Updated Aug 1, 2023

Not every type of business will have defined “projects,” but creating a project in Dubsado is necessary for keeping communication with your clients organized. When it comes to deciding how to use projects in Dubsado, the biggest factors are contracts and invoicing.

As a general rule, start a new project when the client needs to sign a new contract for a new scope of work.

Below are some examples of how to use projects for businesses that work on a recurring basis with their clients. For more information on projects vs clients, click here.

Works best for consultants, coaches, accountants, and other 1:1 service providers who work with their clients on an ongoing basis under a single contract.

You can create one project for each client. The project title can be the client’s name and which package or service they are on with you. You can go without a project date or set the project date to the day the client started working with you.

To onboard the client, create a new project, and send them their contract and any additional forms they need to complete. You might send them a proposal to allow them to pick their package or set them up with a recurring invoice for ongoing work.

Any additional forms or invoices you need to send the client would go through that single project, and everything would remain under the same contract.

Works best for coaches and consultants who have packages based on a specific timeframe or a certain number of sessions.

Similar to creating one project per client, except that you would create a new project for the same client if they decided to hire you again.

For example, your package may include 6 months of support. At the end of the 6 month contract, the client decides to enroll in a different package. You would start a new project for the new contract with the client and invoice them accordingly. Each project can only have one contract, but you can add as many sub-agreements as you’d like.

Another example is performing an annual service, like preparing taxes. Your contract and pricing may change from year to year, so you would start a new project each year for each client.

Works best for service-based businesses like designers, virtual assistants, social media managers, and accountants who perform recurring work for their clients and need to send multiple highly customized invoices and many additional forms. Anyone who performs custom services each month on retainer.

If you need to create a customized invoice every week or month, keeping them all inside a single project may not feel organized. If this is the case, you could start a new project for each month or quarter. This is also a good solution when you need to send a large number of forms back and forth and want to keep them grouped by what was invoiced.

Since the client will not need to sign a brand new contract each month, you can start your work together with a project just for onboarding. This project would include the client's contract and any initial onboarding forms they need to fill out. You can archive this project once the onboarding process is complete.