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Project Setup

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Overview

Project

A project encompasses everything that needs to be completed in order to reach a specific outcome on an engagement or event. Projects can be created to track external and/or internal activities. For example, an external project might be created to track hours and expenses that are related to consulting services, which are billable to a client. An internal project might be created to track time reporting and expense reporting by department for internal support training. 

Depending upon your requirements, projects can range from being very simple to complex, and may vary in length, cost, scope and resources. Each project can include information such as an owner, project tasks to define the scope of the work, as well as a start and end date. 

Projects in Accounting Seed can be used to aggregate revenues and expenses together at both the project and project task level for reporting purposes. Accounting Seed can support multiple project budgets. Budget information can be stored on the project task and rolled-up to the project level.

Project Task

A project task is a single element or component of work that needs to be accomplished within a project. The tasks that are created on a project are similar to items on a to-do-list. Each task can be assigned a numeric value for sorting in a required order to move forward towards the desired project outcome. For example, you might have a project that was created for consulting services. Project tasks on this project might include items such as an initial Consulting Call, Non-Billable Time, as well as Email and Follow-up Tasks. Using this example, the numeric value for the Consulting Call might be set up to include a value that is lower than the Non-BIllable Time and the Email and Follow-up Tasks. That way, project tasks are sorted in the order in which they most likely will be completed on the project. 

Project Template 

A project template is a project that includes project tasks and/or other information that will frequently apply to various future projects. A project template might also be used to standardize the tasks that are associated with a project. Project templates allow you to easily create new projects based upon the structure and content of the template without having to manually recreate that same content each time that it’s needed. 

Once created, a project template can be used to create a new project from an opportunity. For convenience, the name of the newly created project displays with the same name as the opportunity, rather than the name of the selected project template. For additional information, refer to the Create a Project from an Opportunity article. 

Do you want to:

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Create a Project

  1. From the Accounting Home, navigate to the Projects tab. 
  2. Click New. The New Project dialog box displays.

    Projects_1.png

  3. Enter the following data fields:
    Note: Required fields display with a red asterisk.

    1. Project Name - Enter the name that will be associated with this project.
    2. Account - Select the Account that is associated with the project, if applicable.
    3. Opportunity - If you want to associate this project with an existing opportunity, click the Lookup icon to search for an opportunity. For additional information, refer to our Create a Project from an Opportunity knowledge article.
    4. Status - There are three options to choose from to display the status of the project.
      1. Active - A current and ongoing project. Active status projects will display in time card lookups.
      2. Inactive - The project has not started or the work has paused for some reason.
      3. Completed -The project has finished/ended.
    5. Template Project - Select this checkbox if the project will be used as a project template.

  4. Click Save. The Project data record displays.

Create a Project Task 

  1. From the Project data record, under Project Tasks, click New.

    Projects_2.png

    The New Project Task dialog box displays.

    Projects_3.png

  2. Enter the following data fields:
    Note: Required fields display with a red asterisk.

    1. Project Task Name - Enter the name that will be associated with this task.
    2. Project - The selected project name automatically displays in this field.
    3. Status - There are three options to choose from for the status of the project task.
      1. Active - A current and ongoing task. Active status tasks will display in time card lookups.
      2. Inactive - The task has not started or the work has paused for some reason.
      3. Completed -The task has finished/ended.
    4. Display in Expense Report / Time Card - The checkbox is automatically selected to include the task in applicable Expense Reports and Time Cards.
    5. Start Date - Select the date the project task is set to start.
    6. End Date - Select the date the project task is set to end.
    7. Sort Order - This determines the order the tasks will be listed under the project.
    8. Client Contact - The client contact who is associated with the project/project task.
    9. Responsibility - The employee in your organization who will be the owner of this task.
    10. Budgeted Revenue - The sum total amount that is expected as revenue for this project task.
    11. Budgeted Expense - The sum total estimate of expected expenses for this project task.
    12. Budgeted Hours - Enter the amount of hours budgeted for this task.
    13. Expense GL Account - This Expense GL Account for this project task will be debited when a time card is posted. Typically, this is a salaries and wages expense account. If left blank, then the time card debit will reference the Default Project Task Labor GL Account in Accounting Settings.
    14. GL Account Variable 1-4 - Traditional Sub-General Ledger account segment used to report on divisions, departments, geographies, cost centers, profit centers or business units.

  3. Click Save. The Project data record displays.
    Note: Click Save New to save the task and continue with adding the next new task.

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Notes:

  • You can create a new project from an Opportunity using a project template. 
  • Projects and project tasks can be cloned by clicking the Clone Project button on the Project record or the Clone button on the Project Task record. 
  • Accounting Seed can support multiple project budgets. One budget version is included in the standard Accounting Seed package. However, multiple budget fields can be added following the same design pattern established for the standard. To add additional budget fields simply add additional currency fields to the project task. Some common examples of additional budget fields added include the following:
    --  Estimate To Completion
    --  Forecasted Completion
    --  Original Budget
    --  Revised Budget.

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