Posts tagged "Projects"27 posts

Quick Search Feature in Every Project

Posted May 10, 2012

Each project has a built-in search feature to help you find anything you need quickly. The search is available in multiple project sections such as Tasks, Timecards, and Tickets. To use the search, simply click the hourglass on the grey filter bar and type what you are looking for. After hitting enter on your keyboard, it will filter to all items that include your search query. You can also use the advanced search by selecting the Entire Project option as shown below.

By using the advanced search, you can find data across your entire project in seconds. It shows results for your search query across all sections on the project. You can also filter to any specific section from the grey filter bar.

If you click on a search result, it will take you directly to that item. You can also apply an additional filter to only show the search results that apply to a specific user on the project.

The search option is also included on the global Projects Page to let you easily filter your project list. This feature provides a simple way to quickly find anything you need in your project management tool.

Quick Tip: Online Project Management Tracking with RSS Feeds

Posted April 19, 2012

A simple way to track the latest activity on your projects is by using the RSS feeds. Each project in Projecturf includes an RSS feed which you can copy into the RSS reader of your choice. You will see all activity that occurs on the project in your RSS feed based on your permissions for that project. It shows the project history similar to the Dashboard section with the date and time of the activity and a link to each item. It also displays the details of the item such as who posted the update, the participants, if it's private, any comments, when it's due, etc.

Using the RSS feed, you can track all activity including when tasks and tickets are marked complete, a new document is uploaded, designs are approved by a client, discussions are created, Timecard entries are marked paid, and when a Whiteboard is updated - just to name a few. Here is an example of a recent event that was created and shows up in the feed:

To access an RSS feed, simply navigate to the Global Projects page and click on the actions panel to the right of the project name you want to track. Then copy the feed to paste into your RSS reader. There is a separate feed for each project, which is easily identified by the project name in the RSS reader.

There are many options when choosing how to view your RSS feeds. You can easily add them to your email client such as Outlook or Mac Mail, bookmark them in your internet browser such as Safari, or use any RSS reader. Some popular RSS readers for tracking your feeds include Google Reader, Feed Demon for Windows, and NetNewsWire for your Mac.

Easily Track Tasks in Your Project Management Software

Posted April 5, 2012

Each project in Projecturf includes a Tasks section for creating tasks and subtasks and assigning them to staff members, clients, and managers on the project. After assigning tasks to users and setting due dates, you can easily track when tasks are completed, changed, or become overdue. To get notified of new tasks, completed tasks, and when tasks are edited, you can use the Dashboard section to view latest activity, subscribe to the Daily Progress Report email, use the RSS feeds, or allow email notifications for updates. When a task becomes late, the end date automatically turns red to notify you it is overdue as shown below.

When viewing your task lists, you can use the built-in filters to view tasks by person and to view incomplete or completed tasks. You can also use the quick sorting options to see them in the order you prefer as described here. These filters and sorting options let you quickly see the tasks that are due today, tasks that were completed, and the tasks that have upcoming deadlines for each person on the project.

You can also view and track the task lists across all projects from the Global Tasks section. If you want to see the overall workloads for each person, the Reports section includes a Global Task Assignment report for easily managing resources.

Another useful tool to get a quick overview of all tasks on your project is the Project Completion Report, which displays the status of every task and subtask (overdue tasks are also shown in red here), the due date, duration, who's responsible, and % complete. This report can be filtered and sorted based on your preferences. Visit this previous blog post to learn more about using the Project Completion Report in your project management tool.

Quick Tip: Inviting Users to Your Project Management Tool

Posted March 30, 2012

To invite people to register with your Projecturf account, just simply add them to a project. Once you add them to a project, they will receive the registration email to sign up. Before adding users to a project, you can get started by entering or uploading your contacts to your Address Book. Note that adding users to the Address Book will not send them the registration email. Users from your Address Book can easily be added to a project from the Project Settings page as shown here:

The Address Book is a great way to store your contacts and organize them into groups. This allows you to upload and store as many contacts as you'd like in your Address Book without emailing them all at once and also gives you the flexibility to send out registration emails only to users you will invite to a project.

You can also add users to the project from the Contacts section in the project. Adding someone in the Contacts section will send out the registration email as well.

To learn more about adding users to your project management application, we have outlined this topic in greater detail in the help center. If you prefer video tutorials you can watch the Getting Started video here.

Quick Tip: Easily Sort Your Project Data

Posted March 26, 2012

Projecturf offers several different ways to view and find data in a project and across all of your projects. This includes using data filters, activity dashboards, search bars, global views, reports, calendars, Gantt chart schedules, and simple sorting - to name a few. Having these tools allows you to see how your projects are progressing, find things quickly, and to easily manage workloads and update your project plans.

You can easily view data based on your preferences. A simple and useful tool to quickly view your project data in the order you wish to see it in is sorting. Most of the sections in Projecturf include column headings and you can click any heading to sort. For example, if you want to see a task list across all your projects sorted based on when they are due, just click the end date column heading for a quick sort from the Global Tasks section. You can also apply filters before sorting to refine your results. For instance, you can choose filters to show a specific user's tasks and only their unfinished tasks. After applying your filters, simply click a column heading to sort the data. You can also print your lists from your web browser.

The same sorting capabilities apply in the other sections of your project management app such as Timecards, Tickets, Documents, and Whiteboards. Each section in Projecturf has it's own custom column headings based on the relevant functionality for that section. As an example, in the Timecard section you can sort by amount to view the largest entries first or vice versa. This makes it easy to find what you need when you are tracking progress and jumping between projects and sections.

Simple Time Tracking in Every Project

Posted March 13, 2012

Each project in Projecturf includes a built-in timer for tracking your billable and non-billable hours. When you are working on a project, you can start the timer by going to the Timecard section and clicking the play button on the top right of the navigation bar. You can also pause, restart, and reload the timer as needed.

Once the timer has been started, it will remain running even if you jump between sections and projects. The timer icon will always be shown on the left side of the project tab when you have an active timer running in a project and you can run multiple timers at the same time. The timer will continue running until you pause or reload it, even if you logout of your account.

You can easily add your recorded time to a project by clicking the plus button and choosing Grab From Timer from within the Timecard section.

If you wish to add time to a task or ticket, just do a quick search for your task / ticket when entering your time and select it. Once your time is added, the dollars are automatically calculated for you based on your hourly rate. Hours and dollars entered as billable are tracked against the project budget at the bottom of the Timecard section (this is only viewable by project managers). Project managers can see everyone's timecard entries whereas staff members and clients can only view their own. You can learn more about the time tracking capabilities in the Projecturf support center.

Quick Tip: Copy All Tasks, Subtasks, and Events

Posted February 9, 2012

Instead of starting from scratch when setting up new projects, you can easily utilize what you've already created on other projects. When creating a new project, you can copy over all of your tasks and subtasks, calendar events, document folders, and contacts from an existing project. This is extremely useful when you need to have the same tasks or events on multiple projects. You can also choose a different start date for the new project, which will automatically shift the dates on all of your tasks, subtasks, and calendar events. This is done for you so that you won't have to manually update the dates for each item. When the dates shift, the task and event start dates will also skip weekends if they did not originally begin on a weekend.

To duplicate a project, simply select an existing project from the Choose Template drop down menu when adding a new project. Set a start date and give your new project a name. You can learn more about how project templates work by clicking here. Now get started on your project with all your tasks, subtasks, document folders, contacts, and project settings pre-populated!

Use Version Control with Your Project Documents

Posted December 9, 2011

Each project in Projecturf includes a Documents section to centralize all your files. When uploading a document, you can set permissions by checking off the names. Anyone given permission can upload a new version of the file. This is a simple way to keep track of all revisions and always have the latest file available. This also eliminates the need to email files back and forth or spend your time searching for the latest one. To use this feature, click on the action panel to the right of the file name and select "new version" from the drop down list. Once you've uploaded a new version, it will display the most recent document with the prior versions indented below it. You will have access to all previous versions and see who uploaded them. Visit the support center to learn more about file versioning.

Also, If you need to have a discussion about the file or have someone update it, you can collaborate on it by starting a discussion when adding the document. This can also be done from the Discussions section and users can reply quickly via email.

Easily Manage Projects using the Project Completion Report

Posted November 23, 2011

Projecturf makes managing your projects simple. Each of your projects has a Project Completion Report which allows you to quickly view the progress being made at any time. This report pulls all of your task data together in a presentable format to give you an overview of your project. It includes all of your tasks and subtasks, responsible persons, the status, duration, due dates, and percent complete for each task (as shown in the screenshot below). It can also be customized to show a specific time period and to only display tasks for a specific person.

This report has various sorting options for easily getting your desired output and also includes basic project statistics such as percent complete of the entire project and the overall status of your tasks. By having this information at your fingertips, you can monitor your projects, provide clients or co-workers with a status report, follow up on incomplete or late tasks, and shift responsibilities based on workloads. The Project Completion Report is a very useful tool which helps you stay focused on getting things done.

How to Manage Your Email Notifications

Posted November 18, 2011

There are several ways to track updates and changes on your projects in Projecturf. Some of the ways to track these updates include the project and global dashboards which show the latest activities on your projects, the Daily Progress Reports, RSS feeds, and email notifications. If you want to cut back on the number of emails you receive or find using methods other than email more useful, then you can easily turn them off for any or all sections. In this short video tutorial, you will see how to quickly turn email notifications on and off for each project section. If the My Alerts option is not available for a project, then notifications were turned off at the project level for all users by a project manager.