Work Items & WBS Codes

The Phase, Activity, Task and Subtask hierarchy, how WBS codes are numbered and renumbered, and everything on an item's own page.

Everything in the WBS is a work item. What kind of item it is decides where it can sit, what it can contain and which workflow governs its status.

The Hierarchy

Type	Sits under	Can contain	Required
Phase	nothing — top level only	Activity	Title
Activity	Phase	Task	Title
Task	Activity	Subtask, Issue	Title
Subtask	Task	nothing	Title
Issue	Task	nothing	Title, Priority

A Phase is the only type allowed at the top level, so the first thing on any project is a phase. Below that, the type follows the position: add in place under a Phase and you get an Activity, under an Activity a Task, under a Task a Subtask. A Subtask or an Issue will not take a child — "A subtask cannot contain other items."

Issues belong to the Issues module

An Issue is the same record the Issues module owns — a defect, a rework item, a follow-up. Raise one here and it appears on its parent task's Issues tab and in the Issues module; it does not appear in the seven WBS views. See Issues.

WBS Codes

Every item carries a WBS code, and PleoStack generates it — you never type one. The code is derived from where the item sits: top-level items are 1, 2, 3; a child takes its parent's code plus its own position, giving 1.3, then 1.3.7, then 1.3.7.2.

That means the code follows the work, not the item. Move an item under a different parent, or reorder it among its siblings, and it renumbers — along with everything beneath it. Delete an item and its number is released, so the siblings close up over the gap and the next item you create can take it.

Don't treat a code as a name

A WBS code is a position, not an identifier. If you need something stable to refer to on a drawing or in an email, use the item's title.

The separator between levels is set per project. Go to Project Settings → WBS Configuration → Separator and choose . (dot), - (dash) or / (slash). Dot is the default.

Creating an Item

Add Item in the page header opens the Create Work Item drawer. You can also add in place from a row's actions menu, from a cell on the Board, or from the ghost New item row in the Table.

Field	Notes
Type	One of the five. Changing it clears the Parent, because the legal parents change with it
Parent	Searchable, shown as `WBS code · title`. Required for everything except a Phase, which reads Top level. With no legal parent available the drawer says Add a Phase first and keeps Create disabled
Title	Required, up to 300 characters
Assignee	Optional — Unassigned if you leave it
Priority	Critical, High, Medium, Low or None. Defaults to Medium
Start Date / Due Date	Optional, but four of the seven views stay blank without them
Tags	Comma-separated, up to 500 characters
Description	Up to 2,000 characters
Cost, Quantity, Location, Schedule	Optional field groups — which ones appear depends on the type

You do not choose a status when you create. The item starts on its workflow's opening status — a Task at Not Started, a Phase at Planning, an Issue at Open.

The Create Work Item drawer with Type, Parent shown as code and title, a required Title, and a custom field group expanded — The Create Work Item drawer — Type and Parent decide where the item lands

Cost, Quantity and Location Fields

Beyond the basics, each type carries the field groups that make sense for it. Some of the figures are worked out for you and cannot be typed over.

Group	Applies to	Fields
Cost	Activity, Task	Budget, Actual Cost, Cost Variance (calculated), Cost Rate, Unit Cost, Total Cost (calculated)
Quantity	Task, Subtask	Planned Quantity, Actual Quantity, Unit (m³, Ton, m², Linear m, Nos, kg), Quantity Variance (calculated), Quantity Progress % (calculated)
Location	Task, Subtask, Issue	Zone, Floor, Area/Address, GPS Coordinates
Schedule Context	Phase, Activity, Task	Planned Start, Planned Finish, Duration (days), Critical Path

How to mark a milestone

Set Duration (days) to 0. That is what makes an item draw as a milestone on the Timeline rather than as a bar.

The Item Page

Click Open at the end of a row — or Open full page in the peek panel — for the item's full record. The header carries a back link to WBS, breadcrumbs made of the ancestors' WBS codes, the item's type icon and its own code. Edit the title in place at the top of the body; a Save button appears as soon as anything is dirty.

The body is a set of collapsible sections:

Section	Contains
Overview	Status, Priority, Assignee, Progress and Tags
Planning & Effort	Start Date, Due Date, Duration (derived), Est. Hours, Actual Hours and Variance (derived). An overdue due date is outlined in red
Cost & Quantities	The field groups above. Collapsed by default, with a summary on the header
Description	Free text

The panel on the right has two tabs. Info repeats the item's key facts — status, type, WBS code, assignee, progress, dates, when it was created and its ID. Activity records the item's creation and every status change, including the note that came with it.

A work item page with WBS code breadcrumbs, the Overview grid and the tab bar showing counts — The item page — the full record, with counts on every tab

The Tabs

Tab	What's in it
Inspections	Inspections scoped to this item, each with its category, item count and result. New Inspection starts one against this item
Issues	Issues raised under this item, with assignee, priority and status, and a link back to the inspection that raised one. Add Issue, or the quick-add row
Sub-Items	The children as a table — WBS, Title, Type, Status, Priority, Progress, Assignee — with a quick-add row in the footer
Dependencies	The links to and from this item. See Baselines, Dependencies & Capacity
Attachments	Files, drawings and site photos. Drop them in, or pick them; each shows its size and date and can be deleted

Each tab carries a count, and at phone width the tab bar scrolls sideways with chevron buttons.

Progress

A parent row shows a rolled-up progress figure worked out from the work beneath it, even though the parent's own record carries no percentage of its own. That is why a phase reads a number nobody typed against it — and why correcting a phase means correcting the tasks under it.

Duplicating and Deleting

Duplicate copies an item's title — suffixed (copy) — along with its parent, assignee, priority, dates, estimated hours and tags. It deliberately does not copy the baseline: a copy is a new piece of work and has not been committed to anything yet.

Deleting a parent does not delete its children

Delete an item and anything directly under it moves up one level, to the deleted item's own parent. The work is not lost. The item's WBS code is released and the rest of the project renumbers to close the gap.

Select several rows on the Outline, Table or Board and the bulk actions appear: Set baseline and Delete. Both report back how many succeeded.