3.4. Working with projects

3.4.1. About projects

Fanurio uses projects to help you organize work, expenses, trips and products you might want to sell to your clients. Internal projects can be marked as non-billable.

Projects have a set of properties that you can use to manage them better:

  • Client: The client for whom the project is created.

  • Name: The name of the project.

  • Description: A description of what the project is about.

  • Number [optional]: A number that you can use to identify the project. Project numbers can be generated automatically.

  • Reference [optional]: A reference number that you can use to link your project with an external project.

  • Tags [optional]: A list of zero or more tags separated by commas. Tags can help you organize projects.

  • Start Date: The date when the project has been started or will start (today by default).

  • Due Date [optional]: The date when the project is expected to be finished.

  • Finished: Whether the project is finished or not.

  • Finished Date: The date when the project was finished. This date can only be set when a project is marked as finished.

  • Notes: Additional notes.

  • Billable: Whether the project is billable or not. If a project is marked as billable, it has a few more fields that define the default billing settings for tasks, expenses and trips.

Here's how to create, edit or delete a project.

  • To create a project, go to Business » New Project or click the New Project button from the toolbar.

  • To edit a project, right-click it (control-click on Mac OS X) and select Edit Project from the popup menu.

  • To delete a project, right-click it (control-click on Mac OS X) and select Delete Project from the popup menu.

You can also create a project whenever creating a task, an expense or a trip by using the New link next to the Project field.

3.4.2. Choosing a projects view

Fanurio has two project views that allow you to see and manage your projects but only one view can be active at one moment.

  • The tree view shows projects grouped by client in a tree and it's the default view. This view is recommended to users who don't have to manage many clients and projects.

  • The table view shows projects in a table. This view is recommended to users who need to manage many projects. The projects table can show many project details and it allows projects to be searched.

The active project view can be changed from the menu by accessing View » View Projects as Tree or View » View Projects as Table.

3.4.2.1. The projects tree view

The tree view is used by default and it's recommended to users who don't have to manage many clients and projects. The tree view can be enabled from the menu using View » View Projects as Tree.

This is a rather simple view that shows projects grouped by client in a tree on the left while on the right it shows the contents of the selected project. To help you distinguish between active and inactive clients but also between finished and unfinished projects, Fanurio paints inactive clients and finished projects in gray.

The gears button below the projects tree allows you to configure which clients and projects are displayed in the projects tree. You can use the following filters:

  • client status (any, active, active with unfinished projects, not active) and

  • project status (any, finished, not finished).

The "active with unfinished projects" filter shows only active clients that have ongoing (unfinished) projects. This filter can be very helpful if you have many active clients but only a few ongoing projects.

3.4.2.2. The projects table view

The table view is more complex than the tree view and it shows more details about both clients and projects. The table view can be enabled from the menu using View » View Projects as Table.

This view has three areas:

  • The clients list is displayed on the left,

  • The projects table is displayed on the right at the top and

  • The contents of the current project is displayed on the right at the bottom.

When a client is selected in the clients list, its projects are displayed on the right in the projects table. Then when a project is selected in the projects table, it is displayed at the bottom.

The clients list has an entry for All Clients that lets you see all projects from all clients. The clients list displays the contact name under the client name and the number of ongoing (not finished) projects on the right.

The gears button below the clients list allows you to configure which clients are displayed in the clients list. You can filter clients by their status (any, active, active with unfinished projects, not active). The "active with unfinished projects" filter shows only active clients that have ongoing (unfinished) projects. This filter can be very helpful if you have many active clients but only a few ongoing projects.

The projects table is what makes this view very useful to people who need to see many details about their projects. The table can display all the fields of a project (name, number, start date, etc) and totals (time, distance, expenses, billable total, etc). Not all columns are visible by default so you may want to right-click the table header to choose the ones that make sense to you. See this section to learn how you can search and filter projects from the projects table.

3.4.3. Configuring optional fields

Because projects have many fields and because not all fields are relevant to all users, you can hide optional fields that you don't use. Optional project fields are fields that can be hidden in the project windows (New Project or Edit Project). Here's how you can configure them:

  1. Create a new project (New Project) or edit an existing one (Edit Project).

  2. Click the Configure button from the bottom-left corner.

  3. Check the fields that you want to be visible and uncheck the ones that you want to hide.

  4. Click Done. Fanurio will update the project window to show only selected fields.

For instance, one of the optional fields is Reference. This field only makes sense if projects recorded in Fanurio are linked to external projects that have their own number.

3.4.4. Numbering projects automatically

Automatic project numbering is disabled by default but can be enabled from Business » My Business Details+Projects+Project numbering.

To generate a project number automatically, Fanurio needs a counter and a number format. The number format can be something simple like counter on three or more digits (eg 001, 0001, 00001) or something more complex that involves prefixes, sufixes and dates.

Fanurio uses the Freemarker syntax for the number format, the same syntax used for the templates. Here are a few number formats that assume the counter is 1 (one) and the year is 2020.

Table 3.4. Project number formats

Name Number Format Sample Number

Four-digit numbers

To use more digits in your format, just add more zeros.

${counter?string("0000")} 0001

Fixed prefix format

This format builds on the previous one by adding the ABC- prefix. Please note that it's important to put the prefix outside ${...}.

ABC-${counter?string("0000")} ABC-0001

Date prefix format

This format uses a variable prefix that changes with the year. The date prefix is generated by the expression ${.now?string("yy")}. If you need to display the whole year use ${.now?string("yyyy")} instead. The text "yyyy" represents the date pattern used to format the date which uses the Java date format syntax.

${.now?string("yy")}-${counter?string("0000")} 20-0001

3.4.5. Billing projects

Projects can be billable or non-billable. If you don't need to create invoices for a project (for instance if it's an internal project), you should edit it and mark it as non-billable.

  • If a project is non-billable, it can only record non-billable elements (tasks, expenses or trips). You can't create invoices for non-billable projects.

    A non-billable project can be changed to billable only if it belongs to a billable client.

  • If a project is billable, its elements (tasks, expenses or trips) are billable by default but you can mark them as non-billable if needed. Also, billable projects can manage products that you may want to bill to your clients. Products can only be added to billable projects.

    A billable project cannot be changed to non-billable if it has been invoiced or if it has at least one product. If a billable project is changed from billable to non-billable, all its tasks, expenses and trips are changed to non-billable.

If a project is billable, you can specify default billing settings for its tasks, expenses and trips in the Billing section. These settings are used when a new element is created for that project.

For instance, you can specify a default hourly rate and a default rule for rounding time. Each time a new task is created, it will have the default rate and rounding specified at project level. If you decide to change these settings at project level, existing tasks will not be altered.

3.4.6. Duplicating a project

If you need to create a new project that's similar to an old one, you can simply create a copy of the old project. Just right-click the old project (control-click on Mac OS X) and select Duplicate Project.

Fanurio will create a new project with the same list of tasks and products. Expenses and trips are not copied because it's unlikely that two projects have the same expenses and trips.

3.4.7. Hiding finished projects

Knowing which projects are finished and which aren't can be of great help when you only want to deal with one kind of projects. If you want to focus on your current work, you can choose to see only unfinished projects. But if you want to go over past projects, you can choose to see only finished projects.

To change the finished state of a project, right-click (control-click on Mac OS X) a project and mark it as finished or unfinished. To hide finished projects:

  • Tree view: click the small gears button below the projects tree and select Unfinished.

  • Table view: use the Status filter above the projects table and select Unfinished.

Please note that you cannot invoice finished projects and you cannot record time (manually or using the timer) for its tasks.

3.4.8. Using tags to organize projects (table view only)

When creating or editing a project, you can associate one or more tags with it in the Tags field that have to be separated by commas (eg: tag1,tag2,tag3). Tags provide a simple way of recording additional information about a project like type or status to help you organize your projects. Please note that Tags is an optional field that you have to enable.

Once you have one or more projects with tags, you can then filter them in the table view. Just click the small arrow icon from the search field to tell it that you want to search by tags. Then type the name of the tag that you want to search for. The tree view doesn't show project tags.

3.4.9. Searching and filtering projects (table view only)

The projects table available in the table view has a set of filters at the top that allow you to choose which projects are visible. For instance, you can use the filters to see overdue projects that were started last year. Projects can be filtered by:

  • start date,

  • status (any, finished, not finished, overdue) and

  • billing status (any, billable, not billable).

Once you set these filters, the table footer will display totals for all visible projects. The table can also be filtered using a search field that can search by:

  • name,

  • number,

  • reference,

  • description,

  • tags and

  • notes.

3.4.10. Exporting projects in the iCalendar format

iCalendar is the standard Internet format for exchanging calendar information. iCalendar is used and supported by a large number of products, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Reminders (formerly iCal), Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Calendar and the Lightning extension for Mozilla Thunderbird.

Follow these steps to export a project as an iCalendar file (.ics):

  1. Go to the Projects view.

  2. Right-click the project that you want to export and select Export Project to iCalendar... from the popup menu.

The exported calendar contains to-dos (VTODO items created from tasks) and events (VEVENT items created from time entries). However, not all applications are able to import both types of items because not all of them are 100% compatible with the iCalendar format. Most applications can import events but only some of them can import to-dos.

Table 3.5. iCalendar compatibile products

Product VEVENT (time entries) VTODO (tasks)
Lightning extension for Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes
Apple Reminders No Yes
Apple Calendar Yes No
Google Calendar Yes No
Microsoft Outlook Yes No
Yahoo! Calendar Yes No

Here are two scenarios where exporting a project as an iCalendar file might be helpful.

Scenario 1: Share a project with a client using Apple Calendar and Reminders

OS X (10.8 and later) has two applications that can import iCalendar files: Calendar and Reminders (formerly iCal). Apple Calendar imports only events (time entries) while Apple Reminders imports only to-dos (tasks).

Once you import an iCalendar file in Apple Calendar you can visualize your time entries using the calendar views of the application. If you store your calendars in iCloud, you can also share them with a client who needs to know what you did.

When you import an iCalendar file in Apple Reminders you can see which tasks are done, which ones are in progress and when they are due. If you store your reminders list in iCloud, you can access it from iPhone or share it with a client.

Scenario 2: View your work using Google Calendar

Google Calendar can import events from iCalendar files. This means that you can import in Google Calendar the time entries recorded on a project so you can have a better look at what you did. You can also share a calendar with other people who need to know what you did.

3.4.11. Creating projects reports

A projects report is an easy way to analyze the activity of one or more projects. For instance, if you need to see what you did last month, a project report will show you everything (tasks, time, expenses, trips and products) you recorded on your projects during that time.

Go to Reports » Projects Report to create a report for your projects. You can use the following filters to specify which project elements (tasks, expenses, trips and products) should be included in the report:

  • Projects specifies the projects included in the report.

  • Date specifies the date interval that is analyzed.

  • Billing specifies whether the report should include billable or non-billable elements.

  • Invoiced specifies whether the report should include invoiced or not invoiced elements.

Fanurio comes with one default template:

  • Projects by Client shows the activity on the selected projects in the specified date interval.

If you need to create your own templates, please see this section to learn what placeholders you can use.