Projects — Workflow

Overview

A project moves through three main statuses — active, technically closed, and finalized — representing the phases of execution, conclusion of technical work, and financial settlement. Projects are typically created automatically when a customer PO is entered through the sales module, and close once invoices and payments have been reconciled against CPO totals.

Note

This feature follows SARA's standard record lifecycle model. See: Workflows & Pipelines

Roles involved

Sales — creates the quote, enters the customer PO, triggering automatic project creation
Project manager — owns day-to-day execution; monitors costs, hours, and metrics
Technical manager — performs technical closure when project work concludes
Finance — completes invoicing, collects payment, and performs financial closure
Direction — approves CPO version changes and resolves CPO amount mismatches

Status lifecycle

ACTV — Active. The project is live; expenditures (hours, CPOs, refunds, logistics) can be recorded against it.
TCLS — Technical closure. Project work is complete; no new expenditures can be added. Invoicing and payment collection are still in progress.
FINA — Finalized. The project is fully closed — technically and financially.

Deliverables tracked within a project have their own independent status lifecycle:

Initial — deliverable created and in progress.
Ready — completed internally; ready for handoff.
DELV — delivered to the customer.
CANC — cancelled.

Info

For system-wide status guidance, see: Status

TCLS is a domain-specific status used only in Projects. It is listed in the status catalog.

Status diagram

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> ACTV : Created (from quote approval or manually)
    ACTV --> TCLS : Technical closure
    TCLS --> FINA : Financial closure
    ACTV --> FINA : Emergency finalize
    TCLS --> ACTV : Re-opened
    FINA --> ACTV : Re-opened

Exception paths

Emergency finalize bypasses technical closure entirely — it goes directly ACTV → FINA. A written reason is required and permanently logged. Re-open reverses closure from either TCLS or FINA back to ACTV, resuming all expenditure recording.

Workflow

Workflow steps

Sales creates a quote and sends it to the customer.
Customer returns a PO; sales enters it to approve the quote.
SARA automatically creates a project in ACTV status and sends an email notification.
The team records expenditures against the project (hours, CPOs, refunds, logistics).
When work concludes, the technical manager performs technical closure (ACTV → TCLS).
Finance completes invoicing and collects payment.
Financial closure validates CPO, invoice, and payment totals — then closes the project (TCLS → FINA).

Project creation

When sales approves a quote by entering the customer's purchase order, SARA automatically creates a project in ACTV status. The project is linked to the quote and inherits the customer, company, and budget node structure from it.

An email notification is sent immediately to:

The assigned project manager.
All users with the email project creation permission.

Manual creation: Users with the Project creation permission can also create a project via the "+ New Project" button — for example, when work must begin before a CPO arrives. A manually created project can be linked to a quote and CPO retroactively.

Active execution

While in ACTV, the team records all project-related expenditures:

Hours via timesheets (the time report type on the project controls the approval method)
CPOs linked to project budget nodes
Refunds (expense reimbursements)
Logistics (travel and accommodation)

The project manager monitors financial health through the cost/income columns (with view cost and income permission) and the project metrics panel (with project metrics permission).

Technical closure

When project work is complete, the technical manager initiates closure from the row action menu:

Select "Check technical pending." A panel opens listing any unresolved logistics records or timesheets linked to the project. These must be resolved before closure can proceed.
Once the panel shows no pending items, the "Technical closure" button becomes available.
Confirming moves the project to TCLS.

After technical closure, recording new hours, CPOs, refunds, or logistics against this project is blocked. The project remains visible and editable for administrative purposes.

Financial closure

Finance completes invoicing and collects payment, then initiates closure from the row action menu on the TCLS project:

The system checks all linked CPOs:
- If any CPO is still active (open), closure is blocked — the CPO must be finalized first.
- If any CPO is in a direction-pending state, closure is blocked — direction must process it first.
- If any CPO has an amount mismatch, the user is offered the option to notify direction. Direction approves or rejects the mismatch before closure can proceed.
When all CPOs are finalized and all totals balance (CPO sum = invoice sum = payment sum), the system closes the project (TCLS → FINA).

Notifications

Trigger	Recipients
Project created (automatic or manual)	Project manager + all users with `email project creation` permission
New CPO version created	All users with `pos new version` permission
CPO requires direction approval	Direction
CPO amount mismatch detected	Users with `mismatch cpos` permission
CPO mismatch resolved	Users with `finance closure` permission

Note

For global notification behavior, see: Notifications & Alerts

Exceptions & operational notes

Emergency finalize — The "Finalize" action (red button, edit permission) closes a project outside the normal TCLS → FINA path. A written reason is required and is permanently logged. Use only for projects that will not go through the standard closure process (e.g., abandoned or cancelled projects). Prefer financial closure for all standard cases.
Open project — Any TCLS or FINA project can be re-opened to ACTV (edit permission) with a reason. All expenditure recording resumes. Use when additional work or corrections are needed after closure.
Financial closure is not available on ACTV projects. Technical closure must occur first.
CPO mismatch blocks financial closure. If CPO amounts do not match invoices or payments, direction must resolve the mismatch before finance can close the project.

Permissions

Access and actions are permission-driven. See: Permissions