invoicing. Each tool handles one function, but none share data automatically. Campaign tasks finish in Asana, but time entries live in Toggl with no connection to which tasks consumed which hours. Monthly invoices go out based on timesheet totals, but clients can't see what campaign work those hours produced.
The client communication problem
Clients want to see campaign progress without joining internal project boards or getting access to team Slack channels. Most PR professionals send weekly status emails with bulleted updates, screenshots of coverage secured, and attached reports, an hour of manual work per client that repeats every week. Multiply by 5 clients and that's 5 hours weekly just explaining what already happened, work that client portals could display automatically from project data that already exists.
The scaling tipping point
Most PR professionals hit a threshold around 4-5 active campaigns where the manual approach breaks down. Below that threshold, mental tracking and spreadsheets suffice. Beyond it, team members can't remember which client approved which angle, what got pitched to which journalist, or how many retainer hours remain for the month. Campaigns finish late not because the work is hard but because coordinating work across disconnected tools consumes hours that could go toward actual pitching and media relations.
Connected project management software absorbs the admin work that would otherwise scale linearly with each new campaign: status updates, hour reconciliation, file location questions, and budget tracking all handled automatically instead of manually.
Project management features PR professionals need
The essential project management features for PR professionals connect campaign task organization with time tracking and client billing while handling the recurring work patterns that PR campaigns require.
Core project management features
- Campaign timeline management: Organize campaigns into phases like research, pitching, execution, monitoring, and reporting with tasks nested under each phase, so the full campaign structure stays visible from pitch concept to coverage delivery.
- Task assignment with time tracking: Assign tasks to team members with time tracking per task, so billable hours accumulate automatically as work progresses rather than requiring manual timesheet entry at week's end when nobody remembers which hours went to which campaign tasks.
- Recurring task templates: Set up monthly tasks like media monitoring reports, coverage summaries, and ongoing pitching as templates that auto-create on the first of each month, eliminating the repetitive setup work for retainer clients who need the same deliverables every billing cycle.
- File attachment per task: Attach pitch emails, press releases, media coverage, and client approvals directly to the tasks they relate to, so campaign assets live where work happens instead of buried in separate folder structures that require searching when someone asks where a file lives.
- Budget tracking vs actual: Set estimated hours per campaign or monthly retainer limits, then see actual hours logged in real-time so over-budget campaigns surface immediately rather than at month's end when it's too late to adjust scope or have the budget conversation with the client.
PR professional-specific features
- Client portals for campaign visibility: Give clients access to see campaign progress, completed deliverables, coverage secured, and upcoming tasks without joining internal project boards or getting status emails. Industry standard is 42% of goes to reporting, which portals eliminate that entirely by displaying project data clients can check themselves.
- Media list integration: Connect outreach tasks to specific media contacts so pitch follow-ups, coverage secured, and relationship history appear alongside the journalist names and outlets, not scattered across separate contact management tools that don't connect to campaign timelines.
- Multi-campaign dashboard: See all active campaigns, tasks due this week, team workload, and retainer hours remaining across all clients on one screen, so priority shifts and resource allocation happen at a glance instead of requiring spreadsheet reconciliation across multiple disconnected tools.
Platform features that multiply value
- White-label branding: Custom domain, logo, colors. All client-facing communications show your brand, not the software vendor's.
- Unified inbox: All client messages arrive in one place, task comments, file approvals, project questions, instead of scattered across email, Slack, and project tool notifications.
- Permissions: Control who sees what at the client level, clients see only their campaigns, and team level, junior staff see assigned tasks, senior staff see budgets and billing.
- Automations: Create rules that trigger actions without your involvement. When campaign phase completes, next phase auto-creates. When retainer hours hit 80%, notification sends. When coverage deliverable uploads, client notification goes out automatically.
The deciding factor for PR professionals is integration depth. Project management software that connects with time tracking, invoicing, and client portals eliminates duplicate data entry: hours logged once, budgets updated automatically, invoices generated from actual time tracked.
Project management software pricing for PR professionals
Project management software for PR professionals typically costs $8-25 per user per month, with integrated platforms providing complete functionality including time tracking and client billing at flat rates instead of per-user pricing that scales cost with team size.
What PR professionals typically pay for project management tools
- Asana: $10.99-24.99/user/month annual billing, with forced 5-seat increments after 5 users. Tasks and timelines included but no built-in time tracking or invoicing, requires Harvest at $10.80/user/month and separate accounting software for billing.
- Monday.com: $9-19/user/month annual billing with 3-seat minimum on paid plans. Project boards and automations included but time tracking requires premium tier and invoicing needs separate tool, adding another $15-30/month for FreshBooks or QuickBooks.
- ClickUp: $7-12/user/month plus $9/user AI add-on. Includes time tracking but users report 3-5 second loading times that disrupt workflow, and client portals require paid guest seats that increase costs per client added.
- Trello: $5-10/user/month annual billing. Simple boards with limited automation, no native time tracking, and basic file storage that fills fast with campaign assets like press kits and media coverage.
Standalone tools add up: Asana at $10.99/user plus Harvest time tracking at $10.80/user plus HubSpot CRM for client management at $45/user totals $66.79 per user monthly, and data still doesn't connect automatically so manual reconciliation happens at month-end when invoicing.
Plutio pricing (February 2026)
- Core: $19/month: Unlimited project management plus time tracking, invoicing, client portals, and proposals. Up to 9 active clients, solo practitioner with no team members.
- Pro: $49/month: Unlimited clients, 30 team members, advanced permissions to control who sees campaign budgets and client billing details.
- Max: $199/month: Unlimited team, white-label with custom domain, single sign-on for enterprise agency environments with multiple account teams.
The ROI calculation for PR professionals
- Hour recovery: Automatic time tracking from tasks recovers 10-15 hours weekly that previously disappeared into unlogged work. At $150/hour billable rate that's $1,500-2,250 recovered weekly or $6,000-9,000 monthly in previously unbilled time that now gets captured and invoiced.
- Client communication efficiency: Client portals eliminate 5 hours weekly of status email composition, screenshot gathering, and report assembly. At $150/hour that's $750 weekly or $3,000 monthly saved on admin work that clients can now self-serve through portal access to campaign progress.
- Tool consolidation: Replacing Asana at $11/user, Harvest at $11/user, and project-related storage at $10/user saves $32 per team member monthly. For a 5-person team that's $160/month saved, nearly covering Plutio Pro entirely just from eliminated subscriptions.
Project management software ROI comes through hour recovery and tool consolidation. Plutio pays for itself when 2-3 previously untracked billable hours per week start getting logged automatically. At typical PR rates that's the full subscription cost recovered in captured time alone.
Why Plutio is the best project management for PR professionals
Plutio handles project management as part of a complete platform where time tracking, client billing, and campaign deliverables work together rather than as separate tools that need manual connection between systems.
Tasks automatically connect to time tracking
Start a task timer and hours accumulate against that specific task and the campaign it belongs to. No separate timesheet tool, no end-of-week reconciliation trying to remember which hours went to which campaign. Team member spends 3 hours drafting a pitch, those 3 hours attach to the pitch task, roll up to the campaign budget total, and appear on the client's retainer hour summary automatically. The connection happens in real-time as work progresses, not retroactively when invoices generate and nobody remembers what consumed the hours.
Campaign budgets stay visible alongside tasks
Set a monthly retainer like 20 hours or fixed campaign budget like 60 hours total, then see actual time logged update in real-time as tasks complete. Dashboard shows 32 of 60 hours used with 6 tasks remaining, so over-budget campaigns surface mid-month when there's still time to adjust scope or alert the client. Without this visibility campaigns go over budget and the overage only becomes clear when the invoice doesn't match the retainer, too late to recover the hours or have the budget conversation.
Client portals show campaign progress without status emails
Client logs into their portal and sees current campaign phase, tasks completed this week, deliverables uploaded like press releases and coverage reports and media lists, and upcoming milestones. The five-paragraph status email with bulleted updates and attached screenshots, gone. Campaign progress displays automatically because portal pulls from the same project data the team uses. Clients check progress when convenient rather than waiting for weekly email summaries that take an hour to compile.
Recurring campaigns auto-create from templates
Monthly retainer clients need the same deliverables every month: media monitoring report due the 5th, coverage summary due the 15th, ongoing pitch tasks throughout the month. Set up the campaign structure once as a template, then new month's tasks auto-create on the first with correct due dates, assigned team members, and estimated hours already in place. Eliminates the repetitive setup work where the same campaign structure gets rebuilt manually every month for retainer clients.
Files attach to the tasks they relate to
Pitch email draft, client approval, journalist response, and final coverage all attach to the specific pitch task rather than filed in separate folder structures by date or client name. Need to see what got pitched for the Q1 product launch, open that campaign, find the pitch task, and all related files appear there. No more searching through Client A slash 2026 slash January slash Pitches folder hierarchies or asking teammates where files live.
Invoices generate from tracked time automatically
Month ends and billable hours logged throughout the month convert to invoice line items with one click. No exporting timesheets, no manual entry into accounting software, no reconciling which hours belong on which client's invoice. Time tracked per campaign becomes PR Campaign Management: 18.5 hours at $150/hour line item, invoice sends with payment link, and client sees the campaign work those hours produced via portal access to deliverables and coverage secured.
White-label everything
Use your own domain for client portals like clients.youragency.com instead of youragency.plutio.com. Upload your logo, set your brand colors and typography. Every client-facing touchpoint shows your brand. Client portals, invoices, proposals, and booking pages all appear as your system, not a third-party tool with Powered by branding that undermines your positioning as a professional agency.
Unified inbox for all client communication
When a client comments on a campaign task, approves a deliverable, or asks a question via portal, the message appears in one inbox. Reply directly without opening email. Thread history stays attached to the campaign and task, so future team members see the full conversation context rather than searching email for what did the client say about that pitch angle three months ago.
Granular permissions
Control exactly who sees what at the level that makes sense for your team structure. Junior staff see tasks assigned to them and campaign assets they need. Mid-level account managers see full campaign details and client communication. Senior leadership sees budgets, profit margins, and billing across all campaigns. Clients see only their own campaigns and deliverables, never other clients' work or internal hour tracking and profit margins.
No-code automations
Create rules that trigger actions without your involvement. Common PR professional automations include: when campaign phase marked complete, next phase auto-creates with tasks assigned. When retainer hours hit 80%, notification sends to account manager. When deliverable uploads, client notification goes out automatically. When invoice stays unpaid 7 days, reminder email sends. When new client signs proposal, campaign project auto-creates from template with first month's tasks ready to start.
Native integrations for PR professional workflows
Connect Stripe and PayPal for invoice payments that mark invoices paid automatically when client submits payment. Sync Google Calendar or Outlook so client meetings and pitch deadlines appear on the calendar without manual entry. Use Zapier to connect 3,000+ other apps: new contact in HubSpot creates client record in Plutio, coverage link added to campaign task posts to Slack channel, monthly report completed triggers email to client with portal access link.
Everything runs from one app with your branding, your terminology, and your workflow logic. Campaign management, time tracking, client billing, deliverable sharing, and team communication all connected instead of scattered across tools that don't share data and require manual reconciliation at month-end.
How to set up project management in Plutio
Setting up project management in Plutio takes 2-4 hours for initial configuration, then 5-15 minutes per campaign after your templates and integrations are in place.
Step 1: Configure default settings (30 mins)
Set your standard campaign phases like Research, Pitching, Execution, Monitoring, Reporting. Set default task view to Kanban board or list. Configure time tracking preferences: require time estimates on tasks, set billable rate defaults for different service types. Set which fields appear on campaign creation like budget hours, retainer type, monthly deliverable count. Configure project numbering if you track campaigns by ID for client invoicing.
Step 2: Create campaign templates (1-2 hours)
Build 3-5 templates covering your common campaign types. For PR professionals recommended templates include:
- Monthly retainer template: Recurring tasks for media monitoring weekly, coverage reports bi-weekly, ongoing pitching daily or weekly, and monthly summary deliverable. Set estimated hours per task so budget tracking works from day one without having to guess how long tasks should take.
- Product launch campaign: Phases from announcement strategy through post-launch coverage collection with tasks for media list research, embargo pitching, launch day outreach, and coverage tracking. Include file upload tasks for press kit, press release, and client approvals so assets attach to the right campaign milestones.
- Crisis communication template: Rapid response structure with 2-hour, 24-hour, and 72-hour milestone tasks, statement drafting and approval workflow, media monitoring during crisis period, and post-crisis summary deliverable. Higher hour allocation for intensive short-term work that bills premium rates.
- Event promotion campaign: Pre-event media outreach timeline at 8 weeks, 4 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week before event, day-of media relations tasks, and post-event coverage collection and reporting. Backward-planned deadlines that work from event date.
Step 3: Connect integrations (20 mins)
Link Stripe and/or PayPal so invoice payments mark invoices paid automatically when clients submit payment. Connect your calendar to Google Calendar or Outlook so campaign deadlines and client meetings sync both directions. Test each integration by creating a test invoice payment and checking that calendar sync works before using with actual clients and real billing.
Step 4: Import existing campaigns (30 mins)
Export current campaign data from existing project management tools. Asana, Monday.com, Trello all provide CSV export. Upload client list first, then attach campaigns to those clients. Don't try to migrate complete task history from 3 years ago, focus on active campaigns with tasks still in progress. Completed campaigns can stay in old system as archive that you reference if needed but don't actively manage.
Step 5: Test with one real campaign
Run through the complete workflow with an actual client campaign rather than a test project. Create campaign from template, assign tasks to team members, log time against tasks, upload deliverable, share via client portal, generate invoice from tracked hours. Testing with real work surfaces workflow gaps that fake test data misses, like where do client approval comments appear or how do we attach media coverage to the pitch task.
Common setup mistakes to avoid
- Over-customizing too early: Start with minimal campaign structure and add custom fields or phases only after you've run 2-3 campaigns and know what's actually missing. You add complexity they never use.
- Ignoring mobile: Download the mobile apps during setup and test logging time from client meetings, checking campaign status between calls, and replying to client messages from your phone. PR professionals work outside the office frequently, mobile must work or adoption fails.
- Skipping automation setup: Configure recurring task creation and client notifications during initial setup, not six months later when you're frustrated by manual work. The automation that saves the most time is the one that runs from day one of using the platform.
- Not setting time estimates: Budget tracking only works if tasks have estimated hours. Force yourself to estimate even roughly like pitch drafting 2 hours, media research 3 hours, so actual time tracked can compare against something and budget alerts trigger before campaigns go unprofitable.
Build templates for the 80% cases that cover most of your campaign types. Monthly retainers and product launches usually account for the majority of PR work. Handle the 20% of specialized campaigns with custom project structures once your team is comfortable with standard workflows.
Project management organization for PR professionals
Organizing project management creates clarity for team members and enables efficient campaign execution across multiple simultaneous client publicity efforts.
Campaign categorization for PR professionals
- Ongoing retainers: Monthly recurring work with the same client, typically including media monitoring, ongoing pitching, and monthly reporting deliverables. Tag as Retainer so billing and hour tracking can filter these separately from fixed-scope projects that have different profit margin expectations.
- Product or service launches: Fixed-scope campaigns with defined start and end dates, milestone-based deliverables, and specific coverage goals measured in placements secured. Tag by launch type like product, service, company announcement, so similar campaigns can reference past launch workflows and time estimates.
- Crisis communication: Rapid response campaigns that interrupt normal workflow, need immediate resource allocation, and follow structured response timeline. Keep template ready but hope to never use it. Higher billing rates justify the disruption to planned work.
- Event promotion: Time-based campaigns built around specific event dates with backward-planned milestones at 8 weeks before, 4 weeks before, week of, day of, post-event. Deadlines work backward from event date that can't move.
Campaign workflow stages
- Research and Planning: Media list building, angle development, timeline creation, and internal strategy before outreach begins. Tasks in this phase don't bill to client directly on some retainers but establish campaign foundation that makes execution efficient.
- Pitching: Active media outreach with pitch sends, follow-ups, interview coordination, and journalist relationship management. Your hours happen here, this is the core PR work that clients pay for.
- Execution: Press release distribution, embargo management, interview prep for client spokespeople, and real-time media response during launch or event window. Concentrated work in short timeframe, often premium billing rates for availability and rapid response.
- Monitoring: Coverage tracking, media mention collection, sentiment monitoring, and clip compilation for client deliverables. Ongoing throughout campaign but intensifies around key milestones and at month-end for retainer reporting.
- Reporting: Summary deliverable creation with coverage metrics, media value calculation if client requests it, and next-phase recommendations. Marks campaign completion or monthly cycle close for retainers. Client-facing work that justifies billing and sets up renewal or next campaign.
Information to track per campaign
- Campaign type like retainer, launch, event, crisis, and monthly hours budget or fixed project scope so budget alerts work correctly
- Primary contact at client and approval chain for pitches, statements, and press materials so team knows who needs to sign off before media outreach
- Key messages, prohibited topics, and approved spokespeople per campaign so everyone pitching stays on-message and doesn't create client issues
- Media list with outreach status per journalist: pitched, interested, declined, coverage secured, so follow-ups happen on schedule and no journalist gets over-contacted
- Coverage secured with links, publication dates, and media value if client tracks that metric, for monthly reporting and campaign ROI calculation
- Hours logged per phase so budget consumption stays visible throughout campaign and over-budget alerts trigger while there's still time to adjust scope
Proven methods for PR campaign organization
- Use consistent campaign naming that includes client, campaign type, and month or quarter like Acme Corp - Product Launch - Q1 2026 so dashboard sorting makes sense at a glance and nobody has to guess what campaign name means.
- Attach all campaign-related files to tasks rather than separate folder structures. Pitch draft on pitch task, coverage article on monitoring task, monthly report on reporting task. Files live where work happens, not in folders nobody can find.
- Set estimated hours per task during planning phase so budget tracking updates automatically as work progresses instead of requiring manual hour reconciliation at month-end when nobody remembers which tasks consumed which hours.
- Tag campaigns by industry vertical like tech, healthcare, consumer, so team members with specific expertise can filter to their specialty areas and pitch assignments match beat knowledge.
- Archive completed campaigns after final deliverable but keep coverage links and media relationships accessible for future reference. When same journalist needs pitching on different topic six months later, relationship history matters and should be searchable.
Organized project management enables pattern recognition across campaigns. Structure serves visibility: similar launches follow similar timelines, retainers consume similar hours monthly, and budget variance surfaces immediately when current campaign deviates from historical pattern that indicates extra work without extra payment or efficiency problems.
Client portals for PR professionals: project management connection
Client portals connect project management data to client-facing access, creating smooth campaign visibility without status email overhead that consumes hours weekly.
Portal as campaign command center
Clients access their complete campaign status through branded portals. Current tasks, completed deliverables, upcoming milestones, coverage secured, and retainer hours used all appear in one place. Project management data powers what clients see: task marked complete in your internal board shows as delivered milestone in their portal, file uploaded to campaign task appears in their document library, hours logged against campaign tasks updates their retainer balance automatically.
Consistent campaign communication
Portal presentation reflects the organized campaign structure in project management. Campaigns appear by phase like Research, Pitching, Execution, Monitoring, Reporting, with progress bars showing completion percentage. Professional consistent client experience across all campaigns and all touchpoints. They see campaign status the same way whether checking from desktop at office or mobile during commute, no formatting differences or missing data.
Self-service deliverable access
Clients find their own press releases, coverage reports, media lists, and campaign summaries without asking where's the Q4 coverage report or can you resend that press release. Project management organization enables client self-service. Deliverables filed under correct campaign phase appear in portal automatically. Administrative burden of file requests and email searches eliminated because clients access files directly where they live in campaign structure.
Two-way campaign visibility
Portal interactions feed back into project management. Client approves pitch draft via portal comment, approval timestamp and comment attach to the pitch task automatically. Client asks question about coverage goal, question appears in unified inbox and response attaches to campaign thread. Complete campaign picture from both perspectives: team sees internal tasks and hours, client sees the work and progress, both views pulling from same connected data source.
Multi-campaign continuity
Portals maintain relationship context across multiple campaigns and time periods. Returning client for quarterly product launches finds their Q1, Q2, and Q3 campaign history with all coverage secured, deliverables produced, and budget consumed per quarter. Connection maintained between campaign cycles. Successful pitch angles from previous launches visible when planning next quarter's approach, media relationships built during earlier campaigns inform current outreach strategy and journalist targeting.
Portals make project management client-facing. Internal campaign organization translates to external visibility: phases you track internally become progress clients see, tasks you complete become deliverables they access, hours you log become retainer balance they monitor without asking for updates.
How to migrate project management to Plutio
Migration from another project management software typically takes 3-5 hours of active work spread over a weekend, with the best time to switch being between campaign cycles rather than mid-launch during active media outreach that can't tolerate tool disruption.
Step 1: Export from your current tool
You management software provides CSV export of tasks, projects, and time entries. Here's what to export from common tools:
- Asana: Go to project menu, Export, CSV for tasks. Export includes task names, assignees, due dates, and completion status. Time tracking data exports separately if using Harvest integration, download time reports by project before disconnecting.
- Monday.com: Click workspace menu, Export workspace to Excel. Exports all boards with tasks, statuses, and custom columns. Time tracking exports separately from Time Tracking view, Export.
- ClickUp: Space settings, Export, CSV exports tasks with all custom fields. Time tracked exports from Time Tracking view, Export time entries. Separate exports for tasks vs time means manual matching during import to Plutio.
- Trello: Board menu, More, Print and Export, Export as JSON. Convert JSON to CSV using online converter before importing to Plutio. Trello doesn't track time natively so no time data to export, just task structure.
Step 2: Build campaign templates in Plutio (2-3 hours)
Use your exported campaign data as reference to create new templates. Focus on forward-looking workflow not historical archives. You're building how campaigns will run not recreating how they used to run with old tool's limitations. Create templates for your 3-4 most common campaign types like monthly retainer, product launch, event promotion, with standard phases, recurring tasks, and estimated hours per task type. Templates save setup time on every future campaign and make sure consistent workflow across team members.
Step 3: Set up integrations (30 mins)
Connect payment processing like Stripe or PayPal, calendar sync like Google Calendar or Outlook, and any automation tools like Zapier for CRM integration or Slack notifications. Test each integration with dummy data before relying on it for actual client work. Send test invoice and confirm payment marks it paid, create test calendar event and verify it syncs both directions, trigger test automation and check that action completes correctly.
Step 4: Import active campaigns (30 mins)
Upload your CSV of active campaigns and tasks. Map fields appropriately: Asana project becomes Plutio campaign, Monday.com board becomes project, task assignees map to team members you've added to Plutio. Import only campaigns with work still in progress. Completed campaigns can stay in old system as historical reference. Trying to migrate five years of completed campaign history creates clutter and serves no practical purpose for daily work.
Step 5: Run parallel for new campaigns
Use Plutio for all new campaign launches while keeping the old system active for campaigns already mid-execution. Switching tools mid-campaign disrupts team workflow and risks losing task context during critical outreach windows when journalist relationships matter. New client signs retainer in February, set up in Plutio from day one. Existing client mid-product launch in old system, finish that campaign there then migrate them to Plutio for next campaign cycle.
Step 6: Phase out the old tool
Once all active campaigns on your old system reach completion, typically 30-60 days for fixed projects or first of next month for retainer switchover, export final time reports and campaign summaries for archive then cancel that subscription. Keep export files as backup reference but stop logging into old system for daily work. Team fully transitioned to Plutio, old tool becomes read-only archive you reference if client asks about campaign from six months ago.
Common migration pitfalls to avoid
- Trying to migrate everything: You don't need five years of completed campaigns imported. Focus on active work and forward-looking templates. Historical data can live in exported CSV files you never need to open unless client dispute arises.
- Switching mid-campaign: Finish in-progress product launches and active pitch cycles on the old system. Campaign team shouldn't have to ask wait where did we move that media list during critical outreach week when coverage deadlines loom.
- Not testing integrations: Verify payment processing works with test transaction before sending first real client invoice through Plutio. Discovering Stripe integration misconfigured when client tries to pay creates unnecessary support burden and delays payment.
- Skipping template creation: Importing campaigns one-by-one without templates means rebuilding campaign structure manually every time. Two hours building templates saves 15 minutes per campaign forever after, ROI positive after 8 campaigns.
The investment in migration pays back in time saved on every future campaign. No more manual time reconciliation between project boards and timesheets, no more status email composition when clients can check portals, no more where's that file questions when everything lives in connected campaign structure.
