Teamwork
Plan client projects, log time, manage milestones, and expose a client view
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Teamwork, plan client projects, log time, manage milestones, and expose a client view. The hard boundary is agency billing, workload, client permissions, integrations, and reporting, plus collaboration, integrations, and organizational trust.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- agency billing, workload, client permissions, integrations, and reporting
- deep integrations
- enterprise permissions
- large-scale reporting
- battle-tested notifications and mobile apps
Why people still pay
People still pay for Teamwork because teams pay because project state has to remain authoritative through staff changes, outages, and years of accumulated workflow exceptions. The recurring cost buys auth, permissions, notifications, search, migrations, audit history, integrations, backups, and uptime, not just the visible interface.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- Runtime and tools: TypeScript, React, Node and PostgreSQL with workspace membership enforced on the server.
- Before starting: A PostgreSQL database, session authentication, two isolated example workspaces and private attachment storage.
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Project rule — domain: Store Client, Project, Milestone, Task, TimeEntry and Visibility; private staff notes and internal rates are excluded from client endpoints and exports.
Project rule — scope and recovery: Start with manual time tracking and one client permission model. Invoicing, resource forecasting and integrations are later phases; project history remains auditable after task edits.
Project rule — acceptance: Invite a client, log internal billable time and publish a milestone update; the client sees approved progress without internal notes or rates.
Project rule — delivery: document real setup commands and permissions; do not claim a build, accuracy level, performance result or security certification that has not been demonstrated.
Recommended skill: supabase-postgres-best-practices — review this PostgreSQL domain schema, uniqueness constraints, transaction boundaries and access-scoped queries; Supabase hosting is not required. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Recommended skill: web-design-guidelines — review keyboard access, focus, validation, error recovery and the readable work/review interface or HTML report. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Pin the working slice and create its example input: Plan client projects with milestones, assigned tasks, time entries and a restricted client-facing progress view. Confirm setup: A PostgreSQL database, session authentication, two isolated example workspaces and private attachment storage.
Phase 2
Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Client, Project, Milestone, Task, TimeEntry and Visibility; private staff notes and internal rates are excluded from client endpoints and exports.
Phase 3
Connect the working view to real saved state. Check membership on reads, mutations, attachments and exports. Keep activity history separate from editable current state; do not make private records public through search.
Phase 4
Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Start with manual time tracking and one client permission model. Invoicing, resource forecasting and integrations are later phases; project history remains auditable after task edits.
Phase 5
Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Invite a client, log internal billable time and publish a milestone update; the client sees approved progress without internal notes or rates. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.
Build the following focused alternative to Teamwork. This is a deliberately limited personal or small-team substitute, not parity with the paid service. WORKING SLICE Plan client projects with milestones, assigned tasks, time entries and a restricted client-facing progress view. SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE Use TypeScript, React, Node and PostgreSQL with workspace membership enforced on the server. Prerequisites: A PostgreSQL database, session authentication, two isolated example workspaces and private attachment storage. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success. DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS Store Client, Project, Milestone, Task, TimeEntry and Visibility; private staff notes and internal rates are excluded from client endpoints and exports. IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT Check membership on reads, mutations, attachments and exports. Keep activity history separate from editable current state; do not make private records public through search. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content. APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY Start with manual time tracking and one client permission model. Invoicing, resource forecasting and integrations are later phases; project history remains auditable after task edits. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO Invite a client, log internal billable time and publish a milestone update; the client sees approved progress without internal notes or rates. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested. DELIVERY Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product. PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan
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Teamwork pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| free | $0/user | $0/user | Up to 5 users, 5 projects, 100 MB storage, 2 templates, 100 automations/month and 5 file proofs/month |
| basics | — | $9.99/user | 300 projects, 100 GB storage, 5,000 automations/month, 20 file proofs/month and unlimited templatesCurrent public card exposes only the annual-billed effective rate. |
| accelerate | — | $24.99/user | 600 projects, 250 GB storage, 20,000 automations/month and unlimited file proofsCurrent public card exposes only the annual-billed effective rate. |
| optimize | — | — | Unlimited projects, 500 GB storage and 100,000 automations/monthCustom quote. |
| enterprise | — | — | Unlimited projects, 1,000 GB storage, 100,000 automations/month and enterprise security/supportCustom quote. |
free tierUp to 5 users, 5 projects, 100 MB storage, 2 templates, 100 automations/month and 5 file proofs/month
billingannual billing for displayed Basics/Accelerate rates (page says save 29%); 14-day trial, no card; custom higher plans
hidden costsAI is temporarily included, but Teamwork says usage-based AI credits launch in September 2026. Onboarding, BI, Connect, premium support, Desk and SSO can be separate paid products/services. Client and collaborator seats can be free only with restricted permissions.
pricing sources checked 2026-08-14 · pricing source ↗
Questions about Teamwork
Can you build your own Teamwork with AI?
Partly. The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Teamwork, plan client projects, log time, manage milestones, and expose a client view. The hard boundary is agency billing, workload, client permissions, integrations, and reporting, plus collaboration, integrations, and organizational trust.
What does the Teamwork build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Plan client projects with milestones, assigned tasks, time entries and a restricted client-facing progress view. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: agency billing, workload, client permissions, integrations, and reporting; deep integrations; enterprise permissions. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Teamwork prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Teamwork project take?
The catalogue estimate is multi-day for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Teamwork?
agency billing, workload, client permissions, integrations, and reporting; deep integrations; enterprise permissions; large-scale reporting; battle-tested notifications and mobile apps. People still pay for Teamwork because teams pay because project state has to remain authoritative through staff changes, outages, and years of accumulated workflow exceptions. The recurring cost buys auth, permissions, notifications, search, migrations, audit history, integrations, backups, and uptime, not just the visible interface.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Basics plan is $9.99/mo per seat (annual billing, per user per month), checked 2026-08-14. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Teamwork?
Odoo Community: Projects, milestones, recurring tasks, timesheets, and client portal access inside an ERP that brought ninety other modules. ONLYOFFICE Groups: Milestones, timesheets, reports, and view-only client guests; the price is running an office suite. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.