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Creating activities

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Overview

In Birdview, you add an activity to an existing project, not any other way.

For instructions on how to create projects, see here.

To be able to add an activity to an existing project created by some other user, you need to have the "Access all projects" and "Add activity" permissions. Unless you have these, you may not be able to access the project in question and thus unable to add an activity to it. If you are a member of the project, you only need the Add activities permission in your project access level. 

 

Adding a top level activity 

A top level activity is one that has no parent activity. Birdview supports the unlimited nesting of activities: Top Level Parent > Level 2 Parent > Level 3 Parent... In this sense, top level activity is either a childless and parentless activity or a top level parent.

To create an activity:

  1. Log in as a user with the permission to add activities. See the note above, too. If you are logged in already, skip this step.
  2. Go to Activity Center —  this is the top item on the main menu.
  3. Hover over the project name you want to add an activity to.
  4. Click the "+" button next to the project name on the left.
  5. Type a name for the newly created activity.
NB: If you refrain from supplying a name and press Enter, or click elsewhere, the activity will not be saved. 
  1. Locate the activity in Activity Center, hover over its name and click the Details button (AC_detail_btn.png). This will open the Activity details section.
  2. With the activity created, you can supply any extra details on the activity details section.
  3. Alternatively, use the Activity Center fields/columns to add details to the activity, directly in the Activity Center grid. Use the use case below:
Use Case:
1. Suppose you want to change your project's budget:

- Click the Columns button and make sure the Total Budget field is enabled under Budget and Costs. Click the Total Budget cell for the activity, enter/edit the total budget value, press Enter or click outside the cell. Pressing Esc will cancel the change.

2. To add the activity's estimated hours:

- Click the Columns button and make sure the Estimated hours field is enabled under Time. Click the Estimated hours cell for the activity, type in an Estimated hours value, press Enter or click outside the cell. Pressing Esc will cancel the change.

3. To add a description to the activity:

- Position the mouse pointer over the name of the activity. Click the Details button (AC_detail_btn.png). The activity details section will open on the right. While typing a description for the activity, you may use some editing tools, such as font change, font color, indenting, justification, etc., including hyperlinks. Press Esc or click outside the Description field to save changes.

  1. If there are custom fields, fill in these, too. How to add or modify custom fields, see here.
  2. If the activity you are adding is dependent on another one, such as in the case when it starts as soon as the other one is completed, you can set a dependency rule between these. More information about how to set dependency between two or more activities, see Activity dependency.
  3. Regarding activity billing (accessible via the Financials button (AC_budget_btn_details.png) in the top right corner of the activity details screen), you have four options to select from:
    • Select "Project billing settings" to use billing settings of the project.
    • Select "Not billable", if the activity is not to be billed.
    • Select "Hourly rate", and type a value in the box, if the activity is billed using an hourly rate, or
    • Select "Flat fee", and type a value in the box if the activity is billed as a lump-sum amount.

 

Adding a sub-activity

You can quickly add a sub-activity (child) to an activity (parent). Just remember the rule of thumb: To add an activity use the "+" sign of the project, to add a sub-activity use the "+" of the parent-to-be.

  1. Hover over the activity name you want to add a sub-activity to.
  2. Click the "+" button next to the activity name on the left.
  1. Type a name for the newly created sub-activity. NB: If you refrain from supplying a name and press Enter, or click elsewhere, the sub-activity will not be saved. 
  2. Locate the activity in Activity Center, hover over its name and click the Details button (AC_detail_btn.png). This will open the Activity details section.
  3. With the sub-activity created, you can supply any extra details on the activity details section.
  4. Alternatively, use the Activity Center fields/columns to add details to the sub-activity, directly in the Activity Center grid. Use the use case above (under Creating an activity).

 

Adding sub-activity via the Details button

  1. Hover over the activity name you want to add a sub-activity to.
  2. Click the More actions section of the Details button (AC_more_actions_detail_btn.png.
  3. Select Add sub-activity.

 

 

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