How to Track Dependencies, Budget, People Reached and Workload
Order the work, follow spending against the clock and see who you reached.
These tools are optional. A project that does not use them works exactly as before.
Comes after (dependencies)
Open a planned activity and choose Comes after, then pick the activity that must finish first. Each activity can wait for one or more others.
- Moving the earlier activity later moves the ones that wait for it, by the fewest days needed. Moving it earlier does not pull the others forward.
- An activity that is already done or cancelled is not moved. DonorDesk tells you it is blocked, so you can decide what to do.
- An activity cannot wait for itself, for a duplicate link, or in a loop. Links cannot cross projects.
- Activities that are still waiting show "Waiting for …" on the list and on the timeline.
Budget
On a planned activity, add budget lines: a code, a cost category, a donor, an amount and a currency. Then enter expenses against a line, with the date and an optional evidence file.
- A line with no amount shows No budget set, not zero.
- When spending goes over a line's amount, the line is flagged as over budget. Nothing is blocked.
- Project totals appear on the project's budget card and in the spreadsheet export.
People reached
On the project's People reached page you can register people by case code, with sex, age group, location and the date they joined. DonorDesk stores no names, phone numbers or ID numbers. You must tick that consent was recorded before saving.
- A case code already used in the project is refused.
- A probable duplicate (same sex, age group and location, and a similar code) is flagged for you to decide. Nothing is merged for you.
- You can import a Kobo or ODK export as a CSV file. Save the column mapping for the project so the next import needs no setup. Every row is checked first: if any row is wrong or a code clashes, the whole file is refused and the line is named.
Workload
On the project's Team tab you can see how many open planned activities each person leads, per week, against a limit you set. An overload is shown in words. It is a warning, not a block. Effort is counted in activities (you can give an activity a weight from 1 to 5); hours are not recorded.
Automatic reminders
The Team tab also lists two reminder rules, each on or off for the project: a planned activity starting soon with no lead (to the Project Manager), and a finished activity still needing its files (to its lead). Each rule shows what it sent and when.