---
title: Manage projects and tasks
description: A friendly, step-by-step guide to running projects in TSync — tasks, the kanban board, subtasks, milestones, the project Health badge, time tracking, and more. No technical background needed.
product: TSync Intelligence 11.3.6
language: en
canonical: https://docs.tsync.pro/project-management/
source: https://docs.tsync.pro/llms.txt
---

# Manage projects and tasks 📋

This is your space for getting work done with your team. A **project** is any piece of work you're organising — a client job, an internal initiative, a launch. Inside each project you keep **tasks** (the things to do), see how on-track you are at a glance, track time, attach files, and chat with the people involved.

New to this? Don't worry — everything below is explained in plain language, one feature at a time. Start with the parts you need today; the rest will be here when you're ready.

## Your first project in 5 minutes

1. Open the **Projects** menu on the left and click **New Project**.
2. Give it a **name**, pick the **customer** (if it's client work), and — this is the one tip worth remembering — set a **start date** and a **deadline**. These two dates let TSync tell you whether you're on schedule.
3. Save. You're now looking at the project's **Overview** — its home screen.
4. Click the **Tasks** tab and add your first few tasks. Each task can have an owner, a due date, and a priority.
5. That's it. Come back any time and TSync will show you where things stand.

## What would you like to do?

- [See at a glance if a project is on track](#is-my-project-on-track) — the Health badge
- [Work through your tasks](#tasks-your-to-do-list) — lists and the kanban board
- [Filter the board to just what matters today](#focus-the-board-with-quick-filters)
- [Break a big task into smaller steps](#subtasks-break-a-big-task-down) — subtasks
- [Track time and bill for it](#track-time-and-bill-for-it)
- [Plan the timeline visually](#plan-the-timeline-with-gantt) — the Gantt chart
- [Mark key moments](#milestones-mark-the-key-moments) — milestones
- [Reuse a project you've done before](#reuse-a-project-you-set-up-before)
- [Talk to your team](#talk-to-your-team) and [share files](#share-files)
- [See if a project made money](#did-the-project-make-money)

---

## Is my project on track?

On each project's **Overview** tab, right next to the progress bar, you'll see a small coloured **Health badge**. It's the quickest way to know how things are going — no need to read through every task.

What the colours mean:

| You'll see | It means |
|---|---|
| 🟢 **On track** / **Ahead of schedule** | You're keeping up (or doing better). Carry on. |
| 🟡 **At risk** | Slipping a little. Worth a quick look for anything stuck. |
| 🟠 **Behind schedule** | Falling behind. Check open tasks, reassign, or extend the deadline. |
| 🔴 **Overdue** (gently pulsing) | The deadline has passed and there's still work left. Needs attention now. |
| 🟢 **Completed** | Done and dusted. |
| ⚪ **Not started** / **No deadline set** | Either you haven't begun, or there are no dates to compare against. |

TSync works this out by comparing **how much of the work is finished** against **how much of the time has gone by**. So if half the time is used up but only a fifth of the tasks are done, it'll warn you early.

**Tip:** hover over the badge and a little note explains *why* it's showing that colour (for example, *"Progress is significantly behind the time elapsed"*).

**Why dates matter:** if a project has no start date and deadline, the badge stays neutral grey — there's nothing to measure against. Setting both is the single best habit for keeping projects honest.

---

## Tasks — your to-do list

Tasks live under the **Tasks** tab of a project. Each task has a name, an owner (one or more people), a due date, a priority, and a status (like *Not Started*, *In Progress*, *Complete*).

You can view your tasks two ways, and switch any time using the icons next to **New Task**:

- **List view** — a straightforward table. Good for scanning and sorting.
- **Kanban board** — your tasks as cards, arranged in columns by status. Great for seeing the flow of work and moving things along.

### Moving a task along on the board

On the kanban board, each task is a card. To change its status:

1. Move your mouse over the card (on a phone, just tap it).
2. A small **⋯** button appears in the top-right corner. Click it.
3. Pick the new status from the list.

The card slides over to the matching column instantly — no pop-up window, no page reload. (On a phone the **⋯** button is always visible, since there's no hovering.)

> **A note on permissions:** you can change a task's status if you're working on the task, if you created it, or if you've been given permission to edit tasks. If none of those apply, nothing will change when you try.

### Focus the board with quick filters

When you're on the kanban board, a row of handy **filter chips** sits above the columns. Click one to show only the tasks it describes:

| Chip | Shows you |
|---|---|
| 👤 **Assigned to me** | Tasks you're responsible for |
| 📅 **Due today** | Tasks due today |
| ⚠️ **Overdue** | Tasks past their due date that aren't finished |
| 🚩 **High priority** | The important ones |

Chips are toggles — click to turn on, click again to turn off. And you can **combine** them: turn on *Assigned to me* **and** *Overdue* to see only your overdue tasks. While any filter is on, a **❌ Clear filters** button appears to reset everything.

**Tip:** the classic "what should I do today?" view is *Assigned to me* + *Due today*. 

---

## Subtasks — break a big task down

Some tasks are really several smaller steps in a trench coat. **Subtasks** let you split a big task into concrete pieces without cluttering your main task list.

Open a task, and below its description you'll find the **Subtasks** section:

1. Click **+ Add subtask** — the usual New Task window opens, already linked to the parent task.
2. Fill it in and save. It now appears in the task's subtask list, each showing its name, due date (in red if it's overdue), and status.
3. Click any subtask's name to open it.

Finished subtasks show with a line through them. If you're looking at a task that is *itself* a subtask, a small **↰ Subtask of: …** link appears at the top so you can jump back to the parent.

Good to know:
- A subtask can have its own subtasks, so you can go as deep as you genuinely need to.
- Finishing all the subtasks does **not** automatically mark the parent done — that stays your call (a task often has finishing touches beyond its checklist). This is how Asana and Jira work too.
- Subtasks count as normal tasks everywhere else — they show up in lists, on the board, and on the timeline.

**Tip:** aim for roughly 5–10 subtasks per parent, and keep each description short. If you need more, it's probably two tasks.

---

## Track time and bill for it

For any task, your team can record the time they spend — either with a live timer or by typing it in afterwards.

**Using the live timer**
1. Open the task and click **▶ Start Timer**.
2. It keeps counting in the background (you'll see a live counter in the top bar) while you work.
3. Click **■ Stop** and TSync saves an entry with the start time, end time, and total duration.

Several people can run their own timers on the same task at once — TSync keeps each person's time separate.

**Adding time by hand**

Prefer to log time after the fact (a meeting, a phone call)? Click **+ Add time entry** and fill in the start, end, an optional rate, and a note.

**Billable or not**

Each entry is marked **billable** or **non-billable**. Billable time is ready to be turned into an invoice; non-billable time still shows in your reports and timesheets but won't be charged to the client.

**Turning time into an invoice**

When you're ready to charge for the work, use **Invoice tracked time** on the project. You can filter by person and date range, choose whether to include non-billable time, and TSync builds the invoice for you.

**Seeing the numbers**

Head to **Reports → Detailed → Time tracking** for a breakdown by project, person, task and date, which you can export to a spreadsheet.

---

## Tasks that depend on each other

Sometimes one task can't start (or finish) until another is done. In a task, use the **Dependencies** field to pick the task(s) it waits on. After that, TSync won't let you mark the task complete until its predecessors are finished — and if you try, it'll tell you exactly which ones are still open. On the timeline, you'll see arrows linking the connected tasks.

---

## Plan the timeline with Gantt

The **Gantt** tab lays out all your tasks and milestones along a calendar, so you can *see* the shape of the project over time.

You can:
- **Drag a bar** left or right to move a task in time.
- **Stretch the right edge** of a bar to extend a deadline.
- Follow the **arrows** between tasks that depend on each other.
- **Filter** by who's assigned, status, milestone or tag.
- Zoom the **scale** between days, weeks, months and years.
- Spot **today's line** and the most time-critical chain of tasks.
- **Export** the chart as an image or a PDF to share.

---

## Milestones — mark the key moments

Milestones are the signposts on your timeline — *"Design approved"*, *"Go live"*. They're markers, not tasks.

To add one: **Project → Milestones → New Milestone**, then give it a name, a due date and a colour. You can then point tasks at a milestone using the **Milestone** field on each task. Milestones show up as diamonds on the Gantt chart and as a count on the Overview.

---

## Tasks that repeat

For work that comes round again and again — a weekly report, a daily check — let TSync create the tasks for you. When making a task, open the **Recurring** section and choose how often it repeats (every few days, weeks, months or years) and how many times. TSync then creates each new copy on schedule, carrying over the owners, followers, description, priority and other details.

---

## Reuse a project you set up before

Run similar projects often — say, the same onboarding steps for every new client? Instead of rebuilding them, copy one. Open the project, choose **Actions → Copy Project**, give the copy a new name and customer, and set a new start date (TSync shifts all the deadlines along for you). You can pick exactly what to bring across: tasks, milestones, notes, files, checklists and more.

---

## Talk to your team

Every project has a **Discussions** tab — a shared comment thread for everyone involved. Type **@** and start a name to mention a teammate; they'll get a notification by app and email. You can keep a discussion **internal** (just your staff) or make it **visible to the client** in their portal. Replies tuck neatly under the comment they answer.

## Share files

The **Files** tab is where the project's documents live. Drag several files in at once, preview images and PDFs right there, and decide per file whether the customer can see it. Need to update a document? Open it and choose **+ Upload new version** to keep the older copies on record.

---

## Who can see and do what

Open **Project → Settings → Members** to add people to a project and give each a **role for this project** (separate from their overall role in TSync):

- **Project Manager** — sees everything and can edit anything.
- **Member** — sees their own tasks plus the shared info.
- **Observer** — can look, but not change.

This means someone with a basic everyday role can still be the manager of one particular project.

---

## Did the project make money?

Go to **Reports → Detailed → Projects** for a per-project summary: what you **earned** (from paid invoices), what you **spent**, the **hours logged**, the **labour cost** of that time, and the resulting **profit** and **margin**. Filter by date, status or customer, and export to a spreadsheet or PDF whenever you need to share it.

---

## A few touches that make life easier

**Jump between tabs with Ctrl + K.** Anywhere inside a project, press **Ctrl + K** (or **⌘ + K** on a Mac) and a search box pops up over everything. Start typing a tab name — even just part of it, like *"gan"* for *Gantt* — use the **↑ ↓** arrows to pick, and press **Enter** to go. **Esc** closes it. It's the fastest way to bounce between Tasks, Gantt and Files when you're deep in a project.

| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Ctrl + K** / **⌘ + K** | Open or close the quick-jump box |
| **↑ ↓** | Move through the results |
| **Enter** | Open the highlighted tab |
| **Esc** | Close the box |

**The tabs stay with you.** As you scroll down a long task or time list, the project tab bar (Overview, Tasks, Milestones, Files, Gantt, Discussions…) stays pinned to the top, so you never have to scroll back up just to switch tabs.

**It works on your phone.** On a small screen the board stacks into single, full-width columns you can scroll through, the filter chips slide sideways, and the **⋯** status button is always visible. Everything you do at your desk works in your hand.

**Add your own fields.** Need to track something specific — a contract number, a region, a colour? Under **Setup → Custom Fields** you can add your own fields to projects and tasks (text, dates, dropdowns, checkboxes, file uploads and more). They'll appear on the forms, and you can even filter the board by them.

---

## Let TSync do the routine bits

You can have TSync react automatically to things that happen in your projects — for example, **send a message to the team whenever a task is marked complete**. Project and task events (a project or task added, updated, its status changed, or someone assigned) can all kick off an automatic action.

→ See [Automations](modules/tsync-automations.md) for ready-made templates and how to set them up.

---

## Beginner tips worth remembering

- **Always set a start date and a deadline.** It's what powers the Health badge — without them, you're flying blind.
- **Use subtasks for the steps**, and keep task descriptions short and clear.
- **Stack the filter chips** to answer "what's on my plate today" in one click: *Assigned to me* + *Due today*.
- **Learn Ctrl + K early.** Once it's a habit, moving around a project becomes effortless.

Want the full list of shortcuts across TSync? See [Keyboard shortcuts](keyboard-shortcuts.md).