Costlocker guide
  • GETTING STARTED
    • What is Costlocker and who is it for
    • Registration and Company setup
    • Quick start in 5 steps
      • 1. Add People
      • 2. Create Activities
      • 3. Create Clients
      • 4. Create Projects
      • 5. Time Tracking
    • What's next?
  • Projects
    • Managing a Project
      • Creating a Project
      • Creating a Project by Duplication
      • Auto ID
      • Tags
      • Responsible People
      • Discount on the project
      • Project Billing
      • Finishing a Project
      • Exporting the Budget
      • Locking a Project
    • Recurring project
      • Creating a Recurring Project
      • Working with a Recurring Project
      • Manually Duplicating a Recurring Project
    • Types of Budgets
    • Project Detail
      • Overview
      • Report
      • Alerts
      • Cost Estimate
      • Billing
      • Rates
      • Business Reports
      • Timesheet
      • Notes
    • Project Expenses
      • Project Expenses Report
    • Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours
  • People
    • Adding people
    • User Roles
    • Activating / Deactivating a Person
    • Salary
    • Bonuses
    • Calculating an Employee's Hourly Rate
  • Activities
    • Creating Activities
    • Activating / Deactivating an Activity
  • CLIENTS
    • Creating a Client
    • Activating / Deactivating a Client
    • Setting Default Client Rates
  • Time Tracking
    • Time Tracking
  • Timesheet
    • Daily Time Entry
    • Weekly Time Entry
    • Timesheet Views
      • Summary
      • Day by Day
      • Weekly
      • Live
  • Reports
    • Company Performance
    • Report of Finished Project
    • Workload
    • Business Reports
    • Project Expenses
    • Billing
  • Profitability
  • Your Company
    • Basic Overviews
    • Alerts
    • Overhead Costs
    • Fixed and Monthly Rate
    • Calculation of Overhead Cost per Worked Hour
    • Analysis Cost Allocation in projects
  • Settings
    • My Account
    • Desktop Application
    • Company
    • Groups
    • API
  • Applications
    • MacOS Application
    • Windows application
    • iOS Mobile Application
  • Integrations
    • Integration with Make
    • API
  • Subscription
    • Trial period
    • Switching to a Paid Account
    • Subscription Settings
    • Billing email adress
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On this page
  • 1. Creating a Project
  • 2. Select the Project Type
  • 3. Enter the Project Name
  • 4. Select the Budget Type
  • 5. Choose a Start Date
  • 6. Review the Completed Form
  • 7. Skip Tags
  • 8. Fill in the Budget
  • 9. Fill in Project Expenses
  • 10. Project Summary
  • Project Created
  1. GETTING STARTED
  2. Quick start in 5 steps

4. Create Projects

Previous3. Create ClientsNext5. Time Tracking

Last updated 5 months ago

Adding projects is key to tracking the efficiency of your employees. Projects help you allocate budgets, determine how much time each person should spend on each activity, and monitor progress, ensuring everything is completed on time and within budget.

1. Creating a Project

In the top menu, select the Projects tab and then click on Add New Project on the right.

In this example, we'll start with a simple one-time project, where we create a project budget for the client based on the estimated number of hours.

2. Select the Project Type

This determines whether it's a one-time project or a recurring project.

For detailed information, see the articles Managing project and Recurring project.

3. Enter the Project Name

Enter the project name and assign a client.

Optionally, fill in the project ID, which serves to identify your project. You can use your own number or have it automatically generated by checking the AUTO ID box. For more details, see the article Project ID.

4. Select the Budget Type

The budget type determines not only the final cost of the project but also how revenue is allocated to employees and activities. It affects nearly all reports generated by Costlocker.

  • Time Estimates: The project budget is created based on estimated hours.

  • Fixed Price: The project budget is created by entering fixed prices.

  • Timesheet: The project budget is created retrospectively based on all hours worked.

  • No Budget: Ideal for internal projects.

We recommend reviewing the details in the article Types of Budgets.

5. Choose a Start Date

This helps track when the project starts and when it should end.

  • Project Start: Before this date, people cannot track time on the project.

  • Project End: On this date, the remaining amount is assigned in the project invoicing. More in the article Project Billing.

6. Review the Completed Form

In our example, we're using the Time Estimates budget type:

  • Time Estimates: Invoicing based on estimates and predetermined hourly rates; the budget remains the same regardless of hours worked.

  • Estimate Per Person: Each person is assigned a number of hours to spend on a specific activity.

  • Client Rate by Activity: The same hourly rate for an activity, regardless of who performs it.

Next, click Continue to Tags.

7. Skip Tags

We will skip tags at this point. Click Continue to Budget.

Tags are used primarily in reporting and can be filled in later. More about tags can be found in Tags.

8. Fill in the Budget

Available fields for completion always vary depending on the budget type.

What remains consistent is filling in the activity and the person on the left side of the form.

Now we will fill in the individual activities for our project.

  • We will use the activities created in previous step. (Activities can also be created while setting up the project.)

  • In the table, you will see activities, people, the expected number of hours, and the hourly rate.

  • For the person, select yourself (e.g., David Maralík) so that you can track your time.

  • We chose a zero rate for Account Management to show how non-billable hours are marked.

Activity
Person
Estimated Hours
Client Rate

Design

Jessica Miller

10

$150

Design

<me>

3

$150

Development

Arthur Smith

5

$180

Development

John Jackson

15

$180

Account Management

Margaret Collins

5

$0

Account Management

<me>

3

$0

From the completed budget, we see that a total of 41 hours are to be worked on the project, and we will receive $ 5,550.00 from the client for the work done by the team.

People not assigned within the budget cannot log time on that project.

We can move to the next step by clicking Continue to Project Expenses.

9. Fill in Project Expenses

Project expenses track external purchases associated with the project, such as:

  • Subcontracting freelancers

  • Renting a photo studio

  • Purchasing stock images

  • Outsourcing part of the project

  • Travel expenses related to the project

In our case, we will record the following items.

Name
Purchase Price
Selling Price (Invoiced)

Copywriting

$800

$1200

Traveling costs

$200

$0

Here, we see that the total project expenses is $1,000.00 while our revenue will be $1,200.

We can proceed to the final step by clicking Continue to Summary.

10. Project Summary

In this step, we define the responsible people, selected from the roles of Administrator and Manager.

Confirm the settings by clicking Save, and you will be taken to the project details.

Project Created

Congratulations! You've just created your first project.

You can learn what the numbers mean and how to work with Project Details in Overview .

In the next step, we will look at time tracking ...

Add a project
Project form
Filled Project information form
Project Budget Form
Filled budget form
Project Expenses
Setting of responsible people
Project detail