Time is always tracked against a project. Until at least one exists and has people on it, nobody can start a timer.
Create it
Open Projects and choose to add a new one. Only two things are required, a title and a start date, but a few more are worth filling in now.
The fields that matter
- Title. This appears on timesheets, reports and invoices, so make it something a client would recognise.
- Description. What the project covers. Useful when several projects for the same client look alike.
- Start date and deadline. The deadline drives reminders and shows on the project page.
- Project type. Hourly or fixed price. This decides how the project is billed and is the one choice worth pausing on.
- Budget. What the work is worth. Spend is tracked against it on the project page.
- Labels. Free-form tags for filtering the project list later.
- Source. Where the work came from, whether a marketplace or your own pipeline.
- Team. The members who will track against it.
- Clients. The people on the client side who should be able to see it, read-only.
Save as draft if you are not ready
A draft project is saved but not yet live. Use it when you are waiting on a rate, a start date or a signature.
Files and links
Attach briefs, specifications and contracts to the project itself instead of to a task. Anyone on the project can find them there, and they stay put as tasks come and go.
Set the rates before work starts
If you will invoice this project, set the client bill rate and the pay-per-hour now. Rates carry effective dates, so entering them before any hours are tracked avoids re-pricing invoices afterwards.
Project statuses
A project moves through Draft, In Progress, On Hold, and finally Completed or Cancelled. Status is a label for people, not a lock. An on-hold project can still be tracked against unless you remove people from it.