Getting Started with Project Bubble

We've designed Project Bubble from the ground up to be easy to use and simple to learn. However for those that need that little bit of help getting started we've put this guide together. Please also check out our tutorials for videos on how to get the most out of your Bubble.

10 easy steps to get started...

1. Firstly log in to your Bubble by going to your subdomain and then logging in with your username and password.
2. You'll land on your Dashboard which is where you can get a 'birds-eye-view' of the activity within your Bubble, such as projects that are overdue, active clients, and recent activity.
3. Click Add Project.
4. Give the project a name and a description then click Save Changes.
5. You'll be redirected to the Projects tab which shows you all your open projects.
6. Click Tasks from within the Project
7. Click Add Task
8. Give the Task a name and a description as before, and click Save Changes.
9. Repeat this process by adding a few more tasks to your project.
10. Drag and drop the tasks in to the priority for which you need to work on them (you can also do this for your projects).

Now you have a project with tasks that you can begin managing. You can also invite users to this project, track the time spent on tasks and even bill for your project when it's completed. To learn more about this go to our tutorials page.

The Basics

Want to know more about Project Bubble? Let's explain the basics and show you how each aspect of Project Bubble can really speed up the workflow of your business and save you time.

• Projects
  Projects are the heartbeat of Project Bubble. Everything is based off of a project including tasks, invoices, estimates and comments. Creating a project is quick and easy and you can view all of your projects on one page. If you need to re-prioritize a project then just drag it in to priority, or use the traffic light indicators for status.
• Tasks
  Projects contain tasks and they are also essential for your project management. They can also be called Milestones as they can have due-dates assigned to them. Collaborators can also be brought in to a project and assigned tasks. When a task is complete it will form the progress of the project (the green bar in the projects page). Tasks can also have time tracked against them which makes up your billable hours (see the Invoices section).
• Sub-tasks
  Sub-tasks are tasks within your tasks and are useful in situations where a task might be broken up in to smaller actionable items. For example in a web design task you might have a sub-task titled "Design Layout" and "Build HTML". Sub-tasks open in a drawer underneath each task so they can be created quickly and ticked off. The progress of tasks is based on sub-tasks, so when you complete sub-tasks the task and the project progress are affected.
• Clients
  Clients are what projects are attached to. Clients can have unlimited contacts attached to them and you can store all the client's details in Project Bubble's mini-CRM system. Clients could also be departments if your organization has no external clients and only works internally. Contacts
  Contacts are stored under clients and are usually the actual people in the client's organization. Sometimes a client might be a single person, but in most cases the client will be a company and in that company there will probably be lots of 'contacts' that you'll want to attach to the client.
• Comments
  Comments can be made on projects or tasks and are shared by the whole team (anyone that has access to the project). Comments can have replies under them, and replies can be sent via email or the web. Comments will show up on your "Recent Activity" feed in the Dashboard
• Time Tracking
  Time can be tracked for any task as long as you have assignment to the task. Just click the Timer to track time, or click on Timesheets and enter your time entries manually. Once time is tracked you can set up an hourly rate from the Edit Project page and then this will form your billable time.
• Estimates
  Estimates can be made before a project is set up, or after, and then sent to the client for approval. If you create an estimate for a project and then want to convert it to a project you can do this by clicking a couple of buttons. This makes your workflow super-quick.
• Invoices
  When you've finished working on a project you can create an invoice for the billable time you've spent on it (or the fixed price tasks). These are your invoices and the invoices can be sent to your clients, have partial payments attached to them, be downloaded as PDF and archived in the system.
• Users
  Your users are the people in your team, whether staff, collaborators (e.g. freelancers), or clients. You can invite users to your Bubble and then assign them tasks or perhaps give them access to certain sections of your Bubble e.g. the Invoices section (if they are a client maybe). Each user gets a different level of responsibility, e.g. Administrator or Project Manager, with the Superuser being at the top.