Section 2.2: Manual Project Creation

If you prefer to define your project structure by hand, use the Structured Blueprint pathway. This option walks you through a short wizard to pick a project archetype, fill in your project specifications, and (for most archetypes) apply a ready-made template of work packages. If you'd rather have ABRAM draft a project for you from a written brief instead, use the Brief Intelligence pathway covered elsewhere in this guide.

1. Accessing Manual Creation

1. Navigate to the Projects tab in the main sidebar.
2. Click New Project in the upper right.

   [!NOTE] If your plan is at its active-project limit (the Free plan allows 2 active projects), the New Project options are replaced with an Upgrade Required prompt. Upgrading your plan restores access to creating additional projects.

3. Select the Structured Blueprint card ("Build Manually").

2. Step-by-Step Creation Wizard

The Structured Blueprint wizard has two or three steps, depending on the archetype you choose.

Step 1: Archetype

Choose the archetype that best matches your project:

• Film & Video Production
• Marketing & Advertising
• Creative Design & Branding
• Custom Slate — a blank canvas; you build your own work packages and tasks from scratch.

Step 2: Specifications

A single screen collects the foundational details of your project:

• Project Title: A clear, identifiable name.
• Description: Detail the creative goals and background context.
• Estimated Budget: A single total budget amount for the project.
• Start Date and End Date: Select the calendar dates using the date pickers.
• Retainer Project: Check this box if the project follows a recurring monthly billing model (retainer) rather than a fixed-fee model.

If you chose Custom Slate in Step 1, this is the final step of the wizard — submit your project with the Construct Slate button.

Step 3: Templates (Film & Video, Marketing & Advertising, and Creative Design & Branding only)

If you chose one of the three preset archetypes, the wizard shows a Templates step where you can review and customize the template structure before creation:

• Package Checkboxes: Include or exclude individual work packages (e.g., skip the pre-production package if scout work is already complete).
• Budget Percentage Badge: Each package shows the percentage of your total budget it's allocated. These percentages are fixed at this stage — you can fine-tune individual items once the project is created.
• Item Counts: Each package also shows how many deliverables, work orders, and payment milestones it includes.

Submit your project with the Construct Blueprint button.

3. What Happens After You Submit

When you click Construct Slate or Construct Blueprint, ABRAM builds your project as a sequence of saves:

1. Creates the project profile (title, description, and budget).
2. Defines the project timeline (start and end dates).
3. Generates the selected work packages (including any percentage-based budget allocations).
4. Populates the deliverables, work orders, and payment milestones tied to their respective work packages.

[!NOTE] Project creation is not a single guaranteed transaction — it runs as this sequence of steps. If a later step fails partway through (for example, if your connection drops), ABRAM automatically removes the partially-created project so it doesn't linger in your dashboard as a half-finished entry. You can safely try again.

4. Setting Up the Rest

The wizard focuses on structure and budget. Details like creative industry, project type, creative styles, and required skills aren't part of this wizard — you set those afterward by editing the project once it's created.