Project: Project Workflows: Basic Project Workflow
Purpose
This document will outline the basic workflow for using the Odoo Projects app to manage tasks within your company. The project app provides a kanban view with customizable stages, email capability, and several options to fine-tune your workflows and track progress and timesheets per employee. Projects can be assigned to a partner and even a specific sale order if required.
Good to Know!
There's a module for that!
For companies with a project-driven sales structure, Hibou has created the Project Stage module that adds stages to manage the flow of their projects, similar to task stages. It also provides color-coding and a tagging structure for projects based on the stage.
See our Project Stage module in the Suite for more information!
Process
To get started, Navigate to the Projects application.
Creating a new Project
To create a new project, select create from the top of the window. You will presented with the Create a Project modal window.
Project Name: The title of the Project.
Allow Forecast: If selected, this will enable you to create an estimate of the time needed to complete the project and the desired work hours, which can be scheduled per task.
Allow Timesheets: If selected, this option will allow your employees to create timesheets directly on a task and this data will be rolled into the Project overview for invoicing and reporting purposes. Timesheets will also be logged in the Timesheets app.
Choose a Project Email: Creating a project email is a quick way to capture new information from your team and your clients. Emails sent to this address will appear as new tasks in the first stage of the Project for assessment and assignation.
Once done, select create.
Good to Know
Note that it is also possible to create a new project, or a task within a project, when selling a service type product. To configure Service products, see our Creating Tasks From Products documentation.
The project will open with the first Column blank, waiting for a title. Add as many stages as you'd like to organize the tasks. Once created, the columns can be rearranged as needed, but tasks will typically flow left to right as they progress through the stages.
To add a task to the first column, click the symbol in the top right corner. A draft task modal will appear directly in the column that can be used for quick additions to the project. If the task requires more information than displayed below, title the task and click Edit.
The task creation record will allow you to edit the following fields:
Title: A short title will serve best in this field, describing the task.
Project: This field will pre-fill with the project you're working in. If creating a task from scratch, assign it to a project here.
Assigned To: Select the person responsible for completing the task.
Deadline: Set a deadline for the task to be completed.
Tags: For ease of filtering, assign or create any relevant tags in your Odoo Database.
You can prioritize the task by clicking the star next to the title. This task will move to the top of the column ahead of other tasks. To the right of the title is a grey status indicator that can be used to signal whether the task is ready for the next stage (green), or blocked and needing attention (red).
If you have subtasks configured, this record can become a parent task where other tasks are allocated for tracking purposes. All tasks will appear in the columns in the kanban, so it is good practice to favorite parent tasks to keep them in sight as the project grows.
Click Save before adding subtasks.
Once your record is saved, click the Sub-Tasks smart button in the top right corner to add lower-level tasks to this record and assign as needed.
Above the smart button, you will see the task's current stage highlighted in blue, and can quickly move it to any of the others by clicking on the stage you want to move it to.
If timesheets and forecasting are configured, employees can log time under the Timesheets tab.
Planned hours allow you to set the time needed to complete the parent task and any subtasks. Once your planned hours are set, you and your employees can log your time to keep the progress reporting accurate.
Users can select ADD A LINE to log their time along with a short description of the work that they’ve done. Once logged, be sure to hit SAVE before leaving this tab to retain your work.
Tasks can be moved manually by dragging them through your kanban stages or editing the stage from within the task record. The Project overview will look something like this:
