Creating a Project

Creating a project in NexusRMS takes less than a minute. The two-tab creation wizard captures all the essential details — client, venue, dates, and priority — and gets you to the full project editor as quickly as possible. You can also start from a template to pre-fill configuration automatically.

Starting the creation wizard

There are two ways to create a new project:

• Click Projects in the left-hand sidebar and then click Create Project
• Click the + floating action button from anywhere within the Projects module

Both options open the same two-tab creation wizard. An auto-save indicator appears in the header bar, and your progress is preserved as a draft so you can safely navigate away and resume later.

Tab 1 — General

The General tab captures the core information for the project. Fill in the following fields:

• Project Name (required) — A descriptive name for the booking, e.g., “Smith Wedding — Harrogate” or “Glastonbury Main Stage Build”
• Project Number (auto-generated, display only) — A unique reference in the format PROJ-YYYY-NNNN (e.g., PROJ-2025-0001). This is assigned automatically and cannot be edited.
• Client PO Number (optional) — The client’s own purchase order reference. Useful for matching your invoice against the client’s internal accounting system.
• Client (required) — Select an existing client from the autocomplete dropdown. Each entry in the list displays the client name along with Client Node status badges where applicable, so you can see whether the client has an active Nexus Node connection.
• Contact Person (required) — Select a contact from the autocomplete dropdown, which is filtered to show only contacts belonging to the selected client. The primary contact for the client is highlighted in the list. Contacts synced from a Client Node display a node-synced indicator.
• Venue (optional) — Select a saved venue from the autocomplete dropdown, or leave blank if using the client’s address instead. When a venue is selected, its address is used as the project location for transport planning and geofencing.
• Use Client Address as Venue (checkbox) — When ticked, the project location is set to one of the client’s saved addresses instead of a separate venue. This reveals the Client Address Type selector.
• Client Address Type (select) — Required when using the client address as venue. Choose from Delivery, Shipping, Billing, Visiting, or Mailing to specify which of the client’s saved addresses should be used.
• Description (optional) — A summary of the project scope visible to your team and optionally included on client-facing documents.
• Internal Notes (optional) — Private notes visible only to your team. Use this for special instructions, access details, or anything the client should not see.
• Template Selection — Displayed as a card showing the template name, icon, and description. Selecting a template pre-fills the project with its saved configuration including equipment, crew roles, time periods, and settings. If no template is selected, a prompt is shown offering available templates. All pre-filled data can be modified after creation.
• Initial Status (select) — Set the starting status for the project. Defaults to Inquiry, but you can set it to any of the nine statuses if the booking is already further along.
• Priority (select) — Classify the urgency of the project: Low, Normal (default), High, or Urgent. Priority affects sorting, badge colours, and notification behaviour.

Tab 2 — Time Schedule

The Time Schedule tab defines when the project takes place. This information drives equipment availability checks, crew scheduling, and financial calculations.

Core dates

• Start Date & Time (required) — The date and time the project begins, typically when the hire period starts or equipment arrives on site
• End Date & Time (required) — The date and time the project ends, typically when equipment is collected or the hire period finishes
• Load-out Date (optional) — The date equipment leaves your warehouse. Used by the warehouse team to plan packing and dispatch.
• Load-in Date (optional) — The expected date equipment returns to your warehouse. Used for availability forecasting and check-in scheduling.

Hierarchical time period builder

Below the core dates, the time period builder lets you define granular phases within the project. Time periods support a parent/child hierarchy, so you can nest detailed periods under broader groupings. Each time period has the following fields:

• Name — A descriptive label for the period (e.g., “Main Stage Build” or “Day 1 Show”)
• Type — The kind of period. Built-in types include Parent, Usage, Planning, Build, Rehearsal, Show, and Teardown. You can also enter a Custom type with any label.
• Start & End Date/Time — The date and time boundaries for this period
• Is Billable (toggle) — Whether this period counts towards the rental charge. Non-billable periods such as planning or travel are excluded from pricing calculations.
• Rental Multiplier — A factor applied to rental rates for this period, linked to factor groups. Useful for applying different rates to build days versus show days.
• Status — Each period tracks its own status independently

Time periods are especially valuable for multi-day events where different phases require different crew schedules, equipment configurations, or billing rates.

Creating the project

When you have completed both tabs, click Create Project to finalise a standard project, or Create Recurring Series if you have configured a recurrence rule. NexusRMS validates the form, generates the project number, and redirects you to the full project detail page where you can begin adding equipment, crew, and other details.

Tips

• Name projects descriptively — Include the client name, event type, or venue in the project name so it is easy to identify in list and calendar views.
• Always select a contact person — The contact person is required and determines who receives quotes, invoices, and communications for this project.
• Use Client Address as Venue for delivery jobs — When equipment is being delivered directly to the client’s premises, tick the checkbox and select the appropriate address type rather than creating a separate venue.
• Set load-out and load-in dates early — These dates drive warehouse packing schedules and availability calculations. Setting them during creation keeps your pipeline accurate from the start.
• Build time periods for complex events — Breaking a project into Build, Show, and Teardown periods makes crew scheduling, billing, and reporting far more precise than using a single date range.
• Use templates for recurring event types — If you deliver the same type of event regularly, create a template once and save minutes on every future booking.
• Set priority appropriately — Reserve Urgent for genuinely time-sensitive bookings. Overusing urgent priority dilutes its impact and clutters notification channels.

Next steps

Continue to the next article to learn about the project detail page, where you will explore all twenty-two tabs for managing every aspect of your booking.