A L M A S ALMASHelp Open in the app

6. Projects

Projects are the central organising unit. They group tasks, files, contracts, invoices, transactions, and team members.

Browsing projects

Open Projects from the sidebar (or press G P). The list page offers:

  • Filters — minimum priority, pipeline (status flow), status, a show sub-projects checkbox, and Department — where the project currently sits. The list opens on Engineering and also shows Unassigned rows (projects on a step that belongs to no department, such as Closed). Deals live under Sales → Pipeline and installed projects under Support → Projects: the same projects, seen from another department.
  • Refresh — pulls the latest data without losing your filter selections.
  • Create — opens a modal to create a new project.

Creating a project

Press N P from anywhere. Fill in:

  • Name and abstract (one-line summary).
  • Acronym (optional) — a short code (up to a few letters) that ALMAS uses as the prefix of the project's task ids and in project labels. Leave it blank and ALMAS picks one for you from the project name's initials (e.g. Apollo Platform → AP); if that's already taken it adds a number. You can type your own instead, and edit it later — each project's acronym must be unique within your workspace.
  • Description (longer prose, optional).
  • Contract code — links to a contract record if you have one.
  • Value and currency.
  • Start date.
  • Priority, pipeline, vertical, leader.
  • Parent project — turns this into a sub-project.
  • Status.

Press Save when done. You're taken to the new project's detail page. From then on the project shows up in pickers and labels as <acronym> - <Customer> - <Name>, leading with the short code.

Project detail page

The project view has:

  • A breadcrumb so you can jump back to the parent if it's a sub-project.
  • A status badge in the header (e.g. In progress, On hold, Done).
  • A department chip (Sales, Engineering, Support …) next to the pipeline. It follows the step the project is on — move the project to the next step and the chip, and the menu that lists the project, move with it.
  • Tabs for related data: Tasks, Files, Notes, Invoices, Contracts, Transactions, Workflows, Assets, and Legal — the legal matters opened on this project (see Lawsuits).
  • A Gantt view toggle for visualising task timelines.
  • Action buttons (right side): Edit, Delete, Share, Print.

Project hierarchy

Any project can have child projects (set the Parent project field when creating). The dashboard rolls up financials by default; turn on show sub-projects in the list filters to see them inline.

Sharing a project

Click Share on the project view. A picker opens where you can add users or whole teams with one of three permission levels: Read-only, Read-write, or Admin. See Sharing and permissions for what each level means.

Project pipelines

A project moves through a pipeline — an ordered set of steps shown next to the Pipeline label on the detail page. Different project types use different pipelines. The Product Development pipeline, for example, runs:

Intake → Problem Statement → PRD → Architecture → Planning → Implementation → QA → UAT → Release → Support → Closed

  • Pick a type when you create the project — the "Project type" field sets which pipeline the project follows. Existing projects keep the classic sales pipeline.
  • Each step can create a task for you. When the project enters a step, a checklist task appears (e.g. entering PRD adds a "Write PRD" task). Complete the step's task(s) before moving on.
  • Move with the pipeline buttons. Below the pipeline label, you'll see the moves available from the current step — Advance, Ship, Close, and status actions Pause / Block / Wait / Flag crisis / Resume. The buttons you see depend on where the project is and your permissions.
  • Gates. If a step still has open tasks, Advance is blocked and a message lists what's outstanding. Finish those tasks (or, if you have the permission, use the override to move anyway).
  • Sending work back. Reviewing at a late step (say UAT) and found a problem? Use Send back and choose the step that owns the issue — Architecture or Implementation. The project bounces straight there; it never skips forward.

Where a project lives: departments

A project is one record for its whole life — it starts as a lead, becomes a deal, then a build, then something you support. Nothing is copied or converted along the way. What changes is the step it is on, and every step belongs to a department:

  • Sales — from Prospection to Signed on the classic pipeline (including Procurement, the step formerly called Waiting), and from Prospection to Won on the Solution flow that leads captured by a marketing form follow.
  • Engineering — SoW through Delivered.
  • Support — the Support step.
  • Unassigned — Closed: a closed project keeps showing where it closed, and on the Projects list under Unassigned.

So Sales → Pipeline is the deal board, Administrative → Projects is engineering's board and Support → Projects is support's — three views of the same list, chosen by the Department filter. When a deal is won and moves to SoW, it simply leaves the sales board and appears on the projects board; when it reaches Support, it appears under Support. Use Send back when work has to return to an earlier department.