Projects

What is Projects?

Projects gives you one place to manage client work from beginning to end. Each project can contain its key details, milestones, tasks, meetings, files, billing stages, contracts, time records and client updates.

Open Projects from the main GatherCRM menu.

Finding projects

The main Projects screen displays your live projects in a list and visual board.

Use the filters to:

• Search by project name or reference.
• Filter by status.
• Filter by project owner.
• Find archived projects.

The summary cards show how many projects are active, completed or need attention. Select a project row or card to open its workspace.

Creating a project

Select + New Project and enter the main information:

• Project name.
• Linked contact.
• Project owner.
• Start date and deadline.
• Budget or total project fee.
• Project template, if required.

GatherCRM automatically creates a project reference, such as PRJ-0001. You can change this later, but every reference must remain unique.

If you choose a template, its standard milestones and billing stages are added to the new project.

The project workspace

Every project contains the following tabs.

Overview

The Overview is the project command centre. It shows:

• Project health and anything needing attention.
• Owner, deadline and status.
• Total fee and billing allocation.
• Amount paid.
• Open and overdue tasks.
• Files and meetings.
• Upcoming billing.
• Recent activity.

Use this page for a quick check before opening the more detailed tabs.

Details

Use Details to update:

• Project name and reference.
• Status and owner.
• Linked contact.
• Start date and deadline.
• Budget.
• Description.
• Client Portal featured image.
• Any custom project fields.

Select Save Project after making changes.

Milestones

Milestones represent the main stages of delivery, such as Discovery, Design, Review and Launch.

For each milestone, you can add:

• A title and status.
• An owner.
• Start and target dates.
• A completion date.
• Notes.
• A linked billing stage.
• Whether it is visible to the client.
• Whether the client needs to take action.

Use milestones for important stages rather than small individual jobs. Smaller actions should normally be managed through Tasks.

Gantt

The Gantt tab turns dated milestones and events into a visual project timeline.

From here, you can:

• Review the internal project schedule.
• Configure the client-facing project summary.
• Choose whether clients see exact dates or “week commencing” dates.
• Preview the client update page.
• Copy the client update link.
• Download the client PDF.
• Print the timeline.
• Regenerate the shared link.

Only milestones and events marked as client-visible appear in the client version.

The client link does not expire automatically. If it has been shared with the wrong person, select Regenerate link to invalidate the old one.

Events

Events are important dated moments in the project, such as:

• Proposal sent or accepted.
• Client update.
• Approval received.
• Design or creative update.
• Delivery.
• Meeting.
• Issue raised.
• Decision made.

Select + Log event, choose the type, add the date, title and notes, then decide whether the event should be visible to the client.

Events are deliberate project updates. The Activity tab is different because it records system activity automatically.

Templates

Templates help you reuse a standard project structure.

A template can include:

• A name and description.
• Default budget and currency.
• Standard milestones.
• Standard billing stages and percentages.

You can create, edit, apply or delete templates. Applying a template adds its milestones and billing stages to the project. Later changes to the template do not update projects that already used it.

Tasks

The Tasks tab shows work linked to the project, including:

• Total, open and overdue task counts.
• Task title.
• Assignee.
• Due date.
• Status.

Select a task to open it in the Tasks module. The Tasks plugin must be active for this tab to work.

Meetings & Notes

Use this tab to record formal meetings or quick internal updates.

A meeting can include:

• Title, date and duration.
• Staff and clients present.
• Full meeting notes.
• Agreed actions.
• Custom meeting fields.
• Client Portal visibility.
• Private visibility.

Use Show in Client Portal? when the client should see the meeting. Private meetings and quick notes cannot be shared with the client.

Use Private Meeting? when only you and selected staff should be able to see it.

Type @ followed by a team member’s name in the notes or actions to notify them by email.

Saved meetings and notes appear as compact rows. Select View details to see the complete record and its Edit and Delete controls.

Activity

Activity is the automatic project history. It records important changes such as:

• Project creation and updates.
• Status changes.
• Milestone updates.
• Meetings and files.
• Billing changes.
• Contract and invoice activity.
• Time entries.
• Client-link changes.

Use Events for deliberate updates and Activity when you need an audit-style history.

Billing

Billing lets you manage the commercial stages of the project.

Start by checking or setting the Total project fee. You can then add billing stages using either:

• A fixed amount; or
• A percentage of the project fee.

Each billing stage can have:

• A name.
• An amount.
• A due date.
• A status.
• A linked invoice.
• Notes.

Available statuses include Pending, Sent, Awaiting Payment and Paid.

The Billing page shows how much has been allocated, paid, due or left unallocated. It also warns you if the billing stages exceed the project fee.

You can edit, clone or delete existing billing stages.

Contracts

The Contracts tab lists contracts linked to the project and shows their value, sent date and status.

Select + New contract to create a contract with the project and contact already selected. Select an existing contract to open it in the Contracts module.

The Contracts plugin must be active.

Files

Use Files to upload project documents securely.

Supported files include PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, images, ZIP files, text files and CSV files. The maximum upload size is 50 MB.

For each file, you can:

• Download it.
• Delete it.
• See its Client Portal status.
• Request client approval.
• Resend an approval request.

Requesting approval emails every Client Portal user linked to the project. The client can then approve the document or request changes.

Time

The Time tab displays time entries linked to the project.

It includes:

• Total tracked hours.
• Billable hours and value.
• Uninvoiced value.
• Latest entry.
• Time by team member.
• Billing readiness.
• Individual time records.

Use + Add time to create a linked time entry, or open Time Hub to review and invoice existing records. Time Hub must be active.

Project Insights

Open Projects → Insights for a wider view across all projects.

Insights includes:

• Total projects and project value.
• Amount paid and due.
• Forecast income.
• Average project value and duration.
• Collection rate.
• Monthly revenue and forecast.
• Project status breakdown.
• Cash Watch.
• Top projects.
• Upcoming billing.

Use the date controls to change the reporting period.

Field Builder

Open Project Settings → Field Builder to customise the information you collect.

You can:

• Show or hide built-in fields such as budget, start date and deadline.
• Add custom fields to Project Details.
• Add custom fields to Meetings.
• Add custom fields to Quick Notes.
• Edit or delete custom fields.

Available field types include text, textarea, number, date, email, telephone, URL, file/media URL, dropdown and checkbox.

Custom fields apply across all projects rather than to one individual project.

Project Settings

Project Settings controls project-wide behaviour.

When Email Hub is active, you can choose a completion email journey. When a project is marked complete, GatherCRM can ask whether the linked contact should be added to that journey.

Completing a project

When the work is finished, select Mark complete in the project header.

This changes the project status to Completed. If a completion journey is configured, you may also be offered the option to add the linked contact to it.

Archiving and deleting projects

To archive a live project:

1. Open the project.
2. Open the Project Settings menu in the project header.
3. Select Archive project.
4. Confirm the warning.

Archived projects are removed from normal live views. Find them by selecting Archived in the main project status filter.

There is currently no restore option for archived projects.

An archived project can be permanently deleted. This requires typing DELETE exactly. Permanent deletion cannot be undone, so use it carefully. Linked tasks, contracts and time entries are retained where possible, but their project link is removed.

Best practice

• Link every project to the correct client and owner.
• Use milestones for major delivery stages and Tasks for smaller actions.
• Set the total fee before creating percentage-based billing stages.
• Keep milestone and event dates current so the Gantt remains useful.
• Only mark appropriate information as client-visible.
• Record meetings, decisions and agreed actions as they happen.
• Use templates for repeatable project types.
• Review Overview and Insights regularly.
• Mark finished projects as complete and archive them only when they no longer need to appear in live views.