Business+

Projects — deliver it, and know what it cost

You break the work down, you watch what moves, and you read what the project actually cost.

A signed deal becomes a project that is already structured. Time is booked against tasks, risks are written down before they happen, and the cost comes from posted accounting entries rather than a number somebody typed.

  • A template lays out the phases and the dates
  • Approved hours roll onto the task
  • The cost comes from the ledger

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Nothing is retyped from one step to the next.

What a project run on a spreadsheet costs you

The spreadsheet says what was planned. It never says what happened.

  • The project moves and nobody knows whether it still pays

    The quote said twenty days. Nobody knows how many have gone, and the answer only arrives with the final invoice, when nothing is negotiable any more.

  • What could go wrong was known to two people

    The subcontractor running late, the customer sign-off that drags, the part on back order. Everyone had thought of it, nobody wrote it down, and on the day there is neither an owner nor a plan.

  • Time is reconstructed from memory

    At month end everyone reassembles their weeks. The hours are approximate, nobody approves them, and what was billable to the customer no longer is.

A project end to end, from signature to close

Five moments, each knowing what to do with the one before.

  1. 01

    The project comes out of the deal

    The customer, the contacts with their roles, the notes and the expected close date come from the won deal. You trigger it, or you let the pipeline stage of your choice do it.

  2. 02

    The template lays out the structure

    A template carries its phases, its milestones and its deliverables. Each phase has a duration, and the dates run on from the day the project starts.

  3. 03

    The work is broken down

    Tasks, subtasks, a due date and a person. The parent task follows its children: all done finishes it, one blocked blocks it.

  4. 04

    Time and risks are recorded as you go

    Hours are booked against the task they served and go for approval. Risks are written with an owner and a plan, before they turn into issues.

  5. 05

    The project reads as numbers

    Approved hours roll onto the task, the customer invoices carry the project, and the ledger answers the question of cost.

What you hold inside a project

Four families, and nothing left to build.

The shape of the work

What you deliver, broken down once and reusable afterwards.

  • Phases, milestones and deliverables One active phase at a time, milestones attached to it, and deliverables carrying what you hand over.
  • Reusable project templates The phases, their duration, the milestones and the deliverables. A new project arrives already broken down.
  • Tasks and subtasks A due date, a priority, a person, a kind of work, and estimated hours.
  • The parent task follows its children All complete finishes it, one blocked blocks it, one in progress starts it. Never updated by hand.
  • Links between tasks Four kinds of link and a lag in days. A link to itself, to another project, or one that closes a loop is refused.
  • A deliverable knows how far it has got Its completed tasks over its total. A worked-out share, not a box somebody fills in.

What could go wrong

The difference between a project plan and a task list.

  • Risk register A category, an owner, a review date and mitigation plans written in plain words.
  • A score that follows likelihood and impact You choose the two, the score follows, and it is worked out again the moment either one moves.
  • Issues with severity and resolution Six levels of severity, five states, a person and a date. The day it was resolved is kept.
  • The issue comes from the risk that predicted it Opened from the risk, it inherits its project — and the link stays readable both ways.
  • An issue creates the task that settles it With its priority, its due date and the same person, written in your workspace language.
  • Project goals with a number on them A target, a current value, a unit and a due date, on the project record.

Time and money

Three records answering three different questions, and none of them speaks for another.

  • Hours booked against the task The date, the person, the task served, and whether the hour is billable and at what rate.
  • Submit, approve, or refuse with a reason A refusal asks for its reason. Approval can run in bulk, and an approved hour cannot be edited any more.
  • Approved hours roll onto the task Estimated and actual sit side by side, on the task that consumed them.
  • Planned budget by category Labour, materials, equipment, subcontracting, travel and overhead, line by line.
  • The actual cost comes from the entries The accounting lines that carry the project, by account, under the same permission as the ledger.
  • Budget against actual by account and period Professional+ There, the plan and the actual speak the same language.

The file, and the people

What is left of the project when it is over, and who worked on it while it ran.

  • Typed project documents Charter, contract, site report, minutes, status report, acceptance, closure.
  • Document templates and versions A document starts from a template and keeps its successive versions rather than overwriting them.
  • The whole project file as one document Details, phases, tasks, milestones, deliverables, risks, issues, hours and invoices.
  • Project contacts with their role Carried over from the deal, with the main contact marked as such.
  • Resource allocation A person, a period, a percentage, and the hours planned for it.
  • Double-booking shows up Overlapping allocations are added up across the whole period, across every project.

Three things that change how the work runs

The rest lives in the help centre.

The won deal becomes a project that is already structured

The project does not start from a blank page. The customer, the contacts with their roles, the notes and the expected close date come from the deal, and the template you chose lays out the phases, the milestones and the deliverables before anyone opens the file.

The dates are not yours to type. Each template phase carries a duration and they run on from the start: the next begins the day after the previous one ends, and milestones attach to their phase.

You trigger the conversion, or you let a stage of your pipeline do it. A deal becomes exactly one project, and a second attempt is refused rather than duplicated.

The same path from an approved sales order, if that is the trigger you prefer.

What the project cost, and where the number comes from

Three records answer three questions. The project budget carries the plan: lines by category. The timesheets carry the work: approved hours, booked against the task that consumed them, rolling up as actual against estimate.

The money comes from somewhere else. Every customer invoice and every supplier invoice can carry the project, and the cost you read is the sum of the accounting entries that carry it, set out by account. It is the same figure the ledger holds, read a different way — not a box somebody filled in on the project record.

The consequence is deliberate: no variance is shown here. The plan’s categories map to no account, so subtracting one from the other means nothing. Variance belongs in accounting, by account and by period.

Three records, three questions — and a cost that comes from the entries.

What could go wrong is written down, and what goes wrong becomes work

A risk is written before it happens: its category, the person who carries it, the date you want to look at it again, and the mitigation plans in plain words. You choose its likelihood and its impact, the score follows, and it is worked out again the moment either changes.

The day it lands, the issue opens from it. It inherits the project, keeps the link back to the risk, and creates the task that settles it — with the same priority, due date and person.

The link between the three stays readable in both directions.

The projects dashboard

Three sections: the projects, the tasks, and the people.

On the dashboard

  • Projects in progress
  • Projects due this week
  • Projects past their date
  • Completion rate
  • Planned budget across projects
  • Overdue tasks
  • People active on tasks
  • Deliverables completed
  • High risks
  • Over-allocated people

Ready-made reports

  • The full file for one project
  • Projects by status
  • Upcoming milestones
  • Tasks by person
  • Highest risks

The project sits in the middle of the chain, not at the end of it.

What you set once

The default template and the numbering are in place from the start; the two automatic triggers open the day you need them.

  • The template applied by default

    Every new project starts from that one, unless you pick another as you create it.

  • Project numbering

    Your format, the next number, how many digits, and whether it resets monthly, quarterly or yearly.

  • A won deal creates its project Switch on

    At the pipeline stage you nominate, and at that stage only.

  • An approved sales order creates its project Switch on

    The second trigger, for trades where the project starts at the order rather than at the signature.

  • What the project inherits

    Contacts and notes follow by default; activities and attachments follow if you ask for them.

Three ways to run it

  • Agency

    A template per kind of engagement, deliverables carrying what the client receives, and billable hours booked against the task. What was sold and what was spent read off the same record.

  • Engineering firms and installers

    Long phases, contractual milestones and a risk register that earns its keep: the supplier delay is written down before it arrives, with the person watching it and the plan already agreed.

  • Consultancy

    Little material, a great many hours. The planned budget fits in a few lines, hours are approved in bulk at the end of the week, and the actual cost reads out of the client’s entries.

The questions we get asked

Can a project be created from a won deal?

Yes, in one action from the deal, or automatically at the pipeline stage you nominate. The customer, the contacts with their roles, the notes and the expected close date all follow, and the template you chose already lays out the phases, the milestones and the deliverables. One deal gives one project.

Can time be billed?

An hour is marked billable or not, carries its rate, and the project’s billable total reads off its record. The invoice is then issued from invoicing and carries the project. What does not exist is a button that turns a timesheet into invoice lines: the hours tell you what to bill, you write the invoice.

Can a standard project structure be reused?

That is what a template does. It carries its phases with their duration, its milestones and its deliverables, and the dates run on from the day the project starts. You can nominate one as the default, or pick another as you create the project.

How do you know what the project cost?

From the accounting entries that carry the project, set out by account. Every customer invoice and every supplier invoice can name a project, and the cost you read is the sum of what has been posted. A project no document names tells you so, rather than showing a zero.

Is there a Gantt chart?

No. You record which task waits on which, with the kind of link and the lag in days, and a link that closes a loop is refused. Those links read as a list on the task; they are not drawn on a timeline and they move no dates.

Can progress be shared with the customer?

Not in a space they log into: there is no customer portal today. You can send them the full project file as one document — details, phases, tasks, milestones, deliverables, risks, issues and hours.

What happens if someone is booked on two projects at once?

You see it. Overlapping allocations are added up across the whole period and across every project, and the number of people past their capacity is a figure on the dashboard.

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