Service Manager - Projects Tutorial

Overview#

• A project on a service ticket breaks the work into milestones, task groups and tasks, each with a resource, dates, hours and a status.
• Projects can only be used on tickets with a class that has Projects checked. The Project Templates and resources are set up first (see How to Create a Project Template).
• For every button, field and option, see Service Manager - Projects.

💡These tutorials explain how to add a project to a ticket, add and change tasks, schedule the project, create Tasks from it, track components and progress invoices, and view the Gantt chart.

How to Add a Project to a Ticket#

1. Open the ticket, or create one with a class that uses projects (see How to Create a Service Ticket).
2. Click Project (tab).
3. Click Add (button). The template popup opens.
4. Project Template = Select the template.
5. Click Add (button), then Close (button). The milestones, task groups and tasks of the template are added to the project.
6. Note: The template's items are copied, so later changes to the template do not change the project. To get the template's new statuses, select the tasks and click Actions (button) > Update Status from Template/s.

How to Add or Change Tasks#

1. Open the ticket and click Project (tab).
2. Click Edit (button).
3. To add an entry, right-click the entry next to it and select one of these:
   • Add Sub-item (Ctrl + Enter)
   • Insert Item Above (Ctrl + Up)
   • Insert Item Below (Ctrl + Down)
   • Duplicate (Shift + Alt + Down)
4. Fill in or change the fields of each task:
   • Description = Enter what must be done.
   • Resource = Select the staff member, Cost Centre or department that does the task.
   • Predecessor = Select the task that must be completed first. Only tasks at the same level in the same group can be selected.
   • Days and Est Hrs = Enter how long the task takes.
   • Billing = Select None, Fixed, Variable or Out of Scope.
   • Status = Select the status as the work progresses.
5. Click Save (button).
6. Note: To see the actual hours and variances, check Hrs. The actual hours come from timekeeping on the tasks (see Service Manager - Timekeeping Tutorial).

How to Update Tasks in a Batch#

1. Select the entries (hold down Ctrl to select several).
2. Click Actions (button) > Batch Update and select what to change, for example, Resource, Start or Move Dates by Days.
3. Select or enter the new value in the block next to it.
4. Click Update (button). At … Record/s will be updated. Continue?, click Yes.

How to Schedule a Project#

1. Open the ticket and click Project (tab).
2. Click Actions (button) > Schedule. The scheduling fields and Schedule (button) appear.
3. Fill in the fields:
   • Start = Select the date on which the project starts or restarts.
   • End = Select the date on which the project is due.
   • Level = Select the level to schedule: Tasks, Groups or Milestones.
4. Click Schedule (button) and select one of these:
   • ASAP (From Project Start Date) = Schedules each entry as soon as possible from the start date, and calculates the end dates.
   • ALAP (From Project End Date) = Schedules each entry as late as possible before the end date, and calculates the start dates. Without an end date, the message Please enter a Project End Date. appears.
5. Select Every day, Exclude Sundays or Exclude Weekends. Fixed dates are not moved.
6. Note: To link every task to the one before it, click Schedule (button) > Set Start-to-Finish (SF) Predecessor before you schedule. To keep the planned dates for comparison, click Set Audit Dates to Start Dates; the Moved (d) column then shows how many days the start dates have moved.

How to Create a Task from a Project Task#

1. Open the ticket, click Project (tab) and click Edit (button).
2. Right-click the task and select Tasks > Create New Task. The new Task opens and is linked to the ticket.
3. Note: The task needs a resource and a Pending or Active status. Otherwise the message A Resource has not been assigned to the Task. or The Task is not in a Pending or Active status. appears.

How to Track Components and Progress Invoices#

1. Open the ticket and click Components (tab).
2. Add the components:
   • Click Add Component (button) and enter the Description, Group and Total (exc).
   • Or click Import Components (button) to import them from the items on the linked quotation. Importing only works while the list is empty.
3. As the work progresses, update the % Complete of each component.
4. To invoice the progress, click Actions (button) > Create Transaction > Create Progress Invoice from Components > Customer Invoice. The invoice is for the percentage completed less the percentage already invoiced.
5. Note: To set the percentage invoiced without an invoice, select the components and click Actions (button) > Set % Invoice = % Complete.

How to Create a Quotation from a Project#

1. Open the ticket.
2. Click Actions (button) > Create Transaction > Quotation. Each milestone becomes an item, with the hours as the quantity and the resource's hourly rate as the price.

How to View the Gantt Chart#

1. Open the ticket.
2. Click Gantt (tab). The tasks are shown against the calendar, for the levels that are scheduled.