Milestones in CloseOut serve as progress gates that help teams track critical project deliverables, ensure quality assurance, and simplify handovers. They’re defined at the Template level and aligned with workflows to reflect real project stages such as civil works, installation, and testing. This guide walks you through the full process of adding and managing milestones within CloseOut's interface.
🔧 Step-by-Step: Adding Milestones to a Project Template
1. Access the Template Management Panel
Navigate to: Administration → Templates
Search and select a milestone applicable project or a template from the list.
Click to expand the template and choose the workflow (if multiple present) to which you want to apply milestones.
2. Open the Milestone Editor
Click on the Milestone icon (usually at the top toolbar of the workflow panel).
You'll see options like:
Add to All
Clear All
View Milestones
These help manage milestones at the folder or item level.
3. Create a Milestone
Hover over the placeholder where you want to add a milestone (e.g., folder or checklist item), and click on the Milestone icon 
.
Click to Create New, then:
Enter a clear Milestone Name (e.g., “Fiber Trenching Complete”).
Assign a Percentage Weight (e.g., 25 for 25%).
Click Save to apply.
✳️ Tip: Make sure your total milestone weights add up to 100%, or you’ll receive a validation error.
4. Apply Milestones Granularly
You can assign milestones:
To entire folders (applies to all items inside)
To specific files, photos, or checklists for greater precision.
Once created on project or template level, milestones can be reused elsewhere in the project (all or select locations from the same project) without re-entering their name and weight.
✅ Best Practices
Use Real Deliverables: Define milestones based on tangible outputs (e.g., "ONUs provisioned", "Final OTDR report uploaded").
Align with Workflow Stages: Mirror major project phases like “Civil Works” or “Customer Activation.”
Set Accountability: Assign responsible teams or reviewers per milestone using CloseOut’s approval routing.
Attach Evidence: Upload required documentation or media as proof of completion.
Maintain Flexibility: Milestones can be updated as the project evolves, but maintaining traceability is key.
Milestones are more than progress markers—they’re the backbone of predictable delivery and quality control. These weights are flexible and can be tailored to project complexity, but they provide a valuable framework for guiding resourcing, scheduling, and milestone gating logic inside CloseOut. Each milestone can be tied to upload requirements, visual validations, and approver assignments—ensuring traceability and accountability across your telecom project lifecycle.
While milestones are created and weighted at the project template level, their start and end dates are managed independently for each project location. This allows regional deployments or site-specific schedules to progress at different paces while maintaining a shared milestone structure. To assign or update dates, project leads can access the location dashboard (Administration → Projects) and define the expected timeline per milestone. For detailed steps on how to configure milestone planned due dates at the location level, refer to How to schedule Milestones due dates.