Manual project archive

Basically, Birdview offers two methods of moving completed projects out of the way in the sense of making them invisible in the Activity center, namely:

• The option of not showing completed projects, and
• Archiving projects. 

The second method is by far more efficient, as there may be a situation where you would like to see only projects with a certain treat-as-completed status, e.g., "Refused", not other treat-as-completed ones. Another advantage is that you can archive not only completed projects, but any ones you wish to hide from the Activity center for the time being.

Therefore, by allowing you to archive projects that are no longer needed, Birdview helps you out in two ways: first, you still have the projects, you can have them back any time you want but, second, they are not visible anywhere in the system.

Permissions

Project archiving

You can archive both individual projects and projects as a group (bulk archiving).

To archive a single project:

1. Hover the mouse pointer over the project's name.
2. Click the More actions button next to the Details button ().
3. Select Archive. 
4. Or, while on the project details, click the More actions button in the top right and select Archive.

Bulk archiving

To archive a group of projects:

1. Click the batch operation button in the top left ()
2. Select the checkboxes of the projects to be archived. How to filter out projects see here. 
3. Click Archive on the Actions panel (batch operations).

Viewing project archive

The archived projects can be viewed in the dedicated Archive screen. The screen is used to view, unarchive or delete the archived projects. No filtering is available for archived projects.

A. To access the project archive:

1. Click the More actions menu on the toolbar.
2. Select Show archived projects.

B. To view an archived project details:

1. Hover the mouse pointer over the project's name.
2. Click the Details button ().

Unarchiving and deleting archived projects

Any archived project can be unarchived, i.e., restored. This is what distinguishes archiving from deletion. An unarchived project gets all its properties restored to the state it had when it was archived.

A. To unarchive a project:

1. Access the project archive.
2. Hover over the name of the project to be unarchived.
3. Click the More actions button next to the Details button ().
4. Select Unarchive.
5. Or, while on the project details, click the More actions button in the top right and select Unarchive.

B. To delete an archived project:

1. Access the project archive.
2. Hover over the name of the project to be unarchived.
3. Click the More actions button next to the Details button ().
4. Select Delete.
5. Or, while on the project details, click the More actions button in the top right and select Delete project.

Project auto-archive

The idea behind auto-archive is to give you an opportunity to archive a project automatically after a period of project inactivity. A project is considered inactive if none of the following changes have been made to it: 

• Changing any project fields, including custom fields;
• Adding new activities or changing any activity fields, including custom fields;
• Adding or editing time entries;
• Adding or editing messages or files;
• Adding or editing payments or expenses. 

Enabling auto-archive

Auto-archive feature can be enabled in system settings.

To enable auto-archive:

1. Click through User menu/picture > Company settings.
2. Select Account settings.
3. Go to Advanced settings tab.
4. Under Auto-archive projects, select one of the values on the dropdown list, from 3 months to 5 years.  

Disabling auto-archive

To turn off auto-archive:

1. Click through Login picture > Company settings > Advanced settings.
2. Under Auto-archive projects, select Disable on the dropdown list.  

Unarchiving auto-archived project

If you unarchive an auto-archived project accidentally or on purpose, please take into account the following: