Setting up the project as you wish is key to making the best use of the features. When you add a new project, you will be entering details such as the project name, code, project manager, etc. You will also be asked whether you want billing to be enabled for the project and if yes, what type of billing is to be applied. There are several other details that are configured later on the project page.

You have to next add resources to the project, add tasks to the project, and then you can begin tracking the project on an ongoing basis.

Let us see how you can configure the project for use in Keka PSA.

Navigate to Project (1) from the left navigation pane and go to the Projects tab(2). Ensure you're on the Project List (3) tab here.

Here, you will see the list of projects that have been added to your portal. You can view the new project you want to configure on this page. If the project status is marked as In Progress when you added it, go to the Active Projects tab here and find the project. If you marked the project status as Not Yet Started or any other, you will have to go to the All Projects tab and find the project here. 

In this case, the project has the status Not Yet Started and hence it is under the All Projects tab. Click on the project to go to the inside page. 

On the project page for a new project, you will be taken to the Get Started tab which will show the important steps to configure the project for use. Typically, there are 3 aspects to configure here - Setup Billing, Project Team, and Tasks.  You may have done the project billing setup when you are creating the project. This will be marked as done if you have enabled billing when you are creating the project. 

Let us take a look at each of these sections. 

Setting up project billing

You can set up project billing or view the settings you have setup by clicking on Setup Billing. 

This will take you to the Billing Settings page where you will see the currently configured settings. To edit any of the settings currently configured, click on Edit Settings.

On the Update Billing Settings page, make changes that you want to the current settings. 

You can enable or disable billing for the project, change the billing type, select if employees can add non-billable tasks in the timesheets they submit, and also select if you should allow employees to add and claim expenses that they have incurred for this project. 

Once you have made the necessary settings, click Update to save the changes.

Adding resources to the project

The next step to configure your project details is adding the project team. You can add the resources to the project or you can request for resources. To add the project team, click on Project Team from the Project page. 

You will be taken to the Team tab of the project. On the Active Allocation tab, click on +Add Resource to add a new resource for the project. 

On the Add Resource page, you can add the resources to the projects as you wish. Search for the employee you want to add as a resource and select the employee from the list. You can now set an Allocation for the employee by clicking on Set Allocation. This is useful when you don't want to add a resource to the project on a full-time basis or if you want to split a resource's time between two or more projects. In the overlay that opens up, enter the Start Date and End Date for the allocation and also set the Allocation %. 

The next thing to select is the billing role for the resource. You can define the billing roles you want in the billing section of Keka PSA and the roles you have configured here will show up along with the hourly rates that this resource will be billed at. Select the specific billing role for the resource from the Billing Role drop-down. 

To add another resource, click on the +Add Resource hyperlink below the details of the resource you just added. If you are done adding the required resources, click Add to finish.

To edit the details of a resource that you have added to the project, go to the Team tab and click on the Edit Icon in the Actions column corresponding to the resource you want to edit. You can edit details such as the allocation start and end date, allocation percentage, Billing role, and billing rate. Make the necessary corrections here and then click on the Update Icon that shows up in the Actions column.

To delete a resource from the project, click on the Delete icon in the Actions column. Click Remove in the confirmation window to remove the resource from the project.

Adding Tasks to Projects

The last recommended step to configure a new project is adding tasks to the project. Keka PSA allows you to structure the project into different phases and tasks. This helps in breaking down the larger project into smaller actions that can be assigned to the resources working on this project. 

Tasks have a few important attributes that are essential to further structure the project. You can select if a task is Billable or Non-Billable. If the task is set as a billable task, any hours that the resources spend working on the task will be considered for project billing. In case it is a non-billable task, the hours will not be billed. 

You can also set an estimated number of hours for the task and when the employees submit timesheets, the hours that are entered in this will be considered. This can give you an indication of whether the task is on-schedule or not. In case most of the estimated hours that you have assigned for the task are completed but the task is not close to completion, you can make necessary changes so that the task gets completed in the estimated hours or change the estimated hours. You can also set a status for the task. By default, there are 2 statuses that can be set to a task - Not Started or Completed.

To add tasks to the project, click on Tasks from the Get Started tab or go to the Tasks tab.  

You can add tasks here as you wish. To know more about adding tasks to the project, read this.

This brings us to the end of this article on configuring the project you have newly added. More questions? Reach out to our product experts today!