Project stages can serve as a guide to the project life cycle. You can define the project stages you want to include in your projects on the Project stagetab in the Parameters form.

There are five default project stages and three user-defined stages. The five default stages are:

• Created

• Estimated

• Scheduled

• In process

• Finished

Two stages, In processand Finished, are required for all projects except the Time project, while the other project stages are optional. The Time projectproject cannot have the finished project stage assigned to it because the finished stage has the estimation process in it.

You can rename the project stages and have the new names appear in forms and menu options. The three user-defined project stages can be used to track your project in more detail.

You can select any or all of the following tasks to be assigned to a project stage:

• Create quotation- Create a project quotation for Fixed-priceand Time and materialprojects.

• Create forecast- Create and schedule forecast lines for any transaction.

• Create estimates- Create estimates for Fixed-priceand Investmentprojects.

• Create item tasks- Create sales and purchase orders, item requirements, and production orders for a project.

• Create journals- Create journals transactions for projects.

• Create invoice proposal- Create an invoice proposal for Fixed-priceand Time and materialprojects.

• Reverse eliminate- Allow a reverse elimination of the budget for selected project types.