Overview
In CORE, every phase in a project hierarchy has a project type of either Main or Standard. The project type controls whether a phase can have child phases beneath it and determines how financial values such as contract amounts and billing totals are calculated across the hierarchy.
CORE supports a specific hierarchy structure. Understanding this structure helps you set up projects correctly and ensures that features such as Phase Dependencies and Contract Distribution work as expected.
Supported Phase Structure
The supported structure in CORE follows one rule: only Main phases can have child phases beneath them. Standard phases are always at the end of a branch and cannot contain child phases.
A Main phase acts as a container. It rolls up the contract amounts, billing totals, and financial values of all phases beneath it. A Standard phase holds its own values independently and is always a leaf in the hierarchy.
Supported structure example
- Root Project (Main)
- Phase 1 (Main)
- Phase 1a (Standard)
- Phase 1b (Standard)
- Phase 2 (Standard)
- Phase 1 (Main)
Phase 1 is a Main phase and can contain Phase 1a and Phase 1b beneath it. Phase 1a, Phase 1b, and Phase 2 are Standard phases with no children beneath them.
Unsupported structure example
- Root Project (Main)
- Phase 1 (Standard)
- Phase 1a (Standard)
- Phase 2 (Standard)
- Phase 1 (Standard)
Phase 1 is a Standard phase but has Phase 1a beneath it. This is unsupported and creates ambiguity in contract rollups and financial calculations.
Warning Banner
If your project contains one or more Standard phases with child phases beneath them, CORE displays a warning banner at the top of the Projects > Settings > Details tab:
This project's phase structure isn't supported by CORE. Standard phases shouldn't contain child phases.
The banner appears on every tab of the Projects screen, including Overview, Structure, Budget, Transactions, Documents, To-Dos, Notes, and Settings. It is not dismissible and remains visible until the hierarchy is corrected.
Note: CORE does not automatically correct the hierarchy or change any financial values, contract amounts, or billed amounts. The banner is informational only.
Why This Matters
Standard phases with child phases beneath them affect several areas of CORE:
- Reporting - financial rollups cannot calculate accurately when a Standard phase contains children, because Standard phases are not designed to aggregate values from phases below them.
- Phase Dependencies - the dependency engine requires a clean hierarchy to calculate phase start and end dates. An unsupported structure produces unpredictable results.
- Contract Distribution - distributing contract amounts across phases requires that all parent phases be the Main type.
If you attempt to use Phase Dependencies or Contract Distribution on a project with an unsupported hierarchy, CORE blocks access and displays a dialog explaining the issue.
How to Fix the Structure
To resolve an unsupported hierarchy, use one of the following options for each Standard phase that has child phases beneath it.
Option 1 — Change the project type of the Standard parent phase to Main
On the project's Settings > Details tab, change the Project Type from Standard to Main and save. Repeat for each Standard phase that has child phases beneath it.
Option 2 — Remove the child phases from the Standard phase
On the Structure tab, move the child phases to a different parent in the hierarchy, or delete them if they are no longer needed. Save your changes.
When all Standard phases with child phases have been corrected, the warning banner no longer appears on the next page load.
Note: Changing a phase's project type or restructuring the hierarchy does not automatically adjust its contract amount, billed amounts, or other associated financial values. Review the project's financial data after making structural changes to confirm everything is accurate.