Creating, modifying and deleting projects

You can create three types of projects in Scoro:

• One-off projects
• Retainers
• Internal projects

This article will walk you through a one-off project setup.

1. Creating a new one-off project

One-off projects can be created in two ways:

• From scratch – add a new project from any view in Scoro using the quick action buttons in the top right corner. Alternatively, open the Project module and click the New button.
  
• From a quote – open the quote detailed view and click the Create project button. For more guidance, see our Turning a quote into a project guide.

Whichever way you’re creating the new one-off project, the project modify view will open, with three tabs for setting up the following:

• Project settings
• Budget settings
• Phases and milestones

1.1. Project settings

The Project settings tab is home to all general project settings and data.

You can start creating the project using a project template – simply select the necessary template from the Use project template dropdown field. Selecting a template overrides any details you had entered beforehand, so always start by choosing the template and then modifying the details!

Set the project type to One-off.

As you're creating the project, you'll be set as the project manager by default, but you can click on your avatar to change it to another team member. 

Then, add the project members by clicking on the Add members icon next to the project manager's avatar and selecting the team members. If you’ve created the project from the quote and the quote lines had specific team members assigned, they’ll be automatically added to the project. 

You'll be able to add the Customer Portal users from the project detailed view after the project is created. 

Enable the Members only toggle if the project should not be accessible to anyone outside of the project members. If you don’t tick that box, the project can be accessed by all users with the right to view other projects. This right can be granted or limited by the site administrator with the help of permission sets.

Select the Client you want to link the project to. You can click the Add a new contact option in the dropdown field if you want to add a new client while creating your one-off project.

If the project isn’t work-related or you wish to keep it private, set the category to Private. Private projects can be accessed only by you and other project members (if added), and they aren't considered in reporting. Other users and site administrators will only see the status of your project and the title as Personal.

If your site has multiple entities and you want to share the project between them, expand the Entities section and enable the toggles for the entities you want to share the project with.

If project tags are used on your site, you can expand the Project tags section and tick the necessary tag(s) for your new project.

Project tags make project filtering and reporting easier. You can manage your project tags under Settings > Site settings > Tags and relations. 

Next, go to the Budget settings tab to fill out the budget details. 

1.2. Budget settings

The Budget settings tab lets you set your project’s budget. There are three main sections of settings you can customize as needed:

• Budget source
• Revenue model
• Budget setup

Budget source

The Budget source section of the Budget settings tab lets you choose where your budget comes from:

• Use quoted amounts: If you created the project from a quote, Scoro will fill in the budget and cost fields—Total hours, Total budget, Labor cost—based on the quote. You can still modify the Total hours value or use the Set manually budget source option instead if you don’t want to use the quoted values.
  
• Set manually: Use this option to set the budget details manually:
  • Time budget: Enter the hours of work you will do for the client in the Total hours field. This will allow you to monitor logged hours against this budgeted total as the project progresses, avoiding overservicing and negotiating more hours with the client when needed.
  • Monetary budget: Enter the sum you expect to receive from the client for the work you do in the Total budget field. As the project progresses, you can track how much of it you have already earned based on the work you’ve completed.
  • Cost budget (optional): If you also want to define the cost budget, enable the Add estimate costs toggle and enter the expected cost values in the additional Bills, Expenses, and Labor cost fields. This will let you track your actual internal and external costs against the estimates to see if you manage to stick to the expected profit margins.
    

Revenue model

The Revenue model section of the Budget settings tab lets you select the revenue model for your project, which determines how revenue is recognized and the role of the project budget. You can choose between three revenue models:

• Fixed fee: Revenue is recognized based on the fixed project budget, regardless of actual time spent.
• Time & Material capped: Revenue is recognized based on actual time and materials, up to a defined maximum cap. The project budget is the ceiling.
• Time & Material uncapped: Revenue is recognized based on actual time and materials with no maximum limit. The budget is used as a reference for planning, but has no effect on revenue, forecasts, or recognition.

For more information on how the chosen revenue model works and its impact on revenue and forecasting, see our Project revenue models guide.

Budget setup

In the Budget setup section of the Budget settings tab, you can further control the following budget settings:

• Counting pass-through cost as revenue: If you outsource services (for example, use freelancers, print project-related materials, etc.), use the Count pass-through cost as revenue toggle to determine how earned revenue is calculated on the project summary bar:
  • When enabled, outsourced services are included in the earned revenue at their full selling price.
  • When disabled, only the margin is counted as earned revenue.
• Price lists: Use the Price list dropdown to choose which price list to apply to the project. If you’re creating a project from a quote, it will use the quote's price list.
• Revenue calculation: If you’re creating a project from a quote, the revenue calculation will automatically use the pricing method used in the quote. However, if you’re creating the project from scratch, you can choose whether to use role or service prices for revenue calculation:
  • Choose role prices if your hourly selling price depends on who delivers the work. The logged hours are multiplied by the selling price set for the user role to which the team member who performed the work is assigned. For example, a Senior Copywriter logs 10 hours of work. The selling price of a Senior Copywriter is 120 EUR/hour. The resulting revenue is 10 x 120 = 1200 EUR.
  • Use service prices if your hourly selling price depends on the service, not the person who delivers the work. The logged hours are multiplied by the service's selling price linked with the activity type. For example, a Senior Copywriter logs 10 hours of work. The selling price of the copywriting service is 100 EUR/hour. The resulting revenue is 10 x 100 = 1000 EUR.

1.3. Phases and milestones

The Phases and milestones tab in the project modify view lets you set your project’s phases to structure your project into goal-oriented sections, add important milestones to track goals, and add task bundles. If you’re using a project template with phases, milestones, and task bundles, you’ll see them in this tab, and you can make any changes to them if necessary.

To add a new project phase from this tab:

1. Click the Add phase button.
2. Enter the phase name. You can also specify the start and end dates (it's optional).

You can also effortlessly set up a waterfall project using the Back-to-back phases toggle. It automatically creates finish-to-start dependencies between project phases and milestones. Learn more about task dependencies.

To add a new milestone from this tab:

1. Click the Add milestone button.
2. Enter the name of the milestone and set the date of the milestone.

To add a task bundle:

1. Click the Add task bundle button right below a phase to nest them under it, or at the very bottom of the screen to add them as standalone tasks.
2. Select the required task bundle from the dropdown field.

2. Modifying a project

If you're in the project list view, click on the project number or project icon to enter the modify view.

If you're in the project detailed view, you can click the Modify details or Modify budget buttons to edit the project or budget settings. You can switch between the two tabs.

After the one-off project is created, you can add and manage the following:

• Phases and milestones
• Tasks and task bundles
• Project start and due dates
• Customer Portal users

2.1. Managing phases and milestones

To add and modify phases and milestones from the project detailed view:

1. Open the task list tab in the project detailed view.
2. Click the three-dot icon next to the Add task button and select Modify phases.
3. Click the Add phase and Add milestone buttons to add phases and milestones to your project as needed. You can specify the start and end dates for phases (this is optional) and the start dates for milestones. When ready, save the changes.

2.2. Adding tasks and task bundles

If you've created your project from a quote, the system will prompt you to create tasks from the quote line items.

Learn more about adding and managing tasks in the project task list and using task bundles.

2.3. Modifying the project start and due dates

You can modify the project start and end dates right from the project header without going into the modify view:

1. Click on the project time frame dates
2. Select the new project start or end dates
3. If you're modifying a one-off project and have already planned out some project tasks, scoped out resources, and placed some bookings before the project timeline changes, tick the Bookings and Phases and tasks to shift these items according to the new project start date while keeping the same spacing between all items.

The new start and due dates for the shifted phases and tasks may fall on weekends, depending on your settings under Settings > Work and projects > Projects:

• If weekends are included in the workweek, tasks and phases can fall on the weekends.
• If weekends are excluded, the dates will move to the nearest weekday (Saturday to Friday, Sunday to Monday).

2.4. Adding Customer Portal users

If you’ve set up a Customer Portal, you can add Customer Portal users to the project from the project detailed view:

1. Click on the Add members icon (if there are no project members added yet) or on the project member avatar(s) in the project header. 
2. Select the necessary Customer Portal members and click Apply.

3. Deleting a project

To delete a one-off, retainer, or internal project:

1. In the project detailed view, click the Modify details or Modify budget button
2. Click the trash bin icon and confirm your choice.

4. Frequently asked questions

How do project IDs work? Can I use the same project ID for multiple projects?

When creating a new project, Scoro checks the last project number (otherwise called the project ID) used and adds +1 on top of it.

By default, the project number isn't a unique field, meaning that you can use the same project number for multiple projects. If needed, you can make the project number a unique field in the mandatory and unique field settings:

1. Go to Settings > Site settings > Mandatory and unique fields
2. Click the plus icon on the Projects row
3. Select Project No.
4. Click Save.

Can I duplicate a project?

While it is not possible to duplicate an existing project in Scoro, you can consider the following:

• Export the project from the project list by ticking the checkbox next to the project and clicking the Export button (data exporting permission is required). Then, modify the exported project file as needed and import it on your site.
• Create a project template if you will need to create similar projects in the future.