Master Data vs. Project Data

GreenVee divides its data into two broad categories: records that are shared across the whole system and records that belong to a single project. Understanding this distinction makes it much easier to find things, understand who can change them, and predict what happens to data when a project ends.

The rule of thumb

If you would use it on the next project too, it is master data.
If it dies when the project closes, it is project data.

An employee is master data — she exists in the system regardless of which projects she is on. Her time entries on a specific project are project data — they only make sense in the context of that project.

The German word: Stammdaten

You will see the term Stammdaten in the GreenVee interface. This is the German word for master data, and both terms refer to the same concept. If a menu or screen says “Stammdaten”, it is showing you reusable, system-wide records.

Examples side by side

Master Data (Stammdaten)	Project Data
Employee (person in the system)	Project Member (that employee’s role on one project)
Skill (e.g. “licensed electrician”)	Planned hours for a member on a task
Good Type (category of material)	Cost Occurrence (a specific cost event on a project budget)
Good / Variant (specific material with specs)	Project Risk / Chance (an operational risk or opportunity identified for one project)
Equipment	Task, Subtask, Milestone, Gate
Customer / Supplier contact	Time Entry (hours logged on a project task)
Project Type (classification)	Status Report
Takeaway Category (for lessons learned)	Budget and Cost Items
Portfolio, Program	Procurement order tied to a project

Note

Project Member is a good example of the boundary. An Employee is master data — they have a profile, skills, and a cost rate in the system. When that employee is added to a project, a Project Member record is created. That record carries the employee’s role and rate for that project and is project-scoped. The employee still exists in the system after the project ends; the member record does not outlive the project in a meaningful way.

See Project Members for more detail.

Why it matters

For day-to-day users: When something looks like it should already exist in a dropdown but doesn’t, it is usually missing master data. Talk to your company admin or a team lead — they can add the employee, skill, or good type that you need. You cannot create master data records from inside a project screen.

For administrators and coordinators: Changes to master data — like updating an employee’s skill set or adding a new good type — affect every project that references that record. Be careful when editing or removing master data records that are already in use.

For everyone: Master data records carry history. If a good type was used on 40 past projects, you can filter and report across all of them. Project data only gives you history within that project.

For Finance

Cost rates, budget structures, and takeaway categories are master data. If your cost reporting looks wrong, the culprit is often a missing or misconfigured master data record — not a mistake inside a specific project.

Caution

It is easy to confuse a Good (master data: a reusable material definition) with a procurement order (project data: the act of buying that good for a specific project). The good exists once; the procurement can happen many times on many projects.