If the light’s red, the project’s in trouble – it’s as simple as that. With the project traffic light in InLoox, you can instantly see which projects demand your full attention. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to quickly and easily set up the project traffic light using custom fields.
Where do we actually stand? This question echoes through project teams regularly—sometimes with a slight note of panic, often right before a steering committee meeting or when the open task list starts to feel like a bottomless pit. And when your project landscape includes hundreds of individual initiatives, answering that question quickly and confidently becomes nearly impossible.
This is where a clear, visual guide comes in: the project traffic light. Placed prominently in your project overview, the traffic light doesn’t just signal if everything is fine—it also highlights where attention is needed.
The easiest way to implement a traffic light in InLoox is by using custom fields. The idea is simple: project managers assess the project using defined criteria, and then set the traffic light status accordingly:
These criteria can be standardized and clearly communicated across all project stakeholders. For example:
Green – Everything’s on track:
The project is running smoothly. No metrics of the project triangle are off. Schedule, budget, and resource usage are within approved limits, and the quality of deliverables meets expectations.
Possible Metrics for Green:
| Metric(s) | |
| Schedule in Gantt (time) | ≤ 5% deviation in activities or milestones |
| Project finances (budget) | ≤ 5% deviation from planned budget |
| Resource utilization | Within approved limits |
| Risks | Only known, assessed, and controlled risks are active |
| Quality | No critical issues, testing and reviews on target |
Yellow – Caution, slight deviations:
The project shows early signs of deviation—whether in scheduling, costs, or resource load. The situation is still under control, but without intervention, it could get worse.
Possible Metrics for Yellow:
| Metric(s) | |
| Schedule in Gantt (time) | > 5% but ≤ 15% deviation from plan |
| Project finances (budget) | > 5% but ≤ 15% deviation from plan |
| Resource utilization | Temporary overloads or bottlenecks (e.g. vacation, illness) |
| Risks | New risks with moderate likelihood or impact |
| Quality | Issues in testing, documentation, or QA, but still manageable |
Red – Critical, escalation needed:
Things are on fire. There are major issues—activities are delayed, milestones are missed, the budget is overrun, and project goals are still far away. Time to escalate or potentially stop the project.
Possible Metrics for Red:
| Metric(s) | |
| Schedule in Gantt (time) | > 15% deviation or major milestone misses |
| Project finances (budget) | > 15% deviation, requires additional funds or reserves exceeded |
| Resource utilization | Key roles unavailable with no replacement |
| Risks | High likelihood and/or severe impact, no adequate mitigation |
| Quality | Serious defects threatening delivery or customer satisfaction |
Pro Tip:
Don’t rely purely on numbers—the traffic light should reflect a judgment, ideally made by the project lead and reviewed by the PMO. Numbers alone can be misleading: a project with a 10% budget deviation and unclear staffing might be riskier than one with 18% budget deviation but high-quality results and clear risk mitigation.
In InLoox, go to Settings > Custom Fields, and under the Project tab, follow these steps:
IMAGE: Create a custom field in InLoox. ©InLoox, Inc.
1. Click New and name the field "Project Traffic Light."
2. Choose List from the field type menu.
3. Click Save—your new field will appear at the bottom of the list.
IMAGE: Create list entries for the new custom field and use emojis. ©InLoox, Inc.
4. On the "Project Traffic Light" row, click the list icon on the far right to open the configuration window.
5. Click New to add list entries. Use "Green ", "Yellow ", and "Red ". Tip: Press Windows + . (dot) to open the emoji window.
6. Optionally, define a default value for the field, e.g. Green.
7. Once all three entries are created, click Close. InLoox saves them automatically. Custom fields are visible by default—which makes sense for the project traffic light.
IMAGE: The custom field for the project traffic light is created. ©InLoox, Inc.
The custom field “Project Traffic Light” will now automatically appear on the project detail page for every new project created in InLoox. If a default value—such as Green—has been defined, the traffic light will initially be set to Green and can then be adjusted by the project manager after reviewing the relevant metrics.
InLoox automatically adds a column for each custom field to the project list.
IMAGE: Drag the column Project traffic lights into the project list. ©InLoox, Inc.
To display the traffic light:
1. Right-click any column header in the project list.
2. Select Choose Columns.
3. Type “Traffic Light” into the search box.
4. Click the "Project Traffic Light" entry and drag it into your preferred spot in the list.
To save the view:
1. Click the three dots in the top-right corner.
2. Select + Save as New View.
3. Name it (e.g., “Traffic Light View”) and click Save.
Want to share this view with your team?
1. Go back to the three-dot menu and click Manage Views.
2. Toggle Globally Visible for “Traffic Light View.”
To get even more clarity, group your list by traffic light status.
IMAGE: The project list view grouped by the column Project traffic lights. ©InLoox, Inc.
1. Right-click a column header, enable Advanced Mode
2. Drag the "Project Traffic Light" column into the grouping area above the list. Projects will now be grouped by Green, Yellow, and Red.
Using a project traffic light is a simple but powerful way to add clarity and structure to your project list. Project managers and the PMO can quickly identify where action is needed and respond accordingly. No guesswork. No panic. Just a clear picture of where things stand—and where to steer next. That’s proactive project management in action.