Creating a New Project
CRM Project Manager enables users to create and manage projects directly within Sage CRM.
To create a new project:
Right-click the New menu from the left-hand navigation.
Select Project.
Enter the required project details.
Click Save.
Once the project is created, it becomes available within Project Manager for task planning, timesheet management, milestone tracking, reporting, and project analysis.
Project Details
The Project Details screen captures the information required to manage a project.
The following fields are available:
Field Name
Description
Project Name
The name assigned to the project
Use Resource Factors in Milestone Check
This field when set to ‘Yes’ enables the calculation of Resources and Availability to determine the available days and this affect the end task date. Please see Chapter 7 Milestones for more information.
Project Manager
The name of the project manager. This must be a person defined in the CRM system.
Project Number
Your internal reference number that you can assign to the project
Customer
The customer associated with the project.
Invoice Method
This allows you to specify the way the project is being billed. By project indicates one invoice upon project delivery. By task means invoices will be associated with delivered tasks.
General Details
Any other details and notes on the project.
Project Status
Pending – Default value, the Project is queued to be set up and managed
In Progress – The Project is now underway and used in reference of Timesheets
Complete – The Project is deemed completed and closed
Project Summary
After selecting a project, the Project Summary screen displays an overview of the project, providing immediate access to key project information, status, task progress, and scheduling details.
Project Information
The first section of the Project Summary displays the primary details of the selected project.
Field Name
Description
Project Name
The name assigned to the project
Use Resource Factors in Milestone Check
This field when set to ‘Yes’ enables the calculation of Resources and Availability to determine the available days and this affect the end task date. Please see Chapter 7 Milestones for more information.
Customer
The customer associated with the project. This is also associated with a Company. You can then view projects associated with that company in the Company screen.
Invoice Method
This allows you to specify the way the project is being billed. ‘By project’ indicates one invoice upon project delivery. ‘By task’ means invoices will be associated with delivered tasks.
General Details
Any other details and notes on the project.
Project Manager
The name of the project manager. This must be a person defined in the CRM system.
Project Status
The Project Status section provides the current control values and progress of the project. It displays important scheduling information, project status, and calculated values used to estimate project completion.
Understanding Average Availability
The Average Availability value represents the estimated amount of time that project resources are available to work on the project. Since resources are typically assigned to multiple activities, they are not assumed to be available full-time for a single project.
Average Availability works together with the Number of Resources Available to calculate the project's Estimated and Calculated completion dates.
For example:
The project has 2 resources.
Each resource has an Average Availability of 3 days per week.
Assuming a 5-day working week, each resource contributes 0.6 days per working day (3 ÷ 5 = 0.6).
With two resources, the project has 1.2 resource days available per working day.
Using these values, Project Manager estimates the number of calendar days required to complete the project.
Note: Average Availability is always measured in days, even when Project Manager is configured to use Hours for billing and timesheet calculations.
Billed and Unbilled Time
Project Manager categorizes project effort into two types:
Billed – Time that is chargeable to the customer. Billable time can be used to calculate customer invoices.
Unbilled – Internal project effort that is not charged to the customer.
Task Summary
The Task Summary panel, displayed on the left side of the Project Summary screen, provides an overview of all tasks within the project. It displays the total number of tasks along with their current status, allowing users to quickly monitor project progress.
Copy Project
The Copy Project option allows users to create a new project based on an existing project.
To copy a project:
Open the required project.
Click Copy Project.
The Copy Project window opens with the project information automatically populated from the selected project.
Modify the required details.
Click Save.
A new project is created using the copied information.
When a project is copied:
Most project details are copied from the original project.
All project tasks are copied with their status reset to Pending.
Project Manager automatically adjusts the dates and times of the copied tasks based on the new project start date.
Task schedules are updated accordingly.
This functionality allows completed or existing projects to be used as templates for creating and managing new projects with a similar structure.
Company Projects
A dedicated Projects tab is available on the Company screen.
This tab displays all projects associated with the selected company, providing a centralized view of related projects.
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