Items List - Projects

Projects are the combined endeavors undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. A project is a mandatory component required for time tracking. Project information can include details such as a project manager, project start/end dates and project status. Projects are displayed in multiple views (Project Assignments, Approved Expenses, for time entry) as an optional or mandatory selection.

The Project Assignments view in the Employees & Projects area in the software is used to create projects that do not need a schedule or a budget. These are normally administrative type projects where it is important to keep track of time and costs, but there is no need to schedule and plan the work. If there is a requirement to plan the project's schedule/timeline and costs based on available resources, then the Project Planning section of the software should be used to create this project. See the 'Differences' topic for further details.

This topic describes how to add a project using the Items List view. Projects can also be added using the Project Assignments view.

Prerequisites:

Clients should first be established if time or expenses associated with projects are billable.
Project Groups should first be established if you want to be able to report on closely related projects that can be combined into logical groups. Project groups can be established or assigned at a later time without affecting existing time and expense data.

Add a project using the Items List view:

Select Items List from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Employees & Projects > Items List).
Select Projects in the drop-down list at the upper left corner of the view.
Click the New button located in the toolbar.

A project properties window opens.
Optionally select a Client from the drop-down list. When a project is associated to a client, the combined client and project name (Client abbreviation+Project Name) appears in certain drop-down fields and reports throughout the software.
Enter a unique project name (up to 250 characters). If a client is selected for this project, only the Client+Project name needs to be unique.
Click Done to save the information and close the window or click New to save the information and create a new project.

OPTIONAL INSTRUCTIONS:
Select an employee from the Manager drop-down list. The manager field is used for reporting purposes only.
From the Limited Access field, select which managers or Access Groups can access this project. Only the selected managers (or members of the selected access groups) are permitted to view and report on this project.

Depending on which limited access operating mode is enabled, either a list of manager names or a hierarchical tree of access groups is displayed in the limited access drop-down list. See Notes that follow.

Check the managers (or access groups) who require access to this item. Click the "check all" icon to select all. Clicking the “unselect all” icon removes all check marks except for one manager (or one access group). This is to guarantee that at least one person can access the item.
Click anywhere outside the Limited Access window to close the list.

Notes:

If the Limited Access list displays user names then Manager-level limited access mode is likely enabled. Otherwise, Hierarchy-based limited access mode is likely enabled.
When an access group is checked, any parent access group is automatically checked.

Select a Project Status from the drop-down list. The status determines whether the project is available for time entry or if it is only available for reporting and general information purposes.

More information on Project Status

Check the Freeze budget costs option to lock down the employee pay and billing rates applied to this project. When applied, if an employee's Rate of Wages or Rate Charged value is changed, the revised rates are not automatically applied to this project. However, with this option checked, it remains possible for rates to be manually adjusted, or Estimated hours to be adjusted using the Budgeted Time & Costs view.
From the Group by drop-down list, select which project group to associate with this project.
Select the Billing by option from the drop-down list.

When Fixed Cost is selected, a Fixed Cost details area is displayed below allowing you to enter one or more fixed costs for this project. Each fixed cost entry is then available for invoicing in the Billing view. Enter an Amount, Start/End date and Description. The Start/End date and Description fields are used for reporting purposes only. The Amount should include any applicable taxes. If Currencies have been enabled, the Fixed cost value should be entered in the same currency as selected in the next step (step 13), and enter a Budget exchange rate date for the amount (see step 14).

Tip: You can apply a project based billing rate against all time tracked against this project by using the Budgeted Time and Costs view’s budget wizard.

If enabled, select a Currency for this project. This is the currency in which costs are viewed when the 'Display by Project Currency' option is selected in the upper right corner of many views. It is also the currency used for the project when using the Billing view to create an invoice.
If enabled, set the Budget exchange rate date. This is set to prevent a project's budgeted costs from automatically changing when currency exchange rates are modified. The currency exchange rates from the date set in this field are used when viewing budgeted costs in other currencies. The date field cannot be set to a future date. It's important to highlight that this locks the currency exchange rates for budgeted costs only. Actual costs are calculated using the exchange rates for the date that the time is entered.
Modify the Start and End dates for the project. These dates are used for reporting purposes only.
Enter a brief Description for the project (up to 250 characters). This project description is available to those entering time on this project.
Check the Flag for archive box if you want to remove this project from the database the next time the Archive Database function is run.
Linked to: When applicable, this shows the path link for this project to Microsoft Project.
The Default Options area specifies if all future time or expense entries relating to this project automatically appear with their billable option checked or unchecked. For example, if ‘Time entries billable by default’ is checked, an employee entering time against this project will have the billable option pre-checked. Check or un-check each option as required for the project.

Notes:

Default Options should be set before any assignments are made for a project. Changes made to the Default Options after assignments are made will not be reflected in existing assignments. If the Default Options are modified after assignments are made, you can use the Budgeted Time & Costs view to adjust existing assignment properties.
This option applies the same billable default setting for all assignments within the project. If you require mixed defaults setting within a project, you can edit the billable/non-billable default setting for individual assignments by using the Budgeted Time & Costs view.

In the Task Assignments area, check the appropriate boxes to limit when assignments are displayed to employees based on each task assignment's Start and Finish dates. Task assignment's scheduled Start and Finish dates are established in the Project Planning tool or in the Budgeted Time & Costs view. See Only Display Scheduled Assignments for a more in-depth explanation of how this works.
- Hide Tasks: Use this option to simply reduce the list of available tasks displayed in the time entry's assignment tree to only those tasks scheduled to be worked on during the displayed week. With the Hide Tasks option, tasks are simply "out-of-sight". If required, employees can still track time against these hidden tasks by using the time entry's Show All function.
- Prevent Entries: Use this option to completely prevent time entry users from tracking time against tasks when the tasks are not scheduled to be worked on. When the Prevent Entries box is checked, tasks not scheduled for work, during the displayed week, are not displayed in the time entry's assignment tree. Tasks scheduled for work during only a portion of the week are displayed in the assignment tree but have restrictions placed on them in the weekly time entry grid.

Click Done to save the information and close the window, or click New to save the information and create a new project.

Warning: The Leave/Absences project is a built-in project used to track time against vacation, sick leave, holidays, etc. This project cannot be deleted. The project can be renamed but should not be used for other purposes.

Note: The number of projects displayed in the view is limited by the Paging setting. You may need to click the paging buttons or (at the top of the screen) to view additional pages.

Tips:

Project Planning tool projects can be identified in the Project Assignments view by a small orange circle in the project icon .
Additional tabs are available at the bottom of the project properties window to add Notes, Phone Numbers and Addresses.
To view or edit details for more than one project, open a project properties window and use the Next Record button (or Previous) to browse to other projects. Clicking the Next (or Previous) button automatically saves any changes made.
Use the Show/Hide column function to personalize what information is displayed in the project list view's grid.
Double click an item in the grid to see that item's properties .
You can add fields to track extra project information by using Custom fields .
Use the Filter function to view only the projects having a certain status, or belonging to a specific project group, currency or client.
Use the Find function to locate a specific project by name.
Use the Limited Access Group filter to only view those items assigned to specific Access Groups.
The term "Project" can also be customized to better fit your company's terminology.