How to Use ClickUp for Project Portfolio Management
ClickUp gives teams a complete workspace to manage project portfolios in one place, helping you prioritize investments, track performance, and keep everyone aligned on business goals.
This step-by-step guide walks you through setting up project portfolio management (PPM) using features inspired by the workflows described in the original ClickUp project portfolio management article.
Step 1: Plan Your Portfolio Structure in ClickUp
Before you build anything, decide how your portfolio will be organized inside ClickUp. A clear structure makes your reporting and resource management far easier.
Define portfolio levels in ClickUp
Use these typical hierarchy levels:
- Workspace: Your company or department.
- Spaces: Major portfolios (for example, Product, Marketing, Operations).
- Folders: Programs, strategic themes, or business units.
- Lists: Individual projects inside each program.
- Tasks: Project deliverables, milestones, or work items.
Decide which level represents your actual project portfolio. Many teams treat each Folder as a portfolio that groups several Lists (projects).
Set portfolio objectives
Outline what you want your portfolio to achieve, such as:
- Increasing revenue or market share
- Reducing operational costs
- Improving customer experience
- Delivering regulatory or compliance requirements
These objectives will later map to custom fields, views, and dashboards in ClickUp.
Step 2: Create a Portfolio Space in ClickUp
Next, turn your structure into an actual Space in ClickUp dedicated to portfolio management.
Set up your portfolio Space
- Create a new Space named for your portfolio, such as “Strategic Portfolio.”
- Add Folders for each program or business unit your portfolio covers.
- Within each Folder, create Lists for every active project.
- Use templates where possible to keep structure consistent across projects.
This consistent layout lets you roll up data from many projects into one portfolio-level view.
Standardize project templates
To keep every project aligned, create a project List template in ClickUp that includes:
- Key sections (Planning, Execution, Launch, Closure)
- Reusable tasks and milestones
- Default custom fields (priority, risk, budget, owner)
- Prebuilt views (List, Gantt, Board, and Dashboard connections)
Apply this template every time you start a new project so portfolio data stays clean and comparable.
Step 3: Add Portfolio Metadata with ClickUp Custom Fields
Strong project portfolio management relies on consistent data. ClickUp custom fields let you track the same attributes across all projects.
Essential custom fields for portfolio tracking
Create these custom fields on projects and tasks where appropriate:
- Business Value (Number or Dropdown): Score impact from low to high.
- Risk Level (Dropdown): Low, Medium, High.
- Budget (Currency): Planned spend for each project.
- Actual Cost (Currency): Updated cost as work progresses.
- Timeline Confidence (Dropdown): Green, Yellow, Red.
- Portfolio Category (Dropdown): Growth, Maintenance, Compliance, Innovation.
- Project Sponsor (Text or User): Executive accountable for outcomes.
Once these fields are set up in ClickUp, make them part of your project template so they are always available.
Align fields with strategic goals
Link your custom fields to strategy:
- Use Business Value and Risk Level to compare and prioritize projects.
- Use Portfolio Category to see how much effort goes to innovation versus maintenance.
- Track Budget and Actual Cost to monitor portfolio financial health.
This data will power advanced sorting, filtering, and reporting across the portfolio inside ClickUp.
Step 4: Build Portfolio Views in ClickUp
With data in place, set up views that give you instant visibility into your portfolio performance.
Create a portfolio List view in ClickUp
- Go to your portfolio Folder or Space.
- Add a List view that shows all projects.
- Enable and pin critical custom fields like Business Value, Risk Level, Budget, and Timeline Confidence.
- Save filters for “Active,” “On Hold,” and “Completed” projects.
This view becomes your central project portfolio grid for status reviews and prioritization sessions.
Use Gantt and Timeline views for schedules
To manage schedules across your portfolio in ClickUp:
- Add a Gantt view at the Folder or Space level.
- Show project Lists and key milestones.
- Adjust dependencies to understand how delays affect the wider portfolio.
- Color projects by Risk Level or Portfolio Category using custom field colors.
Timeline and Gantt views make it easy to identify schedule conflicts and bottlenecks across multiple projects.
Visualize work with ClickUp Board views
Create Board views grouped by Portfolio Category, Risk Level, or Status to understand how projects are distributed. Dragging projects between columns gives a clear visual of shifting priorities in ClickUp.
Step 5: Prioritize Projects in ClickUp
Project portfolio management is ultimately about selecting the right work. Use your data in ClickUp to build a repeatable prioritization process.
Design a scoring model
Combine custom fields into a lightweight score:
- Assign point values to Business Value tiers.
- Deduct points for higher Risk Level.
- Factor in effort, cost, or time-to-value.
You can calculate a score manually or through a consistent rubric you apply each time you review the portfolio.
Run regular portfolio review sessions
- Open your portfolio List view in ClickUp.
- Sort by Business Value, then by Risk Level.
- Identify projects that no longer align with strategic goals.
- Move projects to On Hold or Archived when they lose priority.
- Highlight high-value, low-risk projects to fast-track.
Document decisions directly in tasks and Lists so the reasoning behind each portfolio adjustment is clear.
Step 6: Manage Resources Across ClickUp Projects
For project portfolios, resource visibility is just as important as project selection.
Track who is doing what
In ClickUp, make sure every major task has:
- A clear assignee or owner
- Start and due dates
- Effort estimates (time or story points)
Then, use team or workload views to see how work is distributed across people and teams.
Balance workloads at the portfolio level
When certain team members are overloaded:
- Reassign tasks across projects.
- Delay lower-priority work.
- Split larger tasks into smaller units and redistribute them.
By using portfolio-wide workload views in ClickUp, you can reduce burnout and keep critical projects properly staffed.
Step 7: Create Portfolio Dashboards in ClickUp
Dashboards turn your portfolio data into real-time insights for executives and stakeholders.
Build an executive dashboard
Use ClickUp dashboards to combine widgets that show:
- Number of active, on hold, and completed projects
- Budget vs. actual cost by portfolio or category
- Timeline Confidence breakdown (Green, Yellow, Red)
- Top high-value projects and their status
- Risk Level distribution across the portfolio
Set filters so leaders can switch between product, marketing, operations, or other portfolios with a single dashboard.
Share dashboards with stakeholders
Give executives, sponsors, and leaders view access to dashboards. This cuts down on manual reports and keeps everyone aligned with live ClickUp data instead of static slide decks.
Step 8: Continuously Improve Your ClickUp Portfolio Setup
Project portfolio management is not a one-time setup. As your organization grows, refine how you use ClickUp to manage projects.
Review and refine fields and views
On a regular basis:
- Remove custom fields that no longer add value.
- Standardize naming across Spaces and Folders.
- Archive outdated views and dashboards.
- Update templates to reflect your current best practices.
This keeps your ClickUp workspace lean, fast, and easy for new users to understand.
Train teams on portfolio practices
Ensure everyone understands:
- How to update project status and fields correctly
- When to escalate risks and timeline changes
- How prioritization decisions are made
- Where to find portfolio dashboards and reports
With consistent adoption, ClickUp becomes a single source of truth for all portfolio decisions.
Next Steps and Supporting Resources
To deepen your project portfolio management skills, you can explore specialized consulting or additional resources beyond the core ClickUp documentation.
For example, portfolio and process optimization specialists like Consultevo help teams design scalable workflows that complement your workspace setup.
Use the concepts above, along with the detailed examples from the original ClickUp project portfolio management guide, to build a portfolio system that aligns every project with your strategic goals, budget, and resource capacity.
Need Help With ClickUp?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your ClickUp workspace, work with ConsultEvo — trusted ClickUp Solution Partners.
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