Projects

Projects is a light project manager for the work you do for clients. Install it from Plugins > Add New. It needs WHBMP 2.33.0 or newer. Staff need the Projects area on their role (Settings > Security & Roles).

Create a project

Open Projects in the admin menu and click New Project. Give it a name and, if you like, a client, a status (Open, In Progress, On Hold, Completed, Cancelled), a due date, an hourly rate (used when you invoice time), the staff assigned and a description. A client's own projects are also on the Projects tab of their profile, which has a New Project button that already has the client chosen.

The project page

The yellow strip at the top shows the name, when it was created, the due date, who it is assigned to, the client, the status and when it was last updated. Its buttons:

• Start Timer starts counting time on the project (it becomes Stop Timer with the running time). Only one timer runs per person: starting another stops the first.
• Add Comment takes you to the Messages tab.
• Watching switches on or off the emails about this project for you, even if you are not assigned to it.
• Edit and Delete.

Tasks

Type a task, choose who it is for and when it is due, and click Add Task. The heading shows how many tasks there are and how many are completed. Each task has a check circle to tick it off, a person chip and a due-date chip (green while it is coming, red once it is past, for example 3 days ago or 4 days), a pencil to edit it and a bin to delete it.

On the right:

• Assign To: drag a staff name onto a task to assign it.
• Due Date: pick a date, then drag Drag this date onto a task to set its due date.
• Task Templates: Save Task List saves the names of this project's tasks under a name; Import Tasks adds a saved list to this project (tasks only, no people or dates).
• Hide Completed hides the ticked tasks from the list.

A person given a task becomes part of the project's staff. They get an email when a task is assigned to them, another when it is due within two days and another when it is overdue (once each, sent daily at 08:00 by projects:send-reminders).

Messages

A group thread: the client and every staff member on the project (assigned or watching) can read and write in it. Each post is emailed to everyone else in the thread, never to its author. A counter on the tab shows how many messages there are.

Time Tracking

Start the timer on the whole project or on one task, or add time by hand (date, hours, minutes, task, note). The table shows who logged what, and whether the time is already invoiced. Time that is already invoiced cannot be deleted.

Tickets

Type a support ticket number and click Link Ticket to list it on the project. Unlink removes only the link.

Billing

Shows billed and unbilled time and the unbilled amount (at the project's hourly rate). Invoice this time makes one draft invoice with a line for each unbilled finished entry and opens it for you to review; nothing is sent to the client until you send it. Each time entry can be billed once only. The project needs a client and an hourly rate. You can also link any existing invoice by its number.

Files

Upload a file (up to 20 MB: documents, spreadsheets, images, zip). Files are stored privately and are downloaded through the project, and the client can download them too. A counter on the tab shows how many files there are.

Log

An automatic history of who did what: changes to the project, tasks, messages, time, links and files.

What the client sees

A Projects item appears in the client area menu while the plugin is active. The client sees their own projects only: the details, the tasks (read-only), the files, and the Messages tab where they can reply. They never see time entries, rates or invoices linked by staff.

Emails

The plugin adds a Projects Email group to Settings > Email Templates with: Task Assigned, Task Due Soon, Task Overdue, New Message (to staff and to the client), Project Status Changed (staff and client) and Project Completed (staff and client). Edit them like any other template; the merge fields are listed under Project in the editor.

Turning it off

Deactivating the plugin hides the menu items, the client profile tab and the email group. Nothing is deleted; reactivate it and everything is back.