UnitLook 2.0: Projects with Gantt Chart for Phases and Deadlines

In February we launched the Planning module — a weekly scheduler for allocating team capacity in advance. The adoption was fast, but the follow-up questions were consistent: “I can plan a week — but how do I track a project that runs three weeks?”

The answer is the Projects module, available since April 2026.

What Is the Projects Module

Projects is a visual project management tool built around a Gantt chart. Not a spreadsheet, not a document — an interactive timeline view that shows:

• All project phases on a single timeline
• Task dependencies — which phase can only start after the previous one closes
• Real-time progress: planned vs. actual
• Team member involvement by phase

For a project manager: one screen instead of a morning round of status questions.

Why It Is Not the Same as Planning

Planning answers the question: who is doing what next week? Projects answers a different one: how is a specific delivery progressing across multiple phases?

That difference sounds small until you run real work through it. Planning helps you allocate capacity. Projects helps you track delivery, dependencies, and risk.

In practice:

• Planning is best for weekly and monthly staff allocation
• Projects is better when you have deadlines, phases, and interconnected tasks
• Time Tracking closes the loop and shows what actually happened

In other words, one module is about team availability. The other is about project progress.

How It Works in Practice

Open a project and define phases — for example “Analysis”, “Development”, “Testing”, “Delivery”. Assign a duration, responsible person, and any dependencies to each phase.

When an employee logs hours on a ticket linked to a project phase, the Gantt chart updates automatically. No manual refreshes, no separate reports — you see the real state as it happens.

The strongest use cases are the ones that do not finish in one pass. For example:

• an agency runs design, build, and review phases
• a service company has preparation, on-site work, and final documentation
• an internal IT team handles implementation, testing, migration, and production rollout

In all of those cases, the Gantt chart is not decoration. It is how everyone sees where the project got stuck and what comes next.

Planning + Projects + Time Tracking: A Closed Loop

Three modules, one complete workflow:

1. Projects — defines what needs to happen and when, broken down by phase
2. Planning — the manager assigns who works on what and which week
3. Time Tracking — records what was actually done and how many hours it took

The planned vs. actual comparison is available with one click. For teams working on fixed-fee engagements, this is real-time margin protection — you’ll see when a project is running over budget while there’s still time to do something about it.

Who Benefits Most

Project managers running multiple projects in parallel who need a unified view without switching between tools.

Service companies delivering in phases and billing on actuals — they need to know where they stand at every moment.

Agencies that need to show clients exactly how many hours were spent and on what — the Gantt chart combined with time tracking documents this automatically.

What Teams Usually Ask For

When we introduce a module like this, the requests are usually the same:

1. they want to see who is late and why
2. they do not want to open five different spreadsheets to understand the project state
3. they want actual hours to be compared with the plan without manual maths

That is why Projects is not just a visual tool. It becomes a way to manage expectations, margin, and client communication.

Availability

The Projects module is available to all active UnitLook users at no additional cost, as part of the standard subscription. You’ll find it in the side menu, above the Planning module.

Setting up your first project takes 10–15 minutes. If you’d like a walkthrough, schedule a short demo.

FAQ

What is the difference between Planning and Projects?

Planning answers the question of who is doing what next week. Projects answers a different question: how a specific delivery is progressing through phases, deadlines, and dependencies.

Can the Gantt chart be connected to time tracking?

Yes. When hours are logged on a ticket linked to a project phase, the Gantt chart updates automatically. That makes it much easier to compare the plan with what actually happened.

Which teams benefit most from this module?

Project teams, service companies, and agencies that work in phases, have deadlines, and need to track both progress and cost in the same view usually get the most value.