1. Create your blank project
The first step in organizing your team's work is to enter your new project in Holded:
Go to Projects, and click on "New project".
Select "Blank project" as the template.
☝🏼 The "Blank project" option has all the options and functionalities.
Click "Next" to confirm the template selection.
Fill in the basic information (name, privacy).
Click "Show advanced options", if needed (you can inform these fields later, from Settings > Billing options).
Click "Create".
2. Configure the general settings
Before entering any task, you will need to specify some general options, such as the start and end date, as well as the contact associated with the project.
Go to Projects, and click on the project you have just created.
Click on "Settings", and choose the "General" option.
Enter the Start date and End date of the project.
Under "Assign project to a contact" choose the contact you want to associate.
Click on "Save".
3. Configure billing and costing options
In addition to the basic settings, you will need to detail the billing and budgeting preferences for your project:
Go to Projects, and click on the project you just created.
Click on "Settings", and choose the "Billing" option.
Use the selectors to activate the "Invoicing" and "Cost Forecast" options.
Under Hourly Rates, use the drop-down menu to choose the hourly rate method used to calculate the billable amount for your project.
Under Budget, choose the method for calculating costs from the drop-down menu.
Click "Save".
4. Add lists to your test project
Lists will allow you to classify the tasks you create below. In addition, you can adapt them to your needs, either by areas, phases or project status.
Go to Projects, and click on the project you have just created.
Click on the "Board" tab, and access the List view at the top right.
Click "+ Add list", enter a name, and click "Add list" to confirm.
Repeat the process to create the additional lists you need.
For more information on how to create lists in your projects, see this article.
5. Create a task in each of the lists
Tasks are essential, as they represent each of the actions to be completed in order to achieve the final goal of the project. Follow these steps to create a task:
Access the "Board" tab of the project you have created.
Click on "+ Add task" in the desired list.
Enter a name for the task, and press "Enter" on your keyboard to confirm the creation.
Repeat the process as many times as you need.
See this article to learn more about adding tasks to your projects.
6. Indicate the start and end dates for your tasks.
As you can see, adding tasks to your lists is a quick procedure. From Holded, you can also specify more details about each of them. In this case, you will learn how to include the start and end dates:
Go into the task you created in the first list.
Click on the "Start date" and "Due date" options on the right side to enable these new fields.
Use the calendar in these fields to select the corresponding dates.
Repeat the same process for the rest of the tasks.
Learn more here about other actions available for your tasks.
7. Modify the status of your tasks
There are a large number of additional actions you can perform with your tasks. One of the most common will be to change their status as you progress:
Click on the task in the first list you created.
In the pop-up panel, click on "Status".
Select the "To Do" status.
Repeat these steps to move a second task to the "In Progress" status.
Finally, change the third task to "Done".
Learn more here about other actions available for your tasks.
8. Explore the views available in your project
The views allow you to choose how you want to view the tasks you add to your project:
From the project you have prepared, go to the "Board" tab.
Go to the top right, right next to the filters.
Choose one of the available display options (Basic, List, Gantt Chart, Sheets and By End Date).
Change the view format whenever you need to without losing any information. Choose the view that best suits your way of working.
Learn more here about the project views available in Holded.
9. Access the project list
The project list allows you to quickly check and filter all the projects you have created in Holded. In addition, at a glance, you can find out essential details such as start and end dates, project type, members involved, etc.
Go to Projects in the navigation bar.
Verify that the project you have created is listed.
Click on the two-column icon at the top right.
Choose the columns you want to be shown in the listing.
In the future, when the list is longer, you can use the available filters to find specific projects more quickly.
10. Consult project reports
Through these reports you can analyze the new projects that have been generated during a given period of time, as well as their profitability.
Even if you have just started and there is not yet enough data to complete the reports, it is useful to know how to access them when you need them in the future:
Go to Analytics > Reports.
Under Productivity, select "Projects".
See the available reports: New Projects and Profitability by Project.
Learn more about project reports here.
11. Check out the task reports
These reports will allow you to check how many tasks have been generated, as well as their types and statuses. This will give you a better understanding of the workload and how it is distributed over time:
Go to Analytics > Reports.
Under Productivity, select "Tasks".
Check out the available reports: New and resolved tasks, Tasks by status and Tasks by type.
Learn more here about task reports.
☝🏼 After experimenting and learning with your test project, we recommend that you delete it so that it does not affect the actual view of your projects in Holded. How? From the project, click Settings > General > Three-dot menu (⋮) > Delete.