Tip 46: View resource allocation while adding or editing tasks
Keeping track of employees workload can be daunting but also necessary. Overloading employees with work can cause burnout and reduce productivity. Managers should be able to identify resources who are less engaged when assigning tasks. This will ensure a balanced workload and also improve employee's efficiency. Zoho Projects lets you identify resources who are available to take up a job when you add or edit a task. Assign the task to team members and the calendar in the Start Date field will display
Tip 37: Time Log Restriction in Zoho Projects
Timesheet in Zoho Projects helps you big time in entering log hours for the tasks and issues and approving them. Now, with the new Time Log Restriction option, you can set daily and weekly log hour limits. You can restrict users from entering extra log hours than the permissible limit. The limits are restricted to 24 hours per day and 168 hours per week by default based on business hours. To customize, navigate to Task & Timesheet settings under Portal Configuration in Zoho Projects setup and enable
Tip of the Week: Task Sorting
I believe that sorting of tasks helps managing the activities in a better fashion. You might second it too . By default, the tasks are listed chronologically. However, you can sort the tasks either by its title, start date, end date, priority, created by and percentage completion. All you have to do is, click the Task Sorting option and select the required criteria. Few points to be noted about task sorting: This option is available in the Classic View only (within My Tasks, Tasks & Milestones section).
Tip #30 - Cloning a project
Sometimes, you'll want to use the same data from an existing project to create a new one. This is usually done by cloning an existing project. We have a simple work around wherein you can create a project template in Zoho Projects and save time recreating the wheel. Using this, it is possible to duplicate the data from an existing project into a new project. When creating a project template select the option "Choose from Projects" and select the project which you want to clone or duplicate to reuse
Tip#28: Project Timeline Gantt in Zoho Projects
Hi Folks! As part of the tips and tricks series, we are back with a tip on Project Timeline Gantt. Here’s how you can use Project Timeline Gantt 1. Prioritize your projects based on percentage completed and focus on the projects that are currently in your pipeline. Hover over the project name to know percentage completed. 2. Visualize your projects on the Gantt plotted for 3 consecutive years - previous year, current year and next year. You can adjust the timeline view from fit to max. 3. Navigate
Tip 36: Budget in Zoho Projects
Are costs escalating? Not sure where your money goes? Project Budget puts you in control... It is now easy to identify the tasks/bugs which exceed the planned cost of the project. Planned cost is the product of work hours and rate per hour (rate specified while creating the project budget). Cost variance is the difference between actual and planned cost. If you are in green then the overall cost is within the budget, red means that the actual cost exceeds the planned cost. If you are in red, juggle
Tip 42: Create multiple layouts for projects
Every project you create has a unique strategy, goals, and functional requirements. To keep your projects on track, it is important to plan your project by defining the scope and requirements, specifying the deliverables, and setting deadlines. In order to do so, project layouts are extremely helpful in establishing your project plans and in capturing specific project details. With Zoho Projects, you can create multiple layouts to capture the unique details of every project. You can create project
Tip #24: Zoho Meeting Integration
We have been constantly working on Zoho Projects to make it more productive for you to organize your projects and manage your team. Businesses around the world always seek to ramp up their potential and their development is emphatically dependent on ideal communication and time management of the team. With this meeting integration, Zoho Projects has made it easy for you to schedule an online meeting to cooperate with your team. Let’s see how this integration helps Helen who works as a manager at
Tip #33: Restricting time logs for past and future dates
Here's a tip on how to restrict users from entering log hours for the past or future dates in the Timesheet. Once timesheets are approved the invoice is generated for the month. If an employee makes changes to the past dates, the changes will reflect in the reports of the subsequent month. Reconciling this data with the previous month's invoice can be confusing and time-consuming. To avoid errors, the users are denied permission to add or edit past hours in the Timesheet by choosing the Don't Allow
Tip 50: Customizing fields and layouts for time logs in Zoho Projects
Dear users, We received many feature requests regarding customized timesheet fields from you. A few of them are highlighted below: "We would like to add a dropdown in a time-log with some custom values in it, preferably connected to a field in a task/issue that sets a default value but can be overwritten." "We have a few projects wherein we want resources to clock hours against specific items. We have multiple sub-projects under a specific client project and would like to capture hours for sub-projects
Tip #21: Customize Task Status in Zoho Projects
Hi folks! We are back again with a tip to help you get the most out of Zoho Projects. This week's tip is on task status customization. Task status helps you determine the progress of the task and keeps you on track with the project. With the new Task status customization option, you can create statuses pertaining to your business requirements in your own terms of progression. For example, if John owns an Industrial design firm, he might need to keep track of the status of the design being developed.
Tip of the Week: Task Dependency (Duration in Hours)
I hope the tip on task dependency helped in understanding how it works in Zoho Projects. In a real-time, the successor task may or may not start on the predecessor's completion date. On either case, a project management tool should allow the users to set dependency between tasks. Ain't it? In Zoho Projects, the Task Duration in Hours option allows the users to set dependency between tasks that ends and starts on the same day. The Portal Owner and Admin role users can activate this option from the
Tip 51: Time log restriction based on work hours
Timesheets are used for tracking time logs of task, issues and approving them. You can control the number of hours a user can log into timesheets. Businesses enter into agreements with their customers that stipulate the number of hours a job can take and the rate at which it is billed. Logging additional hours would mean an increase in billable hours. Zoho Projects lets you restrict time log entries based on work hours (planned hours) allotted for tasks. A user cannot log more than the allotted
Tip 44: Annotator for Zoho Projects
Images can convey any information in a more meaningful manner and sometimes you may want to annotate them for further clarity or better presentation. The annotator allows you to add more context to the images by letting you: Highlight portions of an image Write comments on them Blur or smudge confidential information The annotator option is available when you add attachments in Zoho Projects. You can also try the annotator plugin to capture and work with images from any webpage or screen.
Tip - 45: Custom Views in Zoho Projects
Perspective differs from person to person. Customizing your project makes it unique and helps you implement your own perspective. Besides the predefined views, you can now create your own custom views for Projects, Tasks, and Issue as per your preference. Consider a scenario. Monica owns a construction company and wants to keep track of projects that have exceeded the budget. She chooses Budget Health from the predefined fields and filters the projects with cost overruns. She saves this as a custom
Tip #23: Task Custom View in Zoho Projects
As part of our tips and tricks series on using Zoho Projects, we are back with a tip for this week on task custom view. Perspective is everything! It’s all about what you see and the way you want it to be. We’ve rolled out our new feature that helps you tailor your view with defined conditions. Task custom view is an option with which you can create your own view and scrutinize it with various criteria. Custom views can be advantageous to sort what you see, making it easier to find the most relevant
Tip 49: Summary Email
Important notifications may be lost if your inbox is inundated with emails. You can select a frequency and receive a summary notification email and reduce clutter. Project managers who need to keep track of various activities in their projects, instead of receiving an email for each activity they can receive a consolidated email at a set frequency. All the task and milestone related activities will be consolidated in a single email. Learn more about setting email frequency. Do let us know if you
Tip 41: Global Planned Vs Actual reports in Zoho Projects
The Global Reports helps you big time when you want to assess the progress or if you want information about tasks across all projects. Global Planned Vs Actual is one such report with which you can find the time spent for tasks. To view this report, navigate to Global Reports widget in Zoho Projects Home page. Global Planned Vs Actual report provides the task work hour details of the individual user by distinguishing the work hours planned for the tasks versus the work hours actually spent on the
Tip 47: View dependent tasks and dependency status
Projects can have multiple tasks that need to be carried out in sequence. This results in task dependency, for example an invoice can be sent only if the quote is ready. Therefore, the predecessor task must complete in order for the successor to begin. To take early and proactive action, you should be able to view the dependent tasks. In Zoho Projects, you can see the dependency status in the task details page. You can hover over the status and view all the dependent tasks. Clicking on the individual
Tip 48: Importing subtasks and setting dependencies in XLS, CSV, and JSON files
Importing files from one platform to another is a tedious job and it is necessary to maintain the structure of the modules. You can import XLS/ JSON/ CSV files into Zoho Projects. While importing a XLS/CSV/JSON files, you can now import subtasks and also set dependency between the tasks in the import file. Import Subtasks: Consider a scenario where a project owner has to import a csv file with two tasks "Roof (T8)" and "Setting & Curing (T6)". While importing the file, he must enter the PARENT TASK
Tip 43: Formula custom fields in Zoho Projects
The data associated with projects is enormous. It is almost impossible to evaluate data by inspecting every field. With Zoho Projects, performing complex calculations is easy with Formula Custom Fields. Calculations can be done automatically by calling the values from the specified fields. Consider a scenario where the project owner wants to compute the total cost of inventory. He can create a field for obtaining the cost per unit, the quantity and a custom formula field for finding the product
Tip #31 - Dependency across projects
Dependencies across projects are often inevitable. While launching a product, there is often a myriad of functions to look into. For instance, a product cannot be pitched in the market until all aspects are thoroughly tested. Even as Sales and Testing are two different departments in a company, their tasks might overlap, causing dependency between them. Zoho Projects help you track your tasks easily and assists you in handling dependency a little more better. E.g., you can link the tasks of a Testing
Tip 40: Activity reminder in Zoho Projects
Activity reminders come to the resue when you want to keep track of activities which are pending, overdue, or unassigned. You can customize and receive email reminders for the activities you need to follow up. Navigate to Personal Preferences in Setup and click Activity reminder under Notifications section. You can subscribe to receive email reminders based on the specified frequency. Learn more If you have any questions, do comment below or mail to us support@zohoprojects.com.
Tip 39: In-built chat for tasks and issues in Zoho Projects
Molly, a senior analyst, is stuck on Electrical rough-wire task and is unable to resolve it. Instead of sending mails and delaying the task, Molly decides to start a discussion via the in-built chat channel in task. Her peers responds quickly and help her troubleshoot. People tend to respond immediately on chat, whereas they don't feel compelled to respond to long email threads. Here's what you can do with the in-built chat in task and issue, In the task or issue details page, click and then
Tip 38: Project Custom Section and Custom Status
You can now customize your project layout with new sections, custom fields, and project status. Every project will have a default layout called the Standard Layout. All the projects in the portal will be associated with this layout. Project Information and Budget are the two default sections available in the Standard Layout. These sections consist of the default fields that can neither be edited nor deleted. You can add new sections and fields to the standard layout. How do I customize new sections
Tip 34: Baseline in Zoho Projects
Baseline sets a benchmark for the project and tracks deviation in schedule. It is inevitable to have changes in a project. Create multiple baselines and compare them with your current project schedule. Establish an initial baseline before commencing the tasks. Baseline gives you a clear picture of all open tasks and comes in handy to compare and evaluate the current schedule. Don’t panic about losing track of tasks which delay the original schedule. You can set up multiple baselines and compare
Tip 35: Rejecting time logs in Zoho Projects
Hi, do you know you can reject a time log in Zoho Projects? Points to remember: Whoever has the permission to approve a time log can reject it too. When a time log is rejected, the activity is notified via the Feed, Activity Stream, Email, and Notification panel. A rejected time log will not be listed in the Timesheet view. It can be fetched by filtering the timesheet status. When a rejected time log is edited, its status will be updated to ‘Pending’ automatically and it will be resent for approval.
Tip #32: Deleting a portal
We are back again with a new tip. As part of our GDPR compliance, we have included a delete portal option so that you can delete your portal anytime you wish to discontinue Zoho Projects. There are certain conditions to follow which need to be satisfied before you can delete a portal. This option is available only when, You have removed/deactivated all the users in the portal. You can delete a portal user in the portal settings. Your subscription has been downgraded to the Free plan. Learn more
Tip #29: Manage projects via email
Email has come a long way from being a simple communication tool to an effective work management product. Zoho Projects lets you perform several actions such as: add tasks, comment on tasks and other project activities, post replies to forums and add documents to folders right from your email. Our focus today is on adding tasks to your projects. You will need the task email alias to add tasks to your project. Navigate to Project > Dashboard and click . Copy the email alias under To Add Task. The
Tip#27: Global Add
There are always some impromptu situations where you’d want to add new projects instantly, add tasks in project B while you’re in project A, file issues immediately when they occur, log timesheet while you’re incessantly working on tasks or issues and so on. You can easily handle these situations using Global Add. Add tasks or any modules to the desired project by simply clicking the global add button. Global add is instant, saves time, and is easily accessible from anywhere in Zoho Projects.You
Tip #26: Execute Next Business Rule
Business rules support webhooks. Each business rule can be used to call a webhook when a specific criteria is met. What if you need to call two different webhooks for a matching criteria? Continuing from our Tip #25, lets see how to workaround this limitation using the 'Execute Next Business Rule' option. 1. Create a business rule to 'Update Support Ticket' when a bug is created or updated and set the criteria to match when the status is 'Closed'. Select the "Execute Next Business Rule" option.
Tip #25: Updating Tickets in Desk from Zoho Projects
Customers submitting tickets in Zoho Desk often wonder about its status. Support executives convert the ticket to a bug and it's filed in Zoho Projects. But what next? How do you inform the status to customers or notify them that the bug has been resolved? Business Rules can be used to solve this problem. A Business Rule performs a necessary action when the specific criteria is met. To inform the customer that a ticket has been resolved, a notification can be sent to the user when the bug is closed.
Visual Bug Tracking in Zoho Projects
What is visual bug tracking? You're working on a project and you find an annoying bug that deters the process. How will you report it? - You can track the issue, post it as a bug, and assign a user to fix it. Go back and give the previous sentence another read - "Track the issue", here's where visual bug tracking comes into play. It is the process where you annotate a bug on your page and make it look visually appealing. How does visual bug tracking function in Zoho Projects? We have enabled the visual bug tracking feature using 'Screen Grabber'. Tap the
Tip of the Week: Business Rule
On a daily basis, the QA identifies and files bugs in-addition to other standard activities. As manually entry consumes more time and keeps QA away from performing other activities, it's essential to support automation in any bug tracker module. One of the automation process supported in Zoho Bug Tracker is the Business Rule. We shall see what a Business Rule is and what it does. Business Rule is a type of filter by which the values of a bug can be changed automatically. i.e the severity, status,
Tip of the Week: Task Reminder
A human mind is not so powerful to remember every instance of his/her life and of course forgetfulness is inevitable part of our souls. So we depend on various tools like friend/colleague/diary/machine to be our reminders. And that's why we implemented "Task Reminders", in Zoho Projects, in the month of July 2011 with three options - Daily, One day before the due date and On Due. Now, this feature has been enhanced to a level where the reminder can be set 30 days prior to the task's due date. "How