Manage deliverables with structured phases and tasks

Creating a project

Projects live inside the Projects section of the main sidebar. Each project is tied to a client workspace so the work stays organized per client.

1. 1
   Click New Project in the top right of the Projects screen.
2. 2
   Enter a project name — be descriptive, like "Website Redesign — Apex Fitness" or "Q3 Campaign."
3. 3
   Select the client this project belongs to. The project will appear inside that client's workspace.
4. 4
   Set a start date and due date. These help you and your team see what's coming up and what's overdue at a glance.
5. 5
   Choose a color for the project. Colors make it easy to distinguish projects when viewing multiple at once.
6. 6
   Add a description (optional) — a short summary of the engagement, goals, or any important context your team should know.
7. 7
   Save. The project is created in Planning status. Add phases and tasks to get it underway.

Adding phases

Phases are the major stages of a project — for example: Discovery, Design, Development, Launch. They group related tasks and give your team a clear picture of where the project is in its lifecycle.

1. 1
   Open the project from the Projects list.
2. 2
   Click Add Phase. Enter the phase name — keep it short and descriptive like "Brand Identity" or "Web Development."
3. 3
   Phases display in order. You can reorder them by dragging to reflect the actual sequence of your workflow.
4. 4
   Add as many phases as you need. A simple project might have 2–3 phases. A complex engagement might have 5–6.

Adding tasks

Tasks are the individual work items within each phase. Each task has a name, optional notes, a due date, and a completion checkbox.

1. 1
   Click Add Task inside a phase.
2. 2
   Enter the task name. Be specific — "Write homepage copy" is clearer than "Content."
3. 3
   Set a due date so the task shows up in deadline views and your team knows when it's expected.
4. 4
   Add notes if there's context your team needs — links, instructions, client feedback, or dependencies.
5. 5
   Check the task off when it's done. WorkRate records the completion date automatically and updates the project's progress percentage.

Tracking progress

WorkRate calculates project progress automatically based on how many tasks are marked complete versus the total task count.

• Progress bar — shown on the project card in the project list. Updates in real time as tasks are checked off.
• Phase completion — each phase shows how many of its tasks are done, so you can see which stage is bottlenecked.
• Due date visibility — tasks with upcoming or overdue due dates are easy to spot inside each phase.
• Completion timestamp — when a task is marked done, WorkRate records the exact date and time. This gives you a completion history you can reference later.

Project templates

If you run the same type of engagement repeatedly — website builds, brand identity projects, SEO campaigns — you can save a project structure as a template and reuse it instead of rebuilding from scratch every time.

1. 1
   Go to the Templates tab inside the Projects section.
2. 2
   Click New Template and give it a name — for example "Standard Website Build" or "Monthly Retainer Kickoff."
3. 3
   Add phases and tasks to the template just like you would a regular project. Due dates in templates are left blank — they get filled in when you apply the template to a real project.
4. 4
   Save the template.
5. 5
   When creating a new project, choose Use Template to load the phases and tasks from your saved template. You can then customize names, dates, and notes for the specific client.

Project status

Each project has a status that reflects where it is in its lifecycle. You set this manually — WorkRate doesn't change it automatically.

Tips & best practices

• One project per engagement, not per client. A client can have multiple projects — a website build and an ongoing SEO retainer are two separate projects, not one.
• Keep task names short and action-oriented. "Design homepage" is better than "Homepage design work needs to happen here."
• Use phases to match how you actually work. Don't copy a project management textbook — use the phases that reflect your real workflow.
• Set due dates on tasks, not just projects. Project-level due dates tell you when the whole thing needs to be done. Task-level due dates tell you what needs to happen this week.
• Build templates for your most common project types. Even a rough template is faster than starting from scratch every time.
• Update status as you go. Move projects from Planning to Active when work starts, and to Completed when it's done. An accurate status list is a better operations tool than a messy one.

Troubleshooting