Using Project Stages

Project stages in Motion.io enable you to organize related tasks into a single stage to help clients understand when, how, and why Tasks should be completed.

As an added benefit, upon building stages into your Motion.io Projects, you can create automated workflows to ensure a seamless customer experience and reduce the number of manual tasks, emails, and follow-up meetings required of your team.

This article will detail everything you need to know about using Project Stages in Motion.io and provide guidance on setting them up.

How Project Stages Work

Upon creating a new Project in Motion.io, you're automatically brought to the Tasks page of that Project and will see two buttons near the center of your screen to create a Task or add a Project Stage. To create a Project Stage, click the "Add Stage" button.

After creating your Project Stage and giving it a name, clicking the gray "Create Task" button within the Stage will automatically assign the Task you create to it.

Reordering Project Stages & Tasks

After creating Stages and Tasks within a Motion.io Project, you can organize them in your client's portal however you'd like. Tasks can be dragged from one Stage to another, and stages can be re-ordered in whatever manner you'd like them to appear in your client's portal.

Stage Statuses

Once you've invited clients to a project and they begin completing tasks in their portal, the three Project Stage statuses inform your team how the project is progressing and enable further optimization of your client experience. The three Project Stage statuses are:

Active: Any Project Stage with at least one active task (i.e., tasks that have been assigned and sent to a client but not yet completed) will be automatically set to the “Active” status and displayed with a breakdown in your Project Dashboard.

Completed: When all client tasks in a Stage are complete, the status of that Project Stage will automatically update to “Completed.” Tasks within a Stage marked as “Completed” status are visible to clients in their portals.

Archived: If you no longer need a Stage, you have the ability to archive and hide it from clients. To do that, click the three dots next to the Stage's name and select "Archive/Hide".

Client's View of Stages

Clients are able to view Stages in project trackers and the Task Page of their portal. On the Home Page of their portal, they will be able to see a high-level progress tracker of every Project that they are assigned to. On the Tasks page of each Project there will be a progress tracker as well as all the Tasks split into their assigned Stages.

Hiding or Displaying Draft Stages in Client Portals

On the Home Page of each Client Portal, there is a progress tracker for each project they are assigned to. This progress tracker highlights the Stages of each Project. Stages that have only tasks in a draft status are able to be included or hidden from that progress tracker.

When a new Stage is created, by default it is set to display in the Client's Portal, but you are able to change the visibility.

A Stage that is visible within the client's portal will have a small circle icon next to "Draft". While the Stage's name is visible, the drafted Tasks will not be. If you'd like to hide that draft Stage, click the three dots next to the name and select "Hide from Tracker".

A Stage that is hidden from the client's portal will have a small cross-out icon. Neither the name of the Stage or the Tasks will be viewable by the client. If you'd like to display a hidden Stage, click the three dots next to the name and select "Show in Tracker".