Use the dashboard to add details about each project, like billing rates. Then, update it as your team progresses on a project. For example, you may add more tasks or a billing contact. Doing so can help you stay organized and informed, and ultimately help you to manage your project effectively.
The dashboard consists of seven tabs:
- Project.
- Contact Info.
- Team.
- Bill Rates.
- Tasks.
- Activity.
- Miscellaneous: time/expense history, billing history, and budget status.
You’ll have a project dashboard for each project you create.
In this article, we’ll explain how to access the project dashboard. Then, we’ll discuss all seven tabs and direct you to specific articles for more detail.
Access the Project Dashboard
Follow these steps to get to a project dashboard:
1. Click MY COMPANY...PROJECT LIST, which will take you to your project list.
2. Click on a project, hyperlinked in blue on the left-side of the window. Doing so will take you inside an individual project.
3. Navigate within the project dashboard by clicking on the tabs on the gray header.
Project Dashboard Functions
There’s a lot of information you can add about each project in the project dashboard. We’ll highlight the major functions for each project dashboard tab.
Vitals
This tab is where you can get a quick picture of the overall status of your project. Within the VITALS tab, you'll see graphs of your project's task status, budget status, billing realization and logged hours.
Details
Enter basic project-related details on this tab. Some information will automatically populate when you create a new project, like the name of the project, its ID, and current status. However, you can modify most fields, which is helpful to do as the project progresses. For example, you may want to change the status of a project to inactive once it’s complete.
At the same time, there are many fields to add information to, such as the project’s due date and notes. You can also add custom fields and connect with QuickBooks.
Client
The CLIENT tab is where you can add client details. Some fields, like the client name and code, will automatically populate, though you can modify this information. You can also add details like the client’s address and phone number.
Use this tab to add project contacts: people you can reach out to, such as a billing or primary contact, when questions arise.
Financials
The FINANCIALS tab is where you'll go to view the fees and expenses associated with your project. Here, you can view a breakdown of your expenses/fees by date, or view the overall combined amount of all your expenses/fees. You can also adjust your view to see financials by week, month, quarter or year to date.
Team
Use this tab to add staffers to a project and identify their role. You can also determine if they’re a team lead, which gives them reviewal and approval privileges.
Bill Rates
The bill rates tab is where you add basic and custom billing rates.
- Basic rates are rates you routinely use when staffers create an invoice for the project. Think of this rate as a default rate.
- Custom rates are specific rates you want to apply for a specific staffer or activity, or both. It’ll override the base rate. Think of these rates as exceptions to the basic rates “rule.”
- Expense Rates are the rates you use when you or your staffers log expenses.
Click here to learn more about setting up bill rates.
Tasks
Within the task tab, you can see an overview of your tasks, add new tasks and subtasks with the task editor, and access allocations. Allocations is our resource allocation feature that’s available to users with the Premier and Projector packages.
Use the task editor to add tasks and task-related information all at once. Your window will look like this when you use the task editor:
Activity
Create activities for your staffers. Think of activities as smaller “to do’s” or reminders, such as send an email to a client or schedule a conference call.
Click here to learn more about assigning an activity to a staffer.
Miscellaneous
There’s a tab with three dots on it. If you click on this tab, you’ll have several options:
- Time/expense history—see the hours and expenses applied to this project at a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly view.
- Billing history—see the invoices created for this project. You can add a new invoice and/or click into an existing invoice for a detailed view. You can also view the payment history.
- Budget status—see hour and fee statuses for tasks at-a-glance.
You can add or remove tabs from your project dashboard depending on the type of data you want to see. Take a look at this article to learn how to do so.