The low down on the download. Welcome to the Copper online user guide for the Corporate and Enterprise editions. Click here for the Standard version guide.

Getting Started

To log in to Copper, first open your web browser and enter the address of your Copper installation. Next enter your Username and Password (provided to you by your administrator) and hit go.

Once logged in, you can click on your name in the top right corner of the screen to view or edit your profile information. You can also use the AJAX search to quickly find any asset within Copper

To complete your setup use this guide to create new users, clients, projects, and tasks, and to familiarise yourself with the other features like files, contacts, reports, and administration.

If you have any questions that aren't made clear by this guide, please email support@copperproject.com

Springboard

The Springboard is your personal to-do view, showing you the tasks you've been allocated to and where you are the owner. The springboard allows users to add to a commentary of task activity and in turn forms the basis of timelines, reporting, invoicing, and timesheets.

You can choose to view your tasks for a selected period (e.g. next week) or show tasks that are owed to you by others. Admins can also switch to another user's view via the pulldowns. When a task is at 100% it no longer appears in your springboard.

To add a task comment, first expand the task you wish to update, then enter a comment and specify the date of the comment (defaults to today). Next enter the hours spent and your estimated completion %. Copper will add your comment along with the date and your user name.

Additional options are also available when submitting a comment, such as flagging a comment as an issue, flagging a comment as not billable (which flags those worked hours for attention when creating invoices), or specifying a related contact (this comment will appear in that contact's records).

Client Management

The clients view allows you to review your client’s entire project portfolio.

How to Create, Edit, and Delete Clients
Click on Clients in the main menu to view your existing Clients. You can expand a client to see the related projects, or click on the company name to review client details. The client details screen shows general information relating to this client, and you can also click on the tabs to view a Timeline, Files, and Contacts.

You can create a new client via the action bar. Enter their details, and set the access for your users. Any user with access to this client will have access to all projects and tasks underneath it.

To delete a client, choose the client from the main clients menu, then hit Delete in the action bar. This will delete the Client, as well as any associated Projects, Tasks, Contacts, and Files. You can archive a client by setting their archived status to checked.

Project Management

The Projects module allows you to review and drill-down to relevant project information, including tasks and timelines, allocate resources, budgets, task commentaries, related files, invoices, and contacts.

How to Create a Project
Click on Projects in the main menu to view your active projects. Here you can create a new project, import an MS Project XML file, expand a project to see its related tasks, sort your projects by clicking the arrows next to column headings, and view archived projects click on View Archived in the action bar.

To create a new project, click on New Project in the action bar and enter the relevant details, such as project ID, client, colour identifier, description, budget, timeline, and project status. You can archive a project by setting its status to Archived.

Next you can allocate access to this project for your users. Note that anyone with client access will already be listed. A user with access to the project will have access to all tasks within it. Only users with Write access will be able to edit the project.

Viewing and Editing existing Projects
To view or edit an existing project in greater detail including its related projects and tasks, click on the project name.

From this screen you can click Edit to make changes project, create a new task, Copy the current project as a template, Delete the project, Print project details, Email the project team, sync the project to iCal, or export an MS Project XML file.

In addition, you can select from four additional tabs:
Timeline - Shows a draggable gantt view of task timelines
Files - Shows all files associated with the current project
Contacts - Shows all associated contacts for this client
Billing - Allows you to create and manage quotes and invoices

How to Create a new Task
You can create tasks quickly with the timeline view by clicking the egg-timer task icon and adding a task name and dragging a start and end date, or by clicking New Task in the project action bar and adding the details manually.

How to allocate resources and commit hours
Click on a task to open the task view screen. This screen shows the task details, as well as the resource widget at the top right of the task view screen.

To add a resource, first select a resource from the pulldown, which will display their availability for each day of the task duration. A gray area inside the box indicates that that the resource is unavailable, whereas any open white area is available for you to commit that resource.

The task bar indicates the estimated effort hours (dark line) as well as your committed hours (white line) so that you can match the two with your available resources. Remove a resource by clicking the X icon next to their name.

To set a user's availability you can use the Availability wizard in the Admin module, or you can edit each day for that user in the Calendar Month view.

How to Create, Edit, and Manage Contacts within Projects
Click on the Contacts tab within the current project. This screen shows you the contacts that are related to the client so that you can quickly contact them, or view updates relating to that contact. To create a new contact, click on New Contact in the action bar. See Adding a new contact in the Contacts section.

How to View, Edit, Delete, and Check-out Files
Click on the Files tab within the current project. This screen shows the files and folders currently within the Project. You can expand any folder and click on a file to open an existing file in its native application, or you can edit the file’s description and review an audit trail by choosing File Details from the Action pulldown. To delete a file, select Delete from the Action pulldown for that file.

To upload a new file, click New File at top-right of screen. Here you can create a file description, relate the file to a specific task, specify the file version, and finally Browse for a file to upload.

To check out a file (which prevents others from changing it), choose 'Check out' from the pulldown menu. Only the user that checked out the file or Administrators may check a file back in (either by selecting check in to keep the original, or selecting a replacement file).

How to use the Timeline to review/manage/reorder tasks
Click on the Timeline tab to review a Project Gantt chart. The timeline provides a visual depiction of how the current project is tracking, and allows you to quickly manipulate timelines, reorder tasks, create dependencies, and add new tasks and milestones.

Use the pulldown to select a week, month, quarter, year range. Click the Print icon to print a single page timeline. To go to a task view screen, click on the task icon, or click on the task name to rename it.

In the Timeline, the thick horizontal light gray bar represents the start and end date of the task, while the coloured area within it represents the Estimated effort in hours. The thin horizontal dark gray bar represents the actual hours posted by users in task comments. The thin horizontal white line represents the hours committed to the task, and committed hours are carried over to the next day if they are not worked.The gray connecting lines between tasks show dependencies. When a change conflicts with a dependency that you’ve created, Copper will show that dependency line in red, prompting you to shift tasks to suit.

To move a task on a timeline, drag the whole task left or right. Copper will show the current task date information and the new task date information as you drag. To specify a new end date, grab the top right corner handle and drag left or right. To specify a new estimated duration (effort), drag the bottom right corner handle.

You can also move an entire project via drag and drop, and the task dates will shift accordingly.

Calendar

The Calendar view provides a Monthly and Weekly view of projects and task milestones, as well as a resource timeline to view workload across your team. You can also create calendar events such as meetings and public holidays that are not project related. Administrators can also switch to another user to view their calendar and edit their availability.

To filter the view by project, click on the projects pull down menu and select the project you wish to view dates for. Remember you will only see those projects that you have access to. Click on Prev or Next to move through each month. Click on a task or project name to link through to that project/task.

How to create a general event
To create a general event, click on New Event and enter the relevant details before saving. This note will be viewed by all Copper users with Read access to the Calendar module.

File Management

Copper's integrated file management system treats files as project-assets, allowing you to quickly find related files, whilst ensuring that files are only viewable by those with appropriate access.

How to Manage Project and General Files
The Files module works in the same way as the Files tab in the Projects or Clients view (See Project Module guide), however it provides a global view of the files you have access to. In addition, there is also a general files tab for uploading files that aren't specific to projects.

To add a new general file, click on Upload New General File at top right of screen. Enter the relevant meta data, select the file by using the browse button, and click Save File.

Contact Management

Within Copper contacts are related to Clients, which allows you to quickly find related contacts, and review related activity.

When a user creates a task comment, they can nominate a related client contact which in turn provides your team with a running commentary of work undertaken, sign-offs etc.

How to Create, Edit, and Manage Contacts
To filter the contacts list by surname, click on the relevant letter in the top left bread-crumb bar. You can also find a contact by typing their name into the search box at the top of screen.

To Add a new contact, click on New Contact at the top right of screen. Here you can add the relevant details, and click the Save button.

To view a contact and/or related activity, click on the contact’s name. This screen shows the contacts name and contact details, and also shows the related updates to that contact. You can click on the Client, Project, or Task to view the respective item.

To edit a contact, first go to the contact view and click on Edit in the Action bar at top-right of screen. To delete a contact, press the Delete button in the Action bar.

Reports

The new Reports module allows you to create and save reports, have them emailed to you at intervals, and export them to csv format. You can create Project related reports, or Work related reports for resources (e.g. Timesheets).

How to use the Reports module
The first view shown is the saved reports view. To view a report click on its name, or you can download a csv file or delete a report via the action column.

To create project specific reports, click on the Project Analysis tab, and fill out the period, select clients and optionally projects, select your optional items and hit Go. Once you are happy with the reports contents you can give it a name, set the email frequency, and hit save.

To create work related reports like timesheets, click on the Work Analysis tab and select the user or users you wish to see logged time for, then optionally select clients and/or projects and hit go. Once you are happy with the reports contents you can give it a name, set the email frequency, and hit save.

Administration and Settings

Copper's Administration view allows you to manage user and group permissions, and allows you to set system options such as currency, time zone, language, project counters, and email notification settings.

Changing System Settings
To manage your system settings, click on the Settings tab and make changes to the various parameters. When you are finished hit Save.

Creating Users and Groups
To create a new user, click on the users tab and select New User from the action bar. Enter the users log in name, password, and other details and hit save. You can then set the permissions for that user.Groups are used to set permissions that apply to all users within that group. To create a new group, click on the groups tab, click on New Group in the action bar, enter the group name and details and hit save. You can then set the permissions for that group, remembering that group permissions override individual permissions.

Setting and Maintaining Permissions
The Copper permissions or access is governed by four levels, Modules, Clients, Projects, and Tasks. It's important to know how each of the levels affects what the user or group. You can set permissions via the administration system, or when you create or edit a client/project/task.

Module Permissions:
When you set the permissions for modules, you are really just setting which module items appear in the users menu when they log in. Users with access to the Admin module they are granted Superuser access and can do anything within the system. It is advisable to keep your Admin account untouched and create a second Admin account using this method.

Examples:
1. A user with a Deny setting to the Projects module means they will not see the projects icon in the main menu when they log in.
2. A user with Read access to the Projects module will see the icon when they log in, but won't be able to create new projects.
3. A user with Write access to the Clients module will see the clietns icon when they log in, and be able to create new clients.

Client Permissions:
If the user has access to the Clients module, you can next set access for specific clients. All client records are denied by default so you need to explicitly grant access to a client either during creation or via the admin view. Client access is suitable for Account managers, Senior managers, or Clients (Note you need to create a user for a client to be able to log in).

Examples:
1. If a user has Read access to a client they can see that clients details, as well as any project underneath that client.
2. If a user has Write access to a client they can see and edit that clien'ts details and projects.

Projects:
If the user has access to the Projects module, you can set them to have access to specific projects. All projects are denied by default, unless the user has access to the Client record (in which case they see all projects). Project access is suitable for project managers, participants who need access to all tasks, or client users restricted to a single project.

Examples:
1. If a user has Read access to a project they can see the project and task details,
2. if a user has Write access to the project they can also edit the project and task details.

Tasks:
You can have a user work on individual tasks within a project via their Springboard by simply allocating a task to that user. In order to have a task display in the springboard you need to allocate a resource to a task, regardless of their permissions. Task access is suitable for Subcontractors, support staff, or any user you don't wish to see full project details.

Examples:
1. A user allocated to a task will see that task in their springboard, along with any related files or contacts, but not have access to the project or client details.
2. A user might be given access to a "sign-off" task where they can log in and review files and post comments or logged hours without access to other tasks or project information.