VERA

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Onboarding a Project ​

From "we've signed a new client" to "the team is logging time." All Owner steps unless noted.

Step 1: Create the project ​

"Create project Nike Rebrand for Nike as Fixed Price for $50,000 with 200 hour budget"

VERA will ask for any missing required fields:

  • Type — always asked if not specified (Retainer / T&M / Fixed Price / Pro Bono / Agile)
  • Contract value — required for Fixed Price
  • Hours budget — required for Retainer (annual), optional for others
  • Client — always required; auto-created if new

For Agile projects:

"Create project Acme App as Agile for Acme Corp"

Then immediately offer Sprint 1:

"Sprint 1 set up. What's the contract value for Sprint 1?"

Step 2: Set a deadline (client projects) ​

"Set deadline for Nike Rebrand to June 30, 2026"

Deadlines are visible to Owners and Managers. Never shown to Users.

Retainers and time-off projects don't need deadlines — they're ongoing.

Step 3: Assign a project manager ​

"Assign @alice as PM for Nike Rebrand"

This promotes Alice to Manager role (if she's currently a User) and sets her as the project's PM. Alice must have messaged the bot at least once to be in the system.

Step 4: Enable tasks ​

Tasks define what types of work can be logged on this project. Enable the ones that apply:

"Enable Development for Nike Rebrand with a 120 hour budget" "Enable Design for Nike Rebrand with 60 hours" "Enable Project Management for Nike Rebrand"

You can set both a budget_hours and alert_threshold per task. When a task reaches its threshold, VERA flags it.

To see what tasks are available: "List tasks"

Step 5: Create envelopes for the team (Manager or Owner) ​

The PM distributes the project's hours budget across team members via envelopes:

"Give Alice 60 hours on Nike Rebrand" "Give Bob 80 hours on Nike Rebrand for development" "Give Carol 60 hours on Nike Rebrand"

The sum of all envelopes should not exceed the project's total budget_hours. VERA warns if someone is overbooked across all their projects.

Step 6: Team can start logging ​

Team members can now log time:

"3 hours on Nike Rebrand for design"

VERA will confirm with an entry ID. The entry flows automatically to all reports and financial calculations.

Complete example (Fixed Price) ​

Owner: Create project Nike Rebrand as Fixed Price for $50,000 with 200 hour budget for Nike
VERA: Created Nike Rebrand (Fixed Price, $50,000, 200h).

Owner: Set deadline for Nike Rebrand to June 30
VERA: Deadline set for Nike Rebrand: 2026-06-30.

Owner: Assign @alice as PM for Nike Rebrand
VERA: Alice Chen assigned as PM for Nike Rebrand and promoted to Manager.

Owner/PM: Enable Development for Nike Rebrand with 120 hour budget
VERA: Development enabled for Nike Rebrand (120h budget, 80% threshold).

Owner/PM: Enable Design for Nike Rebrand with 60 hours
VERA: Design enabled for Nike Rebrand (60h budget).

PM: Give Alice 60 hours on Nike Rebrand
VERA: Allocated 60h to Alice Chen on Nike Rebrand (ID: 17).

PM: Give Bob 80 hours on Nike Rebrand
VERA: Allocated 80h to Bob Smith on Nike Rebrand (ID: 18). ⚠️ Bob is now at 95% capacity.

User (Alice): 4h on Nike Rebrand — design
VERA: Logged 4h on Nike Rebrand (Design) (ID: 101).

Retainer onboarding differences ​

  1. No contract value needed — retainers have a monthly fee (set externally)
  2. No deadline — retainers are ongoing
  3. hours_budget = annual hours (e.g. 480 for 40/month)
  4. Check status monthly with get_retainer_status

Agile onboarding differences ​

  1. Create the Agile parent (no budget/contract value on parent)
  2. Create Sprint 1 immediately with its own contract value and hours budget
  3. Activate each sprint via update_sprint_status when work begins
  4. Add subsequent sprints as scope is negotiated

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