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FreeMaint CMMS

Projects

Projects

Group work orders into a shutdown, a renovation or a campaign, with phases, budget and RFIs

Projects

Run a shutdown, a renovation or a campaign as one job: phases, budget, team and RFIs

A project groups the work orders that belong to the same undertaking — an annual shutdown, a building renovation, a machine installation, a preventive campaign — and gives them a shared plan, budget and progress. Each project carries its own reference (PRJ-1, PRJ-2…), a manager, a team and as many phases as the job needs. The work orders themselves stay ordinary work orders: your technicians keep working exactly as they do today, and the project rolls their status and cost up for you.

Assets covered by a project

A project can cover several assets. Pick them on the project form; the project then appears on each asset's Projects tab, next to its work orders. Projects reached indirectly through an asset's work orders are listed separately, with the work orders that connect them.

Budget

Set a planned budget on the project and the Budget tab compares it with what has actually been spent, gathered from the labour and parts costs of the linked work orders. The same table breaks both figures down phase by phase. A phase that is not backed by work orders — a subcontracted lot, a supplier quote — carries its own planned and actual cost instead, so nothing is ever counted twice. A cost that belongs to the project but to no work order — materials bought directly, a contractor invoice, a permit fee — is recorded with Add cost under Other costs at the bottom of the Budget tab, and is added to the project's total cost.

Creating a project

  1. Open Projects in the sidebar and click New Project.
  2. Give it a name, then pick a type: General, Shutdown, Renovation, Installation or Campaign.
  3. Set the priority and the planned start and end dates.
  4. Enter a planned budget if the job has one — actual spend is calculated for you from the linked work orders.
  5. Choose a project manager, add a description, and save.

Important:

Projects have their own permissions (view, create, edit, delete, manage team) and RFIs have theirs. If a colleague cannot see Projects in the sidebar, check their role under People > Roles before looking at the plan.

Phases

A phase is a stage of the job — preparation, dismantling, assembly, commissioning. Add one from the Phases tab, then open "More details" to set a start date, a due date, a person in charge and a planned and actual cost. Phases are ordered, and each carries its own status: Pending, In progress, Completed or On hold. The person in charge is notified when a phase is put in their hands.

Printing and exporting

From the projects list, Print gives you either the list on its own or the list with each project's work orders nested underneath, and Export produces an Excel or CSV file. Both cover the whole filtered set, not only the page on screen.

Progress and status

The progress percentage counts both the linked work orders and the phases, so a phase you complete by hand still counts when work orders exist as well. A work order counts as finished once it is Completed, Validated or Closed. The project status stays yours to set — Planning, Active, On hold, Completed, Closed or Cancelled — unless you switch on "Auto-update project status from phases" on the Overview tab, which derives it from the phases instead. On hold and Cancelled always stay manual: a paused project never restarts itself.

RFIs — requests for information

An RFI is a formal question raised on a project: a missing dimension, an unclear specification. It carries a responsible party, a due date, the drawings it refers to, and a written answer that stays on the record. Each one gets its own reference (RFI-1, RFI-2…) and moves through Draft, Submitted, In review, Answered and Closed, with cancel and reopen available. Assign it to a colleague or to a vendor; the answer and its attachments stay with the project. RFIs are listed under Projects in the sidebar.

Overview
Status, dates, description, external links and the automatic status option.
Work Orders
Every work order attached to the project, and the phase each one belongs to.
Phases
The stages of the job, in order, each with its own dates, person in charge and costs.
Team
The people working on the project, alongside the project manager.
Budget
Planned against actual, broken down phase by phase.
Documents
Drawings, quotes, reports and photos attached to the project.
RFIs
The questions raised on the project and their formal answers.

What each tab holds

Overview
Status, dates, description, external links and the automatic status option.
Work Orders
Every work order attached to the project, and the phase each one belongs to.
Phases
The stages of the job, in order, each with its own dates, person in charge and costs.
Team
The people working on the project, alongside the project manager.
Budget
Planned against actual, broken down phase by phase.
Documents
Drawings, quotes, reports and photos attached to the project.
RFIs
The questions raised on the project and their formal answers.

Availability

Viewing projects is available on every plan. Creating and editing them — including phases, budget and RFIs — requires the Business plan.

Create the phases first, then attach work orders to them as you go: progress, the budget breakdown and the phase-by-phase reading all follow from that one link, and nothing has to be maintained twice.

Linking work orders

On the Work Orders tab, pick any existing work order to attach it to the project; from the Phases tab you can attach it to a specific phase instead. Attaching a work order changes nothing about it, and unlinking it never deletes it. Turn on "Auto-update phase status from work orders" and each phase then follows the work orders inside it instead of being set by hand.


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