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 tasks at the same time if a deadline shifts.
Create a project phase
Project phases can be created three ways in Float:
From the Project plan view of the Schedule, click the menu next to the project name and select Add a phase.
From the Project plan view, drag across multiple days on the Schedule.
From the Manage 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 a project phase
Project phases can be assigned in several different places within Float. You can set a phase whenever you assign a new task to your team on the Schedule.
You can set a phase whenever you create a new milestone for a project.
If your team is using time tracking, you can set a phase whenever you log time
View project phases on the schedule
The Project plan view of the Schedule provides a high-level overview of all your project phases, tasks, and milestones. Each phase is displayed next to the project name and alongside your project milestones.
Your team and their assigned tasks 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 tasks for that phase, drag the entire phase bar forward or backward along the Schedule.
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 in the Projects view of your reports and the table beneath it.
Individual tasks are nested below each phase in the table.
Project phases walkthrough
For even more on project phases, check out this video walkthrough.
📝Note: We're continuously improving Float, so some features may look or function differently than they do on video.
Additional info
Each phase contains the same team as the original project. This can be changed from the Team tab for each phase without impacting the original 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.
Adding a task or milestone to the Schedule outside of a phase's start/end date will automatically adjust the start/end date accordingly. However, deleting the first/last task within a phase will not automatically change the start/end date.
Dragging the phase's ends from the project view will update the start/end dates of the phase.
You cannot reduce a phase's start/end date if tasks exist beyond those dates.
You cannot drag the phase start date to be greater than the first task, nor the phase end date to be less than the last task.