--- title: "Introduction to project management" slug: "introduction-to-project-management" updated: 2026-10-15T01:17:45Z published: 2026-10-15T01:17:45Z canonical: "help.servicetitan.com/introduction-to-project-management" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.servicetitan.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Introduction to project management ## Overview Review some of the base concepts that make up project management at a high level. We recommend that you review these concepts to get a better understanding of how the feature works, as well as the different components of the feature you'll use in your day-to-day workflow. --- ### #### Who uses this feature - Any business using project management - Anybody who runs and uses projects in ServiceTitan ## Understand the structure of a project The *Project* record is a folder containing all relevant work, documentation, data for related items on your project. If an action takes place on a job within the project, this is recorded in the project record. A project collects and contains information from the following areas: - Estimates/budgets/change orders - Project information, such as project manager, dates of completion, and payment terms - Jobs and appointments - Invoices - Applications for Payment - Purchase orders/bills - Payroll/timesheets - Technician/office staff activity - Documents, such as photos, forms, uploaded documents ![Flowchart illustrating long-term construction project system architecture and invoicing processes.](https://cdn.document360.io/961862ab-d0f2-4d91-bb62-a62ee8184eff/Images/Documentation/introduction-to-project-management-image-6d7wobk2.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-10-31T00%3A42%3A34Z&se=2026-10-31T01%3A42%3A34Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=ecBHa4uJb9DOruIAkGpIn%2FfmaWTsqrxGC5Xu2nEbMm8%3D) ## How projects are created in ServiceTitan You can create projects using two different methods to support multiple or varying workflows that your business may follow. ### Option 1 Create a project manually from the location profile, customer profile, or from an existing job using the *Actions* dropdown. - Examples: - Creation of project when a bid is won - Creation of a project to start management jobs/work performed ### Option 2 Automatically create a project when booking a Sold estimate from a sales job into an install job - Examples: - Residential install workflows - This workflow should only be performed when using the Line Items Estimate workflow. - This workflow shouldn't be used when using the placeholder estimates workflow. ## Use project labels One of the most important aspects of managing projects is [using project labels](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#use-project-labels). Project labels organize your budgeted (*expected*) revenue and expenses and compare them to your actual (*realized*) revenue and expenses in real time and are completely customizable for the needs of your business. Use project labels to identify: - A phase of work, such as *Rough-in*, *Trim-out*, *Start-up* - A type of expense, such as material, equipment, labor, subcontractor - A type of work performed or sold, such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC - A location where work is performed, such as room 1, room 2, bathroom, kitchen - Or, any other way you want to categorize and track costs and revenue across a project See [Overview of project management setups and workflows](/construction/docs/overview-of-project-management-setups-and-workflows) to go over setups and recommended workflows for implementing project management based on your business's workflows. ## View insights on the Budget vs Actual table Click **Financials** on a project record to see a budget-versus-actual comparison for the project on the *Budget vs Actual* (*BvA*) table. [Generate your budget](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#generate-your-budget) and then use the *BvA* table to manage your budget and track your progress as you generate actuals. The table updates in real-time after refreshing your page. The [Budget vs Actual](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#use-budget-vs-actual-table) table allows you to customize how and which costs you track, set your expected budget for expenses and revenue, and track your performance in real time against your set budget. ![Table displaying project budget, actual costs, and variance for various expenses.](https://cdn.document360.io/961862ab-d0f2-4d91-bb62-a62ee8184eff/Images/Documentation/introduction-to-project-management-image-iqtzfrht.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-10-31T00%3A42%3A34Z&se=2026-10-31T01%3A42%3A34Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=ecBHa4uJb9DOruIAkGpIn%2FfmaWTsqrxGC5Xu2nEbMm8%3D) Your project labels determine how costs and revenue are shown on the *BvA*, allowing you to track your costs and revenue by project labels. ## Choose progress billing options in projects With project management, you can choose how you [send invoices](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#create-a-project-invoice) to collect payment for your performed work. Use Progress Billing to bill your customers throughout the project, based on milestone completion. Before generating progress billing for a project, confirm that the contract allows for progress payments. > [!NOTE] > **Note:** Progress billing is optional. The two most common ways of progressively billing are to add an invoice directly to the project or use the [Application for Payment](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#use-progress-billing-for-project-revenue) workflow. - **Add invoice**: With progress billing, you can bill customers as you reach specific milestones in a project. You can create a non-job invoice and progress bill without the AIA Billing style. - **Application for Payment (AFP)**: AFP allows you to progressively bill customers based on the amount of completed work and stored materials. To progressively bill, customers may require you to submit [Applications for Payment and Continuation Sheets](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management#use-progress-billing-for-project-revenue). Use this workflow if the contract calls for an AIA-styled document, schedule of values, Continuation Sheet, and/or outlined retainage percentages. > [!NOTE] > **Note:** Avoid using job invoices to bill for project revenue. In construction projects, job invoices capture costs and material consumption, while Applications for Payment or progress billing captures revenue. ## Set up project management prerequisites To successfully use project management, set up and configure your account to the needs of your business. This includes setting up: - **Business units and categories (required)**: Create business units, trades, and divisions for your residential new construction work. If you only work on residential new construction, you don't need to separate new construction business units. For more, see [How to add or edit business units](/construction/docs/add-and-edit-business-units-3) and [Use business unit categories](/construction/docs/add-and-edit-a-trade-or-division). - **Pricebook (required)**: Create a service in your pricebook to bill customers for specific milestones. You can create Billing tasks for specific phases, or generic billing tasks that can be used across different phases of work. For example, *Rough-In-Billing* or *Contract Billing*. For more, see [Add services to your pricebook](/construction/docs/add-services-to-your-pricebook). > [!TIP] > **Tip:** You can also create a material task so you can add subcontractor costs as a non-chargeable material to invoices. For more, see [Add subcontractor cost](/construction/docs/add-subcontractor-cost). - **Job types (recommended for certain workflows)**: Create new job types for projects to track your progress in milestones. For example, a typical new construction project has three phases: *Rough In*, *Trim Out*, and *Start Up*. For each phase, create a job type so you can add default project labels to the job type to capture and record actuals efficiently. For more, see [Set up and use job types](/construction/docs/set-up-and-use-job-types). - **Payment terms (recommended)**: You can use payment terms to manage the due dates of sales invoices and vendor bills. Tracking the due dates of sales invoices helps you manage payment collection and disbursement accurately. For more, see [Create payment terms](/construction/docs/create-payment-terms). - **Technician payroll (required)**: Add hourly pay rates to technicians to track their paid time hourly in the *Budget vs Actual* table. Add burden rates to track the overhead cost of technicians' labor. For more, see [Enter payroll settings](/construction/docs/enter-payroll-settings) and [Calculate technician burden rates](/construction/docs/calculate-technician-burden-rates). > [!NOTE] > **Note:** Setting up payroll and ensuring your timesheets are entered/recorded accurately helps you automate the generation of actual labor costs on your project. Having payroll costs entered and keeping accurate timesheets is essential for accurate cost data to be reflected on the BvA table & reporting. - **Purchasing**/**Inventory**: Use ServiceTitan's [Purchasing](/construction/docs/purchasing-module-home) and/or [Inventory](/construction/docs/inventory-and-purchase-orders-home) module to simplify tracking costs from vendors and assigning costs correctly to projects and jobs. - **Client Specific Pricing**: With client-specific pricing, you can use rate sheets to set unique time and material pricing to a project and all subsequent jobs booked from that project. For more, see [Set up unique prices with client-specific pricing](/construction/docs/client-specific-pricing-overview-and-setup). - **Sales tax**: Tracking sales tax is a necessity for any business. ServiceTitan has several options for tracking sales tax. The [sales tax setup](/construction/docs/set-up-sales-tax-in-servicetitan) guide walks you through calculating sales tax with singular tax Zones. ## FAQ --- ### #### How do I invoice from a sold estimate using progress billing? Progress billing can only occur in active projects. If you want to generate an invoice from a sold estimate using progress billing, **do not** initiate booking through the estimate screen. Instead, create an invoice from the project level to properly bill your customers throughout the project milestones. - For more on progress billing options, see the *Choose progress billing options in projects* section of the [Introduction to project management](/construction/docs/introduction-to-project-management) article. - For more on progress billing without the AIA Billing style, see [Progress billing](/construction/docs/progress-billing-overview-and-setup). - For more on using Application for Payment (AFP) for progress billing, see the *Use progress billing for project revenue* section of the [End-to-end guide to project management](/construction/docs/end-to-end-guide-to-project-management) article. A sales tech sells an estimate. -or- A service, maintenance, or install tech sells an estimate. -or- A CSR sells an estimate over the phone. Let's say the estimate total is below the sold threshold (the customer wants to schedule the work, but hasn't fully decided). [Learn more →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/understanding-estimates-vocab) · [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview) Invoicing customers in stages as specific milestones of a large project are completed rather than in one lump sum at the end. **What it does:** Improves cash flow on large or multi-day roofing and commercial jobs by collecting partial payments throughout the project. **Also called:** Milestone billing, Staged invoicing **Tags:** Roofing / Exteriors [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview) A pricebook service item added to a billing invoice template for an ongoing membership. Every ongoing membership type needs a billing task for periodic billing. [Learn more →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/memberships-glossary) · [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview) A zone is a group of zip codes. Zones are generally used for organizational purposes. By setting up Zones in ServiceTitan, a color coded system will be created to help you organize jobs in certain locations both on the Dispatch Board and the Schedule Page. You may refer to zones as service areas within your business. [Learn more →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/servicetitan-glossary) · [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview)