Projects

The Projects module is where work is planned, delivered and measured in PMSuite. A project holds its own tasks, milestones, time logs, files, discussions, notes and financial records, and it links outward to the client it belongs to, the invoices and estimates raised against it, and the expenses booked to it.

This article is the hub for the module: what it contains, how to reach it, and how it connects to the rest of PMSuite. Individual features have their own articles, linked at the end.

Who can use it

Access is controlled by Roles & Permissions (Settings → Roles & Permissions), which covers the Projects module alongside Sales, HR, Finance, Workspace and Other.

• Each permission is set to one of four levels: None, Added (records the user personally created), Owns (records assigned to them), or All.
• Levels are applied separately to view, create, edit and delete.
• Individual project sections (for example milestones) follow the same matrix, so a user set to None for that section will not see it at all.
• A role with view access but no edit or delete permission cannot modify projects or tasks.

After changing a permission, have the affected user log out and back in — permission changes do not always take effect in an already-active session.

Prerequisites

• An active PMSuite account with the Projects module enabled in Settings → Module Settings.
• Projects permissions granted to your role (see above).
• Optional, but usual before creating your first project:
  • A Client record if the project is client-facing (Sales → Clients).
  • Project Categories and Project Status values reviewed under Settings → Project Settings.
  • Departments set up if you plan to assign projects by department.

How to access

From the sidebar, open Projects and choose the section you need. The quick-create menu also offers Add Project and Add Task from anywhere in the app.

The Projects dashboard

/account/project-dashboard is the module's summary view, bringing project activity together in one place. It sits alongside the other module dashboards (Sales, HR, Finance, Workspace), and the main dashboard also carries a condensed Projects widget that links into the module.

The Projects list

/account/projects lists every project you have permission to see. From here you can open a project, or start a new one.

Two ways to create a project:

1. Add Project — a blank project you fill in from scratch.
2. From a Project Template — Add Project offers the option to start from a saved template instead. Templates carry Project Name, Category, Sub Category, an Allow manual time logs toggle, Project Summary and Notes.

Fields on a project

• Core: Short Code, Project Name, Start Date, Deadline, Project Category, Department, Client, Project Summary, Notes.
• Visibility and approval: Public Gantt Chart (Enable/Disable), Public Task Board (Enable/Disable), Task needs approval.
• Other: Label, Create Public Project checkbox, Add Project Members (multi-select).
• Additional configuration: File upload, Currency, Project Budget, Hours Estimate, Calculate project progress through (method selector), Allow manual time logs, Enable Mindboard, Send task notification to client.

Public Gantt Chart and Public Task Board are off by default and toggled per project — a client only sees those views if the corresponding toggle is enabled on that project.

What a client sees on a task is controlled separately in Settings → Task Settings, where sections such as Label, Priority, Due Date, Comment, Timesheet, Hours Logged and Status can each be toggled on or off for client visibility. Note that there is no separate client-facing status list — clients see the same status values as internal users.

Project statuses

In Progress (default) · Not Started · On Hold · Cancelled · Finished · Closed

All status values are editable under Settings → Project Settings → Project Status Settings, alongside the Project Settings and Project Category tabs.

Inside a project

Opening a project gives you a tabbed workspace: Overview, Files, Milestones, Tasks, Task Board, Gantt Chart, Invoices, Estimates, Orders, Timesheet, Expenses, Payments, Discussion, Notes, Rating, Burndown Chart, Activity, Tickets.

The Overview panel shows task progress as a pie chart, hours logged, the project budget chart, Earnings, Expenses and Profit, plus a client information panel with a direct Message button.

What else lives in the module

• Tasks — the global task list across all projects, with List, Board, Calendar and Whiteboard views; priorities Low / Medium / High; statuses Incomplete, Under Review and Complete; and task detail tabs for Files, Sub Task, Comment, Timesheet, Notes and History. The list toolbar offers Filter, Export, a My Tasks filter and Recurring Task setup, and each task carries a Mark As Complete button.
• Recurring Tasks — regeneration is completion-triggered, not time-based: the next instance appears once the current one is marked complete, and the Cycles field must be populated for recurrence to work at all.
• Milestones — Milestone Title, Cost, Currency, Status, Add Cost to Project Budget toggle, Summary and Start/End Date. Milestone cost is only added to the project budget if you enable that toggle.
• Time Logs — Project, Task, Employee, Start Date/Time, End Date/Time and Memo; total hours are calculated automatically from the start/end pair. Entering time by hand rather than with the live timer requires Allow manual time logs to be enabled on the project.
• Weekly Timesheet — a Monday-to-Sunday grid of hours per task per day; the employee saves, then uses Submit For Approval, and an admin approves or rejects.
• Contracts — auto-numbered CONT#00, with Subject, Project, Description, Start/End Date, Contract Type, Contract Value, Currency and Client Details.
• Knowledge Base — in-app articles with a Heading, Category and an Audience of Client or Employee; categories are managed separately and articles are full-text searchable.
• Reports — Task Report, Time Log Report, and Project Roadmap, which shows every project at once with progress bars, current status and deadlines.
• Custom Fields — extra fields can be defined for Project and Task objects under Settings → Custom Fields, with an Allow export in table view toggle per field.

Effect on other features

• Sales — a project is linked to a Client record. Winning a deal converts the associated lead into a Client, but a project is always created manually; it is never created automatically from a won deal.
• Finance — invoices, estimates, orders, expenses and payments can all be tied to a project and surface on its tabs. Logged hours can be turned into an invoice with Create TimeLog Invoice, which populates line items from the time recorded against the project.
• Client portal — what a client sees on a project's tasks follows the per-section client-visibility toggles in Settings → Task Settings, and whether a client can sign in at all is set per client record with Login Allowed.
• Messages — chat between clients and employees can be scoped in Settings → Message Settings to all employees or to project members only.
• Google Calendar — when Google Calendar Settings are configured and verified, PMSuite pushes records such as tasks and events out to Google Calendar. The sync is one-way: PMSuite → Google. Items created in Google Calendar do not appear in PMSuite.
• Slack — Slack is a supported incoming-webhook integration set up under Settings → Notification Settings → Slack. Project and task events (including project/task assignment, task comments and discussions) can be sent to a Slack channel. Notifications flow one way, PMSuite → Slack.

Limitations

• Projects are not created automatically from won deals. Workaround: create the project manually from /account/projects/create once the deal is won, and pick the newly converted client in the Client field.
• Google Calendar does not sync back into PMSuite. Workaround: enter the work in PMSuite (task, event, deadline) and let it push out to Google, rather than creating it in Google first.
• Slack, Google Calendar and similar integrations are notification/push channels only, not two-way editing surfaces. Workaround: use the PMSuite UI or the API/webhooks (/account/webhooks, /account/webhook-api-keys) for anything that needs to write back.
• Clients cannot see the Gantt chart or task board by default. Workaround: enable Public Gantt Chart and/or Public Task Board on that specific project.
• Milestone costs do not roll into the project budget by default. Workaround: tick Add Cost to Project Budget when creating or editing the milestone.
• Recurring tasks stall if nothing is completed, since regeneration is completion-triggered. Workaround: complete the current instance to release the next one, and confirm the Cycles value is set.
• Parts of a project can be invisible to some team members because of permission gating. Workaround: in Settings → Roles & Permissions, raise that role's Projects view level (and the level for the specific section, such as milestones) above None, then have the user log out and back in.

Troubleshooting

A user cannot see a project that exists. Check Roles & Permissions first — the Projects view level may be Added or Owns rather than All, or the user may simply not be a project member. Fix the level or add them under Add Project Members, then have them log out and back in.

Budget, earnings or profit figures are missing on the Overview tab. Check the role's Projects permissions in Settings → Roles & Permissions — a view level of Added or Owns limits what that user can see. Adjust the level, then have them log out and back in.

The Milestones tab is empty or absent. The milestone view permission is set to None for that role. Raise it in Settings → Roles & Permissions and have the user re-login.

A recurring task never produced its next instance. Two things to check: that the Cycles field was populated when the recurring task was set up, and that the current instance has actually been marked Complete. Regeneration is completion-triggered — it will not fire on elapsed time alone.

A task doesn't appear where you expect it. Confirm the task is attached to the right project (Settings → Task Settings has an Is project required toggle), and check the dates on the task, since date-driven views only show tasks that fall inside the range being displayed.

Calendar task times look shifted. Check the Default Timezone configured in Settings → Company Settings, which sets the timezone the workspace displays dates and times in.

A client isn't receiving project notifications. Confirm Send task notification to client is enabled on the project, that the client record has Receive Email Notifications turned on, and that the relevant client-visibility toggles in Settings → Task Settings are on.

Slack notifications aren't arriving. In Settings → Notification Settings → Slack, confirm Status is enabled, the Slack Webhook URL is saved, the relevant event checkboxes are ticked, then use Send Test Notification.

Related articles

• Creating Projects
• Project Overview
• Project Templates
• Project Members
• Milestones
• Gantt Chart
• Burndown Chart
• Discussions
• Project Notes
• Project Files
• Labels and Categories
• Project Ratings
• Project Calendar
• Duplicating Projects
• Archiving Projects
• Tasks
• Time Tracking
• Mindboard
• Contracts
• Task Report
• Project Roadmap