What the Projects module does
An introduction to project management in a2NSoft, from the first template to the closed project.
What the module is for
Projects is where you run work that has a customer, a budget, a schedule and a result. It covers the whole life of a project: you create it from a template, plan phases and tasks, set a budget, record time and expenses, buy materials, pay subcontractors, bill the customer, handle changes to the contract and finally close the project.
It is built for service companies, consultancies, software teams, installation and maintenance businesses, and contractors in construction and engineering. A small service job and a large fit-out use the same screens. The feature profile of each project decides which tabs it shows.
Who uses it
- Project managers create projects, plan the schedule, prepare budgets, bill and close.
- Project members work on tasks, log time and expenses, and record daily progress. They do not see costs or margins.
- Approvers (usually a manager other than the person who prepared the work) approve budgets, estimates, time, expenses, purchase requests, subcontract claims and change orders.
- Administrators set up project types, templates, cost codes and the company settings.
Key ideas
- Project 360 is the page of one project. It shows the header, eight key figures (contract value, budget, actual cost, committed cost, forecast cost, invoiced, collected and margin) and a row of tabs.
- Status moves along a fixed path: Planning, Approved, In Progress, On Hold, At Risk, Completed, Closed or Cancelled. A closed or cancelled project is read-only.
- Cost codes group cost into Labor, Material, Equipment, Subcontract, Expenses and Overhead, and are the rows of the budget.
- Committed cost is money you have promised to spend (approved purchase requests, confirmed purchase orders, active subcontracts). Actual cost is money already spent. The system reads actual cost from the ledger, it does not keep its own copy.
- Maker and checker. The person who prepares a budget, a time entry, an expense, a purchase request, a subcontract claim or a change order cannot approve it. Somebody else with the right permission must.
- Revenue recognition is chosen per project: on invoice, milestone, percentage of completion, cost to cost or manual.
How it connects to other modules
- Sales and Finance: the customer is a normal customer. Project invoices are ordinary customer invoices that carry the project, branch, department and cost centre. Revenue, retention and advances post to the project accounts you set in Project Settings.
- Purchasing: an approved purchase request becomes a draft purchase order. Subcontract claims become draft vendor bills.
- HR: team members can be employees; leave blocks days in the resource heatmap; the employment contract supplies a cost rate when none is set.
- Documents and notices: project documents keep revisions. Approvers and managers receive notices when something waits for them.
Where to go next
Read Set up Projects for the first time, then Create a project from a template.