> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://beebole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Managing projects and project categories
> Create projects and subprojects in Beebole, organize them into categories, add many at once from a spreadsheet, and control rates, budgets, and access.
Projects in Beebole are what your team logs time against. Every report, budget, and billing calculation builds on your project structure, so organizing it well pays off across the whole account. Projects live in categories you define and can be nested into subprojects as deep as you need.
***
## How projects are organized
Beebole uses a flexible hierarchy with three building blocks:
* **Categories** — The broadest grouping. A new account starts with **Clients**, **Internal**, and **Activities**. Each project belongs to exactly one category.
* **Projects** — The engagements or work streams inside a category, such as a client account or an internal initiative.
* **Subprojects** — Smaller pieces of work nested under a project. There is no fixed depth limit, and each category names its own levels (for example, the **Clients** category starts with the levels **Project** and **Job**).
Projects describe *what* your team works on. To group projects and people across other dimensions — departments, locations, service lines — use [tags](/help/documentation/tags) instead of deepening the project hierarchy.
Which project categories your team can record time on is controlled by the **Record time on these project categories** setting, in the **Categories** tab of the **Timesheet and Planning Settings** panel. Open it from **Settings** > **Account Settings**.
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## Creating a project
Click **Projects** in the sidebar.
Click the category name next to the **Projects:** heading and select the category the project belongs in. To create a new category, type its name in the field at the bottom of that menu and click **Add**.
Click the **Add \[category]** button at the top right — its label shows the active category, for example **Add Clients**. Enter the project name and click the **Save new…** button (its label ends with the level you are creating, for example **Save new project**).
In the project list, expand the parent project, then click the **+** button next to the level name below it (its tooltip reads **Add** followed by the level name, for example **Add Job**).
### Adding several projects at once
When the add panel is open, use the **Or add multiple entries** area below the name field:
1. Copy rows from a spreadsheet — one entry per line, using **Tab** or spaces to indent sub-levels.
2. Click **Paste**.
3. Review the entries to be imported, then click **Add them all**. If something looks wrong, click **Undo**.
***
## Managing categories and level names
Click the category name next to the **Projects:** heading to open the category menu. From there you can:
* Switch to another category by clicking its name.
* Add a category — type a name in the field and click **Add**.
* Rename a category — hover over it, click the pencil icon, edit the name, and click **Ok**.
* Delete a category — hover over it and click the trash icon.
To rename a hierarchy level, expand a project in the list and click the level name shown above its children — the tooltip reads **Click to edit the level name for the whole category**. The new name applies to that level across the whole category.
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## Moving a project in the hierarchy
You move a project by changing its parent from the project's detail panel:
Click **Projects** in the sidebar, then click the project to open its details.
Hover over the breadcrumb above the project name and click the **Change parent** button that appears.
Select the new parent project or the category root. The change is saved immediately, and the project's subprojects move with it.
A project can only be moved within its own category — the parent selector lists destinations from the same category and excludes the project's own subprojects.
***
## Project settings
Clicking a project opens its detail panel, which is organized into settings panels. Open panels appear first; the remaining ones are listed below — click a panel's name to open it. Changes are saved automatically.
| Panel | What it controls |
| ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Manager** | The people who manage this project. |
| **Tags** | The [tags](/help/documentation/tags) applied to the project. Subprojects inherit tags from their parent project. |
| **Billing** | Project-level [billing rates](/help/documentation/billing). |
| **Cost** | Project-level [cost rates](/help/documentation/costs) for profitability tracking. |
| **Budgets** | Spending or effort ceilings for the project. See [Budgets](/help/documentation/budgets). |
| **Expenses** | The expenses recorded against the project. See [Expenses](/help/documentation/expenses). |
| **Custom fields** | Values for the custom fields defined for projects. See [Custom fields](/help/documentation/custom-fields). |
| **Who has access?** | Who can use the project — see below. |
| **Secondary projects allowed** | Whether people can log time to a secondary project alongside this one. |
| **Show or Hide** | Which expense types and custom fields are available on this project. |
| **Valid period for time entry** | **From** and **To** dates limiting when time can be recorded on the project. |
| **Description** | Free-form notes about the project. |
### Billing and cost rates per project
Open the project's **Billing** or **Cost** panel and click **Add** to create a rate. Choose a method — **Hourly rate**, **Daily rate**, or **Fixed fee** — and optionally split it with **Split by persons**, **Split by projects**, or **Split by tags**. A rate set directly on a project overrides rates inherited from tags or the organization. See [Billing rates](/help/documentation/billing) for the full priority order and repeat options.
### Valid period for time entry
The **Valid period for time entry** panel bounds when time can be recorded on the project: set a **From** and/or **To** date, and entries outside that window are refused with a message naming the project that blocks them. Use it to close a finished project without archiving it, or to open a project for booking only from its actual start date. The window set on a project also applies to its subprojects; when several projects in the chain define one, the most specific project's window wins. People can carry the same setting — see [People](/help/documentation/people#valid-period-for-time-entry).
### Custom fields on a project
The fields shown in the **Custom fields** panel come from the field definitions in your account — you fill in values there, but you create and scope the fields themselves in **Settings** > **Custom Field**. Custom field values appear as dimensions and filters in [reports](/help/documentation/reports).
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## Controlling who can track time on a project
The **Who has access?** panel decides who can use the project:
* A toggle switches the project between **Available to everyone** and **Unavailable to everyone**. The default comes from your organization's **Show or hide by default** settings.
* **Individually** — add specific people with the **Select person** field.
* **By tags** — make the project available to everyone in a tag with the **Select tag** field.
See [Assignments](/help/documentation/assignments) for how availability defaults and exceptions work together, and [Roles & permissions](/help/documentation/roles-authorisations) for what each person can see and do.
You can also restrict an expense type to specific projects from the expense type's own **Who has access?** panel — see [Expenses](/help/documentation/expenses).
***
## Duplicating, archiving, and deleting projects
Each project has a **⋯** action menu — it appears when you hover over the project's row in the list, and next to the project name in its detail panel. It offers:
* **Duplicate** — create a copy of the project.
* **Rename** — edit the project name in place.
* **Go to tasks** — open the Tasks view filtered to this project's tasks.
* **Archive** / **Unarchive** — retire the project or bring it back.
* **Delete** — remove the project.
Archived projects are hidden from the list — click **Show Archived** at the top of the page to display them (the label includes the count), and **Hide Archived** to hide them again. Their recorded time stays available in reports.
**Delete** permanently removes the project. To retire a completed project while keeping its history in reports, use **Archive** instead. If you delete by mistake, click **Undo** in the notification that appears right after.
***
## Related content
Group projects and people by department, location, or any other dimension, and cascade configuration through tags.
Set billing, cost, or hours budgets on your projects and track progress.
Configure billing rates at the organization, tag, project, or person level.
Control which projects, expense types, and custom fields are available to each person or group.
## Frequently asked questions
Beebole doesn't impose a fixed nesting limit — you can keep adding subprojects under subprojects. In practice, structures stay easiest to navigate and report on at four levels or fewer.
The **Change parent** control in Beebole moves a project anywhere within its own category — under another project or back to the top level. It does not move projects between categories.
Yes. Open the project's **Who has access?** panel in Beebole to make it unavailable to everyone and then grant access individually or by tags. See [Assignments](/help/documentation/assignments) for the full availability model.
Yes. When adding a rate in the project's **Billing** panel, choose **Split by persons** to set a different rate for each team member. See [Billing rates](/help/documentation/billing) for details.
The project disappears from the active list in Beebole, and its recorded time remains available in reports. Click **Show Archived** to display archived projects, and use **Unarchive** in the **⋯** action menu to make one active again.