Introduction

ianaiERP's Project Management module runs delivery work end to end: plan a project, break it into phases, tasks and milestones, assign people and equipment, log hours against it, compare planned cost to actual cost, and bill the customer from the work that was recorded — all linked to the same customers, items, workforce and accounting records the rest of the ERP already uses.

It is built around one project record. Tasks, time entries, budget lines, assignments, change orders, files and daily logs all hang off that record and roll up into its progress, hours and cost figures. It suits project-driven businesses — construction, field installation, professional services, engineer-to-order manufacturing and internal initiatives — where a single job carries its own schedule, budget, crew, documents and profit.

What it gives you

A schedule — phases, tasks, sub-tasks, dependencies and milestones, viewed as a list, a Kanban board or a Gantt timeline.
A budget — a tree of cost lines whose actual cost is tracked from real time entries, bills and expenses, and which converts into a customer estimate or contract.
A crew — assign workforce and equipment to projects, and see week by week who is over- or under-booked across every project, net of approved leave.
A clock — a weekly timesheet for each person, with a manager approving hours before they can be billed.
An invoice — bill a project by approved time, achieved milestones, a fixed amount, progress percentage or retainage release.
A change log — change orders that record what changed mid-job, what it costs, what the customer pays and how far it pushes the end date.
A site record — one daily log per day with weather, photos and voice notes, plus floor plans with zones linked to tasks.
A document vault — project folders, with drawing revisions released to the records that use them.

Where it lives

Everything sits under the Project group in the left navigation. Clicking the group header opens the Project Management dashboard.

Menu item	What it's for
Project (group header)	The Project Management dashboard — summary cards, status and budget charts, active projects, upcoming milestones, utilization and recent activity.
Projects	The full project list — filter, sort, create, copy and open any project.
Tasks	Every task across every project in one list or board — your personal or team work queue.
Timesheet	A weekly grid for logging your own hours.
Assignments	Plan who works where across all open projects, with Grid, Timeline and Load views.
Contract	Every contract, for users who can read contracts. See Estimates & Contracts.

The project workspace

Open any project and you land in a tabbed workspace:

Tab	What you do there
Overview	Progress, task counts, hours logged, time remaining, budget summary, phases, milestones, team and upcoming deadlines.
Work	Tasks in List, Board (Kanban) or Timeline (Gantt) form.
Time	Every team member's time entries for the project, and approval.
Material	Manufacturing companies. Whether the materials the project's jobs need are reserved for it, on order or short.
Engineering	Manufacturing companies. The project's own BOMs and the engineering changes raised for it.
Orders	Manufacturing companies. Every sales order on the project, what the floor is doing for it and how much has shipped.
Budget	The budget tree, templates, cost calculator and conversion to estimate or contract.
Financials	Invoices, bills, purchase orders, payments and expenses linked to the project, with revenue, cost and profit.
Changes	Change orders raised on the project, with their cost, price, schedule impact and approval.
Files	Project files and folders.
Daily Logs	Dated site logs shaped by your daily log template.
Floor Plan	Construction and real estate companies. Zones drawn on a plan image, linked to tasks.

The Team drawer, opened from the project header, is where you add people and equipment to the project and drag them onto tasks.

Who uses what

Project manager — creates the project, builds the schedule and budget, staffs the team, approves time, raises change orders and bills the customer.
Crew / team member — works tasks on the board, fills in the weekly Timesheet, and files Daily Logs from site.
Estimator / sales — builds a budget and converts it into an estimate or contract, then wins the accepted estimate into a project.
Resource planner — uses Assignments to balance workload and find free capacity.
Executive — reads the dashboard for portfolio health and the Financials tab for project profitability.

How the data connects

        Customer ─────────────┐
        Workforce / Assets ─┐ │
                            ▼ ▼
   Phases ──► Tasks ──► PROJECT ──► Milestones ──► Invoices
                │          │  ▲
       Time entries        │  └── Change orders (date, forecast, billable milestone)
       (approved)          ├──► Budget tree ──► Estimate / Contract
                │          │         ▲
                ▼          │         │ actual cost
            Invoices ◄─────┘   Time entries · Bills · Expenses

   Daily logs · Floor plans · Files ──► attached to the project

The budget's planned figures are what you enter; its actual figures come from approved time entries, bills and expenses linked to its lines, so cost-to-date stays current without re-keying.

Recommended setup order

Set your defaults. In project settings choose your default project type, priority, billable flag and billing method, and have an administrator set the company's default daily log template and the service item used to bill project lines. See Projects & the Workspace.
Create a project — or win an accepted estimate into one. See Projects & the Workspace and Estimates & Contracts.
Build the schedule — phases, tasks, milestones and dependencies. See Tasks & the Work Tab.
Build the budget and link cost sources so actuals track themselves. See Budgeting.
Staff it — add the team and check load. See Assignments & Team.
Run it — log and approve time, file daily logs, record change orders, and store documents. See Time Tracking & Timesheets, Daily Logs, Change Orders and Files & Floor Plans.
Bill it. See Billing & Financials.

Related but separate

Field Service — service requests, dispatch and service agreements — is its own module with its own dashboard. See Field Service.