Construction project basics

You can create the following types of projects:

• Bill to a maximum projects

• Fixed fee projects with percent complete billings

• Overhead projects

• Time and materials projects

To add a construction project:

1. Go to Projects > All > Projects.
2. In the upper right corner of the window, select Add.

3. On the Purchasing Commitments tab, enable Show all to list all orders for each subproject of the root project.

   Construction subscription is needed. To enable a Construction subscription, contact your Sage Intacct account manager. Regional support for Construction is limited to the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

1. Go to Projects > All > Projects.
2. In the upper right corner of the window, select +Create.

3. On the Purchasing Commitments tab, enable Show all to list all orders for each subproject of the root project.

   Construction subscription is needed. To enable a Construction subscription, contact your Sage Intacct account manager. Regional support for Construction is limited to the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

See Field descriptions: Project information for specific details on each field.

After creating a project, set up the work breakdown structure by adding tasks from your standard task catalog. Based on your permissions, you might be able to add custom tasks (2:34 minute video).

1. Go to Projects > All > Projects.

2. Select Tasks next to the desired project.
3. Select +Create.

4. Enter a unique ID and unique name.
   All task IDs and names for the project must be unique (such as 01-010 for Task 1 and 01-0250 for Task 2).

5. Optionally, provide beginning and end dates for the task, assign the task to a work item, and indicate whether work on this task is billable back to the customer.

   If Projects is configured for automatic document numbering, -New- appears in the Task ID field. Task ID identifies the task in lists and reports, is required, and can't be edited. Select Save to assign a task ID automatically. Tasks created by duplicating a project or task receive new IDs. Your admin may need to adjust your document sequence number configuration to make sure no duplicate task IDs are created within a project.
   Not using automatic document numbering?

   For companies without Task ID sequencing: Manually create Task IDs to achieve a standardized and organize view of your tasks within and across projects, and the ability to report on like tasks across projects.

   About Task ID

   Task ID is needed and can't be edited. It also must be unique within the project (for example, you might create a Task ID of "100" for a task within Project Alpha. You can't use this ID again for Project Alpha, but you can use it with any other project). In dropdowns, tasks appear alphanumerically by Task ID. The Task ID appears first, followed by the Task Name.

   Tasks created before 2019 Release 1 were automatically assigned Task IDs.

   Use case example

   Depending on your company, you might want to implement intelligent numbering systems manually. For example, the construction industry uses standardized cost codes. You can create a template project populated with tasks and Task IDs that correspond to each code. Duplicate the project each time you need a new project that follows the same structure. Then, use dimensional grouping to organize your task reporting. However, if your tasks are independent within your projects, any ID value can be entered.

   Use child tasks to represent sub-cost codes.
6. Optionally, change the Planned begin date and Planned end date for the task by selecting the calendar icon and choosing the desired date. Or, you can entering new dates (in MM/DD/YYYY format) in the fields.

7. Optionally, select the Dependent on task from the dropdown list for tasks that are dependent on the completion of another task.

   Project Managers: use the Project Gantt chart to view task dependencies.
8. If your company associated the Class dimension with tasks, select the following options:
• Class is autofilled: as soon as you enter the task name and tab out of the field, the task name automatically appears as the class name in a display-only field.
• Class is required: The red asterisk next to the Class field indicates a required field. Select the class from the dropdown.
• Class is optional: You can enter a class, or leave the Class field empty. If the Class field is empty, this task won't be included in GL tracking or financial reporting.
  Learn more about how to capture task data wherever you enter transactions.
9. Expand the Item dropdown and do the following, as appropriate for the task:
   • Select an item to assign the task to a work item.
   • Select an item to invoice the customer for this task.
10. Select the Billable check box to bill for the work for this task. Or, leave the box clear if the work on this task is not billable. Then, enter a brief description of the task.

You can use the Additional Info tab on the Task Information page to count the completion of the task as a milestone.

1. To use the completion of this task as a milestone, select the Milestone checkbox.
   About milestones

   Milestones work the same as regular tasks, but with two key differences:

   • When a milestone task is completed, it will display in the Task list with a check in the Milestone column.
   • For fixed fee projects, milestone tasks are invoiced when they reach certain pre-defined percentages of completion. For example, you might define a billing template that invoices for a milestone when it reaches 50 percent completion and again at 100 percent completion.
2. To record this task as utilized, select the Utilized checkbox. A utilized task is one spent making progress on a customer project or internal project. A non-utilized task is one spent not working on a customer project or internal project, for example, time spent filling in an expense report or timesheet.
3. To assign a priority to this task, enter a numerical value in the Priority field.
4. Type a WBS code into the WBS Code box.
   Admins: Configure your Projects subscription to auto default this field to the Timesheet Notes field on sales invoices for extra visibility. Learn how.
5. Assign a status (such as in progress, completed, or on hold) to this task. To do this, select the Task status dropdown arrow and select the status.
     If the task status is Completed, employees can't enter time for the task on timesheets.
6. If you are posting the labor costs associated with this task to a general ledger account, select the Time type down arrow and then select the time type you want.
   About Time types

   Time types identify different categories of time (such as salary, contract hours, overtime, vacation, or travel time).

   Why use time types?

   • Better reporting: Using time types, you can generate reports that clarify how much of a project's staff cost is spent on different categories of work time, such as salary, contract hours, overtime, etc.
   • Labor cost posting: Time types are required if you are setting up to post labor costs to the general ledger accounts you specify.
7. To assign this task as a child of another task, select the Parent task dropdown and, from the list that displays, select the parent of this task.
   Assign a parent task if the task you're creating is one component of a larger task. For example, in a home remodeling project, installing new pipes would be a child task of installing a new water heater.
8. To permanently and safely store a digital version of a supporting document, in the dropdown next to Attachments, select an attachment or select Add, then upload your attachment An attachment is a bundle of one or more supporting documents, such as spreadsheets, scanned images, or word processor documents.. Learn more about who can add attachments.

   You can drag and drop your files to add an attachment. To attach a document to multiple journal entries, see Bulk processing.

9. Assign resources, such as personnel to the task. Select Select next to Resources.
• The names of the people available to you are in the Available items box on the left. To assign someone to this task, select the right arrow buttons to move the resource to the Selected items box on the right. Then select Done.
• You can select Add all to add all resources.

You can also use the Additional info tab to track how long you think a task will take, see metrics about how you're doing against your estimates, and enter your own Observed percent completed data.

1. Use the Planned duration and/or Estimated duration fields to track how long you expect the task to take.

   You can use either or both fields.

   • If a certain number of hours have been allotted for this task, enter that number into the Planned duration box.
   • If you have estimated the number of hours this task should take, enter that number into the Estimated duration box.
2. Track percent completion values and dates by entering "as of dates" and percentages as the task progresses.
   • Calculated percent completed appears that's based on actual hours assigned to the task as a percentage of the Estimated duration.
     If you set up a billing template for percent completed billing based on Planned Hours, the calculated percent complete that's used for invoicing may differ from what's shown on the Task Information page. For custom reports and Gantt charts, the most recent As of date is used when data is displayed.
   • In the Observed percent completed table, enter your personal assessment of how complete the task is. Although you can track Observed percent completed for your own information, the table is also used for fixed fee billing by milestone or percent complete, and for revenue recognition based on the survey method.
   Using Observed percent completed

   Percent completed billing: You can bill a fixed fee project in stages by percent completed or milestone of a task. If you set up a percent completed or milestone billing template to invoice based on task Observed percent completed, the value you enter here for Observed percent completed is used. Learn more about fixed fee projects based on percent completed.

   Revenue recognition: You can set up percent completed or milestone revenue recognition that uses the Survey Method of %complete revenue recognition. In this case, Observed percent completed is used to track the percent completed for the task, and to calculate the revenue amount.

   For both invoicing and revenue recognition, updating observed percent completed for a task to 100% will trigger invoicing and revenue recognition for the remaining amount.

To learn more, see Organize related projects.