# Your first project

Create a project, give it stages from a ready example, add a task with an assignee, a deadline and allocated time, log time on it, then move it to its next stage.

**Project** keeps the work of your team in projects. Each project holds tasks that move across the stages of its board, from the first idea to the finished work. With **Timesheets** on, everyone logs the time spent on the tasks, and the project shows how much planned time is left. This walk-through creates a small website project, gives it stages, adds a task, logs time on it and moves it forward.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- Creating a project needs the **Administrator** access right on **Project**. A **User** works on the tasks of the projects open to them. Access rights are set on the user's form: [Create a user and set access rights](/docs/general-settings/create-a-user-and-set-access-rights).
- Logging time needs an access right on **Timesheets** and an employee linked to your user in the current company: [Employees](/docs/employees).

## Step 1: create the project {#create}

1. Open **Project/Projects**. Each card is a project.
2. Click **New**. The list offers **New Project**, a blank project, then the project templates of the database, such as **Product Launch Campaign**.

![New opens a short list, a blank project first, then the project templates.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14774-6065251f/projects-your-first-project-new_menu-en.png)

On a phone, **New** sits at the top left of the screen and opens the same list.

3. Choose **New Project**, then type the name `Projects demo: Website refresh`. **Timesheets** is already ticked: keep it, it lets the team log time on the tasks. **Billable** invoices that time to a customer and belongs to the sales side ([Quotations](/docs/quotations)); **Create tasks by email** gives the project an address that turns incoming e-mails into tasks. Leave both empty.

![The project's name, with Timesheets already ticked so that time can be logged on its tasks.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14776-f3a5fc2d/projects-your-first-project-create_dialog-en.png)

4. Click **Create project**. The project opens on its board, still empty: "No stages yet, let's create some!".

## Step 2: give it stages {#stages}

A stage is a column of the board, a step the tasks go through. Type a name in the **Stage...** box and confirm it to add one, or start from a ready set:

1. Click **See examples**. The **Kanban Examples** window lists sets of stages for common kinds of work.
2. Choose **Website Redesign**: **Page Ideas**, **Copywriting**, **Design** and **Live**, the last one folded because finished tasks rarely need to be seen.

![A ready set of stages for a website project, applied with one click.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14778-65cd85d9/projects-your-first-project-stage_examples-en.png)

3. Click **Use This For My Project**. The four columns appear on the board. You can change them at any time: [Organize tasks on the board](organize-tasks-on-the-board).

## Step 3: add a task {#task}

1. Click **New** above the board. A small card opens at the top of the first stage, **Page Ideas**.
2. Type the title `Projects demo: Write the home page text`.

![The new task is typed straight into the first stage of the board.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14780-e886c251/projects-your-first-project-quick_create-en.png)

**Add** saves the card and opens a new one for the next task; **Edit** saves it and opens its full form.

3. Click **Edit**. Type `08:00` in **Allocated Time**, the time you plan for the task; `20/11/2026 17:00` in **Deadline**; and choose Rawan Al-Wahmi in **Assignees**.

![The task with its assignee, its deadline and eight hours of allocated time.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14784-26a35de8/projects-your-first-project-task_form-en.png)

Rawan Al-Wahmi becomes a follower of the task and receives a notification that it has been assigned to her. The percentage next to **Allocated Time** is the share of that time already spent; it is still 0%.

## Step 4: log time on the task {#log-time}

1. Open the **Timesheets** tab and click **Add a line**. The date is today's and the employee is you.
2. Type `Projects demo: first draft` in **Description** and `02:30` in **Time Spent**.
3. Click the save button at the top of the form.

![Two and a half hours logged on the task; the time remaining falls to five and a half hours.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14789-fefcefd7/projects-your-first-project-task_timesheet-en.png)

Under the lines, **Time Spent** shows 02:30 and **Time Remaining** 05:30, and the percentage next to **Allocated Time** reads 31%. The same line is listed in the **Timesheets** app, under **My Timesheets**: [Log time on tasks](log-time-on-tasks).

## Step 5: move the task forward {#move}

1. Click the stage shown at the top right of the task, **Page Ideas**. The stages of the project open in a list.

![The stages of the project, opened from the top of the task.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14801-ba426142/projects-your-first-project-stage_menu-en.png)

On a phone, the stage stands at the top of the task too, next to the arrows that go to the previous and next task.

2. Choose **Copywriting**. The change is saved at once and noted in the task's history.
3. Click `Projects demo: Website refresh` in the breadcrumbs to come back to the board.

![The task now sits in Copywriting, with its assignee and the time left on its card.](https://jaah.app/web/image/14806-b40b1d17/projects-your-first-project-board-en.png)

The card now sits in **Copywriting**, with its deadline counted from today, the time remaining, the priority stars, the assignee and the round state button. On the board, you can also drag a card to another column.

When the copy is written, click the state button of the task, **In Progress**, and choose **Done**: the task is closed and leaves the board's default view, whatever its stage.

## What you have done {#what-you-have-done}

You created a project with timesheets, gave it a set of stages, added a task with an assignee, a deadline and eight hours of allocated time, logged two and a half hours on it and moved it to the next stage. [Organize tasks on the board](organize-tasks-on-the-board) goes further with stages, priorities and your own task list, [Milestones and project updates](milestones-and-project-updates) shows how to report on a project, and [How projects and timesheets work](how-projects-and-timesheets-work) explains what each record holds.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/projects/your-first-project
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Version: Projects and timesheets 19.0.1.4
- Verified: 2026-10-28