Project modes: PSA-synced or Current-native

6 min read · Updated Jul 18, 2026

Every project in Current has a sync mode, chosen when you create it. It decides one thing above all: whether this project talks to your PSA at all. Get it right at creation and everything downstream — time, billing, budgets, the sync badge — behaves the way you expect.

There are three modes: Autotask-synced, ConnectWise-synced, and Current-native. Because a workspace connects one PSA at a time, in practice you're choosing between two: synced (named for your provider) or Current-native. Current-native is the default; the synced mode is what you pick for work that bills through your PSA.

Note

The mode names your PSA honestly

A synced project is always named for the system it actually syncs to — a ConnectWise project reads ConnectWise-synced, an Autotask project reads Autotask-synced, a Halo project reads Halo-synced, never a generic "synced". If you ever disconnect a PSA, its projects keep that mode and freeze safely rather than re-attaching to a different provider — see "Autotask, ConnectWise, or HaloPSA: choosing your PSA in Current".

The modes, side by side

The Portfolio — every project carries its mode (PSA-synced or Current-native).

	PSA-synced (Autotask, ConnectWise, or HaloPSA)	Current-native
Source of truth	Your PSA for time, billing, and financials; Current for scheduling	Current for everything
Time entry	Allowed — entries post to your PSA's billing	Blocked on a project that isn't linked to a PSA — Current can't reach billing
Budget	Pulled from your PSA (budgeted hours and labor revenue) and refreshed on every sync, tagged with the provider's name	Whatever you enter in Current, and it stays yours
PSA API calls	Yes — pull and push	None, unless you explicitly confirm a build
Resync button	Yes — pull this project's latest phases and tasks	Not shown — there's nothing to pull from
Best for	Partner work you bill through your PSA	Internal projects, presales, cross-department and ops work
Mode field (project panel)	Autotask-synced or ConnectWise-synced	Current-native (purple)

Heads up

You cannot log time on a Current-native project

This surprises people, so it's worth stating flatly. Current's time-entry guard fails closed: it only lets you log time on an item that can actually reach your PSA's billing — a synced task, in a synced project, by someone whose account is linked to a PSA resource or member. On a Current-native project you'll see a plain message that time can't sync to your PSA. If you need billable time capture on the work, make the project PSA-synced (or build it into your PSA later). See "Logging time and how it reaches your PSA's billing".

Choosing the mode when you create a project

1
Start a new project
New project from the top bar (available on any page), or clone a playbook or template from Playbooks.
2
Pick the mode
The new-project dialog offers two cards: the synced card, named for your connected PSA ("Bidirectional sync. Your PSA stays the source of truth for time, billing, and financials.") and Current-native ("Lives entirely in Current. No PSA sync — ideal for internal or cross-department work."). Current-native is preselected, and with no PSA connected it's the only card.
3
Give it a PSA-linked partner
In the new-project dialog the Partner field is optional — you can pick the synced mode without one. The requirement bites later. In the playbook/template deploy dialog, choosing to sync makes Partner required and it must be linked to a company in your PSA, or you'll be told to pick a partner that's linked first. And a project created synced without a PSA-linked partner simply fails at Build time with a message asking you to give it a client that's linked to a PSA company first.
4
Build it in your PSA
A project set to the synced mode but not yet created in your PSA shows a banner — "Not built in Autotask yet" or "Not built in ConnectWise yet" — with a Build button (project managers and admins see it). Press it and Current creates the project, its phases, then its tasks in your PSA.

Note

The build is safe to re-run

Each build runs inside a bounded time window, so a large project may not finish in one pass (a run of repeated PSA failures will also stop it early). The build is idempotent — it skips anything already created and only makes what's missing — and Current auto-resumes it, showing a running count. If it still stops short (the banner will say something like "3 of 40 tasks haven't synced"), press Build again. Nothing is duplicated.

Turning a Current-native project into a PSA project

A project that started life in Current can be built into your PSA later. There are three deliberate doors into that conversion, and each of them makes you say so explicitly:

＋The playbook or template deploy dialog — "Where should this project live?" → sync to your PSA, which builds the project there first, then creates all its tasks. A PSA template project always builds in the PSA; that's the point of it.
＋The won-quote wizard, when you choose to deploy the resulting project to your PSA — see "ScalePad Quoter: turn won quotes into projects and charges" (Autotask) or "ConnectWise CPQ: turn won quotes into projects and charges" (ConnectWise).
＋The Build banner on a project already set to the synced mode.

Heads up

The conversion is permanent, and the server refuses to do it by accident

Building a Current-native project into your PSA converts it for good — the project flips to the synced mode the moment its PSA record is created, and your PSA takes over time, billing, and financial truth. Because that's irreversible, Current refuses any build request for a native project unless the request carries an explicit confirmation from one of the deploy flows above. A stray or programmatic request fails closed with a message telling you the conversion is permanent and asking you to confirm the build explicitly. There is no one-click un-sync afterwards.

The one path back to Current-native

If a project is deleted on the PSA side, Current notices, verifies it, and archives its copy — nothing here is deleted, and nothing syncs anymore. The archived banner then offers "Restore as Current-native": because there's no PSA project left to sync against, restoring brings the work back as a Current-native project so task edits don't keep trying to push into a project that no longer exists. A project restored as Current-native keeps its old PSA links, so edits on tasks that were already synced may still try to reach the PSA (and will error, because the PSA project is gone).

Where the mode shows up around the app

＋The project detail panel has a Mode field reading Autotask-synced, ConnectWise-synced, or Current-native (purple). The project header carries a live sync badge — Synced, Sync error, Awaiting sync, or Current-only.
＋The portfolio's Sync filter lets you slice by synced, Current native, Sync conflict, or Stale (7d+) — the fastest way to find projects that think they're syncing but aren't. (Conflict and Stale are filter options, not badge states.)
＋Reports exports carry a column that names the project's provider — or Current — per project.
＋Task assignment differs: a synced task carries a primary PSA resource plus optional secondaries, while a Current-native task simply has a single assignee.

Note

Native means genuinely untouched

A project that has never been built in a PSA makes no PSA calls at all — no scheduled sync, no push, no background job. The only call it can ever produce is the build you confirm yourself. If a screen offers an unconfirmed PSA action on a native project, that's a bug — report it.

For the reasoning behind the split, read "Our methodology: your PSA stays the source of truth". For what Current does and doesn't write back on a synced project, see "What Current writes back to Autotask (and when)" or "What Current writes back to ConnectWise (and when)". For the build flow in detail, see "Building projects in your PSA from a template or won quote", and if a synced project looks wrong, start at "Reading the sync health dashboard".

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