Table of Contents
2.2 Enable project invoice items
3.2 Close, archive and delete projects
3.3 Create transactions with projects
3.3.1 Create invoices with projects
3.3.2 Create journals with projects
3.3.3 Explain transactions with projects on the bank explain menu
3.4.1 Default projects on contacts
3.4.2 Default projects on bank import rules
1. Introduction
If you have cost centres, divisions, jobs or any type of projects within your business, you can use our project feature to help categorise invoices and transactions as appropriate.
For each project you create we generate a profit & loss report and a cash flow as you assign the project to transactions. You will also be able to generate a report which compares each project side by side.
The projects feature is only available on the 'Large' plan. You can view your subscription on the Home>Subscription menu.
2. Enable projects
Navigate to the Settings > Configure system > Toggle features menu.
Select the ‘Features’ tab on the left and use the slider button to enable ‘Projects’. This will then allow you to view the projects menu: Tools > Projects.
2.1 Enable project invoices
Allows you to create invoices with a different logo and contact details specific to a project. This can be used if you have different trading divisions or brands. The feature will open up new options when creating/editing a project.
Navigate to the Settings > Configure system > Toggle features menu.
Select the ‘Invoicing & expenses’ tab on the left and use the slider button to enable ‘Project invoices’.
2.2 Enable project invoice items
This option allows you to assign a project to a line item on invoices and journals.
The line item project will take priority over the global project on all reportsNavigate to the Settings > Configure system > Toggle features menu.
Select the ‘Invoicing & expenses’ tab on the left and use the slider button to enable ‘Project invoice items’.
3. Projects
Projects are managed on the Tools > Projects menu. With projects enabled you can assign them to invoices, bills, journals, quotes, purchase orders, credit notes and expenses. You can also assign them when explaining transactions on the bank explain menu.
Projects can also be defaulted on both contacts and bank import rules.
3.1 Create a project
Navigate to the Tools > Projects menu and click on the ‘Create Project’ button.
Details
Fill in the basic information of the project.
If you use the time tracking feature, you can link the project to a specific client (so that when creating a timesheet you can easily see which projects are assigned to a client).
Project Divisions
This set of options will only appear with the 'Project invoices' feature enabledThe details you add under the ‘Project Divisions’ header will update the contact details on the PDF version of invoices you create with this project assigned.
If you decide to use the ‘name on invoice’ option, the project name will appear on the PDF version of the invoice, replacing your organisation name.
If you decide to use the ‘project email address as default’ option, any emails you send for invoices with this project assigned, will use the from address specified here.
The project invoice logo will take priority over the organisation or invoice theme logoScheduling
Adding in scheduling details allows you to generate a report on the length of time a particular project ran for.
Once you have finished adding the appropriate details, click ‘Confirm’.
3.2 Close, archive and delete projects
You will only be able to delete projects that have not been assigned to any transactions. To do so head to the Tools > Projects menu and click on the delete icon (under the options column) for the appropriate project.
To update the status of a project as either closed or archived, head to the Tools > Projects menu and click on the edit icon (under the options column) for the appropriate project.
You can then update the status in the ‘Details’ section.
Open projects are listed in project fields when creating transactions. They are also listed on the Tools > Projects menu.
Closed projects are not listed in project fields when creating transactions. They are listed on the Tools > Projects menu.
Archived projects are not listed in project fields when creating transactions. They are also not listed on the Tools > Projects menu by default unless you use the check box to include them in the list.
3.3 Create transactions with projects
When creating transactions in Clear Books you can assign any open projects using the appropriate project fields. You will also be able to assign a ‘No project’ Below is a list of transaction types where projects can be added.
3.3.1 Create invoices with projects
The same project options shown below apply to sales invoices, bills, credit notes, expenses, purchase orders and quotes found under either the 'Sales' or 'Purchases' menus.
When creating an invoice you will be given the option to assign a project at the top, this is known as the global project (highlighted in red on the screenshot).
If you have the ‘project invoice line items’ feature enabled, you can also set a project for each line item you add (highlighted in blue on the screenshot) .
The line item project will take priority over the global project on all reportsYou can create new projects on the fly using the 'Add' link under the project field
3.3.2 Create journals with projects
Journals are created on the Tools > Journals > All journals menu.
When creating a journal you will be given the option to assign a project at the top, this is known as the global project (highlighted in red on the screenshot).
If you have the ‘project invoice line items’ feature enabled, you can also set a project for each line of the journal (highlighted in blue on the screenshot).
The line item project will take priority over the global project on all reports
3.3.3 Explain transactions with projects on the bank explain menu
Transactions are explained on the bank explain menu by either using the manage money options for a bank account on the Money > Bank accounts menu or by explaining an imported statement (found on the same menu).
The bank explain only allows you to set a global project when explaining a transaction.
To learn more about the bank explain menu click hereYou can create new projects on the fly using the plus icon beside the project field
3.4 Default projects
You can set default projects on some features which will mean that the project will be automatically set under the right conditions
3.4.1 Default projects on contacts
When creating a new contact or editing an existing one from the Contacts > Customers or Contacts > Suppliers menus, you can add a project on the 'Preset information' tab.
This means that when you select this contact on transactions, the project field will be automatically updated.
3.4.2 Default projects on bank import rules
When explaining transactions on the bank explain menu, bank import rules are used to help recognise transactions and automatically explain them. Within the bank import rule you can set a default project.
The default project on the bank import tool will take priority over the project set on contacts when explaining transactions on the bank explainYou can create your own bank import rules on the Money > Bank import rules menu.
To learn more about import rules click here4. Project reports
There are multiple project reports which get generated as and when you process transactions with projects assigned. The scheduled report is defined by the information added when creating/editing a project.
4.1 Profit & Loss
The profit & loss report is a duplicate of your business profit & loss, however, it is filtered by the transactions assigned to the project.
4.2 Cash Flow
The cash flow report is a duplicate of your business profit & loss, however, it is filtered by the transactions assigned to the project.
Project cash flow reports do not currently include invoices or bills which (a) have been itemised by more than one project; or (b) have payments allocated which are allocated to more than one invoice or bill. Therefore if you have an invoice or bill that falls into (a) or (b) the project cash flow report will be inaccurate.4.3 The project report
Within Clear Books, you will be able to create a Projects comparison report. This will outline all account codes used on the system used by Projects as well as allowing you to remove the Projects from the comparison. This guide shows you how to do that.
In order to have a Project comparison, you will need to ensure that you are assigning invoices and bills to Projects.
Navigate to Tools > Projects > Project report.
The report page will differ according to the number of Projects you are using. If you have many Projects, the table will need to be scrolled sideways.
You can use your own date range for the comparison. This can be a start and end date. Ensure that you reset this once you have finished looking at the selected dates.
Click on the monetary figures will allow you to generate a Reports > Popular reports > Transactions report with the relevant account code, dates and Project. This will allow you to drill down into each item and then open the invoices and bills as needed. The No Project column will run the same report but have the designation as no Project.
If you have too many Projects, you will be able to filter them down to specific Projects on Clear Books. This is done by the Show / Hide Columns drop-down whereby all Projects will be shown so you can remove them from the comparison report.
4.4 Scheduled report
The scheduled report shows how long a project has run for and the length of time it ran over any initially agreed completion date.
The scheduled report will generate based on the scheduling information added when creating/editing a project. You can update this information at any time by editing the project.
To view the report, head to the Tools > Projects menu and click on the ‘Scheduled projects’ link at the top.
