You can create project plans while creating or editing a project or an offer. In this article we'll look at project plans when creating a new project, but the principle is same when you are creating a project plan while making a new offer. Project plans for projects and offers are not basic features in Koho, and they need to be activated by our customer service. If you wish to activate them for your Koho account, please contact our customer service at asiakaspalvelu@kohosales.com.
How to create a new project plan?
To create a new project plan, go to the "Projects" section in Koho and create a new project or open an existing project. If you are creating a new project, first define basic information for the project. Read this article for more information on projects: 3.3.1 How to create a project?
On the project form, go to the "Plan" tab and click the "Open project plan" button.
If you want to use a model for the project plan, you can choose it from the menu on the right corner of the page. In the field below, you can choose if you want to replace your plan with a model, or add the model as part of the plan. If you want to save the new project plan as a model for future project plans, choose the "Model" checkbox. If you choose the "Compact" checkbox, phase descriptions are not visible in the plan.
You can set the billing for the plan to be either fixed or by hours from the "Fixed / Hour" fields. You can also define an internal budget and invoicing per hour for the whole project from the "Int. Budget" and "Set invoicing/h" fields. Often it is necessary to define them separately for each phase.
How to add and edit phases for the project plan
After you have defined basic information for the project plan, you can start adding phases from the "+Phase" button. Phases that are added from this button, are so-called first-level phases. You can add subphases by clicking the menu symbol on the phase and then choosing "+Phase" link. You can also create subphases for subphases. The number of subphases is unlimited.
From the "+Sibling phase" link you can create a phase that is on the same level. From the "Phase from model" link you can add phases from project plan models.
Each phase has a title and a description field which can be used to describe the phase more in depth. Employees can also add their own notes in the description field as they are carrying out the plan.
Invoicing info
As a default the prices are fetched from the project tasks but you can also define invoicing info for separate project phases. From the "Invoicing type" column you can choose whether the phase has a fixed charge or if it is invoiced based on work hours. If you choose the default option, then Koho will use the task that is entered to the phase. On the "Invoicing" column you can define either the fixed price or price per hour for the project. You can change between these two by clicking the unit.
Int. Budget
You can also define internal budgets for the phases based on hours, internal costs or based on invoicing. As a default budgets are given in hours, but you can change this by clicking the unit sign. You can use budgeting to follow how the estimates are actualized as the project progresses.
Date
Each phase has a date column where you can for instance add a date when the phase should be ready. This date is also visible for employees in the "Projects" tab in timetracking. If no date is given, Koho will automatically choose the date the phase was marked as completed.
Participants
From the phase menu you can also add employees that are taking part in the phase. You can define a time period and hours that are budgeted for the phase for this employee. This data will also be visible on the Workload report where you can plan your employees' workload. Read more about the workload report on this article: 6.1.4. Workload.
Allowing and blocking sessions
If needed, you can block sessions for phases. This can be used for instance when a phase has already been completed and new sessions for it are not wanted. You can change this setting from the phase menu by clicking the "Sessions" link.
Shifting, deleting and copying phases
If you need the change the order of the phases, you can do this by clicking the symbol next to the phase's name. The row will turn grey. After this, click the row where you want to move the phase. This will open three arrows and you can choose whether you want to add it above or below the row, or as a subphase. If the phase you want to move has subphases, those are also moved to the new location.
If you want to completely remove a phase, you can do it by clicking the "Remove" link on the phase menu. If sessions have already been tracked for the phase, it cannot be removed. You can copy a phase by clicking the "+Copy" link on the menu. The new phase is created below the one you are copying.
Saving a project plan
After you have given all the necessary information for the project plan, you can save the project. Now the plan is active and it can be used for instance in timetracking.