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Client project tracker

Every client, their projects and your next step, in one place.

About 15 minutesMac and WindowsPrimeCRM needs Pro

A client project tracker shows every client, what you're doing for them and what's due next. In PrimeTask it takes about 15 minutes: a project per client, milestones for their dates, tasks for the work, and Compass to suggest the next task. Progress and health come from your tasks and dates, so there's no status column to update.

Updated · Checked with PrimeTask 1.0.5 · PrimeTask Team

PrimeTask

Your clientWho the work is forThe workWhat you add and tick offWhere you lookWorked out from the workProject noteHolds the client's detailsClient projectStart date and deadlineMilestonesThe client's datesTasksDated, with prioritiesTask commentsDecisions and blockersProjects pageProgress and healthCompassWhat to do next

How it fits together

Select a part, in the drawing or here, to see what it does and what it feeds.

What flows

Progress

Tasks to Milestones

Progress

Tasks and Milestones to Client project

Progress and health

Client project to Projects page

What Compass reads

Tasks to Compass

Part ofLinkedProgress and healthWhat Compass reads
Every connection, in words
  • Project note is part of Client project.
  • Milestones is part of Client project.
  • Tasks is part of Client project.
  • Task comments is part of Tasks.
  • Milestones is linked to Tasks.
  • Client project is linked to Projects page.
  • Tasks is linked to Compass.
  • Progress: Tasks to Milestones.
  • Progress: Tasks to Client project.
  • Progress: Milestones to Client project.
  • Progress and health: Client project to Projects page.
  • What Compass reads: Tasks to Compass.

How the parts of a client project tracker connect, and which way the progress flows

The problem

Most client trackers start as a spreadsheet: a row per client, a status column, a date for what's next. It holds up until you're busy, which is exactly when you need it.

Then the status says "on track" because nobody changed it, the email that moved the deadline is somewhere in your inbox, and the client's new number is in your phone. A spreadsheet is a copy of the work, kept up by hand. The tracker below reads the work itself.

What it uses

Five parts, one connected system

Each card opens its docs article in a new tab, for the detail behind the steps.

Projects

One project for each piece of client work

Docs for Projects (opens in a new tab)

Tasks

The work itself, with due dates and priorities

Docs for Tasks (opens in a new tab)

Task Comments

Decisions and blockers, kept on the task they affect

Docs for Task Comments (opens in a new tab)

Compass

What to do next, across every client

Docs for Compass (opens in a new tab)

PrimeCRM

Pro

The client and the people you deal with

Docs for PrimeCRM (opens in a new tab)

Steps

Set it up in seven steps

  1. 1Create a project for each client
  2. 2Add the client's dates as milestones
  3. 3Break the work into tasks
  4. 4Add the client to PrimeCRM
  5. 5Keep decisions in the task's comments
  6. 6Check every client on the Projects page
  7. 7Start each day with Compass

Step 1

Create a project for each client

Creating projects (opens in a new tab)

Open Projects and choose New Project. Name it after the client and the job, such as "Bayside Dental: new website", and set a start date and a deadline.

The deadline matters: PrimeTask compares the time gone with the work done to tell you whether a project is on track.

Step 2

Add the client's dates as milestones

Project milestones (opens in a new tab)

Press M inside the project to add a milestone for each date the client holds you to, like the first draft or the final sign-off. Mark the ones you're waiting on from the client as External.

When the next milestone is three days away, the project shows as at risk.

Step 3

Break the work into tasks

Quick Add (opens in a new tab)

Press Cmd + Shift + A (Ctrl + Shift + A on Windows) and type a line such as Send homepage draft @bayside friday !high. PrimeTask picks out the project, the date and the priority.

Then add each task to its milestone from the milestone's Manage panel, and the milestone fills in as you tick them off.

Step 4

Add the client to PrimeCRM

Using PrimeCRM on a project (opens in a new tab)

Open the project, press E, turn on Enable CRM and choose Shared. On the new CRM tab, add the client as a company and the people you deal with as contacts.

Add %bayside to a Quick Add line and the task also shows on the client's page.

Needs Pro. On Standard, keep the client's details in a project note instead.

Step 5

Keep decisions in the task's comments

Task comments (opens in a new tab)

When the client changes the brief or approves a draft, write it in the comments on the task it affects. Mark it as a Decision or a Blocker, and pin what nobody should miss.

With PrimeCRM, type @ and pick the client, so the discussion is tied to their record.

Important. Pick the name from the list. A name typed by hand looks the same but links to nothing.

Step 6

Check every client on the Projects page

Project health and progress (opens in a new tab)

Open Projects. Every client project shows its progress, a flag when tasks are overdue, and a health label that PrimeTask works out from the dates and the work.

Filter by health to see who needs you this week, and archive a project when the job is done.

Step 7

Start each day with Compass

How Compass picks tasks (opens in a new tab)

Press Cmd + J (Ctrl + J on Windows). Compass names a few tasks worth doing next, across all your clients, and says why each one made the list.

Overdue work comes first, then today's, then anything you've started. Compass only reads, so it never changes a task.

Variations

Make it yours

Four ways to change the setup to fit how you work.

Retainers

Add the regular jobs as repeating tasks, for example Monthly report @bayside every month in Quick Add.

Started as a sale

Pro
Attach the project's tasks to the sale on your Opportunities board, from its Next steps or by mentioning the sale in a task comment, and the soonest unfinished one becomes its next action. Make each renewal its own opportunity: duplicate last year's and update it.

What you track per client

Pro
Add fields such as contract value or renewal date on the project's Fields tab. The built-in Client Management template adds a set in one click.

A confidential client

Pro
Set the project's CRM to Isolated, and that client's contacts stay inside the project, out of your main list.

Reuse

Save it for next time

Set it up once, and start the next one from it.

A model project

Build one client project the way you like it, in a Space you keep for templates. For each new client, choose Copy to Space from its menu on the Projects page, then rename the copy and set its dates. Copies always go to another Space, which is why the model lives in its own.

Tasks every client gets

Type save:kickoff Kickoff call with the client !high in Quick Add once. After that, /kickoff fills in the line, and you add the client's project before pressing Enter.

Questions

Common questions

For each client: the project, the dates they hold you to, the tasks and who is doing them, what's due next, and the decisions made along the way. Contact details and a record of calls help once you have more than a few clients.

For a few clients, often yes. It gets harder as the work grows, because every change is made twice: once in the work and again in the sheet.

No. Projects, milestones, tasks, comments and Compass work on every licence. Pro adds PrimeCRM, for the client's people, calls and tasks tied to the client, custom fields, and each project's Metrics tab, for its progress over time.

No. There's no client portal, and the tracker lives on your computer. If you work with a partner, a shared Space keeps it in sync between you, which is part of Pro.

Related

More setups like this

Other jobs, set up the same way.

Client follow up tracker

Every promise to get back to a client, on a date, with the history of what was said.

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Every project you run alone, what matters today, and a clear run at doing it, without team software.

How to keep track of professional contacts

Everyone you know professionally, what you last talked about, and a nudge before each connection goes quiet.

Set this up with your own work.

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