Project Reference

A project's Reference is a short key you give a project so that systems outside Flowtly can name it. Inside Flowtly a project is identified by its name; the systems you work alongside — a client's accounting system, a reporting tool, a spreadsheet, a shared folder naming scheme — need something a person can type and that stays put. That is what the Reference is for.

It is optional. Most projects never carry one, and a project without a Reference works in every way like a project with one.

What a Reference looks like

You type it yourself and Flowtly does not impose a format, so the shape is whatever the system on the other side expects. It can be up to 64 characters long. Teams that use References normally agree on one shape and keep to it, for example LAT_LAC or LAT_NET_PR5.

Two rules hold, and they are what make a Reference dependable as an identifier:

• A Reference is unique within your organization. Capitalisation is ignored when Flowtly compares them, so PROJ-1 and proj-1 count as the same Reference and only one project can hold it.
• A Reference stays with the project it was given to. Deleting a project does not release its Reference, so a key can never come to mean a second project later on. If you enter a Reference that is already taken, Flowtly marks the Reference field to say so — and the project holding it may be a deleted one that no longer appears in your lists.

Renaming a project never changes its Reference. That is deliberate: the name is for the people reading it, the Reference is for the systems keyed on it, and a rename must not quietly repoint an integration.

Setting a Reference

When you create a project, the Reference field sits on the add-project form. Flowtly proposes a value as you type the project name — lower-cased, accented letters reduced to their plain equivalents, and each run of spaces or punctuation replaced by an underscore. It is only a suggestion: type over it and it stops following the name, or clear it if this project does not need one.

To add or change the Reference of a project that already exists, open the project, go to the Overview tab, and click Edit on the Basic Information section. The same uniqueness rule applies to a change as to a new project, so Flowtly will tell you if the Reference you typed belongs to another project.

Project phases carry their own References, each independent of the parent project's. Nothing is derived from the parent, so a phase can hold the key its own outside system expects.

Where a Reference is shown

• On the project's Overview tab, in the Basic Information section, next to the project name. Projects without a Reference show a dash here.
• In the projects list, as a small line in a monospaced typeface directly under the project name — monospaced because a Reference is meant to be read character by character and retyped elsewhere, where 0 and O must be told apart. The list shows this line when at least one project in your organization has a Reference, and shows nothing at all when none has. There is nothing to switch on.
• On a narrow screen, where the projects list becomes a card per project, the Reference sits under the project name on the card.

Note: the Reference is shown, not searched. The search box above the projects list matches project names and client names, and the list is not ordered by Reference. To find a project by its Reference, look for the line under the name.

Example use cases

• Matching Flowtly to a client's accounting system: give the project the code the client's ledger already uses, so exported hours and invoices line up without anyone comparing project names by eye.
• Keeping an integration stable through a rename: a project can be renamed for clarity at any time, because the outside system is keyed on the Reference rather than the name.
• Reporting per phase: give each phase of an engagement its own Reference so a report built outside Flowtly can keep the phases apart.
• Handing over a project list: paste the References into the column an external tool expects, instead of asking that tool to work from names that read differently in each system.