How can companies and contractors use Projects?

Projects help companies organize contractor work, assign team members, track spend, and connect time entries and invoices to a specific project. This article explains how companies create and manage Projects and how contractors use Projects in time tracking and invoicing.

Projects support Contractor Management and Contractor Management Plus. Companies can also add Contractor of Record (COR) contractors to a Project. However, COR contractors cannot link a Project to their invoices or time entries.

What information can a company add to a Project?

When creating a Project, a company can add:

• A Project name and code
• A required start date and an optional end date
• A description
• One or more Project leads
• An optional budget and currency
• Contractors or employees as team members

The budget currency defaults to the company's desired currency.

How does a company create a Project?

1. Go to Projects and select Add project.
2. Enter the Project name, code, start date, and optional end date.
3. Add an optional description and budget.
4. Assign one or more Project leads.
5. Choose whether contractors or employees will work on the Project.
6. Add the relevant team members.
7. Review the details and create the Project.

A company can also add or remove team members after creating the Project. Assigned contractors receive an in-app notification and an email.

How does a company manage and track Projects?

The Projects page shows each Project's status, total invoiced amount, and last activity. When a Project has a budget, Remote displays the approved invoiced amount in the Project's budget currency so the company can compare spend with the budget.

Companies can also:

• Filter Projects by active, completed, or canceled status
• Filter the contractor or employee list by Project
• Open a Project details drawer
• View Project membership changes on the timeline
• Filter invoices by Project

How does a company change a Project's status?

Use the actions menu on the Projects page to complete, cancel , reactivate, or delete a Project.

A company can delete a Project only when it has no invoices and no time entries associated with it. If invoices are linked to the Project, complete or cancel it instead. Removing a contractor from a Project does not remove the Project from historical invoices.

Completed and canceled Projects are no longer available for new contractor time entries or invoices. Reactivate the Project to make it available again to assigned contractors.

Which Projects can a contractor use?

A contractor can select only Projects that are both active and assigned to them. Assigned Projects also appear in the contractor's Profile under the Job tab.

If a Project is completed or canceled , the contractor can no longer select it for new time entries or invoices.

How does a contractor add a Project to a time entry?

When recording time, the contractor selects a Project from the Project dropdown. The dropdown includes only active Projects assigned to that contractor.

Remote validates the selection when the contractor saves the entry. The contractor cannot save an unknown or unassigned Project. They also cannot add time to dates already covered by an existing invoice.

How does a contractor create an invoice for a Project?

If the contractor has at least one active, assigned Project, the Project selector appears when they create an invoice and is required. One invoice can be connected to only one Project.

The contractor can create either of the following:

• Enter manually: When asked How do you want to add your billable items?, select Enter manually. Select one Project, then add one or more manual line items. Selecting a Project makes the invoice one-time, so it cannot recur, and expenses are not available for that invoice.
• Use time tracking: Select one Project and a date range. Remote includes only time entries for that Project within the selected dates.

Project budgets do not define contractor rates.

How do invoices work when a contractor has multiple Projects?

If a contractor records time for more than one Project during the same period, they must create a separate invoice for each Project. They can also create a separate invoice for time that is not connected to any Project.

Invoices for different Projects can cover the same date range. Invoices for the same Project cannot overlap, which helps prevent the contractor from invoicing the same Project twice for the same period.

If the contractor creates an invoice without selecting a Project, Remote includes only time entries that are not connected to a Project.