Project phases help you plan and track your projects more efficiently by breaking them into smaller, more manageable parts.
You can search by project phase, track project budgets by phase, and even move all of a project phase's allocations at the same time if a deadline shifts.
Create a project phase
There are a few different ways to create a project phase:
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.
From the Projects page, hover over the project and click Add phase.
From there, you can name the phase, set the start/end date, select a phase-specific color, and add any additional relevant information.
Assign tasks, allocations, and milestones to a project phase
Tasks, allocations, and milestones can be assigned to any phase in the same way they can be assigned to any project.
You can add tasks to the phase task list on the Task list tab in the phase profile so your team can allocate time for these tasks on the Schedule. Task lists are unique to each phase of the project, and tasks from the project profile will not automatically appear in the task list for the phase.
Select a phase when adding an allocation.
Select a phase when adding a milestone on the Project plan view.
If your team is using time tracking, team members can also select a phase when logging time.
View project phases on the schedule
The Project plan view of your team's schedule provides a high-level overview of all your project 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, and 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.
Track project budgets by phase
In addition to the default project budget options, there are two project phase-specific budgets available as well.
Hours by phase - Set an hours budget for each project phase you create
Fee by phase - Set a fee 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.
Phases (and their budgets) are displayed on the chart and in the table when viewing a single project report.
Individual tasks are nested below each phase in the table.
Project phases walkthrough
For even more on project phases, check out this video walkthrough of project planning in Float.
Additional info
By default, each phase contains the same team as the original project. You can change the team and their hourly rates for a particular phase directly on the Team tab for the phase without impacting other phases in the project.
Task names and milestones are unique to each phase and do not transfer when creating a new phase. The original project only shows tasks/milestones that are assigned to No phase.
Copying the task list from the project to phases is not currently supported.
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, nor 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.