Projects | Help Centre

Projects

Manage projects, tasks, milestones, and team collaboration.

Overview

The Projects module provides:

Project planning and tracking
Task management in list, timeline and Kanban board views
Milestone tracking
Time tracking per project
Team collaboration

Your own work in one place - My Tasks and My Calendar

Project Dashboard

Project Management > Projects shows:

Total Projects, My Active Projects (the open projects you're on the team for), Total Tasks and Hours Logged - counted across the folder you're in and every folder below it. Click a card to list what it counts; Hours Logged opens your time

Edit Cards, above the cards, to drag them into your own order, hide any, or add a card for a project status such as Go-Live Prep. The corner menu on My Active Projects (Count as active) chooses which statuses it counts - On Hold is left out to start with

Category buttons to narrow the list to one kind of project

Your projects as a list, a timeline, or every project's milestones together (Milestones View)

Undo beside the search box, or Ctrl+Z, puts back a status, priority or category changed on ticked projects, an archive or unarchive, and a move to a folder.

Creating a Project

Navigate to Project Management > Projects

Click New Project - the button shows for people whose role lets them create projects

Enter project details:

Start from a template, or a blank project
Project name
Description
Status and priority

Project type - Internal, or Client with the client picked from your CRM companies

Category
Start and end date
Budget

Click Create Project

If you're inside a folder when you click New Project, the project is created in that folder.

Once it exists, Edit on the project changes any of these, and adds three more settings: the Order it delivers (see Linking a Project to an Order below), Visibility (see Private Boards below) and Notifications (see Task Assignment below).

The project header has Automations and Edit. The rest sit in the More actions (...) menu beside them: Save as Template, Export, Copy to Boards, Archive and Delete.

Importing from Monday.com

With a Monday.com connection set up under Settings > Integrations, Import from Monday on the Projects page lists your Monday boards - click Import on one (or Import All Remaining) to bring it in as a project. A board becomes one project in your business: importing it again uses the project that's already there, and a board already kept in step through someone else's Monday connection is refused, naming whose it is. For a one-off plan, you can also turn a CSV export into a project template - see Importing a Template from CSV below.

Project Status

Planning - In planning phase

Active - Currently in progress

On Hold - Temporarily paused

Completed - Finished

Cancelled - Not proceeding

Project statuses, task statuses, categories and custom fields are set up under Project Management > Settings.

Linking a Project to an Order

A project can name the CRM order it delivers. Time tracked on the board and its tasks then counts towards that order, and shows on the order's Time card.

In the project's header, click Link order beside the status and pick from your open orders - the project's client's orders are listed first. Once it's linked, the badge shows the order number: click it to open the order, Unlink order, or move the project to another order

Or click Edit and choose the order in the Order field, under Client. No order clears it

From the order's side, Link project on its Time card does the same thing

A project delivers one order at a time, so linking it to another order moves it, and its time with it.

The order badge shows for people whose role lets them see CRM orders. To link, move or unlink you need to be able to edit both the project and CRM orders - otherwise the badge simply opens the order, and if no order is linked you won't see it at all.

Private Boards

A project is visible to everyone whose permissions reach projects. To restrict it, click Edit and switch Visibility to Private board - then only the project's owner and the people on its Team tab can see the board or its tasks. A private project shows a Private badge beside its name.

Project Board

Kanban View

Open a project

Use the three view buttons at the top right of the project to switch between List View, Timeline View and Board View

In Board View, tasks sit in columns by status

Drag tasks between columns to change their status
A card shows the task's priority, subtask count and note count

Columns above the board hides or shows status columns. To open a task's details or edit it, and for the project's tabs - Tasks, Milestones, Team and the rest - switch to List View.

Timeline View

Timeline View is a Gantt chart of the project: each task as a bar across its start and due dates, milestones as diamonds, lines between tasks that depend on each other, and a marker for today.

Zoom between Day, Week and Month, and click Today to jump back to now

Group by board group, assignee, status or priority, Colour by priority, status or assignee, and filter to one assignee

Click a milestone to edit it

The Timeline View on the Projects page does the same across all your projects.

Task Columns (Customisable)

To Do
In Progress
In Review
Done

A project uses the statuses from Project Management > Settings until you give it its own set - click Use custom statuses on its Statuses tab. Use business defaults puts it back, moving each task to the business status with the same name, or to the default status where there's no match.

Searching and Columns

Search the project's tasks

Choose which columns the list shows with Columns - each board remembers its own columns and sort

Turn custom fields on or off for this project with Custom Fields, or add a field just for this board under Add a field to this board

Filtering by Status

To show only the tasks in certain statuses:

Open the project in List View, on the Tasks tab

Click All statuses, beside Search tasks...

Tick the statuses you want - for example To Do and In Progress, leaving Done unticked. No status finds tasks that haven't been given one

The filter is remembered for each board, like the columns and sort. A subtask that matches is shown under its parent, even when the parent doesn't match. Rows can't be dragged while the list is filtered - click Clear the status filter above the list to turn it off.

Board Automations

Click Automations on a project to build rules that run only on that board, using its own columns - see the Automations guide.

Tasks

Creating a Task

Open the project's Tasks tab

Type into Add a task... at the bottom of a group and press Enter - the next row opens under it, so you can type a run of tasks. Pasting a list adds one task per line, without its bullets or numbers

While editing a task's name, Shift+Enter adds a new task straight under it, at the same level

Or use Add Group to start a new group first

Fill in task details on the row, or in the task's details panel (Open details beside its title):

Task title
Description
Assignee
Start and due date
Priority
Estimated hours

The details panel holds the title, status, priority, dates, description, a Files card for files attached to the task, and notes. The assignee and estimated hours are set on the row - turn on the Est. Hours column under Columns if you don't see it.

Task Details

Each task includes:

Title and Description

Status - Current column. Status and priority are both optional; a task with neither sits in the No Status column as Not set rather than being forced into a default

Assignees - who's responsible. The Assignee column holds the main person, and Co-assignees anyone else

Start and Due Dates - a due date earlier than the start date is checked with you rather than refused

Priority - Low, Medium, High, Urgent

Logged - time tracked against the task

Notes - Team discussion, with replies and @-tags

Subtasks - smaller tasks nested under it

Dependencies - tasks this one waits on. Give a dependency a lag in days and, once the task it waits on has a date, this task's empty dates fill in that many days later (for example Go Live 84 days after the kick-off). A date someone has already entered is never changed

Custom fields - including fields that reference another record, such as a company or project

Task statuses can belong to the project, not to the whole business, so different projects can run different workflows. New tasks are appended to the bottom of their group rather than jumping to the top of a status column, and dragging a row can move it between groups.

Creating a task doesn't assign it to you. Being an assignee is enough to act on a task - you don't need broader project permissions to move or update your own work.

Working on Several Tasks

Tick tasks to work on them together:

The action bar that appears changes Status, Priority, Assignee, Dates or Group for all of them, copies them to another board, or deletes them

With several rows ticked, changing a cell on one of them - status, priority, dates, assignees, estimated hours, budget or a custom field - changes it on all of them

Deleting asks first, and says how many tasks and subtasks will go.

Undo

Undo in the board's toolbar, or Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z), puts back your last change to the board - a cell edit, a change across ticked rows, a drag, a custom field value, a group's name or order, or deleted tasks, which come back with their subtasks and dependencies - and the ones before it, up to 20. The message after a bulk change has its own Undo. Putting a change back doesn't run the board's automations again or notify anyone, and a task someone else has changed since is left as it is.

Subtasks

Break down tasks into smaller items:

Click Add subtask on a task's row

Type the subtask and press Enter
Or drag a row right onto another task to make it a subtask of that task, and drag it left to move it out one level
Subtasks are tasks in their own right, with their own status, assignees and dates - deleting a task takes its subtasks with it

Task Notes

Collaborate with your team:

Hover over a task's title and click Open details - or Add a note if it has none yet

Add a note under Notes

Type @ to tag someone - they're notified if they can see the task

Click Reply under a note to answer it in a thread - everyone who has written in the thread hears about the reply

A task with notes shows a note count on its row, on the board and in My Tasks - click the count on the row or in My Tasks to open them. The bin on a note deletes it, and its replies, after asking.

Task Assignment

Assign tasks to team members:

Click the Assignee cell on the task's row

Select team member - contractors are included
They receive notification

To stop assignment notifications on a project, turn off Tell people when they are assigned a task on the project's Edit screen. Automations on the board still run.

My Tasks and My Calendar

My Tasks

Profile > My Tasks gathers the project tasks and CRM activities assigned to you, with counts of what's overdue and due today:

A subtask shows with its parent, as Parent > Subtask

The Linked To column says who each item is for - the company (or contact) and the lead for a CRM activity, or the record a task is linked to

Click a board task to open its board with the task expanded and highlighted. A task with no board opens what it's linked to, and a personal or company task opens for editing

Switch between Active, Completed and All, and filter by category - Project branches into the boards your tasks are on - and by priority

Tick several to Complete or Delete them together

Start a timer from the Timer column, and open a task's Notes from its row. Log Time on a row records time already spent, for an earlier date

Undo (or Ctrl+Z) puts back a priority, status or due date changed in the list, completed items and deleted tasks. Deleted activities can't be brought back

Adding a Task from My Tasks

Click Add Task

Choose Internal or For Client

For a client task, pick the Client next - the Project list and Link To then only offer that client's projects and records

Choose a category - Company or Personal for internal work, Project or Membership for client work

Optionally use Link To to link it to a project, order, lead, contact, company or marketing campaign. The pickers are searchable and list every record

Set priority, due date and description. Switch on Log Time Already Spent to record time you've already put in, and Make Recurring to generate the task on a schedule

My Calendar

Profile > My Calendar shows your appointments by Day, Week or Month, or as a List. The week view is laid out like Outlook - hours down the side, each entry placed by its start and end time, overlapping entries side by side, all-day entries in a strip across the top, and a line marking the current time. Click an empty half-hour to book an appointment into it, or use New Appointment. With Microsoft 365 connected, Outlook shows your synced Outlook events alongside your appointments - see Connecting Microsoft 365.

Open a Teams meeting that has finished and click Meeting notes to have its notes written up from the transcript - Meeting Notes is covered in Getting Started.

Milestones

Creating Milestones

Open project

Go to Milestones tab

Click Add Milestone

Enter:

Milestone name
Description
Due date
Status

Tracking Milestones

Each milestone shows its status, due date and a progress bar

Click Complete when a milestone is reached, or Reopen it

Edit or delete a milestone from its row - deleting asks first

See every project's milestones together with Milestones View on the Projects page

Flag a key task as a milestone from its row

Copying to Other Boards

Copy to Boards on a project copies its tasks, milestones and risks into one or more other boards. Copies land at the bottom of the same-named group on each board and keep their dates; milestones start pending and risks open. To copy just some tasks, tick them and use Copy to board on the action bar.

A project's other tabs, in List View:

Budget - split the project's budget across its task groups and tasks, and enter each task's actual cost. The tab totals what's allocated, what's unallocated, the actual cost and the variance

Risks - a risk register. Add Risk records a risk's category, likelihood, impact, treatment, owner and review date

Meeting Notes - Add Meeting Note records a meeting's date, location, notes, action items and attendees. Notes you save to a project from Profile > Meeting Notes land here too

Sharing - give people outside your business a view of the project. Invite Guest creates a personal link for one person, and Create Share Link makes a link you can protect with a password, an expiry date and a maximum number of uses. For both, you choose what the link shows (tasks, milestones, the board, risks and so on) and whether guests can add comments or update a task's status. Mployr gives you the link to send - it doesn't email the guest. Revoke Access on a guest turns their link off

Time Tracking

Starting a Timer

Click the play button on a task's row - on the board or in My Tasks. To track time to a whole group of tasks done together, use the play button on the group's header (Track time to this group) - the header shows the time tracked to the group, and each task's own time stays in its Logged column

Or go to Profile > Time Tracking, click Start Timer and choose to track time for My Task, a Project or an Order - for a project, pick the Group and then the Task, or leave the task empty to track to the group

Timer runs in background, in the sidebar. Starting a timer while one is running asks whether to Keep Running the others or Stop All & Start New

Click Stop Timer when done. A stopped timer stays in the sidebar with Start Again until you remove it

Manual Time Entry

Go to Profile > Time Tracking

Click Add Time

Enter:

The order, project or task it was for
What you were working on

Hours - a date and a number of hours, such as 2.5 or 2:30 - or Start & end times

Whether it's Billable

Viewing Time Reports

Go to Reports > Time Tracking to see your team's time

Search the entries, and filter by:

Date range
Employee
Billable or non-billable

Your own time is under Profile > Time Tracking.

Team Members

Adding Team Members

Open project

Click the Team tab

Click Add Member

Select people from organisation - the picker shows all employees and contractors, not only those who already have project access
Set their role (Lead, Member, Stakeholder)

Assigning someone to a project grants them access to it, so you don't have to add the member and then separately grant permission. You can change a member's role later from the Team tab.

Member Roles

Lead - Sees and can edit every task on the board

Member - Sees every task on the board

Stakeholder - Sees every task on the board

Organising Projects

Folders - group projects into a folder tree. The top level lists your folders and the projects that aren't in one; open a folder to see its projects, including those in its subfolders. Inside a folder, the list's title is the folder's path (such as All Projects > Clients) - click a step to go back up, or drag a project onto it to file it there. New Folder sits beside the folders and makes the new one inside the folder you're in; a folder's menu has New folder inside and Move to folder…. Drag a folder by its handle onto another, or tick several and use Move to Folder. Click the Folders column heading to sort them A-Z, Z-A or in your own order. The search box finds folders as well as projects, and the category buttons narrow the folders to those holding that kind of project. You can also create the folder you need from inside the move dialog

Company filter - filter the list to one company, several, or projects with no company at all

Favourites - star the projects you're in daily for quick access, and drag them by their handle into your own order

Bulk changes - tick several projects to change their status, priority or category, move them to a folder, or delete them

Archive - archive a project (individually or in bulk) to hide it from the list without deleting it. Archived projects are excluded from stats, and can be listed on demand or unarchived later

Project Templates

Save time with templates:

Creating a Template

Set up a project with standard tasks

Open More actions (...) in the project header and click Save as Template

Enter a Template Name and Description, then click Save Template

The template keeps the project's milestones, its tasks in their groups, and the order they're in. Task dates are kept as days from the project start - a task due before the start shows as, say, Day -34. Closed statuses aren't carried over, so a new project starts with its work open. You can also build a template from scratch under Project Management > Templates with New Project Template.

Editing a Template

Open a template under Project Management > Templates to edit it in place - its task table works like a project's:

Click a cell to change it - status, priority, assignees (by template role), milestone, group, start and due day, estimate, budget or description

Type into the Add a task... row at the end of each group, use Add Group for a new group, and click a group's name to rename it

Add, rename, re-date and delete milestones in place

Choose the table's columns from Columns, and drag a column's edge to resize it

Details changes the template's own name, budget and other settings

Duplicate (also on the templates list's row menu) makes a copy with the same milestones, tasks, groups, people and dependencies

Importing a Template from CSV

To turn a project plan exported from Asana or Monday.com, or a spreadsheet saved as CSV, into a template:

Go to Project Management > Templates and click Import from CSV

Choose the file
Check which column fills what - each is guessed from its heading. Only the task name is required; the others are group, parent task (which makes the row a subtask), description, dates, assignee, status, priority, estimated hours, budget and dependencies

Check the preview - its groups, tasks and subtasks, and anything that couldn't be matched, such as a person who isn't in your business - then click Create Template

Dates become days from the project start, counted from the earliest date in the file, and are read day first. Monday.com's Excel exports need saving as CSV first.

Using a Template

Create new project

Under Start from Template, choose the template - you can drop the new project straight into a folder

You're added as the project's lead when the template has a lead role
Customise as needed

Or open the template under Project Management > Templates and click Create Project to name the project, pick its start date and choose who fills each role. An automation can create a project from a template too - for example when a lead is won.

Reports

Project data also feeds the organisation-wide Reports & Analytics module, where you can build custom reports across projects, tasks, and time.

Available Reports

Active Projects - In-progress projects with budget vs actuals. It looks for a project status named In Progress, so if yours is called Active, change the report's filter

Projects Over Budget - Projects where actual cost exceeds budget

Overdue Tasks - Tasks past due date

Open Tasks by Assignee - Every open task, under the person it sits with

Time Tracking and Team Productivity - under Reports, for time across your team

Exporting

To export a project board to Excel:

Open the project, open More actions (...) in its header and click Export

Choose Excel - or PDF for a copy to print or share

Tick which of Tasks, Milestones and Risks to include

Click Export - the file downloads straight away

The Excel workbook has a sheet for each section. The tasks sheet lists every task and subtask in board order, with its group, status, priority, assignees, start and due dates, estimated hours and milestone, plus the custom field columns showing on your board - the search box and status filter don't change what's exported.

There's no CSV option on the board itself. For a CSV, open the Excel file and save it as CSV, or build a report on the Tasks data source in Reports & Analytics and export that as CSV.

Tips

Break large tasks into subtasks
Set realistic due dates
Use the Kanban board for daily standups
Track time consistently for accurate billing
Review milestones weekly
Archive completed projects to keep workspace clean

In this guide