Creating a Work Package

When to create a Work Package

Create a Work Package whenever you want to capture a new piece of work on a project. Typical moments are:

• A new section of the job has been signed off in a pre-start meeting
• The estimator has handed over a fresh package of work for you to plan
• You're spinning up a one-off job that doesn't need a full template
• You've spotted an extra trade or scope item that wasn't on the original programme

For a single new piece of work, the manual create flow is the fastest route. If you're creating ten of the same thing, look at bulk create from a template instead.

Creating one by hand

1. 1

   Open the Work Packages list — either inside the project or company-wide.

2. 2

   Click the + Work Package button in the top-right corner.

3. 3

   Fill in the form. The only fields that are mandatory are Name and Project, but the more you fill in now the less you have to come back to later.

4. 4

   Click Create. The new Work Package opens in the detail page, ready for you to add sub-packages, allocate operatives, or change its status.

What's on the form

You'll see these fields when you open the create dialog:

• Name (required) — a short description of the Work Package
• Description — longer context or notes about the scope
• Project (required) — the parent project. This is pre-filled when you're creating from inside a project
• Type — Work Package (the default), Task, Milestone, or Phase
• Earliest Start Date — the earliest date the work can start
• Latest Finish Date — the latest date the work should finish by
• Address — a site address picked from the project's address list
• Accountable User — the person who's responsible for this Work Package
• Notes — any extra notes you want on the record

You can change any of these later from the detail page, so don't worry about getting everything perfect on the first pass.

Creating from inside a project

When you click + Work Package from a project's Work Packages list, the Project field is already filled in and locked to the current project. This saves you a step when you're creating several Work Packages for the same job in a row.

Creating straight from the Gantt

If you're already in Gantt view planning out the timeline, you don't need to leave it to add a new Work Package.

1. 1

   Switch to Gantt view.

2. 2

   Click an empty area of the chart at roughly the date you want the work to start.

3. 3

   The Create Work Package dialog opens with the Earliest Start Date pre-filled from the date you clicked.

4. 4

   Fill in the name and any other details, then click Create. The new bar appears on the chart at the date you picked.

This is the quickest way to drop in a fresh Work Package while you're sketching out a programme.

What to do next

A brand-new Work Package has no sub-packages, no allocations, and no dependencies — it's an empty container. The usual next steps are:

• Add sub-packages — to build the tree of smaller jobs underneath
• Allocate operatives — to assign the people who'll do the work
• Add dependencies — to link this Work Package to anything it depends on

Faster ways for repeating work

If you've got several similar Work Packages to make — one per plot, one per floor, one per unit — there are quicker options than running this form ten times:

• Bulk create from a template — to spin up many Work Packages at once
• CSV import — to upload a spreadsheet from another tool
• Templates — to save an existing Work Package as a reusable blueprint

Next steps

• Sub-packages — to add the detail underneath your new Work Package.
• Templates — to save a Work Package as a blueprint for future use.
• Bulk create from a template — for creating many Work Packages at once.