Project statuses organize your projects by phases or milestones of working together. The general idea is to move each project from one status to the next as certain milestones are reached, like sending out a proposal or receiving a deposit.

Project statuses are shown across the top of the Projects page. Click on a status to see a filtered list of the projects with that particular status only.

Statuses are categorized into Leads, Jobs, Combined, and Archived:

It's up to you to decide when a lead becomes a job. For many businesses, this after there is a signed contract and paid invoice or deposit.

👋 Here's a tip... all new accounts start with the status categories of Leads and Jobs, which is why you'll see Lead: No Status and Job: No Status as your only two options for project statuses until you create custom statuses.

Your project statuses should reflect the steps of the process you follow for working with clients. Custom statuses can be created under the Lead and Job categories by clicking on the Customize button on the Projects page.

Click Add Status to add new statuses. Statuses can be dragged and dropped between Leads and Jobs and arranged in the order you prefer. Check the box for any status to make it the default view whenever you open the Projects page.

Project statuses will vary from business to business, even within the same industry. It helps to write out all the steps in your process of working with a client to identify which milestones you want to watch out for.

Here are some common examples of project statuses to get you started:

👋 Here's a tip... you don't need a status for every single step in your process. Focus on which steps will need your attention most or involve waiting for the client.

By default, project statuses do not change automatically. Manually change a project status on the Projects page using the dropdown under the Status column.

Changing a project status will not trigger any automation to occur. It will only move the project into the selected status.

👋 Here's a tip... project statuses can be set up to automatically change as part of an automated workflow. Building a workflow requires preparation and a thorough knowledge of Dubsado's features, so it's one of the last things you'll want to set up.

The best practice is to choose project statuses that reflect the steps of your process and to use project tags for categories instead. If you use project statuses as categories, it will be difficult to incorporate them into an automated workflow, since the project would not move from one category to another.

No. Changing a project status will not trigger any automation to occur. It will only move the project into that new status. If you'd like to automate project status changes, you'll need to incorporate them into an automated workflow.