Project phases help you plan and track your projects more efficiently by breaking them into smaller, manageable parts. You can search by project phase, track project budgets by phase, and even move all of a project phase's allocations simultaneously if a deadline shifts.
Create a project phase
There are a few different ways to create a project phase:
From the Projects page, hover over the project, click the + icon to add a phase, and set the phase details in the side panel.
From the project side panel, open the Phases section and click Add a phase. Once added, click on the phase name to open the phase side panel.
From the Project plan view, click the menu next to the project name and select Add a phase.
From the Project plan view, drag across multiple days at the top of the project plan.
Setting up phase details
Similar to setting up a project, for each project phase, you can add a name and a status, set the start/end date, select a phase-specific color, and add any additional information.
📝Note: While you can set the tentative phases within a confirmed project, creating confirmed phases in a tentative project is not supported.
📝Note: By default, phases color is the same as the project color, but it can be adjusted whenever needed.
To add or edit phase details, simply click on the phase name in the project side panel, and the phase side panel will open.
Phase Dates
In the Dates field, you can set the dates and duration of the project phase.
Phase dates are automatically adjusted based on the first and last allocation, milestone, or logged time record belonging to this phase. While you can set the phase dates when creating a phase, you can’t manually set:
- a start date that’s after the first allocation/milestone/logged time in that phase
- an end date that’s before the last allocation/milestone/logged time in that phase.
To change your phase dates, you’ll need to first move the allocations, milestones, or logged time records that are constraining your date range.
Phase Budget
If the project budget is hours-based or fee-based by phase, you can adjust the budget details for each phase.
Hours by phase - You can set the total hours budget for each project phase you create.
Fee by phase - You can set a total fee budget for each project phase you create.
💡 Here's a tip: You can set up a repeating monthly retainer for a project by creating a new phase for each month (i.e., this month, next month, etc.) and then using the Hours by phase or Fee by phase budget options.
Phase Team
By default, each phase has the same team as the original project. When you add a new phase, all people added to a Team section on a project level will automatically be added as the phase's Team. You can add or remove phase team members as needed.
If the project's budget is fee-based by phase, you can change the team's hourly bill rates for a particular phase without impacting other phases in the project.
Phase Tasks and Milestones
Tasks and milestones can be set at both the project level and phase level. Those details are unique to each project and phase and do not transfer or automatically copy when creating a new phase.
Navigating between project phases
If a project has multiple phases, you can easily navigate between them using the up and down arrows in the top right corner of the side panel.
Allocating and logging time for a specific project phase
When allocating time on the Schedule, you can select the project phase on the allocation menu.
If the task list is locked, you must also select the task when allocating time.
If your team uses time tracking, team members can choose which phase (and task if required) they log their time for.
Archiving or deleting a phase
If you'd like to prevent your team from scheduling and logging time on a phase moving forward, you can archive it. Archiving the phase will set any existing phase allocations and logged time to read-only to prevent editing.
To archive a phase, open it in the side panel, navigate to the action menu in the top right corner, and select Archive.
Only archived phases can be deleted. Deleting a phase permanently removes all phase data, including scheduled and logged time. Phase data cannot be restored once deleted.
To delete an archived phase, open it in the side panel, navigate to the action menu in the top right corner, and select Delete.
Project phases on the Project plan view
The Project plan view of your team's schedule provides a high-level overview of all your projects, phases, allocations, and milestones. Each phase is displayed next to the project name and alongside your project milestones.
Your team and their assigned allocations are located just below. Each project can be expanded or collapsed individually to show/hide your team.
💡 Here's a tip: To change the phase timeline and move all allocations for that phase, drag the entire phase bar forward or backward along the Project plan.
When adding milestones directly to the Project plan view, you can choose which phase they belong to.
Reports
Phases and their budget are displayed on both the chart view and the table view of a single project report. Individual phase tasks are nested below each phase in the table.
Additional info
Tasks and milestones are not copied from the project to its phases. The original project only shows tasks and milestones assigned to No phase.
Copying the task list from the project to phases is not currently supported.
Phases capture any allocations and milestones within their range. They can be reassigned to another phase or to a project directly as needed.
Adding an allocation or milestone to the Schedule outside of a phase's start/end date will automatically adjust the start/end date accordingly. Deleting the first/last allocation assigned to a phase will automatically change the start/end date but never inside the original set dates.
Dragging the phase's start/end from the Project plan view will update the start/end dates of the phase.
You cannot drag or edit the phase start date to be after the first allocation or the phase end date to be before the last allocation. To edit the phase dates, you’ll first need to move the allocations on the schedule to fall within the date range you’d like to assign to the phase.