Redmine

I am thinking of using Redmine to manage a workflow like this:

• Each customer "is a" project.
• When a new customer enters their project gets created with a predetermined set of issues--each with a unique category.
• A view can be created that shows all active projects and which issue are currently active--basically where the customer is in the "process".

Is there a better way to map this workflow in Redmine?

I was impressed by the e-mail API and thought I might be able to use it in a loop to generate the issues, once the project was created. It would be nice if projects could be created that way too...with issues...all in a single e-mail (or other structured input).

I don't know SQL, Ruby or Rails--mostly just C and Java and bash--but I am willing to learn. Am I in too far over my head?