New project [in-depth guide]

This guide is designed to give you step-by-step instructions on how to add a new project in Workamajig.

We recommend creating a new project from a pre-existing project template that includes all workflows such as the schedule (tasks & assignments), estimates, spec sheets, files, and setup. Copying from a template is efficient and provides consistency for all your job types. For more information on creating project templates, see Project templates.

Guide contents: Start new project | Project info | Project setup | Schedule | Estimates | Project settings | Project team | Make project active | Start working | Resources

Start a new project

To start the process, you first need to click on the New Project option. This is located in several places, depending on your security access to the system.

From Project Manager Today / Projects or (+) / Project

NOTE: There are other ways/places to start a project from. The above is just one example.

Enter the project info

The new project will appear with all the settings and details from the Template and the Client record combined.

Project setup

Following the Workamajig Way, we want to consider these items under the Setup section of the new project as our first order of business. Upon completing each section, you can click on the checkmark to turn it green. This allows you to come back later or for others to see what has been set up.

Schedule

The schedule should come pre-populated with information from the Template this project has been copied from. Opening this page allows any small changes needed to be made to duration and assignments and to check the health of the schedule if a project due date has been entered.

After confirming the schedule is ready and making any minor changes needed, we can go back to project central and the Estimates screen.

NOTE: If your team is using Offices, you may have an Office specific public calendar to track holiday/non-working days for the office. When a project is associated with an office, it will follow these non-working days in the schedule.

Estimates

Click on Estimates from the setup section, then from the next screen, click the + New Estimate to start an estimate for the project.

The form comes pre-populated with the estimated name and internal approver.

Click Save.

Add the Labor Budget

Click on the Number for Total Labor.

On the next screen, from the top, click on More > Pull From Schedule.

This will populate the labor side of the estimate with the allocated hours per task in your schedule and the service rate set in your client/project.

Add the expense budget

Click on the Number for Gross Expenses.

On the next screen, click on Add a New Expense.

Enter in a row per each expense to track.

Get the estimate approved

With the labor & expense budgets entered, you should have an estimated overview that shows you the totals and profitability.

Click on the Approve/Submit button to get the estimate approved.

NOTE: Once Approved, this data then populates the Budget for the project.

Example of the populated Budget based on the Approved Estimate.

Project Settings

Click on Project Settings to open the projects settings panel.

Use this page to verify the setup and billing/accounting process for the project.

Project: This screen is used to define the ownership, timing, connections to campaign/opportunities, key people and description of the project. All fields can be edited throughout the lifespan of the project.

Schedule: This screen is used to define project schedule controls including working days and status information,

NOTE: Override Company Schedule Options: This setting allows you to override the Transaction Preferences settings regarding task dates for the individual project.

Accounting: This screen is used to define the financial settings of the project. 

Billing Options: This screen is used to define the billing method, labor rates and other billing related settings for the project.

Billing Schedule: This screen is used to define Advance Bill and Revenue Invoices value and timing. Typically used for Fixed-Fee projects. For Time & Materials this allows to setup Advance Bill value and timing only.

Media: This area is used to set media markup and show connections to media estimates. Order defaults are only used if not using a 3rd party media buying platform.

Custom Fields: This screen is used to edit custom field information.

Team

Click on the Team to open the Services and Subscriptions panels.

Services

The employee's Default Service will populate for each user on the Team. You can alter these before assigning them to the services in the schedule.

Upon clicking in the Auto Assign button, you are then assigning each Team Member to the corresponding Service of the Approved Estimates Tasks, Services, and Hours.

NOTE: This will Override the Allocated Hours currently in the Schedule with the Approved Budget Hours.

Example of how the Users Initials show in the Schedule instead of the Service.

For more info, refer to the Auto Assign guide.

Subscriptions

Allows you to choose the level of collaboration you want your users to have with the project.

Auto Subscribe: This will make it so your Team Members are auto-added to the Email To the list of all new Diary Conversations, To-Dos and Files Uploads.

Deliverable Defaults: This determines who gets an email when there is a Deliverable Round to Review or be Notified of the round's outcome.

Make the project active

With the Setup complete, Make the project Active by clicking on the current status of Estimating. This will bring up the list of available Statuses. Choose Production, as this is the only Active status by default.

Notice how the name of the Status changes under the Project Details.

Start working on the project

With the project now setup and active, those assigned to the tasks can work on the project from the Creatives Today page via their Task Assignments.

Resources

Project templates

Auto assign

Creatives today