Jobs & Work Orders with Toufic

1. Getting Started
2. >
3. Foundational Setup
4. >
5. Forms & Workflows
6. >
7. Finance Mgmt
8. >
9. Job Budget & WOs
10. >
11. Plant & Service Mgmt
12. >
13. Payroll Mgmt & Rules
14. >
15. Setup Knowledge Base
16. >
17. Scheduler
18. >
19. Rental

This guide expands on work management fundamentals by exploring the advanced features of Work Orders and the financial controls of Job Budgets.

We'll begin with a detailed look at the Work Order module, focusing on how to track and invoice direct costs like time and materials. We'll then shift to a more sophisticated project management approach by creating a Job and building a detailed, multi-level Budget.

You'll learn how to log actual costs against this budget, either manually or through a Site Diary, and then use the Productivity Tracker to measure progress and generate a Project Claim for progress-based invoicing.

Add a New Job Budget Basics Add a New Work Order

Scheduling a Work Order

Click to watch Video Overview (Exploring and Editing Work Orders)

On the Details tab of a Work Order, in edit mode, you can add Scheduled Dates - this will allow you to see the tentative schedule on the Scheduler.    Let’s add Plant to our Work Order and Assign the Work Order to an employee. We want to also update the linked Job as well.    Click Update to finalise the changes.

Navigate to the Scheduler module - by default it will display the Day and Jobs schedules.   From here you will see the Work Order Schedule - it will display the Work Order, the People, and the Plant that you scheduled previously.

Adding a Task and Action

Adding Tasks

Let’s navigate through to the Work Order and click the Edit pencil to switch to Edit Mode.

From here, let’s click on Tasks - this is where we can edit the status or details of a task, or manually add new tasks.

To add a new Task, click the New Milestone button to add a milestone - or right click on a Milestone to Add Task.

This is where you can now add Cost Types, Services, Descriptions, as well as Quantities, Pricing, and Statuses.

Adding Actions

Click the Actions tab at the top to navigate to that area.

Click the New Action button to add a blank action line. This is where you can Name it, give it a Description, and select which Form Template applies. Click Update Work Order to add or update your Actions.

The Transaction Tab

Click to watch Video Overview.

Let’s navigate to the Transaction tab of the newly updated Work Order.   This is the crucial dashboard that tracks the financial records for quotes, cost estimates, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Time, and Materials are recorded.

Adding Time and Material to the Work Order

Now, let's talk about adding Time and Material to a Work Order.
On the Work Order itself, you'll navigate to the Transactions tab.

From here, scroll down to the Time section. On the right, click the Plus icon to add a new time record to the Work Order. 

This record can be for either Labour or Plant time.

The process is exactly the same for material – in the materials section, click the plus icon. Then, you'll record the information you need for that material, such as its cost, sell price, and billable quantity.

Once we have added a Time Log and a Material, we can use these to create an Invoice. 

At the top of the Transactions dashboard, click the Create New Invoice button.

This will put the Work Order into Selection mode - scroll down and select that Time Log and the Material you created just a moment ago. Back at the top of the dashboard, click Generate Invoice - the default issue and due date is 1 month. Click Generate to create this invoice.

Before Adding a New Job

➕ Add a New Job

Add a New Job - Video Overview

 

 

Add a New Job

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Add a New Job

Before adding a New Job… The following questions will help guide you through how to create or set up a Job in Prestartr, or determine is another feature, such as a Work Order, might be more appropriate. Do you need to track a specific budget for the work? Do you need to keep a daily attendance register? Do you need to maintain an asset allocation register? If you don't need any of the above points, you might be better suited for a Work Order.

Video Overview: Create a Job (1/2)

Video Overview: Create a Job (2/2)

General Details

This section has the initial and crucial details needed to create a Job in Prestartr.

The most critical fields include the Name, Client, and Zone - most other areas of the system will require these fields to function correctly.

Name	Code
The name of the Job.	The shorthand for the Job.
Zone	Status
The team for the Job.	The status of this job.
Groups	Address
Is the Job part of a group?	The address of the job.
Client	Client Representative
The Client for the job.	The user liaison.
Purchase Order #	Job Markup %
The Client PO.	The markup.
Assigned Users
Assigned users.
Notes
Overall notes.

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Job Shift Rules

Default Start Time	Default End Time
The starting time of the Day shift.	The ending time of the Day Shift.
Default Lunch Start Time	Default Lunch End Time
The start of the Lunch period.	The end of the Lunch period.
Default Lunch Break Duration (Hrs)	Default Lunch Break Days
Duration in hours of the Lunch period.	Which days does a Lunch Break apply.
Default Minimum Shift Duration (Hrs)
The minimum number of hours for a Shift.

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Scheduling Details

Default Notification Message
The content of the notification, if any, that is sent.
Mandatory Training and Induction
The related Qualification needed for this Job.
Default Schedule Start Time	Default Schedule End Time
The start time of the standard Schedule.	The end time of the standard Schedule.
Default Schedule Night Start Time	Default Schedule Night End Time
The start time of the standard Night Schedule.	The end time of the standard Night Schedule.
Notify Users Before Allocation
Enable or disable notification for users when allocated.
Push Notification Type	Push Notification Message Title
Yes and No is the only current available option - this is the options displayed to the end user from the notification.	The title of the push notification.
Push Notification Response Email List
A list of emails that will be informed of the responses selected by users from the Push Notification.

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Cost Control Details

First Claim Period Start Date	First Claim Period End Date
For setting up your Project Claim dates, the start date for the first Claim.	This is the end date of the first Claim.
Claim Per Calendar Month
Yes or No if you want to make a claim per calendar month.

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Rental Details

Rental Contract Name	Dockets Require SMU?
Name of the rental contract.	Does the docket require the current odometer.
Bill by SMU?
Billing by Odometer on the Plant.
Docket Recipients
Who will recieve the docket.

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Files

When creating a Job, you can upload images and PDF files to it prior to adding the job to the system. 

If you do not click Create Job, you will need to re-upload any files you had previously uploaded.

Print this out!

 

 

Creating a Budget Against a Job

Budget Basics

Budget Basics

Creating a Budget against a Job in Prestartr requires two primary items: Items Subitems Lets cover the fields available when creating both a Milestone and a Subitem.

Click here for video guide

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Budget Items

A budget Item is a container of subitems, with either a set cost, or a calculated cost dependant on the subitems. Example Items might include “Site Preparation” or “Foundation Work, and mark key progress points and deliverables.

To add an Item, click the Add Item link below the budget.

To add a Subitem, right click on an Item in the budget and click Add Sub-item.

Item

Item breakdown

When creating a Item, there are seven relevant fields to consider.

Not all fields are required, however incomplete fields may reduce functionalities of optional parts of the Job Budget.

The fields of a Item include:

• Name
  This is the name of the Item as it appears on contracts or quotes.
• WBS Code
  This is numbered breakdown on the Work Breakdown Structure.
• Description
  This is the longer-form description of the Item, as needed.
• Start/End Date
  The start and end date for the Item.
• Revised Budget
  This option when enabled will set the Item Budget to be calculated. The value is derived from the Subitems.
• Apply Margin and Contingency & Colour
  This is a legacy feature - if your company uses this feature, you will know. 😊

 

 

 

Subitem

Subitem breakdown

When creating a Subitem, there are multiple fields to consider.

Not all fields are required, however incomplete fields may reduce functionalities of optional parts of the Job Budget.

The fields of a Subitem include:

• Name
  This is the name of the Subtiem as it appears on contracts or quotes.
• WBS Code
  This is numbered breakdown on the Work Breakdown Structure.
• Description
  This is the longer-form description of the Subitem, as needed.
• Classification
  Mark the subitem as part of the Contract or as part of the list of Variations.
• Start/End Date
  The start and end date for the Subitem.
• Revised Budget
  This option when enabled will set the Subitem Budget to be calculated. 
  The value is derived from the Actuals against the Subitem.
• Cost to Complete
  This is the value that describes how much it will cost to complete this item.
  Also known as its Forecast.
• Budget
  The allocated value for the item - also known as its Target - It combines the following subfields:
  • Text: descriptive text of the subitem such as Concrete.
  • Quantity: amount of the subitem, dependant on the Unit. (500)
  • Unit: How the quantity is measured - for concrete it may be m3. (500 m3)
  • Unit Price: the price per unit of the subitem. (ie $200 per m3)
    • This would read as such: Concrete Slab - 500 - m3 - $200 - $100,000
• Quantity to Date
  Displays as either a value or percentage of the work completed.
• Quantity to Complete
  Either a value or percentage of the work remaining.
• Rate to Complete
  The value for the remaining quantity to complete.
• Retention
  Toggle on or off if Retentions are enabled. 
  When enabled, set a percentage for Retention.

 

 

 

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Print this out!

 

 

Building a Basic Budget

Use the step by step instructions below to explore the basics of creating a Budget in Prestartr.

Step 2

On the Budget Dashboard, you will now see an entry for your recently created Budget item.

Right-click the Budget item to display the context menu.

Click Add Sub-item.

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When adding a Subitem, it functions similarly to when adding a top-level Item, just with extra details available.

The same basics of Name, WBS Code,  Description, and Start/End Dates are available at the top, followed by the more specific subitem details.

Complete these details as needed, then look to Line item sections underneath to begin populating the specific costs within the subitem

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Click the + icon next to a cost centre to add a new cost to the Subitem. Depending on the cost centre, it may be a free-text field or a drop-down field populated with relevant options.

To the left of each cost is an Edit icon - click this to add the quoted value of each cost.

Click to see the Edit Screen of a Line Item

Below is an example of the Edit screen for the Labor line item.

 

 

Add and edit your line items to your Subitem. Click the Save icon in the top right to add this Subitem to your budget.

 

 

Step 3

After adding your Item, Subitem, and Line items to your Budget, you can now expand/collapse the budget with the two arrow icons at the top left of the budget.

This will expose or hide the full details of your budget.

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This covers the basics of building a budget.

 

 

Adding Budget Costings

Once we have set up our Job budget - the next step is to record costs. This can happen in multiple ways, but for this session we will focus on using the Site Diary form and manually adding costs via the budget dashboard.

Add Manual Costs

While we are on the budget dashboard now, let’s add our manual cost first.

From the top of the budget dashboard, the third icon from the left is the Add Cost button.

Click the Add Cost button to open the cost window.

From this window, you can set the date the cost occurred, select the specific sub-item, and the cost type, which aligns with the line items, then set the Unit, Quantity, and Rate of the cost.

Click Create Job Cost to add the cost against the budget.

Add Site Diary Costs

To add a Site Diary cost to this budget, we need to either access an existing Site Diary or create a new one - for this session, we will add a new one from the Job Dashboard. 

There are two options from the Job Dashboard, clicking the Create New button in the upper right corner and selecting Site Diary or by clicking Create New in the lower right corner, in the Site Diary section of the dashboard.

Once we have created our Site Diary - fill out the details as needed - the most important aspect for this however are the tabs at the top of the form - Labour, Plant, Orders, External Labour, External Plant. For this session we will add a Labour entry.

Click the Labour tab at the top of the form.

From this tab, click the Add Labour button on the right hand side to add an empty labour line.

Fill out the details here and click the checkmark on the right hand side to save the labour entry.

Let’s navigate back to the budget and see these costs.

Productivity Tracker

At the top of the budget dashboard you will now see a change against the budget graph - Actuals and Forecast. If you expand out the budget items you can also see the updated budget information at the sub-item and line item level.

The next step of this process is to set these changes up against the Productivity Tracker - which informs and populates the Project Claims dashboard of the budget.

In the upper right hand side is a drop down menu that says Budget - click here and select the Productivity Tracker.

From here you can Import your Items and Sub-items using the button second from the left at the top of the screen - a small black plus. This will import all item and sub-items.

Import Items and Subitems to the Productivity Tracker

Once you have imported them, click the pencil icon to the left of the import button. 

You can now update each subitem with the correct QTY, Unit, Rate, and completion percentage. 

Click the save button when you are finished.

These details will now populate and push to the Project Claim window - let’s navigate there now. From the dropdown menu in the upper right, click Productivity Track and switch to Project Claims.

Project Claims

From the Project Claims menu, this is where you can generate claim invoices based on the information from the budget and from your costs.

Create a Project Claim

To create a new Project Claim, check the box next to the item or subitem you want to add to the claim invoice. In the upper right corner of this dashboard, click the Invoicing plus button.

The popup menu will be where you can confirm the creation of the project claim invoice.

Click Create Invoice and it will navigate to the new invoice.