Project Management SOP

April, 2020

Building a Project Plan

A project plan is meant to be a roadmap to completion of a project. It will be detailed, including
every asset and all the tasks required to move it from kick off to completion. This document will
inform the project build and project flow. It should be built using the signed proposal and notes
from an internal kick off. It needs to be presented to the client in an external kick off. While
detail is important, organization and presentation are equally important so client and involved
team members can easily digest the information.

See examples in existing Zoho projects and on shared drive, client folder, support folder.

Things to include:
 Categories of work
 All tasks needed to complete something including feedback and revisions
 Who is responsible for each piece (this column can be hidden for client’s use, just need
internally)
 Estimated start and due dates for each task
 Estimated hours for parent tasks (also only for internal use)
**Tip = we should find a way to import this excel or google doc to Zoho for it to populate a
project versus updating each task individually)

General Time Required for Projects (specific to stand alone projects, when more components
are combined things may need sot shift)
 Video – 90 days
 Paid Advertising – 30 day set up – launch – run
 Website – 3-6 months depending on complexity
 Branding (messaging, naming, logo) – 1-3 Months
 Social Media – 1 month set up, launch, ongoing
 Email Campaign – 1 Month set up – launch, ongoing

Add New Project In Zoho

1. Click “New Project” in the top right corner from the projects screen
a. Project Title –“ Type of Work – Client”, ex. Social Media – CVG, Email Campaign –
Frenik, Website – Valet Vault. (Naming consistency is important across all
accounts and projects for ease of navigating in zoho as well as tracking resources
associated with the different kinds of work we do.)
b. Owner – Select AM/PM who owns this account
c. Template – Choose relevant template if there is one or leave blank to build from
scratch
 d. Start Date & End Date – Leave Blank
e. Project Overview – Include a brief blurb about the client and main goals of the
contract
f. Task Layout – Leave as “Standard Layout”
g. Group Name – Select relevant type of work (do not leave blank, this is important
for overall resource management and tracking)
h. Default Billing Status – Always leave as “Non-Billable”
i. Tags – Leave Blank
j. Budget Section – Do not touch
k. Roll Up – Do not Enable – will seriously limit your ability to update things in the
project especially dates as needed.
l. Customize Tabs For This Project – Leave as is
m. Project Access – Private
n. Click Add (if you use a template it will take a few minutes to populate)
2. Assign to a Client
a. Click the three dots at the bottom of the column on the left side of the screen
b. Select Users
c. Click Onto the “Client Users” Tab
d. Hover over the arrow on the top right button that says “Add Client User” a drop
down option will appear that reads “Add Client Company” click
e. If this is an existing client, find them in the “Existing Client” list
f. If this is a new client select “New Company”
i. Input company name
ii. Input any relevant client info
iii. Client Profile – Leave as “Client”
iv. Leave the remaining fields blank
g. Click Add
3. If using a blank project, add task lists (more task lists with less deliverables in each keeps
the project easier to navigate)
a. If using a template, customize task list names as needed and review project to
ensure all deliverables are represented.
4. Add users to the project
a. Click the three dots at the bottom of far left column
b. Select Users
c. Click “Add User” at the top right of the screen and select all users who will be
part of this project.
d. Click Add
5. Assign owners – for all tasks you know who will be responsible click the owner drop
down and assign it to them, some tasks for design and such may not be assigned yet,
leave those blank until you know who will own them. Creative Director can help with
assignments for creative team.
6. Input Dates from Project Plan, start date and due date.
a. Click the drop down for “start date” – select correct date from calendar
b. Click the drop down for “due date” – select correct date from calendar
 7. Update estimated hours for all tasks (it will default to however many work days there
are, you need to manually input correct hour estimates for each task)
a. When looking at the project tasks, scroll to the right and click the drop down for
“Work, planned”
b. Input the estimated hours for each person associated with this task
c. Click Save
8. Add relevant documents to the documents tab
a. Proposal without pricing
b. Existing marketing assets for reference
c. Project plan
d. Logo files
e. Document with links to any online resources (current website, social media, etc.)

Zoho Project Maintenance

What to do when client feedback is receive

 Add client feedback to Zoho if not in Review Studio, it should also be in Review Studio
unless it is an asset that cannot be there like a live website or video.
 Tag the person responsible for making revisions
 Ensure the feedback is clear and actionable, if it is not, work with client and/or creative
director to clarify
 Update due date of the task to when revisions are due
 Give the team member assigned a heads up you have an asset ready for revisions

Comments and tags as a PM/AM

 Whenever you update or assign something, a comment or tag will help notify the person
being assigned the work
 Be sure to check your own regularly in case someone has questions, or has finished an
asset and it needs your review, or to go to client

Documentation when assigning something

 When adding something new include as much detail as possible and supporting
documentation.
 Adding a task for designing emails for a drip campaign? Link the outline of the campaign
in the comments, branding guidelines and logo files that will be needed.
 Assigning a one pager to be designed? Attach the final copy documents and any
branding guidelines/logos to include?
 Always include creative brief and supporting documents in the project under documents
and add to the drive under a support file in that client’s file

Internal Kick Off Meetings

Who needs to be there?
  Sales team that sold the account
 AM/PM
 Creative Director
 Any team members who will immediately be working on the project
What’s the goal?
 Get the accounts/execution team up to speed on the client, the project and the goals
 Accounts team asks any questions necessary to build a project plan
 Form agenda for external kick off
When does it need to happen?
 Once an account has been signed

External Kick Off Meetings

Who needs to be there?
 Sales team that sold the account
 AM/PM
 Creative Director
 Any team members who will immediately be working on the project
What’s the goal?
 Kick off work
 Get to know the client
 Explain what our workflow is like and what we will need from client
 Get all questions answered to be able to fill out a creative brief and begin work
When does it need to happen?
 Once an account has been signed
 Internal kick off is complete
 Project plan is ready go

Monday Meetings
Monday status meetings are a way to make sure all key players, especially Jordan, are in the
loop on projects and to problem solve anywhere we are hitting roadblocks.
Be prepared:
 Have an updated status document for your accounts, for everyone in the meeting
 Know what points need to be discussed or strategized on versus quick updates
 You will lead the meeting for any account that you own
 This is a time to get questions answered, ask for input or help and point out any
potential problems you see so everyone is aware

New Requests
If an existing client has a request outside of the current scope of work (SOW), it needs to be
discussed internally to determine if it is small enough to just knock out, or if it needs to be
quoted/pitched. Direct these conversations to lead of Account Management or Sales.
Automated Status Document – Zoho Analytics
Stosh Cohen and Ariel Vines can add new people to Zoho Analytics, we have five seats total.
In Zoho Analytics, select dashboards
Choose “Project Status Updates Report”

You will see:

You can filter by any of the drop down options for a more specific list.
To view full list – Export by clicking the export button (highlighted in orange box above)
This will allow you to download a PDF version of the report.

If you want to change colors or add colors:

You need to go to the weekly status report table (Also in the Project Status Update Reports
folder), select the column, then click on "More", "Conditional formatting"

Then set the rules you want

Hours Report – Zoho Analytics
Estimated Versus Logged Hours Report
Gives you a quick snapshot of hours team members have logged versus what was projected
(based on entries from PM’s in zoho tasks)
Filter by date range, project, user or group type.