How to Use the Project Roadmap in CrmLeaf
All editions. Requires the Project Roadmap add-on module to be enabled for your account by an Administrator.
Availability: All editions. Requires the Project Roadmap add-on module to be enabled for your account by an Administrator.
Overview
The Project Roadmap is an execution view for a project. It summarises where the work sits on the board, how each member is performing against their items, how far through the milestones the project is, and how logged hours compare with budget. It answers management questions about a project without reading the task list.
How It Works
The roadmap reads the project's existing tasks, members, milestones and hours, and presents four summaries side by side.
Enable module → Open project → Open Roadmap → Read the summaries → Act on the exceptions
- Task distribution - how the project's tasks are spread across the board columns.
- Per-member counts - completed and late items for each member.
- Milestone completion - a donut showing how much of the milestone set is complete.
- Hours versus budget - logged hours compared with what was budgeted.
- All figures derive from existing records, so there is nothing extra to maintain.
Who Can Use This Feature?
User
- Open the roadmap for a project you can access.
- Read task distribution across the board columns.
- Review completed and late counts per member.
- Read milestone completion and hours against budget.
Access depends on the modules and role assigned by your Administrator. The Project Roadmap module must be enabled before the screen appears.
Prerequisites
- The Project Roadmap add-on module is enabled for your account.
- The project exists and is visible under your permission scope.
- The project has tasks on the board, members assigned, and milestones defined.
- Time has been logged against the project's tasks, for the hours comparison to be meaningful.
For Users
Step 1: Open the roadmap
Open the roadmap for the project you want to review. If the screen is not available, the module is not enabled for your account.
Step 2: Read task distribution
Check how tasks are spread across the board columns. A large group stuck in one column usually points at a bottleneck rather than at effort.
Step 3: Review per-member performance
Read the completed and late counts for each member. Use late counts to start a conversation about capacity, not as a measure on their own.
Step 4: Read milestone completion and hours versus budget
Compare the milestone completion donut with the elapsed time, and logged hours with budget. Where hours run ahead of milestone completion, the project is likely to overrun.
Expected Result
The roadmap opens for the project and shows task distribution across the board columns, completed and late counts per member, a milestone-completion donut, and logged hours against budget.
Why This Matters for Service Organisations
Delivery leads in a service organisation are asked a recurring question about every engagement: is it progressing at the rate the fee assumed. Reading a task list does not answer it. The roadmap is the closest view CrmLeaf ships to a delivery performance summary, because it puts work distribution, individual throughput, deliverable completion and consumed hours side by side for one project.
How It Supports Professional Services
- Hours versus budget against milestone completion is the practical early warning on a fixed-price engagement: hours running ahead of deliverables completed is the classic overrun signature.
- Task distribution across the board columns shows where an engagement is queuing — work waiting on client review or internal approval rather than on effort.
- Per-member completed and late counts give a delivery lead something concrete for a one-to-one, and are best read as a prompt about workload rather than as a performance measure.
- The milestone-completion donut reads as progress towards the next billing point where the engagement bills by deliverable.
- Every figure derives from records the team already maintains, so the view costs nothing extra to keep current — and understates progress if the board is not moved or time is not logged.
Typical Service Workflow
Engagement → Delivery → Performance review → Intervention → Billing
The roadmap sits at the review step for a single engagement. It is a per-project summary, not a portfolio or utilisation dashboard: utilisation is not published as a stored figure, so service organisations derive it from the inputs that do exist — approved billable and non-billable hours in the Time Log Report, alongside shifts, leave and holidays.
Other Product-Type Use Cases
Any project-based team reads the same four summaries, and construction, solar and manufacturing accounts use them to check a site or production job against its planned hours.
Related PSA Capabilities
- How to Read Budget vs Actual and EVM Analytics — full budget-versus-actual and earned value, beyond the hours comparison.
- How to Use Time Log and Task Reports — billable against non-billable hours by person, project and period.
- How to Use Resource Utilization Views — capacity and workload behind the member counts.
- How to Use Project List, Calendar and Card Views — the same read across the whole portfolio.
Important Notes
- Menu names and their position can differ between product editions and can be customised for your account, so your sidebar may not match these paths exactly. Use Search or your Quick Access items if you cannot find a screen.
- The Project Roadmap is a paid add-on module. Confirm it is included in your plan before relying on it.
- The roadmap reflects the underlying records. If tasks are not moved on the board or time is not logged, the summaries understate progress.
- For full budget-versus-actual analysis, including earned value, use the Budget module rather than the roadmap's hours comparison.
Common Scenarios
Example: mid-project checkpoint. A manager sees hours at three quarters of budget while the milestone donut is only half complete, and rescopes the remaining work before the overrun becomes unrecoverable.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Possible Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| The roadmap screen is not available. | The Project Roadmap module is not enabled for the account. | Ask an Administrator to enable it if it is part of your plan. |
| Task distribution looks wrong. | Tasks are not being moved between board columns as work progresses. | Ask the team to keep the board current. |
| Hours versus budget shows nothing useful. | No time has been logged, or the project has no budget figure. | Log time against tasks and set the project budget. |
| Milestone completion stays at zero. | No milestone has been marked complete. | Complete milestones as stages are delivered. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the roadmap the same as the Gantt chart?
No. The Gantt chart shows the dated sequence of work; the roadmap summarises execution - distribution, member counts, milestone completion and hours against budget.
Does the roadmap replace the Budget module?
No. It compares hours with budget. Full budget-versus-actual and earned-value analysis is in the Budget module.
Can members see each other's counts?
What each user sees follows their permission scope for the project's records.
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