Jobs & projects

A job is a single project you're delivering, whether that's a fit-out, a refurbishment or a maintenance visit. It pulls together the client, the site, the people working on it, the tasks to be done, and all the money in and out - quotes, invoices and supplier bills - in one place. From a job you can see at a glance how much you've spent against budget, what's been invoiced, and how the job is tracking to profit.

How to create a job

1. Open the Jobs list and select New job.
2. Choose how to start: a blank job, from an enquiry, or from an accepted quote. Starting from an enquiry or quote pulls the client, site (where available) and value across automatically, and you can change anything afterwards.
3. Give the job a title and pick a job type - both are required - then choose the client, which is also required.
4. Optionally add the site, a start date and target completion date, the job owner, any crew, an estimated value and internal notes.
5. Select Create job. The job number is generated automatically and the job opens.

Working the job

Open a job from the list to see its summary cards for budget, invoiced, profit, outstanding and tasks, along with its tabs. Use the status control near the title to move the job through Planning, In progress, On hold, Completed or Cancelled.

On the Tasks tab, type a task title, optionally add a description, due date and one or more team members, then add the task. Tick the box next to any task to mark it complete, and tick again to reopen it.

On the Financials tab, switch between Quotes, Invoices, Purchase orders and Bills. You can log a supplier bill directly here with its description, category, supplier, net and VAT amounts and status.

On the Contacts tab, you'll see the job's primary client plus any additional people linked to the job, such as a site manager, QS or architect. Select Link a contact, search for the person or business, add an optional role and link them in - each linked contact takes you straight through to their full contact record.

In the sidebar you can edit the job description, add timeline milestones, and see who's assigned and any supplier RFQs raised against the job.

For your field team

A team member opens My tasks to see the tasks assigned to them, grouped by job. They open a task to see what needs doing and the site address, with a link to navigate there, then start it to clock in and check out again when finished.

Good to know

• Job numbers are automatic. Each job gets a project number built from your workspace's project prefix and the next number in sequence, for example SC-115. You can't set it by hand, and the number shown while creating a job is only a preview - the final number is assigned when you save.
• A title, job type and client are all required to create a job from the main New job panel.
• Starting from an enquiry or quote links the records. Creating a job from an enquiry marks that enquiry as Won and links it to the new job. Creating from an accepted quote links that quote to the job.
• Marking a job Completed automatically stamps today's date as the job's end date.
• The financial summary rolls up automatically. Spent is supplier bills plus approved labour from time entries - purchase orders are treated as commitments and never counted as spend, and labour still awaiting timesheet approval is shown separately as provisional. Invoiced counts only invoices that have actually been issued, so drafts and voided invoices don't count. Profit is invoiced minus spent, and margin is profit as a percentage of invoiced. Outstanding is invoiced minus paid. The spend bar turns red once spend goes over budget.
• Tasks track completion only - Not started, In progress or Completed - and a task can be assigned to several crew members at once.
• A job can have several linked contacts. The primary client is shown as Primary and is changed from Edit job details rather than the Contacts tab. When a job is created from an enquiry, any contacts already linked to that enquiry carry across automatically.
• A quote's invoice status is worked out automatically from issued invoices against the quote total, unless someone has set a manual override on that quote.
• The Jobs list filters by status group: Active (planning and in progress), On hold, and Closed (completed and cancelled). The top-of-page figures show active jobs, overdue jobs, pipeline value and total outstanding.
• You can search the jobs list by job title, client name or job number.
• Deleting a job file removes it permanently, and is limited to office users.