Synergist User Quick Reference Guide

Transcript

Synergist User Quick Reference Guide Contents Page Tool Bar…………………………………………………………………. 3 Synergist Symbols…………………………………………………….. 4 Synergist Terminology ……………………………………………… 5 Creating a Prospect/Client …………………………………………... 6 Creating an Opportunity …………………………………………... 7 Estimating……………………………………………………………… • Time & Materials • Purchase Tenders 13 Quoting………………………………………………………….…….. 20 Purchase Orders……………………………………………………… 23 Activities & Attachments…………………………………………… 26 Web Time Sheets……………………………………………………… 30 Expenses………………………………………………………………. 33 Billing Plans ……………………………………………………………. 35 Creating an invoice………………………………………………… 36 Standard reports ………………………………………………………… 39 Data Viewer ………………………………………………………………… 41 User Name Page 2 of 44 pages Password Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide The Tool Bar Page 3 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Synergist Symbols Attach a document from your files Attach a template that you have created in Synergist. Search for specific information. Add New client, contact, job etc. Search for a date using the calendar. Check your spellings. Email the contact. Print the document you have created e.g. invoice. View the document you have created. Generate a PDF of the document you have created and email it. NEW – The ability to choose where to locate a copy of the PDF Page 4 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Synergist Terminology Synergist Term Synergist Definition Prospect A company who you have not invoiced before. You may be pitching or quoting work to them A Company who you have or will be invoicing. This company may have multiple contacts This is a quote status Job with a unique job number. It is the ability to record an opportunity for some work. This may be with an existing Client or an opportunity for new business with a prospect. Opportunities can be lost or promoted to Live. An opportunity can be promoted to Live. There may be a variety of internal procedures linked to a job being marked as ‘live’ A section of a job where all Purchase orders, timesheets and expenses are recorded. A job/opportunity could have multiple phases but must have a least one. A request from you to a supplier to provide goods or services that will be invoiced at a later date. A sales invoice is a request from your Company for payment for goods or services provided. Client Opportunity Live Job Phase Purchase Order Invoice Page 5 of 44 pages Notes Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Creating a new Prospect 1. To create a new Prospect select: Clients and jobs on the tool bar and select the menu item Clients. Click on the triangle to change the selection to show ‘Prospects’. 2. To create a new Prospect click on the blue cross 3. The Prospect code is automated. Enter the Prospect details and click ’Save’. 4. Other Prospect details might include: • Client Type • Market Sector • Source 5. Enter Contacts and Email addresses. 6. A Prospect can have an opportunity (Quote status job) but must be converted to a LIVE Client before it can be invoiced. 7. Note - Creating a Client record is identical to a prospect. The code is often key to linking to a finance package. Creating Clients is often restricted by user permissions. Page 6 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Creating a new Opportunity 1. To create a new opportunity select: Clients and jobs on the tool bar select the menu item jobs. To create a new opportunity click on the blue cross 2. Select the client/prospect that the opportunity is for. This will produce an Opportunity or Job card. NOTE: if the client/Prospect does not exist, a new client needs to be added. This may be a restricted setting often controlled by your finance/accounts user. 3. Fill in all the necessary information: • Opportunity/Job description- 60 character title known internally & by Client. • If your contact is not available, click the blue cross to enter a new contact. • Job status will default to ‘quote’ but can immediately be promoted to ‘live’. • The job type should be selected from a drop down menu. • The account handler and team (if used) may also be selected. • Enter the job start and due date. This is important to keep track of the progression of the job. • For opportunities a sales expected close date might be required. (when might this opportunity be won?) 4. Click ‘OK’ to save this job record and auto allocate a job number. Page 7 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Creating a phase (Phase cards are green) When you have created an opportunity/job a single phase will automatically be created. Multiple phases can be added. 1. Every job/opportunity will always have one phase. To create a new phase: go to the phases tab. A list of phases will appear. 2. Go to ‘Actions’ select ‘add new phase’. The screen will turn green; this indicates that you are in the phase level. (The job level is blue). 3. Multiple Phases can be created with actions ‘add multiple’ phase or a template could be used which would create a new job with a selection of phases and even estimate details. 4. Each phase has a unique extension number, job number.001, .002 5. Where multiple phases exist the job represents the sum of all of the phases. 6. A phase can be deleted as long as no time or invoices have been allocated to it. Page 8 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Examples of Job/phase structures 1. Simple structure one job with a single phase (Phase 001is automatically created. JOB Phase 001 2. JOB Phase 001 Concepts Phase 002 Studio Multiple phase structure whereby phases represent the structure/lifecycle of a job. • Time, expenses, purchase orders are raised against phases • Estimates are built at phase level. A whole job can be quoted. • Phases can be invoiced together or separately. • Reporting is at Job or phase level. Job reporting summarises costs of all phases. Phase 003 Production 3. JOB Phase 001 Jan Phase 002 Feb Phase 003 March Multiple phase structure whereby phases represent a period of time. Eg one job with 12 monthly phases, one job with four quarterly periods. • Time, expenses, purchase orders are raised against phases • Estimates are built at phase level. A whole job can be quoted. • Phases can be invoiced together or separately. • Reporting is at Job or phase level. Job reporting summarises costs of all phases. Other Phase facts… • Additional phases can be added at any point. Other examples include using phases for recording expenses or additional rechargeable amends. • Phases can be marked as completed with the job remaining open. • New phases can be added to closed jobs. • Phases can be copied from templates Page 9 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Creating a new Job/Oppotunity based on a template or existing Job A template is a way of automating a uniform structure when creating new jobs. Phases and estimates can be built into a template. 1. To create a new job based on a template: • • • • Select: Clients and jobs / jobs / This will generate a drop down menu which allows you to create a ‘new job’ (single phase) or will list any templates previously created. Templates will allow you to copy all or a selection of phases, dates, estimates and quotes. The new job is allocated a new number. The new job will now already contain the multiple phases. 2. To create a new job based on an existing job: • Locate the job you wish to copy and highlight it on the job list. This may be on the current job list or be a ‘closed’ job, which has been entered previously. • • • • Click on the This will generate a drop down menu, which ask you if you would like to create a repeat job. Repeat jobs will allow you to copy all or a selection of phases, dates, estimates and quotes. They will NOT copy any actual costs. The new job is allocated a new number. The new job will now already contain the multiple phases. Page 10 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Opportunities can be accessed via the tool bar menu item. These quote status jobs may also appear on the job list. Quote status jobs created within the job list will also appear on the opportunities menu. Similar to the job list, Opportunities list jobs by their number, Client, Account Handler and description. However they also display a Sales expected close date, a pipeline, status and rating. Not all of these fields may be utilised by your Company. Information displayed on the Opportunities tab is updated from the ‘Sales Info’ tab of each job. See the screen on the following page Sales Info tab Quoted value This value can be typed in or you might want to use estimating / quoting features to generate this figure Sales status Synergist has several standard statuses for opportunities. A new opportunity defaults to "Open - New". Pipeline stage The pipeline stage is the general stage that this prospective order is up to in the sales process Page 11 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Rating The ability to rate an opportunity. This may be displayed as Red, amber, green or A, B, C, defined by your Company. Source You can select a source for this opportunity. If the opportunity came from a lead the source of the lead would be displayed here. All of these criteria are used for reporting purposes so if opportunity reporting is being used in your organisation it is essential to ensure sales info is added correctly. Weighting Obviously not all opportunities get promoted to live job status. A percentage of your prospective orders are likely to stall or be lost to the competition. In order to be able to predict your likely sales revenue you may want to weight each opportunity. For instance, in this example the likelihood of landing this order is judged to be 75%. If your business tends to produce a large number of similar value orders this can be a useful tool for predicting short-term sales revenues/profit. Page 12 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Estimating Estimating is for internal use, this is the information you base your quotation on, the client does not see this information. The estimate screen has 4 tabs. • Full estimate –shows a view of all items estimated and any actual costs recorded. • Time - View of all estimated time along with the allocated resource. It also includes the ability to produce a ‘quick estimate’ • Purchases- shows details of all purchases/estimates. The screen is colour coded to allow for easy view on current status of purchase. • Revisions- view of any versions created It is possible to estimate for time, marked as an ‘S’ for staff time on the estimate tab, Materials, marked as ‘M’ or purchases or expenses marked as ‘B’ on the estimate tab. Estimating Time & Materials 1. Click on the ‘estimate tab’ of the phase (green) and the ‘Time’ section of the phase you are estimating. The screen will default to an ‘overview’. Click ‘quick estimate’ and use the plus/minus sign to add/ subtract estimated hours. A useful ‘recommended charge’ rate is displayed. 2. Click ‘edit’,‘quick estimate’. The auto estimating will appear Page 13 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 3. Quick estimating is for internal time or ‘materials. Time is estimated on the left and materials on the right, the codes and descriptions will be specific to your company. Add estimated time by clicking on the + or -, one unit is equal to 1 hour based on the Company or Client specific rates. If you are entering a large number double click on the charge code description and enter the number of hours. Repeat materials in the same way. • • A total estimated Charge and profit are displayed on the phase estimate tab. If estimating multiple phases the job estimate will show a sum of all the phases. Estimates can be amended from the job or phase level. Double clicking on each line individually will allow you to make any necessary changes to time, hourly charge rates or adding quote detail. 2. Repeat this process for each phase. Useful notes on Estimating: Page 14 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Estimating for external Purchases 3. 4. 5. 6. Click on the ‘estimate tab’ of the phase you are estimating. Go to ‘edit’ / ‘add purchase estimate. Select the supplier you wish to estimate for. Fill in Purchase details: • Description • Estimated cost (supplier cost) • Estimated charge (marked up charge out) • Text or lines tab. Text for a paragraph of text with one price, lines for multiple items at multiple quantities/prices. • Delivery details 7. A document can be emailed to the supplier to request a quotation. Use the PDF button to email a quote request to a supplier or print/preview the document. 8. When the supplier comes back to you with a price this information can be entered into the estimated cost box and a mark up can be added if required. 9. Repeat this process for each purchase to be estimated on each phase. To copy an estimate highlight the purchase you wish to copy and select ‘edit’, ‘duplicate selected purchase estimate’. Note A purchase estimate can be used as a template for raising the actual Purchase order. The supplier can be changed if an alternative supplier is used. Click ‘actions’ ‘change supplier’. If the supplier has not been used before then a ‘prospect supplier’ can be added. Page 15 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Tenders To tender out to multiple suppliers firstly create a ‘tender’ that can then be emailed to several suppliers. 1. To create the tender template for go to the estimate tab of the phase that the estimate is relating to. Go to ‘edit’ and ‘add purchase tender’. 2. Enter the details of the enquiry in the box on the ‘details’ tab or use the ‘lines’ tab to add items of different quantities. Page 16 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Select ‘ok’ and the template will appear on your estimate list as below: 3. You now need to send this template to selected suppliers. Highlight the tender and go to ‘edit’ and ‘choose suppliers for selected purchase tender’. 4. A list of suppliers will appear. (NOTE: it is possible to set up the list to filter by supplier type if needed). You can select several suppliers at a time by holding down the ctrl key and clicking on the supplier. Once you are happy with your selection click on ‘select’. These suppliers will now appear on the estimate list. If the names of suppliers do not appear go to ‘actions’ and ‘show supplier name’. 5. This can then be emailed to each supplier individually, by double clicking on the line and pressing the PDF button on the bottom right. The tender can be viewed before you send it by clicking on the magnifying glass icon. Page 17 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 6. As the suppliers come back to you with quotes this information can be entered into the estimated cost box for each supplier individually and a mark up can be added if required. 7. Once all the information has been entered and you have selected a supplier, tick the ‘picked’ box as below. A small star will now appear on the estimate list next to the supplier you have chosen to go with. NOTE a purchase estimate is not included in the estimate value unless it has been ‘picked’ Picking can now be done from the purchase area of the estimate tab. Page 18 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Quoting Quotes are Client facing figures. It can directly reflect an estimate as Synergist will generate a recommended charge. However the quote tab can be amended to display your agreed sales price. Multiple versions can be saved as and when amendments are negotiated with Clients. If an estimate has been completed: 1. Click on the quote tab and go to ‘Build Quote’ and select ‘Company Quote’ there may also be views in the list that are unique to your company. 2. The Quote will display, with just the chargeable amounts next to each line item. Your Company may have a default way of quoting or individual ‘user’ views can be created using ‘advanced quote’. This can make quotes appear as a rolled up summary by phase or by expanding purchase estimate detail to appear in the quote detail. 3. It is at this point that any amendments can be made, by double clicking on the line that you want to amend. NOTE: Any purchase tenders that you have selected as ‘picked’ will also be pulled through to this list. 4. If required you can also join lines together and amend the description. Click ‘Edit’ ‘join selected lines’. You can also ‘add a line’ with detail if required. Page 19 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 5. When you have completed the quote you can view or print the quote, or email the quote to a client or colleague by clicking on the icons below. The date can also be amended here. NOTE: if working on a multiple phase job the tab ‘phase quotes’ found on the blue job level will display the sum of all of the quotes on all of the phases allowing the ability to generate quote for the whole job. Quote Revisions Synergist has the ability to save multiple versions of quotes as they are revised. Only one quote will be displayed on at any one time. This is called the current quote and is the one reflected in the financial pages and in any reports. If you do not save revisions there will be no version history. To save a revision on the quote tab (job or phase) click ‘actions’, ‘revisions’, ‘save current quote to revision’ Page 20 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Diary Bookings The task diary is a tool for scheduling work estimated in synergist jobs. Estimates can be allocated to staff and the diary is an ideal tool for doing this. The diary has various views that display the workload at either a detailed level or summarised and colour coded, making it easy to identify available resources. The staff who are being allocated the work can view booking via their timesheet. They also can click on an easy link to record their timesheets. Page 21 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Colour Coding: • • Simple colour coding – green shows availability, Amber- The resource is fully booked, red – the resource is over booked. Black’ colour bookings indicate the resource is unavailable to be booked. Eg holiday/sickness. Allocating Tasks 1. Time must be estimated against a job/phase as described under ‘estimating time’. Page 22 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 2. The Job must be promoted to Live in order for in to appear in the diary bookings by default. (It is still possible to dairy book time against quote status jobs) 3. Estimated time is simply dragged and dropped onto a resource. • By default if the estimated hours are greater than a day then a days worth of time is dropped into the diary. This can be amended by dragging or double clicking. • If the estimated hours are less than a day, or the estimated budget has already been booked then dragging and dropping is in units of 1 hour. 4. NEW – Time estimates can be copied and pasted or ‘paste special’ for reoccurring tasks 5. Once the work for the job has been allocated to one or more staff in the diary it can be removed from the list. To do this, right click the first column and select "tick". This will put a tick against the item and when the list is refreshed the item will disappear. 6. To access the booked job - “right click” a diary item & get a contextual drop-down menu. From here it is possible to drill down to the booked job or phase. 7. NEW - Show task date indicators - When this feature is “on” the start and end dates of the related estimates (which may themselves be driven by schedule stages or phase start/end dates) are displayed on the screen using blue “L” shaped icons. Purchase Orders Purchase orders should be raised for any item purchased from 3rd party suppliers. Where possible quote ‘PO numbers’ 1. To convert ‘Purchase estimates’ to Purchase Orders. • Go to the job estimate tab. Page 23 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide • • • • • Double click on any Purchase estimates (line type B for Bought in Cost) Go to ‘actions’, ‘convert to real’ Amend any delivery information, purchase order text OR line detail Send a PDF of the Purchase Order Ensure you quote the PO number When converting a purchase estimate or raising a PO from the ‘Purch/Exp’ tab you will be presented with the following warning screen. This is allocating a PO number and if ordered in error the order must be cancelled. The Purchase Order screen will now appear Purchase Order screen This screen comprises of 5 pages or "tabs": • Details - main PO details • Text - Textual description of the purchase • Lines - optionally break the PO into multiple items • Invoices - purchase invoices associated with this purchase order • Notes - Miscellaneous info Page 24 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 2. Type a description of the PO or select from the Description drop down list • Enter a PO cost and check the mark up and charge out rate. 3. PO Text or Lines? • Text- Used to add the details for a purchase in the form of a block of text. • Lines- To be used to break your purchase down into multiple items, with each one having an individual price 4. Delivery details – auto add in the Client or your Company delivery address or type in delivery details 5. Printing the purchase order • Click print preview • Click to print to a selected printer • Click PDF to generate a PDF of the PO and auto attach to an email NOTE once a PO has been raised it cannot be deleted. If raised in error change the value of the PO must be zero and go to ‘actions’, ‘cancel & Write off’ purchase order. Page 25 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Managing Jobs Making a Job Live – restrictions may be in place so that the status of a job must be changed to LIVE before it can progress and any purchase orders can be raised. 6. Promote Opportunity to Live - on the Opp details page change the status from Quote to Live, ‘Actions ‘,‘Promote Opportunity to Live’ 7. Convert ‘Purchase estimates’ to Purchase Orders. Quote Purchase order numbers to your suppliers. • • • • • • Go to the job estimate tab. Double click on any Purchase estimates (line type B for Bought in Cost) Go to ‘actions’, ‘convert to real’ Amend any delivery information, purchase order text OR line detail Send a PDF of the Purchase Order Ensure you quote the PO number 8. Print out job sheets for Job bags/studio etc • Click on the printer icon next to the actions button on the blue job header and print out a ‘job card’ or ’job phase list ‘ • Go to the estimate tab and click ‘actions’, ‘print estimate report’, ‘print estimate report without costs’ 9. View progress of a job • Click on the printer icon next to the actions button on the blue job header and print out a WIP detail report. This will display all costs (time, purchases or materials) that have been recorded since the last invoice. If there is no invoice it will display all costs. • From the estimate tab compare actual to estimated costs/hours. Create view settings that will allow you to drill down more easily to expenses or purchases or summary time views. • Company alerts can be set to inform account handlers when a job is reaching a certain percentage of the estimated budget. See your Company ‘super user’ for this setting. Page 26 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Activities & Attachments Activities are tasks like phone calls, "to-dos", emails etc, and can be related to leads, prospects, opportunities, jobs etc. From many areas in Synergist a user can create an Activity, add a description and comments, specify actions that needs to be taken and by whom; and set deadlines. When an Activity is allocated to someone for action an email Alert can be sent detailing what needs to be done and by when. Synergist automatically creates history records against each Activity every time any change is made (e.g. if the Note Status is changed or the due date altered). It is therefore easy to track what progress has been made. Activities can be accessed in the following Synergist screens or from the menu item in the tool bar: • Clients & prospects • Contacts • Opportunities • Jobs • Phases New activity 1. You can create a new activity by clicking the "New" button. The system will then ask for the activity type… NOTE this list can be customized per company. 2. Activity input screen. Enter the information relevant to the activity being logged: • Subject -a short description of the action or topic of the activity; it is this field which is displayed in the activity list screens • Details - This is a text field • History - A summary of all the changes made to the activity record. • Owner - A note can be assigned to a Handler, select the Handler from the Action by dropdown list. A Priority and Due date can be set. The note can be marked when Complete. • Regarding - What appears in this area depends on the type of note and what it is linked to. However, typically the related client and job will appear here. • Contact - Client contact name (their phone number is also displayed) Page 27 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide • Team - If you have divided your resources by team you can enter the team here. You can also use this feature for allocating an activity to a team of people rather than to a specific resource - allowing the team to self-select activities. • Owner - The owner is the person responsible for this activity • Secondary owners- You can optionally allocate others as secondary owners. Alerts regarding this activity can be sent to these people. Alerts Alerts can be set on any activity note. Alerts are sent to the "owner" of the activity and any "secondary owners" There are 3 types of alert: • Before due date • Instant alert • On completion Alerts are sent to the user’s normal email and contain details from the activity note. Page 28 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Attachments You can access attachments from the attachments tab of a job, phase, opportunity, contact, lead, client or prospect. You can create a new attachment by clicking the "new" button. A drop-down menu with two options will then appear: The first option is for selecting an existing document, the second for creating a new document based on a template. (Contact the help desk for advice on Templates) Attaching an existing document 3. 4. 5. You will be asked to select a document to attach. Browse to the folder you need on your PC/Mac and select the file. You can either accept the document's name or modify it. In this example a version number has been added to the document name. On clicking OK the document will appear in the list. If you double click the document it will open in the normal way. Page 29 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide The actions button Clicking the actions button produces this menu. • Properties This will show you information about the file (location, file name etc). You can also change the name you originally entered for the document. • Email Clicking "Email" will ask you to select recipients, then open up your email client (e.g. Outlook), create an email, and attach any selected documents to the email. • Duplicate Option to duplicate a document This is useful for version control. A revision number is added to each duplicated document. • Download Option to download the attached file to your PC/Mac • Delete Page 30 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Timesheets Web Time & Expenses can be accessed via the tool bar under ‘Time and expenses’ / Web time and expenses. Once within the web browser page, click on the word ‘Timesheets’ in the blue menu bar. The web browser can be accessed directly with a link provided by your company. Click Timesheet shortcut: Enter user name & password to log on and click on the word Timesheets in the blue menu bar. Daily Timesheets view 1. Select the client that you are recording time against. A list of clients can be accessed via clicking on the ‘Go’ button or the drop down list as below. 2. Select the relevant job and phase. NOTE: The job list will be filtered by the Client selected in step 1. If a client has only one job or only one phase the information will appear automatically. 3. It is important to select the correct date that you worked on your job. The date defaults to today. The date can be amended by using the back and forward arrows to scroll through the dates, or by using the calendar or by just typing the date straight into the box. Page 31 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 4. You may need to select a ‘charge code’. You may have a fixed charge code, a default code or access to a selection depending on activity. Your company creates the list. 5. You now need to enter the number of hours that you have worked on your job. • 0.25 = 15mins • 0.5 = ½ an hour • 1 = 1 hour. 6. The ‘work done’ section is for free text. 7. Materials can be recorded and the units that you have used. This information is entered on the left hand side. 8. ‘Add’ each time entry and repeat for further time to be recorded for the day/week. 9. Changes can still be made to your timesheet before it has been ‘Posted’ (or submitted for approval). Click on ’C’,’E’ or ‘D’ to Copy, edit or delete a line entry. 10. Click ‘post all’ or post individually if required. Other people on the job record can then view the time. 11. Jobs that have been allocated to you may also appear in ‘my tasks’. Just click on ‘timesheets’ and enter the information as above. Notes on timesheets Page 32 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Weekly View 1. The weekly view can be set as your default view. To access this view click on ‘change View’ button in the right hand corner. 2. Select a job to be added to the weekly view using the drop down lists or Go Button as in daily timesheets. 3. Jobs can be added to this view ‘permanently’ so that they will appear on next weeks list. Clicking on the Red Cross to the left of the job number will remove it from the ‘permanent’ list. 4. The clock icon launches a timer, clicking in the time entry box brings up further icons - the pencil icon opens up the free text ‘work done’ description and the second icon allows materials to be recorded to this job. The stop button allows you to stop the timer and add the time to your timesheet rounded up top the nearest 15 minutes. 5.Recording timesheets if time has been allocated using the diary booking involves the user clicking on ‘diary’ and their tasks for the day have been allocated. The job descriptions are displayed along with icons to access the timesheet, activities or attachments Web diary NEW - The web diary now shows a “team diary” as well as the users individual bookings. It is possible to toggle between viewing your own personal diary and the shared team diary. Page 33 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Expenses 1. Log on to the Web time & Expense sheet as described in ‘timesheets’. 2. Click on ‘expenses’ in the blue menu bar and ‘create current sheet’. 3. Go to ‘add line’. 4. Select the client, job and phase this expense is related to. NOTE: Non Chargeable expenses that are being reclaimed should be recorded against internal job codes. 5. Select the type of expense from a drop down menu. 6. The expense date should be changed to match the receipt date. A quantity and unit price can be used to calculate the amount or a total amount can just be entered. If VAT is included then Synergist will calculate the net amount to be posted to a job. Notes on expenses Page 34 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 7. Select ‘save’ and the expense will appear as a line. 8. Repeat this process for all your expenses. When you have completed them select ‘submit sheet’. 9. Follow company procedures for submitting receipts and gaining approval. Page 35 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Billing Plans Billing plans may be required by your Company in order to produce Invoice forecasting or Gross Profit forecasting. You access the job or phase billing plan by selecting the "billing plan" tab. 1. Depending on your Company set up, Auto Billing Plans may be in operation. An Auto Billing plan generates a Billing plan entry based on 100% of the quoted value. Its date can be synchronized with the Job or phase due date. This means when job due dates are maintained; Billing plan dates can also be moved. Note this option only really works if invoicing the full amount based on the completion date. If not then Manual Billing plans are required. 2. Creating a Manual Billing plan will overwrite an auto-billing plan. The Billing plan entry can be Job or phase based. It can have a fixed or relative date. It can have a manual amount or can be synchronized with the quote. 3. Quick billing plan • Feature to create a set of monthly billing plan items. • Useful for billing monthly fees. 4. Relative dates • Ability to link the billing plan dates to job/phase dates by storing monthly “offset” • The billing plan can be based on key dates. The plan will automatically adjust if these dates are amended. Creating an invoice based on a billing plan item By selecting one or more lines from the billing plan and clicking the "actions" button you can create an invoice based on the values in the plan. Page 36 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Creating a Sales Invoice. An invoice is created through the financial tab of a job or phase. It is possible to invoice a job as a whole from the job level (blue screen) or the phase level. (Green screen) 1. Click on the blue cross to create an invoice: 2. The first screen allows you to select Invoice address. The address can be amended here, but will only apply to this invoice. NOTE: If you need to change the address permanently for future correspondence, amend it through the client screen. Page 37 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 3. Select the content of the invoice: You have the choice of the following content: • • • • Auto detail or summary-this will show the details of time, materials and expenses that have been recorded on time sheets since the last invoice. The information can be displayed in detail or in a ‘rolled up’ summary. Quote-this will display the same information as on the quote tab. None-Blank invoice for you to start from scratch. Show wording-will show the information from the job and phase description with the net amount to invoice. 4. The ‘line details’ screen shows all the detail that is to be shown on the invoice for this job or phase. This is how the information will appear on the invoice. You can make any changes here or add additional lines if necessary. Page 38 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 5. The final screen allows you to add any additional comments to your invoice whether they are internal comments or comments that will appear on the invoice. 6. There are a few final checks to make before ‘finish’ can be clicked. If this is the final or only invoice, ensure to tick ‘final’ in the top left hand corner. If you have to have your invoices approved tick ‘ready for approval’, this will then appear in the draft invoice tab to be checked and made into a real invoice. Once finished is clicked the invoice is ready for the next stage of approval. 7. When you have clicked finish, this will produce a draft invoice. Changes can still be made to the invoice. Once ‘make real’ has been selected this will turn the draft invoice into a real invoice and no further changes can be made. 8. All this information will now appear in the financial tab. Notes of Sales Invoices Page 39 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Standard Reports in Synergist All of Synergist’s standard reports can be run in a flexible way with the user able to set a date range, filter using powerful but simple-to-use querying features and then either print to the standard format or export for further analysis. You access Synergist's reporting system via the reports menu: This will bring up the report selection screen: From this screen you can select the report you wish to run: The reports can be filtered by category: • Purchasing and expenses • Work in progress • Invoicing and profitability • Quoting and estimating • Jobs and stages • Client analysis • Time & materials Page 40 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Report selection Criteria The report selection screen provides an interface that lets you not only select the report you require but also apply various criteria to the report before running it. For instance, you might want to filter the report so that the report only relates to jobs for a single client, for jobs where the due date falls within a certain date range. There are a variety of criteria that can be selected to filter a report: • • • • • • • Date range Type of date eg invoice date, timesheet date, start date, due date Status of Job eg Quote / Live / In-house Financial status of job – Current jobs tend to be incomplete /not final invoiced. Including or reporting on completed jobs tends to be those jobs that have been marked as completed. All finished jobs should be marked as final invoiced. Internal/ External Client – internal client jobs are usually internal time or expense recording jobs so would normally be excluded from job related reports. Client Job/Phase type The views button The views button is used to save the currently selected report as a "view" or "saved report". Once the above criteria have been selected and you have run the report and are sure it contains the relevant data in the relevant order it is possible to save this report so that it is easy to run on a following occasion. Saved reports mean that reporting in Synergist is quick and consistent. Usually you will only need to amend the date range. 1. Go to reports and select the standard report you wish to run. 2. Select multiple criteria, eg date range, job status, financial status, filter by account handler etc. 3. Preview report to ensure the data you wish to access is correct 4. Once you are happy with your selection click ‘views’, ‘save this report as a new view’. 5. Give the view a name. Note this is only visible when you are logged on as yourself. An administrator has the rights to save Company views. 6. The saved report is now listed under the menu option ‘saved reports’ 7. To change the saved reports amend the selection criteria and re save the view. You will be prompted to ‘Overwrite selected report? The icon bar The icons as displayed above allow you to Print, Preview, Email as a PDF or Export to Excel (not all reports can be exported) Page 41 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide Data Viewer Synergist comes with a useful reporting tool called the "Data viewer". This tool enables you to analyse your data and display a variety of views. 1. To access the data viewer from the main "reports" menu, click on the ‘data viewer’ icon. 2. The ‘Display Options tab’ lists the tables that can be reported on using Data viewer. Select one of these items and how you would like the data to be displayed eg for time in hours or cost/charge or for opportunities by created date or expected close date. • • • • • • • • • • • Timesheets – Actual posted time Estimated time – for Capacity planning Booked time – for diary bookings Sales invoices- does not include drafts Gross Profit/net profit Billing plans/Billing plans Gross Profit - If activated in the Company settings Purchase Orders/PO Estimates Expenses/Expense estimates Materials Activities Opportunities – Quoted values by Sales expected Close date would give a new Business forecast. Page 42 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 3. The ‘data viewer ‘ tab (data cutter screen). • Select how you want to "cut" or "format" the data. Drag eg ‘Client’ or ‘Job’ from the left hand list of tables & fields into the selection box. • The order that these criteria are listed in will effect how the data is summarized. Eg Drag Account handler above Client & Job to have data ordered primarily by Client. • Select a date range by selecting a start date and whether you want to view the resulting data by day, week or month. • The number of days/weeks/months can be entered here. Eg start date 1/1/2011 with 12 monthly columns. 4. The selection criteria tab is used to filter which data is displayed in the view. Multiple criteria can be applied. All records are displayed unless filtered. • Include quote/live/in-house jobs • Include/exclude completed/final invoiced jobs • Filter by Job type, account handler • Filter by internal or external Client Page 43 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide 5. Client criteria tab. This tab is used to further filter the resulting records, based on client fields. This is particularly useful if you are creating a view of data related sales and marketing forecasts etc, or if you are only interested in data for a single or set of specific clients. 6. Views Once you have selected the rows and columns, filters, date ranges etc you can save your selected settings to a view. This will then appear as an item on the "Views" button under "My Views" 7. Cross tab view A ‘cross tab’ report is one where the column headings are not pre-set. For instance you might want a column for every account handler. If a new account handler joined your team he/she would need to be automatically added as an additional column to the report. Cross tab reports are notoriously difficult to generate with standard reporting tools. However, with the data viewer it is easy. You simply put a tick in one of the check boxes The example below displays Sales invoices by Client in the previous 12 months. The tick next to ‘Job Type’ changes the column headings to a Job Type. Page 44 of 44 pages Express System LLP Synergist Version 10.01 Quick Ref Guide