The project manager role in Workamajig [overview]

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Navigation | Menu items | Training | Project intake | How to create a new project | How to edit and approve an estimate | How to track projects | Videos & Guides

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This overview is designed to show you all aspects relating to a project manager in Workamajig. From training sessions, detailed guides, workflows, and videos.

If you do not see the items described in this guide, following your login to Workamajig, please contact your agency's Workamajig administrator(s)

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Navigation

(click on any feature button to learn more about that feature)

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Menu items

• Today project manager
  This "Today" page is designed to be the "go-to" page for all project manager and account manager types. The benefits of this page are too numerous to list here.
• PM dashboard
  This dashboard is designed to show you statistics; like projects created, and hours per client. All with a date range selection.
• PM graphs
  This is where you can create custom graphs, charts, and statistics that go beyond what the dashboard offers.
• Projects
  This page is one of the most central places to visit in the system, as it's designed to show all the active projects in the system with their current percent complete based on task days.
• Planning projects (in development)
  Stay tuned for more info.
• Campaigns
  This page is similar to the projects page above.  However, this looks at your campaigns and reflects data at that level.
• Deliverables board
  This board allows you to manage multiple deliverables across a client or project.
• To-do board
  This is a bit of a niche page to use, as it relates more to tracking the details within a task of a project. Almost like an issue tracking system with statuses of things to fix as part of a web development task for example.

Please keep in mind that these are not all the pages a PM may use. You may also want to check out the Resource manager overview and Everyone overview guides as well.

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Training

If your role is that of a project manager, account manager, or similar, then the training sessions listed here are the sessions you will want to be a part of during your company's implementation of the Workamajig application. If your company has already implemented Workamajig and you are here to find out more info, then you can refer to these training sessions as a reference of where the implementation began.

• Discovery
  Depending on how involved you are in the decision-making process and control of your process/workflow. It's great to be on this first discussion with your Workamajig account manager to let them know of your project-related needs prior to getting into the nitty-gritty of training.
• Initial setup
  This training will not only provide the basics of navigation but can then dig into some of the system setup. As this is where the controls of the system are that can be tweaked to suit your workflow needs.
• Project templates
  Now, this is where your Project Managers will get the most benefit from the system, so this is the training not to miss. Where the Workamajig "Way" is to create projects from a template that has all the necessary components ready to copy from.
• Project Intake
  This is also a must-attend for any project manager, as it continues the workflow process where we copy from a template to then start a new project. After which we can adjust from there to meet the needs of that particular project. Keep in mind that a project can also be created from a project request (for In-house users) or from an opportunity (that can start from a template).
• Assignments & resourcing
  This may or may not relate to your project manager unless they are also needing to "Traffic" or continually manage their projects at a more detailed level. As this gets it on the fine points of task assignments and other styles of project management.
• Collaboration
  While this has its own training sessions, many of the topics contained under collaboration may be discussed in part in the above training sessions. Yet one piece that tends to be its own training sessions is going over the use of deliverables.

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Project Intake

Workamajig provides 2 methods of initial project information gathering and then converting this information into a project.

1. Opportunities: This is part of the sales process. It allows you to create a project budget and set a project template during the sales process.

2. Project request form: As the name implies, this is an electronic form that can be filled in and routed for approval. Final approval allows you to convert the request into a project.

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How to create a new project

Whether using the above project intake methods or manually creating a project, the steps provided below will still be followed. With the project intake method, many of the fields will already be filled in for you.

Manual: Create new project

From Menu > Project Manager > Projects > click the  icon.  This will open the New Project screen.

1. Fill in the appropriate fields:

Copy Tasks From Project Template

When creating a new project, you can copy tasks from a project template, another project, or a project type. However, you should be using a project template. The templates will have predefined project schedules, assignments, and estimates available to you for quick adjustments and to move forward with projects.

Project name: Enter an appropriately descriptive name for the project.

Project number: Leave this BLANK. The system will auto-number the project upon saving.

Client: Select the appropriate client for the project.

Account manager: Select the appropriate account manager for the project. This may auto-fill after selecting a client. You can adjust, if necessary.

Project description: This is a text field to enter information regarding the project. This may be visible on client invoices.

Schedule: project start date: This will default to "today's date". Adjust to the appropriate date. This will be used to define when the schedule begins.

Project due date: Enter the due date of the project. This will allow you to see any tasks in the schedule that will go beyond this date, so you may adjust the schedule accordingly.

2. SAVE: Click save after filling in all appropriate information. This will then create a new project and assign a project number. The screen will refresh to display the Project Setup: General screen.

Confirm each section of the project setup

Clicking on theafter reviewing each section is a visual cue to what has been confirmed in the setup

Beginning with the project settings review and adjust the settings if needed. The project will default into a sales opportunity status.  You should change this to production when you are ready to begin.

Confirm the schedule

If you did not copy a template in the setup, your schedule will be blank and you will be able to set up the schedule by clicking

If you are manually creating the schedule add the tasks, services, days, and predecessors to complete the setup. Click SAVE often.  For detailed instructions on creating a schedule see Project schedules [guide]

If you have created the new project from a template then confirm each task and adjust the number of hours each service will take to complete the assignment. At this point, you are not worried about the people, only the service/labor categories that will be needed to complete each task.

From Project Central navigation, click on Schedule:

1. Review each task to confirm that this is the schedule that will be needed for this project. Pay close attention to the assigned column.
2. For any tasks that need labor adjusted, click on the Assigned column.
3. Adjust the allocated hours & services, if necessary.
4. SAVE.
5. Repeat this for each task, if needed.

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Create the project estimate

The idea of the project estimate is to allow you to provide an estimated target for labor and expenses. You are able to create as many estimates as you want on the project. Once an estimate is approved, this will be used by the project as the project budget.

In the Estimate screen, you are further able to differentiate your estimates between "Original" and "Change Order" estimates. This will allow you to track changes in the scope of the project. On the estimate, you are able to designate an estimate as a "Change Order". All estimates without this designation will be considered "Original" budgets. This allows you to analyze the current budget, and original budget, and change the order budget.

To gain the most benefit from Workamajig, we recommend that your estimates be based on your defined timeline and labor roles (task & service).

To begin a new project estimate: click on Estimates on the project screen.

Click 

Click show advanced options

Estimate name: Enter a required name for the estimate. By default, the project name will be used.

Change order: Check if this is a change order estimate. Leave unchecked if a regular estimate. By default this is unchecked.

Estimate type: This should be by task & service

Internal approver: Select the person that will approve the estimate for your company. The default is the account manager of the project.

Internal approval due date: If the internal approver is set to a person other than the account manager, this allows a due date for the approval process to be set.

External approver: Select the contact at the client company responsible for approving the estimate. NOTE: If a name is entered, that person must approve the estimate for the estimate to be fully approved. Most will leave this section blank.

Labor

Click on the Total Labor 

The most effective way to create the estimate is to pull the information you already created in the Project schedule into the estimate via the "Pull from Schedule" option under the       button

If you would rather create your own estimate such as a simple one-line estimate just adjust the data in the service hours, rates or gross.  

Expenses

If you have expenses you would like to add to the estimate click Gross Expenses

1. Add the details of the expenses in the boxes and continue to add additional expenses by inserting rows. Click the toggle to add the details of the expenses.  If you would like to request quotes from your vendors click the Create a Quote option and follow the instructions found in the help guide Request for quotes

• In the Task Box, enter the task on the project to relate this estimate to. This may be required depending on your selected options.
• In the Item ID box, enter the item ID to tie this expense too. This may be required depending on your selected options.
• In the Vendor ID box, you can enter the vendor ID for the company that you will purchase this item from. This is not required but makes generating purchase orders from your estimate much faster later.
• Enter a short description of the expense.
• Enter a long description of the expense, if you wish to relate more explanation of the expense to a client on the estimate.
• If you have selected Allow Multiple Quantities on the Estimate, you will see one set of boxes for quantity, unit cost, UOM, net, markup, and gross for each option. If you have not selected the multiple quantity options, you will see only one set of boxes for the amounts.
• Select Tax 1 if the sales tax 1 applies to this expense.
• Select Tax 2 if the sales tax 2 applies to this expense.
• Select the Billable option if this expense is billable to the client.

2. Once you are satisfied with your estimate the next step is to prepare it for the client. Under the button click the Estimate Settings

Check and/or change the information in the Estimate Settings as necessary.

Primary contact: Select a contact name that this estimate is for. This field allows you to select the address from the contact when printing the estimate.

Estimate date: Enter a specific date you would like to appear on the estimate. If this is left blank, the system will use the date when it is printed.

Delivery date: Enter a delivery date for this project. If the date is left blank, it will not appear on the printed estimate.

Change order: Mark this box if you are creating a change order for the client

Description: This will print on the client's estimate.  You can leave this blank.

External approver: You can select the client contact as an approver but most people will leave this blank because if selected it will not allow the process to move forward until both internal and external parties approve the estimate. 

Internal approver due date: If the internal approver is set to a person other than the account manager, this allows a due date for the approval process to be set.

Estimate template: The estimate template will default in from the client if you have chosen one or you can update it at this time.

****If you have not already created estimate templates then you learn to create them by following this link: Estimate templates [guide]

After clicking save go to the button to find and click "print".  This will bring up the estimate in the template you have chosen.  If it is what you would like to send to your client then you can either 

1. Print & send through the Workamajig system .    or

2. Create a PDF to email attach through your own work email.  

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Submit estimate for approval

In the top right corner, click Submit. This will send the estimate to the person designated as the internal approver. If this is you, you will click on Approve, instead.

Once the estimate is approved, it becomes the budget for your project.  

Project team

The final part of the project setup is getting your team set to begin the project. In the setup click Team

The account manager for the project will be the only default person on the team. 

Add the appropriate services needed for the project to each staff member in accordance with the scheduled assignments.  When complete click "Auto Assign" which will replace all of the services on the project with the people with the same service.  If more than one person has the same service the system will split the assigned task among the staff selected. 

Go back into the schedule to see how the auto-assign has now replaced all of the services with assigned staff.  You will see their initials in the services area. You can still manually fix forgotten assignments by clicking into the missing area and manually entering the information

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How to track project information

As a project manager, you can view all your projects and their statuses from the Projects page.

Menu > Project Manager > Projects

By default, this page will show all projects grouped by client alphabetically. Clicking any column will sort according to that field. You are able to search for a specific project in the field under the "Projects" heading.

On the right-hand side, Workamajig will populate a Gantt chart based on your project schedule. This is viewable in a day, week or month view.

Clicking the blue link for any project on this page will open the project landing page.

Grid

Information on this page will be placed into columns that can be sorted on an ascending or descending view by clicking on the column header. Ascending columns are notated with an arrow (▲) in the column header as seen below: 

Display options

From the ...More button at the top of the page, you are able to personalize how the information on this page appears. Clicking display options causes this menu to slide out:

System settings

You can click the More button to access the System settings panel, which allows you to adjust what your users see.

Edit columns

Selecting the blue Edit columns option at the bottom of the System Settings panel will open a page allowing you to customize the visible fields of the projects list.

Fields: Select which columns will populate the listing.

Display order: This allows you to drag and drop these fields in the order you would like them.

Traffic calendar

Menu>Project: Traffic>Traffic Calendar: This screen provides an overall view of your projects, budget vs actual info, and a Gantt view of schedules.

Project budget analysis

Menu>Reports>Project Financial Reports>Project Budget Analysis: This report provides a good overview of all project Budgets vs. Actual vs. Billing.

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Videos & Guides

Videos

• Overview for project managers [video]
• Project manager today [video]
• Active projects [video]
• Project creation [video]
• Project estimates [video]
• Project schedule [video]
• Deliverables [video]
• Project request form reviews [video]
• Past webinars

Guides

Setup guides

• In-house training: Create project template

Related feature guides

• Project dashboard: This shows you all the points of interest within an open project.
• New project: Step-by-step guide on how to create a new project in the system.
• Project schedule overview: An overview of the project schedule with detailed sub-pages that go into the minutia of the schedule features.
• Estimates overview: All about estimates and how they can improve your process and profitability.
• Deliverables: Step-by-step setup and use of deliverables.
• Campaigns overview: An overview of campaigns with detailed sub-guides on how to create and manage campaigns in the system.
• Project requests overview: More for In-house users, but goes over the setup and use of project requests in the system.