HowTo

HowTo

Add a New Project | Use the Pricing Worksheet | Use Projects Buttons

Add a New Project
To start a new job in BusinessMaster, open the Projects Manager by clicking on the Add New Project link from the Projects/Jobs Main Menu. The How To's below cover different aspects of adding a new project into the system. It starts from the Customer/Header Information at the top, then through the bottom tabbed screens of the Projects Manager from left to right. Use the links below to see the different sections.

Add Customer/Header Info
The first step to adding a New Project from the Projects form is to enter what we call the Job/Phase header information into the new project.

There are 10 fields to walk through here:
Job Number:
Press the Add button at the bottom of the form, and the system will automatically assign a new job number and phase number for the new job. This number is the next sequential job number in the system. The job number is a required field for a new job, as indicated by the red box around the field.

Phase Number:
A job can have an unlimited number of phases. The only requirement is that each phase number has to be unique. The job phase number is the same thing as the Sales Order # in the Sales Order form. Its a good idea when starting a new phase, to use a decimal and number after the main job number. The first phase of every job is the same as the Job number. The phase number is a required field for a new job, as indicated by the red box around the field.

Enter the Job Type:
When you pressed the Add button the systems assigns the new Job number and phase and places your mouse cursor in the Type field. Enter the Job Type here. The type field is for entering the Type of Job being added. Order Types are used in reporting and job costing. A recommended convention is RW for ReWork, NO for New Order, and CO for Change Order. The job type is a required field for a new job, as indicated by the red box around the field.

Enter an Action Code:
At this time, you can also enter an Action code for the new job. Action codes are not required, and not used in reporting, but they can be useful in differentiating one phase of a job from another phase in the job. A convention for actions might be R for Repair, or W for Warranty, C for Customer, or anything you can think of that would be useful in describing a particular phase of a job. The action field is a secondary field that can be searched and sorted through.

Select the Customer:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the next field, the CustomerID field. Begin typing in the customer ID to select it, and/or select it from the drop down menu. When you select the Customer, the system automatically associates the customer with the project and puts in their Ship To address in the Sales Info screen, if there is a Ship To address for the particular customer in the AddressBook. The CustomerID is a required field for a new job, as indicated by the red box around the field.

Enter Description:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the Description field. This is the description or notes for the particular phase of the job. Enter an appropriate description. The description can be up to 255 characters long, and every time you see that particular job phase, you are always going to see the same description as entered in this field, whether it's on reports, or drop down lists, or purchase orders, etc. It's the same as how you always see the company name when you see the customerID.

Enter Payment Terms:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the Terms field. Enter a Payment term, if desired. This field is for customers who needs some extra tracking inside of BusinessMaster, and don't necessarily do it in their accounting packages. Terms is really an open field, and can be used by assigning codes to stand for different terms. For example, "A" could stand for 100% on deliver, "B" could stand for 50% down and 50% on delivery, and "C" could stand for 50% down, 40% on deliver, 10% on completion of installation. Using Terms here is a shortcut way to put in this kind of information. This is helpful when doing progressive billing because things like "Net30" aren't going to apply here.

Enter a Billing Method:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the BillingMethod field. Enter a Billing Method, if desired. This is another open field that can be used to assign codes to represent different billing methods. An example of a billing method is "FFF", where it is would be used in conjunction with our "C" term above, and stand for "Fax, Fax, Fax" for faxing all three billings to the customer. Another example is "MH", which could stand for "Mail, Hand Delivery" for delivering the billings.

Set a Priority:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the Priority field. Enter a priority, if desired. This field is used if a customer wants to set a priority for all phases that are scheduled in the same week, sorted numerically.

Enter "Sold By" Initials:
Press the tab key on your keyboard to send your mouse cursor to the Sold By field. Enter in your initials here, if desired. This field can be used for
the person who sold the order to enter his or her initials here.

The Tabbed Screens
The Job Phase number and the Customer (Header) Information are the hub or center of the Projects Manager, and the bottom screens of the Projects Manager are the spokes for all the information that can be associated with the job phase. It is important to note that the tabbed project screens are not in any kind of logical order. We are just going through them from left to right to bring order to our presentation for this Tutorial. Some customers won't use all or many of these screens. It just depends on what is applicable to your process. Starting from the left of the form, the first of the tabbed screens is the Sales Info screen.

Add Sales/Prod Info <Top>
Click on the Sales/Prod tab to open the Sales Info screen. The first thing to notice about the SalesInfo screen is that many of the fields have yellow boxes around them. This is to indicate that they are not required fields, but it is recommended that they be used.

Enter the Bidding Info:
The first fields at the top are for bidding information. If you want to record bidding info. and treat the particular phase as a bid, click inside the BidReqDate field and type in the request date for the bid. Tab to the BidDueDate field and enter the due date for the bid. Tab to the BidCompleteDate and type in the Completion date for the bid. Pressing the tab key on your keyboard from here takes you to the FirmPrice checkbox. If you want to indicate your bidding prices as being firm in the system, then press the space bar on your keyboard or just click in the box to place a check in the box.

Enter the Bidding Prices in the Pricing Category Fields:
Tab to the next row of fields. These are pricing breakdown categories where the labels can be customized to whatever you decide, and then a total price.

***Note: The labels here are defined in the Preferences. Utilities/Preferences/Production/PricingNames.

The four pricing fields added together should match the total price as indicated in the TotalPrice field. These prices are primarily used for Job Costing.    For example, I could see my TotalPrice on a job is $10.000 as indicated in the TotalPrice field, and my total costs were $9000, therefore I made $1000. These fields help you sort out how much you have forecasted in different aspects of a project/sale. These are the Sales Dollars represented in a project.

The prices are manually entered into these fields so click in the first field, and enter in the first price, then tab to the other three fields and enter the other prices. When your first four fields total the amount in the TotalPrice field, the background in the TotalPrice field will be red. If they don't match, the background will be red in the TotalPrice field. This is to safeguard against unrecognized changes to the amounts.

You can also just enter the prices in the first four fields and then click on the UpdateTotal button to update the TotalPrice field to make it the sum    of the four prices. The TotalPrice as indicated is also important because it is also used as a measuring stick to tell whether you are billing enough on your jobs.

When the Price for the job has been set and firmed, you can check off the FirmPrice checkbox to indicate this in the system.

Enter the Customers PO:
Press the tab key from the TotalPrice field to send your mouse cursor to the CustomerPO field. Enter the customer PO# here, if you have been given oneby the customer placing the order.

Enter the Project Ship To Information:
Tab from the CustomerPO field to the Project Ship To fields. If the Ship To address for the customer was not imported when you selected the    customer in the header, then tab through the fields here and enter their shipping address. If you are entering the information at a later date, you may mport the address from the addressbook using the Import AddressBook Ship To button.

Enter the Production Stage Dates:
Simply tab through the fields and enter the dates you estimate to complete the stages by.

Use the Additional Production Milestones:
Above the 6 production stages are some additional fields that serve as milestone statuses. They are Designed, Detailed, and Purchased. You can not change the heading on these. They serve as helpful indicators because most of the time in a custom manufacturing environment, everything needs to be designed, detailed, and materials need to be purchased. Check off the appropriate boxes, if desired, to flag these statuses for the Job Phase. It is important to note that if you want to include Jobs and/or Phases in MRP runs, the Detailed/MRP checkbox must be checked for that Job/Phase.

Use Transfer to Finished Goods
The Transfer to Finished Goods feature requires some intitial setup to work properly. First go to the Utilities/Preferences/Production screen and check off the ProjectFinishedGoods check box. It is also important to remember that the Transfer to Finished Goods feature does not debit the component parts. You would debit component parts materials by using the Materials Estimates and/or Actuals seperately in the Projects Manager.

Automatic Transfer to Finished Goods

If you desire the Transfer to Finished Goods to happen automatically at a specific point in Production, you can do so, but it is based on a Time Punch happening in a specific department towards the job. To set this up, go to the Utilities/Preferences/Production screen and select the Labor Department from the Preferences/MRPFinishStage menu. Once these preferences are set and a time punch is made toward that job and department in the Time Collection Manager, or when a manual WIP entry is made into the Edits Form via the Labor Administrator, then the Line Item on the Sales Order will transfer to Finished Goods automatically. (Just adding a Labor Actual will not work.) If you do not select a Labor Department, then by default, the Transfer will happen when you conduct the Transfer manually.

Manual Transfer to Finished Goods

To Transfer the Line Item(s) to Finished Goods manually, check off the Transfer to Finished Goods check box, then select the Inventory Location. Now when the Complete Stage is checked off and the Projects Manager is closed out of, the Transfer takes place in the sytem, and Inventory is credited.

Enter Job Spec Values:
The Job Specs fields are where you can set up customized specifications for your jobs and use them to track information on your jobs. The labels here are user defined. The left column lists 6 fields for numeric tracking. The right column lists 6 fields for text entries. You can track how many things there were in these fields on one phase compared to another phase, what your performance was, or what your job costing was. You could even use it for scheduling, based on how many of something per week you are using on your jobs, by dollars or by hours. You want to set up generic things here that are similar to every phase.

***Note: Go to Utilities/Preferences/Specs to customize the Job Specs labels.

Click in the top left field and enter the first Job Spec value. Press the tab key to go through and enter the job spec values in each field until you finish at the bottom right field. When finished entering your specs, you can exit the screen and your changes are saved automatically by the system.

View the Master Stage Report:
Click the Master Stage Report Button from the Production Stages screen, if desired. It reports all the phases for the current job that is being displayed. This will show the production status of the job as a whole, broken down by phase numbers This is convenient when there are many phases for a particular job to get a quick report for viewing all the specific stages of production for that job. Click here for more information on this report.

View the JobMaster Report:
Click the JobMaster Report Button from the Production Stages screen, if desired. This will produce a one page master report that is only for the specific phase being evaluated. It will show you the Description, the Ship To, the Specifications that are set up, and show you the Production Stages for this phase. This can serve as a print out for your Production Manager to indicate whats being made and it's status. This print out could be attached to shop drawings, and things like that.

Add Line Items <Top>
Click the Line Items tab to open up the Line Items screen. The Line Items screen is the place in BusinessMaster for Sales Order Entry. (All Sales Order fields and functions that were formerly accessed in the Sales Order Manager are accessed in the Projects/Line Items screen in BusinessMaster versions 4.99a and newer.) Click here for more detailed information on creating Sales Orders in BusinessMaster.

Enter Line Items Manually:
To enter in your line items, click inside the QytOrd field. Enter in the quantity of the first line item. Tab to the next field, and type in and/or select the Item from the drop down menu. Tab to the next field, and modify the description, if desired. Descriptions can be edited per Order and will not change the default descriptions as they exist in the ItemMaster records. If you would like to have a larger description field in which to write your descriptions, simply double-click on the description field. This will give you a larger popup field in which to write your description. When you are done writing your description in the popup window, double-click that window to get back to the Line Items. Tab to the next field and modify the UOM, if desired. Tab to the next field and check off the item as taxable, if appropriate (Pressing the space bar also works to check the box). Tab to the next field and modify the price, if appropriate. Tab to the next field, and enter the Customer Part Number, if appropriate. Tab to the next field and enter the CustDate, the customer wants the Item delivered by. Tab to the next field and enter the MastDate, the date you say you can have the item delivered by. Tab to the next field, and if you are going to be drop shipping this item, select the Vendor from the drop down menu. Tab to the next field and if you selected a Vendor, enter the amount which is the quantity of the item that is going to be drop shipped.

Note: If you are manufacturing Finished Goods, you can have an unlimited number of line items listed in the Line Item screen, all going to a Finished Good. This is untypical for most Work Order systems. Most systems only allow you to build one Work Order per line item at a time. You could build a Work Order from 14 line items here and our system accomodates that. This is an innovative aspect of BusinessMaster.

Export Line Items:
If you have Bill of Materials and Stockbills set up in the system, then Line Items that contain BOM's and/or Stockbills lists can be exported out to the other screens for this project or phase. To do so, simply press the Export button. You will get a popup verification box asking if you want to export costs. If you click yes, then the costs will be present in the Materials list. If you click no, then there will be no costs in the Cost fields for the Materials in the Materials list. (Depending on how you are handling your jobs, you may or may not want costs listed.) The system will automatically calculate the quantity and explode out the materials needed to the Materials screen, any Labor Estimates to the Labor Estimate screen, and any Stockbill instructions to the Stockbill screen.

Report Buttons:
Press the Print Quote Button to generate the stock BusinessMaster Quote/Estimate Report for the Phase or Sales Order for printing, emailing, faxing etc.
Press the Print Reports Button to generate the Sales Order Requirements report, which is like a picking ticket for production manufacturing. Its a pull ticket that shows what needs to be put together for this order to ship to the customer. A costed Sales Report is also generated for the Phase or Sales Order. This can be used as a confirmation to send to the customer.
Press the Drop Ship PO Button to make a PO to your Vendor with the Customers address in the Ship To with Customers date as the Promise Date. The PO Manager will come up for placing the PO. The new PO will also reference the Job number.
Select the Inventory Location, then Press the Make Invoice Button to ship the order complete as it is. It will automatically create the Packing Slip, which debits inventory, and creates the Invoice and then generates the Packing Slip and Invoice reports for printing.
Press the Make Packing Slip Button to just generate the Packing Slip. The Packing Slip Manager will open so you can complete it manually and then you can generate an Invoice from there.

Enter a StockBill <Top>
Press the Stockbill tab to open the Stockbill screen. The Stockbill screen provides for things like Cutlists and Work Instructions that can be associated with Projects and Phases of Projects. Many manufacturers have automatic design programs that do this kind of thing for them, but if they    don't have them, they may want to put in what their instructions of cutlists are. The stockbill is where you enter instructions on how to build the project or phase. It helpful when things need to be built to certain dimensions. The stockbill does not transact inventory and can be associated with Items as templates and be imported into projects.

Enter Stockbill Manually:
To enter in a stockbill manually, simply walk through the fields with the tab key. From the first line, click inside the QtyOrd field and enter the quantity of the item. Tab to the next field and type in and/or select the item from the drop down menu to select the item. Then press the tab key again and enter the dimensions (T, W, and L stand for Thickness, Width and Length), then tab over and enter the date and notes in the appropriate fields.

Import Stockbill:
You may also import a Stockbill Template by pulling up an Item that has an associated stockbill template from the Stockbill Desc drop down menu. Then click the Import button and select the quantity you would like to build for this project. Click here for information on creating Stockbill Templates.

Export Stockbill from Line Items:
You can also build stockbills from your Project line items. If there is a stockbill for the line items in your project, press the Export button from the    Line Items screen and it will export or explode out the stockbill, materials list and labor estimates to the corresponding screens, automatically calculating for the quantity of the Line Item as well.

Make Any Necessary Changes:
The next step after importing a stockbill, or exporting it from Line Items, you can make any necessary adjustments/changes for the open job.

Export Summary to Materials:
Press the Export Summary button once the stockbill is set up with the quantity and dimensions for each item, and it will load up the materials list    in the Materials screen with the correct calculations of raw materials needed to complete the neccessary production.

Add Materials <Top>
Click on the Materials Tab to open the Materials Screen. The Materials screen is the bill of materials for the project phase. It lists what is being used to build the product. Is a Quantity, Item Number and Action Date for each material thats needed to build the product for the specific phase. It lists as costs or charges against this project of phase anything that is not direct labor, like contracted labor or anything you're not paying an employee for. The Materials screen is for managing the job costing side of the job, and is used in inventory demand forecasting as well. It is the key form forthe majority of time spent managing jobs.

Materials lists, like Stockbills can be entered manually, can be imported from Bill of Materials, or exploded out from Line Items. There are also many other ways in the program to get to this screen.

Enter Items Manually:
First click inside the QtyOrd field and enter the quantity of the item. Tab to the next field and type in and/or pull up the Item from the drop down menu to select the item. Click inside the Description field if necessary to change the description for this entry. Tab to the next field and edit the cost if necessary. Tab to the next field and check the tx box if the item is taxable. Tab to the next field and change the date if you'd like. By default it will be the start production date, but you can change it. Click on the Inv field if necessary to change the inventory location you want to pull from. Press the tab key to go to the next line to enter the next item. When finished entering items, you can exit the screen and your changes are saved by the system automatically.

Import a BOM:
To import a Bill of Materials, type in and/or scroll from the drop down menu to select the Bill of Materials item. Next, press the Import button and Type in the quantity of the Finished Good you are building from the box that pops up. From there you can click in the fields and make any necessary adjustments to the raw materials in the list.

Place PO's:
You can place PO's from the Materials screen. To place a PO for a material, simply check the Item off in the PO column. Once you have selected the items you wish to place PO's against, press the PO button thats at the top right of the Materials screen. Items must have default Vendors set up for this to work. (This is done in the ItemMaster Customer/Vendor List.) PO's that have been placed from the Materials Screen are stamped on the PO's with "JobMat" in the OrderPlacedBy field. The PO is not placed until you place a check in the Placed Y/N box.

Search button:
Press the Search button to jump to the ItemMaster and search for an item based on its description.

Print Button:
Press the print button to generate the following series of reports:
1. Project Materials Stock Items - Reports on the stock items from the current list. These are things you would generally report through MRP for purchasing, but it's nice to be able to see them seperated out.
2. Project Materials Non-Stock Items - Reports on the non-stock items from the current list. This is the list of things from the list you don't keep in stock. These are things that need to be purchased and require longer lead time, etc.
3. Project Materials Requirements - This is a report that would generall be printed out and stapled to the job and sent to the floor so as things are pulled from inventory, the person doing the pulling will put their initials, the date, and how much they actually used of the material. This report can then be brought back at the end of the job, and the quantity in the Materials screen can be updated to reflect the actual usage on the job instead of the theoretical usage. This is how inventory and job costing are kept accurate.
4. Project Costs - This reports the project materials costs.

Export to Line Items:
If you are a manufacturer who invoices your customers for time and materials and you don't know what your line items are, but you know what you are building based on your materials list., then you can invoice a customer for the materials. To do so just click the export button and it will take all the materials in your materials list and export them to your line items list for invoicing. This provides your customer the itemized list of used materials, and what the sales prices are rather than costs as listed in the materials list.

Add Labor Estimates <Top>
Click on the Labor Departments Tab to open the Labor Estimates screen. The Labor Estimates screen displays estimates for how many hours per department that it takes to build a phase. Entering Labor Estimates presupposes that you have set up the Labor module for Labor collection. Review the other sections of this page for more information on setting up Labor Departments, Functions, Preferences, Employees, etc.

You can do the same things here as in the other project screens. You can import from a known template, you can enter the labor estimates manually, or (if you are building production finished goods) they can be exploded from the Line Items screen. This screen is part of the process for tracking labor costs against jobs and conducting department level scheduling. This screen is for companies that need to get more detailed in scheduling jobs than what the Sales/Prod screen provides for, and/or they need to get to the department level of scheduling their jobs.

The Labor Estimates screen tracks labor data by Hours, Departments, Functions, and Start/Completion Dates. From this screen you can track of the statuses of Jobs on a department level. You can track whether they have started or completed their work on the Job/Phase, and you can view the estimated Labor Costs, which are the Burden and Overhead Rates for the Labor Departments times the number of hours estimated.

Enter Estimates Manually:
First click inside the Hrs field and type in the hours estimated for the department. Tab to the next field and type in the department number and/or use the drop down menu to select the Department. Tab to the next field and type in the function number or select it from the drop down menu. Tab to the next field and enter the Job%, which is the estimated percent of the Labor Cost that this Department represents for the Job. Tab to the next field and type in the estimated Start Date. For Labor Planning, you want this start date to always be the closest Monday start date to your estimated start date. Tab to the next field and type in Notes, if desired. Press the tab key again to go to the Started status box and if the work has been started, check off the Started status box and the system will automatically enter in the date in the Updated field. Pressing the Tab key again takes you to the Completed field. When you check off this Completed status box, the system dates and time stamps the entry and automatically entered who checked it off as complete. The completed status is based on whoever the department lead is in the system. Press the tab key and edit the LaborCost if necessary. Press the tab key again to go to the next entry and repeat the steps to enter the estimate for the next applicable department. When finished entering estimates you can exit the screen and your changes are saved automatically by the system.

Import from Templates:
To import Labor Estimates from templates requires that Departments be setup in the Labor Module and that the templates be setup in the ItemMaster Labor screen for Item/Product first. Once these things have been done, you can type in and/or use the drop down menu to select the item. Then click the Import Button and type in the quantity from the box that pops up and the Labor Estimates will be imported. You will still need to enter Started/Completed statuses manually, and make your edits manually.

Here is a screenshot of the Labor Departments Manager:

Enter Labor Actuals <Top>
Click on the Project Labor tab to open the Project Labor screen. This screen is for tracking the actual labor that is spent on jobs. This comes automatically from time collection, or it can be manually entered.

Whether you enter in the data here manually, or your system is set up to collect Labor records automatically, it requires that your Labor Departments and employees are set up correctly. Click here for more information on setting your system up for Labor Collection.

Enter Labor Actuals:
Click inside the Date field and enter the date. Tab to the Next field and type in the Employees ID number and/or use the drop down menu to select the Employees ID. Tab to the next field and type in the Department ID number and/or use the drop down menu to select the Department ID. Tab to the next field and type in the Function number and/or use the drop down menu to select the Function#. Tab to the next field and enter the amount of Hours worked on the job phase. Tab to the next field and enter the amount of Overtime hours worked on the job phase. Tab to the next field and enter the amount of Doubletime hours worked on the job phase. Tab to the next field and enter the paydate. Press the tab key to repeat the steps for the next entry. When finished entering your actuals, you can exit the screen and your changes are saved automatically by the system.

Add Files <Top>
Each Phase can have an unlimited number of Files associated with it by using the Files Manager. Word and Excel documents can be viewed on screen. Files types that are not directly supported will show an icon. Double clicking the icon or screen will open the file.

Click on the Files tab.

Enter a simple Description in the Description field.

Click with your mouse cursor in the white area.

Click the Insert Object button from the main menu.

In the Insert Object dialog box, specify a path to the file. If the path is unknown, then click the Browse button.

Any file on your network can be linked to. Most files will display as icons when attached, but Microsoft Word and Excel and bitmap files by default will display where you can view the contents, unless you check off the Display as Icon box.

Select the Display As Icon check box if you want these types of objects to appear as an icon instead of as the object itself. Displaying these types of objects as an icon can be helpful when an object contains supplementary information that doesn't have to be displayed. Displaying an object as an icon also uses less disk space.

If the application being copied from supports OLE drag-and-drop editing, the file can be dragged directly from Windows Explorer or the desktop instead of using the Object command.
The size and proportions of the object can be adjusted after being pasted.

BusinessMaster running on Access 2000, and 2002 should show jpegs and gifs as images, but it has been reported in some cases that it will not work with Access 2002. If that is your experience, and you need to show the image instead of it displaying as in icon, then convert the image to a bitmap first.

In Access 2003, the only image format that will show as an image is bitmap (.bmp).

Enter Actions <Top>
Click on the Actions/History tab to open the Actions/History screen. This screen is for keeping records of any important information associated with the phase of the job. This is important because a lot of times issues happen on a specific job you are doing and not necessarily directly with the customer. This is a place to document the job, whether its conversations with the customer, or whatever you can conceive of.

Enter Records:
To enter actions or history, simply click in the date field to enter the date and press the tab key to go to the field below and enter the notes pertaining to the event. If required, or appropriate, also enter a follow up date and set of events in the Follow Up fields in the column on the right hand side.

Enter Billings <Top>
Click on the Billing tab to open the Billing screen. The Billing screen is for setting up the Progressive Billing against the particular job phase, which is part of Project Accounting. The entries in this screen show the billings that are to be sent out against the job phase.

Enter Billings:
To enter billings, first click in the Num field and enter the number of the Billing. Tab to the next field and type in and/or use the drop down menu to enter the Billing Description, which will refer to an Item in the system, labeled "Deposit" for example. The Billing Description has to be an Item in the ItemMaster, so if you don't have items for your billings, you will want to create them now in the ItemMaster.

Tab to the next field and enter the Note#. The Note# field here refers to which Invoice Note that will be used for this billing. There are seven to choose from, that can be customized in Preferences/Inv Notes. "1" is usually a deposit, "2-6" are usually intermediary billings, and "7" is for the final billing. Every time you enter a billing you will select the note you want to use.

Tab to the next field and enter the amount for the billing in the Amt field.

Tab to the next field and associate a Production Stage. This refers to the production stage that is going to flag you need to Bill the Customer. For instance, in the example below, once MasterProdStage4 was checked off as completed, this Billing was then ready for Billing.

This is all you need to do to set up the initial billing. You can tab through the remaining fields on the current billing row until it takes your cursor to the next row to enter the next billing. When finished entering Billings, The Total Amount of all the Billings is automatically calculated in the Total Amt field.

Process Billings:
For a quick way to see all the Billings that need to be conducted, refer to the Need to Bill Manager. When you are ready to send a billing out, click the ReqPmt button. This will automatically place a check in the Requested box, and records the date it was requested in the first Date field. It also automatically lists the amount in the BalDue field, and shows you the balance left To Request in the ToReq field. It also generates an Invoice which is listed in the InvoiceNum field, and generates two Invoices. One Invoice is for internal records, and the other can be sent to the customer as a request for payment. If you are are exporting to your Accounting Program, then you can go the Invoice Manager, and flag the Invoice ToPost. (The Invoice can then be printed from there as well if you still need to print it). Click here for more information on the Invoice Manager.

When you receive a payment in, check the PmtRec box , then enter the amount in the PaymentAmt field and then enter the date in the Pmt Date field.

The final step is to export the Invoice to your accounting program, where you click the To Post button to flag the Invoice for exporting. (Double-clicking the InvoiceNum field takes you to the Invoice.)

When this Invoice has been exported to your accounting program, the Payment Exported check off box will be checked off.

Enter Bookings <Top>
To set up and manage the Booking of Revenue for a job, open the Projects Booking screen. Follow the instructions below.
Select the SalesCategory
Click in the top SalesCategory field and select the Sales (GLAcct#) Category for the Booking from the drop down menu.
Select the Production Stage
Tab to the next field and select the Production Stage for this project/Phase that flags the need for this Booking to be accomplished.
Select the Description
Tab to the next field and enter the Description for the Booking. This is a simple description to help you understand what is being booked.
Select the Amount
Tab to the next field and enter the Amount of the Booking. The Amount of the transaction.
To Book
To find out what Bookings need to be processed, use the Need to Book Manager. When ready to A Check off box to flag the Booking for exporting to your Accounting program.
Booked
This button will create a Journal Entry transaction to be exported to your accounting program.
When the transaction has been processed, the Booked field will be checked, and the Date will be entered. You will not be able to book this again.

Use the Projects Buttons <Top>

Add/Edit Customer Button:
Pressing either of these buttons will open the Addressbook to add or edit the customers information. When you have finished editing the record in the AddressBook, you can click the "Copy and Paster ID" button and it will take you back to the Projects Manager.

Add Manual Button:
Pressing this button makes it possible to manually add a new job and phase number, instead of having the system assign it automatically. Then next time the Add button is used, it will assign the next sequential number from the one you've added.

Edit Phase Num Button:
Pressing this button makes it possible to change the phase number that is otherwise locked.

Explode Lines Button:
If you have multiple Line Items in the Line Items screen, and you press the Explode Lines button, it will take each Line Item entry and explode it out to its own phase of the job, including stockbills, materials lists, and labor estimates, if there are any for those Line Items. The line items from the original phase are left intact for things like shipping and project finished goods and things like that. This is helpful because a lot of times when they are different products, you really do want to track them seperately. They need to have their own schedule and materials, etc.

Duplicate Record Button:
Pressing this button will duplicate the information for the current job phase and allow for quick entry of a new phase of the job. We recommend changing the duplicated Phase to the Job number plus the next decimal integer. For example, if you had Job number 1000, with the JobPhase # "1000" as well, then the duplicate record would have Job # 1000, and JobPhase # "1000.1".

Pricing Worksheet <Top>
The PricingWorksheet is a live dynamic worksheet for real time planning and management of the jobs in your production schedule. It lists the JobPhases, OrderTypes, Notes, Priorities, the Production Stages of your jobs and what their dates are, and the Pricing categories as defined in the Sales Info screen in the Projects form.

With this worksheet, you can view, modify, filter, and sort jobs by the available criteria, and then report on your jobs based on the different views the Worksheet provides. The dollars, dates on the jobs can be edited directly from this form. This is a convenient way to filter jobs and manage production scheduling in real time. Reports can be generated from this form and you can also jump to specific jobs in the Projects form.

Filter by Selection:

The Filter By Selection tool is useful for filtering the Worksheet for specific groups of data. The most applicable selections to filter for in the Pricing Worksheet are scheduling Dates, job Types, and their Priorities.

Here is an example of Filtering by Selection for Scheduling Dates: Lets say there is a Job listed in the Pricing Worksheet with a Start Date of "2/23/04". I could click on this field in the Pricing Worksheet and then click the Filter by Selection button. It would then filter the Worksheet listing only the Jobs that have a 2/23/04 Start Date in the system. This would then allow me to view this set of jobs and manage their scheduling and pricing information and set their priority. For further filtering, I could click the Filter By Form button. It would have the selected 2/23/04 Start Date filter already present, and then I could apply additional filters. For instance, I could select "Is Null" from the Complete Date field, then I would click the Apply Filter button and then I would see all Jobs that were scheduled to Start Production on 2/23/04 and aren't yet completed. Then I could evaluate their pricing information, etc and set priorities on these Jobs.

Filtering by Selection in the Pricing Worksheet can also be useful for viewing specific Types of Jobs. (These Jobs Types are entered in the Type field of the Projects Manager when new jobs are added to the system.)

Here is an example of Filtering by Selection for Job Types: One of our clients has two main types of Jobs in their system. They have Retail Jobs and Wholesale Jobs. They track Types in BusinessMaster as either R jobs or W jobs. So when they want to see only Retail jobs in the Pricing Worksheet, they click in the Type field in a row where there is an R in the Type field. Then they click the Filter by Selection button. This filters out all the W jobs, so they only see the R jobs. From there they can then Filter by Form, etc, to get even more detailed in the view of their Retail jobs.

You can also use the Filter by Selection tool to view the jobs in your system that have the same Priority. Job priorities are set in the Header Information of the Projects Manager. We suggest you use standard integer priorities of 1, 2, 3, etc. Then from the Pricing Worksheet, you can click in the Priority field for a job with a specific priority, apply Filter by Selection, and then you can look at all the jobs that have that priority.

Sometimes it's useful to start filtering your jobs with this tool, and sometimes it is more appropriate to use it after you have Filtered by Form. See below for more information on Filtering by Form.

Sort By Scheduling Date:
You can sort your Jobs in the system by any of the 6 Scheduling Dates being tracked in the system. Click on a record in the Scheduling Column you wish to sort by, then click the Sort Ascending or Sort Descending button. This way you can see your jobs according to their various stages of production. For instance, if you wanted to see all jobs that have started production, and want to see them by the earliest start dates at the top, then click in a field in the Start column, then click the Sort Ascending button. This is a quick way to sort the list.

Filter By Form:

Click the Filter By Form button for more detailed views of your Jobs. It will bring up the Pricing Worksheet without any jobs listed and ready for selecting filters. From there you can apply filters for Scheduling Dates and Date Ranges that are before, after, and/or between dates. You can additionally use this to filter by whether a field is empty (null) or not. When you are ready to see the results of yours selections, click the Apply Filter button.

Here is an example of using the Filter by Form tool from the Pricing Worksheet: Lets say you want to see all the jobs in system with a JobPhase number greater than 290000, that have a Total Price greater than $10,000, and have a Start Production Date between 1/1/2004 and 2/1/2004 but that have not been checked off in the system as having Completed Production. First, click the Filter by Form button. Then type ">290000" in the JobPhase field. Then type ">10000" in the Total Price field. Then click "between 1/1/04 and 2/1/04" in the Start field. Next select "Is Null" from the Drop Down Menu in the Complete Field. Now click the Apply Filter button and view your results. If you wanted to make any changes, you could click the Filter by Form button again and it shows you the Worksheet with your last selections ready to be modified. This example should give you ideas for the various ways the Filter by Form tool can be used to view your jobs. You can also use it in conjunction with the other Filtering tools, such as Sort Ascending/Descending, Filter by Selection, etc.

Click here for some more information on Filtering and Sorting.

Here is a screenshot of the Pricing Worksheet (with only Completed Jobs listed):