Setting Up Master Phases

Master Phases are the phase templates you import into new projects and proposals — the same import process shown in other videos on creating proposals or projects. This article covers how master phases are structured and set up under Contract Management Settings.

Why Group Master Phases

It's highly recommended to organize master phases into template groups — for example, groups like Extras, Small Design Projects, and Typical Project. Grouping phases this way lets you set up the phases typically used on a given project type once, then import that entire set as a batch into a new or existing project or proposal, rather than adding phases one at a time.

What Goes Into a Master Phase

Editing a master phase gives you access to the following fields:

Name — the phase name.
Billing Format — Fixed Fee, Hourly, Hourly Not to Exceed, or other formats (see Understanding Billing Formats for details on each).
Percent of Project — the percentage of your overall fee this phase typically represents. If you usually charge 20% of your fee for a given phase, enter that here.
Default Fee — for phases where you charge the same amount every time regardless of the project, entering a default fee here will populate that amount automatically when the phase is imported.
Estimated Weeks — an estimate of how long the phase typically lasts. If entered, this is used to calculate the phase's start and end dates when it's brought into a project.
Extra Work — marks the phase as work that's in addition to the base project fee, rather than part of it.
Template Group — which group the phase belongs to. You can assign it to an existing group or create a new template group on the fly.
Status — the default status this phase will have when imported into a project. Statuses themselves are configured under Project Management Settings.

Deleting vs. Archiving

If a master phase is no longer in use, you can delete it or archive it — archiving keeps it available for historical reference without offering it up for new imports.

Why Master Phases Are Worth Using

Beyond faster setup, linking your project phases to master phases unlocks two capabilities that custom, unlinked phases don't get:

Budgeting averages — when budgeting hours, BaseBuilders can reference other phases tied to the same master phase to show you historical averages for that type of work.
Profitability reporting by phase — once you have enough data in the system, you can compare profitability across phase types — for example, seeing how Schematic Design compares to Design Development or Construction Documents — but only for phases that are actually linked to a master phase. Custom, one-off phases won't roll up into this kind of comparison.

Best Practice

Organize master phases into template groups that reflect the different types of projects your firm commonly runs, and fill in percent of project, default fee, and estimated weeks wherever they hold true across projects of that type. Keeping phases linked to their master — rather than creating unlinked custom phases each time — is what enables historical budgeting averages and phase-level profitability reporting down the line.

Summary

Master Phases are set up under Contract Management Settings and organized into template groups for quick batch import into projects and proposals. Each master phase includes a name, billing format, percent of project, optional default fee, estimated weeks, an extra-work flag, template group, and default status. Master phases that are no longer used can be deleted or archived. Linking phases to their master unlocks budgeting averages and phase-level profitability reporting that unlinked custom phases don't support.