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
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.
The timeline view supports full vertical scrolling, allowing you to expand the timeline section to view more projects at once. You can scroll vertically through the timeline to see all your projects in chronological order, making it easier to navigate large project lists.
Table view
In the table view you will see a table with each project's name, affiliated customer, timeline/dates, workflow stage, associated locations, and fulfillment status.
The workflow stage column provides visual progress indicators showing the current stage of each project within its workflow. This column displays:
Stage indicators - Visual progress markers showing completed, current, and upcoming stages
Stage information - Current workflow stage name and position
Sortable data - Click the column header to sort projects by workflow stage progression
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. 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:
The project details page continues with information about product line items and billing:
Details are also available on asset assignment and the project asset assignment history:
Finally, the project details page include subsections for commercial information (billing/invoicing), project notes (text comments), attachments (files and links), and project time and 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 set up API access. For additional options, 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.
Date range shortcuts
When setting project dates, you can use convenient date range shortcuts for common time periods. These shortcuts automatically calculate the correct start and end dates:
Last 30 days - Sets range from 30 days ago to today
Last 3 months - Sets range from 3 months ago to today
Last 6 months - Sets range from 6 months ago to today
Last 12 months - Sets range from 12 months ago to today
Date range shortcuts ensure accurate date calculations and help you quickly set up projects for standard time periods.
Update core project information
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
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.
Manage product line items on a project
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
Read more about managing product line items and line-item billing for a project.
Manage project workflows
It's easy to track project workflows and stages right from the main project details page. Workflows help manage a project through the stages from start to completion. You can create custom workflows with multiple stages and track project progress through each stage. Project workflows are enabled across your organization, and can be turned on or off for each project.
Read more about project workflows in Hardfin.
Asset assignment
Asset assignment allows organizations to change the project that each asset is associated with. Read more about assignments, how they work, and why they are important.
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).
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 fulfillment
The Fulfillment tab provides comprehensive tracking of asset fulfillment for each project. This tab shows detailed information about requested quantities, filled quantities, and fulfillment status broken down by each product type.
Sometimes a project includes multiple line items that cover the same product for different prices, locations, etc. The fulfillment view consolidates this information to view the project's fulfillment status by product.
Understanding fulfillment metrics
Requested: The total quantity needed for the project across all line items
Filled: Assets currently assigned to fulfill the request
Need: Remaining quantity required (Requested quantity less Filled quantity)
Overage: Extra assets assigned beyond the requested amount
The fulfillment tab centralizes all project fulfillment information, making it easy to track project completion status and identify any gaps in asset assignments.
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 notes
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.
Manage project tickets
Tickets can be attached to a project records by opening a new ticket on the project tickets tab. This makes it easy to track necessary actions related to the project, such as install, repair, or follow-up.
Manage project files and links
Files and links 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.
Manage project time and costs
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.
Read more about project time tracking and costing in Hardfin.
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).
Read more about renewing projects and handling automatic renewals.
Archive a project
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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