# Projects

> Capital and major maintenance work as first-class projects - scoped to real assets, budgeted, scheduled, and tracked to completion.

Source: https://app.assetlab.ca/docs/projects

Projects are for work too big for a single work order: the roof replacement, the arena dehumidification retrofit, the annual road program. What makes AssetLab projects different from a generic PM tool is that they're **anchored to the registry** - a project knows which sites, buildings, systems, and assets it touches, so its costs and outcomes land back on the portfolio record.

## What lives here

| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| [Creating projects](/docs/projects/creating-projects) | The guided setup - scope, phase, team, and what closeout does |
| [Tasks & milestones](/docs/projects/tasks-and-milestones) | The task board, subtasks, milestones, and the timeline |
| [Risks & updates](/docs/projects/risks-and-updates) | The risk register and the period-based status narrative |
| [Budgets & financials](/docs/projects/budgets-and-financials) | Budget lines, change orders, POs, invoices, snapshots |
| [Replacement planner](/docs/projects/replacement-planner) | Where capital projects come from - the replacement calendar over asset lifecycles |

## Working the project list

The Projects page offers four views - **list, grid, split, and calendar** - with a "My projects" toggle to cut the list to what you're on. Table columns can be hidden and drag-reordered, and your arrangement is remembered. A selection mode supports bulk delete, and the list exports to CSV or a formatted Excel report.

The **Phase filter is driven by your own phases** - the list you maintain under Settings → Categories → **Project Phases**, in the order you put them in. It matches the Phase column in the table and the phase you set on each project. A phase a project still carries after you delete or rename its category stays selectable, so nothing goes missing from the filter.

There is also a **Status** filter, but it only appears if your projects carry more than one status. Status is a separate free-text field with no editor in the app - it is set by imports and API integrations - so for most organizations every project holds the same default value and the filter would offer a single meaningless option.

## Archiving finished projects

Once a project is done, **archive** it to take it out of the working list without deleting anything. The **Active / Archived** toggle beside "My projects" switches the page between the two sets, and in selection mode you can archive or restore in bulk.

Two things worth knowing:

- **Archiving does not change the project's status.** A completed project stays completed, so it keeps counting as delivered capital in the [Capital Brief](/docs/asset-management/lifecycle) and keeps its budget, costs, and history.
- **Archiving is reversible; deleting is not.** Restore puts the project straight back in the active list. Reach for archive whenever you're tempted to delete a finished project.

## Inside a project

A project record is organized in tabs - the core set is scope (sites, buildings, locations, systems, assets, infrastructure, networks), tasks, team, budget/financials, risks, updates, documents, work orders, and an **Activity** feed for conversation. Two more are easy to miss:

- **Reports** - seven printable reports per project: full, executive, budget, task, team workload, milestone, and financial. The board package generates itself.
- **Quick vs. full edit** - the detail header toggles between a quick-edit summary and the full form, and can print the project to PDF.

## Where projects come from

Some arrive as decisions ("council approved the roof"), but the healthiest pipeline is data-driven: the [replacement planner](/docs/projects/replacement-planner) schedules which assets get replaced in which year, and **Create projects** turns the calendar into next year's project list - already scoped to the right assets, budgeted from their replacement costs.

## Who sees projects

Projects are a **Manager+** surface, available on the Enterprise plan (or as the Projects add-on on other tiers). Staff interact with project work through the work orders and tasks assigned to them; the budget and risk views stay with the people accountable for them. See [Roles & access](/docs/start/roles-and-access).