Glossary

This glossary explains the key terms and concepts used throughout EMDESK. Use it as a reference whenever you encounter unfamiliar terminology in the application.

Term	Definition
Workspace	The top-level container in EMDESK. A workspace holds all settings, users, permissions, documents, budgets, and data. A workspace can contain one or more projects.
Project	A top-level activity within a workspace that acts as the main unit of project management. A workspace can contain multiple projects. Each project can have its own hierarchy of sub-activities, participants, budgets, and expenses.
Dashboard / Cockpit	The main overview page you see when opening a project. It displays charts, recent activity, upcoming deadlines, and conversations at a glance.
Workplan	The module where you define and manage all project activities, events, and their scheduling. Available as a table (list), Gantt chart, or Kanban board.
Activity Stream	A chronological feed of all changes made in the project — who did what and when. It tracks creations, edits, deletions, and status updates across all modules.
Sidebar / Toolbox	The slide-in panel on the right side of the screen where you view and edit details of a selected item (activity, participant, budget entry, etc.).
Starred / Favorites	Items you have marked with a star for quick access. Starred items appear on the Dashboard.
Tags	Custom keyword labels you can assign to activities, participants, budget entries, and other items for categorization and filtering.
Global Filter	A filter that applies across an entire grid/table view to narrow down the displayed items.

Workplan & Activities

Term	Definition
Activity	The primary unit of work in the workplan. Activities are organized hierarchically. A top-level activity with no parent serves as a project; beneath it, sub-activities represent work packages, which can contain further sub-activities at deeper levels.
Sub-Activity	An activity nested under a parent activity. Sub-activities inherit their parent's context and contribute to its overall progress.
Activity Type	A classification or category assigned to an activity (e.g., "Development", "Research", "Management"). Activity types can be customized in project settings.
Event	A specific occurrence in the workplan that has a defined date. Events come in two types: Milestones and Deliverables.
Milestone	A type of event that marks a significant point or achievement in the project timeline (e.g., "Prototype complete", "Phase 1 sign-off").
Deliverable	A type of event that represents a tangible output or result that must be produced (e.g., a report, software release, or document).
Predecessor	An activity or event that must be completed before another can start. Predecessors define dependencies in the project schedule.
Identifier / ID	A unique code assigned to each activity or event within the workplan (e.g., "1.2.3", "D1", "M2"). Can be auto-generated based on the activity structure or set manually as a Custom Identifier.
Activity Structure / Activity Pattern	The configurable template that defines how many hierarchy levels are allowed and how identifiers are generated (e.g., "1", "1.1", "1.1.1").
Gantt Chart	A timeline visualization showing activities as horizontal bars, with their start/end dates, dependencies, and progress.
Kanban	A card-based board view where activities are organized by status columns (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done).

Scheduling & Dates

Term	Definition
Plan Start	The planned start month of an activity, expressed as a project month number (e.g., M1, M6).
Plan Duration	The planned length of an activity in months.
Start Date / End Date	Calendar dates defining when an activity is scheduled to begin and finish.
Actual Start Date	The date when work on an activity actually began, as reported in a status update.
Actual Duration	The real duration of work as reported, which may differ from the planned duration.
Expected Date / Expected Month	The originally planned completion date for an event (milestone or deliverable).
Forecast Date	The latest estimated date an event will be achieved, based on reported progress. May differ from the original expected date.
Due Date	The deadline for completing a task or report.
Delay	How far behind schedule an activity or event is, calculated from the difference between planned and actual dates.
Reporting Date	The date on which a status update was submitted. This determines the point in time the update refers to.

Status & Progress

Term	Definition
Status Update / Activity Entry	A progress report submitted for an activity, capturing the current completion percentage, status, priority, actual dates, and optional notes at a specific reporting date.
Event Entry / Event Update	A progress report submitted for a milestone or deliverable, capturing completion, status, priority, and forecast date.
Completion (%)	The percentage of work completed on an activity or event (0–100%).
Status	The qualitative state of an activity or event (e.g., "On Track", "At Risk", "Completed", "Cancelled"). Status labels are customizable per project.
Priority	The urgency level of an activity or event, typically with four levels (each shown with a distinct color).
Finalized / Locked	An item that has been locked and can no longer be edited. Applies to status updates, budget entries, expense entries, reports, and documents.

Participants & Assignments

Term	Definition
Participant	An organizational unit in the project — typically a company, department, team, or individual — that is involved in project work. Participants can be organized hierarchically (parent/sub-participant).
Sub-Participant	A participant nested under a parent participant, creating a hierarchy (e.g., Company > Department > Team).
Participant Type / Organization Type	A classification for participants (e.g., "Contractor", "Research Institute", "SME"). Configurable in project settings.
Lead Participant	The primary responsible participant for an activity or event. Up to three lead participants can be assigned (Lead Participant 1, 2, and 3).
Further Participants	Additional participants involved in an activity beyond the lead participants.
Involved Participants	All participants associated with an event (derived automatically from assignments).
Assignee	A project user or group assigned to work on a specific activity, event, or task.
Inactive	A participant or user that has been deactivated. Inactive items are hidden from regular views but retained for historical data.
Budget Limit	A maximum budget amount set for a participant. The system warns when expenses approach or exceed this limit.

Users, Roles & Permissions

Term	Definition
Project User	A person with a login account who has access to the project. Each project user has an assigned role.
Role	The permission level assigned to a project user. Available roles: Guest (limited read access), User (standard member), Manager (project manager), and Admin (full control).
Guest	An external user with restricted, read-only access. Guests can only view items they have been explicitly granted access to.
Group	A collection of project users that can be granted shared permissions. Groups can be public (anyone can join) or restricted (request/invitation only).
Group Manager	The designated administrator of a group who can approve join requests and manage membership.
Access Rule	A permission definition that controls what a user or group can do within a specific module (e.g., Workplan, Documents, Resources).
Right Type / Access Level	The level of access granted: None (no access), Read (view only), Edit (create and modify), or Manage (full control including delete).
Section Sharing	Granting a user or group access to an entire module section (e.g., all activities, all participants).
Object Sharing / Custom Permissions	Granting access to specific individual items rather than an entire section.
Project Owner	The user who owns the project. The project owner always has admin-level access and cannot be demoted.
License	The subscription plan for the project, which determines available features, user limits, and guest capacity.

Budget & Costs

Term	Definition
Budget / Budget Entry	A planned cost allocation for an activity, linked to a participant and cost category. Budget entries define how much money is planned to be spent.
Expense / Expense Entry	An actual cost that has been incurred and reported. Expense entries track real spending against the planned budget.
Direct Costs	The base cost amount of a budget or expense entry, before indirect costs (overhead) are added.
Indirect Costs	Overhead costs calculated as a percentage of direct costs, using the applicable indirect cost rate.
Total Costs	The sum of direct costs and indirect costs for an entry.
Cost Category	A detailed classification for costs (e.g., "Travel", "Equipment", "Salaries"). Each cost category belongs to a Main Cost Category.
Main Cost Category / Cost Class	A top-level grouping of cost categories. Common examples: "Personnel Costs", "Other Direct Costs", "Sub-Contracting".
Cost Category Type (Fix / Rate)	Fix (lump sum): Costs are entered as a fixed amount. Rate: Costs are calculated from effort multiplied by a personnel cost rate.
Overhead	The amount by which actual expenses exceed the planned budget. Shown visually in red on Dashboard charts.
Variance	The difference between planned budget and actual expenses. A positive variance means under budget; negative means over budget.
Consumption (%)	The ratio of actual expenses to planned budget, expressed as a percentage. Values above 100% indicate overspending.
Start Month / End Month	The project month range during which a budget entry is allocated (e.g., M01–M06).

Personnel Costs & Effort

Term	Definition
Personnel Cost Rate	The cost per unit of time for a participant's labor. Defined as a monthly rate (PM) and automatically converted to daily (PD) and hourly (PH) rates based on working days/hours settings.
Person-Month (PM)	A unit of effort representing one person working full-time for one month. The base unit for personnel cost calculations.
Person-Day (PD)	A unit of effort representing one person working for one day. Calculated from the monthly rate divided by "Days a Month".
Person-Hour (PH)	A unit of effort representing one person working for one hour. Calculated from the daily rate divided by "Hours a Day".
Effort	The amount of work allocated to or spent on an entry, measured in PM, PD, or PH.
Days a Month	The number of working days per month used for rate conversions (e.g., 22 days). Configurable per cost rate.
Hours a Day	The number of working hours per day used for rate conversions (e.g., 8 hours). Configurable per cost rate.
Indirect Cost Rate	A percentage-based rate that determines the overhead added on top of direct costs for a participant.
Effort-Only Rate	A personnel cost rate used solely for time tracking, without an associated monetary cost amount.

Funding

Term	Definition
Funding	The portion of project costs that is covered by an external funding source (e.g., grant, subsidy).
Funding Rule / Funding Method	A rule that defines what percentage of direct and indirect costs are eligible for funding. Funding rules can vary per activity, participant, or cost category.
Funding Rate	The percentage of costs eligible for funding (0–100%). Separate rates exist for direct costs and indirect costs.
Funding (Direct)	The funded portion of direct costs, calculated as: Direct Costs × Funding Rate.
Funding (Indirect)	The funded portion of indirect costs, calculated as: Indirect Costs × Indirect Funding Rate.
Funding (Total)	The sum of direct and indirect funding for an entry.
Not Eligible	A flag on an expense entry indicating that it is excluded from any funding calculations. The entry still counts toward total costs but receives no funding.
No Overhead	A flag on an expense entry indicating that no indirect costs should be calculated for it.

Expense-Specific Terms

Term	Definition
Adjustment Costs	A flag on an expense entry marking it as a correction or adjustment to previously reported costs (e.g., a refund or reallocation).
Foreign Currency	When an expense was originally incurred in a currency different from the project currency. The system stores the original amount, currency, and exchange rate.
Exchange Rate	The conversion rate used to translate a foreign currency amount into the project currency.
Depreciation	Tracking information for expense entries that represent depreciating assets, spreading the cost over time.

Versioning

Term	Definition
Version	A snapshot of the project's plan data. EMDESK supports multiple versions to track how the project plan evolves over time.
Plan Version	A version containing planning data (activities, budgets, schedules). You can create multiple plan versions to compare planning scenarios.
Actual Version	The active version used for reporting real progress and expenses. Only available when the project is in Implementation Mode.
Baseline	A reference version used for comparison against the current plan — typically the original approved plan.
Planning Mode	The project state where you are editing plan data (activities, budgets, schedules). No expense reporting is possible.
Implementation Mode	The project state where the plan is active and you can report actual progress, expenses, and time. Requires an actual version to be selected.
Locked Version	A version that has been frozen and cannot be edited. Useful for preserving approved plans.

Reports

Term	Definition
Report	A defined reporting period (e.g., a quarter or year) that groups expense entries together. Reports have a name, date range, and due date.
Report Period (Month Start / Month End)	The month range covered by a report (e.g., M1–M12 for the first year).
Analytics	The reporting and analysis module where you can view pre-built and custom reports with charts and tables.

Documents

Term	Definition
Document / File	A file uploaded to or created within the project. Files are organized in folders.
Folder	A container for organizing documents in a hierarchical structure.
EMDocs	An electronic document created within EMDESK using a built-in editor. EMDocs can contain text, headlines, tables, images, and page breaks.
Document Module	A content block within a EMDocs document (e.g., a text section, headline, table, or image).
File Version	A historical version of an uploaded file. When you upload a new version, previous versions are preserved.
Public Link	A shareable URL that allows external access to a document without requiring an EMDESK account.
Trash	A holding area for deleted files and folders. Items in the trash can be restored or permanently deleted.

Tasks

Term	Definition
Task	A discrete work item that can be assigned to users or groups, with a due date, status, and description. Tasks are lighter-weight than activities and are used for day-to-day action items.
Task List	A named container for grouping related tasks together.
Task Status	The current state of a task (e.g., "To Do", "In Progress", "Done"). Task statuses are customizable via Task Status Patterns.

Time Tracking

Term	Definition
Timesheet	A time tracking record where users log hours worked against activities.
Worktime	The type of time entry representing actual hours worked (as opposed to absence or other categories).
Track Time	The action of logging work hours for a specific date and activity.

Meetings

Term	Definition
Meeting	A video conference session hosted within EMDESK (powered by Jitsi). Meetings can be scheduled or started ad-hoc.
Meeting Participant / Attendee	A person invited to or present in a meeting.
Recording	A saved video/audio recording of a meeting session.

Collaboration

Term	Definition
Comment / Discussion	A text message posted on any item (activity, deliverable, document, etc.) for team communication. Comments appear in the Conversations panel on the Dashboard.
Notification	An alert informing you about changes, assignments, or mentions relevant to you.
Invitation	A request sent to a person to join the project as a user or guest.

Customization & Patterns

Term	Definition
Activity Pattern	A configuration template that defines the hierarchy levels, naming conventions, and identifier formats for activities in the workplan.
Participant Pattern	A configuration template that defines the hierarchy levels and identifier formats for participants.
Task Status Pattern	A configuration template defining the available task statuses and their order.
Funding Scheme	The overall funding framework or programme under which the project is funded.
Paper Pattern	A template defining the default structure of a Paper document.

Import & Export

Term	Definition
Import	Loading data into EMDESK from external sources (e.g., Excel files, other project management tools).
Export	Extracting data from EMDESK in formats like Excel or ZIP for external use.
Import Date	The date when an entry was imported or first created in the system. Shown in grid views for traceability.
Duplicate	Creating a copy of an existing item (activity, participant, budget entry, etc.) with the same properties.

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Last updated on March 9, 2026