Control how projects are created and shared
What this does
Project "configuration" in WindoorERP is not a menu of templates — it is three levers: the Auto Create Project toggle that decides whether an opportunity gets its technical project, the standard stage set every typed project is born with, and the per-project Settings tab that governs sharing and features. This article walks the three, and what each default commits you to.
Before you start
- Decide the sharing policy before the first customer is invited to the portal — visibility is per project, and the default is safe (internal, invited).
- Changing the seeded stage names is a fleet-wide act; read the workflow topic first.
The three levers
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01
Creation. Leave Auto Create Project on (the default) and every opportunity with a customer gets its technical project, named after it and kept in sync. Switch the toggle off on an opportunity — before saving it — when a deal genuinely needs no technical container; there is no retroactive creation later.
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02
Structure. Every typed project starts with the same five task stages (New, In Progress, QA, Done, folded Cancelled), so nothing needs configuring for a new contract to have a working board.
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03
Sharing and features. On each project's Settings tab, set the Visibility (invited internal users; all internal users; invited portal users and all internal users) and switch on only the features the contract needs — Timesheets, Milestones, Task Dependencies, Recurring Tasks, Billable. Each toggle adds its fields to that project's tasks and nowhere else.
What the defaults commit you to
| Default | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Auto-created project mirrors its opportunity | Name, customer, salesperson and end date are overwritten from the opportunity on every edit — direct edits to those four fields on the project do not stick. |
| Visibility: invited internal users | Nobody outside the followers sees the project until you widen it; widening to portal level exposes task names and descriptions to the invited customer. |
| Feature toggles off | No milestone, dependency or recurrence fields clutter the tasks; switching one on later is instant and per project. |
| Email alias unset | No address turns mail into tasks until one is configured on the project. |
Troubleshooting
A deal has no project and needs one — auto-creation is not retroactive. Create the project from the flow that owns the work (for installation, the Installation app) and link the records to it, or ask an administrator to create and link a technical project.
A customer says they cannot see "their" project — its visibility is internal, or they were never invited as a follower; both are deliberate defaults.
The Milestones field is missing on a task — the project's Milestones toggle is off; it is per project, not global.
Common mistakes
- Turning every feature toggle on "to be safe" — each one adds fields the team must then keep meaningful.
- Widening visibility on a live project without reviewing what its task names already say.
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