Create your first project

The first project you create in Onplana sets the pattern for every project that follows. The team learns how to work in it; the dashboards learn what good looks like; the rate cards and currency defaults get exercised against real data. So while you can throw together a sandbox in two minutes, it is worth spending fifteen on something real (even a small one) and getting it right.

Choose how to start

From the sidebar, open Projects and select New Project. One dialog opens. Type the project’s name at the top, then choose how it starts in the Template picker under the name. Blank project is the default.

Pick one of three starting points. Two of them are in this dialog; the third is somewhere else, which is worth knowing before you go looking for it.

• A built-in template. 12 prebuilt plans (software launch, marketing campaign, event planning, OKR planning, migration from MS Project, data migration cutover, client engagement, phase-gate product development, the two architecture phase sets, RIBA Plan of Work and AIA Design Phases, construction documents and closeout, and an annual portfolio plan) with phases, tasks, and milestones already laid out. Best when your work matches a known shape. Available on every plan, including Free. Choosing one previews what it sets up before anything is created: how many tasks and milestones it has, about how many days it runs, and its phases in order with each task’s duration. A project from a built-in template starts today.
• Blank project. Just a name, dates and the details below. Best when you already know exactly what you want to build out. Templates your organization saved also appear in the picker, under Your organization’s templates, on plans that include saved templates (see Save and reuse project templates).
• AI kickstart. Describe the project in a couple of sentences and Onplana drafts the plan: epic, tasks with estimates, and starter risks. Best when you want a tailored starting point fast. This one is not in the New Project dialog. It runs once during first-run onboarding, and after that from the AI assistant on your Dashboard: describe the work, and when it has drafted a plan it offers Create project from this intake.

Already have the plan in another tool?

Under the Template picker, the dialog reads Already have this plan in another tool? Import it instead. The link closes the dialog and opens the Import page, where you upload a Microsoft Project file, a Primavera XER file, or an Excel or CSV work breakdown instead of typing the plan in again. See Import a Microsoft Project file and Import a WBS from Excel or CSV. The link is not shown when you choose Strategic, because that work starts as a proposal.

Note

On Enterprise organizations where an admin has turned on project classification, the same dialog also asks whether the work is Strategic or Operational. Strategic continues as a proposal form, so the work goes through your review pipeline, and has no template; Operational creates the project here. See Classify strategic vs operational work.

Fill in the basics

A blank project shows its details in a panel beside the name. A built-in template sets them up itself, so the panel is not shown; change anything afterwards from Edit on the project.

1. Give the project a name your team will recognize in lists and reports. It is required, and Onplana warns you (without blocking you) when another project already has the same name.
2. Set the start and end dates. These drive the Gantt timeline, health indicators, and overdue warnings later, so realistic dates beat optimistic ones. Leave both blank and the project starts today and runs for 90 days.
3. Optionally pick an owner (you, unless you choose someone else), set a budget, and mark whether the project is billable client work (you can change these later in the project’s Finance view).

Invite your team

Open the project and use Members to add teammates. Members can be assigned tasks immediately; people you invite by email join the organization when they accept. See Invite your team for roles and seats.

What happens next

• Tasks live under the Tasks tab of the project: List, a Gantt chart with baselines, Board, Grid and Calendar, all on every plan. See Navigate a project.
• Progress is calculated automatically from completed tasks; you never edit the percentage by hand.
• If you have existing schedules in Microsoft Project, you can import a .mpp, .mpx, or XML file instead of re-entering the plan. See the migration guides for the full walkthrough.

Want a guided look before you build? Take the product tour on the main site.

Best practices

1. Start with a real project, not a sandbox. A sandbox project has no real owner, no real dates, and no consequence for sloppy data. The first real project teaches your team the patterns that compound on every subsequent one: how to write good task titles, when to open a sprint, how to read the Gantt at a glance.
2. Pick dates you actually believe. Onplana’s health indicators, burndown chart, and earned-value math all read your start and end dates as truth. Optimistic dates make every chart lie. The honest first end date is the one you would defend in a steering review.
3. Use the AI Kickstart for the second draft, not the first. AI Kickstart is excellent at “give me a starter scaffold I can edit.” It is less useful when you do not yet have a clear goal sentence to give it. Spend five minutes writing the goal first, then let AI produce the scaffold.
4. Invite the team early, even before the plan is final. A plan on the Gantt with the right people watching gets feedback in hours; a plan in your head, alone, gets feedback the day before kickoff. Add members as soon as you have a working draft.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• I created the project but I don’t see it in the Projects list. Two common causes: (a) the filter chip at the top is set to a status that excludes your new project (try All), or (b) you are on a project list filtered to billable / internal and your project’s billable flag does not match. The default filters hide finished work; new projects are PLANNING by default and should be visible.
• I cannot find the Gantt. Tasks is a tab in the project’s tab bar, and its views sit in the row directly beneath it: List, Gantt, Board, Grid, Calendar. Gantt is the second, right after List. It is on every plan, Free included, so there is no lock to clear. A project with no dated tasks renders an empty timeline, so set a start and due date on at least one task first.
• AI Kickstart returned a plan that looks generic. It needs more context. Add a sentence about the constraints (deadline, stakeholders, key risks) and the team shape (how many people, what roles), and the second pass will be noticeably more specific. The Kickstart consumes AI tokens from your organization’s budget; see Understand your AI token budget.
• The template I want isn’t in the Template picker. Use a blank project plus the AI Kickstart with a copy of the closed plan you used elsewhere as context. Onplana will scaffold the imported pattern onto your project. Once you have a few projects in a shape you like, save one as a custom template (see Save and reuse project templates, Starter+).

How this combines with other features

• Templates + AI Kickstart together. Pick a template that’s close to what you need, then ask the AI Kickstart in the project’s AI chat to “add a phase for X.” You get the template’s structure plus your specific addition without re-doing either.
• First project + Gantt baseline. As soon as the plan stabilizes, capture a baseline. Every future change is visible against it, which is the single best discipline a new PM can adopt early.
• First project + Status report. A weekly Status report on this project, written from the same plan, teaches stakeholders what to expect from Onplana reports going forward. Pick a cadence on day one.

Coming from another tool

If you used…	The closest pattern in Onplana
Microsoft Project (.mpp)	Import the file directly; see Migrating from Microsoft Project
Asana	Templates ≈ “Project templates”, AI Kickstart ≈ no equivalent (newer), tasks + sections ≈ tasks + epics
Jira	Projects ≈ “Software projects”, Sprints + Backlog views exist on Pro+, epics group tasks the same way
Trello	Kanban board view ≈ Trello board; cards = tasks; columns = statuses
Notion projects	Custom fields on tasks ≈ database properties; views = list/kanban/calendar; AI Kickstart ≈ no equivalent

FAQs

Can I change the project type or template afterwards? A template only pre-fills tasks; after creation it is a normal project you can reshape freely.

Why can’t I see the New Project button? Your organization may restrict project creation to managers. Ask an admin to check the permission matrix under Organization Settings.

Do I need to pick a template, or can I start from a blank project? Both are first-class. A built-in template is the fastest path when one of the ten shipped templates fits your work. The AI Kickstart turns a one-line goal into a populated project. A blank project is the right choice when you want full control from the start or when none of the templates match. And if the plan already exists in another tool, Import it instead in the same dialog takes you to the Import page.

Will my project be visible to other members of the organization? By default, Owners, Admins, and Portfolio Managers see every project in the organization. Members see only the projects they own or are added to, so a project stays private simply by not adding someone to it. The Owner can widen or narrow this per role from the permission matrix. See Understand roles and permissions.

Can I delete a project I created by mistake? Yes. Projects go to the Recycle Bin first (not hard-deleted), and they keep their full structure (subtasks, members, attachments) there for 30 days by default. Organizations on a longer retention policy keep them for as long as that policy says, which for regulated ones runs to years. See Restore from the recycle bin.

How many projects can my organization have at once? Limits scale with plan: Free allows 2, Starter 25, Pro 200, and Business and above are unlimited. Every project counts toward the cap whatever its status, so if you hit it, either delete projects you no longer need (they keep their full structure in the recycle bin) or upgrade. See Compare plans.

Can I import multiple projects at once? Yes, one file at a time. Onplana’s importer handles .mpp, .mpx, and XML files; a portfolio migration usually runs about half a day per ten projects. See Migrating from Microsoft Project for the bulk pattern.

Related

• Take the product tour, orient before you build
• Invite your team, bring people in early
• PM onboarding bundle, the next eight articles in sequence