Track projects in Obsidian.

What you’ll build

Enough project tracking for a freelancer or a small team, without another app:

• One note per project with its status, client, dates, budget and hours.
• A Projects base: active projects with days left, a health flag (🔴 overdue, 🟡 due soon, 🟢 on track), hours used and the total budget.
• A board with Planned, Active, Waiting and Done columns, in that order.
• Client pages that list their own projects.

It’s how projects work in our Business OS vault. You need Obsidian 1.9 or later with the Bases core plugin on. Everything below was tested in Obsidian 1.14 with no community plugins.

Step 1: One note per project

Make a folder called Projects and one note per project:

---
type: project
status: Active
client: "[[Acme Dental]]"
start: 2026-10-01
due: 2026-10-30
budget: 2400
hours_est: 20
hours_logged: 6
---
## Goal
A new-patient form that works on phones.

## Next step
Send Dana the first draft.

• status is one of Planned, Active, Waiting, Done or Cancelled.
• Dates use the 2026-10-30 format, so they sort and count down.
• Write the next step in the note. If you can’t name one, the project is stuck.

Save a copy with empty values as Templates/Project.md.

Step 2: The Projects base

Make a file called Projects.base and paste this in:

filters:
  and:
    - type == "project"
    - '!file.inFolder("Templates")'
formulas:
  days_left: if(due, (date(due) - today()).days.round(0), "")
  health: if(status == "Done", "✅ Done", if(!due, "", if(date(due) < today(), "🔴 Overdue", if((date(due) - today()).days.round(0) <= 7, "🟡 Due soon", "🟢 On track"))))
  hours_used: if(hours_est, if(hours_logged, (hours_logged / hours_est * 100).round(0).toString() + "%", "0%"), "")
  column: if(status == "Planned", "1 Planned", if(status == "Active", "2 Active", if(status == "Waiting", "3 Waiting", "4 Done")))
properties:
  file.name:
    displayName: Project
  note.budget:
    displayName: Budget $
  formula.days_left:
    displayName: Days left
  formula.health:
    displayName: Health
  formula.hours_used:
    displayName: Hours used
views:
  - type: table
    name: Active
    filters:
      and:
        - status == "Active"
    order:
      - file.name
      - client
      - due
      - formula.days_left
      - formula.health
      - formula.hours_used
      - budget
    sort:
      - property: due
        direction: ASC
    summaries:
      budget: Sum
  - type: table
    name: Waiting on someone
    filters:
      and:
        - status == "Waiting"
    order:
      - file.name
      - client
      - due
      - formula.days_left

• health checks the status first, then the due date: past due is 🔴, seven days or less is 🟡, anything later is 🟢.
• hours_used shows logged hours as a share of the estimate, such as 30%.
• Sum under budget totals what’s active.
• Waiting on someone is its own list, so stalled work doesn’t hide among the active projects.

Step 3: A board, in your column order

Add a board under views: in the same file:

  - type: cards
    name: Board
    filters:
      and:
        - status != "Cancelled"
    groupBy:
      property: formula.column
      direction: ASC
    order:
      - file.name
      - client
      - due
      - formula.health

Groups sort alphabetically, which would put Active before Planned. The column formula from step 2 numbers them (1 Planned, 2 Active, 3 Waiting, 4 Done), and the board groups by that. Change a project’s status and it moves to the right column.

Step 4: Client pages that list their projects

Add one more view:

  - type: table
    name: This client
    filters:
      and:
        - file.hasLink(this.file)
    order:
      - file.name
      - status
      - due
      - formula.health

Then put ![[Projects.base#This client]] in each client’s note. It lists the projects that link to that client, with their health.

Step 5: A weekly look

Put the two lists that need you on your Home page:

## Active projects
![[Projects.base#Active]]

## Waiting on someone
![[Projects.base#Waiting on someone]]

Once a week, read the board left to right: start one planned project, update hours, chase anything waiting, and set the next step on each active one.

Mistakes that cost us time

• A project with no due date. It never turns 🔴, so it can slip forever. Give everything a date, even a rough one.
• Hours logged as text. “6 hrs” can’t be divided. Use a number.
• Too many active projects. If everything is Active, nothing is. Move some to Planned.
• The template showing up as a project. The !file.inFolder("Templates") filter fixes it.