Linking projects between Harvest and Forecast offers a wide range of useful benefits. It opens up the possibility to see where your projects are headed, allows you to plan your team against the remaining budget, and offers a view of estimates vs. actuals.
However, getting new projects from one app into the other has always required a cumbersome process:
- First, the project has to be created in Harvest.
- Then you’d need to make your way over to Forecast.
- Then you’d need to locate the “Import from Harvest” option for projects.
- Then finally, you’d be able to import the project into Forecast.
Phew, that’s a lot of steps! I’m exhausted just typing that out…
We want to make this workflow faster and simpler. Today, we’re excited to announce two new ways of getting projects created and linked between Harvest and Forecast.
Part 1: Harvest to Forecast
The first part of our workflow improvements allows you to push projects directly from Harvest to Forecast, without having to go to Forecast and import.
If you’re a View-Edit user in Forecast, you will see a new option when creating or editing a Harvest project: “Create this project in Forecast so you can plan your team’s time”.
Saving the project with this option selected will automatically create the project in Forecast. You can push projects to Forecast the first time you create a project, or anytime later when you’re ready to start scheduling it.
After pushing, we’ll also offer a quick link to jump over to the Forecast schedule if you want to start planning your team right away.
Part 2: Forecast to Harvest (New!)
The second part of our workflow improvements offers the brand new ability to create and plan your projects in Forecast before pushing them to Harvest.
In Forecast, you will now see a new option under a project’s Action menu to “Create this project in Harvest”. Select this action, confirm, and Forecast will do just that.
There’s one extra feature we’ve included here: When pushing a project from Forecast, if the project has people scheduled to it, we’ll automatically assign those people to the created project in Harvest!
Again, after pushing, we’ll offer a quick link to jump over to Harvest so you can update any further project details (e.g., budgets, rates, task assignments, etc).
Note: The new “Create Project in Harvest” action won’t appear if the project is already linked to Harvest. Also, only scheduled people imported from Harvest will be automatically assigned in Harvest when a project is pushed.
All New H+F Project Workflows
Getting projects created and linked in both Harvest and Forecast shouldn’t be a hassle. Now, it’s as easy as an extra click, giving you time back to the work that matters.
Whichever direction works best for you and your team—pushing a project from Harvest to Forecast, or from Forecast to Harvest—we’ve got you covered.
As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team. Happy scheduling!