Manage projects

Everything your teams work on is costed against a project. A project with the wrong dates, owner or cost centre puts that cost in the wrong month or category. Initiatives group projects together, but the cost always sits on the projects.

You need access to the roadmap to change projects, and access to financial figures to see costs — ask your Flowstate admin. Setting projects up for the first time? See Set up your projects.

Decide what a project covers

• A long-running product team: one project a year for the team's work.
• Work with a fixed scope, such as a business case: one project each, so each has its own costs.
• A feature several teams build: one shared project, with each team's tickets linked to it.

Capitalisation and R&D claims are built from projects, so each project should be a piece of work you could describe on its own.

The projects list

Go to Delivery → Roadmap → Projects.

Projects grouped under the initiative they belong to.

Projects grouped under the initiative they belong to.

Each row starts with a status pie, which fills as the project moves from Backlog to Done. An amber warning after the name means the project needs attention. Hover over it to see why.

• Select a row to open the project's side panel. Double-click it to open the full project page.
• Choose the period in the top right. The list shows projects whose dates overlap it, and starts on the current quarter. Choose Quarter, Year, Since or Custom.
• Search by typing a name in Find in view... at the top. Search looks across all dates.
• Choose columns with Properties.

Column	What it shows
Initiative	The initiative the project belongs to
Drivers	What the project is meant to move. See Project value
Dates	The start and end dates
Cost Centre	Decides whether the project's cost is CapEx, OpEx or R&D
Post-Completion Cost Centre	Where cost goes after the end date
Owner	The person responsible for the project
Suggested Cost Centre and Suggested Post-Completion Cost Centre	Hidden until you add them. Where a weekly check thinks the project belongs

Your organisation's custom attributes can be columns too.

Group, sort and filter

• Group by Initiative (the default), Status, Owner, Cost Centre or None. In a scenario, you can also group by Changed in Plan.
• Sort by Name, Start Date (the default), End Date, Last Activity, Status, Owner or Cost Centre.
• Filter by:
  • Timeframe — Current & Upcoming or Past / Completed.
  • Initiative — No initiative (rogue) shows projects that aren't in an initiative.
  • Owner or Cost Centre.
  • Suggested Cost Centre — Needs review shows projects with a suggestion.
  • Needs attention — one of the checks.
  • Created By — whether the project was created in Flowstate or came from your project tool.
  • Your custom attributes.

Create a project

You can create projects if your organisation allows it. See Decide where projects come from.

1. On Projects, select New Project.
2. In Add Project, enter a Project Name.
3. Check the Start Date. It starts as today.
4. Optionally, choose an Icon, Owner, Cost Centre and End Date.
5. Select Create.

The project's page opens. Inside a scenario, the project is only added to that scenario.

Change a project's status

1. Select the status pie at the start of the project's row, or Status at the top of its page.
2. Choose the new status.

Status	Means
Backlog	Not started
To Do	Ready to start
In Progress	Being worked on
Paused	Stopped for now
In Review	Work finished and being checked
Done	Delivered
Cancelled	Stopped for good

If the project is linked to your project tool, its status comes from the tool, and you can't change it in Flowstate. Change it in the tool; Flowstate catches up on the next sync. Which system owns a linked project's status and dates is in Connect your project tool.

Set a project's cost centres

A project has two cost centres:

• Cost Centre — for effort up to the project's end date. Its category decides whether that cost is CapEx, OpEx or R&D.
• Post-Completion Cost Centre — for effort after the end date.

Set them in any of these places:

• On the list: select the project's Cost Centre or Post-Completion Cost Centre cell and choose one. Or open the row's ⋯ menu and select Set cost centre.
• By dragging: group the list by Cost Centre and drag the project's row onto another group. Drop it on No Cost Centre to clear it. Grouped by Owner, the same works for the owner.
• In the side panel: under Project details, choose Cost centre or Post-completion.
• On the project page: under Project details, choose Cost centre or Post-completion cost centre. The one in use is marked (active). Once the end date has passed, Cost centre can't be changed here.

Cost centres are always set in Flowstate, even for a project linked to your project tool.

Initiatives don't change a project's cost centre

Adding a project to an initiative never changes how it's classified or capitalised. That always follows the project's own cost centre.

Review a suggested or automatically set cost centre

Project Analysis regularly checks where each project's cost belongs, based on the work its team did. Your admin chooses how often in Settings → Finance → Project Analysis.

• A suggestion shows in the Suggested Cost Centre column. Hover over it to see why and how confident the check is. To list every project with one, filter by Suggested Cost Centre → Needs review. To act on suggestions, see Review cost-centre recommendations.
• An Auto-set badge next to a cost centre means Project Analysis set it for you. Select the badge to see why.

To undo a cost centre Project Analysis set:

1. Select Auto-set next to the cost centre.
2. Select Revert.

The cost centre goes back to what it was before, and Project Analysis won't set it automatically again. View activity shows everything that was set automatically. If someone has changed the cost centre since, there's nothing to revert.

Add a project to an initiative, or remove it

To add a project to an initiative, do one of these:

• On the list, select the project's Initiative cell and choose the initiative.
• Open the row's ⋯ menu, select Adopt into Initiative and choose the initiative.
• On the project's page, select Attach to initiative next to No initiative.

To remove it, select the Initiative cell, then Remove from initiative.

A project can only be in one initiative. To move it, remove it first, then add it to the other one.

A project doesn't have to be in an initiative. One that isn't still collects effort and cost. It's flagged so you can tidy it up: No initiative on its page, under No initiative (rogue) in the filter, and in the count of projects with no initiative in Portfolio.

Select projects to group or claim together

1. On Projects, select Select.
2. Tick the projects. To tick a range, tick the first project, then hold Shift and tick the last.
3. In the bar at the bottom, choose what to do:
   • Create Initiative from projects — enter an Initiative name and select Create. The projects move into the new initiative. Only pick projects that aren't in an initiative yet.
   • Create CapEx claim — enter a Claim period, such as FY2026, choose the Period start and Period end, and select Create CapEx claim. A project can only be in one claim for a period.
4. To stop selecting, select Cancel.

Delete a project

1. On Projects, open the project's ⋯ menu and select Delete project.
2. Select Delete.

This permanently deletes the project, with its allocations, recorded effort, expenses and links to CapEx claims. Inside a scenario, the option is Remove from plan; it removes the project from that scenario only.

Change a project's icon

Select the icon before the project's name, then pick a Colour and an Icon. It saves straight away.

The side panel

Select a project on the list to open its side panel.

Select a project to check its details without leaving the list.

Select a project to check its details without leaving the list.

Tab	What's on it
Overview (the first icon)	Needs attention, Project details and Custom attributes
Effort	Who’s worked on this: the days each person logged on the project over its dates, and the cost if you can see financial figures
CapEx & R&D	A card for the project's CapEx justification or R&D claim, showing where it's up to. Select a card to open it
Changes	Every change to the project and to who's planned on it
Comments (the speech-bubble icon)	Discussion about the project. Type @ to mention someone

Project details has Priority, Project lead (the project's owner), Dates, Cost centre, Post-completion, Drivers and Description. Change the description on the project page.

To open the full project page, select the open icon at the top of the panel.

Fill in custom attributes

Your Flowstate admin sets up custom attributes in Settings → Resourcing → Custom Attributes.

1. On the side panel's Overview, find Custom attributes.
2. Select the attribute's value. An empty one says Not set.
3. Type or choose the value. For a date, date range, dropdown or amount, select Apply.

It saves straight away. To empty a date, dropdown or amount, open it and select Clear.

The project page

Double-click a project on the list to open its page.

At the top	What it shows
Initiative	The initiative it belongs to, or No initiative with Attach to initiative
Status	The project's status. See Change a project's status
Owner	Select it to choose someone else
Delivery dates	Select them to change the start and end dates
Capitalisation status	Where the project's CapEx justification is up to, once it has one. Select it to open the justification; the status moves on as it's written, reviewed and approved. See Write and submit a justification
Latest update	The project's most recent status update, if it has one
Effort to date	The days people have logged on the project
Cost	What that effort cost
Forecast	The planned cost of the people, agents and copilots on the project over its dates

You need access to financial figures to see Cost and Forecast.

• Rename the project: select the title, type the new name and press Enter.
• Write a description: under Description, type. It saves as you go. If the description comes from Linear, it says Synced from Linear, and you change it in Linear.

Tab	What's on it
Overview	Needs attention, Project details, Description, Forecast vs actuals (forecast and actual cost, month by month), the Resourcing plan summary (forecast and actual cost of Employees, Contractors, Agents and Copilots), the work linked from your project tool, and the project's history
Resourcing plan	Who is planned on the project. See Plan who works on a project
Actuals & insights	Forecast vs actual over the project's dates, and Cost by person: each person's cost and days for the period you choose, grouped by team. Select a person to see their weeks
Value	Whether the project delivered what it set out to. See Project value

Without access to financial figures, charts show FTE instead of money.

Link work from your project tool

1. On the project page's Overview, find the section for your project tool.
2. Select + (Link work).
3. Search for the work, such as an epic, and select it. It's linked straight away.
4. Link anything else, then close the dialog.

Once work is linked, its tickets add effort to this project, and the project's status follows it. In the list of linked work:

• Open in … opens the work in your project tool.
• Unlink from project removes the link straight away.

Plan who works on a project

The Resourcing plan tab plans who works on the project, so the forecast knows what it will cost. You don't need to plan anyone for effort to be recorded: effort comes from your project tool and each team's weekly review. An initiative's forecast and headcount add up from the plans on its projects.

Section	What's in it
Human resources	The people, contractors, teams and vacancies planned on the project, with each one's FTE and dates. Add people and teams from People and Teams on the left. See Allocations
Agents	The AI agents deployed on the project, with their parallel streams, PRs a day and monthly forecast
Copilots	Estimated copilot spend on the project, by provider. Flowstate works it out from the recent AI tool spend of the people and agents on the project, so you don't add copilots yourself. Needs access to financial figures

To put an agent on the project:

1. On Resourcing plan, choose Agents on the left.
2. Search the agent pool.
3. Drag the agent into Agents, or select + (Deploy agent) on its row.

To change how many streams it runs in parallel, select − or + on its row. See Agents.

Not available yet

You can't set a monthly spend cap for an agent on a project, or take an agent off a project, in the app. Ask your Flowstate contact.

Needs attention

Flowstate checks every project for details that would put its cost in the wrong month or category. A flagged project has an amber warning on its row and a Needs attention block at the top of its Overview.

Fix a flagged project

1. On Projects, filter by Needs attention and choose a check.
2. Open a flagged project.
3. Read the Needs attention block. It says what's wrong.
4. Select How to resolve for what to change, or Fix in your tool (for example Fix in Linear) when the change belongs there.
5. Make the change. Once the details are right, the project is no longer flagged.

Check	What it means	Usually fixed by
Effort logged but not in progress	People logged effort, but the status says the project isn't running.	Updating the status, or moving the effort to the right project.
Effort outside the project dates	Effort was logged before the start date or after the end date.	Correcting the dates, or moving the effort.
Open past its end date	The end date has passed, but the project isn't done.	Updating the status, or moving the end date.
In progress but idle for 4 weeks	The project is in progress, but nobody has logged effort on it in the last four completed weeks, or so far this week.	Updating the status. Backlog, To Do and Paused projects aren't checked.
Done with no end date	The project is done but has no end date.	Adding the end date.
Not linked to a delivery tool	The project isn't linked to a project in your project tool.	Linking it, or creating the project in your tool and linking that.
Missing rationale inputs	The project needs a CapEx or R&D rationale, but details are missing.	Adding the project lead, description or cost centre it names.

For a linked project, change the status, and the dates or description, in your project tool. The cost centre is always changed in Flowstate. Who is told about flagged projects is in Choose how people are notified.

If something's not right

I can't change a project's status, or a date I shortened came back. The project is linked to your project tool, which owns its status. Linear can also make a project's dates longer, but not shorter. Make the change in the tool.

A project has no effort, but people are working on it. Its project in your tool isn't linked, its tickets never moved into an in-progress status, or the people aren't matched to their accounts in your tool. See Connect your project tool. You don't need to plan people on the project for effort to show.

A project isn't in capitalisation. It has no cost centre, or its cost centre isn't in the CapEx category. Set its cost centre.

A finished CapEx project still has OpEx cost. Effort after the end date is costed to the Post-Completion Cost Centre. If the work is still going on, move the end date.

New Project isn't there. Your organisation has turned off creating projects in Flowstate. Projects still arrive from your project tool and from imports.