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. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Adding tasks and phases individually
• Adding a milestone to a project
• Importing tasks and phases from task templates
• Importing tasks in bulk
• Deleting a phase, task, or a milestone

If the project is milestone-based, you get the option to add milestones while configuring phases and tasks. 

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. 

Billing classifications can be modified by going to Project >> Policies and Settings >> Billing Classification 

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, 2 statuses can be set to a task - Not Started or Completed.

You can configure task stages by navigating to Project >> Policies and Settings >> Task Stages.

Let us take a look at how you can add tasks and phases to projects. 

Navigate to Project (1) from the left navigation pane and select the Projects tab (2). On the Project List page, you can find the various projects that have been added to Keka PSA. The project you want to add tasks to can be found in the Active Projects tab if the project status is marked as In Progress. All the other projects will be in the All Projects tab. 

Click on the project to which you want to add tasks. This will take you to the Project page. 

If the project has been recently added, you can go to tasks directly by clicking on the Tasks link from the Get Started section of the page. 

You can also navigate here by selecting the Tasks tab on this page.

You can start adding tasks from here. If you want to create a phase and then add tasks to this, click on +Create Phase. If you want to start adding tasks directly, click on +Create Tasks. 

There are 3 ways in which you can add these details.

• Adding tasks and phases individually
• Adding tasks and phases from the task template
• Importing tasks and phases in bulk using an Excel file

Let us look at each of these methods in detail. 

Adding tasks and phases individually

Let us take an example where you are adding tasks for a software development project where there are multiple phases involved. Here are the phases and tasks that should be added to the project. 

Phase 1: Research

User Research
User Interviews

Phase 2: Concept
UI development

Conceptual test

Phase 3: Development

Development

Testing

Deployment

Let us see how these can be added individually. 

Click on +Create Phase from the Tasks tab of the project. In the Phase Name field, enter the name of the first phase. Click on the Add ( icon on the right to add the phase. To discard it, click on the Cancel icon. 

It's now time to add the tasks that have been configured under this phase. You can click on the + icon on the left of the Phase Name you just added. Select Task from the drop-down to add a new task under this phase.


You can also click on the > icon to open the details of the phase. You can click on the + Icon here and select Task from the drop-down to add a task to the phase.

In the row that's added, enter the Task Name. Select the expected duration of the task by entering the Start Date and End Date in the drop-down that shows up when you click on the date under the Duration column. You can also select if the task is billable or not by clicking on the Icon under the Billable column and selecting the classification as you wish.

The Spent/Estimated Time column is used to enter the total number of hours that are expected to complete this task. When the resources working on the task enter the hours they have worked on each task when submitting timesheets, the spent hours column gets updated accordingly. Enter the expected number of hours in this field. You can also set a stage for the task depending on its progress. 

Know how to configure task stages here

Once you have entered the details, click on Add to save the task. 

You can add all the tasks and phases by repeating the steps above.

You also have the option to drag and rearrange the order of the tasks or move tasks across phases. To do this, click on the Reorder icon corresponding to the task and move the task to the desired position. 

You can add a description for the task and also assign this task to a resource added to a project too. To add a description, click on the Description icon and then on the Edit icon on the drop-down window. You will be taken to the Task Details page.

On the Task Details page, you can add details to the task that will help the resources working on the task understand the scope of the task as well as other relevant details. Enter a description in the field and then click Save to add it to the task. 

Resources or project managers can also add comments and attach files to the tasks from this page. To upload a file, click on the Attach File icon next to the comment box. The files that have been uploaded to the task will show up on this screen. 

The right pane of the window has several options including the Stage, Resources that has been assigned to the task, Start and End Date for the task, The Billing Classification as well as the Spent/Estimated hours.

Finally, you can also assign employees to a task that you have added to the system. To do this, click on the Assign Employee icon on the tasks page.

Search for the employee using the search bar in the drop-down. You can also select the employee from the list of employees that show up on the drop-down. The task will be assigned to the selected employee. 

Adding a milestone to a project

For Fixed Fee or Milestone based projects, the billing happens based on milestone completion and not based on the hours logged. In this case, adding phases and tasks will help you break the project down into smaller actions but milestones need to be defined as well. You can add a milestone to the project in a similar way as you add a phase or a task. 

On the Task window, click on the + icon and select Milestone from the drop-down to add a milestone to the project.

In the new row that is added, enter the Milestone Name, the Date of completion, and also enter the Amount which is to be paid on the completion of the milestone as per the agreement with your client. You can also choose if this is a billable milestone or a non-billable milestone by clicking on the icon next to the date field. If you mark the milestone as non-billable, you won't be able to enter the amount to be paid upon completion of the milestone.  

Once you have added these details, click on the Add icon to save the milestone. 

Importing tasks and phases from task templates

You can add tasks and phases to a project from the task templates you have configured in your Keka PSA portal. To do this, from the tasks page, click on the arrow next to the +Add Task button. This will open up a drop-down from where you can select Import from template. 

On the Import Task Template screen that opens up, you can see the various templates that have been configured. 

To know more about configuring task templates, click here.

Select the template from which you want to import the tasks. You can see the various phases and tasks that have been configured in this task template. Select the tasks or phases you want to import using the checkboxes. 

You can select a whole phase along with the tasks added to it or you can also select individual tasks. You can also use the Select All checkbox on top of the screen to select all of the tasks and add them to your project. 

Once you are done making your selections, click on Next.

In the Preview Template section of the page, you can add details for the tasks you are importing including the expected Duration of the task, Billing Classification, Estimated Hours, and Task Stage. You can also assign these tasks to the employees who are added to the project. Click Save to finish importing the tasks.

Importing tasks in bulk

From the Tasks page, click on the drop-down arrow, and from the drop-down, select Bulk import tasks and phase. 

This will take you to the Bulk import tasks/phases page. You can download the Excel template which can be used to import tasks and phases in bulk. Click on Download Excel Template to download the template. Read the instructions given on this page before adding the phases and tasks to the Excel file.

In the Excel template, add a phase name in the Phase Name field and then add a task in the Task Name field to add a phase and configure a task under this. If you want to add another task to this phase, use the same phase name and add the second task name. You can also create just a phase by adding just the phase name without any task name associated with it in the same row. You can create just a task similarly by leaving the phase name field empty and adding a task name only in one row. 

Add other necessary details including the start date and the end date for the task, the description for the task, and the estimated hours for the task. You can also set a task stage by selecting it from the drop-down. 

Once the details have been added, save the file. Back on the Bulk import tasks/phases page, click on Upload Excel File button to upload the Excel file you have prepared and saved.

This will take you to the Match Columns section of the page. Here you can make sure that the columns in Excel are mapped correctly to the fields on Keka. Once you are done, click Continue to move to the Preview Data section.

This page will show if there are any errors in the file that you have uploaded. Make the necessary corrections in the file and re-upload the file if there are any errors. If there are no errors in the file, click on Complete to finish uploading the tasks and phases. 

This will add these tasks and phases into the selected project. 

Deleting a phase, task, or a milestone

To delete any of the elements you have added to the project, click on the three dots on the row corresponding to the element you want to delete and select Delete from the drop-down.

In the confirmation window, select Confirm to delete the task. 

That's the end of this help article where we covered how to add tasks, phases and milestones to a project. More questions? Talk to our product experts today!