Management of Projects is located under Management-->Projects-->Manage Projects.
The system allows you to create an unlimited number of projects that act as general work categories for users to log their time, expenses, and custom entries against. The system uses a hierarchical project structure and allows unlimited levels of subprojects under any parent project. The main Project screen serves as the master control panel for all general project creation, modification, and deletion (see figure 18.1).

Project Management is used for informal projects and non-project work categories. For projects that adhere to specific schedules and include work planned at the resource/team member level, Scheduled Project Management located under Management-->Scheduled Projects-->Manage Scheduled Projects is the area where detailed project plans are managed. Items managed under both Project Management and Scheduled Project Management appear in the same hierarchical tracking column on users' time, expense and custom entry screens. The combination of these two areas into one tracking column allows users to track time for formal project task assignments, informal projects and non-project work/leave all in one timesheet.

Figure 18.1.Project Management main page

Project Management System Settings

There are several Project System Settings that can be managed under Configuration-->System Settings-->Project Settings. These settings should be considered and configured prior to creating new projects. For more information about these settings, see the System Settings section of this manual.

Creating Projects

One of the first actions that should be performed on any new installation of Journyx is the creation of the various projects that your organization will be using for time, expense, and custom entry tracking. You can create a new project under the root by clicking the Create button located in the lower right corner of the screen. This will direct you to the Project Creation screen, where you can specify the attributes of the Project (see figure 18.2).



Figure 18.2.Project creation


Specify a name for the Project. Although the system allows up to 252 characters for each project name, Journyx recommends short project names in order to keep the project dropdown menus on user entry screens more manageable. Enter a description for the new projects. Again, the system allows up to 252 characters for the description of each project. The description should be used to provide further details of the project. Notice that the parent project is root. Creating projects under other projects will be discussed later.

The Owner and Backup owner selection fields are optional. The purpose of establishing ownership is to limit project modification access, regardless of Group membership, to the owner and backup owner. If both fields are set to None, any user with group access to the project, Manager Authority and role abilities for modifying projects will be able to modify the project. If a Project Manager is designated as a project's owner, other Project Managers with group access to the project will not be able to modify the project. They will see a read-only view. The creator of the project and any system Administrators are the only ones who can set a project owner and will always be able to modify the project regardless of ownership. This field must be set for a project and each of its tasks individually. Project owners can change the owner field, as well as set/change the Backup owner field.

Next, specify the status of the project: Loggable and Reportable, Reportable Only, Hidden. 'Loggable and Reportable' indicates that the project is fully active (i.e., users can log time to this project and all time logged to this project can be reported on). 'Reportable Only' indicates that the project can no longer have time logged against it, but any historical time already logged can be displayed in reports. 'Hidden' indicates that the project can neither be logged against nor can it be reported on.

Enter the total estimated hours and percent complete for the new project. These 2 fields are optional. The system allows up to 8 digits for each project's estimated hours. The total estimated hours field can be used in some standard report types to track percent of work complete for a project. The percent complete field is for tracking a manually calculated estimate and does not include any calculations based on actual versus estimated hours.

Next select which currently existing Groups should have access to the new projects. Multiple Groups may be selected by using the shift-click or ctrl-click functionality. You can always change which Groups have access to any given project later by modifying that particular Group or by modifying that specific project. Once you have selected the existing Groups that will have access, indicate whether to add this project to new Groups. If you check this option, the project will be added to every new Group that is created in the system at the time of Group creation. If you do not check this option, the newly created Group will not have access to this project by default, but can be given access at a later time by modifying that particular Group or modifying that specific project.

Next choose where to make this project available for logging entries based on the type of entry. By default, a new project will be available on all types for entry screens. However, you can disable its availability for logging on a specific entry screen by unchecking the selection box next to the entry screen type.

If you are using project-activity rates, you also have the option to apply project-activity rates for a parent project automatically to the child projects underneath the parent. If the parent project has the Project-Activity Rates field set to "Copy to children", the project-activity rates created for the parent project will automatically create the same rates for the child projects. More information is available under the Project-Activity Rates section of this manual.

The project budget-related fields under the Financials section are optional and can be used to compare budgeted costs and revenues to actual costs and revenues in Profitability Reports. The amounts are static and determined by your organization's project budgeting process. If the project or non-project work category does not have a budget associated with it, you can leave these fields blank.

Project Dependencies and Approvals cannot be set up until after the project has been saved the first time. See the Project Dependencies or Project Approval Plans sections of this manual for more information.

When finished filling in the basic project information, you may choose to also fill in information for the Custom Fields for the project. These Custom Fields will vary based on your configuration. If the standard Project Pay and Bill Rate fields are visible in your system, they can be used to calculate project labor costs and billable amounts in standard reports and Journyx Reportlink. Rates must be entered as numbers, and they are always treated as hourly rates in report calculations. IF you are using Journyx Projectlink to import project plans from MS Project, you may also see MS Project Start and End Date custom fields that will contain the project start and end dates from the MS Project file. When finished, click the Save button. To create another project, click the Save and New button.

Alternatively, on the Project Creation screen you can copy the settings of another project by searching and selecting a project and then clicking the Load button located at the top right corner (see figure 18.3). This will prepopulate that project's settings (with the exception of MS Project and QuickBooks Custom Fields, Dependencies, and Project Approval Plans) which you can use as a template of sorts. After clicking the Load button, you can modify the attributes that will be unique to the new project. When finished selecting and specifying attributes for the new project, you can simply click the Save button.



Figure 18.3.Copy another project

You can manage Project Dependencies and Project Approval Plans for each project only after it has been saved and then modifying the project. For more information about Project Dependencies, see the Project Dependencies section of this manual. For more information about Project Approval Plans, see the Project Approval Plans section of this manual.

Creating Subprojects

The system allows you to create projects under the root project as well as under other projects. Creating subprojects under projects can be done from the main Projects screen. To create a subproject under a project, click the respective 'Create' link in the last column of the parent project (see figure 18.1). This will direct you to the Project Creation screen, where you can specify the attributes of the Project (see figure 18.2). Notice that the parent is the project that you decided to create a subproject for. When finished specifying the primary attributes, you may optionally configure the Custom Fields for the subproject. When finished, click the Save button. To create another project, click the Save and New button.

Alternatively, on the Project Creation screen you can copy the settings of another project by searching and selecting a project and then clicking the Load button located at the top right corner (see figure 18.3). This will prepopulate that project's settings (with the exception of MS Project and QuickBooks Custom Fields, Dependencies, and Project Approval Plans) which you can use as a template of sorts. After clicking the Load button, you can modify the attributes that will be unique to the new subproject. When finished selecting and specifying attributes for the new project, you can simply click the Save button.

You can manage Project Dependencies and Project Approval Plans for each subproject only after it has been saved and then modifying the subproject. For more information about Project Dependencies, see the Project Dependencies section of this manual. For more information about Project Approval Plans, see the Project Approval Plans section of this manual.

Modifying, Reparenting, and Deleting an Existing Project

To modify an existing project, specify the search criteria for the project on the main Project screen and click the Search button (see figure 18.1). The search results will be displayed below the criteria. From the search results, click the name of the project you would like to modify. This will direct you to the Project Modification screen where you can modify the attributes of the project (see figure 18.4).

From within the Project Modification screen, you can reparent the project. The screen shows the current parent project of the project being modified. Simply select another parent project if you wish to place the project under a different parent project within your project hierarchy. In order for users to reparent projects for which they have access to, users must be granted the 'Project-Modify' ability when configuring Roles.

Alternatively, you have the ability to compare and modify multiple projects at the same time. From the search results on the main Project screen, check the checkboxes of the projects that you would like to manage at once (see figure 18.1). Then go to the bottom of the screen and click the Compare and Modify button. This will take you to a Project Modification screen that contains the attributes of the selected projects side by side (see figure 18.5).



Figure 18.4.Project modification



Figure 18.5.Project compare and modify

You can only manage Project Dependencies and Project Approval Plans from the Project Modification screen of an existing Project.

The system allows your organization to delete unused or obsolete projects under certain circumstances. A project that has never had any time, expenses, or custom entries logged against it may be deleted from the database and thereby removed from use. However, if a project has ever been used as part of a time, expense, or custom entry, the system will not allow you to delete that project. These projects should be modified to have a status of 'hidden' instead of deleted. To delete an existing project, specify the search criteria for the project on the main Project screen and click the Search button (see figure 18.1). The search results will be displayed below the criteria. From the search results on the main Project screen, select the projects that you would like to delete. Then go to the bottom of the screen and click the Delete button.

Sorting and Navigating Projects

Once you have created several projects, you can decide how to sort them on the main Project screen. You can choose to sort the visible projects by one of three methods: position within the project tree, alphabetical by project name, or alphabetical by project description. Projects are sorted alphabetically by project name by default. To change the sorting order for the screen you are currently viewing, click the column header for Tree, Project Name, or Description. The system will refresh the main Project screen and the visible projects will be sorted by the method you indicated.

In addition to the hierarchical Tree sort method, you may also use the yellow and blue arrow icons to view sections within the project hierarchy (see figure 18.1). Yellow arrows appear next to any project that has subprojects or 'child' projects underneath it. Clicking on the yellow arrow opens up a single level of the hierarchy which will show the 'descendants' underneath the selected project. If a project has more than one level of descendants (child and grandchild subprojects), a blue arrow icon will also be displayed next to the project (see figure 18.1). Clicking on the blue arrow icon displays all levels of the hierarchy below the selected project. After expanding a level, you may collapse a level by clicking the respective yellow arrow icon again.

Please note that choosing a sorting method other than the default applies to the current page view only. Leaving the main Project screen and returning later will reset your view to the default sorting method.

Batch Modification

In addition to making modifications to projects by clicking the name or using the Compare and Modify feature, you have the ability to make batch modifications at the bottom of the main Projects screen (see figure 18.1 and 18.6). Batch modification allows you to efficiently make modifications to several projects at once instead of having to load each project separately. You are able to change the Group affiliation, status, and parent of multiple projects at once. To modify existing projects using the batch modification feature, specify the search criteria for the projects on the main Project screen and click the Search button. The search results will be displayed below the criteria. From the search results, select the names of the projects you would like to edit using batch modification. Then go to the bottom of the screen and decide the type of batch modification to perform. You can assign Groups to the selected projects or change Group assignments by selecting the Groups and clicking the respective Apply button. You can change the status of the selected projects by selecting the status and clicking the respective Apply button. Finally, you can select a new parent project for the selected projects and click the respective Apply button.



Figure 18.6.Project batch modification

Project Notes

Project Notes can be managed under Management-->Projects-->Project Notes (see figure 18.7).

Project Notes provide a way for users to record complex comments and information for specific projects or scheduled projects. Users have the ability to apply Project Notes to specific time, expense, and custom records in their sheets (Project Entry Notes). They can also create Project Notes from their Management tab where they can select a project and specify a note. Notes created from the main Project Notes screen are not associated with a specific time, expense or custom record.

To create a new Project Note, go to the Create a New Project Note section in the main Project Notes screen. Select the project and specify the name for this collection of Notes. When finished, click the Create button. Then click on the Edit icon to add the first Note.

Figure 18.7.Project Notes

To view existing Project Notes, specify the search criteria and click the Search button. The search results will be displayed below the criteria. To view the details of the Project Notes, click the Edit icon. This will prompt a pop-up window displaying the details of the Project Notes with a space for adding an additional note. To add a new Project Note, specify the note in the textbox at the bottom of the pop-up and click the Add Entry button. Each new Note includes that date of creation and the user who added it. You may also edit a specific Note by clicking the respective Edit icon inside the pop-up window. Similarly, you can delete a specific Note by clicking the respective Trash Can icon.

If you are an Administrator, you can delete an entire set of Project Notes from the main Project Notes screen by clicking the respective Trash Can icon.

Project Dependencies

The system uses Project Dependencies to restrict which objects can be logged against a particular Project by any given user. These objects include Activities, Pay Types, Bill Types, Expense Codes, Sources, Currencies, Locations, Items and Units. When no Project Dependencies exist for a project, it is considered 'open' and users can log entries against any item for a selected project as long that item is contained in at least one of the user's groups.

Group membership restricts users to logging entries against items that are contained in the Groups to which they belong. A user assigned to multiple Groups can combine elements from those Groups regardless of whether those objects are in the same Group. Consider a user's combination of Groups as one large Group for that user.

When logging time, expense, or custom entries, the user's Group membership and a Project's Dependencies are determined behind the scenes presenting only valid choices to the user. Care must be taken when creating Groups as well as Project Dependencies. If a project is dependent upon objects that are not contained in any of an individual's groups, that user will not be able to log records to that project.

NOTE: In addition to project-to-column dependencies that filter other columns based on the project selection, there is also an option to set up other column-to-column dependencies. For example, a selected Activity could cause the Pay Type column to be filtered for valid selections, and so on. The filtering occurs from left to right on the entry screens, so a selection in a target column can filter the selections in columns to the right of the target column. Column-to-column dependencies must be set up using an import file. Please see Import Tools under the section called Importing Entry Column Dependencies for more information on setting up column-to-column dependencies.

Figure 18.8.Project Dependencies

The Project Dependencies screen displays two columns of items. The first column contains items that are not dependent on the project. The second column contains items that are dependent on the project. Users will be able to select these items when logging time, expense, and custom entries. By default, every project in the system is initially in an 'open' state and any item (Activity, Pay Type, Currency, et. al.) within the database can be logged against any project, depending only on a user's Group affiliation. However, to limit what is selectable for this project, you must place the selectable items in the dependency list.

Items are moved between the two columns by clicking on them (ctrl-click or shift-click to select multiple items in a section) and then clicking the Change Dependencies button at the bottom of this screen. When the screen refreshes, you will see that items that were selected in the column on the left have moved to the column on the right.

Project Dependencies And Child Projects

You can have 'child' projects or subprojects inherit the Dependencies of 'parent' projects in two ways. The system allows Dependencies for a 'parent' project to be assigned to the project's 'child' projects manually at the time of Dependency assignment. Simply click the Change Dependencies and Apply to Children button located at the bottom of the screen.

Alternatively, when 'child' projects are being created for this project, you can automatically have the 'child' project inherit the Dependencies of this 'parent' project by applying the automatic inheritance. This can be done by selecting 'yes' to the option labeled 'Should new children inherit these settings'. However, please keep in mind that existing 'child' project will not inherit these Dependency settings unless you click the Change Dependencies and Apply to Children button.

There is no limit to how many generations 'down' a project's dependencies can be applied. Therefore, if Project 1 has 'child' projects spanning 8 additional generations, applying the Dependencies to Project 1's 'children' will result in all of those generations (including the last project generation - Project 9) inheriting Dependencies from Project 1.

A Project inherits Dependencies from its closest 'parent' that has Dependencies. Therefore, if Project 1 has Dependencies and its 'child', Project 1A, has dependencies, then Project 1A2, a child of Project 1A, will inherit dependencies from Project 1A only and the Dependencies of Project 1 will not be associated with Project 1A2.

Project Approval Plans

Project Approval Plans allow approvers within your organization to approve or reject users' submitted time, expense, and custom entries for specific projects. This type of Project Approval Plan based on projects can be used concurrently with Sheet Approval Plans that allow assigned approvers to approve/reject entire timesheets, expense sheets, and custom entry sheets. For example if a user has been assigned to a Sheet Approval Plan, his/her timesheets, expense sheets, or custom entry sheets will go through that approval process. If the user logs time, expenses, or custom entries to a project that has been assigned a Project Approval Plan, those entries will go through a separate project approval process. Hence it is possible to be part of two approval processes, one for the sheet and another for the project. However, keep in mind that if an approver rejects a time entry for a project, the sheet approver will be required to approve any changes. Likewise, when a sheet approver rejects a sheet, the project approver may be required to approve changes if they affect the project in question. It is possible to force rejection for all approvers on a level if a single approver on the level rejects. Please see the next paragraph for more details.

In order to implement a project approval process, a Project Approval Plan must first be created for the project. Within the Approval Plan, approvers must be assigned. When users submit their sheets containing time, expense, or custom entries against the project, the entries will enter the approval process and the designated approvers will have approval/rejection authority over the individual time, expense, and custom entries related to that project. This section specifically discusses creating Project Approval Plans. For more information about actually approving project entries, see the Approvals section of this manual.

Creating and Managing Project Approval Plans

Project Approval Plans can only be created for existing projects or after a new project has been saved. Once you have created a project, go to the main Projects screen located under Management-->Projects-->Project Management (see figure 18.1). To create a Project Approval Plan, you must first select the project to manage. Specify the search criteria for the project on the main Project screen and click the Search button. The search results will be displayed below the criteria. From the search results, click the name of the project you would like to create an Approval Plan for. This will direct you to the Project Modification screen where you can manage an Approval Plan by clicking the 'Modify Project Approval Settings' link in the Other Project Settings section (see figure 18.4). This will direct you to the Project Approval Plans screen (see figure 18.9).



Figure 18.9.Project Approval Plan Settings

The 'Currently Active' dropdown allows you to choose between 'yes' and 'no.' If you want the Approval Plan to take effect immediately, you should set this option to 'yes.' The 'no' option is provided as a way to turn off the approval plan if you should ever find a need to have that process disabled. Please note that if you turn an Approval Plan off, any records that are 'in process' at the time you disable the process will continue through to completion.

The dropdown labeled 'Should children inherit these settings' allows you to specify whether 'child' projects of this 'parent' project will inherit this Approval Plan when new 'child' projects are created. Keep in mind that this inheritance will only be applied to new 'child' projects at the time of creation. For existing 'child' projects to inherit these properties, you must click the Modify and Apply to Children button after setting up the Approval Plan.

The dropdown labeled 'Show approvers full sheet' allows you to specify whether approvers in the Approval Plan will be allowed to see a user's full timesheet, expense sheet, or custom entry sheet when he/she has logged hours, expenses, or custom entries to the project. Keep in mind that users may log time, expense, and custom entries to other unrelated projects. By selecting 'yes' to this dropdown, it will allow approvers to view all entries logged for the period. By selecting 'no', the system will only display to the approver entries that have been logged to this project.

Next, select the Primary Approver(s) and Backup Approver(s) for the Project Approval Plan. Selection of a Backup Approver is optional. An entry logged to the project will be directed to the Backup Approver only if the Primary Approver has not taken any action on the entry submitted for approval. The system allows you to select as many levels of Primary Approvers and Backup Approvers for each Approval Plan as you like. You may choose to select each Primary Approver by either the Username or Full Name. These dropdowns are dependent on one another, so as you select a name in one dropdown, the other will dynamically update itself. To add more approval levels to this Project Approval Plan, you must first save the Project Approval Plan by clicking the Modify button. Once saved, the screen will refresh allowing you to select an additional level of Approvers and Backup Approvers. To remove an approval level, simply check the respective Remove checkbox and click the Modify button. This will refresh the Project Approval Plan screen with the approvers having been removed.

To change the order of approvers within the Approval Plan, change the numbers in the Level text boxes to the left of each approver's name to reflect the new order of approvers. If you need to change only one approver level, you may use a decimal number to make the change.

When finished, you can click the Modify button to save changes. Alternatively, you can click the Modify and Apply to Children button if you wish for existing 'child' projects to inherit this Project Approval Plan.

Project Approval Plan Email Settings

Each Project Approval Plan has Email Settings associated with it. Email Settings is located in its own collapsible section (see figure 18.9 and 18.10). In order for Email Settings to be enabled for Project Approval Plans, you must have your mail server settings configured under Configuration-->System Settings-->Server and Email.



Figure 18.10.Project Approval Plan Email Settings

Within the Email Settings section of Approval Plans, you can view and manage the different emails that can be sent to approvers and users who have been assigned to the Approval Plan. The various Email Settings are detailed below.

User notification of rejection
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email to the user if his/her project entry has been rejected by any one of the approvers in this Project Approval Plan.

Other approver notification of rejection
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email to all other approvers when any single approver rejects a user's submitted project entry.

User notification of project approval
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email to the user that the project entry has been approved.

Approver notification of project submit
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email to the approvers when a user submits a project entry for approval.

Approver notification of project resubmit
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email to the approvers when a user resubmits a project entry that had been previously rejected.

Backup approver notification
When this email notification is enabled, the system will send an email at a specified point in time after a project entry has been submitted to, but not processed by, the primary approver associated with the Project Approval Plan. The entry will be placed in the backup approver's queue a specified number of days after the period has ended if a submitted entry has not been approved or rejected by the primary approver. The default is 1 day after the end of a period, though this value can be modified.

Email Log Options
The two email log options for each Approval Plan relate directly to the email log. The email log should generally only be used if you are having difficulties with the emails for this Approval Plan. Please enable these options only if instructed to do so by Journyx support.

The Email Setting fields for subject lines and messages accept plain text, HTML tags, and a selection of 'tricky tags' that pull information directly from the system database. The available tricky tags are given below along with the system information that the 'tricky tag' will display:

When finished, you can click the Modify button to save changes. Alternatively, you can click the Modify and Apply to Children button if you wish for existing 'child' projects to inherit this Project Approval Plan.

Clients

The Clients feature allows you to create hierarchical departments within a project that can be assigned percentage allocations. This can help you keep track of the amount of actual resources that particular organizations or departments within your company are utilizing as compared to what was allocated to those departments. Departments can also be referred to as Clients.

Clients can be managed only via the sitemap. Clients is located under Management-->Projects-->Clients on the sitemap. The first step in allocating percentages to Clients is to create the Clients themselves. To create a new Client, click the 'Create and Manage Clients' link on the main Clients screen (see figure 19.1). This will direct you to the Client Creation screen (see figure 19.2). You are able to create three Clients at a time. To create a new Client, specify the name, description, and parent. When finished, click the Create button. After a Client is created, you may create a new Sub-client and select the Client as the parent. This allows you to create tiers of Clients and Sub-clients.



Figure 19.1.Client and Project Allocations main page



Figure 19.2.Client creation

After creating Clients, you can allocate percentages to the Clients. To allocate percentages, click the 'Manage Project Cost Allocation Percentages' link on the main Clients screen (see figure 19.1 and 19.3). Keep in mind that the total allocation within a node of the hierarchy must total 100%. For example, if you have 3 Clients under root and you are allocating percentages to those Clients, the sum of the allocation to the three Clients must equal 100%.



Figure 19.3. Project Allocation

To view the full Client hierarchy, click the 'Show Client Tree' link on the main Clients screen (see figure 19.1 and 19.4). This will display the full hierarchy along with the name, description, and parent of each Client.



Figure 19.4. Client hierarchy

To view Clients that have not been allocated any percentages, click the 'Show Unallocated Clients' link on the main Clients screen (see figure 19.1 and 19.5). This will display a list of existing Clients that have not been allocated any percentages.



Figure 19.5. Unallocated projects