Introduction to projects

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  This feature may be hidden in your Autotask instance because it is not activated. If so, you can activate it on the > Admin > Admin Categories > Activations page. Refer to Activations.

A project is a carefully planned set of steps required to meet a specific business objective. Whether it is client facing or internal, short or long term, a project will likely include the following elements: a schedule with phases, assigned tasks with set deadlines, a project team, a budget, and reports to monitor progress. Autotask projects provide all of these elements.

There are many useful software tools available to manage projects, for example, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project. The Autotask Projects module offers comparable features. It also integrates your projects with Autotask. In Autotask, you can automate most of your project-related workflow and monitor progress with the Projects Dashboard and Project Reports. For example:

  • Record billable and non-billable time on project tasks
  • Manage resource time for both projects and tickets (if you are using Service Desk)
  • Create and revise the project schedule, assign tasks, set a budget, and monitor costs
  • Communicate with internal and external project team members and access project-related documents
  • Use the Projects Dashboard and Project Portfolio Reports to manage your entire project portfolio, prioritize tasks and issues from multiple projects, and review project financial data
  • Schedule project tasks with Dispatch Calendar
  • Bill your customers for project work including time, expenses and other charges. With optional billing contracts, you can change the billing rates for a project, or charge a fixed price for the entire project.
  • Record and pay resources for expenses they incur working on projects
  • Manage and report on your project's progress and profit
  • Centralize time tracking across your organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Account, Business Unit, Client Company, Customer, Site., if you also record regular time and track time entries on Autotask tickets

You can use Autotask as your sole project management tool, or you might choose to use project data that you import from Excel. Refer to How projects are part of the overall Autotask workflow.

  • Projects are proactive and planned. Tickets are often created in response to a customer issue.
  • Projects consist of a number of possibly interdependent phases and tasks. Tickets are stand-alone, or a series of identical instances of the same assignment.

There are four types of Autotask projects: client, internal, proposal, and template. Each project type serves a different function in Autotask and has different requirements. Refer to Project types.

For information about project security, refer to Project security settings.