Projects
Last updated
Last updated
A project is any sort of paid or unpaid commercial arrangement that involves doing work with your assets, including people or other products. Projects are designed to correspond to closed-won deals or opportunities in your customer-relationship management (CRM) system. So projects are most often based on a customer contract or client engagement.
Organizations use projects to manage all their commercial activity, such as:
Closed deal
New contract
Renewal contract
Proof of concept (POC)
Trial period
Organizations also use projects to track locations and timing of other hardware deployments, such as:
Demo units
Trade shows
R&D assets
Most projects have a date range associated with them, indicating the start and end dates of the commercial activity. (A project cannot have more than one date range.)
A project may also have an optional customer associated with the activity, based on your . (A project cannot have more than one customer.)
A project may also have optional locations associated with the activity, based on your . (A project can have an unlimited number of locations.)
A project may also have optional products associated with the activity, based on your . Each product can be have associated quantity, pricing, billing rules, and notes.
Each project can has assets assigned to the project for a period of time. Assets can come on (assign) and off (unassign) of a project over time. An asset may only be assigned to one project at a time. Assignment data is used for reporting on commercial activity.
In the timeline view you will see a chart with each project's name, date range, and the number of assets assigned relative to the number requested on the project.
You can hover over a project to get a quick view into the customer, locations, and products associated with the project, as well as the number of assets currently assigned to the project.
In the table view you will see a table with each project's name, affiliated customer, affiliated locations, dates, and assets involved.
For both view, you can use the search or filter options to refine the projects listed.
To view the full details of a project, click on an project name in the project list.
The project details page will appear. This page includes all the core details of the project at the top of the page, including name, previous project, dates, customer, locations, project value, and description:
To create an individual project, click the "Add project" button and a window will appear. Name the project, select the appropriate dates for the project, choose the right customer (if applicable), and select any relevant locations. Then click "Add."
Only a name is required in order to create a new project.
A project cannot have more than one date range. If you need to manage multiple date ranges, you should either use multiple projects or use one project and make notes in the project description. The choice depends on how many date ranges are being referenced and should be based on the contract structure. For example:
A business has a single year-long contract to operate hardware each Monday through Wednesday. The business should set up a single year-long project and note in the project description that the project is only active Mondays through Wednesdays.
A business has series of commercial engagements, in four 6-month phases, each with different hardware requirements and pricing. The business should set up four 6-month-long projects, with each new project being the child of the prior project.
To edit an individual project, view the project details. The core project information includes:
Date range
Previous project
Contract date
Customer
Locations
Project value
Description
Product details (line items) can be tracked for each project. Because projects are most often based on a customer contract or client engagement, organizations use projects to manage the products associated with this commercial activity, such as:
Hardware sold
Equipment leased
Devices rented
Accessories sold
Professional services
Software fees
Other offerings included
The assignment section also includes any products for assets that have been assigned to the project, even if those products are not listed as line items on the project. Such product will show 0 requested because they are not set as required on the project. For example, if 2 Power Supplies have been assigned to a project, but none have been included as line items for the project, then the assignment section will show 2 assigned / 0 requested.
The full assignment history for each product line item in the assignment section can be view by clicking the down arrow next to the line item. This view shows each asset serial that has been assigned to a project over time, including when each was assigned and unassigned from the project.
To assign an asset to a project, click the "Assign" button in the asset assignment section. You can choose an asset and an effective date. The effective date must not overlap with the asset's previous assignment (if applicable).
Project commercial activity shows the context of the project for billing and invoicing for accounts receivable purposes. It includes billing contact and address, payment terms, purchase order (PO) number, discount records, and required memo.
Text notes can be added to a project on the "Notes" tab of the project details screen. Notes can be used to track any relevant information on the project over time.
A new note appears listed by user posting the note. A new note can be added by clicking the "Add note" button in the top right above the notes list.
Notes can be edited, deleted, and audited by clicking the menu button in the top right of each note.
Files can be attached to project records by uploading on the "Attachments" tab of the project details screen. This functionality is primarily used for records related to the project, such as contract details, price lists, lease terms, or master service agreement (MSA).
You can log project time (hours) and other (miscellaneous) costs on the "Costs" tab of the project details screen. These details are useful in order to report on the ongoing cost of project, manage cost allocation, track service hours, record billable events, and calculate overall project margins.
Renewing a project creates a new project that has the current project recorded as its previous project. A renewal can optionally copy over all the product details associated with the previous project. A renewal will also automatically reassign the assets when the project renews (subject to certain constraints).
To archive a project that is not yet archived, choose the "Archive project" option from the More actions menu.
A small badge will appear on the project indicating Archived.
The project will now be visible in the project list only when "Archived" is selected.
To unarchive a project that is already archived, edit the project and choose the "Unarchive project" option from the More actions menu.
To see a listing of all projects, navigate to the . There are two ways to view projects, either by table or by timeline.
The project details page continues with information about :
Details are also available on and the project asset assignment history:
Finally, the project details page include subsections for (billing/invoicing), (text comments), (files and links), and . Project details also include a full of the changes made to the project over time.
To import projects in bulk, configure an , or . For additional options, please .
Hover on any piece core product information and a pencil icon will appear. Click the pencil to edit the details. Click "Save" to save the updated detail.
Asset assignment allows organizations to change the project that each asset is associated with.
The assignment section always includes any that have been added as line items on the project. These line items show N requested based on the quantity that have been set in the project details. For example, if a line item on the project includes 4 Premium Monitors, and none have yet been assigned to the project, then the assignment section will show 0 assigned / 4 requested.
Assets must be unassigned from the . There an asset can be directly . Assets can also be reassigned to a new project from the same screen.
If you would like to automate capture of this information from your customer-relationship management (CRM) system, please .
New files can be uploaded by clicking the "Upload file" button. Hardfin accepts all file formats. Once uploaded, files can be viewed, downloaded, or deleted by choosing the corresponding action in the file list.
Project details always include a full of the changes made to the project over time, including when any attachments are deleted.
hides the object from the list view and dropdown menus. The object can still be viewed in the list by selecting the "Archived" option. Archived objects still appear in dropdown menus when searched by name.
