Using phases on a project

Turn phases on for a project and its estimating worksheets gain a Phase column: cost categories group under the phase they belong to, each phase folds up to its own total, and every estimate line can be attributed to a phase. Phases are how you report cost by release, stage of works or block of units without splitting a project up.

Phases are additive. When a project doesn't use them, nothing changes — the worksheets, the columns and every total are exactly what they were.

When to use this

Use phases when one project delivers work in identifiable releases and you need cost reported per release. A builder delivering a community of 40 to 500 units in phases is the typical case: the community is one project (or one head project and its lots), and cost has to sum into the phase the work belongs to.

Phases are per project, so you can run them on one community and leave the rest of the business untouched.

Prerequisites

At least one phase set, with its phases, created on the Manage Phases page — see Managing phases. Nothing ships, so this is a real prerequisite, not a formality.
Permission to edit the project record
NetSuite administrator access if you also want to change the general preference

Turning phases on

There are two switches, and only one of them is the gate.

The general preference sets the default. Tick Enable Phases in FullClarity → Project Financials → General Preferences, in the Estimate and Forecast group. Its only job is to tick Use Phases on each project as it's created. It changes nothing on existing projects, and it doesn't switch phases on anywhere by itself.

The project checkbox is the gate. On the project record, in the FullClarity configuration section:

Use Phases — tick this to show phases on this project's estimating worksheets. This is the setting the worksheets read.
Phase Set (required when Use Phases is ticked) — the set of phases available on this project.
Phase — optional. The phase this project itself belongs to, chosen from the set nominated above. Nothing in the app reads it; it's there so you can search and report on, for example, every lot in phase 3.

You can tick Use Phases on any project whether or not the general preference is on. A business running phases on one community out of twenty doesn't have to turn them on for everybody.

A project using phases must nominate a phase set

Saving with Use Phases ticked and Phase Set empty is refused. Without a set the Phase column would contain nothing but (No phase), which is indistinguishable from a broken feature.

This is also why the phase sets have to exist before you tick the general preference — see Managing phases.

Enabling phases changes no existing data

Ticking Use Phases on a live project mutates nothing. Existing estimate lines have no phase, so they collect under a (No phase) group with its own totals, sorted last. There's no backfill and nothing to migrate — assign phases as you go.

Developments govern the projects under them

A development can nominate a Phase Set of its own. When it does, it decides the phase configuration for the projects in it, so a community's projects can't drift apart.

Select a development on a project and:

The development has a phase set — the project's Use Phases is ticked and its Phase Set is set to the development's, and both are locked so they can't be edited on the project.
The development has no phase set — the project's Use Phases is unticked and locked. Phases can't be used under a development that doesn't nominate a set. To change that, put a phase set on the development.
Clear the development — both fields become editable again, keeping the values they already had.

The lock applies to the project you would create the lots from, not to the lots themselves — a lot's phase configuration comes from its head project instead (see below).

What a phased worksheet looks like

With Use Phases on, Phase becomes a collapsible column immediately to the left of Category — always that position, in every estimating worksheet. Cost categories then repeat beneath each phase, so a phase folds up to show its own total while staying visually distinct from a category.

Phase              Category / Line            Item                Amount
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
▾ Phase 1                                                        88,000.00
                   ▾ PW.001 Preliminaries                         3,900.00
                       PW.001.01 Site Setup   PW General Labour    2,400.00
                       PW.001.02 Permits      PW General Allow.    1,500.00
                   ▸ PW.002 Siteworks                              3,900.00
▸ Phase 2                                                        45,000.00
▸ (No phase)                                                     12,400.00

Points worth knowing:

The phases offered are the ones in the project's own phase set, not every phase in the account — the same way a worksheet's categories come from its cost centre.
Phase rows appear in Sort Order sequence, with (No phase) always last.
A category appears under a phase only where that phase actually has lines in it, or in a category beneath it. Categories don't repeat into every phase, so a phase carrying a single line shows a single branch rather than the whole category tree at zero.
A category holding no lines anywhere — part of the all-categories scaffold an estimate can be created with — appears once, under (No phase), and only when the estimate's Keep All Cost Categories box is ticked. That box records whether all cost categories were pulled in when the estimate was created; it's shown read-only on the estimate.
Estimate expense lines carry no phase, so they always appear under (No phase).

Phases apply to the Estimate, Estimate Collection, Advanced Estimate, Advanced Collection and Variation worksheets.

Phases can't be assigned on an estimate template or a plan estimate

A template or plan estimate belongs to no project, so it nominates no phase set and has no phases to offer — the Add/Edit Line dialog shows no Phase field on one. If the Enable Phases preference is on, a template does show the Phase column, with every line under (No phase).

Build a phased estimate on the project itself, and set the phases there rather than on the template it came from.

Setting a phase on an estimate line

Phase is set per line, like cost category. It's never mandatory, and it isn't inherited from the estimate header or from the lot.

A new line inherits the phase of the row you added it under. Add a line under Phase 1 → Concrete and it arrives on Phase 1.
Re-phase a line through the Add/Edit Line dialog, which carries a Phase field defaulted from the row — the same way you change a line's category. The line's Phase field also shows a phase that is no longer selectable, marked as the existing value, so editing an unrelated field on the line never quietly clears it.
A sub-item's phase follows its parent line. It's shown but not freely editable, so the grid's per-phase totals and the stored data can never disagree. Changing a parent's phase cascades to its children.
After adding or re-phasing a line, the grid shows it under its new phase immediately and settles to the stored position on the next refresh.

Retiring a category under one phase

Category rows can be made inactive from the worksheet — tick Show Inactives and tick the row's Inactive box.

On a phased worksheet that decision is per phase. Retiring a category under Phase 1 leaves the same category active under Phase 2, and only Phase 1's total drops. That's the point: a scope dropped from one release is still live in another.

Retiring a category takes its cost out of that phase's total

Inactivating a category row excludes it and everything beneath it from that phase's subtotal, so a single tick on a parent row can move a large number the row itself shows no money for. Untick it to bring the cost straight back.

With Use Phases off, a worksheet has no phases to distinguish, so the same tick applies to the category across the whole estimate.

Phases on lots

Phases carry through the lot-creation flow, so you can put a batch of lots into a phase in one action.

On the head project, click Create Lot Projects. When the head project uses phases, the popup gains:

A Phase field in the header, above the list. It applies to every lot in the selection that has no phase of its own, and fills the phase down onto the lines so you can see it land.
A Phase column on each lot line. A phase you set on a line always wins over the header, whenever you change the header.

Both offer the head project's phase set, in Sort Order. Leave both empty and the lots are created without a phase.

For each lot created with a phase:

Every estimate line copied from the plan onto that lot carries the phase.
The lot project's own Phase field is set to it, so "all the phase 3 lots" is a single search.
The lot project inherits the head's Use Phases setting and Phase Set.

With phases off, the popup is exactly the form it was — no Phase field, no Phase column.

Rules that keep a community's phases consistent

Three rules apply when phases are used across a head project and its lots. Each is enforced on save, with a message telling you what to do.

A project using phases must nominate a phase set. Select a Phase Set, or untick Use Phases.
A lot must use its head project's phase set. A lot phased from a different set would render as (No phase) in the head's collection worksheet, silently, so the mismatch is refused instead: Select that set, or untick Use Phases. A head that doesn't use phases groups nothing by phase and so constrains nothing — a lot may use phases while its head does not.
A head project's phase set can't be changed while its lots still use a different one. The save is refused with a message naming how many projects are in the way.

Rule 3 doesn't trap you. The way through is:

Untick Use Phases on each lot. Clearing the lot's Phase Set is not a substitute — rule 1 refuses that, and a lot only counts against rule 3 while Use Phases is ticked.
Change the head project's Phase Set.
Re-tick Use Phases on each lot, now on the new set.

You need edit rights on every lot to do this, and in a three-level hierarchy the procedure works bottom-up.

Where phase reaches, and where it doesn't

Phase is a real reporting dimension on purchase, sale, expense, expense report and journal lines, as well as on estimate lines. What actually populates it is narrower than where the column exists:

Where	Does phase arrive automatically?
Estimate lines	Yes — set per line on the worksheet, or copied in by lot creation
Purchase orders generated from estimate lines	Yes — the source estimate line's phase, including the Add Estimate Lines picker on a purchase order and bulk PO creation
Sales orders generated from a contract	Yes — the source estimate line's phase
Vendor bills, journals, claims, capitalisation entries	No. The Phase column is there but nothing fills it in
Time entries	No. Labour time carries no phase

The practical consequence: budget-versus-actual by phase is not yet a single comparison. Committed cost on purchase orders and revenue on sales orders carry the phase; the rest of the actuals don't, so don't assume phase reporting covers actuals just because the dimension exists on those records.

Turning phases off doesn't hide phase everywhere

Neither the general preference nor the project checkbox hides the Phase column on purchase order, vendor bill and invoice lines. Whether a column exists on a transaction is account-level configuration and can't be switched per project. Once phases are configured in the account, those columns exist on every project's transactions.

What success looks like

With Use Phases off, every worksheet renders exactly as it did before, with no Phase column.
With it on and a set nominated, Phase appears immediately left of Category, and phase rows are listed in Sort Order with (No phase) last.
Folding a phase shows that phase's total, and the phase subtotals add up to the estimate total.
A line added under a phase stays under that phase after a refresh.
A purchase order generated from a phased estimate line carries that phase on its line.
Creating lots with a header phase gives every one of them that phase, on the lot project and on its copied estimate lines.

Gotchas

A phase set is mandatory once Use Phases is ticked, and nothing ships. Build the sets first — see Managing phases.
Changing the general preference doesn't change existing projects. It only supplies the default for projects created after the change.
Importing an estimate doesn't carry the line phases across. Copying an estimate into another project brings the lines but not their phases, so re-phase them after the import. Lot creation is not affected — it writes the phase you nominated in the popup.
Sort Order, not the phase name, decides the order phases appear in.
Estimate expense lines can't be phased, so they always sit under (No phase).
Phase, stage and billing stage are three different things. Phase is a delivery grouping; stage is the estimating-and-progress classification; a billing stage is a contract milestone with a percentage against it.
Retiring a phase is done on the phase record, not on the Manage Phases grid, and a phase can't be deleted.

Managing phases — creating phase sets and the phases in them
Managing cost centres — the category structure phases group alongside
Add lines to an estimate — the Add/Edit Line dialog the Phase field sits on
Set up a development — nominating a phase set for a whole development, and creating lot projects
Multi-project billing — phases across a community of lots
Configuration record fields — where the Enable Phases preference is stored