ClickTime's Phases (or Sub-Projects) Module will allow you to categorize time entries by one or two additional levels. Just like Projects are associated with a specific Client, you can associate Phases within a Project. Additionally, each Phase can also have a Sub-Phase. The most common use-case for this feature is to divide a Project into multiple stages, phases, or segments to improve Project Management.
PLEASE NOTE: if your organization is interested in using Sub-Projects, please email ClickTime Support: support@clicktime.com . This needs to be added/configured under your account and can add complexity to your time entry pages. Therefore it may be best to arrange an evaluation with us first, before making any changes to your current account setup.
Custom Terminology
Requiring Phases for Specific Projects
Adding Phases & SubPhases
- Creating a New Phase
- Adding New Phases to an Existing Project
- Creating a New sub-phase
- Adding New SubPhases to an Existing Phase
Logging Hours to Phases and SubPhases
Editing Phases and SubPhases
Deactivating Phases and SubPhases
Phase Status Levels
Restrictions of the Phases Module
Including Phase Data in Reports
This feature is also referred to as "SubJobs", "Sub-Jobs", or "Sub Jobs" in some older instances of ClickTime or our documentation.
You can change the terms Phase and sub-phase to whatever you would like from the Company --> Preferences page:
Either choose one of the pre-existing terms, or choose "other" and type the terms you'd like to use into the text fields.
Don't forget to "Save" your changes.
Requiring Phases for Time Entry
It is up to your organization whether every time entry requires a Phase or Sub-Phase. To view (or change) your requirements, go to the Company --> Preferences page and scroll down to the "Time Entry Controls" section of the page:
If you check the "require that a Phase/sub-phase be selected when entering time" option, this means that your staff will be required to choose a Phase/Sub-Phase for any Projects that have "open" phases/sub-phases associated with them. If the only Phases/Sub-phases for that Project are "closed", time entry will not be permitted against that Project. More information about the status levels can be found in this section of the documentation.
If this box is not checked, then your staff will have the option to select any open phases/sub-phases when logging time to that Project, but it will not be required.
Phases and Sub-Phases are managed from the Company --> Projects page.
Each Phase and Sub-Phase will have the following options:
Name: Name of the Phase/Sub-Phase for reporting purposes
Label: Secondary name, used in the database and in the display
Accounting package ID: Useful if you are mapping this data to another accounting program (not required)
Status: This is the setting that allows the Phase/Sub-phase to be used (see below for more information on the status)
Notes: Any notes about the Phase or Sub-phase you'd like to keep internally (these notes will only be visible when editing Phases/Sub-phases on the Detail pages, not when logging hours)
Active Project Associations: A preview list of up to 10 Projects that the Phase is associated with, OR, up to 10 Phases that a Sub-Phase is associated with
Use the links below for more details on how to add Phases/Sub-Phases to your account.
Creating a new Phase
Adding New and Existing Phases to an Existing Project
Creating a New Sub-Phase
Making a Sub-phase available to a Phase (this must be done on the Project level)
There is not much difference between the process to add a Phase and to add a Sub-Phase to the system, but there will be additional steps needed to make a Sub-phase available to a Phase within a Project. This guide will cover all methods in detail.
To create a new Phase, click the "Phase" link at the top of the Company --> Projects page:
Then click "new phase" on the right of the page:
Next, give the Phase a name and label. Keep the status as "Active" if your team will need to log hours to the Phase immediately. You will also have an option to "make this phase available to all projects" - check this box if you want the phase to be available for any Project (please see below for more info on making the Phase available to Projects after creating the Phase). You can enter notes about the phase by expanding the "Notes" section below.
As you enter the name and label, you will see the "time entry preview" to the right update. When you are finished, click "add" to save the Phase, or "add next" to save the new Phase and load the "New Phase" page to create another one.
You will see confirmation that your new Phase was added successfully.
NOTE: please use caution when enabling the "Add this phase to all projects" toggle (this option is disabled by default). If you did not choose to make the Phase available to all Projects, you can follow the steps below to make it available to specific Projects.
Adding new Phases to an existing Project
To make a Phase available to a Project, first click into the Project Details page for the appropriate Project:
Then choose the "Project Structure" option from the top:
The Project Structure page will allow you to add any existing Phases to the Project by checking the box next to the Phase name:
You can also add up to three new Phases to the Project using the blank text fields at the bottom:
Phases added in this manner will be initially only be available to this specific Project, but you can associate the new Phase with any existing Projects after it has been created.
You will see a similar page whenever you create a new Project that can be used to update Phase Structure.
To create a new Sub-phase, click the "Sub-phase" link at the top of the Company --> Projects page:
Then click "new sub-phase" on the right of the page:
Next give the Sub-phase a name and label. Keep the status as "Active" if your team will need to log hours to the Sub-phase immediately. You can enter notes about the sub-phase by expanding the "Notes" section below. As you enter the name and label, you will see the "time entry preview" to the right update.
When you are finished, click "add" to save the Sub-phase, or "add next" to save the new Sub-phase and load the "New Sub-phase" page to create another one.
Please note: If you add an accounting package sub-phase ID, that will not be included in the Customizable Data Export. When including accounting package IDs in Customizable Data Exports for time entries associated with a phase/sub-phase, only the accounting package ID for the Phase will be included.
Sub-phases will not automatically be available - please read the next section to learn how to make a Sub-phase available to specific Phases within a Project.
Making a Sub-phase available to a Phase (must be done on the Project level)
Sub-phases will need to be added to specific Phases before they will be time entry options. You'll need to go to the Project Structure section of a Project, and then select which Phase you wish to make the Sub-phases available to:
Clicking "add sub-phases" to be brought to a page where you can choose which sub-phases should be options for that phase:
Similar to when you are adding new phases to a Project (covered above), you will be able to choose specific sub-phases as well as add up to 3 new sub-phases and make them available. Click "Save" to update the Phase.
After saving, you'll see a confirmation page that the Project Structure was updated, and can then expand the Phase to see all associated Sub-phases.
You can use the "edit" pencil icon to change the status of a specific Phase or Sub-phase, as well as update the Accounting package ID or add any notes. This is also where you can delete the sub-phase (this option will only work if there are no time entries associated with the Sub-phase.
You can also change the "open" status by un-checking the appropriate box and clicking "Update":
Sub-phases that are not "open" will still be in the system but not appear as time entry options unless the status is changed. You can always check the box to make it "open" again and update. More information on the status levels can be found below.
Logging Hours to Phases and Sub-Phases
Once you have set up the appropriate Phases and Sub-phases, your staff will see additional fields on the Day View and Week View time entry pages:
In order to choose a Phase, you will need to first select a Project that has at least one open/active Phase associated with it. Before you will have the option to select a Sub-phase you will need to have selected a Phase with at least one open/active Sub-phase associated with it:
If no Phases or Sub-phases exist, the time entry page will message this as well:
Remember, you can require using a Phase/Sub-phase (for those Projects that have one) from the Company --> Preferences page. ClickTime will require that an available Phase/Sub-phase be used for those Projects before saving the time entry if this box is checked. If no Phases or Sub-Phases exist, the time entry can be saved without them being assigned.
There are two ways to edit a Phase or Sub-phase. One method is from the Phase/Sub-phase List View page, which will let you change any details about the Phase/Sub-phase itself:
Click the "edit" pencil icon to go into edit mode:
Here you can change the name, label, accounting package id, status, and any notes associated with Phase/Sub-phase, and then "update:
You can also manage the Phases/Sub-phases that are available to each Project from the "Project Structure" tab of the Project Detail page:
Here you can check/un-check the "Open" box to change whether this Phase/Sub-phase is a time entry option for the Project/etc.
Clicking the "edit" pencil icon will allow you to change the status, accounting package ID, and update the "notes".
You can also use the "Add" options to make additional Phases/Sub-phases available as a time entry option:
Deactivating Phases and SubPhases
Once created, a Phase or Sub-Phase cannot be deleted. However, you can change the status of a Phase/Sub-phase at any time. There are a few ways to do so.
First, you can use the "edit" option from the List View page:
Then change the "status" to "inactive" and update.
The Phase or Sub-phase will no longer be an option for time entry, or to be associated with any Projects or Phases. Any time entries logged to that Phase/Sub-phase will be locked.
You can also edit on the Project Structure page:
and change the status to "closed".
Closed Phases/Sub-phases are a little different in that they will still be available to associate with a Project or Phase, but will not display as a time entry option for those Projects/etc.
Additionally, you can make a Phase/Sub-phase open or closed from the Project Structure page by checking/un-checking the box and clicking "update".
You can use the same steps to reactivate a Phase or Sub-phase if your staff will need to log time or edit existing time entries that have used the Phase/Sub-phase.
The next section of this guide will go over the Phase and Sub-phase status in more detail.
Phases and Sub-phases are a little different than Projects. Specifically, Projects can be "active" or "inactive", whereas Phases/Sub-phases can be "open" or “closed". Additionally, we do not allow you to delete Phases/Sub-phases.
"Open" Status:
- New time entries can be logged to the Phase/Sub-phases.
- If a Phase has associated Sub-phases, and you check the "open" checkbox for the phase, all associated Sub-phases will have the "open" box checked as well. You will need to save the changes before the Sub-phase status changes though.
"Closed" Status:
- Closed Phases/Sub-phases can have no new time-entries added to them.
- Any time-entries that are associated with a "closed" Phase or Sub-phase can no longer be edited (without changing the status back to "open"). All time entries associated with a "closed" Phase or Sub-phase is considered "locked".
Restrictions of the Phases Module
The Phases options have a few restrictions that you should be aware of before activating.
- Organizations using the additional Phases Module will not be able to log hours using our Mobile Application. We hope to support Phases in a future version of the Application though.
- If your organization is using our DCAA Compliance features, and decides to cease using the Phases Module, DCAA Compliance must be temporarily disabled by your local ClickTime Administrator before the option can be removed. This should be documented by whoever is responsible for your Compliancy.
- Data regarding Phase and Sub-phase usage will not be included in our pre-built reports. The next section of this guide will cover the methods to use our Advanced Reporting options to aggregate and summarize Phase/Sub-phase data.
- Please use either Report Builder or Customizable Data export (explained below) if you need to aggregate and summarize Phase/Sub-phase data.
- The accounting package ID for a sub-phase ID will not be included in the Customizable Data Export. When including accounting package IDs in Customizable Data Exports for time entries associated with a phase/sub-phase, only the accounting package ID for the Phase will be included.
- Phase/Sub-phase data cannot be added in bulk using our Advanced Bulk Add Time options (discussed here).
Including Phase/Sub-Phase Data in Reports
As mentioned above, ClickTime reports are not intended to include data for Phases or Sub-Phases. We have two different Advanced Reporting options that will allow you to either build your own report, or download all ClickTime data and format the results in Excel (or the database program of your choice):
On the Phase and Sub-Phase Detail pages, you can download an export of all the associated projects or phases that a Phase or Sub-Phase is associated with.
This CSV includes the names and numbers of these entities, along with related data like the active status and accounting package ID.
ClickTime has an in-app Report Builder option that allows you to create a report without downloading data and opening in another program. Report Builder Reports can be saved for future reference and shared with other members of your team. The Report Builder can be found in the Company --> Reports page.
To include data from your Phases or Sub-phases, click the "Layout" tab, and then make sure to check the Phase and/or Sub-phase box:
Then set up your report as needed, which you can save, share, or download.
More details on Report Builder can be found in this video.
ClickTime also has some data export options, which will allow you to download ClickTime data and edit/format in the database program of your choice. These are available in the "Miscellaneous" section of the Company --> Reports page:
The "Data" Export" and "Customizable Data Export" reports will allow you to export all timesheet data in a time period. When using the "Data Export", you will want to check the box to "include custom fields" in your export to see the data for Phases and Sub-phases:
When using the "Customizable Data Export", you will want to open up the "Advanced" tab and manually include Phase and/or Sub-phase data in your results:
Please note: If you add an accounting package sub-phase ID, that will not be included in the Customizable Data Export. When including accounting package IDs in Customizable Data Exports for time entries associated with a phase/sub-phase, only the accounting package ID for the Phase will be included. (More details on the Customizable Data Export can be found in this help documentation)
If you'd like a report of your Project Structure, so you can see which Phases and Sub-phases are available to each Project, you can use the "Project Structure Export" report, available near the bottom of the "Miscellaneous" section of the Company --> Reports page.
This will give you an Excel file that allows you to easily see the structure for any selected Projects:
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