Scenario: you want to be able to punch in with a task and associate it with a project.
Option: you may even want that project to be associated with a client.
Foreword: some people use XPunch just to track time spent on tasks. Other people’s requirements are a bit more robust and they must juggle working on projects with clients. We try to make our explanations on each topic short; however, this is a particularly complex topic.
Explanation: in the following video, Jamie will walk you through the topics below.
- Create projects & associate them with clients
- Defining which tasks can be used with projects
- Forcing workers to choose a project
- Limiting a task to specific projects
- Limiting a task to specific clients
Let's set the context
To set the context for this, let’s hear from Missy at DogDesign…
Hi and thanks for having us on XPunch. Here at DogDesign we manufacture paper and cardboard solutions. So… you asked for three clients that we have and three projects we’re working on for each of those clients. Well, we’ve partnered with Unilever to provide them with two types of labels as well as work on a project called “Klean-It.” Another client is McDonald’s with its “Try a Fry” project, Monopoly cards, and Goooogle Smoooothies. And, finally, we’re pleased to work with UPS as a client on three different projects: the “jewel” box, the “rugged” box, and the “export” box. |
Here's a chart of what Missy's description looks like:
Introduction
In this video, we’re going to describe how to create projects and how to optionally associate those tasks with clients.
In other words, we’re going to set up XPunch to meet Missy’s client and project requirements. By the time we have finished, we will have set up her three clients and three projects for each of those clients.
If you stay around, we’ll even show ourselves using tasks to punch-in to the projects along with some advanced tricks for associating tasks to projects.
Creating projects & associating them with clients
We start by navigating to the “Configuration” view. Now, some things may have changed since the time this recording is made; however, the general sense will remain the same.
What we are about to do is create the nine projects for DogDesign and, as we go along, we’ll create the clients at the same time.
Let’s begin by clicking on the “Projects” card.
From there, we’ll find the “Add” floating-action button on the screen and click on it. Again, it may have moved location.
And, while we may not be rewarded with a doggie treat, we are rewarded with a “Create project” dialogue.
We’ll enter the name of our first project, you may recall that it was the dish soap label project for Unilever.
Next, we’ll click into the “Client” field and choose Unilever from the list of clients.
But wait, it’s not in the list. That’s because this is the first time we’re using this client. We’ll just click on the client “Create” icon, enter the client’s name, and click “Create.”
The client is added to our list of clients and in the future when we click on this field, we will be able to choose it from our list of clients. There will be no need to create the client each time we create a new project.
Let’s finish creating our dish soap label project and add another Unilever project. We’ll click on the project “Create” button and we see the project added to our list of projects.
Now, we've gone ahead and created the other eight tasks and associated them with their appropriate clients. So, we see in our Projects view that we’ve created our nine projects and that they’re associated with our three clients.
Defining which tasks can be used with projects
We’re not done just yet. We want to define which tasks can be used with a project.
If you want certain tasks to be used with projects, you must let XPunch know within the task itself.
Let’s take a look at this in detail. We’re going to navigate over to the “Tasks” view and select a task that we would like workers to be able to use with a project.
Let’s select this task, Meeting. We’re all too familiar with spending endless hours in meetings.
We’re rewarded with the task dialogue and we want to edit it. We will click on the edit pencil.
Now, what we want to do is change the status of this task to one that will allow it to be associated with projects. To do this, we will click on the projects toggle switch. We will click on the switch and it will change its status. We click on “Update” to confirm our choice.
Now, when we use this task to punch in, we have the option of choosing a project.
Let’s choose to be in on a meeting concerning the Google Smoothie project… namely because I’m curious to see what color that sort of smoothie might be!
Summary
To summarize we’ve just learned how to create projects and associate them with a client, and we’ve learned how to open up a task so that it can be associated with a project.
So, that’s it! We’re done.
Only, we’re not.
You can stop reading now if you’d like, or you can stick around for some advanced features of tasks.
Forcing workers to choose a project
To summarize we’ve just learned how to create projects and associate them with a client, and we’ve learned how to open up a task so that it can be associated with a project.
As a bonus feature, let’s suppose that you have a task that you insist your workers associate with a project. We can do that.
Let’s return back to the “Tasks” view.
Here, we’re going to choose the “Telcon” task. Telcon: short for telephone conversation.
We don’t want workers to be able to choose this task without also choosing a project.
As before, we will edit the task, and we will choose the “Linked to projects” toggle switch.
Except for this time, we will also choose the “Project selection is required” switch as well. This will force our workers to choose a project. They will no longer be able to punch in using this task without also choosing a project.
Limiting a task to specific projects
Now, what if we wanted to limit which projects our workers could choose for this task?
We can do that, too.
We can click into the “Projects” field and choose which projects this task is eligible for.
Now, when workers choose this task, it will only work for the specific projects that we mention here.
Limiting a task to specific clients
Now, someone with a lot of questions might ask, yes, but what if we just wanted to associate a task with a client. Maybe our group doesn’t have the concept of projects, just clients. What do we do?
Well, we can handle that situation, too.
In the exact same way that you can associate tasks with projects, you can do the same with clients.
Here, we will make sure that the “Linked to projects” toggle switch is not selected and then we will select “Linked to clients”
And there you have it. I don’t think it’s possible to ask any more questions about setting up tasks to work with projects and clients. But, if I’m wrong, be sure to reach out to us on the XPunch knowledgebase.
Oh, and by the way, the colour of that smoothie? It was red, and it was available for a limited time, only in San Francisco.
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