New project

Introduction

How you create a new project in TimeLog and divide it into tasks.

Description

The project’s main information

To the right, you may copy information from a project template or an existing project.

This video shows you how to use a project template:

Once you have selected a project template or a project, you can choose if Tasks and milestones, Resource group, Allocations and/or Contract should be pasted into the new project and who the milestones should be allocated to. This makes it easy to create a new project, if it is similar to other projects. You can always edit the project’s setup after creation.

Enter the project’s name. We recommend to use a customer specific prefix (e.g. TIM for TimeLog) to group projects for customers in the name view.

The project number is automatically created when saving the project. A project number cannot be changed or entered manually unless it is stated in the system administration that it is allowed to have a editable project number.

Select Customer and Contact or mark Internal project, if it is an internal project. When you select internal project, several fields will disappear, since they are not relevant for internal projects. If you are missing a contact in the list, you can add one directly from the project by clicking the plus icon to the right of the field.

If necessary, add a project description by clicking Edit. The description is visible for all persons with access to the project. You can also add a link to an internal document folder.

Owners

Under Owners, you can select a responsible department, if you use the Department structure.
Project manager is the person responsible for the project, and who will receive notifications, if this is enabled in the system administration.

Account manager and Partner can be selected, if this is enabled in the system administration.

Schedule and budgets

Under Schedule, you select the expected Start and End dates for the project, and they are transferred to new tasks as default and can be changed at a later stage.

Under Budgets, you enter the budget figures relevant to the first contract that is created.

Contract and invoicing

Under Contract and invoicing, you select the first payment model (you can select up to eight different contracts depending on which edition of TimeLog you use) on the project. You can add more contracts to the project at a later stage. The choice of payment model defines the next fields where you enter detailed information about e.g. the contract amount and payment.

It is possible to select which contract is default when you create a new project. This is defined in the System administration -> Projects -> Default settings for new projects. You can, however, not set the Continuous item invoicing contract as default, since this contract demands a detailed setup from project to project.

Please note: When using Time & material contracts, you enter if the project’s new tasks should be default billable by checking Default billable. If you select Employee’s hourly rate, the hourly rate is taken from the employee card, if no hourly rate is set on the task, allocation or resource group.

Read more in our guide on contract management.

Grouping and Progress

Under Grouping, you enter Project type and Project category, if they are enabled in the system administration. These can later be used for grouping or filtering in many of TimeLog’s reports.

Under Progress, you select the project’s status and stage.

Project status controls if it is possible to track time on the project. These namings are pre-defined by us and cannot be changed.

Project stage can be set up in the system administration and is e.g. used for project sorting and searches.
Enter Forecast % (likelihood of project succeeding), and if ETC should be reported to the project manager, if the functionality is enabled.

Read more on how to set up these groupings and ETC in our guide on ETC.

Time tracking

Under Time tracking, you select who may track time and if it is allowed to do so at this point in time.

When you have entered the main information and clicked Save, you will be led directly to the Project plan, where you can create project tasks. If you have chosen to copy a project or use a template, all settings from these are saved, and the project is ready to use unless you will make additions or changes.

In this video we demonstrate how you can use the stopwatch for your time tracking. 

Price lists and currency

Here you enter the Price list and Currency to be used on the project. Once tasks have been added to the project, the currency is locked for further editing.

Index hourly rates

Here you mark if the project can be indexed and from when. If you allow indexation, you can use Index hourly rates in the Project menu to index either price lists or selected hourly rates.

Click Save once you are done with your setup.

Special remarks

Currency changes

Please note that when a task is created on the project, you cannot change the currency on the project, also not when invoicing.

If you would like to change the currency, even though there is tracked time on the project, you should:

• Create a new project
• Select the right currency
• Hereafter, move the task plan to the new project

If you would like to change the currency, even though there is not tracked time on the project and the currency is locked, you should:

• Copy the project
• Select the right currency under project settings
• Click Create

Default settings when you create new projects

It is possible to define default setups of your internal and external projects. By doing so, you save time on project creation, as you can define special settings, which the single user can adjust, if the project is different than the default setup.

You can define the default setup in the System administration under Projects -> Default settings for new projects.