What Are Projects?

Projects are a great way to collaborate with Clients and your Team Members inside your FreshBooks account. It's also helpful for communicating with your Clients beyond Invoices - you can review all time tracked from you and your Team Members, as well as see all Invoices and Expenses associated with a specific Project.

Create a Project

There are multiple ways to create a new Project: 
  • Go to the Projects section and click on the New Project button
  • Go to the Clients section, click on a Client, then click on the Projects sub-tab and select the + button (this will create a Project assigned to this Client)
  • Go to the Estimates section, check the box off next to any Estimate or Proposal and select Convert to Project
 
Select whether you want Flat Rate Project or Hourly Project (see here if you're not sure which Project Type to choose), then you can customize your new Project:
New project with fields to fill out and options to select.
Here's what you can customize in your Project: 
 

Project Details

  • Project Members - In the top left corner, click on the + symbol to add existing Team Members or invite new ones, as well as assign a Project Manager
  • Assign a Client - In the top right corner, click to assign a Client or Internal Client to the Project
  • Project Name - Enter a name for your Project, up to 255 characters
  • Project Description - Enter a brief description of the Project, up to 750 characters
  • End Date - In the bottom right corner, you can put in an end date or deadline for your Project 
  • Total Hours - If needed, add a budget to track the estimated time for this Project
  • Flat Rate - If you select Flat Rate Project as your Project Type, indicate the rate you'd like to charge for this Project
  • Services - Add or remove Services you'd like to use for tracking time (or set up your default services to apply automatically to every new project with the steps here)
 

Project Settings

    • Project Type - Choose between Flat Rate Project (always bill a flat rate regardless of how much time is tracked) or Hourly Project (to charge by a specific rate instead)
    • Estimate Type - If you have Project Profitability, and the Project is not an Internal Client, choose between:
      • Total Hours - Track how much time can be allocated to the Project itself
      • Hours Per Service - Track how much time can be allocated to each Service 
    • Set Billable Rates - If Hourly Project is chosen as the type, choose between Single Hourly RateTeam Member Rates or Service Rates for this Project - read more about what each Billing Rate does here
    • Set Cost Rates - If you have Project Profitability, choose the Cost Rate for your Team
    • Set Expense Markup - If you have Project Profitability, choose the Expense Markup for any Expenses assigned to this Project
    • Apply Time to Retainer - If the Client has any active Retainers, choose whether time entries from this Project also apply towards the Retainer
 

Project Overview

Any Project's details can be viewed by going to the Projects section and clicking on any Project. You’ll be on the Project review tab by default:
Project overview showing details on project.
In the Review section, under the Hours Logged tab, you can find the below information:
  • Project Folder - All assigned Project Team Members are displayed with their icons (or initials), along with the Project Name, the Client the Project is assigned to, and an End Date for the Project if specified
  • Project Services - Lists all Services assigned to this Project
  • Hours Logged - Choose between By Team Member, By Service or By Status for a quick snapshot and hover over each bar for details
  • Remaining in Budget - The remaining budgeted hours left (if specified) - this is also displayed as the total number of hours next to the Project when viewing your list of Projects
  • Unbilled Time - The remaining time entries that have yet to be billed onto an Invoice
  • Unbilled Expenses - The remaining value of Expenses that have yet to be rebilled onto an Invoice
  • X Days Until Due - If a Project End date is specified, the number of days remaining will be displayed

To learn more about the Profitability tab, click here.

Clicking on the More Actions button will allow you to either:
  • Generate Invoice - When you’re ready to bill the Client, an Invoice will be generated with all Project-related time entries automatically added for you based on the Billing Method chosen
  • Duplicate - Quickly copy an existing Project and modify the new one as needed
  • Archive - If the Project is completed and you/your team no longer needs to track time to it, archive the Project to move it into view-only in your archived list of Projects
  • Delete - Use this to move the Project to the deleted folder
Anytime you need to edit the Project, click on the Edit button in the top right corner.
 
Below the Project overview are a set of tabs that allow you to easily see all of your Project’s information in one place:
Project overview showing time tracking, invoices, expenses, services and reports sub-tabs.
  • Time Tracking - See all time entries, including your Team Member’s logged that are assigned to this Project only
  • Invoices - See all Invoices containing your Project’s billed time entries only, including manually assigned Invoices
    • Full Amount total includes non-Project related Items (unless also added to Invoice when generating from Project) and Sales Taxes
  • Expenses - See all Expenses assigned to your Project only
  • Services - See all Services assigned to your Project, click on the Total Hours next to any Service for a list of Time Entries making up that total
  • Reports - Quickly view the Time Entry Details Report, Expense Report, Profitability Summary Report and Profitability Details Report with filters set to this specific Project
 

Discuss & Collaborate on Projects

You can collaborate on any Project by sharing files, attachments or comments with your Client and Team Members. Everything is stored inside the project for easy reference anytime you need it. Just do the following:
  1. Go the Projects section
  2. Click on a Project
  3. Then click on the discuss tab at the top. 
    Discussion section of a project.
In the Discuss tab, you and all invited Project members (like your Team Members and Client) can post and see each other's posts of:
  • Comments
  • Files - images, gifs, PDFs, documents, spreadsheets (50 MB per file, up to 40 files per post)
  • Links
Note: Any posts made are permanently saved to the Project discussion with no option to delete afterwards.
 

FAQs

How do I manage my Projects?
From the Projects section, hover over any Project to quickly perform any of these actions:

Quick actions bar with five buttons over a Project row.
  • Edit - Click on the pencil icon and you’ll be taken to the edit screen of the Project where you can adjust and save afterwards
  • Duplicate - Click on the two papers icon to copy an existing Project and modify the new one as needed
  • Generate Invoice - Click on the invoice icon to generate an Invoice for that Project
  • Archive - Click on the box icon to move the Project to your Archived Projects list
  • Delete - Click on the trash can icon to delete the Project. You can view all deleted Projects by clicking on the deleted link at the bottom of the list
 
How do I add people to my Project?
To add people to your Project, follow these steps: 
  1. Go to the Projects section
  2. For existing Projects, click on it, then click on the Edit button
  3. For a new Project, click on the New Project button
  4. Click on the + symbol under Team Members in the top left
    1. Select your Team Members by using either:
    2. The Select All checkbox
    3. Individually checking off boxes next to the Team Member(s)
    4. The Search field and/or Filter by Role option to check off specific boxes
    5. Then click on the Save or Update Team Members button to send the invites.
  5. Or use the Invite an Employee/Invite a Contractor button to invite a new one
    1. Type in the person's email address in the To: field
    2. Feel free to write a personal message or leave it blank, then click on the Send Invitation button
    3. The invitation will then be emailed, and the recipient can accept it to have access to the Project.
Note: If you add a Client to a Project, they will only be able to see the Discuss tab. If a Client needs to see time tracked so far, you can either send them an Invoice with the time entries, or run a Time Entry Details report filtered to that Client/Project.


How do I remove people from my Project? 


You can remove team members from your Project with the below steps:
  1. Go to the Projects section on the left side
  2. Click on the Project you want to edit
  3. Then click on the Edit button
  4. Click on the + symbol under Team Members in the top left
  5. Uncheck the box next to any existing Team Member
  6. Click Done and any unselected Team Members will be removed from the Project.
 
How do I change the Client on a Project?
  1. Go to the Projects section on the left side
  2. Click on the Project you want to change the Client for
  3. Then click on the Edit button
  4. Click over the Client's name and select Change Client
  5. Choose the new Client
  6. Click Save.
Note: If you have time entries already billed on an Invoice belonging to the original Client, the Invoice will not change Clients and remain as is. Both billed and unbilled time entries will be reassigned to the new Client.

If the original Client has a Retainer, time entries will be removed from the retainer and reassigned to the new Client instead. If the new Client has a Retainer as well, the time entries from the old Client's Retainer will move to the new Client's Retainer.