Projects keep work that takes many steps on one board: a product launch, a new label, a trade show, an account's onboarding. Each project has an owner, a status, the days it runs, and what it is about: an account, a product, a production run, a vendor, or nothing in particular. Switch it on under Settings, Menu (or Admin, Modules), and give a login the Projects switch under Settings, Team, Logins if it is off for them.
Starting a project
- Open Projects and choose New project.
- Name it, pick its owner, whether it is Planning or Active, its start and due days, and what it is about.
- To start from a template, pick it under Start from: its columns and tasks come with it, each task due its days after the project starts.
- Under Who sees it, leave Everyone on the team, or choose Only its people for work that is not everyone's (below).
The dashboard at the top counts the projects at each status and, for those still being worked, how many of their tasks are past their day. Tap a status to see only those; the bar narrows them by owner and by what they are about.
Who sees a project
A project is open to Everyone on the team who uses Projects, or to Only its people: its owner, the people put on it and the business's owners. Keep a client's project, a hire or anything confidential to its people.
- Choose it when you start the project, or later under the project's Settings, Who Sees It. Only the project's owner or an owner of the business changes it, and, while only its people see it, who owns it and who is on it.
- Nobody else finds a project kept to its people: not in the list, the counts, My Tasks, an account's Projects tab, the files or a meeting, and not through the API or an assistant either, which read only what the person behind them sees. To them it is as if it were not there.
- Its tasks go only to its people, and only they can be named with @ in its comments. Before a project is kept to its people, give its open tasks to people on it, or put their owners on it; the app says which task stands in the way.
- The To-do list is read by everyone in Workflows, so a to-do for a project kept to its people says only the task's number, never the project's name, the task or what was said.
- Its events are not sent to the business's webhooks. A program reaches it only through a key made by one of its people.
- A template made from it is the business's like any other: everyone who starts projects sees its tasks.
- With Dropbox or OneDrive linked, its files go to the project's folder there as other projects' do. In BookNovi only its people open them; in Dropbox or OneDrive the folder's own sharing decides, so share that folder only with them.
The board
A new board has four columns: To do, Doing, Review and Done. Rename them, add more and put them in order under the project's Settings, The Board's Columns; one column can mean done, and a column is taken away once no task is in it.
- Choose Add a task at the foot of a column, type what it is, and press Enter.
- Drag a card to another column, or within one to change its place. On a tablet, hold the card a moment first.
- Moving a task into the column that means done finishes it; moving it out opens it again.
Tap a card to open it: who does it, when work starts and when it is due, its priority, labels, checklist, files, comments and the time logged on it.
Tasks that wait on others
Under Waits on, pick the tasks that have to be done first. While any of them is open, the task shows Blocked and cannot be finished, whether it is ticked, moved into the column that means done, or sits in a column you choose to mean done: the app says which tasks it waits on. Holds up lists what waits on this one. A task can only wait on tasks of its own project, and never on one that already waits on it.
Comments, files and time
- Comments: type @ and a name to bring someone in. Whoever you name gets a to-do in the Workflows To-do list pointing to the task.
- Files: pictures, PDFs, documents and spreadsheets up to 3 MB, on the task or on the whole project under Files: the brief, the artwork, the spec sheet or a photo of the proof.
- Time: set an estimate, then log what was spent (45 min, 1 hr 30 min or 1:30) on a day, by you or someone else. The task and the project add it up against the estimate.
The list and the timeline
List shows every task in a table that sorts by any column. Timeline draws each task as a bar from when work starts to when it is due, with an arrow from each task it waits on, a line for today and a dashed line on the project's due day. Give tasks a due day, or a day work starts, and they line up there; tasks with no days are listed under it.
My tasks
My Tasks is your own list across every project being worked: Overdue, Today, This week and Later. Tick a task done right there, or open it. When someone gives you a task, you also get a to-do in the To-do list.
Templates
Open a project, choose Settings, and Save as a template. The template keeps the columns, the tasks with their checklists, what each waits on, and their days counted from the project's start; who does what, comments, files and time stay with the project. Start a project from it under Templates, where each template lists its tasks with their days, and can be renamed or removed: its tasks land on the calendar counted from the day the new project starts.
Labels
Labels mark tasks on every project's board, such as Design, Waiting on the client or Regulatory. Make them, give each a color and change them under Labels; anyone can make one from a task too.
Removing a project
Under a project's Settings, Remove the Project takes its board with it: every task, comment and file, and the time logged on them. A project finished is better marked Done, which keeps it.
From an account or a production run
An account's record has a Projects tab, and a production run shows Projects About This: the projects about it, with New project, and the tasks made from it, with Add a task. An opportunity's card shows its project tasks too. A task made there links back to where it was made.
Best practices
- Give every task an owner and a due day. A task nobody owns is a task nobody does.
- Use Waits on for the real order of things (art before print), so the board shows what can start now.
- Keep Done as the last column, so finishing is one drag.
- Save a project you run again and again (a launch, an onboarding) as a template the first time it goes well.
- Check My Tasks each morning; clear Overdue first.