Project Properties | Maverick Project Scheduler

Identification & Organization

These properties establish what a project is, how it is classified, and where it lives within your portfolio hierarchy.

Name

The display name for the project, shown in grids, the Gantt chart, calendars, resource allocation views, timesheets, and all reports. A clear, consistent naming convention makes it easy for team members to identify their work across all views without opening the project detail. Names also appear in client-facing exports, so they should reflect the terminology your stakeholders expect to see.

Project Code

An alternate short code that can be displayed alongside the project name in the UI. Project codes are invaluable for organizations that reference projects by internal identifiers — accounting codes, contract numbers, or work authorization numbers — rather than full descriptive names. Showing the code in grids lets staff quickly cross-reference Maverick records against purchase orders, invoices, and external systems.

Description

A freeform narrative description of the project's purpose, scope, and goals. The description is the right place to capture context that does not fit into structured fields — the business problem being solved, key constraints, out-of-scope items, or background that new team members need to get up to speed. A well-written description reduces the number of clarifying questions the project manager has to answer repeatedly.

Department

The organizational department responsible for or most affected by this project. Department is an abstraction of the workgroups assigned to the project, giving managers a higher-level lens for filtering and reporting. Finance can pull all projects belonging to their department, operations can see theirs, and executives can roll up costs and progress by department across the entire portfolio without custom queries.

Portfolio

The portfolio this project belongs to, providing a categorization of the kind of work being performed — such as Infrastructure, Product Development, Client Services, or Research. Grouping projects into portfolios lets leadership compare the health of entire program areas, balance investment across strategic themes, and present a coherent view of organizational priorities to the board or steering committee.

Folder

A nested folder structure for organizing projects within the project list. Just as files on a hard drive become unmanageable without folders, a growing list of dozens or hundreds of projects becomes difficult to navigate without hierarchy. Folders let teams group projects by year, client, division, or any other logical structure, keeping the project list clean and easy to browse regardless of scale.

People & Assignments

Assignment properties link the project to the people responsible for funding it, managing it, and doing the work.

Assign to Users

The human resources, workgroups, machines, and materials assigned to work on this project and its tasks. Assigning resources at the project level establishes availability — Maverick uses these assignments to populate the resource allocation chart, flag over-commitment, and ensure that the right people appear in timesheet task lists. Without explicit assignment, resources cannot log time and managers cannot forecast workload accurately.

Client

The customer or stakeholder who funds or commissioned this project. The client property ties the project to billing records, making it possible to generate client-specific invoices, profitability reports, and budget-vs-actual summaries in a single click. When a client has multiple active projects, Maverick rolls up all hours and costs to give account managers a complete financial picture of the relationship.

Project Manager

The human resource accountable for delivering this project on time and within budget. Assigning a project manager gives the system a clear owner for escalations, approvals, and notifications. It also enables manager-specific dashboards and reports — a project manager can filter the entire portfolio view down to just the projects they own, keeping their focus on the work they are responsible for.

Dates

Date properties capture the full timeline of a project — from the first day of work through delivery to the client and final deployment.

Start Date

The date the project is expected to begin. Maverick calculates the start date automatically from the earliest task under the project, but managers can override it with a fixed date when contractual or organizational constraints apply. The start date anchors the project on the Gantt chart and portfolio timeline, and is used in scheduling calculations to determine whether the project is running ahead of or behind plan.

Finish Date

The date the project is expected to be internally complete. Like the start date, Maverick derives the finish date from the latest task under the project, and managers can override it. The finish date is the primary scheduling anchor for downstream projects that depend on this one completing, making it one of the most watched properties in a portfolio — any slip here ripples across dependent initiatives.

Delivery Date

The date the project deliverable is expected to be handed over to customers or stakeholders. The delivery date may differ from the finish date — internal work may complete ahead of a scheduled handover, or a phased delivery may precede full project completion. Tracking delivery separately from the internal finish date ensures that client commitments are managed explicitly rather than assumed to align with the internal schedule.

Launch Date

The date the project will actually be deployed, released, or go live in the production environment. Launch date is most relevant for software, infrastructure, and product projects where deployment is a distinct event after delivery. Capturing it separately from delivery date allows teams to plan post-delivery testing, staging, and go-live support windows without conflating them with the handover to the client.

Status & Progress

Progress properties give managers and executives an immediate, accurate picture of where each project stands at any point in time.

Active

A yes/no flag that marks the project as currently active for management and time tracking. Inactive projects are hidden from day-to-day task lists and timesheet views, keeping the UI clean and focused on current work. Archiving completed or cancelled projects by marking them inactive preserves all their historical data for reporting and auditing while preventing accidental time entries against closed work.

Status

The current state of the project, drawn from a customizable list your organization defines — such as Planning, In Progress, On Hold, Deployed, or Closed. Status drives executive dashboards and portfolio filters, letting leadership surface all projects that are blocked, at risk, or awaiting a decision without manually reviewing every project record. A well-maintained status field is the single most valuable property for portfolio-level governance.

Priority

A user-defined ranking of the project's strategic importance, using whatever scheme your organization prefers — letters (A, B, C), numbers (1, 2, 3), or descriptive labels. When budgets tighten or resources are stretched, sorting the portfolio by priority ensures that the highest-value initiatives receive attention first. Priority also feeds resource leveling decisions — in a conflict, resources flow toward higher-priority projects.

% Complete

The overall percentage of the project that has been finished, automatically rolled up from the percent complete values of all tasks under the project. This single number is the most commonly requested status metric from stakeholders who do not need task-level detail. Because it is derived from actual task progress rather than manually entered, it reflects real work completed rather than an optimistic estimate.

Timer Running

A live indicator that shows whether any human resource or machine currently has an active timer running against this project. Running timers confirm that work is actively in progress in real time — useful for managers who want to verify that a critical task is being worked on right now, not just planned. It also serves as a quick sanity check before closing out a project to ensure no open timers will post unexpected hours.

Time Tracking Controls

These properties give managers precise control over when and how team members can log hours to the project, including automated enforcement thresholds.

Show in Timesheet

Controls whether this project and its tasks appear in the employee timesheet. Turning this off while the project is being built prevents premature time entries before tasks and budgets are finalized. Once the project is ready, switching it on deploys it to all assigned users simultaneously — a clean, controlled go-live rather than a gradual, error-prone rollout where some users see the project and others do not.

Can Log Time

A master switch that allows or blocks new time entries against this project. Turning this off when a project is complete prevents any further hours from being posted, locking down the project's actual work total for billing and reporting purposes. This is an essential control for fixed-price projects — once the budget is consumed or the work is done, no additional hours should accumulate without an explicit decision to reopen the project.

% Task Warning

The percent-complete threshold at which Maverick displays a warning popup when a user attempts to log hours. The user can still enter time, but they are alerted that the project is nearing its completion limit — prompting them to verify that the hours are correct before saving. This gives the project manager an early signal that the project is consuming its budget without blocking legitimate work in progress.

% Task Error

The hard-stop threshold at which Maverick refuses to accept new time entries. When a user tries to log hours and the project has hit this completion percentage, the entry is blocked entirely until the project manager intervenes. This prevents budget overruns from accumulating silently and forces a deliberate conversation about scope, additional authorization, or change order approval before more work proceeds.

Budget & Billing

Financial properties define how costs and revenue are calculated for the project, from the billing model and rates through the full estimated budget.

Billing Method

The model Maverick uses to calculate the client charge for this project. Options include billing by category (0), by user (1), by a single project rate (2), by category and user combined (3), by project and user combined (4), by option year and user (5), by role-to-role mapping (6), by role and user (7), or by user override with user default fallback (8). The default is by user rates. Choosing the right billing model ensures that every hour is priced correctly according to your contract structure without manual calculation.

Salary Method

The model Maverick uses to calculate internal labor costs for this project, using the same range of options as the billing method. Salary and billing methods can differ — for example, you may bill the client by user rate but track internal costs by category to reflect departmental charge-back structures. Separating the two models gives finance a precise view of margin at every level of the cost structure.

Client Rate

The hourly rate charged to the client when the billing method is set to "By Project rate." Rather than assigning different rates to each resource or category, a single project-level rate simplifies billing for fixed-rate contracts where all hours are charged uniformly regardless of who performs the work. This is common in managed service agreements, retainers, and blended-rate government contracts.

Salary Rate

The hourly cost of labor when the salary method is set to "By Project rate." A single project salary rate is useful when the team working on a project has a blended cost that is easier to manage as one number than as individual resource rates — for example, when a staffing agency bills at a flat rate per hour regardless of which contractor is on site. Maverick applies this rate to all hours logged to calculate total labor cost.

Fixed Fee

Marks this as a fixed-fee project where the client pays an agreed total regardless of actual hours expended. Fixed-fee projects require particularly close monitoring because labor overruns come directly out of margin — there is no mechanism to charge the client more when work takes longer than planned. Maverick tracks actuals against estimates on fixed-fee projects so managers can see exactly how much margin remains before a project becomes unprofitable.

Estimated Hours

The total number of hours this project is expected to take, rolled up automatically from the duration of all tasks beneath it. Managers can override this calculated value with a top-down estimate when the task-level detail is not yet available. Estimated hours is the baseline against which actual work is compared — it is the most fundamental budget figure in any time-tracked project and the starting point for all cost projections.

Estimated Expenses

The projected cost of materials, travel, equipment, and other non-labor expenses for the project. Capturing expense estimates separately from labor ensures that the total project budget is complete from the start — a common budgeting mistake is focusing only on hours while underestimating or ignoring material costs. Comparing estimated expenses against actuals as the project progresses reveals procurement and spending variances early.

Estimated Cost

The total estimated cost of the project, encompassing both labor and expenses. This is the number used in project approval, budget allocation, and client proposals — the single figure that answers "how much will this project cost?" Maverick keeps it current as task estimates evolve, so the project record always reflects the latest cost forecast rather than just the original bid figure.

Estimation Date

The date the project estimate was prepared. Storing the estimation date alongside the estimate itself is important because estimates age — a cost projection made eighteen months ago may no longer reflect current labor rates, material prices, or project scope. The estimation date tells reviewers how fresh the budget figures are and flags when a re-estimate may be needed before the project proceeds to the next phase.

Production & Actuals

These properties track what has actually been produced and consumed — the real numbers that tell you how the project is performing against its estimates.

Qty

The total quantity of items, units, or deliverables this project is expected to produce upon completion. Quantity gives manufacturing, construction, and product development projects a production-based success metric alongside the time-based percent complete. Stakeholders who think in units shipped, components built, or features delivered find quantity more meaningful than an abstract percentage.

Qty Built

The actual number of items or units produced by the project to date. Comparing qty built against the target quantity reveals the production gap in concrete terms — how many more units must be made to meet the deliverable. For projects where physical output is the primary measure of success, qty built is updated regularly and serves as the headline progress metric in client status meetings.

Actual Work

The total number of hours logged against this project across all tasks and all resources, rolled up automatically from individual time entries. Actual work is the ground truth of labor consumption — it grows with every timesheet entry and is the primary input for cost-to-date calculations. Watching actual work climb relative to estimated hours is the earliest and most reliable signal that a project is trending over budget.

Actual Expenses

The total non-labor costs incurred on this project to date, including materials, travel, equipment rental, and any other out-of-pocket expenditures. Actual expenses accumulate alongside actual work to give finance a complete picture of total spending. When actual expenses exceed the estimate, it triggers a review of remaining material needs and may prompt renegotiation with suppliers or a scope conversation with the client.

Actual Work by User

A breakdown of actual hours contributed by each individual human resource and machine assigned to the project. While overall actual work shows the total, actual work by user reveals the distribution — whether the effort is spread evenly across the team or concentrated on a few individuals. This level of detail supports individual utilization reporting, resource rebalancing decisions, and accurate billing when different resources carry different rates.

Customization & Administration

These properties adapt Maverick to your organization's unique workflow, data requirements, governance processes, and visual preferences.

Allow AI Updates

A permission flag that enables Maverick's AI to update this project in response to natural-language prompts. When turned on, managers can instruct the AI to reschedule tasks, reassign resources, adjust estimates, or change status values using plain English — "push everything out by two weeks" or "assign the remaining design tasks to Jordan." Turning it off locks the project from AI modifications, preserving manual control for sensitive or regulated initiatives.

Text 1

A freeform text field available for any purpose your organization defines — internal reference notes, approval codes, procurement identifiers, regulatory classification, or any custom label that does not fit an existing structured field. Text fields can also be read and written by scripts, enabling dynamic automation based on values you control. What belongs here is entirely determined by your workflow requirements.

Text 2

A second independent freeform text field, separate from Text 1, for capturing a second category of custom metadata. Having multiple text fields means you can tag projects with more than one custom attribute simultaneously without mixing unrelated information into a single field — for example, Text 1 for the contract vehicle and Text 2 for the funding source, each filterable and reportable independently.

Text 3

A third freeform text field for organizations with complex classification needs or multiple layers of custom tagging. Three independent text fields provide the flexibility to capture rich metadata without requiring database schema changes or custom development. All three fields are available in filters, reports, and scripts, making them first-class citizens of the project record rather than an afterthought.

PO

The purchase order number authorizing work on this project. Storing the PO number on the project record creates a direct link between project management and procurement, eliminating the need to cross-reference a separate accounts payable system when questions arise about billing authority. It also ensures that every invoice generated from this project can be automatically tagged with the correct PO number for client approval workflows.

Extra Information

A structured, user-defined field for additional project information intended for display, reports, or script consumption. Unlike the freeform text fields, extra information is designed for data that follows a consistent format across projects — such as a risk rating, a compliance classification, or a strategic alignment score. Scripts can read this value to trigger conditional behavior, and reports can group or filter by it across the entire portfolio.

Can Log Time Script

A script written in SQL, JavaScript, or C# that Maverick executes before allowing any time entry against this project. If the script returns a failure, the time log is blocked and the user sees the error message the script provides. Common uses include enforcing that a PO number is on file before hours are accepted, checking that the logging resource is certified for this project type, or preventing entries outside of an approved date range.

Color

The background color used to represent this project in grids, calendars, and dashboards. Assigning distinct colors to different projects, clients, or departments turns a wall of text into an immediately scannable visual map. A thoughtfully designed color scheme lets a manager survey the portfolio timeline and understand its structure — which client's work is where, which department owns what — without reading a single label.

Attachments

Images, documents, contracts, specifications, or any other files attached directly to the project record. Keeping attachments on the project ensures that the relevant files are always co-located with the work — no hunting through shared drives, email archives, or external document systems. Everyone with access to the project can see the attachments immediately, and they remain part of the project record permanently for post-project review and audit.

History

A complete, immutable log of every change made to this project record — who changed what field, from what value to what value, and exactly when. History answers the accountability questions that arise in project reviews, client disputes, and audits: when was the budget revised? Who changed the status to On Hold? What was the original delivery date? A full change history transforms the project record from a current snapshot into a living document of the project's evolution.