Projects

🔍 What is the Project Module?

The Project Module in DaaiSuite is the work-unit container you bill against. Every project is linked to exactly one Client, classified by Type / Category / Status, and surfaces a per-project Statement that rolls up every Proforma, Invoice, Payment, Credit Note, and Refund raised against it.

A project record is created once and reused for every future Proforma, Invoice, Recurring Invoice, Payment, or Credit Note that you raise in Project Invoice mode. All client details, currency, and GST routing are inherited from the linked Client at the moment the document is created.

🔑 Key Features

• One Project ↔ One Client — every project belongs to exactly one client, so the project’s billing currency, address, and GST routing are inherited from that client.
• Estimated Cost guard-rail — a budgeted ceiling captured at creation. When you later convert a Proforma into an Invoice and the project’s already-invoiced + new-invoice total would exceed this estimate, DaaiSuite shows a confirmation popup so you can stop or proceed knowingly.
• Project Statement Tab — a built-in tab showing every financial interaction tied to this project: Billable Items, Invoices, Payments, Credit Notes, Refunds, and a full Outstanding / Cash Balance Ledger.
• Editable Classification — Project / Job Type, Category, and Status values are all managed under Settings → Dropdown Settings, so admins can extend or rename them without a release. Custom statuses can carry their own colours and icons.
• Project Owner — assign a team member as the responsible owner. The dropdown only lists users who hold the Projects module permission. Resigned users still appear when you are editing an existing project (so historic ownership stays intact).
• Currency Inherited from Client — there is no separate Project Currency field. All Proformas, Invoices, Payments, and Credit Notes raised against this project automatically use the client’s billing currency.
• Direct Billing Without a Project — Invoices, Proformas, and Recurring Invoices each offer a Client Invoice mode for ad-hoc one-off sales — see the Invoice and Proforma Invoice guides.
• Bulk Import — use the Import button to download an Excel sample, fill in your existing project list (including Estimated Cost), validate, and import in one go.
• Document Attachments — attach SOWs, contracts, briefs, or design files. Files appear as compact doc-chips on the project view with quick Open / Download actions.
• Change Logs — every edit is captured at form submit and viewable from the Logs tab inside the project (visible to roles with the Changelog permission).

📂 Relation with Other Modules

• Client Module — every project must be linked to a client. The client’s currency, state, GST routing, and address all flow downstream into every document raised under the project.
• Billing Module — Proformas, Invoices, Recurring Invoices, Payments, and Credit Notes can all attach to a project (or skip it via Client Invoice mode).
• User Module — drives the Project Owner dropdown. Only users with Projects module permission appear; resigned users still appear when editing existing records.
• Settings → Dropdown Settings — manage Project Type, Project Category, and Project Status options.
• Reports — the PnL, Sales, and Revenue reports support date-range filtering and By Customer slicing, which transitively rolls up everything billed under that client’s projects.

💱 Currency

Currency lives on the Client, not on the Project. All Proformas, Invoices, Payments, and Credit Notes raised against this project automatically use the client’s billing currency, so there is no separate Project Currency field on the Create / Edit form.

✅ Prerequisite: A client profile must exist before creating a project. If you also want non-INR billing on the project, set the Currency on the Client first (under Billing → Clients) — that is the value the project, and every document under it, will inherit.

🛠️ How to Create a Project

You can create a project manually from the Project Module, or in bulk via Excel import.

1️⃣ Manual Creation (From Project Module)

📍 Screen: Billing → Projects → click Add (top-right). The Add Project aside opens on the right — that aside is the screen where you fill in the fields below.

🔹 Project Details

⚠️ Estimated Cost guard-rail

When you later convert a Proforma → Invoice against this project, DaaiSuite checks whether (already-invoiced amount + the new invoice’s amount) would exceed this Estimated Cost. If it does, a confirmation popup appears: “You are trying to create invoice more than estimated project amount. Do you want to continue?” — you can either confirm and proceed, or cancel and revisit the line items. The check is informational only; nothing is hard-blocked.

📝 Notes

📎 Attachments

💡 All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory and must be filled to successfully save the project record.

2️⃣ Bulk Import (Excel)

📍 Screen: Billing → Projects → click Import (top-right of the list). The Bulk Import Projects dialog opens with a download-sample link and an upload box.

• Click Download Sample File to grab a pre-formatted Excel template. The sample includes an Estimated Cost column.
• Fill in one row per project. Dropdown columns (Client, Project Owner, Project Type, Project Category, Project Status) list every valid value joined by ” / ” — pick exactly one per row.
• Re-upload the file and click Import. The dialog runs a dry-run validation first and shows a row-by-row pass / fail summary (Total Records, Valid Records, Records with Errors).
• If any rows fail (invalid client name, missing mandatory field, unknown status), download the Error Report, fix the flagged cells, and re-upload via Start Over.
• When validation is clean, click Confirm and Import Projects to commit. Successful rows become live Project records immediately.

📂 Tabs Inside a Project

📍 Screen: Open any project from Billing → Projects. Across the top of the aside panel you will see the tabs below — each tab is a separate screen within the same project, click a tab to switch the view.

• Details — the form / view of the project’s master fields (Project Details, Notes, Attachments).
• Attachments — files uploaded against this project, rendered as doc-chips with Open / Download icons. Visible to roles with Update permission.
• Statement — the consolidated financial statement for this project (see below). See the Project Statement Tab guide.
• Logs — change history of every edit made to this project, visible to roles with the Changelog permission. Edits are captured at form submit, not on every keystroke.

📄 Project Statement Tab

The Project Statement tab in the Project Module works exactly like the Client Statement tab in the Client Module, with one key difference:

• Project Statement — shows only the transactions related to the current project you are viewing.
• Client Statement — shows a combined list of transactions across all projects linked to that client (plus any direct Client Invoices that have no project).

What you’ll see in the Project Statement:

• Project header — Company, Client, Project Name, Owner, Type, Category, Status, Currency, and Project Cost.
• Financial summary tiles — Invoiced Amount, Uninvoiced Amount, Paid Amount, Unpaid Amount.
• Billable Items table — every line item billed under this project, with Invoiced / Uninvoiced status, Net Amount, Tax, Total, and parent Invoice number.
• Invoices raised for this project — with status, due status (Overdue / Due), and current outstanding.
• Payments received for this project — payment number, date, mode, transaction fees, and reference number.
• Credit Notes issued for this project — credit-note number, parent invoice, debit-note number, total amount, remaining cash balance, and cancelled status if applicable.
• Refunds — refund number, date, amount, transaction ID, and the parent Invoice / Credit Note.
• Ledger — a side-by-side Outstanding and Cash Balance debit / credit / balance trail for the project.

👉 The Client Statement is useful for the complete financial picture of the client, while the Project Statement helps you track individual project-level financials. To learn more, read the Client Statement Tab guide.

⚙️ Action Buttons in Project View

📍 Screen: The Previous / Next, Edit, and Close buttons sit in the top-right of the aside header. The Delete button appears at the bottom of the form (only when you have Delete permission and you are on the Details tab in View / Edit mode). The Print button lives on the Statement tab.

🔁 Reusability & Where Project Data Flows

A project is created once. Every downstream document reuses this single record:

• Proforma Invoices — pick the project when creating a proforma (in Project Invoice mode); client, currency, address, and GST routing all carry over from the project’s client.
• Invoices — the same Project Invoice mode rolls billed amounts into the project’s Invoiced Amount and Statement. The Estimated Cost guard-rail kicks in here when converting a Proforma to an Invoice.
• Recurring Invoices — schedule repeat billing against the project; each generated occurrence inherits the project’s master data and the client’s currency.
• Payments & Credit Notes — automatically tied to the project through the parent invoice; appear in the Project Statement.
• Reports — Sales, Revenue, and PnL reports filtered By Customer and date-range aggregate every project belonging to that client. PDF exports include the date-range in the filename.

📌 Key Points

• Single Master Record: A project is created once and reused on every Proforma, Invoice, Recurring template, Payment, and Credit Note that names it.
• One Client per Project: Every project belongs to exactly one client; you cannot move it across clients.
• Currency comes from the Client, not the Project. There is no separate Project Currency field — every document raised under the project inherits the client’s currency.
• Estimated Cost is a guard-rail, not a hard cap — exceeding it during a Proforma → Invoice convert prompts you to confirm rather than blocking the save.
• Project Statement: a single-pane financial view of every Invoice / Payment / Credit Note / Refund tied to this project, with a full Outstanding + Cash Balance ledger.
• Dropdown values are admin-editable — Project Type, Category, and Status are all managed under Settings → Dropdown Settings; new values appear immediately on the Add / Edit form.
• Resigned users in dropdowns: when editing an existing project, resigned users are still listed in the Project Owner dropdown so historic ownership is preserved.
• Direct billing without a project — Invoices, Proformas, and Recurring Invoices offer a Client Invoice mode that skips the project linkage entirely. Pick the right mode at the top of the billing form.
• Change logs are captured at form submit (not on every keystroke), keeping the Logs tab clean and meaningful.

💡 Tips

• Set the client’s Currency and State correctly before creating the project — those values flow into every Proforma / Invoice raised under the project, and changing them later does not alter already-frozen documents.
• Capture the Estimated Cost in good faith at creation; it is your in-app guard-rail against silent over-billing during Proforma → Invoice conversion.
• Set the right Project Status as it progresses (Pending → In Progress → Completed) so the Projects list and dashboard widgets stay accurate.
• Attach the signed SOW / contract to the project’s Attachments so it travels with the record and shows up on the Project view as a doc-chip.
• Use Bulk Import when migrating an existing book of work — fill the sample Excel once (including Estimated Cost), validate, then commit.
• Use the Statement tab as your single-pane-of-glass for “how much have we billed and collected on this project” — see the Client Statement Tab guide for the same view at the client level.
• For ad-hoc, project-less billing, use the Client Invoice mode on the Invoice or Proforma Invoice form instead of forcing a placeholder project.
• For day-to-day edits and removals, see View, Edit, Delete Project.
• For the per-project financial view, see Project Statement Tab.