Operations › Projects › All Projects

A project is a piece of work people spend time and money on — a client job, an internal programme, a product. Timesheets, travel and expense claims can all be tagged to a project, so you can later see what each one cost. Managers, directors, HR, finance and leadership can open the list. Managers see the projects their team works on. HR Admins, Tenant Admins, HR Managers, the CEO, CXOs and the owner can create, edit and archive projects and manage project teams; everyone else sees them read-only. If Projects shows a padlock, it isn't in your plan; if it's missing from the menu, your role doesn't include it.

Create a project

1. Click New Project.
2. Enter a Code (for example, PROJ-001) and a Name. These are the only required fields.
3. Optionally add a Description, the Client, a Cost center, a Start date and End date, and switch on Billable to client if you invoice the client for this work.
4. Click Create. Each code can be used only once.

Move a project through its life

1. Click View / Edit on a row to open the project.
2. Use the buttons at the top: Activate (from Planned), Put on Hold, Resume and Complete. Click Edit to change the details, including the project Manager.

Put people on a project

1. Open the project. Under Team Assignments, click Assign Employee.
2. Pick the Employee, and optionally their Role on project (for example, Tech Lead).
3. Set the Allocation % — the share of their time this project takes — and a Start date. Leave End date empty if there is no end yet.
4. Switch on Primary project for this employee if this is their main project, then click Assign.

To take someone off, click Unassign on their row, then Close assignment. Their assignment ends yesterday and stays in their history. One that hadn't started yet is simply removed. You can also Edit a row to change the role, allocation or end date.

Archive and unarchive

On the project list, choose Archive on a row. The project's status becomes Archived, and its open assignments end yesterday (ones that hadn't started are removed). Nobody can log timesheet hours to it, you can't add people, and you must Unarchive it before you can edit it. Unarchive sets it back to Active. Assignments closed by archiving are not reopened, so you add the team again.

Operations › Projects › Cost Centers

A cost center is a label for "whose budget pays for this" — for example, Sales South or R&D. Projects, travel and expense claims can be tagged with one. When you link a cost center to a Department, that spending shows up under the department in Budget Allocation.

Add a cost center

1. Click New Cost Center.
2. Enter a Code (for example, CC-001) and a Name.
3. Optionally pick a Parent cost center to build a tree (for example, Sales South under Sales), a Department and a Description.
4. Click Create.

Archive or bring one back

Use Archive on a row to retire a cost center. It is kept, but hidden from the pickers. Reactivate makes it usable again. A few rules keep the tree tidy:

• You can't archive a cost center while any project that isn't archived still uses it — even a completed one. Archive those projects or move them to another cost center first.
• You can't put a cost center under an archived parent.
• You can't archive a parent while any of its children are still active. Archive or move the children first.
• You can't reactivate a child whose parent is archived. Reactivate the parent first, or move the child under another parent.
• A cost center can't be its own parent, and you can't create a loop (A under B under A).

Operations › Travel

The page has two tabs: My Requests (your own trips) and, if you approve trips, Pending Approvals.

Raise a travel request

1. Click New Request.
2. Trip Details: the Purpose, Travel Type (Domestic or International), From City, To City / Destination, Departure Date and Return Date.
3. Travel Arrangement: the Mode of Travel, the Payment Method (you pay and claim later, corporate card, or the company books it) and, if you know it, an Estimated Budget.
4. Optionally switch on Accommodation or a Travel Advance (cash before the trip), and tag a Project or Cost Center under Cost Allocation. Picking a project fills in its cost center for you.
5. Click Save as Draft. Then, on My Requests, choose Submit on the row to send it for approval.

While it's a draft you can Edit it. You can Cancel a request any time before it's completed. Only a draft or a cancelled request can be Deleted, and deleting is permanent.

Approve a trip

1. Open the Pending Approvals tab. Click View to read the full request first.
2. Choose Approve or Reject on the row and confirm.
3. After the trip, open it and click Mark Completed. Enter the Actual Cost if you know it (you can leave it blank).

Operations › Expenses

This page is two things at once: your own claims (how to raise one is in Everyday use, "Expense claims"), and, if you approve claims, your approval inbox. How many levels a claim needs is set by its amount under Settings › Expense › Approval (the amount bands). Who holds each level — a department's HR Manager and Finance Manager, a cost centre's Finance Manager, the company's Finance Head and CFO — is named under Settings › Responsibilities, the same list payroll inputs use. What each category needs (receipts, limits) is under Settings › Expense › Categories.

Read the page

• The tiles at the top: Awaiting payment, In approval, Drafts and Queried are about your own claims. Waiting for you counts claims you need to decide, with the age of the oldest one. Click a tile to jump to that list.
• The chips under Show claims filter the list: All my claims, Drafts, In approval, Queried, Awaiting payment, Reimbursed and Rejected, plus Waiting for me and All pending for approvers. Waiting for me is your to-do list, oldest first. All pending shows every pending claim in your area at any level, including ones not yet with you. It's for oversight only — you act from Waiting for me.
• An amber Approver unavailable chip means the claim is stuck with someone who can't act on it (see "Stuck claims" below).

Decide a claim

1. Open a claim from Waiting for me. Check the Line items, the receipts and the Approval chain.
2. To approve, click Approve (Level N). The Approved amount starts at the claimed total. Lower it for a part-approval, then click Approve.
3. To ask a question without rejecting, click Query, type what needs clarifying and click Send Query. The claim stays in approval and shows Queried to the employee.
4. To turn it down, click Reject. The Reason you type is shown to the employee.

Mark a claim as paid

1. When a claim is fully approved, it shows Awaiting payment to the employee.
2. After you've paid the money, open the claim and click Mark Reimbursed, then confirm. This can't be undone.

Mark Reimbursed is for Finance Approvers, Finance Executives, HR Admins and the owner. Nobody can mark their own claim as paid.

Stuck claims

If an approver has left, can't act or has been removed from their position, an admin opens the claim and clicks Reassign Approver. This looks up who holds that position now under Settings › Responsibilities. So name the new person there first — otherwise the claim goes back to the same person.

Operations › Contractors › Organizations

There are two kinds of contractor, on two tabs:

• Organizations — a vendor company that supplies people to you. The tiles show Total, Active, Expiring Soon (contract ends in the next 30 days) and Expired.
• Individuals — consultants and freelancers you engage directly, with no vendor in between. You don't add them here: you add them as an employee with a consultant, contract or freelancer employment type, and they appear on this tab.

Add a contractor organization

1. Click Add Contractor.
2. Fill in the Organization Name, Organization Type, Payment Terms (for example, NET30), tax and registration numbers, the primary contact, the Notice Period (days), the Contract Start Date and, if there is one, the Contract End Date. The end date must be after the start date.
3. Click Create Contractor.

Open a contractor with View Details. The tabs are Overview, Employees (the people linked to this vendor), Rate Cards and Billing History. Click Edit to change details or the Status (Active, Suspended, Expired or Terminated). Changing the status never deletes anything.

Set a rate and bill a month

1. On the Rate Cards tab, click Add Rate Card. Pick the Employee (for an organization), give it a Label, the Billing Type (Hourly, Daily or Monthly), the Currency, the Rate Amount, optionally an Overtime Rate, the Std Hours/Day and Effective From.
2. For an organization, click Generate Billing, pick the Month and Year and click Generate Billing. For individuals, click Generate Monthly Billing on the Individuals tab — it does every individual at once.
3. The billing is worked out from each person's approved timesheets and their active rate card. Check the days worked and amounts, then click Confirm on each summary to finalise it.

Operations › Contractors › Invoices

Record an invoice and pay it

1. Click Record Invoice. Choose the Contractor Organization, enter the Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Billing Period Start and End, the Currency, the Gross Amount and the Tax Amount, then click Record Invoice. For an individual contractor, use Raise Invoice on their own page instead.
2. Open the invoice with View. It shows the tax breakdown, Invoice Total, Total Paid and Balance Due.
3. Click Record Payment. Enter the Payment Date, Amount Paid, any TDS Deducted (must be less than the amount paid), the Payment Mode (NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, Cheque, Cash or UPI) and the Payment Reference (UTR or cheque number).

The invoice moves from Received to Partially Paid to Paid as payments add up. Filter the list by status and use Export CSV to download it.

Operations › Contractors › Reports

Pick a Contractor (optional) or leave it on All Contractors, choose the Month and Year, and click Export CSV to download that month's billing summary. If you can't open the contractor pages (often the case for Finance Approvers, CxOs and CEOs), you'll find contractor billing, invoice ageing and payment status under Insights & Compliance › Reports, category Contractor.

Operations › Bulk Import

Under Select Import Type you see only the imports you're allowed to run. Depending on your role these can include employees, bank details, PF & ESI details, departments, designations, holidays, cost centers, projects, salary components, salary structures, leave balance adjustments and historical leave records. Each type shows a short description of its columns.

Run an import

1. Pick the import type and click Download Template.
2. Fill in the template in Excel or Google Sheets and save it as CSV. Keep the column headings exactly as they are.
3. Drop the file in the upload area or click Browse Files.
4. Tick Validate only (don't import) and click Validate File. Nothing is saved — you see Total Rows, Would Import and Errors, with the row and column of each problem. Download the errors list as a CSV if it's long.
5. Fix the file, untick the box and click Upload & Import.

Operations › Workflows

A workflow is a recipe for an approval: "first the direct manager, then HR". When an area has an active workflow, every new request in that area follows it. The page has two tabs: Pending Approvals (steps waiting for you, plus Your decision history) and Workflow Definitions (for admins).

Build a workflow

1. On Workflow Definitions, click Create Workflow.
2. Give it a Workflow Name and pick the Module: Leave, Attendance, Travel, Timesheet, Exit or Optional Holiday.
3. Click Add Step for each approval, up to three. For each step choose the Approver Type: Direct Manager, Skip-Level Manager, HR Manager, Specific User (then pick the Approver) or Auto-Approve (then set Auto-Approve After (hours)). Direct Manager and Skip-Level Manager always follow the reporting manager on the employee's profile — extra lines on the Hierarchy page don't count.
4. Leave Can be skipped off to make the step mandatory (the request waits for a person however long it takes). Switch it on to let the request move on by itself if nobody acts before the escalation time.
5. Optionally set Escalate if no action after (hours) and Escalate to (Skip-Level Manager or HR Manager). Use the arrows to reorder steps, then click Create Workflow.

Rules people trip over

• One active workflow per area. To replace one, Deactivate the old one first, then switch on the new one.
• Approvals Needed above 1 only works with HR Manager, because every other approver type is a single person.
• Once a workflow has been used, its steps are locked. You can still change the name, description and on/off status. To change the steps, deactivate it and create a replacement.
• Deactivating stops it for new requests only. Requests already on their way finish the old way. You can Reactivate it later.
• Expense claims are not here. They're approved by amount, set under Settings › Expense › Approval.

Approve a step

Approvers open Operations › Workflows, Pending Approvals tab, and choose Approve or Reject on a row. A rejection needs a reason, which the requester sees. Leave and timesheet requests don't show here — you approve those under Time & Attendance › Approvals.

Operations › Delegations

The step-by-step is in Everyday use, "Delegations". In short: click New Delegation, pick the Delegate, the From Date and To Date, and a Scope (all workflow types, or one area). My Delegations lists yours as Upcoming, Active or Expired; Delegated to Me shows who has handed work to you.

• You can't delegate to yourself or to someone who is no longer an active employee.
• You can't have two delegations for the same area with overlapping dates.
• "All workflow types" never covers Payroll inputs. For those you need a separate delegation, and the colleague must be allowed to approve payroll inputs.
• If the colleague has no login or no approval rights, you get a warning — fix their role under System › Access & Roles.
• Your delegate approves only the requests that are waiting on you. They don't get to see or act on anything else — and if you look after another department, they never get that "looks after" access.