Projects and tasks

How do you organise work so the hours land in the right place?

A project holds the hours. A task is the named piece of work inside it. Both screens exist only in a task-based workspace.

Projects

Open Projects (/projects). The screen says what it is for: “Every project you bill time against. Open a row to manage members and rates.”

The Clients tile is the one to watch. It counts distinct client names, so a project saved without one quietly lands in “Unassigned client” on every money report.

Press New project.

Field	Required	Why it matters
Name	Yes	What people pick from a list. The only required field
Code	No	Your own reference
Client	No	Billing groups by this. A blank one shows as “Unassigned client” on every money report
Default hourly rate (USD)	No	The rate used when a person has no rate of their own
Project owner	No	Who is accountable
Description	No	Context for whoever opens it next

Caution

Only the name is required, so a project with no client and no rate saves happily - and then bills nothing and groups under “Unassigned client”. Fill in Client even when the work is internal.

Everything on this form can be changed later. Open the project and press Edit on the Details card.

Members and rates

Open a project and use the Members card. Add a person, and they can book time to it.

Each member row has an Override rate and a Billable switch. The override wins over the project default, which wins over the person’s own rate.

Note

There is no save button on that card. It says so itself: “Rate and billable changes save automatically when you leave a field or toggle a setting.”

A member is always added as a plain member. The row can show a role, but nothing in the product sets one - there is no way to mark somebody the lead on a project.

Status

Active, On hold or Archived. Archiving keeps the hours and takes the project out of the pickers. It asks first: “Archive this project?”

Tasks

Open Tasks (/tasks). Press New task.

Switch to Board with the chip on the right. Each card there carries a status picker, so moving a week’s work forward is quickest in that view.

A task needs a project and a title. It can also carry a description, a status, a priority, a due date, an estimate in minutes, an assignee, and a billable flag that starts on.

Filter by project, priority, due date and assignee. Overdue means past the due date and not done.

Five things to know before you rely on these screens

Only managers and admins change a task’s status

An employee cannot mark their own task done. Expect to update the board yourself, from what people tell you.

An employee opening a task is told nothing

On the task page the whole Task properties card - status, priority, assignee - simply does not render for an employee. There is no message explaining why.

They see a title and a description, and no way to act. If your team works from tasks, tell them this up front; the screen will not.

Most of a task is fixed at creation

Only status, priority and assignee can be changed afterwards.

The project, the title, the description, the due date, the estimate and the billable flag are set once. If a due date moves, the task has to be made again.

There is no edit screen

The pencil icon on a row opens the same detail page as the eye icon. Both go to the same place.

There is no comment box on a task

No questions, no notes, no files. The only history a task carries is who it was assigned to and when. Conversation happens somewhere else.

Setting up so the billing is right

1. One project per client engagement, with the client name filled in.

2. Rates set before anybody tracks. A rate added later does not reprice hours already recorded.

3. The billable switch right on each member before the first week, not after the first invoice.

4. Check the result on Project summary at the end of week one, while it is still cheap to fix.

Next: Billing reports · Project summary