Clarizen Community FAQ

How do I change work item type?

You can change Type by right clicking on a work item and selecting "Change Type."

How do I manage several small projects while also viewing them rolled up into a single project?

You can use shortcuts. Shortcut can be used to represent original work item in different locations of the same project work plan or even in work plans of other independent projects.

Shortcut is intended to create a cross-project connection between projects managed by different teams or projects that are managed in parallel with an occasional affect on each other Example.

Assume a milestone with 2 sub tasks (a regular task and a shortcut to a task in another project) When both the regular task and the shortcut are completed, the milestone changes from ‘Active’ to ‘Completed’.

If, for some reason, the task used as a shortcut is reactivated in it’s original project, it will not automatically activate our milestone.

 How do I assign duration in different units than days?

Simply enter 5min or 15min, where 'min' is for minutes. You also have h for hours, mon for months, w for weeks.

How do I know when to create a milestone or a task under my project?

a milestone indicates a significant point in your project that should be highlighted in your roadmap. A milestone is indicated at a certain point in time and usually represents end of a phase, major deliverable drop or contractual point. Thus, if the work you are detailing within the project plan indicates at the end such a point, create an appropriate milestone and all the relevant tasks below. From the other hand, if you have other tasks that are taking place through the entire life cycle of a project and are sort of administrative work, create the appropriate tasks for that and group them under an appropriate parent tasks (to avoid viewing them on your roadmap)

When should I build my project using sub-projects?

Use sub-project if you project consist activities of different areas and especially if they run by different departments. Thus, you are able to create each separate team their own private workspace where they can operate their own activities easily, still keeping the big picture updated by creating the appropriate shortcuts between the sub-projects as well as from the sub-projects to the main project.

What is the meaning of the red and orange clocks indicators in the project's view and in the dashboard?

The red and orange clocks means you have somewhere in your plan a 'schedule conflict' between two or more manually set constraints. Clarizen does not change automatically what was set as a constraint by the user(s), but rather raises the appropriate flags, allowing the team to understand that and resolve that together. a conflict can occur between depedent activities or hierarchical work items. For example: a manually set due date of a certain milestone can conflict the detailed schedule of tasks below as a result of effort assesment and setting duration to the tasks.

What is a Reviewer?

Reviewer does not take any active role in the project, rather than supervising and assuring that the right infrastructure is in place for the project to be carried out. Reviewer can create and modify collaboration data (notes and dicussions) that is related to a working item where he/she is defined as a reviewer

What is the difference between internal and external user and how do I set it?

An internal user, once assigned to any role in a specific work item of the project can view the entire project, as considered an internal employee. External user will be exposed only to the work items he has been assigned to on the project and nothing else. Additionally, external user will not have access to organizational sub-systems such as resources, etc

How do I select multiple rows to perform operation on multiple entities?

Select multiple rows using the left mouse click and then one of the following options:

• To select several sequential rows: drag the cursor on while the left mouse button is pressed and drop it on the last line
• To select several sequential rows: select first row, keep left mouse button pressed and press the shift, then select the last row of the selection and unpress both the shift as well as the mouse button
• To select several non-sequentially rows: use left mouse button press and ctrl keyboard key to select lines. When ready unpress both keys

How can I move or copy tasks within a project and between sub-projects?

Select tasks rows (multiple selection by using the ctrl, shift of mouse drag)

» press "Copy"(ctrl+c) or "cut"(ctrl+x) buttons on the toolbar

» select the row, above which you would like to paste the tasks and press "paste"(ctrl+v) button on the toolbar

How do I create a template?

Saving templates is done in the Work Plan from the Project's context menu (right-click).

How system reminds a resource to report progress ?

When time (set by administrator, see Admin subsystem -> System settings) to send periodic notification on tasks to be completed, Clarizen will send a Notification email to the user with the list of tasks to be completed, including expected progress.

In addition, a PM or a manager can request by ad-hock progress update on his work items simply by selecting the appropriate project or work item and choosing the "Send update request" option in the right click menu.

Within that email, user is able to report his progress either by clicking on 'my progress is according to plan' in case he meets with the expected progress or click on 'manual update' to quickly update his progress

 How do I create reports in Clarizen?

There is a "Reports" subsystem tab in application. 

There is a long list of predefined reports provided with an application. For new report please select " New Report" option from toolbar.

For customization please select report from a list. If report is editable then "EDIT" menu is available from on a toolbar. If report is formula based then customization options are limited.

 Why can't I access the budget or time tracking views?

For having the ability to view time tracking and budget views you have to get financial permissions. Administrator can give Financial permissions to the user by opening the user’s Properties from the Admin > Users page and check the Financial Permissions check box.

 How can I make changes to a task after marking it as complete?

Marking a task as complete will make it uneditable. You have to select the task and click "Activate" in the toolbar in order to be able to edit the task. If "Activate" is grayed out, then you will have to ask a manager, project manager, or administrator to activate it for you.

How can I extend our session timeout? I use Clarizen all day and I have to log in several times.

An account administrator would have to go to Settings >> System Settings >> Organizations, Users, Licenses >> Session Timeout. The maximum amount of time that you can enter for session timeout is 8 hours. See Image 1 in Q&A Images Tab

 I've received a notice that our trial period is about to expire, but we have purchased licenses.

Your licenses may need to be assigned to users. An account administrator can assign licenses by go to Settings >> Users, selecting a user, and then clicking "Assign License" in the toolbar.

 How do I assign a customer to a project?

In the project view, select the project row. You will see a sidebar icon for customers in between Resources and Dependencies. You can use this info card to create and assign customers to projects. You will need financial permissions and the Customer module needs to be enabled in the admin to access this info card.

 How do I delete a user?

Go into the user portion of the admin (Settings >> Users). Select the user(s) you would like to delete and click Delete on the toolbar. The user won't immediately disappear, you will have some time to change your mind. Also any deleted resources that are still assigned to tasks will by displayed using a strikethrough.

How will people know if I write a note in a work item (task, milestone, or project)?

When other users log in, they will see how many new notes have been posted to work items relevant to them in the "What's New" section of their homepage. In the Work Plan, unread notes are marked with a red asterisk to highlight them.

Can I export my work plan? / Can I backup my work plan on my hard drive?

Yes, in the Work Plan, right click on the project and select "Export Project." This creates an XML file that can be imported into MS Project.

How do I unsubscribe from Clarizen emails?

Log in to Clarizen with your username and password and select Settings from your user name.

There are two checkboxes: Allow Emails and Subscribe to Project Notifications.

Allow Emails includes all emails from the Clarizen system.

Project Notifications includes a daily summary of all relevant work items the recipient is a resource or manager on

For more information visit https://usermanual.clarizen.com/#email-notifications