Projects
Track work, time, and costs across jobs and tasks.
Projects is the module for service and project-based businesses. It organizes work into projects, breaks projects into jobs, and breaks jobs into tasks. Time logged by team members flows through an approval lifecycle before it counts toward project cost. Every hour and every document raised against a project is tracked so you know exactly where time and money went. Nothing in Projects posts a journal — the documents you raise from a project (invoices, bills, expenses) post their own.
The Projects Page
Navigate to: Operations → Projects
The Projects page has four views, one per level of the hierarchy.
| View | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Projects | Every project. Columns: Project, Owner, Status, Timeline, Budget, Progress, Jobs. Summary cards: Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, Completed. |
| Jobs | Every job across projects. Columns: Job, Manager, Status, Due Date, Budget, Hours, Tasks. |
| Tasks | Every task. Columns: Task, Assigned To, Priority, Status, Due Date, Hours. Summary cards: To do, In Progress, Blocked, Done. |
| Timesheets | Every time entry. Columns: Employee, Date, Project / Task, Hours, Billable, Amount, Status. Summary cards: Draft, Submitted, Approved, Rejected. |
Page controls:
- New — opens the create form for the current view
- Search — search by the first column (title, or employee for timesheets)
- Export — CSV or PDF; Columns — show or hide columns
- Import (Projects view) — bulk upload with the columns Title, Status, Budget, Start Date, End Date, Description
Selecting rows shows a bar with Delete. Clicking a row opens the record.
Creating a Project
Click New on the Projects view to open the project creation form.
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Project Title | Yes | The name of the project as it appears in lists and on documents. |
| Description | No | Scope summary, brief, or internal notes. |
| Client | No | Select from existing customers. |
| Project Owner | No | The internal team member responsible for delivering the project. |
| Center / Location | No | The business unit delivering the project. Shown when you have more than one. |
| Status | No | Not Started (default), In Progress, On Hold, Completed, Cancelled. |
| Discipline | No | A short code (e.g. CD, AD, PR) used in the auto-generated job number. |
| Job Number | No | Leave blank to auto-generate as CLIENT/DISCIPLINE/YEAR/SEQ. Must be unique. |
| Client PO # / PO Amount | No | The client's purchase order, stamped on every invoice raised against the project, and the PO ceiling billed amounts are reconciled against. |
| Billing Method | No | Fixed Price (client pays the agreed contract value), Time & Materials (hours × hourly rate), or Milestone-based (payments tied to deliverables). |
| Contract Value | No | The total agreed contract amount; shown as Budget in lists. |
| Default Hourly Rate | No | The default rate per hour for time logged on the project. Jobs, tasks and time entries can carry their own. |
| Start Date / End Date / Delivery Date | No | Planned dates, shown as the Timeline in the list. None is enforced. |
Project Status Options
On a project, as on a job, the two middle statuses are inverted between the form and the server: choosing "Completed" saves the project as On Hold, and choosing "On Hold" saves it as Completed. The project detail page redisplays the picker's own labels, so it reads back correctly there, while the Projects list, the summary cards, and every report read the server's value and show the opposite. Two screens, two answers.
This also means the "completed projects are locked" behaviour keys off the picker's idea of completed, not the server's. Do not drive decisions from a project's status until this is fixed.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not Started | Project is defined but work has not started. |
| In Progress | Active project. Team members log timesheets and costs are being incurred. |
| On Hold | Intended for a temporarily paused project. Picking it currently stores the project as Completed on the server — see the warning above. |
| Completed | Intended for finished work. Editing a project the form regards as completed locks every field except Status, so it can be re-opened without re-keying. Picking it currently stores the project as On Hold on the server. |
| Cancelled | Project did not proceed or was terminated. Costs already incurred are retained. |
Project Detail — Tabs
Click any project to open its page. The header shows the client, owner, dates, Budget and an Overall Progress bar (a percentage the owner sets by editing the project — it is not calculated). Quick-create shortcuts raise an Invoice, Estimate, Sales Receipt, Bill, Purchase Order or Expense already linked to the project.
| Tab | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | Cards for Budget, Billed (with billable hours), Total Cost, Gross Profit, Total Hours, Tasks, Jobs, followed by the jobs list. |
| Jobs | The jobs in this project, with New Job. |
| Documents | The invoices, bills, purchase orders and expenses raised against the project. |
| Costing | The cost-control workspace: estimate lines that can be turned into an Estimate, a Quote, an itemised or single-line Invoice, or Purchase Orders per contractor. |
| Files | Attachments with uploader and timestamp. |
| Discussion | Comments and history. |
Jobs Tab
Jobs are the major work phases or deliverables within a project.
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Job Title | Yes | The name of this phase or deliverable (e.g., "Phase 1 — Discovery", "Module A — Backend API"). |
| Description | No | Scope or objectives for this job. |
| Manager | No | The team member responsible for this job. |
| Budget | No | The budget allocated to this job. |
| Hourly Rate | No | A default rate for time logged against this job. |
| Start Date / End Date / Delivery Date | No | Planned dates. None is enforced. |
| Status | No | Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, Completed, Cancelled. |
| Deliverables | No | A list of expected outputs, shown as a checklist on the job page. |
Tasks
Tasks are the smallest unit of work in a project. They belong to a project and, optionally, to a job. Timesheets can reference tasks.
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Yes | The project this task belongs to. |
| Job | No | The job (phase) within the project this task falls under. |
| Task Title | Yes | The task name. Should be specific and actionable (e.g., "Design database schema for invoicing module"). |
| Description | No | Detailed instructions or acceptance criteria for the task. |
| Assigned To | No | The team member responsible for completing this task. |
| Start Date / Due Date / Start Time | No | When work should begin and be done, with an optional time of day. |
| Estimated Hours | No | How long this task is expected to take. |
| Priority | No | Low, Medium, High, or Urgent. |
| Status | No | To Do, In Progress, Review, Done, Cancelled. |
| Billable | No | Whether time logged against this task is billable, with an hourly rate when ticked. |
| Checklist | No | A list of sub-items within the task, ticked off from the task page. |
Files are attached from the task page after it is created.
Timesheets
Timesheets are the mechanism by which team members log time against projects, jobs and tasks. A time entry records who worked, on what, for how long, and on which date.
Navigate to: Operations → Projects → Timesheets view → New
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Team Member | Yes | Who performed the work. |
| Project | Yes | The project the time is being logged against. |
| Job | No | The job phase within the project. |
| Task | No | The specific task within the job. Recommended for accurate cost tracking. |
| Date | Yes | The date the work was performed. Not the submission date. |
| Hours | Yes | Enter Hours (quarter-hour steps, up to 24, with quick buttons) or switch to Time Range and enter Start Time and End Time — the duration is calculated. |
| Description | No | What was done during this time. |
| Billable Time | No | Whether this time entry is billable, with an hourly rate when ticked. The estimated billable amount shows as you type. |
Timesheet Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Created but not submitted. Can be edited or deleted. No financial impact. |
| Submitted | Submitted for approval with Submit for Approval on the entry. Awaiting review. |
| Approved | Approved on the entry. The approver and time are recorded. No journal is posted. |
| Rejected | Returned with a rejection reason, shown on the entry. The entry can be corrected and resubmitted. |
Approving Timesheets
Open a Submitted entry from the Timesheets view and click Approve or Reject. Rejections require a reason, which is shown on the entry.
Billing from Projects
Invoices are raised from the project page's quick-create shortcuts or from the Costing tab, already linked to the project and carrying its Client PO number. Approved time is not turned into invoice lines automatically; use the Billed and Total Hours cards on the Overview and the Costing tab to decide what to bill.
Related
- Jobs — the work packages inside a project
- Tasks — the individual work items
- Timesheets — logging and approving time
- Business units — the unit a project's costs are tagged to