Create Engagement Contract and Project Wizard

Projector's easy-to-use wizard allows you to create an Engagement, Contract Line Items, and a Projects all at once. An engagement represents a contract. You create Contract Line Items underneath to represent the terms of this contract. You'll then create projects under those Contract Line Items to deliver on the terms.

The wizard also allows you to base a new engagement upon an existing engagement. Clone the underlying contracts and projects to quickly create new engagements.

Additional Resources

You can learn more about creating Engagements, Contract Line Items and Projects in Projector Web by watching this webinar August 2020 Release Overview. [Go to 5:11]

The wizard can be reached from Topics | Engagements, Topics | Contract Line Items and Topics | Projects.

Permissions and Settings

To create an engagement, contract, or project you need:

When using With a Copy you still need proper permissions. For example, if you copy  scheduled hours then you need permission to schedule resources. In other words, if you can't do something manually you can't do it via copy project to get around that. 

Top copy rates, task types, or task plans you must have one of the following permissions:

Because many permissions come into play when copying, we won't go through all of them here. Just use the basic tenants described above to understand the system. 

When cloning a non-billable project into a billable engagement, some special things happen. Non-Billable projects have no concept of rates or revenue routing. In fact, if you go to the rates tab on a non-billable project you'll find no rate card information. Similarly, if you go to the Advanced Setup tab, the Time Revenue and ODC Revenue columns are grayed out. So when you turn a non-billable into a billable engagement, what happens with these three fields?

  • Rates tab - in step 2 of the clone wizard, you'll need to specify a specific rate card
  • Advanced Setup tab - we look at the new project's engagement type and apply the default settings from the accounting subtab


Create Method

Choose between New and With a Copy. For New engagements you are asked to specify Client, Cost Center, Engagement Type, and Engagement Currency. For With a Copy we prepopulate these fields based on the source engagement.

The With a Copy option displays the source engagement's tree structure with all contract items and projects. Select the ones you wish to copy. 

 

FieldDescription
Client

New - select a client

Copy - defaults to the cloned engagements client. Optionally specify a different client.

If the client does not exist yet navigate to Clients and create one

Cost CenterAvailable cost centers are active and enabled for engagements
Engagement TypeYour engagement type sets default contract terms and default project settings
Engagement CurrencyYou cannot change the currency after creating an engagement. If you chose the wrong currency then you will need to start over. Cloning and then transferring time/expense over is often the easiest way.

Click Next

Define New Engagement

This tab is identical for the New and With a Copy options. 

FieldDescription
Engagement Name

New - enter a name

Copy - prepends 'Copy of' to source engagement name

Engagement CodeTypically auto-populates based on your Numbering Schemes. Optionally manually enter a code.
Engagement Manager

New - defaults to person creating the engagement

Copy - defaults to original engagement's manager

Engagement Stage

Defaults to first engagement stage

Click Next

Define New Contract Line Items

Here you define your contract terms. If you are copying multiple contract line items you'll scroll through each one to set terms.




FieldDescription
Contract Line Item NameDefaults to engagement name
Contract Line Item CodeTypically auto-populates based on your Numbering Schemes. Optionally manually enter a code.
Contract Type

New - defaults based on Engagement Type

Copy - defaults based on cloned CLI

Choose Custom if you want to set your own terms.

Available types come from the Contract Types Editor. If your new engagement type is non-billable you'll be locked into custom, non-chargeable terms.

Time Contract Terms

Comes from the Contract Type. See Contract Types Editor to learn more about the terms we offer. Some contract terms offer additional options.

Fixed Price,

Cost Contract TermsComes from the Contract Type. See Contract Types Editor to learn more about the terms we offer.
Time Contract AmountOnly shown for Not to Exceed and Fixed Price contracts.

Additional Options

Some contract terms offer additional parameters. See table below for an explanation.

Additional FieldAvailable to Contract TermsDescription
Time Contract Amount

Fixed Price, Percent Complete

Fixed Price, Revenue Schedule

Simply the agreed amount to deliver this contract

Revenue Earn by Date

Fixed Price, Percent Complete

Not to Exceed

In the event there are no scheduled hours, Projector assumes any revenue remaining to be recognized will occur before this date
HoldbackFixed Price, Percent Complete

Specify either a percentage or a fixed amount of holdback. Holdbacks are typically used when you want to recognize a portion of revenue when the contract is completed rather than based on entirely upon percent complete.

Cap

Not to Exceed

Not to Exceed Hard Cap

The agreed amount that you will not go over




Define New Projects

Here you define your project settings. If you are copying multiple projects you'll scroll through each one to set the fields.

FieldDescription
Project Name

New - enter a name

Copy - 'Copy of' is prepended to the source project's name

Project CodeTypically auto-populates based on your Numbering Schemes. Optionally manually enter a code.
Project Manager

New - defaults to the person creating the project

Copy - defaults to the source project's manager

Project Stage

New - defaults to first Project Stage

Copy -

Project Start Date
Location
Rate Card
Contract Discount %
Billing Adjusted Discount %



Set Copy Options

For With a Copy this additional tab is shown. The options apply to all copied projects. Explanations of the fields are in the table below.


CategoryFieldDescription
Project AccountingCopy bill rates / Use default rates

Copy bill rates - copy from Project - Rates. Unavailable to non-billable engagement types

Use default rates - use the rate card set on the Client. If there is no rate card set then it comes from the engagement's Cost Center


Copy rate types and task types

Unavailable to non-billable engagement types

Rate types come from Project - Rates

Task types come from Project - Task Types


Copy billing milestonesBilling milestones come from Contract Line Item - Milestones

Copy cost plansCost plans come from Project Cost Planning Tab

Copy budget baselinesBudgets come from Project - Budgets. All time and cost baselines are copied.
Resource SchedulingCopy roles as

Roles come from Project - Roles

Requested/Booked - see Scheduling Overview to learn more about requested vs booked


When copying

Copy hours - dependent upon the copy roles option you chose. Only available if you have permission to request/schedule. Will copy hours from the Project - Schedule tab.

Make roles unnamed - any role assigned to a resource will now be unnamed

Project ManagementCopy task planTask plans come from the Task Plan Tab. Disabled if there is an inactive Standard Task Type or a restricted Standard Task Type

Copy documentsDocuments come from Workspace Documents

Copy issuesIssues come from Workspace Issues
MiscAdvanced/DelayChanges the project's Start Date

Send EmailEmails are sent as soon as you click Create
Advance/Delay Contract Line Item and Project Dates

Select a new date. The following dates will be rolled forward to correspond with the changed dates:

  • Revenue Earned by Date
  • Project Begin Date
  • Project End Date
  • Role Start Date
  • Role End Date
  • Requested/Scheduled Hours

In the even that a roll forward results in an invalid date, then you'll have to choose a different one. For example, if rolling scheduled hours forward resulted in hours starting on Saturday then we would not do it.

What else is copied

These additional settings are copied from the source project. They cannot be changed at the time of copy unlike the settings above.

Project TabEntity
Engagement - User Defined FieldsAll UDFs
Engagement - Budgets

Time baseline

Cost baseline

Project - Project SetupPercent Likelihood
Project - Project SetupProject Location
Project - Project SetupStart Date???
Project - Project SetupEnd Date???
Project - Project SetupHours/Day
Project - Project SetupProject Description
Project - Project SetupProject Management Team
Project - Project SetupPurchase Order Number
Project - WorkflowsTime entry restrictions
Project - WorkflowsExpense entry restrictions
Project - WorkflowsDefault Scheduling Mode
Project - WorkflowsEnable Detailed Task Management (DTM)
Project - WorkflowsEnable Project Workspace
Project - User Defined FieldsAll UDFs
Project - RatesRate Types
Project - Budgets

All time baselines

All cost baselines

WorkspaceAll settings
AccountingAll Settings



What isn't copied

Unfortunately not everything can be cloned. Some settings which must be unique cannot be copied, for example the Project Code. In addition, the following items are not cloned.

  • Invoices
  • Time Cards (but they can be transferred to the new project)
  • Cost Cards (but they can be transferred to the new project)
  • Notes from the Notes tab
  • Allocation Notes on individual days or weeks



Review projects

After creating your project(s), you'll be taken to Topics |  Plan | Projects. Each of your new projects are shown.