Projects and Customers

Time tracking uses three levels:

  • Customer: The organization the work is for. A customer can be an external client or an internal department.
  • Project: A unit of work for a customer, such as an engagement, a contract, or an internal initiative.
  • Worklog: One time entry on a project.

Every worklog records a project. Windshift uses the default time project for the work item or workspace when you log time from a work item. The project can belong to a customer.

A time project is separate from a workspace. A workspace holds work items and delivery views. A time project is the unit that worklogs book against. A team can book time on a time project while the related work items live in a workspace.

Customers

A customer is a customer organization. Use customers to group the projects and worklogs for one client or department.

A customer has these fields:

Field Description
Name The organization name. Required.
Email A contact address.
Description Notes about the organization.
Active Inactive customers stay in reports and are hidden from new selections.
Avatar A logo or image for the organization.
Custom fields Extra fields that apply to customer organizations.

Customer managers and members

A customer organization has managers and members. You can assign a user or a group to each role.

  • Manager: Can manage the organization and view its related data.
  • Member: Can view the organization.

A global administrator assigns the first manager. See Permissions.

Project categories

A category groups related projects, for example by department or by contract type. A category has a name, a description, a color, and a display order.

A workspace can link to one or more project categories. The links control which categories appear for the workspace.

Projects

A project is the unit that worklogs book against. Create one project for each engagement, contract, or internal initiative.

A project has these fields:

Field Description
Name The project name. Required.
Description Notes about the project.
Status Active, On Hold, Completed, or Archived.
Customer The customer the project belongs to. Optional.
Category The category that groups the project. Optional.
Hourly rate The rate for the project. Reports can use the rate to calculate cost.
Max hours A budget in hours. Reports show the booked total and the percentage of the budget.
Color A color for the project in lists and reports.

Only projects with the status Active accept new worklogs. Change the status of a finished project to stop new bookings and keep the existing worklogs.

Project managers and members

A project has managers and members. You can assign a user or a group to each role.

  • Manager: Can edit the project, manage its members, and view all worklogs for the project.
  • Member: Can book time on the project and view their own worklogs.

The defaults depend on the assignments:

  • If a project has no members, any user can book time on the project.
  • If a project has members, only members can book time on it.
  • If a project has no managers, only global administrators can manage it. Users with the Manage Time Projects permission can also manage it.

Worklogs and reports

Each worklog records the project and the customer. Reports group worklogs by project, by customer, by member, and by date range.

The Project report mode shows all worklogs for the projects you manage. The Personal report mode shows your own worklogs. See Logging Time.

Permissions

Permission Allows
project.manage Create and edit projects and categories.
customers.manage Create and edit customer organizations.
time:read View projects and worklogs.
time:write Create and update worklogs.
time:delete Delete worklogs.

The Manage Time Projects permission lets a user manage all time projects and worklogs, including projects without a manager.