General project settings - details, client and dates
The General section holds the basic facts about a project: what it is called, who it is for, who runs it and when it should finish. It is the first section in project settings. Fill it in once at the start and revisit it when scope or dates change.
At a glance
| What it is | Three cards: Basic Details, Client & Manager, Timeline & Estimates |
| Where to find it | Project settings, General |
| Who can use it | Owners, Admins, Project Managers and Team Leads edit; Members see it read-only |
| Saves with | Update, except the dates, which save at once |
| Plan | Health, Category and Project Manager need Pro or higher |
Basic details
| Option | What it does | Choices and limits | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | The project’s display name | Required, up to 100 characters. A name already used by another project is rejected | All |
| Key | A short code used to identify the project | Required, up to 5 characters, saved in upper case | All |
| Project Color | Colour tile shown with the project name | Any colour from the picker | All |
| Status | Where the project is in its life | Cancelled, Blocked, On Hold, Proposed (default), In Planning, In Progress, Completed | All |
| Health | A quick read on how the project is going | Not Set (default), Needs Attention, At Risk, Good | Pro and up |
| Category | A label for grouping projects | Pick one, or type a new name and press Enter | Pro and up |
| Priority | How urgent the project is | Low, Medium, High, Critical | All |
| Notes | Background for the team | Up to 500 characters | All |
On the Free plan, Health and Category are greyed out. Clicking the Category crown opens the upgrade prompt.
Client & Manager
| Option | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Client | Links the project to one client | Type to search. If nothing matches, choose + Add … as client to create the client on the spot. One client per project |
| Project Manager | Names the person who runs the project | Only Owners and Admins can change it. Pro and up |
| Finance access | Lets the manager see the Finance tab, budget and rate card | Appears once a manager is picked. On by default for a newly assigned manager |
Clients are managed in workspace settings. To share a project with a client, see the Client Portal overview.
Timeline & Estimates
| Option | What it does | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Start Date | Planned start | Cannot be later than the end date |
| End Date | Planned finish | Cannot be earlier than the start date |
| Estimate working days | Weekdays the project should take | Fills in itself: Monday to Friday between the two dates, inclusive. You can overwrite it |
| Estimate man days | Total person-days of effort | Zero or more |
| Hours per day | Length of a working day for this project | Default 8 |
Hours per day accepts values up to 24. The error message says “between 1 and 24”, so enter at least 1.
How do you set Delivery Confidence?
Delivery Confidence is a manager’s own judgement of whether the project will land on time. Worklenz does not calculate it, and Not set never means on track. It appears in General when you edit an existing project.
- Open General and find Delivery Confidence.
- Choose On track, At risk or Off track.
- Add an optional note, up to 280 characters.
- Click Update.
Only Owners, Admins and the project’s manager can set it. The field is enabled for Team Leads too, but if one changes it, the other fields still save and a red message reads “Could not save Delivery Confidence.”
Created and updated footer
Under each section, the dialog shows “Created … by …” with the creator’s name and “Updated …” with a relative time. Hover either to see the full date and time. It does not say who made the last change.
Example
Priya creates “Website Redesign” with key WEB, picks 3 March to 28 March, and sees 20 working days fill in. Priya’s team works 6-hour days, so Priya sets Hours per day to 6 and clicks Update. The page reloads with the new settings in place.
Best practices
- Choose a short key before your team shares task links, because the key is a fixed 5-character code that identifies the project.
- Set both dates first, because working days then fill in automatically from the Monday to Friday count.
- Use Health for the team’s overall feel and Delivery Confidence for the manager’s call, because only the second is a deliberate judgement with a note.
- Check holidays yourself, because the working-day count only skips weekends.
- Click Update after editing estimates, because only the dates save without it.