# Manage the project team and specialist hours

Canonical HTML: [https://collty.com/help/projects/manage-project-team-and-hours](https://collty.com/help/projects/manage-project-team-and-hours)
Audience: Clients, partners and project specialists
Reading time: 14 min
Updated: 2026-07-16T00:00:00.000Z

Understand who joins an active project, who confirms a new specialist or allocation change, and when hours affect capacity, cost and delivery.

## The project roster is not the whole saved team

A saved team is a reusable source of specialists. A project roster is the confirmed composition that is allowed to work on one project. Collty can show additional people from an attached source team as available context without silently making them project participants.

Only specialists with Confirmed or Active participation can receive project tasks or take part in allocation changes. Pending, declined, replaced and removed members stay outside active delivery. This rule is enforced by the server as well as the interface.

| State | What it means | Can receive project tasks? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Available | The person belongs to an attached source team but has not been added to this project | No |
| Pending / Review member | A project addition is waiting for the responsible party | No |
| Confirmed / Active | Participation has been accepted for this project | Yes |
| Declined / Replaced / Removed | The person is not part of the active project composition | No |

## The project relationship determines who confirms a new specialist

| Situation | Who reviews the addition | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Direct or internal project where the project owner and client are the same account | The invited specialist | The person explicitly accepts or declines their own participation |
| Client adds a specialist from a partner-owned team | The source-team partner | The team owner controls commitments made from that managed team |
| Partner adds a specialist to a client project | The client | The client approves expansion of the active project composition |
| The same person owns the direct project and is also its specialist | Applied as a self-managed change | No artificial second approval is created for the same authenticated person |

> **Good to know:** The status chip names the current owner of the decision. Confirm and Decline controls appear only for that authenticated role; another cabinet sees the waiting state instead.

## Add a specialist without losing the existing project

1. **Open the project team:** Open Project details or the project composition in Teams Canvas. Available source-team members remain visually distinct from active members.
2. **Choose the specialist:** Add the person to the project roster. This creates a project participation request; it does not modify the source team's membership.
3. **Wait for the correct decision:** The Status column shows Review member for the responsible role and Waiting specialist, Waiting partner or Waiting client for everyone else.
4. **Continue after confirmation:** Once accepted, the specialist becomes available in Project Workspace, Project Architect and Creative Canvas assignments.
5. **Replace or remove deliberately:** A project manager can change the project roster without deleting the person from the saved source team.

## Edit allocation directly in HOURS

Projects with time allocation enabled show an editable HOURS field in the Specialists table. The old separate FTE action is not required for this workflow: the allocation and its state stay in the same row as the specialist.

Enter the proposed allocation and press Enter or leave the field. Escape restores the current saved value. A clock and pending status appear while another role must review the change.

- HOURS is available only for confirmed project specialists and only when the project operating model enables time allocation.
- The client and authorized partner can propose changes for project rows they manage.
- In a direct project, a specialist can propose a change only for their own confirmed row.
- A pending proposal locks that field until it is accepted or rejected, preventing competing values from overwriting one another.

## Hours use reciprocal approval

| Project and author | Decision owner | Result |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Direct project: client or project owner changes a specialist's hours | That specialist | Accepted hours replace the saved allocation; rejection preserves the previous value |
| Direct project: specialist changes their own hours | The client or project owner | The owner confirms the new commitment |
| Client project: client changes hours for a partner-managed specialist | The partner | The source-team owner confirms delivery capacity |
| Client project: partner changes specialist hours | The client | The client confirms the revised project commitment |
| Self-managed direct row where owner, client and specialist are the same account | No second person | The validated value is applied immediately |

> **Good to know:** An author cannot approve their own proposal except for the explicit self-managed case. Server authorization prevents cabinet labels or direct requests from bypassing the decision owner.

## Read the compact status correctly

| Status | What you should do |
| --- | --- |
| Confirmed | The displayed allocation is the current saved value |
| Review hours | Use Confirm or Decline for the pending allocation |
| Waiting specialist | The specialist must decide |
| Waiting partner | The source-team partner must decide |
| Waiting client | The client must decide |
| Hours pending | A proposal exists, but the current viewer is not its decision owner |

## Accepted participation and hours update the connected project system

| Surface | What changes |
| --- | --- |
| Project Workspace | Only confirmed specialists can be assigned; planned hours follow the project's time-tracking mode |
| Project Architect | The active roster and accepted allocations inform staffing and workload review |
| Creative Canvas | Synchronized task assignments use the same confirmed project boundary |
| Project Analytics | Capacity, workload, FTE and modeled cost use accepted data rather than pending proposals |
| Invoices | A roster or allocation change does not create a charge by itself; invoices use the configured billing model and actual delivery evidence |

## Use the same workflow on mobile

- The specialist row becomes a compact card while Role, Hours, Rate, Cost and Status keep their meaning.
- The HOURS field remains a small numeric control rather than expanding to the full card width.
- Decision buttons stay beside the status and do not replace or hide the status chip.
- The project list and specialist list scroll independently where required, so a pending decision remains reachable without changing the project page layout.

## Project team review checklist

1. **Check the project relationship:** Confirm whether this is a direct/internal project or a client project with a managed external team.
2. **Confirm the active roster:** Do not assign work to people who are only available in a source team or still pending.
3. **Check the operating model:** If time tracking is Off, do not create artificial allocations. If it is Required, keep confirmed hours current.
4. **Resolve pending decisions:** Use the status owner shown in the row instead of repeating the request from another cabinet.
5. **Assign delivery work:** After confirmation, distribute real tasks and task hours. Membership alone does not create billable work.

## Related guides

- [Assemble A Larger Team From Multiple Teams](https://collty.com/help/teams/assemble-a-larger-team-from-multiple-teams)
- [Create A Project And Choose Its Operating Model](https://collty.com/help/projects/create-a-project-and-choose-its-operating-model)
- [Work In Project Workspace](https://collty.com/help/projects/work-in-project-workspace)
- [Time Costs Invoices And Expenses](https://collty.com/help/commercial/time-costs-invoices-and-expenses)