Projects
A project is one job — the estimate, the change orders, the invoices and what you owe your subs, with contract value and outstanding balance in a single view.
Last updated Aug 14, 2026
A project is one job. Projects is a screen in the main nav, above Estimates — open one and the estimate, its change orders, every invoice and what you owe your subs are all in a single view.
#What a Project Is
A project is the work, not the paperwork. The Henderson kitchen is one project. The estimate you sent in March, the change order for the tile upgrade, the deposit invoice, the two draws and the final balance are all documents on it.
A project is optional. Most work is a single job in itself — one visit, one price, one bill — and never needs one, so a new estimate or invoice belongs to no project unless you say otherwise. When work does belong together, it goes on exactly one project; a document is never on two.
#Creating a Project
A project is only ever created because you asked for one, and it is always given a name you typed. There are four ways in.
New Project on the Projects screen creates one up front. Give it a name — "Henderson kitchen" — and start adding work to it.
The field on a new estimate or invoice reads "No Project" to begin with. Leave it alone for ordinary one-off work, or pick an existing project to file the document under it. Picking one also fills in the client and the job site beneath it.
Add to project, on a document you have already sent or been paid for. Open it, choose Add to project, and either pick an existing job or name a new one. This is how a $200 repair that turns into a bathroom remodel becomes a job without you having to have known up front.
Raising a change order on work with no job yet asks you to name one, because a change order amends an agreed price and that price lives on the job.
To rename a project, open it and click Rename in the action bar.
A second estimate does not join the first one automatically
A new estimate or invoice belongs to no project unless you pick one, and Jobkore never guesses at the last job you worked on. Guessing wrong would merge two unrelated jobs, and separating them afterwards is harder than joining them. You are not locked in either: use Add to project on the document at any time, and an estimate takes the invoices that bill it along with it.
#The Numbers on a Project
Four figures sit at the top of every project, and one more appears in the breakdown underneath.
| Figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Contract value | The accepted estimate plus the net of every accepted change order. What you have agreed to do. |
| Invoiced | What you have billed against it so far. |
| Collected | What has actually been paid. |
| Outstanding | Contract value minus collected. Everything still owed to you. |
| Unbilled | Contract value minus invoiced. Agreed work you have not sent an invoice for yet. |
Contract value, Invoiced, Collected, Outstanding and Unbilled are all calculated from the documents on the project. Nothing here is typed in — accept a change order and the contract value moves, record a payment and Collected moves.
The breakdown below the cards shows the original contract, each accepted change order, the revised contract value, and any change orders still pending. Pending changes are listed separately and are not counted in contract value until the client accepts them.
#Project Statuses
A project reads as Lead, Active, On hold, Complete, Lost or Archived. Jobkore picks one automatically from the documents, and you can override it with Active, On hold, Complete or Lost — picking Automatic hands the decision back. Lead and Archived are not yours to set: Lead means no contract has been struck yet, and Archived is its own action.
The automatic status reads Complete only when there is nothing left to bill, nothing left to collect and no change order awaiting an answer. Anything short of that reads Active.
On hold only ever appears because you set it — nothing in the documents produces it. A status you set by hand is kept until you change it or pick Automatic, the first option in the list: a project marked Complete with an unpaid invoice stays Complete, and the figures beside it still show the balance.
The Projects list has two tabs, Current and Archived, with a search box above them. On the Current tab you can also filter by status — All Statuses, or one of Lead, Active, On hold, Complete and Lost — and by client once at least one project has one.
#Documents on a Project
Below the numbers, the project lists its estimates, its change orders and its invoices, each with its status and amount. It is the fastest route back to a document when you know the job but not the invoice number.
Each row carries a trash icon that takes that document back out of the job. It removes the link and nothing else — the estimate or invoice keeps its number, its status and everything that has been paid against it, and it is still in your Estimates or Invoices list afterwards. The same thing is on the document itself as Remove from Project; either end works.
Two rules follow from the grouping. Change orders are numbered per project — CO-001, CO-002 — so two different projects can each have a CO-001. And voiding is blocked only on the invoice that struck the contract, because the change orders on that project are priced against it. See Change Orders and Invoices.
#Subs on a Project
If you have tagged line items to a subcontractor, the project shows Committed, Paid and Owed for them — the same three figures as the Subs screen, narrowed to this project.
These figures are yours only. A sub's name and the rate you agreed with them never appear on an estimate, an invoice, a PDF or a share link. See Subs.
#Archiving or Deleting a Project
When a job is done and settled, archive it. It moves out of your current projects into the Archived tab, and its documents are untouched — every estimate and invoice stays exactly where it was, no number changes, and you can restore it at any time.
Archiving does not close anything out. If you are still owed money, the balance and the invoice are unchanged.
A project you made by mistake can be deleted outright, as long as nothing has been filed under it — no documents, no subs and no agreed contract. The project page offers one action that reads Delete while the project is empty and Archive once it holds work, so you are never offered an ending that would take something with it. To empty a project first, take its documents back out one at a time.