Projects organize work performed for a client and control available tasks, employees, dates, and rates.
This screen allows you to create new or modify existing projects. In addition to general project information, tasks can be managed and employees can be assigned to the tasks within the project configuration screens.
Options and field descriptions #
Name – A name for the project.
Accounting ID – This optional field simplifies the exporting of data to an accounting package. When supplied, the Accounting ID acts as a code or cross-reference to related data located within an external accounting package.
Client & Department – These are two separate drop-downs on this screen that include a list of clients and departments in your system. A project must belong to either a client or department. Selecting one will disable the other since a project cannot belong to both a client and a department at the same time.
Manager – You may optionally assign an employee as the manager of the project. Assigning a manager to a project permits that person to report on the project.
Status – Select a project status for the project Optional:. For more information on project status, see Project status.
Priority – Select a project priority for the project Optional:. For more information on project priorities, see Project priorities.
Category – Select a project category for the project Optional:. For more information on project categories, see Project categories.
Assignment Type – Select the appropriate assignment type for the project. The available sections are:
- Assign to All Employees – All employees in your system will be assigned and be able to charge time and expenses to all tasks within this project.
- Assign to Specific Employees – Selecting this option allows you to select individual employees to assign to the project. For more information, see Project assignments.
Start Date – The date that the project was started.
End Date – The date that the project has or should end.
Restrict time and expense entry to these dates – When selected, users will only be able to enter time and expenses for this project between the provided start and end dates. It is not required that both a start and end date be provided. You may, for example, provide a start date and leave the end date empty. In this case, users will not be able to start tracking time and expenses until the start date but can continue to track time and expense indefinitely until the project is made archived or an end date is specified.
Deadline – The date that the project is due to be completed.
Billing Rate – Allows you to specify a billing rate (per hour) for all time charged to the project. See How rates are applied for more information on how rates are applied in the system.
Budgeted Hours – You may enter the total number of hours budgeted for this project (all tasks).
Budgeted Labor – You may enter the budgeted amount of labor related costs.
Budgeted Expense – You may enter the budgeted amount of expense related costs.
Comments – Provide any additional comments regarding the project.
Allow Entries for this Project? – Indicate whether or not employees can charge time and expenses to this project (and all tasks within the project). This feature is useful when you want the project to remain active in the system but not allow any time or expenses to be charged to it (i.e. when you are initially setting up the project).
Creating and Modifying a Project #
- Browse to Admin, select Projects, and then select Projects.
- Select New to create a new project or select an existing project from the list.
- Provide a unique name for the project.
- Select a client or department to associate the project with.
- Select an assignment type to describe how you will assign employees to the project.
- Provide any additional data in the remaining optional fields.
- Select Save.
- Select New Task to assign tasks to this project.
Tip: After creating a project you will need to assign tasks to the project so that employees may charge time to it.
Active and archived records #
MindSalt uses Active and Archived. Archived records stay in your account but do not appear in active lists. To archive a record, open its three-dot menu and select Archive. When a record can be copied, Copy is in the same menu.