Master Your Projects with Precision and Ease

A job in Zigaflow represents a specific order or work assignment—it's what you create when a quote is accepted and you need to fulfil the work. A project is a higher-level grouping that can contain multiple jobs, quotes, invoices, and other documents. Think of it this way: you might have a project called "Office Refurbishment for ABC Ltd" that contains multiple quotes (for different phases or options), several jobs (when work is broken into stages), multiple purchase orders (for materials), and several invoices (for milestone payments). The project groups everything together and tracks the overall financial picture, while individual jobs track specific work assignments. Many businesses use projects for large, complex work that spans weeks or months, while smaller, simpler work might just be handled as standalone jobs without a parent project.

Create a project when you need to track multiple related activities together or when work spans an extended period with various components. Good candidates for projects include large client engagements with multiple phases, construction projects with separate quotes for different trades, ongoing retainer arrangements, or any situation where you need to track cumulative costs and income across multiple transactions. If you're doing a straightforward, single-phase job that will be quoted once, worked on, and invoiced once, you probably don't need a project—just use a regular job. However, if you find yourself mentally grouping related jobs together ("these three jobs are all part of that big warehouse project"), that's a sign you should create a project. Projects are also valuable when you need to report on total project profitability, track against overall project budgets, or provide clients with consolidated project summaries rather than individual job details.

Yes, you can link existing documents to projects at any time. When editing a quote, job, purchase order, or invoice, simply select the project from the dropdown field. This is particularly useful when you create a quote before realizing it's part of a larger project, or when a small job unexpectedly grows into a bigger engagement. Once linked, all historical financial data from that document flows into the project's summary. You can also unlink documents if needed, though this is less common. The flexibility to link documents at any stage means you don't have to plan perfectly from the start—you can organize your work as projects evolve and become clearer. Keep in mind that when you convert a quote to a job, the new job inherits the project link from the original quote automatically, maintaining the connection throughout your workflow.

Zigaflow automatically aggregates all costs associated with a project by totalling purchase orders, expenses, and labour costs linked to project jobs. The system knows your quoted value (from linked quotes), your actual costs (from linked purchase orders and expenses), and your invoiced amounts (from linked invoices). Profitability is calculated as invoiced amount minus costs, and you can see both actual profitability (based on what's been invoiced and paid) and projected profitability (based on the full quoted value). The project dashboard shows these figures in real-time, updating whenever new costs are added or invoices are generated. You can also see margin as a percentage, helping you spot projects where costs are eating into your expected profit. For labour-intensive businesses, you can track time against projects and see labour costs based on your team members' hourly rates. This comprehensive financial tracking means you always know where each project stands financially, not just at the end but throughout its entire lifecycle.

Absolutely. Project tracking is designed to handle milestone billing, progress payments, and any invoicing structure where multiple invoices are generated over time. Each invoice you create can be linked to the parent project, and Zigaflow tracks the cumulative invoiced amount automatically. The project's financial summary shows total project value, how much you've invoiced to date, what's been paid, and what remains to be invoiced. This is essential for long-running projects where you bill monthly, bill per milestone, or require deposits and progress payments. You can generate invoices from different jobs within the project, or create invoices directly at the project level for retainer arrangements or service contracts. The system prevents you from accidentally over-invoicing by showing clearly what's been billed already. Clients see professional invoices that reference the overall project but bill for specific completed phases, making it clear what they're paying for while maintaining visibility of the project as a whole.

Zigaflow provides comprehensive project reporting including financial summaries (costs, income, profitability), timeline reports (start date, completion date, duration), document lists (all linked quotes, jobs, invoices), and custom reports based on your specific needs. You can export project data to PDF or Excel for client presentations, stakeholder meetings, or your own analysis. Financial reports break down costs by category (materials, labour, expenses), show margin percentage, and compare actual performance against original estimates. For businesses managing multiple projects, you can generate portfolio reports showing all active projects, their status, financial health, and resource allocation. Project reports are invaluable for post-project reviews where you analyze what went well, what went over budget, and how to improve estimates for similar future work. You can also schedule automatic project status reports to be sent to stakeholders at regular intervals, keeping everyone informed without manual effort.

Yes, Zigaflow's permission system allows you to control project visibility at the user level. You can restrict access so only relevant team members see projects they're working on, protecting sensitive client information and preventing accidental interference with projects they're not involved in. This is particularly valuable for businesses with separate departments or teams working on different types of projects—your construction team doesn't need to see office furniture projects and vice versa. You can also set permissions so some users can view projects but not edit them, useful for junior staff or external contractors who need visibility without full control. Project managers typically get full access to their assigned projects, while finance teams might see all projects but only for reporting purposes. The permission system is flexible enough to match your organizational structure while ensuring everyone has access to exactly what they need—nothing more, nothing less. This security and organization becomes increasingly important as your business grows and projects multiply.