***Heads up! Some links in this post may be affiliate links to products. I might receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. It helps keep this little blog afloat. Thank you!
As an entrepreneur and a mom, I find it especially important that I keep my systems as streamlined as humanly possible to help save time, $$$, and effort. (You know, so I can do more of the things I love without the burning my brain cells to the ground!)
Now, I’ve been receiving messages from some of you about how to juggle client folders in ClickUp without driving yourself insane… I hear you! I’ve been there and what I would give to have someone share with me what I’m about to share with you.
There’s a lot of ways you can use ClickUp to optimize your workflows, but I personally love how it let’s me create custom project management dashboards to suit my clients’ and business’ need.
If you’re struggling with task tracking, delegation, project completion, and what not, then let me show you my 5-step secret to creating killer project management dashboards in ClickUp every single time!
5 Steps for KILLER Project Management Dashboards in ClickUp!
What should you do when you’ve got a ton of client projects inside your click up workspace and found out that things have inadvertently started slipping through the cracks? You run through your system and look for the holes in your ship!
A great way to easily see and sift through project and task details is by creating project management dashboards. The following steps are what you need to consider when building custom dashboards for project management purposes:
Step #1: Determine projects you want to report on and where they are inside ClickUp.
A lot of the dashboard widgets pull data on a task level, so it’s important that you map out what data you plan on generating and where you need to get that from (e.g. space, folder, list, etc.).
For instance, if you need to see the overall status on a project folder, you’ll need to use a portfolio widget or you’ll need to split the individual widgets to show the data from the lists and tasks based on their folder.
Let me show you an example!
Here’s how you can break out projects by folders using the portfolio widget inside ClickUp.
You’ll see here that I’ve separated them based on the information I need:
This one is for my Project Progress by Custom Clients. These are all my custom ClickUp clients broken out by different folders inside my ClickUp. I have separate folders for each client inside a single space.
The next widget is actually the Project Progress by Monthly Clients. So, these are all of my clients that are monthly retainers broken out by different folders as well. So, I can track their status there.
Step #2: Determine who your audience is [personal or public].
Determining who your audience helps narrow down what kind of data should be gathered and who can have access to said data. Is it for internal use (a.k.a. your team) or external (a.k.a a client)? Depending on who needs to see what, you’ll need to make sure that it has labels so people can understand what’s in them.
In my Monthly Client Project Portal dashboard, you’ll see that I’ve clearly labeled the widgets here as: Weekly Meeting Schedule (left) and Important Information and Links (right). This is so that my clients understand what’s going on inside this dashboard.
In my Project Management Overview, I actually have an area where I list the KPIs. And you’ll also see the widgets are named accordingly: Task Details by Assignee and Priority, Time Reported by Project by Assignee, Workload by Status, Task Count by Status.
Then you have Project Health, which is the risk factor – low, medium, or high. And then you have one, which is Task Status by Assignee, where you’ll see the different tasks that they have along with the task priorities for each assignee. Task Priority Over Time shows task trends divided by urgency.
Again, we want to make sure that when people are looking at these dashboards or when you’re sharing them that they don’t have to ask too many questions – the data should be easily understood.
Step #3: Determine the purpose of your project management dashboard.
You want to know what problem you’re going to solve for these projects.
What is the end goal for these metrics? Is it delegation, project completion, or just simply general information that you need to give someone?
Let me show my three project management dashboards with three different purposes:
The first one we have is for client management, the Client Projects dashboard. This is going to tell you that the purpose and the goal of this dashboard is to determine the client project workload, and to finalize all outstanding projects. Now, this project management dashboard is serving a legit purpose, which means people will use it and it will stay updated and it will push the needle forward.
Up next is Project Management Overview and this one is specifically for the business headquarters and team member tasks. In this example, it’s myself and a VA. Now, this can be internal to you in your business or others in your organization. I’ve added a label here that says the purpose or goal for this dashboard is to be able to delegate workload to other team members and eliminate overwhelm and burnout.
The third and final dashboard I have is my Client Monthly Project Portal dashboard.
I create every single one of these for my monthly clients, because this is just a general information dashboard to give them easy access, to talk to me, to see their meetings, and to get the information that they need.
They can track their package tasks. Their calendars. They have access to all of our reported meetings. They have easy buttons for our zoom link, our shared Google drive and their client CRM portal. There are even indicators to tell them exactly what those links are for. They have a way to use general discussion to immediately contact me and they have a way to see exactly what tasks are due by them. If they need to complete things or if there’s tasks that I need to do, and then, when they can expect them to be finalized.
Step #4: Follow my 3 key steps for efficient reporting.
Make sure that you’re following my three key steps for efficient reporting.
- Identify your KPIs.
- Keep projects and data well-organized.
- Information should be consistent.
Step #5: Add widgets!
You’ll want to add widgets that fit your business/client’s needs. Your KPIs, data location, and purpose will help you identify which widgets you’ll need and the settings you need to use for each of them.
Conclusion:
Now, that was a ton of valuable information, but the gist of it is that you can create efficient ClickUp project management dashboards by bearing these 5 steps in mind:
- Determine projects you want to report on and where they are inside ClickUp.
- Identify who your audience is (e.g. you, team, client, public, etc.)
- What is your dashboard trying to achieve/help you achieve.
- Implement high quality reporting practices (e.g. identify KPIs, organize data, keep information consistent).
- Add a widget or three (they’re your friends!).
Quick reminder: AmbitiousVA rebranded to Anne Leah & Co., to serve a bigger purpose.
For all the links and resources Click Here.
