A milestone marks a concrete event in your build — "Architect engaged," "Permit received," "First invoice paid." Some complete on their own when Hemma sees the right signal. Others need you to confirm. Here is how to tell them apart.
Hemma watches the project for specific events and marks milestones complete when it sees them. The kinds of events it looks for:
When Hemma detects the right event, the milestone moves to completed and the timestamp is recorded automatically.
Some milestones have no automatic signal — they require a judgment call only you can make. "Preliminary design approved," "Soil conditions accepted," "Handover of keys." These stay incomplete until you mark them yourself.
To complete a manual milestone:
If Hemma auto-completed a milestone too early — say it detected a document upload but you think the milestone is not really done — you can unmark it.
If Hemma has not seen the triggering event yet but you know the milestone is done — a contractor was agreed by phone and no invoice has landed yet — you can mark it complete yourself. Click Mark as done on any incomplete milestone, regardless of how Hemma normally detects it.
Tap the milestone's name. It expands and shows, in one sentence, what actually has to happen before it is done — no construction jargon, just the explanation. This works for every built-in milestone. Milestones you add yourself carry no explanation, because you wrote them.
Some milestones carry a padlock and the word Key. It means Hemma looks at this milestone to tell whether the phase starts or is finished. The rest you follow at your own pace. The same explanation appears when you expand the milestone.
Key milestones can be renamed but not deleted — otherwise Hemma can no longer tell when the phase begins or ends.
Do milestones affect my project timeline? Yes. Milestones are what determine whether a phase is active or done. A phase does not move to "done" until its required milestones are complete.
Can I delete a milestone? In edit mode you can delete any milestone except the key ones — the ones with the padlock. Key milestones can still be renamed, and any milestone can be marked complete or left open without consequence.
Can I add my own milestone? Yes. At the bottom of any active phase, click Add milestone and give it a name. Custom milestones always require manual completion.