Table of Contents
Introduction to Operations
This article details the setup of the Operations module, to learn more about how to utilize the module please review Queue Management and Operations Scheduling Management.
The Operation Module is built utilizing Assignments and the Jobs they are applied to. These assignments are line items that are taken from Job Creation through Invoicing. The definitions below explain each feature or functionality that must be set up in order to be utilized. Those that are required have been marked with an asterisk (*). Please review Operations Setup for details on how to set the features or settings up.
Jobs Definitions
Jobs are designed to contain detailed information on billable and non-billable assignments for a specified amount of work. They also are designed to assign equipment and employees to their assignments. Included below are features and settings to consider and set up.
- Assignment Collections: Assignment Collections are groups of assignments by date range. When an assignment collection is created for a date range, assignments are generated for each day within that range. These collections connect Jobs and Assignments. Please note editing or removing an assignment collection will not remove preexisting assignments that have been attached to a service ticket or if they have time submitted on them from an employee. Assignment Collections that group assignments that are marked as not schedulable will generate assignments for the date range of the Job.
- Job Status: Job Status represents the position of a Job in relation to other Jobs. For example, Confirmed, Estimate, Ready for Quote, and Will Call are defaulted options. Job numbers are sequenced Jobs by status. Every job may also be sequenced together regardless of status if settings are marked as such.
- Job Templates: Job templates are preset Assignment Collections to assist in faster job creation. It is recommended to utilize job templates for jobs that repeat the same assignments collections.
- Job locations: Job locations are required for every created job. These may be prebuilt into the system or applied at the time of job creation. A table records job locations into the system for present options if desired.
- Special Conditions: Special conditions are preset tags applied to a job. These tags are commonly utilized on reports to specify that a job is "Above Ground", "Below Ground", "Contract Job", etc.
- Regions: For full details on regions please review Company Settings. These may apply specific headers to quotes and invoices. Additionally, they link assigned crews to jobs. Assigned Crew: The assigned crew is a field that allows you to assign individuals to a job without assigning them to a specific assignment. These may be preset based on the region assigned to a job. Clients: Clients are required for every job. They may be a preset option within the client table or created at the time of job creation.
- Client Notes: Client notes are specific notes saved to a client. They display only when a client is assigned to a job. They may be pre-set on the client table or created at the time of job creation.
Assignments Definitions
Assignments are specific individual services performed on a Job. While throughout the platform they have different names, such as Bill as Types, Billing Types, Type Rate, Service Ticket Line Item, Approval Line Item, and Invoice Line Item throughout this article they are by convention called an assignment.
- Assignment Collections: Assignment collections are groups of assignments by date range. When an assignment collection is created for a date range, assignments are generated for each day within that range. These collections connect Jobs and Assignments. Please note editing or removing an assignment collection will not remove preexisting assignments that have been attached to a service ticket or if they have time submitted on them from an employee. Assignment Collections that group assignments that are marked as not schedulable will generate assignments for the date range of the Job.
- Assignment Rankings: Assignment rankings are present fields to be applied to assignment collections. These commonly are utilized to track the difficult assignments on reports.
- Assignment Type: Assignment type links employee roles and asset types. This is utilized to recommend employees and Assets with the given Employee roles and Asset Types when dispatching the Assignment.
- Asset Type: The asset type is a categorization of assets. These may be anything from cranes to gearboxes. Applying these to an assignment collection recommended employees when assets are assigned.
- Asset Class: An asset class is a subtype of an asset type. Examples include the capacity of cranes or forklifts. These must be preset before you can apply them to an assignment collection to further limit selectable assets beyond asset type.
- Bill as Category Billing Categories: are groups of assignments identified for accounting. These are commonly utilized for reports.
- Billing Type Rates: Billing type rates are required on assignments. If a rate is not known every time this Assignment is assigned on a job, it is recommended to assign the value 0. This mitigates the need to assign a "0" every time an assignment collection is created during job creation. Additionally, costs by the same convention should be assigned 0 if unknown.
- Units of measure (Billing Rates): Units of measure (billing rates) are required when setting up Billing Type Rates. The most common units of measure utilized are hours, days, months, each, etc. These are specified during service ticket submission.
- Employee Role: Employee roles are groups of employees who are recommended on assignments when assets, with specified asset types, are assigned to the job as well.
- Special Instructions: Special instructions are information provided to the employee assigned to the assignment collection or assignment. These instructions are only available to the job creator, dispatcher, and assigned employee.
Field Services & Operations Setup
This module is best set up in a specific order. By following these steps you eliminate the need to go back and forth between steps. The following sections are presented in this recommended order.
Preliminary Setup
The Preliminary Setup includes information important throughout the entire platform and not exclusively in the Operations Module. Before setting up Operation settings these must first be completed. These steps are recommended to do it in the order provided. Please review each article provided.
- *Company Settings: These settings record detailed information on your company. This information is most utilized in the operations module for headers on Quotes, Invoices, and Forms.
- *User Management: These settings grant access for individuals to the platform as well as limits permissions.
- *Employee Management: These settings represent employees to be notified for any given job within the Operations tool. Employees may or may not have access to the platform. If they do, they must be linked within User Settings. All employees may be assigned to a Job. However, only users will have access to the platform.
- *Asset Management: Equipment represents all assets to be assigned to Job Assignments. While these may be edited and added to in the future, it is recommended to include the currently available equipment within the company.
- **Time Tracking Management: The Time Keeping Module records the time employees submit for the work that they have done. This time does not represent billable time to be charged on an invoice. Billable time is tracked through the Operations Module.
- Inventory Management: Inventory represents all the parts, tools, or products to be utilized for a Job. Set these up so that this information will be available for Jobs.
- Profile Settings: These settings adjust column widths in the All Job, Day, and Pending Queues within Operations > Queues. Also, they adjust homepage and regions settings.
*Required
**Required unless time costing is tracked out of another system.
*Job Settings
*Job Status represents the position of a Job in relation to other Jobs. For example, Confirmed, Estimate, Ready for Quote, and Will Call are pre-set options. Additionally, these statuses are sequenced either by status or collectively. Adjust this option by navigating to Settings > Jobs > Job Status > Use globally toggle. To adjust or add statuses themselves navigate to Settings > Jobs > Job Status > Select a Status or Add Job Status. The options below represent the fields on job statuses and how they function throughout the platform.
- *Name: Job Status names display in various areas throughout the platform. These include everywhere a Job is labeled, such as in Scheduling, Queues, and Approvals Queue (Beta). This name may be overwritten by the Status Reference Display Name field.
- Current Status Number: This field represent the current number a job will populate with when set or created with this status. This number increments up every time a job is set or created with this status. This field will represent the number of all statuses if the Use Globally toggle is selected. Optionally increase this number if a specific job number range is desired. Decreased numbers are not supported.
- Status Reference Display Name: This field will override the Name field if desired.
- *Color: This color will display along with the name associated everywhere the job is labeled within the platform. These areas include Scheduling, Queues, and Approvals Queue (Beta). Currently, the platform only supports the displayed color values.
- *Default: This setting will differentiate the selected Job Status as default from all others when creating a Job.
- *Active: This setting when deactivated will remove the Job status selection when creating a job. Current jobs with this status will persist with this status and will not be deleted or removed.
- *Black Text: This setting when selected will assign black text for the text on job status. This is only applicable to Status bars within the Day, Pending, and All Jobs Queue. Utilized this when bright colors are selected for the Job Status.
*Required
Locations Job locations are applied directly to Jobs. These also report to employees where work is performed. While typically you can add an address during job creation you may also provide a list of pre-set locations to choose from. This is helpful for jobs that frequent the same location. These are populated onto a job by filling out the location name. To fill out pre-set location navigate to Settings > Jobs > Locations > Select a location or Add Job Location
- Name: This field once filled out allows you to prepopulate the location of a job.
- Description: This field distinguishes locations with similar names.
Assignment Type links employee roles and asset types. This is utilized to recommend employees and Assets with the given Employee roles and Asset Types when dispatching the Assignment. To create assignment types navigate to Settings > Jobs > Assignment Types > Select an Assignment Type or add Assignment Type.
- Name: This categorizes assignments that recommend employee roles on specific assets during dispatch. While this does not completely limit employees being dispatched. It does notify dispatchers when an employee does not have the employee role recommended for the asset. This notice is viewed when assigning an employee to an assignment in which an asset has an asset type associated.
- Asset Type is a categorization of assets. These may be anything from cranes to gearboxes. Applying these to an assignment collection recommended employees when assets are assigned.
- Employee Role is a group of employees who are recommended on assignments when assets, with specified asset types, are assigned to the job as well.
Assignment Rankings are present fields to be applied to assignment collections. These commonly are utilized to track the difficult assignments on reports. If these are to be utilized the list must first be pre-set. To create this list navigate to Settings > Jobs > Assignment Rankings > Select a Ranking or Add Assignment Ranking.
- Name is the ranking of difficulty of Job. Commonly Easy, Medium, Hard, Etc.
- Sort Order: The sort order ranks the difficulty of jobs in a set order. These are commonly displayed on configurable reports.
Special Conditions are all additional tags applied to a job. These tags will be available for any job created. Typically these are used to indicate "Contract Jobs" or "Above Ground" mines however options are not limited and are widely used. These fields often are helpful in account reports. These must be pre-set if desired to be utilized. However, they are optional. To create special condition tags navigate to Settings > Jobs > Special Conditions > Select a Special Condition or > Add Special Condition
- Name: Name the tag to be an optional selection when creating a job.
*Billing Setup
Navigation: Settings > Billing
Billing setup is where you set up rates, costs, products, and categories onto an Assignment. To set up billing, it is recommended to approach this in the order presented. This will mitigate going back and forth for multiple assignments.
*Unit of Measure: These options are what will be presented on a Quote, Service Ticket and Invoice. These are most commonly hours. However, you may also utilize these fields to bill for Days, Months, Each time the Assignment is performed, and/or at a flat rate. To create or edit these options navigate to Settings > Billing > Unit of Measure > Select a Unit of Measure or Add Unit of Measure
- *Name: This indicates the name of the Unit of Measure. Commonly Hours, Days, Months, Each, Flat Rate, etc.
- *Is Active: When a Unit of Measure is marked inactive it no longer becomes available when setting up an Assignment (Billing Type). Open Assignments that already have these units of measure applied to them will continue to be available.
*Required
Billing Categories (Bill as Category) are groups of assignments identified for accounting. These are commonly utilized for reports and filtering Assignments on a Quote. To create or edit these options navigate to Settings > Billing > Billing Categories > Select a Billing Category or Add Category.
- Name: Categories are often called Labor, Equipment, Safety, Travel, etc. To distinguish Assignment. They may directly correlate with Assignment Types. However, these fields are strictly for accounting and reporting purposes.
- Is Active: When a billing category is marked as inactive it no longer displays on a Quote. This will not remove any existing Assignments (Billing Types) associated with this category.
*Billing Types (Assignments, Bill as Types, Type Rate) are the assignment that you assign to a job. These assignments flow through the entire platform from Job Creation, Quoting, Dispatching, Service Tickets, Approvals, and Invoicing. Understanding the settings below is critical in establishing the Operations workflow. To find and adjust these settings navigate to Settings > Billing > Billing Types > Select a Billing Type or Add Type
- *Name: These names are what display when assigning an assignment to a job. If you have the same Assignment with a different rate do not create another assignment. Many rates may be assigned to an assignment. Renaming an assignment or changing an Assignment (Billing Type) will adjust the line item throughout the entire platform. Therefore if adjustments are required it is recommended to mark an old one as inactive to preserve the historical data and create a new Assignment (Billing Type).
- Bill as Category (Billing Category): Apply created Billing Categories on the Assignment (Billing Type). This will allow you to filter assignments on quotes and reports.
- Assignment Type: Apply Assignment types to an Assignment (Billing Type). This will recommend Assets and Employees when being assigned or dispatched to the Assignment (Billing Type).
- Asset Class: This is a subcategory of Asset Types. This field allows you to further limit the recommendation of an asset when dispatching the Assignment (Billing Type). This is common for assets with differing capacities.
- *Is Billable: When an assignment (Billing Type) is marked as billable and is submitted on a service ticket. It will populate within the approvals queue to be approved and then invoiced. When an assignment (Billing Type) is marked as non-billable (Unchecked), the assignment will be dispatched but not available to submit on a service ticket, approvals, or invoicing.
- *Is Active: When an Assignment (Billing Type) is not active. It will no longer display when creating a Job. This will not remove the Assignments (Billing Types) from created jobs, quotes, dispatched jobs, service tickets, approvals, or invoices.
- *Include in Production Schedule: When this setting is marked Assignments (Billing Types) that are created will not include a time range. Assignment Collections or group assignments that are marked as not schedulable will generate daily assignments for the date range of the Job.
- *Include with Task Timers: When this setting is marked, this Assignment (Billing Type) becomes available for mobile users to select when creating their own Assignment Timers. Deselecting it will remove it from their option.
- Form Templates: This setting allows you to attach a Form Template to be filled out and required every time this Assignment (Billing Type) is attached to a Job.
*Required
*Billing Type Rates are required on assignments. These are rates and costs that you apply to an Assignment (Billing Type). Many rates may be applied to an Assignment (Billing Type) to only accommodate special rates for clients. To create and edit these rates navigate to Settings > Billing > Billing Type Rates > Select a Billing Type Rate or Add-Type Rate.
- *Rate: If a rate is not known every time this assignment is assigned on a job, it is recommended to assign the value 0. This mitigates the need to assign a "0" every time an assignment collection is created during job creation.
- Type: Attach the Assignment (Billing Type, Rate Type) to Billing Rate.
- Unit of Measure: This is the measurement of the Rate. Commonly they are Hour, Day, Month, Each, Etc.
- Product: Optionally assign a product. Products are inventory line items. This will include the product every time this billing rate is applied to an Assignment (Billing Type) for every job it's assigned to.
- *Cost: If cost is unknown it is recommended to assign a value of 0. This will mitigate the need to fill out the value every time this Assignment (Billing Type) is assigned to a Job.
- **Clients: Clients may be given special rates. Assign them here. Please note that multiple rates only support one client per rate. Optionally assign created Billing Type Rates to clients on their client profile. To do so navigate to Operations > Select a created Client > Billing Rates > Add-Type Rate.
*Highly recommended for job creation workflow. If unknown mark the value with a 0.
**Required if building out multiple rates. Only one client is supported per Billing Rate.
Job Templates
Navigation: Operations > Job Templates
Job Templates: Job templates allow you to create groups of Assignment (Billing Rates) which are commonly used for repeating Jobs. Once these templates are assigned for multiple days they become groups of Assignment Collections on a Job.
- Template Name: Template names allow you to quickly identify groups of assignments. Commonly they correlate with job phases. Job Phases are optional when creating a job and represent stages a job goes through.
- Billing Types (Assignments): Assign multiple Assignments to a Job Template. They must first be created to be available.
Import Clients
Navigation: Operations > Clients > Once Created Select Again
Please review Import Tool Management for more information on mass importing data. This section discusses editing, reviewing, and creating a single client and contact at a time.
Clients may be created at the moment you create a job. Alternatively, if a list of clients is provided, additional information can be stored on them. This is helpful when sending out Invoices, and reviewing special client rates.
General: Record general information on a client in this tab.
- Name: This is the name of a client which displays everywhere a job is created.
- Email: This email prepopulates on a completed invoice. If a client's email is not in the correct format, you will be unable to create a job that this client is assigned. The format to follow includes email@domain.com.
- Phone: This phone number is not the contact information applied to a Job. Store this information for reference when contacting client headquarters.
- Accounting ID: This ID is important when integrating with QuickBooks Online as it will link the client when set up across platforms.
- Notes: These notes are available at the time of job creation or when editing the job. When the client is assigned they are displayed every time. Commonly these are added upon if the additional context is needed with subsequent jobs.
- Street 1: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
- Street 2: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
- City: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
- State: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
- Country: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
- Zip/Postal Code: Store this information for reporting or contact purposes. This is not the job location but the client's headquarters.
Financing: Record financing information on this tab.
- Payment Terms: May be applied to a Client. When assigned to a client these terms default on Invoices and quotes of jobs that the client is assigned to.
- Credit Score: Record the client's credit score. This is commonly used on a report
- Credit Limit: Record the client's credit limit. This is commonly used on a report.
Billing Rates: Assign special rates to assignments for the indicated client.
- Billing Type Rates: These represent the special rate, cost, and product that you apply to an Assignment (Billing Type) for the selected client.
Import Contacts
Navigation: Operations > Contacts > Select a Contact or Add Contacts
Please review Import Tool Management for more information on mass importing data. This section discusses editing, reviewing, and creating a single client and contact at a time.
Invite to Client Portal: Optionally invite contacts to the client portal. This gives them access to view assets and their documents assigned to the Client Portal. Review QR Code Management for more information.
Contacts are clients you assign to a job as the point of contact. Additionally, they may be Vendors. This contact information is available to employees when they are assigned to the job. Commonly these are simply created at the time of job creation.
- *Name: This is the name of the Contact
- Phone: The phone number is saved during job creation if provided. This becomes automatically available on subsequent jobs to which this contact is assigned.
- Email: The email is saved during job creation if provided. This becomes automatically available on subsequent jobs to which this contact is assigned.
- Job Title: Optionally provide a Job title. This information is commonly used for a report.
- Client: Assign a contact to a client. This displays the available contact when a client is assigned to a job.
- Vendor: When a vendor is attached to this contact they become the point of contact for the selected Vendor. See Inventory Management for more information on Vendors.
*Required
Calendar Customizations by User
Calendar settings are assigned within Operations > Scheduling > Settings Cog in the top right of the screen. These options include business hours to be displayed on the Calendar and the color label codes available. These settings are adjusted by the user, meaning each unique log in may assign their own set of colors to the calendar.
The color code options are edited by navigating to Settings > Calendar.
Owners: These color settings adjust job cards within the People Section of Scheduling. When an owner is assigned the card will display the indicated color.
- Association: This is the name of the Owner
- Color: Select the color, Only The colors provided are available.
Regions: These color settings represent the Job cards on the Asset Table. When a Region is assigned to an Asset and that asset is assigned to a Job.
- Association: This is the name of the Region
- Color: Select the color, Only The colors provided are available.
Status: Unassigned Assignments within the Scheduling tool are attached to the job. When the Job Status changes this color updates according to the Job Status assigned. These unassigned assignments are displayed on both the People and Asset Tables.
- Association: This is the name of the Job "Assignment" Status.
- Color: Select the color, Only The colors provided are available.
Discount Settings
Navigate to Admin > Company > Billing Setup to create discounts for invoices.
- Click Create New Discount Type
- Name the Discount
- Apply a Quantity for percentages or dollar Amount
- Optionally select (+) to create a discount with the same name but a different value
- Save
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