If you want to create and plan projects without affecting your team's live Schedule, the Draft project status is what you need!
The project draft feature is designed to allow teams to experiment with different project plans and helps with scenario planning. You can test different team assignments and adjust phases or dates without the project going live and being visible to everyone on your team.
Draft projects
To set a project as a draft, simply select Draft on the project side panel under the Status field.
If a project is set as Draft, by default, its phases, tasks, milestones and allocations have the draft status as well. Setting confirmed or tentative items within the draft project is not supported.
Draft projects access rights
By default, draft projects can be created and viewed by the Account Owner and the Admins. They can grant permission for the Project Managers to see them by either setting them as the Project Owner of the draft project or by selecting All Project Managers have edit rights in the project's settings.
Draft projects are designed to be invisible to the broader team until they are ready for live use. Users with Member or People Manager access rights cannot view project drafts ensuring privacy and control during the planning phase. They also won't be notified about any draft work scheduled for them until the project status is changed.
📝Note: The names of drafted projects appear in the search filter for all team members, even for those without permission to view the project details (like Members). Attempting to filter a specific project draft without permission to view it will result in no data being displayed.
Draft projects visibility
Draft projects are visible only on the Project plan page. They do not show on the Schedule or the Log time/Log team pages, and they are not included in multiple People or multiple Projects reports either. This ensures that no live scheduling is disrupted while you are still finalizing your plans. You can still review your draft project details on the Single Project Report.
On the Project plan page, all draft projects have the draft status indicator (dashed outline icon) next to their name.
Draft project elements (phases, milestones, and allocations) are displayed on the Project plan as dashed outlines. This visual cue helps distinguish them from Confirmed or Tentative projects and ensures clear visibility for you and other planners.
Draft project indicator
On the Projects page, you can sort your projects by Status. You can distinguish your draft projects by looking for the dashed outline icon, the same as the one displayed next to the project's name on the Project plan.
Draft project planning
Once a new draft project is created, an actionable Plan banner is displayed in the bottom left corner of the page. Clicking on it opens the Project plan with the selected project filter is applied.
Assigning a team
You can assign a team to your draft project in the project settings under Team, or on the Project plan directly using the Assign a team member function.
Changing the project's status
Once the draft project is reviewed and approved, you can change its status to Tentative or Confirmed as needed.
Changing the project status from Draft to Tentative will make all planned allocations, phases, and milestones visible on the Schedule.
Changing the project status from Draft to Confirmed will:
Make all planned allocations, phases, and milestones visible on the Schedule
Notify everyone on the project team
Allow the project team to log time against the project (for Pro and Enterprise teams).
Draft project phases
Each phase of the draft project has a draft status. Updating the draft phase status to Tentative or Confirmed is not supported.
Draft allocations
By default, all allocations linked to draft projects have the draft status as well. This is also indicated in the allocation menu. Updating the allocation status to Tentative or Complete is not supported.
Single Project Report
While draft projects are not included in multiple People or multiple Projects reports, you can display a detailed overview of your draft project on the Single Project Report by filtering by the project name.
Clicking on the project's name opens the project side panel where you can edit the project details. After saving the changes, the report will be updated accordingly.