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Projects

Projects is for teams that deliver client work: agencies, IT services firms and consultancies. It covers planning with tasks, boards and Gantt charts, time against budgets, resource planning and billing for fixed fee, time and material and retainer projects. Time is logged on the same timesheet People uses, and with Books on, approved invoice drafts become posted GST invoices.

Who uses it​

  • Projects admins manage all projects, settings, rate cards, cost rates and revenue recognition.
  • Project managers run their projects: team, tasks, allocations, billing drafts and status reports.
  • Finance admins approve invoice drafts and review WIP, revenue and project profit and loss.
  • Team members see the projects they are on, update their tasks, log time and tag expense claims.

Before you start​

  • Switch Projects on for your company. See the Quick start.
  • Projects works on its own, but it does most with People and Books on. People supplies employees, timesheets, leave, expense claims and cost rates; Books supplies customers and receives invoices.
  • Have your project roles (for example architect, engineer, designer) and your standard bill rates ready.
  • Agree with finance which SAC code and GST rate apply to your services.

Set up​

  1. Review company defaults. Set hours per day, the overhead loading added to people cost, the default SAC code and GST rate, expense markup and whether revenue recognition and the client status link are on.
  2. Create project roles and the company rate card. Rates can be set by person, project role or grade, with an effective date.
  3. Check cost rates. Hourly cost is worked out from each person's CTC plus the overhead loading. Only Projects admins and finance see per-person cost.
  4. Create a project. Choose the client, billing model, manager, dates, budgets in hours and money, PO reference and SAC code. Start from another project as a template if you like.
  5. Add the team. Add members with their project role and whether they are billable, and set allocations for the weeks ahead.
  6. Plan the work. Add milestones and tasks, set dependencies and review the Gantt chart.

Key workflows​

Log and approve time​

  1. Team members log hours against a project task from Projects, the People timesheet or the mobile app.
  2. They submit the week; their manager approves it in People.
  3. Approved lines flow into the project's time ledger with the bill rate and cost rate stamped.

Bill a client​

  1. Open the project's billing tab to see what is unbilled: completed milestones, approved hours, retainer fees and billable expenses.
  2. Write off or write down hours, with a reason, if needed.
  3. Create an invoice draft and send it for approval.
  4. When finance approves, a Books invoice is created and posted with the project on every line. Without Books, the draft is marked issued and can be exported.

Recognise revenue on fixed-fee work​

  • Each month, revenue for fixed-fee projects is recognised by percentage of completion, based on cost, hours or a percentage the project manager approves.
  • One journal per month adjusts unbilled and unearned revenue in Books.

Plan resources​

  • Use the resource planner to compare allocations with each person's capacity, net of leave and holidays.
  • Check the utilisation report and the bench report to see who is under-allocated in the coming weeks.

Keep the client informed​

  1. Write a status report with health, highlights, risks and next steps.
  2. Publish it and share the read-only client link, which also offers a PDF. The link shows no costs or rates.

India specifics​

Invoices carry SAC codes and GST; Books decides CGST and SGST or IGST from your GSTIN and the client's place of supply, and handles exports under LUT and SEZ supplies. Rebilled expenses with a markup are billed as part of the service; pure-agent recoveries can be flagged so they are billed without markup. Fixed-fee revenue follows the percentage-of-completion method. Amounts use lakhs and crores and the April to March financial year.

Works with other apps​

  • People: timesheets, leave, holidays, expense claims and CTC-based cost.
  • Books: clients, posted invoices, revenue journals and project profitability.
  • Sangam: a private channel for each project team.
  • Procurement: requisitions and purchase orders can carry the project.
  • Remote: tracked time can feed project timesheets.
  • Analytics: utilisation and project margin on company dashboards.

Next steps​