Create a project

A project is a job with a budget and a customer. Everything else — tasks, time, material, bills — attaches to it, which is what makes profitability a report rather than an exercise.

Steps

1. Go to Projects → All projects and choose New.
2. Name it and pick the customer.
3. Set the budget and the start and end dates.
4. Set the owner — the person answerable for it.
5. Choose the billing type: fixed, or time and material.
6. Save.

Adding tasks

1. Open the project and go to Tasks.
2. Add tasks with an assignee and a due date.
3. Use subtasks for anything that needs breaking down.
4. Set dependencies where one task cannot start until another finishes — this is what makes a slip visible early.

Milestones

A milestone marks a stage that matters — a delivery, an approval, a billing point. Completing one can trigger a bill, which is how stage billing stops depending on somebody remembering.