Project Manager keeps your projects, tasks, team and money in one place. This guide walks you through the dashboard, shows you where the main tools are, and helps you set up your first project and your first task.
Your dashboard at a glance
When you open Project Manager, you land on the Dashboard. It answers one question: what needs my attention right now?
Across the top you'll see four summary cards. Click any of them to jump to the matching page:
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Active Projects | How many projects are still running, and how many are completed |
| Overdue Tasks | Tasks that are past their due date and not done yet |
| Progress | The share of all your tasks that are done |
| Budget remaining | Your total project budget minus what you've spent |
Below the cards you'll find:
- Project health — your running projects, nearest deadline first, with progress and spending for each. Click a project to open it.
- Needs your attention — three tabs: Overdue Tasks, Today's Tasks and Upcoming Tasks. Click a task to open its details.
- Team Workload — how many open tasks each person has.
- Finance — budget usage, expenses, revenue and profit across all projects.
- Completion Trend — tasks completed versus tasks created, week by week.
Finding your way around
Everything else lives in the left sidebar, grouped into sections:
- Projects — Search, Projects, Team and Kanban Board
- Tasks — Variable Tasks (your main task list), Recurring Tasks, Task Schedule and Task Filter
- Views — Decision Matrix, Gantt Chart, calendars, Workload, Reports and more
- Planning, Docs & Knowledge and Tools — extras such as Milestones, Wiki, Invoices and Client Portal
The gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar opens Settings.
Create your first project
A project is a container for related tasks — for example "Office Renovation" or "Spring Marketing Campaign".
- In the sidebar, click Projects.
- Press New Project at the top right.
- Type a Project Name. This is the only required field.
- Optionally pick a Status and Priority, set a Start Date and End date, and add a Person In Charge and Category.
- Press Create Project.
You can fill in Budget, Expenses and Revenue now or later. They feed the Finance card on your dashboard. For every field, see Creating and managing projects.
On the free plan you can have one project. Upgrade Project Manager to create as many projects as you need.
Add your first task
The fastest way is the Create Task button on the dashboard. A small quick-add bar opens. Type the task in plain words and Project Manager picks out the details as you type:
- @name assigns the task to a person (for example
@lisa) - today, tomorrow, next week or a weekday such as friday sets the due date
- high or low sets the priority
Press Create (or Enter) to save. Tasks created this way aren't linked to a project yet. To add one to a project, use Add Task on the Variable Tasks page, where you can pick the project. See Adding and managing tasks.
Press C anywhere in Project Manager to open the quick-add bar, or ? to see all keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl + K (or Cmd + K on Mac) opens Search.
Next steps
- Set up your projects: add dates, an owner and a budget.
- Add tasks: give each one a due date, priority and person.
- Use the Kanban Board: move work from Backlog to Done.
- Adjust your settings: currency, working days and holidays.
FAQ
The dashboard fills in as you add projects and tasks. Create a project and a few tasks with due dates and the cards, project health and task tabs will start showing data.
No. Tasks without a project show up in your task lists and on the Kanban Board as normal. Linking them to a project lets you track progress per project.
Open Settings from the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar and change the Currency Symbol. See Project Manager settings.