Table of Contents

Overview

The project entry edit screen is the heart and soul of the projects module. It is from this screen that most of project management will take place. In fact, it is so integrated into day-to-day project management that it is sometimes referred to as the "Projects Dash Board."

Detail

Open

The Project Entry/Edit menu consists of ten tabs and a link to the Material Plan. When you first enter the dashboard you will see a Project Number and Project Title box at the top of the screen, they will likely be blank if you have not opened a project yet. The cursor will default into the project title field; from here you have three options:

1. If you do not know your project name or number you may press F9 to get to the Find Projects Screen to look it up.

2. Type the project title (name), and press enter.

3. Type the project number – yes you may type the project number in the title field and press enter; the screen will search by name and number from this box and then load the proper project.

Description Tab

The first tab will be Description tab; it is here that all the macro management detail for a project is stored including all the customer and default information for the project. Also it is here that the link to the Material Plan resides.

Open

• Project Type – The project types are set up in PA > Project Special Functions > Project Types. Each project type has its own set of associated GL codes. By utilizing different project types you can measure and manage your profit centers by using project reporting and your company financial statements.

Assigning different project types different sets of GL codes will allow you to track profitability on your income statement. If you know where you are making the biggest margin you can apply resources to finding more of that type of business.

• Status – Projects will either be active, cancelled or closed. Status can be changed by closing a report in the Close Projects Screen or changing it in Project Status Change.

• Project Description – The project description will be imported from Auto Quotes or it can be entered or edited either here.

• Comments – Report comments can be entered here, they can be public or private depending on set up options that you have chosen.

• Customer - The customer whom the project is for. This customer must be an active customer in your AR setup and if you are not sure of their number you can find it through the F9 function. Customers can be created through project import if the correct settings are checked in AQ setup (P/A > Special Functions > AQ Setup).

• Bill To – This is the bill to contact for the project; it must be a defined bill to contact for the customer in the Enter/Edit Customers screen.

• Ship To – Same concept as Bill To but the shipping contact for the project. The tax authority code will default to the tax authority of the shipping contact, but can be changed.

• Office – Some companies will have multiple locations (offices) that projects can be run out of. You can F9 in this field to get a list of values available to you. If you do not see what you need you can add a new entry in the TSE menu under TSE Setup > Special Functions > Locations.

• Manager – The manager of the project is listed here. Mangers can be defined in the employee's screen of the TSE menu and will show with the F9 function.

• Sales Person – Much like a regular sales order the project will have an assigned sales person. The sales person will carry over from the customer setup but can be changed in this screen.

• Start Date – This is the creation date of the project. This field is not locked and can be edited

• Finish Date – This is an open field where the user can note when the project is finished. This is different than close as it is arbitrary and you may still post and create transactions within the project even with a finish date.

• Close Date – This is a system generated date that is populated when the project is officially closed in the Close Project screen. Once a project has been closed the status changes, accounting entries are made and no further changes may be made to the project.

• Number of Copies To Send – This field is used in the operator's manual index. This controls the number of copies of operating manuals that will print.

• Default Warehouse Address– This field is not mandatory but if used acts as a default ship to address for new Purchase Orders. You can create new ship to address by using the "Create ship" icon. New address created here can be viewed in the purchasing ship to screen in PUR > Special Functions > Ship to.

• Default Warehouse - This will be the default warehouse for the project staging, when you create pick tickets and allocations they will be done in the warehouse that you have selected hear for the project.

• O & M Contact – Here you will place the O &M contact person's name.

• AIA Signature Name – All AIA Billings have a signature on them; enter the name that you would like on the AIA bills here.

• Origination/Execution – If you have multiple locations in your organization you could have a project be sold (originated) in one office but managed (executed) in another. In the Project Special Functions menu you can define codes to signify various relationships.

Money Tab

The second tab of the Project Enter Edit screen is the Money Tab. This is the financial management center of the project. Here you get a full overview of the contract parameters and links to view financial documents for the project. Linked to this screen through icons are the following functions: Create Invoice, Cash Flow, Create Advance Bill, Pre-billing Report and Create AIA Bill.

• Freight Taxable – Is the freight taxable in this project, check for yes.

• Install Taxable – Is the install taxable in this project, check for yes.

• Total Materials – Total material sell amount of the material plan.

• Total Freight – Total freight sell amount for the project.

• Total Install – Total install sell amount for the Project.

• Subtotal – Total of materials, freight and install.

• Taxable Amount - The dollar amount of the total that is taxable.

• Tax Authority – This is the taxing authority that the project will be billed under. Tax authorities are defined under the SYS > Tax Authority menu.

• Total Tax – This is the taxable amount multiplied by the tax authority rate.

• Total Project – This is the customer's total bill on the project to date.

• View Frt/Install Po's – In the project material plan you have the ability to create Freight and install PO's. If you have done so you can see those PO's by pressing this button.

• EST. Cont. Amount – A place to key in the entire contract amount in the event you are pulling the contract in vendor by vendor as opposed to the entire contract at once. Typically, walk in's need to get purchased right away before the entire project has been vetted and this field allows project backlog reporting to be accurate.

• EST. Cont. Cost - Same concept as the estimated contract amount only the costing side used for project backlog reporting.

• Original Contract Amount – This is the amount that was loaded into the project at the start.

• Change orders - This box will display the cumulative effect of Change Orders to the original contract amount.

• Note: The change orders box is a drill down field. Double clicking will take you to the change orders summary screen for this project. From there you will be able to view all change orders.

• Final contract amount - This is what the final contract amount would be if the project was closed now.

Below is the transaction summary view where the financial documents that have been created for the project are listed. We show the date the transaction was created and the document number. The document number, like all dark grey boxes in TRX, is a drill down field. From here you can double click to drill down to the appropriate document query screen where you can re-print if needed. The transaction amount, type and balance are also shown here and you can sort by time periods if you need to limit the data while searching. 

Create Invoice 

Pressing the create invoice button will take you to the Create Project Invoice screen. This is different than the regular invoice screen in that it is strictly for projects. Upon entering the screen you will see everything that is available for invoicing. In order for an item to be available for invoicing it must have been issued to the project or the staging site. (shipped via pick ticket or received via drop shipped PO.)

Although it is possible to switch projects from this screen it is HIGHLY recommended that you do not. Best practices dictate that you only work with one project at a time and that you leave the project before opening a new one. Any items that are available to be invoiced will be listed in the detail section of the screen. The date and descriptions will populate in along with the quantity, price, unit price and taxability. 
Note: There are setup options in the project module setup screens that will determine if the quantity and taxability are available to be changed in this screen; this is a management preference. 

• Net Amount – The total extended amount of all items on the invoice.

• Material freight amount – The freight amount associated with the material items. You can edit taxability by checking the "taxable" checkbox.

• Material install amount – The install amount associated with the material items. You can edit taxability by checking the "taxable" checkbox.

You can change the tax authority in this screen and if you do you will have to recalculate the tax by using the "Recalc Tax" button. Also you may select or deselect items to invoice by pressing the "Select/Deselect" button.

Note: material and freight totals can be edited by the user. 

• Change in Cost – Change in cost is a very useful field within Projects. When it becomes time to final bill a project against advance billings the invoice net total needs to be zero. You may run into situations where you are a couple dollars off. On large projects spending hours trying to find $2.25 is not always cost effective. You can place that discrepancy in the change in cost field to zero out your invoice net billing amount. The amount placed there will post to the revenue account that you established in your project type setup.

• Subtotal - The subtotal of Net Amount, Freight, Install, and Change in Cost fields.

• Tax amount – The dollar amount of tax due on the invoice. This will take into account what has been declared as taxable and the tax rate defined by the taxing authority.

• Tax Paid Prior – If the tax paid prior button is checked the invoice screen will look to see if sales tax was declared on any advanced billings. If so it will populate the amount collected to the "Advance Bill Tax" as a negative. Only check this box if you collect sales tax on advance billings.

• Grand Total – subtotal and tax amount total.

• Advance billings – The amount of advance billings issued. Shows as a credit.

• Advance bill Tax – Amount of tax that was collected on the advance bill(s), shows as a credit.

• Invoice Net – The total amount of the invoice.

Cash Flow Tab

The cash flow screens and accompanying report will give you a mini-balance sheet and view of the project's current cash position. The true power of this screen lies in the ability to drill down into the details. In the liability and asset fields you can double click to see the detail that makes up the total. To enhance this functionality if you double click on the individual details you will be taken to a document query screen. In the example below if you double click on the "Invoices" field the documents that make the total will be displayed. Also, by double clicking on the document in the detail section you will be taken to the document query screen so that you may inspect the detail.

Not only can you see a financial snap shot of your project you may also print one out. At the top middle of the screen you will see a printer icon. This will print out a detailed cash flow report for the project displaying all of the financial transactions to date. 

 Create Advance Bill

Advanced bills, not to be confused with AIA billing, allow you to book money against a project before anything has been shipped or billed. Creating an advance bill will generate an invoice through AR which can be paid by a cash receipt but will not show up on the AR aging because advance bills are booked to a project deposits account. Like an AIA billing they are not considered revenue. When a regular invoice is created advance billings are treated as a credit toward that invoice. 

• Advanced Billing Detail - Advanced billing is used for milestone or progress billing. The detail is an optional section that will allow you to enter details for what the billing encompasses. Although the advance bill is NOT connected to inventory you can list inventory and transactions amount here if desired.

• Comments – The comments block is another optional field. Comments can be public (shown on the invoice) like a disclaimer or instructions alternatively they can be private such as an internal note to a customer service agent that will only show on screen.

• Print Comments on Invoice – Controls whether the comments will print on the invoice.

• Creation Controls – you have three options when you create the invoice:

  1. Create Invoice – Will process the invoice.

  2. Create and Print – Will process and print the invoice.

  3. Create and email – Currently this feature is not functional, if you need to email the invoice you should print the invoice, generate it to a PDF and then attach it to an email. An email control module will be released in a future upgrade.

Pre-billing Report

There are two formats of this report; the original and the adjusted. This report was designed for companies that utilize the timesheets module for projects. The original would show the time that was initially entered and the adjusted would show totals with any changes. Timesheets in projects are not currently used by any Food Service clients therefore this report is of no real consequence. It can be used to show a listing of materials and billable expenses that are ready to be billed. 
 

Create AIA Billing

AIA billings are a formal type of advanced bill designed based on the standards of the American Institute of Architecture. AIA billings create an advance invoice against the project and also capture detailed information for the printing of AIA billing applications and continuation sheets. 
The AIA billing process is covered in depth here: AIA Billing.

Project Expenses Tab

The project expenses tab is where we catalog all expenses that have been entered against a project. This screen is just for viewing expenses that have been processed, expenses are generated from different points of entry. Expense can be created through purchase orders, vouchers, or entered manually.

• Date - The date the of the expense entry.

• Task - Every expense is assigned to a task. In most cases food equipment dealers will only have one task as they are not used in the industry. Rule of thumb is if you do not know what they are you are probably not using them nor would benefit from doing so.

• FRT/INS – These check boxes will tell you if the expense was entered as fright or install.

• Description – The description is entered when the expense is created so you know what the entry is for.

• Source Document –Expenses can be created in multiple areas of TRX and if the expense was not manually entered we display the document that the expense was created from. You can drill down into the document by double clicking it.

• Invoice – If the expense was invoiced we display the invoice number that the expense was billed under. You can drill down into the document by double clicking it.

• Source – This is a TRX created field that will show you the module where the expense originated.

• Expense amount – The amount of the expense.

• Total amount – The amount of the expense + any markup. The default markup is set per company in the Project Setup screen but can be changed per project task in the "Tasks" tab in the Project Entry/Edit screen.

WIP (Work In Progress) Tab

Project expenses and revenue are not realized until they are included in a non-advanced invoice. The costs of materials that are issued to a project are stored in WIP (Work in Progress). If your organization is utilizing Advanced or AIA billing then expenses and revenue could be stored in WIP for the life of the project. This screen will show you the total amounts being stored in WIP for materials expenses and labor.

• Type – Type's include Materials, Labor, and Expenses.

• Description – If the entry was accompanied by a description it will be displayed here. It is recommended to take the time to enter a thorough description whenever possible to save time in researching entries later.

• Cost – This is the cost of the entry that will be applied to the project.

• Burden – Not many TRX users in the Food Service Industry are using the Burden Cost options. Refer to the section on Burdens for more information.

Material History Tab

The Material History tab will display the details of materials that have been issued to the job. An item is issued when it is either picked and shipped from inventory or received in a drop ship PO.

In this screen you will notice that the date, task and item fields have search boxes. Typing a date, task, or item in one of these fields will filter the details by the entered values. These fields speed up searches in large projects. In these fields you can use the percent (%) sign as a wildcard character. In the example above if you type "%OCK%" (minus the quotation marks) in the item field the item ROCK-RP-50 will show.

• Date – The date the item was issued to the project.

• Task – This represents the task that was used when issuing the item. Most users do not use the task system therefore will only have one task assigned.

• Item – This is the item that was issued to the project.

• Quantity – The quantity of the item that has was issued to the project.

• Price - The sell price that of the item at the time of shipping. If this amount changes after shipping a change order must be entered to update this amount, any changes made directly in the material plan will not carry through to invoicing.

• Total Price – The Price times the quantity.

• Total Planned Cost – The cost of the item that was quoted on the project

• Total Actual Cost – the cost of the item at the time it was issued to the project.

Tasks

The Tasks tab is used to set up the task(s) used in the project. A billing rate, burden and sub task can be defined for each task. 

Tasks are used to describe the actual work performed when making material, expense or labor entries for a project. All entries require selection of a task. You must have at least one task defined as the default task for the project. This is automatically handled by TRX when importing the project by using the task assigned for the "Default Billing Rate" established in the Project Setup screen. Please see the Tasks section of the manual for more information.

• Task – This is the task code, up to 10 characters. You may press F9 to choose from the available tasks.

• Sub Task – Populated automatically by choosing a task.

• Title - Populated automatically by choosing a task.

• Description - Populated automatically by choosing a task.

• Billing Rate - Populated automatically by choosing a task.

• Burden - Populated automatically by choosing a task.

• Status – Here the current status of the task is entered.

• % Comp - You can track how close the task is to being completed by entering a percentage here.

Time Sheets

This screen will display all timesheet entries that have been assigned to the project. The timesheets module is an advanced project management function that was designed prior to the focus of TRX shifting to the Food Equipment Dealer industry so it is not being utilized in its current state. We may revisit this module at some point in the future to determine if a redesign would enhance the functionality of TRX.

• Start and End Date – This will limit the amount of data displayed to the time frame that was entered.

• Date – The date of the timesheet entry.

• Standard – Amount of standard time applied to the project in the entry.

• Overtime - Amount of overtime time applied to the project in the entry.

• Double time - Amount of double-time time applied to the project in the entry.

• Task – The task the entry was applied to.

• Sub-Task – The sub-task the entry was applied to.

• Description – The description used for the timesheet entry.

Budgets

Budgets can be created for project tasks in the Budgets tab. This feature is not being utilized in our current version as it is not being used by food equipment dealers. 

G/L Accounts

The G/L Accounts tab lists the G/L accounts that are used in project. The default accounts are derived from the project type that is selected when the project is created but can be changed here. Project types are setup in the P/A > Special Functions > "Project Types" screen.

Projects are managed in the project accounting module which as the name implies is separate from the main accounting system. TRX allows projects to be run as individual business entities for management and profit analysis purposes. All transactions are recorded into a set of G/L accounts that are setup for the project as a whole. It is here that you can view and change that project's G/L accounts. 

AIA Billing

The main function of the AIA Billing tab is to allow you to choose if accessory items will be displayed individually or if they will be rolled up into their base item in the AIA Billings created for the project. 

By checking the "Consolidate AIA by Master Item" checkbox all accessories will roll up into the main item. In the example above if there is an AQ line item "1.1" you would not see it when creating the AIA since the scheduled values of that item would be added to the base item "1.0".