Create & plan a project

A project in Monograph holds everything about a job: its phases, its budget and fees, the team assigned to it, and all the time and expenses logged against it. Getting the structure right up front is what makes your reports meaningful later.

Note

Think of a project as the container for one client engagement. If you bill a client for several distinct efforts, you can create separate projects or separate phases — see Phases & timeline to decide.

Create the project

1. From the top navigation, go to Projects and click New Project.

2. Enter the project name and select the client. To add a new client, click + Add client inline.

3. Choose a project template if you have one set up, or start from scratch. Templates pre-fill phases and budgets for the kinds of work you do often.

4. Click Create.

Structure it into phases

Phases break the work into stages you can plan and bill against — for example Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Documents.

1. Open your new project and go to the Planning tab.

2. Click Add phase for each stage of work.

3. Give each phase a start and end date. These drive your timeline and staffing views.

4. Set a fee for each phase (fixed fee or hourly). The sum of your phase fees is your total project fee.

Tip

Not sure how to split fees across phases? A common approach is to base each phase’s fee on its share of the total scope. You can adjust as the project evolves.

Give it a budget

Your budget is what you plan to spend; Monograph compares it against what you actually spend as your team logs time.

1. In the Planning tab, expand a phase and add the roles you expect to work on it.

2. Enter planned hours for each role. Monograph multiplies hours by each role’s rate to calculate planned cost.

3. Review the fee vs. budget summary at the top of the phase to confirm the work is profitable before it starts.

Next steps

Budgets & feesGo deeper on structuring fees and tracking spend.

Staffing & resourcingAssign people and balance workloads.

Create & send an invoiceBill your client for completed work.