How the Autotask connector works
The Autotask connector keeps ProjectSmith and your Autotask in step. It reads your projects, people and tickets so ProjectSmith can show them, and it writes back the changes you make in ProjectSmith so Autotask stays the system of record. To set it up, see Connect Autotask.
What ProjectSmith reads
Section titled “What ProjectSmith reads”| Area | Autotask records |
|---|---|
| Projects | Projects, phases, tasks, task predecessors (dependencies), task time entries |
| Tickets | Tickets and ticket time entries (for service-desk load in capacity, and utilisation) |
| People and customers | Resources, companies, contacts |
| Billing | Contracts, contract milestones, project charges, billing items |
| Settings | Picklists: task, ticket and project statuses, priorities, queues and the like |
ProjectSmith uses your picklists, so a status or priority you’ve renamed or added in Autotask shows up as you named it.
What ProjectSmith writes
Section titled “What ProjectSmith writes”Only these, and only when someone does something in ProjectSmith that calls for it:
- Task status, title, dates, estimate and primary resource; new tasks; new task predecessors.
- New projects, from the New project wizard.
- Time entries, when time is approved. See Approve time.
- Project charges, when a cost or expense is approved.
- Contract milestones marked ready to bill, when a fixed-price milestone is reached.
What each project action does in Autotask is set out in Projects come from Autotask.
Deletes are limited. ProjectSmith deletes only three things in Autotask: a task dependency, an extra assignee on a task, and a task with no time logged against it. A task with time is completed instead. Phases, projects and everything else are deleted in Autotask itself, and ProjectSmith picks up the change at the next sync. Every delete goes through the write-scope guard and is recorded in the audit log.
Edits (changes, status moves and deletes) made by someone linked to an Autotask resource are recorded in Autotask as that person, as long as the API user is allowed to impersonate resources. An Owner can switch this off on the Autotask settings page so edits are recorded as the API user. New records are always created as the API user.
How often it syncs
Section titled “How often it syncs”- Changes made in Autotask are synced to ProjectSmith every 15 minutes. Each sync fetches only what changed since the last one.
- Once a night, a full check compares the two systems and fixes anything missed, including records deleted in Autotask.
- Approved time, project charges and milestones are written to Autotask in batches every few minutes, and read back to confirm what Autotask stored.
Who wins when both change
Section titled “Who wins when both change”- Autotask wins on every field it owns: titles, statuses, dates, estimates, resources, dependencies. If a field changes in Autotask, ProjectSmith shows the Autotask value.
- ProjectSmith wins on things only it has: board columns and card order, colours, allocations, budgets. Autotask never sees these, so there is nothing to conflict with.
Staying inside your API limits
Section titled “Staying inside your API limits”Autotask limits how many API requests each Autotask instance can make per hour, shared across every integration you run. ProjectSmith keeps its own use well under that, spreads its work out, and shows the requests it has made this hour on Settings > Autotask, so you can see its share at a glance.
When something goes wrong
Section titled “When something goes wrong”- A write that fails shows on the item itself (Not saved to Autotask, retrying) and is retried. Nothing is silently dropped.
- A write Autotask refuses outright (a mandatory field your Autotask requires, a permission the API user lacks) shows the reason so you can fix it.
- If the API user’s secret is changed or the user is disabled in Autotask, syncing stops and Settings > Autotask says so. Paste the new secret to resume.
Write-scope guard
Section titled “Write-scope guard”While you’re setting up, the write-scope guard restricts writes to the companies, projects and queues you choose. Reads are never restricted. See Connect Autotask.
Sync history
Section titled “Sync history”Settings > Jobs lists each sync and background job: when it ran, how long it took, how many records it changed, and any errors. It’s the first place to look if something in ProjectSmith looks out of date.
Service desk
Section titled “Service desk”ProjectSmith reads your Autotask tickets and the time logged against them so that capacity planning can count each person’s service-desk load and the utilisation report can count ticket hours, wherever they were entered. Your service desk keeps running in Autotask: ProjectSmith doesn’t edit tickets, and only approved time reaches them, as time entries.
Common questions
Section titled “Common questions”Does ProjectSmith need an Autotask licence? It needs an Autotask API user, which doesn’t use a licence. See Connect Autotask.
Where is my Autotask secret kept? Encrypted in your workspace’s database, with the encryption keys held separately in Azure Key Vault. It is never shown again after you save it. See How ProjectSmith keeps tenants separate.