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.
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
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 Rate, Team Member Rates or Service Rates for this Project - read more about what each Billing Rate does here
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:
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:
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:
Go the Projects section
Click on a Project
Then click on the discuss tab at the top.
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:
Edit - Click on the pencilicon 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 canicon 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:
Go to the Projects section
For existing Projects, click on it, then click on the Edit button
For a new Project, click on the New Project button
Click on the + symbol under Team Members in the top left
Select your Team Members by using either:
TheSelect Allcheckbox
Individually checking off boxes next to the Team Member(s)
TheSearchfield and/orFilter by Roleoption to check off specific boxes
Then click on theSaveorUpdate Team Membersbutton to send the invites.
Or use the Invite an Employee/Invite a Contractor button to invite a new one
Type in the person's email address in the To: field
Feel free to write a personal message or leave it blank, then click on the Send Invitation button
The invitation will then be emailed, and the recipient can accept it to have access to the Project.
You can remove team members from your Project with the below steps:
Go to the Projects section on the left side
Click on the Project you want to edit
Then click on the Edit button
Click on the + symbol under Team Members in the top left
Uncheck the box next to any existing Team Member
Click Done and any unselected Team Members will be removed from the Project.
How do I change the Client on a Project?
Go to the Projects section on the left side
Click on the Project you want to change the Client for
Then click on the Edit button
Click over the Client's name and select Change Client
Choose the new Client
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.
