Creating Projects
In this guide we will cover:
- Creating a Project From The Projects Area
- Creating a Project From An Opportunity
- Creating a Project From a Sales Order
- Applying Budgets to Projects via Sales Orders
- To-Do Lists
- To-Do List Groups
- Date Dependencies
Admin Guides:
There are 3 primary methods by which Projects can be created: via the Projects area, from another Ticket (usually from an Opportunity) or from a Sales Order.
Creating a Project From The Projects Area
The Projects area is simply a Ticket Area with relevant filters applied to only show tickets of use 'Projects' & relevant Project Management Teams.
When in this area, clicking 'New' in the top RHS of the screen will open the new Project screen (based on the 'Default Ticket Type' set in the Project area Configuration).
Creating a Project From An Opportunity
The "Opportunity Workflow" in the trials includes an action on step "Opportunity Won (Stage 5)" to create a Project from an Opportunity:
Fig 1. Creating a Project from an Opportunity
This action can be created by configuring an action of system use 'Create Child Ticket', where the Ticket type has been set as 'Project'.
Fig 2. Configuration > Tickets > Actions > *Action: Create New Project*
This Action would be used when creating a bespoke Project for a new or existing Client.
Creating a Project From a Sales Order
A project can also be created directly from a Sales Order.
To achieve this, you must apply a Project Template to a Product (Item). Project Templates can be applied to Products via heading to the Products module & editing the below on relevant existing/newly created Products.
Fig 3. Applying a Project Template to a Product
By doing this, "Project" Products can be added to Quotes and will allow for the creation of a Project from the subsequent Sales Order.
Fig 4. Option to Create a Project from a Sales Order
Applying Budgets to Projects via Sales Orders
You can also link Products to existing Budgets types, such that adding the respective Product to a Quote (& subsequent Sales Order) will provide an option to add the linked Budget to the Project.
Products can be allocated a 'Budget Type', similar to how they can be allocated a Project Template.
Fig 5. Selecting a Budget Type for a Product
By doing this, you will find an 'Add Budget to Project' option appear on the Sales Order (when a Project has been created from a Sales Order and items with a linked Budget Type have also been added to the SO).
Fig 6. 'Add Budget to Project' option for Sales Order Lines
When 'Add Budget to Project' is selected, you will see budgets are added to the Budgets table against the parent Project, where the budget hours equals the quantity added to the SO. It is important to add the "Budgets" field onto the Opportunity ticket type "Field List" Tab, by default it should show on a separate tab.
Fig 7. Adding Budget Field To The Field List in Configuration > Sales > Opportunity Types > *Click into Opportunity Ticket Type*
You can check to make sure it is on a separate tab by editing the field (click edit in the top right hand side of the screen and then click the pencil icon on the "Budgets" field).
Fig 8. Budgets Field Visibility
Fig 9. Budget Hours on Project, derived from Quantity added to Sales Order Line
Variables $-PROJECTCOMPLETIONPERCENTAGE, $-PROJECTEARLIESTSTART and $-PROJECTLATESTEND can be configured in email templates and Kanban views:
Fig 10. Project tasks in a Kanban view.
Note: There are different settings to define the projects % completion, this below dropdown can be found in Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > *Click into the Forms tab*.
Fig 11. Show project completion status setting.
To-Do Lists
Creating To-Do Lists can provide your agents with handrails and progress-tracking capabilities straight from the ticket interface. They provide a simple interaction whereby you can tick off tasks, or whatever else you would like listed, one by one as you complete them.
Common use cases for these include the listing of tasks that one may not necessarily need to do via Halo, for example; "In-person site visit completed", or to list smaller tasks that would not really warrant an entire ticket; "Emailed customer with follow-up details".
These can be set up on an ad-hoc basis, via the top left "three dots" menu of a ticket view, the button you're looking for is "Add a To-Do item".
This option provides two routes to adding the items, one being a simple text-box entry, which will just add that line to the list, displayed on the ticket details section, and will only apply to that one ticket, like so:
Fig 12. Adding/editing a to-do item and the options.
As you can see, it is also possible to add to-do lists from a Template, which is referencing a 'Ticket Template', which takes us to our second way to add To-Do List items to a ticket.
Ticket templates can be configured to have a To-Do List by default, which will save a lot of time, and normalise these lists throughout your service desk.
The addition of these is as simple as heading to the 'To-Do List' section of a Ticket Template and adding what you'd like there. The afore-mentioned option will pull this list straight from the template, (this will not apply the rest of the template, only the to-do list).
The below example has been pulled from the 'PC/Laptop Installation' template, which is a default in the trials:
Fig 13. To-do list in the side bar.
A feature has been added in version 2.134.1, allows you to create To-Do List Groups, which can be seen as the third option in the menu above.
These groups are configured in the General Settings section of the Tickets configuration menu. This is a further way to speed up the addition of these lists, which is essentially a pre-configured list of items, which can be applied to both the templates themselves, or directly to the tickets in the same way as before. This time, you can select your chosen group, and it will be applied in the same way as before, and these items will be 'grouped' in the list, as below, but can be re-ordered and marked as completed individually.
Fig 14. To-do list group in the to-do list.
In version 2.139.1 and above, you can add multiple to-do list items at once by separating them by line breaks, shown in the below figure. Each of the below will show as an individual to-do.
Fig 15. Adding multiple to-do list items at once.
Now that we have the To-Do Lists set up, we can configure our workflows, (as of 2.134.1) with a couple of different step actions:
- "All To-Do List items completed", this will move the workflow to a new step when all the items have been checked off as completed.
- "To-Do List Group completed", this will behave the same, however will only require a designated subgroup of the list to be completed. A use case for this, against the prior option, would be to have some sort of fast-track for your workflow, or perhaps a child-ticket be created off the back of the tasks in that group being completed.
If any more details are required on Ticket Templates, or Child/Parent ticket relationships, please use the following links to view our relevant guides, linked in the initial description of this guide.
To-Do List Groups
This feature is available on any instances of version 2.134.1 or higher.
In this example, we will look at constructing a To-Do List Group for use on Project Tasks. To-Do lists can be configured in two separate locations of Halo. One of which is in Configuration > Tickets > General Settings within the button "To-Do List Groups" In order for the to-do list group to appear in the list, you must add to-do list items.
Fig 16. Creating a new To-Do List Group via Tickets General Settings
The other area where this can be configured is from a "Ticket Template" in Configuration > Tickets > Templates. Within the "To-Do List" Tab, new groups can be configured or added.
Fig 17 and 18. Creating a To-Do List Group via a Ticket Template
For the organisation of to-do lists, the groups can be dragged and dropped in the to-do list, so if an ad-hoc item is added to the list, it can be moved to be before or after the group of items.
Fig 19. Indicating that to-do list groups can be dragged and dropped via the dots at the side
For example, I moved stage 2 above stage 1 and placed an ad-hoc item at the bottom:
Fig 20. Showing how groups and items can be moved
Adding to Workflows
To-do list groups can be added to steps in workflows as an action, the idea is that if a to-do list group or all the items have been completed, the logic might be to move onto the next stage in the workflow.
Fig 21. Adding To-Do Lists to workflows
Date Dependencies
Date dependencies can be set between two or more child tickets on a parent ticket, or in this case, project tasks on a project. The start/target dates on a ticket can automatically change based on the start/target date of another. This is a useful feature if certain project tasks need to be completed before others can begin.
Date dependencies need to be enabled on the parent ticket type in Configuration > Tickets > Ticket Types > select the ticket type > Forms tab.
Fig 22. Enable Date Dependencies on a ticket type.
Date dependencies can then be set on the parent ticket in the "Date Dependencies" tab.
Fig 23. Date Dependencies tab on a project.
When adding, the ticket and its dependent ticket can then be set. There are three options for dependency types. I am using "Target date updates dependent Tickets start and target date" in this example.
Note: The dropdown will only show tickets that have been added as child tickets.
Fig 24. Selecting dependency between child tickets.
Once changing the target date of my first ticket to the 24th..
Fig 25. Target date on first ticket.
The start date of my second ticket changes to the 25th, and the target date moves along accordingly.
Fig 26. Updated Start Date and Target Date on dependent ticket.