Understand and use the projects object

Use the project object to organize and track work. Associate other CRM records such as tasks, deals, and contacts with projects. Configure settings such as pipelines and project tags, view projects in view types (e.g., gantt, board), and use project data in HubSpot tools such as reports or workflows. 

Learn more about using projects for service delivery.

Activate projects

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Data Management > Data Model. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Data Management > Data Model directly.
2. In the upper right, click Edit Data Model.
3. Navigate to projects and click Activate object.
4. In the dialog box, click Confirm. 

Configure project settings

After activating projects, you can configure settings to support how projects are organized and tracked. These settings include pipelines, associations, custom properties, tags, and notifications.

• Create associations in the data model.
• Create custom project properties.
• Set up pipeline rules.
• Customize pipeline specific automations.
• Create color-coded project tags.

Set up project notifications

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left panel, click Notifications.
3. In the What you get notified about section, navigate to Projects.
4. Select the checkboxes to toggle on or off the notifications you want (e.g., Project status update).

Learn more about configuring notifications for your profile.

View projects

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to CRM > Projects. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to CRM > Projects directly.
2. Click the name of a project.

View projects in gantt index view (BETA)

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to CRM > Projects. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to CRM > Projects directly.
2. Click the view type button and select Gantt view.
3. Above the timeline, click the dropdown menus to manage time and task filters.
4. Click the name of the project you want to view.

View projects in the customer success workspace

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Success. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Success directly.
2. Click the Projects tab.

Learn more about using projects in the customer success workspace.

Use case: use projects for service delivery.

The company Sprocket wants to track service delivery and keep their deal pipelines sales focused. Their sales team previously used a post closed-won deal stage to track completed work, but it created issues with data quality. To fix this, the operations manager at Sprocket is using projects to track work done in a clean way while maintaining the necessary context from the deal.

Set up your pipeline to standardize data entry

The operations manager creates a dedicated project pipeline with stages that reflect delivery phases and rules to keep data in order. Each stage represents a specific milestone (e.g., kickoff, final sign-off). This provides the service team with a clear view of where every project stands.

Activate projects and configure your pipeline

1. Activate projects.
2. Edit the default pipeline stage names:
   • In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar. 
   • In the left sidebar menu, in the Data Management section, click Objects.
   • On the Objects page, click the Select an object dropdown menu and select Projects.
   • Click the Pipelines tab.
   • Click the name of the pipeline.
   • In the Stage name text field, enter new names (e.g., kickoff, set-up).
3. Toggle on the Restrict projects from skipping stages pipeline rule and select the first stage as the default when a project is created.

Configure a deal-based workflow to create projects

1. Create a deal-based workflow.
2. Click Met filter criteria and select Deal.
3. In the pop-up box, click Deal properties and select Deal stage.
4. Click the Search dropdown menu and select Closed won or the name of your Won stage. 
5. Click Next.
6. Click Save and continue.
7. Add the Create record action.
8. Select Project and configure details.
9. Click Save.
10. Configure workflow settings and turn the workflow on.

Keep high-priority projects on track using gantt view

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to CRM > Projects. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to CRM > Projects directly.
2. Click the view type button and select Gantt view.
3. To create a project status and owner saved view:
   • Click the + add view icon, then click Create new view.
   • Select Gantt view.
   • Enter a name for your view, then click the success confirm icon.
   • Select the Status dropdown menu and select On Track, Delayed, and On-Hold.
   • Select the Owner dropdown menu and select Me to apply owner dynamically based on the user interacting with the view.
   • In the bottom right, click Save. 
4. Review project details and their associated tasks:
   • Hover on a project and click the + Add icon to create a task. This automatically associates the task to the project.
   • Click the expand icon to show tasks on the timeline.
   • Click a bar in the timeline to open the project or task in the right panel preview.

Build a quarterly status report

Executives at Sprocket need to review project deliveries on a quarterly basis. The operations manager creates a custom report to display project statuses, average time spent in stages, and filtered by the current quarter.

Create single-object or custom reports to review project statuses or their time spent in certain pipeline stages. For example, to report on projects and associated tasks, create a custom report with projects as the primary source and tasks as the secondary one.

To create a project status report:

1. Create a custom report and select the Projects data source.
2. Add Cumulative time in [stage name] to the y-axis.
3. Add Owner to the x-axis.
4. To change the y-axis to an average:
   • Click the edit aggregation icon on the y-axis property.
   • Click the Aggregation dropdown menu, then select Average.
   • Click Apply.
5. To add a filter for a quarterly summary:
   • Click the Filter tab.
   • Add Create date to the filter tab.
   • Click Create date, then select the second dropdown menu.
   • Select This quarter or a different date range.
   • Click Apply.
6. Click Save report.

To create a cumulative time in project stage report by project status:

1. Create a single-object report and select the Projects data source.
2. Click Add properties and select Cumulative time in [project stage].
3. Click the Visualization tab and drag Cumulative time in [project stage] to the displaying section.
4. Select an aggregation (e.g., average, sum).
5. Configure the filters of the report (e.g., frequency, create date).
6. When you're finished, click Save report.

Next steps

Use projects in other HubSpot tools such as:

• Reports
• Workflows
• Segments