Skip to main content

Collaborative Milestones & Deliverables

How to stay on track with milestones and deliverables

Updated over 3 weeks ago

Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ✅ Free Plan

When collaborating on projects, it's essential to keep all parties informed about deadlines and required tasks. Collaborative milestones and deliverables help consultants and firms stay aligned, ensuring projects or phases are completed on time.

⭐️ For users with paid Monograph accounts: Collaborative milestones and deliverables will appear both in the collaborative project and on the Milestones & Deliverables overview pages. Deliverables can be assigned to collaborating consultants just like assigning them to a team member.

Reviewing and Managing Deliverables

Deliverables are the smallest units of a project in Monograph. Ideally, each deliverable indicates an activity or task that must be done. For a project to be considered complete, each of the deliverables within the project must be complete.

Deliverables can be shared on collaborative projects, allowing firms to assign consultants activities that need to be completed. Collaborative deliverables will include a special icon by the name of the deliverable to indicate that it is shared.

Collaborative deliverables can only be interacted with by consultants in the following ways:

  • Assigning team members to the deliverables

  • Adding and viewing comments

  • Marking a deliverable as complete

  • Creating a new deliverable

Collaborating consultants will not be able to change the due date, details, or delete a collaborative deliverable. They will also not be able to see deliverables that have been assigned to other invited consultants.

As comments are added to a deliverable, they will display the name of the user who posted them, along with their firm or company name if they are from the other party. The comment will also show how many days ago it was added. Hover over the time stamp to view the exact date and time the comment was posted.

Once a deliverable is complete, click on the Mark as Complete button in the upper right corner of the deliverable.


Deliverables Overview

The Deliverables Overview showcases a list of all upcoming deliverables. Just like the Milestones Overview, this feature allows you to see a consolidated view of all deliverables. You can also create a new deliverable for a project by clicking on the New deliverable button in the upper right corner of the page.

To quickly access your deliverables across all collaborative projects, navigate to Projects > Deliverables.

Use the toggle below for more details on the Deliverables Overview page.

Deliverables Overview - Details

This page will showcase all deliverables across all active projects, but filters can be used to get more refined results:

  • Project – all deliverables for one specific Project

  • Phase – all deliverables for one specific Phase across all Projects

  • Assignee – all deliverables associated with one specific team member across all Projects

  • Status - all deliverables based on their status (active or completed)

  • Due Date – all deliverables with a specific type of Due Date

    • Due Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, Later, or Overdue

By default, this page will sort by due date from latest to oldest dates. Click on any of the column headers to change the sorting order.

  • Deliverable - sort alphabetically based on the deliverable's name

  • Project - sort in order of the project name

  • Phase - sort in order of the phase abbreviations

  • Last Comment - the last comment that was made on the deliverable, this column cannot be sorted

  • Assignee - the team members or consultants assigned to the deliverable, this column cannot be sorted

  • Due Date - sort by deliverables' due dates


Milestones Overview

The Milestones Overview page provides a global view of all upcoming milestones, helping you stay on track. It’s especially useful for users who track key due dates and offers a quick view of completed milestones. You can also create a new milestone for a project by clicking on the New milestone button in the upper right corner of the page.

To quickly access your milestones across all projects, navigate to Projects > Milestones.

Use the toggle below for more details on the Milestones Overview page.

Milestones Overview - Details

This page will show all milestones across all active projects, but filters can be used to further refine the Milestones that appear in the view:

  • Date range - show all milestones that are within the date range

  • Project – show all milestones for all phases in one specific project

  • Phase – show all milestones for one specific phase in all projects

By default, this page will sort by due date. Click on any of the column headers to change the Sorting order.

  • Milestones - sort alphabetically based on the milestone's name

  • Project - sort in order based on the project name

  • Phase - sort in order based on the phase abbreviations

  • Progress - sort by the completion of deliverables associated with milestones

  • Date - sort by milestones' due dates

If you need more information about a milestone, click on the milestone to be taken to the appropriate project.


Creating New Milestones & Deliverables

Company-specific milestones deliverables can be created and assigned to other team members on your team without impacting the inviting firm's deliverables or milestones.

Use the toggles below to learn more about creating, editing, and deleting new milestones and deliverables.

Creating new milestones

Milestones represent specific check-in points during phases. To add a milestone to a phase, click Projects from the main menu and select the specific project for which you would like to add a milestone. In the sub-menu, click Deliverables to see a list of all phases. By default, this page is sorted based on the following order:

  1. Order by phase timelines

  2. Within each phase, order by milestone date

  3. Within each milestone, order by deliverable due date

Click on the specific phase to expand a list of any associated milestones and/or deliverables. Click Add milestone to add a new milestone for that phase.

A pop-up will appear where you can fill in the fields with the required details.

  • Milestone name: Name of the milestone you are creating

  • Date: The date by which the milestone and any associated deliverables must be completed

    • The date selected must be within the phase timeline

  • Description (optional): A description or additional information regarding the milestone


After all of the necessary information has been added, click on the Create button to finalize the milestone. The new milestone will now appear in the phase's list of milestones.

Additionally, a circle will now appear in the upper right corner of the phase to represent the milestone. As any associated deliverables are completed, the circle will begin to fill in. Once all associated deliverables are complete, the circle will be fully filled in.


🚨 If you extend a Phase's end date or move a Phase into the future, any associated Milestones' due dates will adjust based on the Phases' new end date.

Please note that this will only affect Milestones with future due dates. If there is a Milestone with a due date in the past, it will not be adjusted and will need to be manually edited if necessary.


Editing a Milestone

To edit a milestone, click on the phase that includes the milestone that you'd like to edit. This will expand the milestones with the specific phase.

Click on the Edit button for the specific milestone and a pop-up window will appear, which will allow you to change the name, due date, and description of the Milestone. Click Save once complete.

Deleting a Milestone

To delete a milestone, click on the "X" button to the right of the milestone.

A pop-up will appear confirming if you'd like to delete the milestone. To proceed, click Delete.

Creating new deliverables

From the Projects page, select the project to which you'd like to add a deliverable. In the project's sub-menu, go to Deliverables to open a list of the project phases. This will also include any milestones or deliverables associated with a phase.

By default, this page is sorted based on the following order:

  1. Order by phase timelines

  2. Within each phase, order by milestone date

  3. Within each milestone, order by deliverable due date

Click Add deliverable in the applicable phase or specific milestone to create the deliverable. A pop-up will appear with the following:

  • Deliverable name: The name of the deliverable

  • Milestone (optional): The milestone tied to the deliverable (if applicable)

    • This field will not appear when adding the deliverable directly to a milestone

  • Due Date: The date by which the deliverable must be completed

    • The date selected must be within the phase timeline and before the milestone date (if a milestone is selected)

  • Assignees (optional): Team members or consultants who should be executing the deliverable, this is an optional field

  • Description (optional): A brief overview of the deliverable, this is an optional field

Once all of the necessary information has been added, click Create to save the details and go back to the project's Deliverables page.

To note: if a deliverable isn't attached to a milestone, it will appear in the "Other Deliverables" section of the Deliverables page.


Deliverable Details Page

Editing Details

Click on a deliverable's name to open it's Details page. Here, any of the details (including the name, phase, milestone, and description) can be edited by clicking on Actions in the upper right corner. If the Due date or Assignees need to be edited, they can be adjusted in the applicable Date & Assignees fields.

Comments

Comments can be left by team members in the Add comment field. Comments will show who left the comment and when. Hover over the time stamp on the comment to show the specific date and time that the comment was left.

Team members or collaborators can be mentioned in a comment by adding an "@" before typing a name in the comment. When this occurs, the team member who was tagged will receive an in-app notification or email (if applicable based on their settings) that includes the comment they were mentioned in.


🚨 If you extend a phase's end date or move a phase into the future, any associated deliverables' due dates will adjust based on the phase's new end date.

Please note that this will only affect deliverables with future due dates. If there is a deliverable with a due date in the past, it will not be adjusted and will need to be manually edited if necessary.


Completing Deliverables

Once a deliverable has been completed, open the deliverable as if you are going to edit and then select the Mark as complete button in the upper right corner.

If a deliverable is marked as complete prematurely or more work needs to be done, click on the Mark as incomplete button to mark the deliverable as incomplete.

Did this answer your question?