actiTIME User Guide
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Project & Customer Management
Project & Customer management includes the following activities:
Note that User Guide uses the default names for referencing the time-track hiearchy levels:
- Top level: 'Customer'
- Middle level: 'Project'
- Lowest level: 'Task'
You can change the default names of the hierarchy levels in the general system settings.
See the Adjust general system settings section for more information.
Only users who have the 'Manage Customers, Projects & Tasks' access right can access the
project & customer management interfaces. Note that users who do not have this right will not see
the project & customer management interfaces at all.
Browse active projects and customers
Select option 'Projects & Customers' in the 'Projects & Tasks' top-level menu to open the interface
Active Projects & Customers. By default this interface lists all active customers and projects
registered in the system. The list is sorted alphabetically by customer name and then by project name.
Active Projects & Customers interface
If you want to browse projects related to a particular customer, select this customer
in the top part of the interface and then click the 'Show' button.
The Active Projects & Customers interface provides you with brief description
of active projects and customers. For each customer/project this information includes:
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Customer/Project name
Clicking a customer name opens the Edit Customer Information interface
(see section Edit information of active customers).
Clicking a project name opens the Edit Project Information interface
(see section Edit information of active projects).
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Customer/Project description icon
Clicking a customer/project description icon opens a pop-up window for editing description of the corresponding
customer/project.
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Number of open tasks
Number of open tasks shown for a customer is the total quantity
of open tasks calculated through all projects related to this customer.
Clicking a number of open tasks opens the Open Tasks interface
listing open tasks related to the corresponding customer/project.
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Number of completed tasks
Number of completed tasks shown for a customer is the total quantity
of completed tasks calculated through active projects related to this customer.
Note that this number does not include completed tasks
of archived projects related to this customer.
Clicking a number of completed tasks opens the Completed Tasks interface
listing completed tasks related to the corresponding customer/project.
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Spent time reported for the customer/project
Spent time reported for a customer is calculated through the active projects related to this customer.
Note that spent time shown for a customer does not
include time reported for archived projects related to this customer.
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Link 'add project' for adding new project to the customer
Clicking this link opens the Add New Project interface (see section
Register new project for more information).
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Link 'add tasks' for adding new tasks to the project
Clicking this link opens the Add New Project interface (see section
Add New Tasks for more information).
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Option for archiving the customer/project
See section Archive projects & customers
for information on how to archive selected projects and customers.
Only customers and projects that do not have open tasks can be archived.
When there are more than 10 active customers a pager appears.
You can switch pages by clicking the links under the customer/project list.
To change the number of customers simultaneously shown on one page
select the corresponding option in the 'Show XX customers on a page'
drop-down under the list.
If you do not want the interface to show projects,
unset the 'Show projects' checkbox in the top part of the interface
and then click the 'Show' button. After that the interface will list customers only.
See also section Browse archives.
Edit project & customer descriptions
You can edit project & customer descriptions directly in the list of
active projects and customers.
For information on how to get to the Active Projects & Customers interface see section
Browse active projects and customers.
To edit a description follow the instructions below:
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Click the description icon shown next to the name of the corresponding customer/project.
This will open a pop-up window for editing the description:
Pop-up window for editing description
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Enter (or edit) the description.
Size of description shall be less than 2000 characters.
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Click the 'OK' button to save the entered description.
If you decided not to modify the selected description, click the 'Cancel' button.
The system will discard the modifications and close the pop-up window.
Register new customer
You can register new customers simultaneously with adding new tasks.
See section Add new tasks for more information on how to do that.
To register a new customer from the Active Projects & Customers interface
follow the instructions below:
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Click the 'Add New Customer' button on the Active Projects & Customers interface to open the Add New Customer interface.
For information how to get to the Active Projects & Customers interface see section
Browse active projects and customers.
Add New Customer interface
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Enter customer information. The information in the fields marked with a red asterisk is mandatory.
Information that can be specified for a new customer includes:
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Customer name
Customer name shall be unique among the registered customers.
The check for uniqueness is case-insensitive. So customer names 'Actimind, Inc'
and 'actimind, inc' will be considered as the same.
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Description
Size of customer description shall be less than 2000 characters.
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Select what you are going to do after registering this customer.
The available options are:
- Browse list of active projects and customers
- Create a new project for this customer
- Add more customers
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When you are ready, submit the page by clicking the 'Create Customer' button at the bottom of the interface.
The system will register a new customer with the specified parameters and show you
an interface according to your selection.
If you decided not to register a new customer, click the 'Cancel' button at the bottom of the page.
The system will discard all the information entered in the interface and show you the
Active Projects & Customers interface.
Register new project
You can register new projects simultaneously with adding new tasks.
See section Add new tasks for more information on how to do that.
To register a new project from the Active Projects & Customers interface
follow the instructions below:
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Open the Add New Project interface.
There are two ways how you can do that starting from the Active Projects & Customers interface:
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Click the 'Add New Project' button located in the top part of the interface
The customer selected in the top part of the Active Projects & Customers interface
before the click will be automatically pre-selected in the Add New Project interface.
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Find a customer you want to register a new project for and click the 'add project' link
shown next to the customer name.
The corresponding customer will be automatically pre-selected in the Add New Project interface.
Add New Project interface
For information on how to get to the Active Projects & Customers interface see section
Browse active projects and customers.
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Select a customer to register a new project for.
In most cases customer will be pre-selected automatically.
However, you can change it if you need.
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Enter project information. The information in the fields marked with a red asterisk is mandatory.
Information that can be specified for a new project includes:
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Project name
Project name shall be unique among the projects registered for the selected customer.
The check for uniqueness is case-insensitive. So project names 'Corporate Web Site'
and 'corporate web site' will be considered as the same.
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Description
Size of project description shall be less than 2000 characters.
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Select what you are going to do after registering this project.
The available options are:
- Browse list of active projects and customers
- Add tasks to this project
- Add more projects
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When you are ready, submit the page by clicking the 'Create Project' button at the bottom of the interface.
The system will register a new project, associate it with the selected customer,
and show you an interface according to your selection.
If you decided not to register a new project, click the 'Cancel' button at the bottom of the page.
The system will discard all the information entered in the interface and show you
the Active Projects & Customers interface.
Edit information of active customers
To edit information of an active customer follow the instructions below:
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Click a customer name on the Active Projects & Customers page to open the Edit Customer Information interface.
For information on how to get to the Active Projects & Customers interface see section
Browse active projects and customers.
Interface Edit Customer Information
The top part of the Edit Customer Information interface shows brief customer summary:
- Customer status and creation date
- Number of tasks in active and archived projects registered for this customer
Numbers of open and completed tasks related to active projects are clickable.
Clicking a number opens either Open Tasks or Completed Tasks interface (depending on the clicked number)
listing the corresponding tasks.
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Modify customer information. The fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory.
Customer information that can be modified includes:
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Customer name
Customer name shall be unique among the registered customers.
The check for uniqueness is case-insensitive. So customer names 'Actimind, Inc' and 'actimind, inc'
will be considered as the same.
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Description
Size of customer description shall be less than 2000 characters.
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Submit the modifications by clicking the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom of the page.
If you decided not to edit the selected customer, click the 'Cancel' button at the bottom of the page.
The system will reject all modifications of customer information and show you the
Active Projects & Customers interface.
Edit information of active projects
To edit project information follow the instructions below:
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Click a project name on the Projects interface to open the Edit Project Information interface.
For information on how to get to the Projects interface see section
Browse active projects and customers.
Edit Project Information interface
The top part of the Edit Project Information interface shows brief project summary:
- The customer this project is currently associated with
- Project status and creation date
- Number of open and completed tasks in this project
Numbers of open and completed tasks are clickable. Clicking a number opens either Open Tasks or
Completed Tasks interface (depending on the clicked number) listing the corresponding tasks.
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Modify project information. All the fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory.
Project information that can be modified includes:
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Customer the project is associated with
By changing the project's customer
you can move the selected project between registered customers.
The list of available customers contains active customers only.
So you cannot associate an active project with an archived customer.
To associate active projects with such customer you must restore it (customer) from archives
(see section Restore projects & customers from archives).
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Project name
Project name shall be unique among all projects registered for the selected customer
(active and archived).
The check for uniqueness is case-insensitive. So project names 'Corporate Web Site' and
'corporate web site' will be considered as the same.
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Description
Size of project description shall be less than 2000 characters.
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Submit the modifications by clicking the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom of the page.
If you decided not to edit the selected project, click the 'Cancel' button at the bottom of the page.
The system will reject all modifications of the project information and show you the
Active Projects & Customers interface.
Archive projects & customers
To archive one or several projects and/or customers follow the instructions below:
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Go to the Active Projects & Customers interface (see section
Browse active projects and customers
for information on how to get to this page).
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Select projects and customers to archive. To do that set corresponding checkboxes
in the rightmost table column.
Note that you can archive only those projects and customers which do not have open tasks.
In particular, this means that a customer can be archived only when all its projects can be archived.
When you select a customer to archive, customer's projects
are automatically selected along with the customer.
If you want to select all customers and projects shown on the page, click the 'All' link in the header of
the 'Select Customers & Projects to Archive' column.
If you want to unselect all selected customers and projects,
click the 'None' link in the header of the 'Select Customers & Projects to Archive' column.
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Click the 'Archive Selected Customers & Projects' button at the bottom of the page.
The system will archive the selected customers and projects and show you the
Active Projects & Customers interface.
Customers and projects that were archived can be browsed on the Archived Projects & Customers interface
(see section Browse archives for information on how to get to this page).
Browse archives
Select option 'Archives' in the top-level menu 'Projects & Tasks' to open the
Archived Projects & Customers interface. By default this interface shows
all archived customers and projects. The list is sorted alphabetically by customer name
and then by project name.
Archived Projects & Customers interface
If you want to browse projects related to a particular customer, select this customer
in the top part of the interface and then click the 'Show' button.
The Archived Projects & Customers interface provides you with brief description of archived
projects and customers. For each customer/project this information includes:
-
Customer/Project name
Clicking a customer name opens the Edit Customer Information interface
(see section Edit information of archived customers).
Clicking a project name opens the Edit Project Information interface
(see section Edit information of archived projects).
An archived project can be associated with an active customer.
In this case word 'active' is shown in brackets after the customer name.
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Customer/Project description icon
Clicking a customer/project description icon opens a pop-up window for viewing
description of the corresponding customer/project.
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Number of completed tasks
Number of completed tasks shown for a customer is calculated
through archived projects only.
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Spent time reported for the customer/project
Spent time shown for an active customer is calculated
through archived projects only.
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Option for restoring the customer/project from archives
See section Restore projects & customers from archives
for information on how to restore selected projects and customers from archives.
When there are more than 10 archived customers a pager appears.
You can switch pages by clicking the links under the customer/project list.
To change the number of customers simultaneously shown on one page
select the corresponding option in the 'Show XX customers on a page' drop-down under the list.
If you do not want the interface to show projects, unset the 'Show projects' checkbox
in the top part of the interface and then click the 'Show' button.
After that the interface will list customers only.
See also section Browse active projects and customers.
Edit information of archived customers
Editing information of archived customers is similar to editing information of
active customers. The only difference is that you should select a customer to edit on the
Archived Projects & Customers interface.
Edit Customer Information interface (for an archived customer)
See section Browse archives for information on how to get to the
Archived Projects & Customers interface.
See section Edit information of active customers
for the detailed description of editing customer information.
Edit information of archived projects
Editing information of archived projects is similar to editing information of
active projects. The only difference is that you should select a project to edit on the
Archived Projects & Customers interface.
Edit Project Information interface (for an archived project)
See section Browse archives for information on how to get to the
Archived Projects & Customers interface.
See section Edit information of active projects
for the detailed description of editing project information.
In contrary to the active projects you can move archived projects between
all customers registered in the system - active and archived.
Restore projects & customers from archives
To restore one or several projects and/or customers from archives follow the instructions below:
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Go to the Archived Projects & Customers interface (see section
Browse archives
for information on how to get to this page).
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Select projects and customers to restore. To do that set corresponding checkboxes
in the rightmost table column.
When you select a project to restore, the project's customer
is automatically selected along with the project (if this customer is not already active).
If you want to select all customers and projects shown on the page, click the 'All' link in the header of
the 'Select Customers & Projects to Archive' column.
If you want to unselect all selected customers and projects,
click the 'None' link in the header of the 'Select Customers & Projects to Archive' column.
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Click 'Restore Selected Customers & Projects' at the bottom of the page.
The system will restore the selected customers and projects from archives
and show you the Archived Projects & Customers interface.
Customers and projects that were restored from archives can be browsed on the Active Projects & Customers interface
(see section Browse active projects and customers
for information on how to get to this page).
Delete customer
To delete a customer follow the instructions below:
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Go to the Edit Customer Information interface
(see sections Edit information of active customers
and Edit information of archived customers).
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Click 'Delete This Customer' button. You will be asked to confirm customer deletion.
If you confirm it, the system will delete the customer and show you the Active Projects & Customers interface.
If the system knows that a customer cannot be deleted beforehand,
the 'Delete this customer' button is not shown.
Delete project
To delete a project follow the instructions below:
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Go to the Edit Project Information interface
(see sections Edit information of active projects
and Edit information of archived projects).
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Click the 'Delete This Project' button. You will be asked to confirm the project's deletion.
If you confirm it, the system will delete the project and show you the Projects interface.
Note that a project cannot be completely removed from the system, if there are tasks associated with it.
To delete a project with associated tasks delete these tasks first
(see section Delete task).
If the system knows that a project cannot be deleted beforehand,
the 'Delete this project' button is not shown.
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