Projects & the Workspace
A project is the top-level container for a job: it carries the customer, the schedule, the budget, the team, the documents and the money. Everything else in the module hangs off a project.
The dashboard
Clicking the Project group header in the left navigation opens the Project Management dashboard — a read-at-a-glance view across all projects: summary cards for total, active, on-hold and completed projects, status and budget charts, your active projects with progress, upcoming milestones, resource utilization and a feed of recent activity. Select New Project here to start a project.
The Projects list
Projects is the full table of every project. It opens with Project #, Project Name, Project Code, Status, Type, Priority, Progress, Customer, Project Manager, Start Date, End Date and Tasks (done out of total, leaving cancelled tasks out). Code, Budget, Billable Amount, Total Hours, Department and Location are extra columns you can switch on, and every column can be sorted. Total Hours counts every logged time entry on the project, approved or not.
Open the filters to narrow the list by:
- Status, Type, Priority and Billing Method
- Archived — Hide archived or Only archived
- Billable — Yes or No
- Customer, Project Manager and Department
- Start Date and End Date, each as a from–to range (both ends included)
Each row's menu lets you open, edit, copy or delete the project, and the list can be downloaded for use elsewhere.
Creating a project
Select New Project and fill in the form:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Project Number | Required. Filled in from the next available number; you can overwrite it. |
| Project Name | Required. |
| Code | Optional short reference. |
| Status | Starts at Draft. |
| Priority | Low · Medium · High · Critical. Default Medium. |
| Project Type | Time & Materials · Fixed Price · Internal · Retainer. Default Time & Materials. |
| Customer | Required before the project can be billed. |
| Project Manager | Any user. |
| Start / End Date | Optional, but the end date drives the overdue warning. |
| Budget Amount | A header figure, separate from the detailed tree on the Budget tab. |
| Billable / Billing Method | Billable is on by default. Billing method is Hourly · Fixed Price · Milestone · Progress Billing, default Hourly. |
| Hourly Rate, Currency | The rate used for time that has no rate of its own. |
| Department / Location / Project Code | Internal ownership, site and the code that ties the project's orders, bills and invoices together. |
| Billing Address / Site Address | The site address is what daily-log weather is fetched for. |
| Description / Internal Notes | Internal notes are for staff only. |
| Attachments | Images, PDF, Word and Excel files. |
Custom fields your company has defined for projects appear in their own section of the form.
Defaults
In project settings each user can set their own defaults for new projects — Project Default Project Type, Project Default Priority, Project Default Billable and Project Default Billing Method — plus a Task Grouping preference.
Company-level settings hold the Default Daily Log Template, Budget Item Category Filters (which item categories can be picked for budget lines), the Project Billing Item (the service item used for project lines with no item of their own), the Project Retainage Item, and the Default Estimate Markup %.
Project statuses
A project moves through its statuses in a set order, and the Status picker only offers the moves allowed from where the project is now:
| From | Can move to |
|---|---|
| Draft | Planning, In Progress, Cancelled |
| Planning | Draft, In Progress, On Hold, Cancelled |
| In Progress | On Hold, Completed, Cancelled |
| On Hold | In Progress, Planning, Cancelled |
| Completed | In Progress (reopen) |
| Cancelled | Nothing — Cancelled is final |
A completed project can be reopened — for late warranty work or a disputed final invoice — but a cancelled one cannot. The first move to In Progress records the actual start date, Completed records the actual end date, and reopening clears the end date again.
Status prompts and the overdue banner
The project watches your tasks and offers to move it for you:
- When a task moves to In Progress while the project is still Draft or Planning, you're asked whether to move the project to In Progress.
- When every non-cancelled task reaches Done while the project is In Progress, you're asked whether to mark it Completed.
These are prompts, not automatic changes — declining leaves the status alone.
An overdue banner appears when the end date has passed, not every task is done, and the project is neither Completed nor Cancelled. Dismissing it hides it until you reload the page; it changes nothing.
Archive and delete
Archive makes a project inactive without deleting it — it keeps its status and shows an Archived tag in the list — and Unarchive brings it back. Delete cannot be undone.
Copying a project
If you run the same kind of job repeatedly, copy an existing project — from its row menu on the Projects list, or with Copy in the project's actions menu. The copy keeps the descriptive fields and starts fresh with a new project number and Draft status.
The Overview tab
Opening a project lands you on Overview — the project's cover page. The header shows the name and number, a status pill, a priority badge and an Archived tag when it applies. Next to it are Edit, the Team button and an actions menu holding Bill Project, Archive / Unarchive, Copy and Delete. To change the status, use the Status field in the Edit form. Below it: progress, task counts, hours logged, time remaining, task distribution, a budget summary, phases, milestones, the team and upcoming deadlines, with overdue tasks flagged.
Milestones
Milestones are the significant checkpoints in a project — a sign-off, a delivery date or a billing trigger. A milestone needs a Name and a Target Date, can be linked to a phase, and can carry a Billing Amount that is invoiced once it is achieved.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Not yet reached. The starting status. |
| Achieved | Reached — the Actual Achievement Date is recorded. |
| Missed | The target date passed without it. |
| Cancelled | No longer relevant. |
Phases
A phase is a stage of the job — Design, Build, Commissioning — that groups tasks and budget lines. A phase needs a Name; its status runs Not Started · In Progress · Completed · On Hold. Order sets the sequence, and the end date must be on or after the start date. A phase's budget amount is calculated from the budget lines under it rather than typed in. Deleting a phase does not delete its budget lines — they become unassigned.
Manufacturing tabs
For manufacturing companies, three more tabs tie a project to the shop floor, each shown to users with the matching access:
- Material — every material the project's jobs need, and whether it is reserved for this project, on order or short — including short while stock sits on other jobs. Reserve for this job holds supply against the project, and Raise purchase orders acts on the purchasable shortages; you can also raise work orders for sales order lines that still need building.
- Engineering — the project's own BOMs and the engineering changes raised for it. Add item copies an item's standard BOM into the project as its own revision, and the project's work orders build to it.
- Orders — every sales order on the project's code, what the floor is doing for each and how much has shipped. It needs a project code.