Creating A New Project 

To create a new Project click Start > Projects > Projects > New Project. You can create a blank Project or copy a Project Template.   Choosing a blank Project will display the screen below.    

1. Name: The name of your Project
2. Description: An overview of your Project that can be referred to later.
3. Status: Select a status.  This picklist can be edited in the ‘Project Statuses’ picklist within Configuration.
4. Type: Specify the type of project.  This picklist can be edited in the ‘Project Types’ picklist within Configuration.
5. Settings: Allows you to select certain behaviours and values for your Project.  The below table shows what options are available for both Simple Projects and Advanced Projects. 

Settings  

While creating a Project you are also able to make changes to the Settings. 

When looking at the Settings of a Simple Project you can change ‘Time Units’, ‘Task Statuses’ and ‘Task Categories’. 

Time Units   

 Time Units enables you to specify what units are entered and what units are displayed. It may be easier to measure how the Project is being delivered in Days but your Project Tasks are shown in Hours.  

With Advanced Projects you can also change the Time Units for when Users are logging time. 

Task Statuses 

Task Statuses allow you to track the progress of Project Tasks.  The default statuses can be managed by a System Administrator (Start > Configuration > Customisation > Picklists and selecting ‘Project Task Statuses’). However, it’s common to want different Project Statuses on different Projects so click ‘Add’ to create more.  You can create a Project Template for this type of Project where you choose the ones you want. 

Task Categories 

You may wish to classify Tasks depending on your needs.  The default values can be changed within the Configuration (Start > Configuration > Customisation > Picklists and selecting ‘Project Task Categories’) by a System Administrator though you are also able to add more that are specific to the Project by clicking ‘Add’.  

Task Behaviour 

When starting a Project, you may want to add estimates for how long each Task will take.  Selecting ‘Default Estimates’ means that the Estimates will match the Budget you allocate.  

 Some Task may take less time that expected to complete.  The ‘Clawback’ checkbox means that the ‘Allocated Budget’ on a Task is reduced by the ‘Remaining Budget’ and the ‘Remaining Budget’ is reduced to 0.  This makes that Budget available to be allocated elsewhere. 

Time Entry Behaviour 

A Project Manager may want to sign off on time that has been logged before it is marked as Delivered.  Enabling this means that Time Entries need to be approved before appearing in the ‘WIP’. 

Ticking the ‘Require Approval for Delivery’ checkbox means that Time Entries will not appear in the ‘WIP’ unless they’ve been approved. 

Finance Section 

Within the Finance Section you are able to set your Budget Type where you have the following options: 

Rate Only – A rate for the project has been given but there is no agreed cap on the number of hours/days. 

Price only – A set price is provided for the project.  While a potential time frame can be given, if this goes over or under, the price remains the same. 

Time and rate (Budget) – A rate is provided along with an agreed cap on the number of days/hours. 

Time only – this allows you to track how long a project takes. 

For more information about budgets please see our budget section. 

Time Categories 

For some Projects you may want to categorise how time is spent and mark if time is Chargeable or not.  For example, some time that is being logged may not be chargeable as a goodwill gesture or you may want to redo some of the work.  This tab allows you to create different categories and mark if they are chargeable.    

Once a Project has been created, you will be taken to the ‘Main’ tab.  The below table shows what other tabs will be available for Simple and Advanced Projects. 

The Projects ‘Team’ Tab allows you to easily manage and track which Users are part of the Project. Here you can Add/Remove Project Members and also control their Roles and Permissions within the Project. For example, your project team may have a Project Sponsor and Project Manager who will provide the direction of the project and make important decisions daily. These members will likely need full permission. Whereas a Resource manager may only need to be involved a lot in the beginning stages to make sure the right members are in the project team. For this reason, they may only need permissions to manage ‘Roles’ and ‘Members’. Participants on the other hand may only need permission to log time entries. All of this can be controlled in this section of the Project and will be described in more detail below. 

Adding/Removing Project Members  

When a new project is created, the User who created it will default to being the Project Manager and will hold all permissions within the Project.   

To make managing the Project easier, within the Team tab you can add new project members by selecting the +Add Member button at the top left of the Project window as well as remove project members by clicking on the x on the right hand side at the end of the member row.  

When new team members are added to the Project, they will receive a notification and also receive future notifications when Project Tasks are assigned to them. 

They can also be added by assigning them Project Tasks.  When added this way, they will automatically be given the Participant role.  

There may be times when you create a Project but need to reassign it to someone who is not yet a Project Member.  You can change the ‘Assigned to’ to the user and when you save the change, they will automatically be added to the Project as a Project Manager. 

Manage Roles   

As standard, two roles are available at the start of a new project (Project Manager & Participant). However, this is not limited. If you wish to assign a role that is not available on the picklist, you can create a new role for the Project through the ‘Manage Roles’ UI by clicking ‘Manage Role’ > Add Role, as shown in the screenshot below.  

When creating or editing roles, you can also grant them certain permissions within the Project.  In the below example, a Participant can View Project members, create, view, modify, delete, assign and reschedule Project Tasks.  They can also log time for themselves and modify their own time entries yet are not able to view other members Time Entries and do not have Project Finance Permissions. 

When using a Project Record, to define what needs to be done and assign out tasks to individuals who are working on the project, you will need to create Project Tasks.    

When opening the Project Tasks tab, you will immediately see an editable grid to which you can add the columns of the essential fields of your Project Tasks. This Grid View will help you to see the current status of your Project Tasks at a glance and you can edit fields quickly without needing to open up the record.    

To create a Project Task you will first need to press ‘New Project Task’, a new row will be added where you can add details.  You can also open the Task by pressing icon on the left of the Name field.   

Here you can add the details of the Task.  The Project budget type will impact whether you are able to add a Budgeted Time.  When you are adding Budgeted Time, if you have no time remaining, you will get a message stating this exceeds the remaining Budget, preventing you from saving the Task.  This will also happen if you are editing a Task.  To add additional Budget to a Task you would either need to reduce the allocated Budget of another task first or increase the Budget of the whole project. 

Once you are finished creating the tasks, click Save to create the Records. Any view that you save by clicking View > Save will be saved only for that Project which enables you to have the desired fields viewable at a glance for each different Project you are managing.   

Depending on which Budget Type has been set for the Project, at the bottom of the screen you will also see your total budget, allocated budget and remaining budget.  

These figures will automatically update if you change the allocated budget within a Task.  When a Project Task has been completed and it had unused budget, if you had checked the ‘Clawback’ tickbox in the Settings, this will show in the ‘Remaining Budget’. 

The columns that are available in Edit Grid mode are the same that are on the Project Task form layout. These can be customised by navigating to Configuration > Customisation > Record Types > Tasks.   

You may have a lot of upcoming projects that are very similar.  Project Templates allow you to build a Project where Tasks have already been created and a Team has already been added. 

To build your template, on the Projects Landing Page, select ‘Project Templates’ and the press ‘New Project Template’.  This will open a new window which is the same as creating a new Project.  Once created, you can add a Team, set roles and create Tasks.   

When you have created your template, it will appear within the dropdown list when creating a new project and selecting the template you wish to use. 

New Project Templates can be created from the ‘Project Templates’ Landing View, clicking ‘New Project Template’.  Create your Template as you would a new Project, adjust the settings as needed and press ‘Create’.  You are then able to make changes to Team, add Project Tasks and set a budget.  Once these have been updated, save your changes and the Template will be available to select from the dropdown menu.