Using the summary bar to monitor a one-off project's progress

Effective project management requires more than static numbers—it demands real-time insights, clarity over how the project progresses throughout the timeline, and proactive controls to correct the course before facing real issues.  

The summary bar in the project detailed view is a powerful tool for tracking project health and progress at a glance. You can customize the metrics shown on the bar for any project type.

However, the summary bar for one-off projects also includes the following functionalities that make it easier to identify risks quickly and take proactive action timely:

• Enable trend lines for metrics to show 7-day trends, helping you detect early warning signs, such as declining profitability or stalled progress, and act before issues escalate.
• Set up watchdogs to get automatic email alerts when key financial or operational thresholds are reached, eliminating the need to monitor these project metrics manually every day.

This article focuses on the summary bar for one-off projects. Learn more about the summary bar for retainer projects.

1. Customizing metrics in the summary bar

You can easily customize the metrics you want to see in the summary bar of your one-off project by doing the following:

1. Click the three-dot button on the left side of the summary bar
2. Tick or untick the checkboxes to select the metrics to show on the summary bar
3. Click Apply to save your preferences.

If your permission set is updated and certain metric(s) can’t be accessed, the summary bar will show the default set of metrics:

• Used hours + % of total
• Remaining hours
• Used budget EUR + % of total
• Remaining days
• Overdue tasks
• Earned revenue + % of budgeted

Below are all the time, monetary, and progress metrics you can add to your project’s summary bar and what each of them takes into account:

Time metrics

The time metrics are shown only if a time budget is set for the project:

• Used hours – shows the hours you've already spent on a project.
  • If you've set a time budget for the project, you also see another metric right below it, which helps you understand what percent of the time budget is now used up by the spent hours.
  • The completed hours are divided by the budgeted hours.
• Remaining hours – the number of hours you have left to use for the project/filtered period, with the percentage of budgeted hours shown below.
  • Completed hours are subtracted from the total hours budgeted for the project.
  • A negative value indicates you have exceeded your time budget.

Monetary metrics

• Actual cost - your actual costs based on the work you have completed and planned ahead.
• Used budget – the amount you have spent from the budget based on the work you've completed.
• Forecasted profit margin - the estimated percentage of revenue that will remain as profit after all projected costs and expenses are deducted.
  • You'll see this metric only if you have permission to see labor costs.
• Forecasted budget at completion - the amount that is estimated to be spent from the budget based on the work you have completed and planned ahead.
• Forecasted cost at completion - your actual costs based on the work you have completed and planned ahead.
• Earned revenue – the amount you have earned from the work you have delivered to the client
  • If you’ve enabled the ‘Include bills and expenses' toggle in the project modify view, then any bills and expenses are also included in this calculation.

Progress metrics

• Remaining days – the number of work days left for the project.
  • Compare it with the used hours and earned revenue to evaluate progress.
  • If your site also includes weekends in the workweek, the remaining days counter will consider weekend days.
  • This metric shows up only if an end date for the project is set.
• Overdue tasks – the number of overdue tasks for the project.

2. Enabling metric trend lines

To add context to the numbers shown on the metric cards, you can enable trend lines to see a trend line from the past week’s data. This can help you assess whether your budget, profitability, and work progress are following a healthy trajectory.

To enable a trend line for a metric:

1. Hover over the metric you want to add the trend line to and click the gear icon
2. Enable the Show trend line for the past 7 days toggle
3. Click Save.

Once enabled, the metric card will show a trend line, and changes in the trend will be displayed as a percentage.

3. Setting up Watchdog alerts

You can set up Watchdogs to monitor specific project metrics in the summary bar and receive an email notification if they exceed a certain threshold.

To set up a Watchdog for a metric:

1. Hover over the metric card and click the gear icon
2. Tick the Notify by e-mail checkbox
3. Select the watchdog condition and enter the value
4. Click Save. 

Once your alert is saved, the metric card will show a grey watchdog icon.

Watchdog monitors the changes in the metric hourly. As soon as the conditions match, you’ll receive an email notification immediately. The notification email contains a link to the project so you can react right away.

If an alert was triggered and a notification was sent, the watchdog icon on the metric card will be orange.