Projects
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
Understand project relationships
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 customer list. (A project cannot have more than one customer.)
A project may also have optional locations associated with the activity, based on your location list. (A project can have an unlimited number of locations.)
A project may also have optional products associated with the activity, based on your product catalog. 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.
List all projects
To see a listing of all projects, navigate to the projects page. There are two ways to view projects, either by table or by timeline.
Timeline view
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.
Note: Only projects with a start date and an end date with appear on the project timeline.
Table view
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.
View individual project details
To view the full details of a project, click on an project name in the project list.
The project details page will appear, showing the core project details.
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:
Project details also include sections for commercial information (billing/invoicing), attachments (files and links), and project costs.
Project details also include a full audit log of the changes made to the project over time.
Create a project
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.
Bulk creation
To import projects in bulk, configure an integration with a CRM or ERP, or to set up API access, please contact support.
Note on date ranges
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.
Edit core project information
To edit an individual project, view the project details. The core project information includes:
Customer
Locations
Contract date
Project value
Description
Edit products associated with a project
Product details 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
Product details can be an unlimited number of line items on a project. Each product details line items must include a product from the organization's product catalog and a corresponding quantity. Product line items can optionally include the unit price, billing frequency, and any additional notes.
Product details on a project are useful for billing and accounting purposes. Each product line item appears in project reports and can be used for tracking organizational invoicing and revenue recognition determinations.
Adding or editing product details
When in edit model, new line items can be added with the "Add product" button in the button left. Each part of existing line items can be edited. Line items can be deleted entirely by clicking the trash can icon 🗑️ next to the line item. All changes can be saved together by clicking "Save."
Project details always include a full audit log of the changes made to the project over time, including any product details that have been edited or deleted.
Asset assignment
Asset assignment allows organizations to change the project that each asset is associated with.
The assignment section always includes any inventory products 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.
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.
Assignment history
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.
Assign an asset
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).
Only unassigned assets are available for assignment. To assign an asset that is already assigned to another project, first unassign the asset from the other project.
Unassigning an asset
Assets must be unassigned from the asset details page. There an asset can be directly unassigned from its current project. Assets can also be reassigned to a new project from the same screen.
Manage project commercial information
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.
If you would like to automate capture of this information from your customer-relationship management (CRM) system, please contact support.
Manage project attachments
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).
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. Read more about attachments in Hardfin.
Project details always include a full audit log of the changes made to the project over time, including when any attachments are deleted.
Manage project costs
You can log project 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, record billable events, and calculate overall project margins. The core details are visible on the "Accounting" tab and include description, amount, reported date, and the user reporting the cost:
Project costs are useful for billing, accounting, and FP&A purposes. Each project cost appears in project reports and can be used for tracking organizational invoicing, cost allocation, and margin reporting.
Add project costs
New project costs can be added with the "Add cost" button. A basic project cost includes a description and amount. The reporting user and date are logged automatically.
Edit project costs
Delete project costs
An individual project cost can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon 🗑️ next to a given project cost item. A warning will appear and you must confirm deletion by clicking the "Yes, delete" button.
Project details always include a full audit log of the changes made to the project over time, including any project costs that have been edited or deleted.
Project renewals
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 renew a project, choose the "Renew project" option from the More actions menu.
A window will appear with suggested details for the new project's name, customer, and locations based on the data for the current project. The suggested date range for the new project will start on the day after the current project ends and run for the same number of days as the current project.
By default, the same product details will be carried over to the renewal project. You can optionally choose not to carry over the product details. Click "Add" to confirm the renewal.
Project tree
A project can have multiple renewals. For example, if one successful pilot project is renewed into two new contracts. However, each project can have only one previous project.
Previous project
The previous project (if applicable) is always visible in the core project details:
The previous project can be updated simply by clicking on the current project.
Project history
The full history of the current project, its previous project, and any other projects that refer to this project as previous can be viewed by clicking the "tree" diagram option in the previous project detail.
The full project history shows an interactive timeline of the current project, each previous project up the timeline, and all projects that refer to this project as previous. You can expand/contract the arrow icons ↑↓ in order to view more or fewer project up and down the history tree.
By default, "sibling" projects of each project are not included. These can be displayed by selecting "Show siblings" option in the bottom left.
Asset reassignment
Assets are automatically reassigned to renewals when the renewal starts. This occurs at midnight in the organization's time zone for every project starting on the next day that has a previous project set.
If a renewal project is found and the previous project has assets assigned, those assets will be unassigned from the previous project as of the prior day and assigned to the renewal project as of the renewal project's start date.
Normal renewal
A normal renewal ends on one day and starts on the next, for example:
Previous project ends on December 15
Renewal project starts December 16
At 12:01 AM on December 16, all assets currently assigned to the previous project will be ended as of December 15 at 11:59:59 PM and assigned to the renewal project December 16 at 12:00:00 AM.
Note: this ensures that the assets are reassign precisely from the previous project to the renewal project.
Early renewal
An early renewal starts before the previous project ends, for example:
Previous project ends on December 15
Renewal project starts December 8
At 12:01 AM on December 8, all assets currently assigned to the previous project will be ended as of December 7 at 11:59:59 PM and assigned to the renewal project December 8 at 12:00:00 AM.
Note: the previous project will spend the rest of its term with no assets unassigned.
Delayed renewal
A delayed renewal starts well after the previous project ends, for example:
Previous project ends on December 15
Renewal project starts December 23
At 12:01 AM on December 23, all assets currently assigned to the previous project will be ended as of December 22 at 11:59:59 PM and assigned to the renewal project December 23 at 12:00:00 AM.
Note: assets will linger on the previous project after its term until the renewal starts.
Multiple staggered renewals (starting different dates)
Multiple staggered renewals happen if the previous project is being renewed into multiple projects over multiple days, for example:
Previous project ends on December 15
Renewal project #1 starts December 16
Renewal project #2 starts December 21
In this case the first renewal "wins" the race. At 12:01 AM on December 16, all assets currently assigned to the previous project will be ended as of December 15 at 11:59:59 PM and assigned to renewal project #1 on December 16 at 12:00:00 AM.
Note: assets will never be assigned to the second renewal project and must be manually reassigned if they are being split up from the previous project and spread across multiple renewals.
Multiple coincident renewals (starting the same date)
Multiple coincident renewals happen if the previous project is being renewed into multiple projects that all start on the same day, for example:
Previous project ends on December 15
Renewal project #1 starts December 16
Renewal project #2 starts December 16
In this case Hardfin is unable to determine which renewal "wins" and will take no action. At 12:01 AM on December 16, all assets currently assigned to the previous project will remain assigned and no assets will be assigned to either renewal project.
Note: assets will never be unassigned from the prior project and must be manually reassigned based on how they are being split up from the previous project and spread across the multiple renewals.
Archive a project
Archiving objects 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.
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.
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