Project management

Projects with their team, tasks, board and timeline, time logged on timesheets, milestone and time invoices, and the margin of every project.

Getting started

Project management is an add-on module. Your account owner adds it from Settings, then Modules. In the menu it is called Projects.

1. Open Projects, then Project settings, and set the Default cost per hour, the Default hourly rate billed and the VAT on project invoices. Only an admin sees this page.
2. Open Projects and press New project. Choose the client, the manager, the dates and how the project is billed.
3. Add the people who work on it under Team, with their cost and billed rates if they differ from the defaults.
4. Open the project and add its tasks and milestones on the Tasks tab.
5. Ask the team to log their hours under Timesheets or on each task.

To add or change projects, tasks and time your role needs to be able to enter documents. To create invoices from a project your role also needs to approve or post.

How to

Create a project

1. Open Projects, then Projects, and press New project.
2. Fill in Project code and Project name.
3. Choose the Client, or leave Internal (no client). Choose the Project manager.
4. Set the Start date, Due date, Status and Priority.
5. Choose Billing: Fixed price (bill by milestone), Time and materials (bill hours) or Not billed (internal).
6. For a fixed price project enter the Contract value (before VAT), or leave it empty to use the milestones' total. For time and materials enter the Hourly rate billed.
7. Add a Cost budget and Hours budget if you track them, and pick a Colour.
8. To reuse the plan of an earlier project, choose it in Copy the plan from.
9. Under Team, press Add person for each team member and set their Cost per hour and Billed per hour if needed.
10. Press Save project.

If you have the Construction module, Plan for a construction contract links the project to a contract. If you have CRM, press Start project on a won deal to open a project for it.

Add tasks and milestones

1. Open the project and choose the Tasks tab.
2. Type the New task, choose who it is assigned to, and set Start, Due and Estimate (h), for example 4 or 1:30.
3. To make it a subtask, choose its parent under Under.
4. Tick Milestone for a deliverable the client sees.
5. Press Add.

Use Show to see tasks Not done, All tasks, Overdue or Milestones, and Assigned to to see one person's tasks. A task can be assigned to more than one person.

Update a task

1. Open the task from the project.
2. Change the Title, Status, Priority, Start, Due, Estimate (hours) or Progress %, and the people it is assigned to.
3. Under Depends on, choose the tasks that must finish first. Hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) to choose several.
4. For a milestone, set Bill on completion (before VAT).
5. Press Save task, or Mark done when it is finished.

Add smaller steps under Subtasks. A task with time logged or an invoice can't be deleted.

Follow work on the board

1. Open the project and choose the Board tab.
2. Drag a card to another column to change its status: To do, In progress, In review or Done.
3. Drag a card within a column to change its order.

Plan dates on the timeline

1. Open the project and choose the Timeline tab to see every dated task as a bar.
2. If a task starts before the work it depends on is finished, press Reschedule from dependencies. Mifumo moves the later tasks.

Tasks without dates are listed under the timeline as not on it.

Log time

1. Open Projects, then Timesheets. Your week opens; use the arrows or This week to move between weeks.
2. Under Log time, choose the Project and Task, set the Date and Time (1:30 or 1.5), and write What was done.
3. On a time and materials project, leave Billable ticked if the client pays for it.
4. Press Log.

You can also log time on the project's Time tab or on a task. Press ✕ on an entry to delete it.

See your own tasks

1. Open Projects, then My tasks.
2. See everything assigned to you across open projects, soonest first, with Open, Overdue, Due this week and Done this week at the top.
3. Press My timesheet to log time.

Invoice a milestone

1. Open the project and choose the Money tab, or open the milestone task.
2. Under Milestone billing, press Invoice next to the milestone, or press Invoice this milestone on the task.
3. Mifumo makes a draft invoice to the client for the milestone amount plus VAT. Check it and post it.

The project must have a client. A milestone that is not done yet can still be invoiced in advance.

Invoice unbilled time

1. Open the project and choose the Time tab.
2. Under Invoice unbilled time, set Time up to and the Invoice date.
3. Press Create draft invoice. Check the draft invoice and post it.

Only billable time not yet invoiced is included. Set the project's client first.

Track costs and margin

1. Open the project and choose the Money tab. It shows the contract value, Billed, Spent and Margin, with Costs by type, Cost entries and Invoices.
2. To put a supplier bill or expense on a project, choose the project on the bill or expense line.
3. Open Projects, then Portfolio report, to see every project's progress, Contract value, Invoiced, Cost to date, Margin and Ready to invoice side by side, with Hours by person.

Labour is logged time at each person's cost rate. It counts towards the project's margin but is not posted to the books; payroll posts wages.

Copy a project

1. Open the project and press Copy as new project.
2. Type the New code, check the name and choose the start date.
3. Press Create copy.

The team, tasks, subtasks, dependencies and milestones are copied, with dates moved to the new start. No time or invoices come across. Press Export tasks on a project to download its tasks as a CSV file.

Talk about a project

1. Open the project and choose the Discussion tab.
2. Write your message, attach a file if needed, and press Post. Type @ to tag someone; they see it under Mentions.

Each task also has its own discussion.

Settings

Open Projects, then Project settings. Only an admin can change these.

• Default cost per hour: what an hour of a team member costs you when the person has no rate on the project. Turns logged time into labour cost.
• Default hourly rate billed: suggested for new time and materials projects.
• VAT on project invoices: applied to milestone and time invoices, for example VAT 18%. You can change it on each draft before posting.

Project invoices post to your Project revenue account. Each project and team member can still have its own rates on the project's edit page.

Questions

Why is a project showing a loss?

Margin is what has been invoiced less what has been spent so far, including logged hours at cost. A project early in its life shows a loss until its first invoice.

Why can't I create an invoice from the project?

The project needs a client, and your role must be allowed to approve or post. Internal projects with no client can't be invoiced.

Does logged time go into my books?

No. Time is used for the project's labour cost, margin and time invoices. Wages reach the books through payroll.

Help guides

• Getting started: Sign up, set up your company with its TIN and VRN, choose your modules, invite your team and get Mifumo on your phone.
• Team, roles and permissions: Add users, give each one a role per company, build your own roles with the permission grid, work together with mentions, and import or export spreadsheets.
• Approvals: Maker-checker on the documents you choose. People who can't approve submit, an approver posts or sends back with a reason, and nothing reaches the books before approval.
• Sign-in and security: Passwords, passkeys, two-step sign-in with an authenticator app, a text message or email, recovery codes, requiring two-step sign-in for everyone, and staying signed in.
• Group of companies: Run several companies under one login, give people a group role in every company, record intercompany entries once, and read consolidated reports with intercompany balances taken out.
• Accounting: Your books in one place. Invoices, receipts, bills, expenses, banking, journals, VAT returns and financial statements, all posting to one double-entry ledger in TSh.
• Inventory: Stock products, warehouses, adjustments, transfers and stock counts with a barcode scanner, landed cost on imports, purchase and sales orders, the point of sale till, and stock reports.
• HR and payroll: Employees, monthly payroll with PAYE, NSSF, SDL, WCF and HESLB worked out for you, payslips, salary advances, per diem, leave, staff attendance by phone with GPS or QR, a shift roster, and final dues for leavers.
• CRM: Leads, a drag-and-drop pipeline of deals, follow-ups, quotes from deals, a full customer timeline, SMS and email campaigns, and your own mailbox synced in.
• Asset management: Keep a fixed asset register, charge depreciation, track who has each asset, and record disposals with the right journal entries.
• Project management: Projects with their team, tasks, board and timeline, time logged on timesheets, milestone and time invoices, and the margin of every project.
• FTTx projects: Track fibre roll-out purchase orders from your clients, the work you pass to subcontractors, and the money in and out on each PO.
• Transport jobs: Record each cargo trip with its trucks, drivers and deliveries, attach the proof of delivery, see the margin on every delivery, and turn the job into an invoice.
• Construction: Run each building contract with its bill of quantities, interim payment certificates, advances, retention, completion certificates and site costs.
• Manufacturing: Write recipes for what you make, plan production runs, issue materials from stock and put finished goods into stock at what they really cost.
• Pharmacy: Counter dispensing with patient and prescription details, medicines with TMDA numbers, first-expiry-first-out batches, expiry write-offs and the prescription register.
• Motor vehicles: Sell imported vehicles from proforma to invoice, complete and approve the internal Sale Sheet, take instalment payments, and pay sales commissions.
• Property management: Properties and units, tenants, leases and rent billed as invoices, arrears, repairs and statements for owners you manage for.
• Law firm: Matters and case management (stages, parties, tasks, documents), time and costs, billing a matter in one step, the client (trust) account kept matter by matter, a court diary with reminders, the conflict check log and the advocate compliance register.
• Livestock: A register of every animal or batch of birds, with health records, withdrawal periods, breeding and births, milk and eggs, and sales invoiced to the buyer.
• Helpdesk: Customer problems and requests as numbered tickets, each with someone in charge, deadlines to answer and to solve, replies by email and internal notes.
• Mining: Run each mine as a project, record the money it receives, see spending against those funds, and get a profit and loss for every mine and for the company.
• Field Service: Jobs your technicians do at the customer's site, each with a time slot, a checklist, the parts used from stock, the hours worked, the customer's signature on the phone, and an invoice from the job.
• Hospital: Patients, appointments and the queue from triage to the doctor, the lab, the pharmacy and the cashier. Wards with admissions, bed days and deposits, the theatre list and imaging. Bills split between the patient and their insurer, with claims and reports. The Pharmacy module is included.
• Sign: Send a contract, lease or offer letter to be signed by link, on a phone or computer, and keep the signed copy with a record of who signed, when and from where.
• Event ticketing: Set up an event with its ticket types, publish it after paying a one-off fee, and sell tickets from your own sale page. Buyers pay you by Lipa Namba or online, and get QR tickets by SMS and email. Ticket money goes straight to you, never to Mifumo.