Track project milestones

Milestones are the checkpoints of a project, such as "Stage 1 trench" or "Practical completion". Each one has an owner, a planned finish date and, if you want, a quantity to reach. The project's Progress tab compares the plan with the forecast and actual dates, and alerts the owner when a milestone is due soon or falls behind.

You see the Progress tab if you can view projects. You need permission to edit projects to add, change or delete milestones.

Add a milestone

1. Open the project and select the Progress tab.
2. Select Add milestone.
3. Enter a Name and pick the Planned finish date. Add a Planned start date if the work runs over a period.
4. Choose an Owner. The owner records progress and gets the alerts. Only staff members can own a milestone, not field users, customers, suppliers or visitors.
5. To measure the milestone by quantity, turn on Track a quantity and enter the Target quantity and its Unit, for example 1000 and m. Leave it off for a date-only milestone.
6. Select Add milestone.

The quantity is the running total for the work, so two milestones can share one run of work. For a 1000 m trench, Stage 1 can target 500 m and Stage 2 1000 m.

Staged milestones

For a stage that starts part way through the work, enter a Start quantity (optional) as well. For Stage 2 of the trench, enter 500 as the start and 1000 as the target. The percentage complete then measures the 500 m of Stage 2 only, so Stage 2 shows 0% until the trench passes 500 m. The start quantity must be zero or more and less than the target.

Take progress from order lines

Instead of typing the quantity, you can link a milestone to lines on this project's orders. The milestone's quantity is then the total of the actuals recorded on those lines, and it updates on its own whenever progress is recorded: from Progress Tracking questions on forms, imports, or actuals added, changed or deleted in Job Costing.

1. Add or edit the milestone and turn on Track a quantity.
2. Under Order lines, tick the lines the milestone measures. Lines are grouped by order, and you can search by order or line name.
3. Select Add milestone or Save.

Pick lines that record the milestone's unit. A line in a different unit shows a warning, for example Unit is m3, not m. To go back to typing the quantity, untick every line.

A linked milestone shows From 1 order line (or the number of lines) under its progress. Its Update progress dialog shows the quantity but doesn't let you change it; you can still enter a forecast or mark it achieved. A line stops counting if its order is moved to another project or deleted.

Record progress

The milestone's owner, or anyone who can edit projects, keeps it up to date. For a milestone linked to order lines, only the forecast and achieved date are entered here:

1. On the milestone's row, open the actions menu and select Update progress.
2. Enter the Quantity to date: the total so far, not today's amount.
3. If the milestone won't finish on its planned date, enter a Forecast finish. Select Clear to go back to forecasting the planned date.
4. Select Save.

When the quantity reaches the target, the row shows Target reached on with the date. For a milestone linked to order lines, that is the day the recorded actuals reached the target and stayed there. Reaching the target doesn't close the milestone, because the work may still need checking. Select Confirm achieved when it is done; the achieved date starts on the suggested day.

Mark a milestone achieved

1. Open the actions menu and select Mark achieved.
2. Pick the date in Achieved on. It can't be after today.
3. Select Mark achieved.

To undo it, select Reopen. A milestone you no longer need can be set aside with Cancel milestone, and brought back with Reopen.

Read the Progress tab

• Planned is the current planned finish. If you change the planned date, the row also shows Originally with the first planned date, so you can always compare against the original plan.
• Forecast / Actual shows the achieved date once the milestone is done. Before that it shows the owner's forecast (Owner forecast). With no owner forecast, a milestone linked to order lines shows a Run-rate forecast when it has one, and any other milestone shows the planned date (Planned). A forecast is never earlier than today, so a milestone past its planned date counts as late until it is achieved.
• Run rate, on a milestone linked to order lines, is the quantity recorded over the last 14 days, per day, for example "Run rate 12.5 m/day (6 of the last 14 days with progress) · forecast 3 Dec 2026". The run-rate forecast is the day the milestone reaches its target if work carries on at that rate. It needs progress on at least 3 of the last 14 days, and more recorded than reversed over those days. Otherwise the row says why there is no run-rate forecast, and the forecast falls back to the planned date.
• Days late compares the forecast or achieved date with the planned date. An early milestone shows the days early.
• Progress shows the quantity to date against the target, and the percentage complete against the percentage the plan expects by today. With a planned start, the plan expects steady progress from the start date to the planned finish. Without one, it expects nothing until the planned finish. A staged milestone also shows its range, for example Stage: 500 → 1000 m.
• Status is Achieved, Cancelled, Critical, Warning, Due soon or On track.

All dates are your company's dates, in its own time zone.

When owners get alerts

Once a day, Assignar Pay checks every open milestone and alerts its owner in the bell, on Pay Mobile and by email. With the default settings, a milestone is:

• Due soon: 7 days or less before the planned finish.
• Warning: forecast 3 or more days late, or 10 or more percentage points behind the plan.
• Critical: forecast 7 or more days late, or 25 or more percentage points behind the plan.

The alert links to the project's Progress tab, and the email's Open project milestones button opens it too. The email's subject says whether the milestone is due soon, running late or critically late. The owner gets each alert once. If the milestone recovers and slips again, or you change its planned date, the owner is alerted again.

If the owner has left your company or can no longer open the project, the alert goes to the project's owners instead, or to your company's owners if the project has none. Milestones on completed projects don't send alerts.

If your account limits access by location, only people whose locations include the project get the alert. When the owner's locations don't include it, the alert goes to the project's owners whose locations do, then to your company's owners whose locations do. If nobody's locations include the project, no alert is sent.

Change when alerts go out

1. In the sidebar, select Settings, then General, and go to the Project milestones section.
2. Change any of Due soon notice, Warning: days late, Critical: days late, Warning: points behind and Critical: points behind. Set Due soon notice to 0 to stop due-soon alerts. Turn off Milestone alerts to stop all milestone alerts.
3. Select Save.

A field you leave empty uses the default shown in it, and Use default puts a changed field back. Critical must be higher than warning. You need permission to manage settings to change these.

Set different thresholds for one project

A project can use its own thresholds instead of your company's. You need permission to edit projects.

1. Open the project, select the Progress tab, then select Alert thresholds.
2. Change the fields you want different for this project. Each field shows the company's value as Account default, and a field you leave empty keeps using it. Use account default puts one field back.
3. Select Save.

The Progress tab then shows Project alert thresholds. When the company's thresholds change later, the fields this project set keep their own values. To go back to the company's thresholds for every field, open Alert thresholds and select Use account defaults.

See milestones across all projects

On Clients & Projects, select Milestones to see every milestone of the projects you can open, in one list. You need permission to view projects; field users, customers and suppliers don't see it.

• Table shows each milestone's project, owner, planned date, forecast or achieved date, variance, progress and status. Select a milestone's name to open its project's Progress tab.
• Gantt shows a bar per milestone, grouped by project and coloured by status. The tinted bar is the planned window, a filled dot is the achieved date and a hollow dot is the forecast. Choose Daily, Monthly or Quarterly, and select a bar to open the project's Progress tab.
• Filter by Project, Status and Owner, and select Clear filters to see everything again.
• Export CSV downloads the milestones the filters show.

For a sheet, dashboard widget or scheduled email, use the Project Milestones source in Reports.

If saving fails

• The achieved date can't be after today.: pick today or an earlier date.
• This milestone is cancelled. Reopen it first.: select Reopen before recording progress.
• Only staff members can own a milestone.: choose another owner. Field users, customers, suppliers and visitors can't own a milestone.
• Critical must be higher than warning.: raise the critical number or lower the warning number, in Project milestones settings or the project's Alert thresholds.
• Linking order lines needs a quantity target. Unlink the lines before removing the target.: untick every order line before turning off Track a quantity.
• One of the order lines can't be linked. Pick lines from this project's orders.: a line's order was moved to another project or deleted; open the milestone again and pick from the current list.
• The start quantity must be zero or more and less than the target.: change the start quantity or raise the target.