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Maintenance projects

Group related cards into one project with its own costs, contingency and budget.

Council only

Updated

What it is

A project is a maintenance card that holds other cards as its items. For example, an "Amenity room refresh" project could hold "Paint walls", "Replace lights" and "New flooring". Each item is still an ordinary card with its own status, vendor, costs and history. The project collects them so council can see and approve the work as a whole.

A project also has costs of its own (such as a project manager or permits) and an optional contingency, either a percentage or a fixed amount. Its proposed total is the project's own costs, plus every item at its quoted cost, plus the contingency.

What you can do

  • Turn a card into a project: open the card and use Turn into project in its Project section. If council approved the card, that approval becomes the project's approved total: the card's work is never voted on again.
  • Add a change order: extra work at extra cost on a card that's under way. Add as change order… in the card's menu turns it into a project, adds the work as a new item and opens the vote for what it adds. See Change orders.
  • Add items: on the project's Items tab, create a new item with a title and quoted cost, or add a card that is already on the board.
  • Add a card to a project from the card: use Add to project in the card's Project section and pick the project.
  • Set a contingency: in the Budget section of the Items tab, choose a percentage or a fixed amount.
  • Remove an item: the card stays on the board as a standalone card. If a vote had approved it, that approval is cleared; adding it back needs a new vote.
  • Get council approval: a single vote can approve the whole project. See Project votes.
  • Start a project from the depreciation report: open an item on the depreciation report and choose Create project or Add to existing project.
  • Defer its report items: a project with depreciation report items has Defer report items a year… in its menu. Each open report item moves a year with the same reason and can be undone on its own on the report.
  • Turn a project back into a card: use the card menu. This only works while the project has no items and no council votes on record.

On the board, a project card shows how many of its items are done, the spend so far and its items. Each item also shows which project it belongs to.

On desktop, clicking an item in the project's panel opens it on top of the project, the same way Ask AI opens over a card. Close it, press Escape, or click the project name at the top of the item to go back. It works the other way too: from an item, clicking its project opens the project on top. Cmd- or Ctrl-click opens the card in a new tab instead.

On the timeline

Each item appears on the timeline as its own card. To see work by project, choose Group by: Project above the timeline. Each project gets its own section, with the project's own card first and its items below it. The section header shows:

  • how many items are on the timeline;
  • their committed cost (each at its actual cost once known, or its quote if the actual is lower), plus the project's own costs;
  • the dates from the first start to the last finish, or "ongoing" while anything is open.

Click the project's name in the header to open the project. Cards that aren't in a project are listed last, under Not in a project.

The header figures

  • Before a vote: the header shows the proposed total, spend to date, and the share of the proposed total spent.
  • After a vote has passed (or once a card council approved becomes a project, with its approval): it shows the approved total, spend on approved work, and Remaining. Remaining is the approved total minus committed costs; each approved cost counts at its actual cost once known, or its quote if the actual is lower.
  • Spend on unapproved items: items added after a vote show Needs approval until a vote covers them. Their spend is shown separately, so it never hides inside the approved figures.
  • Over budget: if approved costs pass the approved total, the header shows how much the project is over. Nothing is blocked. The approved total only rises when new items are voted in; there is no vote yet to approve an overrun on work already approved.

Who can do it

Admins (president, VP, delegated PM) create projects, add and remove items, set the contingency and request votes. Admins (president, VP, delegated PM) inside the 90-day read-only period after their term ends can't. Other council members can open a project and see its items, budget and votes.

Limits and things to know

  • One level only: a project can't contain another project, and a card can belong to only one project.
  • Items keep their own status: each item still moves across the board on its own.
  • On hold: putting a project on hold asks for a reason. Pleno then offers to put its items in progress on hold too, with the same reason.
  • Adding items: you can't add items to a Done or archived project; move it back to In progress first. Draft and archived cards can't be added, and a card that already belongs to another project must be removed from it first.
  • Turning a card into a project: Done, archived and draft cards can't become projects, and neither can a card that is itself an item of a project.
  • Done:
    • a project can't move to Done while any of its items is still open;
    • when the last open item of an In progress project moves to Done, Pleno offers to mark the project Done;
    • reopening an item reopens a Done project. Items of an archived project can't be reopened.
  • Archiving: archiving a project also archives its finished items. A project with open items can't be archived.
  • Cancelling: cancelling a project (Cancel project… in its menu) also cancels its open items, with the same reason, and any open vote. Finished items stay as they are. Everything cancelled moves to Archived marked as cancelled, and stays on the timeline. A cancelled item no longer counts toward the project's planned or approved totals (money already spent on it still counts), and it's left out of the project's progress. To cancel a single item while a project vote that includes it is still open, cancel that vote first.
  • Recurring items: when a recurring item is done, its next occurrence is created as a standalone card, outside the project.
  • Timeline grouping counts only what is on the timeline: items still in Planning aren't drawn on the timeline, so they are left out of a project section's item count, dates and committed cost.