Project management - 8 min read

The best task management software for banks: factors you need to consider

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Caitlin Hughes
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Introducing new software can be challenging, especially in traditional industries like banking. Strict regulations, complex security requirements and pushback from colleagues can slow the process down. But just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. In this article, we explore why task management software is essential to your organization’s success, and the factors to consider to ensure you choose the best task management software for your team.

How does your bank benefit from task management software?

If your team is still managing your projects with a mix of in-person meetings, calls, emails and even sticky notes, you know how ineffective this can be. By centralizing your team’s work online, task management software:

  • Reduces the need for in-person communication and paper-based processes

  • Stops important information falling through the cracks

  • Ensures decisions, deadlines and responsibilities are documented transparently, so teams and individuals are more accountable

In banking, task management software can be the difference between adhering to or failing to comply with regulations. Ultimately, without a way to maintain a clear overview of requirements, your company is exposed to risk. This could result in a hefty fine, damage to your company’s reputation — or worse.  

That’s why the question isn’t whether you need a task management tool, but which tool is right for your organization.

What to consider when choosing task management software for your organization?

There are a lot of task management tools out there, but very few will tick every box. You don’t want to waste time testing a tool that doesn’t meet industry standards, or onboarding your team to a tool they won’t use. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of questions you need to ask before choosing your new task management software.

1. How secure is it?

Security and compliance will be a key driving factor in your decision. Any task management tool you adopt must include secure data handling and role-based permissions as standard. Your task management software should also be certified to ISO:27001:13, the world’s leading security standard. A missing certification will help you filter out non-compliant tools from your shortlist.

Thinking of trying out a U.S. based task management tool? Be aware that they aren’t subject to the same strict legal requirements as those based in the EU. Simply put, U.S. tools can’t guarantee the safety of your data. A data breach could be catastrophic for your organization, causing long term damage to your reputation and harming consumer trust.

Why MeisterTask is a safe choice

MeisterTask is ISO:27001:13 certified and is fully GDPR-compliant, with servers based in Frankfurt, Germany. This means you can be sure your data is safely stored and won’t be shared without your permission.

Aside from its intuitive user interface, MeisterTask's server location was a deciding factor for us. The security of our data is of utmost priority. With MeisterTask, we know that our data is stored in Germany and protected by rigorous security and privacy measures.

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Katja Esch

IT Project Leader, LBBW

With MeisterTask, you can:

Restrict access to certain features by role. Restrict access to certain features for team members and collaborators via permissions. This allows you control over who can use or edit integrations, analytics and more.

Restrict access to data on a project basis. If a project contains sensitive data that only specific team members should have access to, you can define these roles on a project level to ensure it stays confidential.

Add an additional layer of security. Enable SAML 2.0 and 2FA to keep your account secure while maintaining a quick and easy log-in process for team members.

All Meister accounts use a 256-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypted data transfer between the end user and Meister. Meister employees can't access your data by default. Learn more about MeisterTask’s security and privacy features.

We have approval from the auditing association to upload confidential data to the apps. This makes work easier because you don’t have to think twice when you upload a sensitive file to a task or project.

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Sebastian Kraft

Head of Bank Administration, IT and Digital Transformation, VR-Bank Würzburg

2. How user-friendly is it?

Before committing to a task management tool, ask yourself: will everyone in your organization be able — and willing — to use the software?

Banking projects often involve multiple stakeholders across departments, from risk management to legal to HR. Depending on their role, some stakeholders will be more tech-savvy than others. The task management software you choose therefore needs to be:

  • Flexible enough to support complex workflows and 

  • Straightforward enough for everyone to use

High adoption rates are key to the long-term success of any new technology you introduce. Tools which are too complex or overloaded with features can put team members off. They’ll turn to different ways of managing their work as a result. Information will be siloed within teams, causing collaboration to suffer.

Don’t pay for what you don’t need. A 2019 report by Pendo identified that 80% of features in cloud-based product software are rarely or never used. Simple, user-friendly software boosts productivity while saving you money.

Why your team will love MeisterTask

Introducing new software doesn’t need to be frustrating, despite what you might have experienced before. With MeisterTask, your team can:

Get started quickly. MeisterTask has a clean, straightforward design, with only the features your team needs to work productively. This means they can focus on the work that matters, rather than spending time navigating the tool. As it’s easy to use, they can also get started quickly with minimal onboarding.

Users have no problem getting to grips with the MeisterTask. It’s intuitive, easy to use and centralizes communication.

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Herfurth Justus

Manager Digital Financial Services, Tabularaza by zeb

Manage tasks, projects and daily work with ease. MeisterTask’s Kanban boards and Timeline provide a clear visual overview of work to help you stay on top of progress. The drag and drop function makes it easy to manage tasks and update their status for transparent workflows. As a result, everyone in your organization – regardless of tech experience – can proactively manage their work independently.

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Get tailored support from a dedicated team of experts. MeisterTask might be straightforward, but that doesn’t mean you’re on your own. We provide tailored support to help your team get the most from the software. There are also lots of resources available to access at your convenience. Free, interactive courses are available in the MeisterTask Academy, and you’ll find practical tips and advice from other users and experts in the Community.

3. How scalable is it?

It takes time to reach peak efficiency with new software. When you change tools too often:

  • Team members become frustrated

  • Productivity is disrupted

  • Work has to be imported from the old tool to the new, which requires new policies and documentation

It’s a drain on your resources. 

That’s why, no matter whether you’re responding to new regulations or expanding into new markets, your software needs to adapt with you. A scalable task management tool ensures teams can work together effectively without interrupting productivity.

Why MeisterTask is a scalable solution

MeisterTask’s flexibility means it grows with you. You can:

Adapt it to your team’s way of working. MeisterTask’s project boards follow the simple Kanban principle, but you can easily change them to suit your workflows. Edit section headers, define color-coded tags, add task dependencies and utilize subtasks to bring clarity to larger projects.

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Automate repetitive tasks. Automations help workflows run seamlessly while reducing admin and saving your team time. For example, you can create recurring tasks with custom fields and checklists for tasks that pop up every week or month. Or automatically assign tasks to a team member and trigger an automated email alert. 

Templatize work easily. Not only do MeisterTask templates make setting up and managing projects quicker and easier, they also help you ensure processes and workflows remain consistent across branches, regions and departments. By templatizing work, you increase alignment and improve output quality.

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Explore all MeisterTask templates for simple, efficient task management.

Build and expand your workflows with integrations. MeisterTask integrates with popular tools to help you keep your work centralized. For example, you can connect to Google workspace and Excel for access to financial and customer data from within your projects.

The amount of opportunities to customize our projects is incredible. This flexibility allows us to implement our internal language and processes so that our workflows are concise and easy to follow.

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Andrew Young

Founder and Creative Director, Abovo

4. How effectively does it streamline collaboration?

All good task management tools offer basic features like comments and real-time notifications. And these are often enough to improve communication. Ultimately, the best task management app for collaboration is one that everyone can use.

But what if a quick comment isn't enough? Effective teamwork also requires easy information sharing. That’s why you should choose a task management tool with documentation functionality. Whether it’s regulatory reports, risk assessments, or internal policies, a tool with this feature keeps all information safe and easy to access. By linking information to tasks and projects, team members get the context they need to collaborate smoothly and work independently.

How MeisterTask helps you to collaborate effectively

MeisterTask’s straightforward navigation and carefully selected collaboration features help you to work effectively as a team. With MeisterTask, you can:

Ensure accountability and ownership. Comments, task assignees and deadlines, ensure stakeholders know who is working on what, when. Task dependencies give your team an overview of how tasks are connected so they can see how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Create professional documents easily. Preformatted text blocks and design elements help you make professional-looking documents quickly, so you can focus on priority work. Collaborate on documents as a team, and get feedback or edits asynchronously to keep progress moving. As Notes live in MeisterTask, you don’t need to switch between tools to access important information.

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MeisterTask has created more transparency within our projects. We save time by having fewer meetings, and meeting minutes have become mostly obsolete. Thanks to MeisterTask we collaborate and communicate more effectively.

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Katja Esch

IT Project Manager, LLBW

Work with external stakeholders securely. Roles and permissions give you control over who can access, edit and share data. Assign the Guest role to external collaborators, limiting their visibility to only what you want them to see.

5. How easy is monitoring and reporting?

Reporting is critical not only for tracking project progress but also for ensuring regulatory compliance. The ability to produce accurate reports is essential to maintain transparency, mitigate risks and meet audit requirements. 

However, a lot of reporting dashboards can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate, especially for those unfamiliar with data management. Information overload increases stress and can lead to confusion and errors, causing significant problems down the line.

An easy way to filter and view task and project data helps ensure consistent, accurate reports, so you can make informed strategic decisions.

How MeisterTask makes reporting easy

By making reporting simple and accessible, MeisterTask helps you to: 

Keep important information at hand. All documentation and project details are securely stored in MeisterTask and can be revisited anytime — even after a project is closed — ensuring nothing is lost or overlooked. 

Ensure data is easily accessible. With Reports, you get a clear visual overview of task completion rates, team performance, project status and more. This makes it easy to track progress and share insights with stakeholders. You can also create a custom report by choosing your own filters and generating analytics tailored to your needs. For easy sharting, export your report as an Excel document(XLS) or CSV file.

MeisterTask’s authorization controls, automations, reports and Notes are essential to our projects’ success.

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Sebastian Kraft

Head of Bank Administration, IT and Digital Transformation, VR-Bank Würzburg

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In banking, where compliance and security are paramount, choosing the right task management tool is essential. Many tools lack the security and protections your bank needs to meet industry requirements. Those that do still often fall short on usability, which makes company-wide adoption difficult. 

Knowing what to look for will help you save you time and money in the long run. Ultimately, MeisterTask offers everything your team needs to stay organized, work efficiently, and collaborate seamlessly — all while keeping your data secure.

Bring teamwork online for good with MeisterTask.