Management Software

JOBORDER 2011 AND MAC OS X 10.7 (“LION”)

2011-12-12T18:45:00.000-05:00

December 12, 2011, Homer, NY

An updated release of JobOrder 2011 is now available. To download, please go to www.JobOrder.com/downloads to “JobOrder 2011 Software”.

JobOrder 2011 includes 4D v12 SQL Release 3, our programming language, certified on Windows for 7 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Vista SP2 / Windows XP SP3. For Windows Client computers we strongly recommend Windows 7 instead of XP or Vista.

On Macintosh, 4D v12 Release 3 is certified for Macintosh OS X 10.7.2 (“Lion”) (Mac Intel only) and is also certified for Macintosh OS X 10.6.8 (Mac Intel only).

IMPORTANT NOTE: JobOrder 2011 on Macintosh runs only on Intel-based Macintosh computers, not on PPC-based Macintosh computers.

4D V12 Release 3 is an evolutionary upgrade from 4D v11 SQL Release 8, the programming language used for JobOrder 2010. For more information about 4D v12, please visit http://www.4d.com/products/new.html.

If you are upgrading from JobOrder 2010, just run the new Server Installer and open your existing JobOrder 2010 data file. The conversion to JobOrder 2011 will take place automatically. Install your new JobOrder 2011 Client software and then link to the JobOrder 2011 Server.

Because JobOrder 2011 is so different from JobOrder 2009, if you are upgrading from JobOrder 2009, we will guide you through a simple process to convert your existing data file to JobOrder 2011. Please schedule some time for this conversion process with your JobOrder representative. THIS STEP IS REQUIRED FOR UPGRADING TO JOBORDER 2011. You will need to update your JobOrder Clients using new JobOrder 2011 installers. If you have already installed the JobOrder Client for JobOrder 2011, the new JobOrder 2011 Client will be automatically installed on each Client computer.

JobOrder 2011 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability. If you have not recently performed any preventative maintenance on your JobOrder data file, please call Customer Support for guidance to use the new Maintenance and Security Center (MSC).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please check your JobOrder Server backup configuration carefully. Please confirm that your daily backups are successful. Please make sure that your Log file is enabled, so that all database changes are tracked. If you have any backup questions, please call us.

JobOrder 2011 Server will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.7.2 (“Lion”) and OS X 10.6.8 (Mac Intel) and for Windows 7 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2.

JobOrder 2011 Client will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X for OS X 10.7.2 and 10.6.8 (Mac Intel) and for Windows 7 / Vista SP2 / XP SP3.

If you are running a version of Mac OS X earlier than OS X 10.6.8 on Macintosh Intel-based computers, please upgrade to OS X 10.6.8 for improved stability, but preferably upgrade to OS X 10.7.2.

All known bugs affecting customers have been fixed.

Enhancements are briefly described below, categorized by area or function.

JobOrder 2011 Internet and JobOrder 2011 iPhone

JobOrder 2011 is greatly facilitating the development of JobOrder 2012 Internet, JobOrder 2012 iPhone, and access to JobOrder via SQL report writers. JobOrder 2011 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability.

Activities, Estimate Activities, and Template Activities

In Activities, Estimate Activities and Template Activities, the Milestones dialog now has a Print button.

Available Capacity

The Available Capacity Power Tools does not have printing enabled in JobOrder 2011. Please let us know if you require printing from this report.

Backup Error Notification

If a backup fails for any reason, Database Administrators are now sent a Backup Error Notification that details the error that occurred, the last successful backup date and time, and the next scheduled backup date and time. Please contact Customer Support if you receive a Backup Error Notification and cannot solve the problem.

Bugs

Several bugs have been fixed in Activities, Expenses, Invoices, Jobs, Journal Details, and Purchase Orders.

Custom Forms

When you begin using JobOrder 2011, please contact us to help you make cosmetic changes to your Custom Forms due to the change of underlying plug-in.

JobOrder is going through a transition in which the plug-in software used to create Custom Forms is changing from SuperReport Pro to hmReports. In System Preferences: System Defaults: Custom Forms, you can now select either hmReports or SuperReport Pro as the default plug-in for this purpose. In the print dialogs for Custom Forms, you can change dynamically which software will be used. In the Custom Forms area itself, you can create Custom Forms with either software.

DataCheck and 4D Tools

The DataCheck and 4D Tools utilities have been replaced by a new utility called Maintenance and Security Center or MSC.

Digital Assets

Many improvements have been made to Digital Assets and to the Digital Assets Manager.

Divisions

Many improvements have been made to Divisions. You can now enter Resource Rates by Division, can require Division to be mandatory in Jobs, and can print many reports by Division.

Forms

Visual and organizational improvements have been made to dozens of forms and report dialogs.

Grouped Accounts Manager

Visual and functional improvements have been made to the Grouped Accounts Manager.

HealthCheck 4D

HealthCheck 4D Pro provides remote monitoring for JobOrder 2011 Server from your iPhone or iPad. You can retrieve critical information including server memory usage, data file size, server up time, client connections, process count, last backup and more. Additional information about the server computer such as operating system, last reboot and hard drive utilization is also included. HealthCheck 4D Pro provides also provides the ability for remote execution of database utilities: backup, reboot server, and message clients. Connection is password protected and does not use a JobOrder Client. If you have an active JobOrder Software Update Contract, please purchase HealthCheck 4D directly from the iPhone App Store and send a copy of your receipt to Management Software for reimbursement.

Inventory Count Sheet and Inventory Sale by Period

Many new features have been added to Inventory reports.

Job Milestone Report

In the dialog of the Job Milestone Report, a button called ‘Report Info’ explains how the report works.

Keywords

When adding Keywords, Security Access is now checked.

Mass Update

Whenever a Mass Update occurs, we have added an "Automatic Audit" Note. Only DBA's can delete Automatic Audit Notes.

Milestone Manager

A Time Picker has been added to Milestone Manager. Please test it and let us know if it would be useful here or elsewhere in JobOrder.

Milestones

Many small changes have been made in Milestones to match the new ‘Milestone’ documentation.

Organizations

Attachments can now be added to Organizations.

“Paste” in Edit menu

A bug was fixed when using “Paste” in the Edit menu that caused the Spell Checker to be called inappropriately.

Phases

In Phases users can now delete Activities with 0 budgeted hours as long as the Activities do not have any Time Slips. Users can also delete Expenses with no budget, as long as they don’t have any Expense Details.

Prioritizer and Hot Sheet

Dozens of improvements have been made to Prioritizer and Hot Sheet.

Receive Inventory Purchases

‘Receive Inventory Purchases’ has been completely updated. In ‘Receive Inventory Purchases’, if the user selects an Expense with no Purchase Order, the error message now says: "No Purchase Order was found. Open this Expense record to add or select a Purchase Order?" If the user clicks 'yes', JobOrder opens the existing Expense record. When they return to the dialog, JobOrder checks again for a valid Purchase Order.

Resources

To change the Security Access Level of a Resource you must now have a Security Access Level of Database Administrator.

Specifications in Jobs

In System Preferences: Jobs - 3, we have added a Preference for “Specifications displayed on first page of Jobs’. If this is enabled and you want to see Specifications in Jobs, please go to Security Access: Jobs and Financial’ and enable Specifications as a Form page to be displayed in the Job record either as a Tab or in the List view.

Spell-checking

A bug was fixed in Spell-checking.

TimeBlocks

TimeBlocks has been completely rewritten and many new and powerful features have been added. If you are interested in TimeBlocks, please schedule a free GoToMeeting and we will demonstrate the new features.

Traffic Calendar

In System Preferences: Calendar & TimeLines, we have added a Preference to “Display Specifications Text in Sidebar instead of Traffic Status”.

Traffic Summary Report

Users can now specify printing fonts, font sizes, page orientation, and page size. Columns can now be more than 500 pixels wide.

Vendors

Vendor Name is now the first choice for List view query, instead of Vendor ID.

Contact:  

Victor Siegle

President

Phone: 800.734.9143, x. 10

E-mail: Victor_Siegle@JobOrder.com

Management Software Incorporated

75 South Main Street

Homer, NY 13077 USA

Phone: 800.734.9143

Internet: www.JobOrder.com

Email: sales@JobOrder.com

Management Software Holiday Schedule 2011

2011-11-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

Management Software will be closed on Thursday November 24, 2011, and Friday, November 25, 2011 for Thanksgiving.

Management Software will be closed on Friday, December 23, 2011, and Monday, December 26, 2011 for the Christmas Holiday. We will be open and generally available from December 27, 2011, through December 30, 2011.

We will be closed on Monday, January 2, 2012, for the New Year's Day Holiday. We will be back at work on Tuesday, January 3, 2012

All of us at Management Software wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday.

JobOrder 2011 and Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

2011-07-24T20:09:00.002-04:00

Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was released last week. Based upon our testing JobOrder 2011 appears to work correctly.

We are waiting for certification of Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) from 4D, our language supplier.

We recommend that JobOrder user should not upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) until we receive approved certification.

If you have any questions, please email or call your JobOrder representative at 800-734-9143.

JobOrder 2011 is now available!

2011-05-23T09:00:00.001-04:00

The first public release of JobOrder 2011 is now available. To download, please go to www.JobOrder.com/downloads to “JobOrder 2011 Software”.

JobOrder 2011 includes 4D v12 SQL Release 2, our programming language, certified on Windows for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7. For Windows Client computers we recommend Windows 7 instead of XP or Vista.

On Macintosh, 4D v12 Release 2 is certified for Macintosh OS X 10.6.7 (Mac Intel only).

IMPORTANT NOTE: JobOrder 2011 on Macintosh runs only on Intel-based Macintosh computers, not on PPC-based Macintosh computers.

4D V12 Release 2 is an evolutionary upgrade from 4D v11 SQL Release 8, the programming language used for JobOrder 2010. For more information about 4D v12, please visit http://www.4d.com/products/new.html.

JobOrder 2011 Server will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.6.7 (Mac Intel) and for Windows Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7

JobOrder 2011 Client will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.6.7 (Mac Intel) and for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / 7.

If you are running a version of Mac OS X earlier than OS X 10.6.7 on Macintosh Intel-based computers, please upgrade to OS X 10.6.7 for improved stability.

All known bugs affecting customers have been fixed.

Enhancements are briefly described below, categorized by area or function.

JobOrder 2011 Internet and JobOrder 2011 iPhone

JobOrder 2011 will greatly facilitate the development of JobOrder 2011 Internet, JobOrder 2011 iPhone, and access to JobOrder via SQL report writers. JobOrder 2011 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability.

Activities, Estimate Activities, and Template Activities

In Activities, Estimate Activities and Template Activities, the Milestones dialog now has a Print button.

Available Capacity

The Available Capacity Power Tools does not have printing enabled in the JobOrder 2011 beta. Please let us know if you require printing from this report.

Backup Error Notification

Custom Forms

When you begin using JobOrder 2011, please contact us to help you make cosmetic changes to your Custom Forms due to the change of underlying plug-in.

DataCheck and 4D Tools

The DataCheck and 4D Tools utilities have been replaced by a new utility called Maintenance and Security Center or MSC.

Digital Assets

Many improvements have been made to Digital Assets and to the Digital Assets Manager.

Forms

Visual and organizational improvements have been made to dozens of forms and report dialogs.

Grouped Accounts Manager

Visual and functional improvements have been made to the Grouped Accounts Manager.

HealthCheck 4D

Inventory Count Sheet and Inventory Sale by Period

Many new features have been added to Inventory reports.

Job Milestone Report

In the dialog of the Job Milestone Report, a button called ‘Report Info’ explains how the report works.

Keywords

When adding Keywords, Security Access is now checked.

Mass Update

Whenever a Mass Update occurs, we have added an "Automatic Audit" Note. Only DBA's can delete Automatic Audit Notes.

Milestone Manager

A Time Picker has been added to Milestone Manager. Please test it and let us know if it would be useful here or elsewhere in JobOrder.

Milestones

Many small changes have been made in Milestones to match the new ‘Milestone’ documentation.

Organizations

Attachments can now be added to Organizations.

“Paste” in Edit menu

A bug was fixed when using “Paste” in the Edit menu that caused the Spell Checker to be called inappropriately.

Phases

Receive Inventory Purchases

‘Receive Inventory Purchases’ has been completely updated. In ‘Receive Inventory Purchases’, if the user selects an Expense with no Purchase Order, the error message now says: "No Purchase Order was found. Open this Expense record to add or select a Purchase Order?" If the user clicks 'yes', JobOrder opens the existing Expense record. When they return to the dialog, JobOrder checks again for a valid Purchase Order.

Resources

To change the Security Access Level of a Resource you must now have a Security Access Level of Database Administrator.

Specifications in Jobs

TimeBlocks

Traffic Calendar

In System Preferences: Calendar & TimeLines, we have added a Preference to “Display Specifications Text in Sidebar instead of Traffic Status”.

Traffic Summary Report

Users can now specify printing fonts, font sizes, page orientation, and page size. Columns can now be more than 500 pixels wide.

Vendors

Vendor Name is now the first choice for List view query, instead of Vendor ID.

JobOrder 2011 beta release

2011-03-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

The first beta release of JobOrder 2011 is now available. Please contact Management Software for downloading instructions.

JobOrder 2011 includes 4D v12 SQL Release 1HF3, our programming language, certified on Windows for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7. For Windows Client computers we recommend Windows 7 instead of XP or Vista.

On Macintosh, 4D v12 Release 1 is certified for Macintosh OS X 10.6.6 (Mac Intel only).

IMPORTANT NOTE: JobOrder 2011 on Macintosh runs only on Intel-based Macintosh computers, not on PPC-based Macintosh computers.

4D V12 Release 1 is an evolutionary upgrade from 4D v11 SQL Release 8, the programming language used for JobOrder 2010. For more information about 4D v12, please visit http://www.4d.com/products/new.html.

If you are upgrading from JobOrder 2009, because JobOrder 2011 is so different from JobOrder 2009, we will guide you through a simple process to convert your existing data file to JobOrder 2011. Please schedule some time for this conversion process with your JobOrder representative. THIS STEP IS REQUIRED FOR UPGRADING TO JOBORDER 2011. You will need to update your JobOrder Clients using new JobOrder 2011 installers. If you have already installed the JobOrder Client for JobOrder 2011, the new JobOrder 2011 Client will be automatically installed on each Client computer.

JobOrder 2011 Server will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.6.6 (Mac Intel) and for Windows Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7

JobOrder 2011 Client will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.6.6 (Mac Intel) and for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / 7.

If you are running a version of Mac OS X earlier than OS X 10.6.6 on Macintosh Intel-based computers, please upgrade to OS X 10.6.6 for improved stability.

All known bugs affecting customers have been fixed.

Enhancements are briefly described below, categorized by area or function.

JobOrder 2011 Internet and JobOrder 2011 iPhone

Activities, Estimate Activities, and Template Activities

In Activities, Estimate Activities and Template Activities, the Milestones dialog now has a Print button.

Available Capacity

The Available Capacity Power Tools does not have printing enabled in the JobOrder 2011 beta. Please let us know if you require printing from this report.

Backup Error Notification

Custom Forms

DataCheck and 4D Tools

The DataCheck and 4D Tools utilities have been replaced by a new utility called Maintenance and Security Center or MSC.

Digital Assets

Many improvements have been made to Digital Assets and to the Digital Assets Manager.

Forms

Visual and organizational improvements have been made to dozens of forms and report dialogs.

Grouped Accounts Manager

Visual and functional improvements have been made to the Grouped Accounts Manager.

Inventory Count Sheet and Inventory Sale by Period

Many new features have been added to Inventory reports.

Job Milestone Report

In the dialog of the Job Milestone Report, a button called ‘Report Info’ explains how the report works.

Keywords

When adding Keywords, Security Access is now checked.

Mass Update

Whenever a Mass Update occurs, we have added an "Automatic Audit" Note. Only DBA's can delete Automatic Audit Notes.

Milestone Manager

A Time Picker has been added to Milestone Manager. Please test it and let us know if it would be useful here or elsewhere in JobOrder.

Milestones

Many small changes have been made in Milestones to match the new ‘Milestone’ documentation.

Organizations

Attachments can now be added to Organizations.

“Paste” in Edit menu

A bug was fixed when using “Paste” in the Edit menu which caused the Spell Checker to be called inappropriately.

Receive Inventory Purchases

‘Receive Inventory Purchases’ has been completely updated. In ‘Receive Inventory Purchases’, if the user selects an Expense with no Purchase Order, the error message now says: "No Purchase Order was found. Open this Expense record to add or select a Purchase Order?" If the user clicks 'yes', JobOrder opens the existing Expense record. When they return to the dialog, JobOrder checks again for a valid Purchase Order.

Resources

To change the Security Access Level of a Resource you must now have a Security Access Level of Database Administrator.

TimeBlocks

Traffic Summary Report

Users can now specify printing fonts, font sizes, page orientation, and page size. Columns can now be more than 500 pixels wide.

Vendors

Vendor Name is now the first choice for List view query, instead of Vendor ID.

How to restore your dictionary to default

2011-02-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

When running a spell check in JobOrder, you can add unrecognized words. But suppose you accidentally add a word that you want to remove. How do you undo it? The file that we need is located in one of these default folders:

Win XP:

C:\Documents and settings\username\Application Data\4D\persoxxx.dic

Windows 7:

C:\\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\4D

Mac OS:

Macintosh HD:Users:username:Library:Preferences:4D:persoxxx.dic

After you quit JobOrder, there will be a file in one of the locations above called persoXXXXX.dic, where the X's denote the dictionary's reference number.

Open this file in a text editor and remove the unwanted words. Note that if you remove all of the contents, you will have reverted back to your default dictionary.

Please let us know if this information is helpful to you.

Victor Siegle

Holiday Season 2010

2010-12-15T14:24:00.002-05:00

Management Software will be closed on Friday, December 24, 2010, and on Friday, December 31, 2010, to observe the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

We wish you the happiest of holidays and a prosperous 2011.

JOBORDER 2010 SOFTWARE IS NOW AVAILABLE

2010-12-14T12:56:00.002-05:00

December 13, 2010, Homer, NY

An updated release of JobOrder 2010 is now available. JobOrder 2010 is strongly recommended if you are upgrading to Windows 7 or to Macintosh OS X 10.6.5. JobOrder 2010 is the only version of JobOrder certified for those operating systems.

JobOrder 2010 includes 4D v11 SQL Release 8, our programming language, certified on Windows for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7. For Windows Client computers we recommend Windows 7 instead of XP or Vista.

On Macintosh, 4D v11 SQL Release 8 is certified for Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC only) and 10.6.5 (Mac Intel only). For Macintosh Client computers we recommend OS X 10.6.5 instead of OS X 10.5.8.

4D v11 SQL Release 8 is a dramatic upgrade from 4D 2004.7, the programming language used for JobOrder 2009. For more information about 4D v11 SQL, please visit http://www.4d.com/us/products/11reasons.html

Because JobOrder 2010 is so different from JobOrder 2009, we will guide you through a simple process to convert your existing data file to JobOrder 2010. Please schedule some time for this conversion process with your JobOrder representative. THIS STEP IS REQUIRED FOR UPGRADING TO JOBORDER 2010.

You will need to update your JobOrder Clients using new JobOrder 2010 installers. If you have already installed the JobOrder Client for JobOrder 2010, the new JobOrder 2010 Client will be automatically installed on each Client computer.

JobOrder 2010 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability. If you have not recently performed any preventative maintenance on your JobOrder data file, please call Customer Support for guidance.

JobOrder 2010 Server will be distributed both for Windows Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7 and Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC) and 10.6.5 (Mac Intel).

JobOrder 2010 Client will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC) / 10.6.5 (Mac Intel) and for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / 7.

If you are running a version of Mac OS X earlier than OS X 10.6.5 on Macintosh Intel-based computers, please upgrade to OS X 10.6.5 for improved stability.

All known bugs affecting customers have been fixed.

Enhancements are briefly described below, categorized by area or function.

JobOrder 2010 Internet and JobOrder 2010 iPhone

JobOrder 2010 will greatly facilitate the development of JobOrder 2010 Internet, JobOrder 2010 iPhone, and access to JobOrder via SQL report writers. JobOrder 2010 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability.

Available Capacity

The Available Capacity Power Tools does not have printing enabled in the JobOrder 2010 beta. This Power Tool will be available soon.

CRM Manager

The area formerly called 'CRM Calendar' has been renamed to 'CRM Manager' to reflect its expanded functionality.

Custom Forms

DataCheck and 4D Tools

The DataCheck and 4D Tools utilities have been replaced by a new utility called Maintenance and Security Center or MSC.

Date Picker

JobOrder now has a Date Picker, shown with a small calendar icon. The Date Picker has been added to most date fields in JobOrder and will be added to all remaining date fields soon.

Clicking on the Date Picker up a dialog containing a calendar with two months and with pop-ups and arrows to switch to future years and months. The current date shortcuts can still be used in the date field in the dialog.

When entering dates in date fields and in date variables, you can use the following keystrokes as shortcuts:

'+' - Add a day

'-' - Subtract a day

'T' - Today

'M' - first of current Month

'H' - end of current month

'Y'- first of current Year

'R’ - end of current yeaR

Partial dates:

'0813', '08/13', '08.13' and '08,13' will all expand to the current year;

'13' will expand to the 13th of the current month and year;

081309 and 08132009 will expand to 08/13/09

'/', '.' and ',' are acceptable delimiters.

Digital Assets

The Digital Assets area and Digital Assets Manager have been rewritten and many bugs have been fixed.

Forms

Many forms have been redesigned for simplicity and clarity of data entry.

Examples include 'Receive Client Payments' and 'Pay Vendors'.

Google Maps

Google Map links have been added near the address fields in Organizations, Site Information, Jobs, Vendors, Contacts, Resources, Client Shipping Addresses, Contacts Alternate Addresses, and Purchase Orders.

Google Translate

Google Translate links have been added near some fields in Sales Orders.

Job Overview, Estimate Overview, and Template Overview

The Overview forms have been redesigned.

In-Out Time

In-Out Time is a new Power Tools, allowing users to log in at a centralized computer and to enter their production Time slips directly.

Master Discount Percentage

Master Discount Percentage is a new Area, used to enter Billing Level discount percentages based upon Item Types of Inventory Items.

Milestones

Milestones have been extended to Estimate and to Templates and their functionality has been greatly expanded.

A new Milestone Manager has been added.

Milestones can be sent as emails to Staff Resources and Contacts.

Milestones can now be linked with dependencies.

Notifications Rules

Many Notification Rules have been added to JobOrder 2010.

Record view in all Areas

Page Tabs now collapse when the form page is not wide enough to display them all. They automatically expand when you widen the form page.

Sales Orders

The Sales Order area has been rewritten and many bugs have been fixed. The link to Production Jobs has been greatly enhanced.

Update Purchase Order ID Length

A Utility has been added to update the length of existing Purchase Order IDs. This length can be set in System Preferences: Purchase Orders: Minimum PO ID Length.

Vendor Bid Requests

Vendor Bid Requests has been rewritten. Users can now create Vendor Bid Requests and email the Bid Requests to Vendor Contacts. The Vendor Contacts will be able to log into JobOrder 2010 Internet to enter their bids. When the Vendor Contact clicks 'Submit' an email is sent to the JobOrder resource who created the Vendor Bid Request.

Web Site Launch

A new web site icon, looking like linked arrows, has been added next to fields containing the URL of web sites for Organizations, Vendors, and Digital Asset Rights.

Windows forms and fonts

JobOrder 2010 for Windows has been updated with more forms and fonts.

About JobOrder

JobOrder facilitates planning, estimating, scheduling, rescheduling, billing, accounting, analyzing and reporting. Multi-processing notifications automation capabilities give users full control over job planning and tracking, project management, workflow, and deadlines.

JobOrder offers its users a full array of powerful concepts and tools to streamline and refine entire business processes on an ongoing basis. JobOrder software enables project-based organizations to gain immediate access to organization-wide information, eliminate clerical inefficiencies, cut administrative overhead, deliver work more reliably and cost-effectively, and realize improved profitability and sustainable growth. For more information about JobOrder 2010, please contact Management Software at 800-734-9143, send email to info@joborder.com, or visit www.JobOrder.com.

About Management Software Inc.

Management Software is a leading developer of business process management software for service businesses on Windows and Macintosh. Management Software is based in Homer, New York. We have provided vertical software applications, custom programming services, consulting, and training since 1989. Using the technology of 4th Dimension, a relational database programming language, Management Software develops affordable software applications for automating business operations and procedures. For more information, visit www.JobOrder.com.

Contact:  

Victor Siegle

President

Phone: 800.734.9143, x. 10

E-mail: Victor_Siegle@JobOrder.com

Management Software Incorporated

75 South Main Street

Homer, NY 13077 USA

Phone: 800.734.9143

Internet: www.JobOrder.com

Email: sales@JobOrder.com

###

JobOrder 2010 beta now available

2010-05-31T09:00:00.003-04:00

JobOrder 2010 is now available as a beta release. JobOrder 2010 is strongly recommended if you are upgrading to Windows 7 or to Macintosh OS X 10.6.3. JobOrder 2010 is the only version of JobOrder certified for those operating systems.

JobOrder 2010 includes 4D v11 SQL Release 6 Hotfix 2, our programming language, certified for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7 and Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC only) and 10.6.3 (Mac Intel only).

4D v11 SQL Release 6 is a dramatic upgrade from 4D 2004.7, the programming language used for JobOrder 2009. For more information about 4D v11 SQL, please visit http://www.4d.com/us/products/11reasons.html

JobOrder 2010 beta demo installers and server installers are available at ftp://ftp.joborder.com/Public/ . Please connect as 'Guest'.

Because JobOrder 2010 is so different from JobOrder 2009, we will guide you through a simple process to convert your existing data file to JobOrder 2010. Please schedule some time for this conversion process with your JobOrder representative.

You will need to update your JobOrder Clients using new JobOrder 2010 installers. If you have already installed the JobOrder Client for JobOrder 2010, the new JobOrder 2010 Client will be automatically installed on each Client computer.

JobOrder 2010 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability. If you have not recently performed any preventative maintenance on your JobOrder data file, please call Customer Support for guidance.

JobOrder 2010 Server will be distributed both for Windows Server 2003 SP2 R2 / Server 2008 SP2 R2 / 7 and Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC) and 10.6.3 (Mac Intel).

JobOrder 2010 Client will be distributed both for Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 (PPC) / 10.6.3 (Mac Intel) and for Windows XP SP3 / Vista SP2 / 7.

If you are running a version of Mac OS X earlier than OS X 10.6.3 on Macintosh Intel-based computers, please upgrade to OS X 10.6.3 for improved stability.

All known bugs affecting customers have been fixed.

Enhancements are briefly described below, categorized by area or function.

JobOrder 2010 Internet and JobOrder 2010 iPhone
====================================
JobOrder 2010 will greatly facilitate the development of JobOrder 2010 Internet, JobOrder 2010 iPhone, and access to JobOrder via SQL report writers. JobOrder 2010 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability.

Available Capacity
====================================
The Available Capacity Power Tools does not have printing enabled in the JobOrder 2010 beta. This Power Tool will be available soon.

CRM Manager
====================================
The area formerly called 'CRM Calendar' has been renamed to 'CRM Manager' to reflect its expanded functionality.

Date Picker
====================================
JobOrder now has a Date Picker, shown with a small calendar icon. The Date Picker has been added to most date fields in JobOrder and will be added to all remaining date fields soon.

Clicking on the Date Picker up a dialog containing a calendar with two months and with pop-ups and arrows to switch to future years and months. The current date shortcuts can still be used in the date field in the dialog.
When entering dates in date fields and in date variables, you can use the following keystrokes as shortcuts:
'+' - Add a day
'-' - Subtract a day
'T' - Today
'M' - first of current Month
'H' - end of current month
'Y'- first of current Year
'R’ - end of current yeaR

Partial dates:
'0813', '08/13', '08.13' and '08,13' will all expand to the current year;
'13' will expand to the 13th of the current month and year;
081309 and 08132009 will expand to 08/13/09
'/', '.' and ',' are acceptable delimiters.

Digital Assets
====================================
The Digital Assets area and Digital Assets Manager have been rewritten and many bugs have been fixed.

Forms
====================================
Many forms have been redesigned for simplicity and clarity of data entry.
Examples include 'Receive Client Payments' and 'Pay Vendors'.

Google Maps
====================================
Google Map links have been added near the address fields in Organizations, Site Information, Jobs, Vendors, Contacts, Resources, Client Shipping Addresses, Contacts Alternate Addresses, and Purchase Orders.

Milestones
====================================
Milestones have been extended to Estimate and to Templates and their functionality has been greatly expanded.
A new Milestone Manager has been added.
Milestones can be sent as emails to Staff Resources and Contacts.
Milestones can now be linked with dependencies.

Record view in all Areas
====================================
Page Tabs now collapse when the form page is not wide enough to display them all. They automatically expand when you widen the form page.

Sales Orders
====================================
The Sales Order area has been rewritten and many bugs have been fixed.

Web Site Launch
====================================
A new web site icon, looking like linked arrows, has been added next to fields containing the URL of web sites for Organizations, Vendors, and Digital Asset Rights.

California Sales Tax Report

2010-03-23T20:15:00.001-04:00

JobOrder now includes a specialized Sales Tax Report for California (following BOE-401-A2 revision (103 (4-09)).

The dialog allows the user to make the following entries:

The report then queries the JobOrder data file for the appropriate information and prints:

Please contact Management Software for more information about this report.

Sales Orders

2010-03-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

JobOrder 2010 contains major enhancements to Sales Orders. Sales Orders are specialized Jobs used to select and sell Inventory Items as simply as possible.

We have increased the width of all Item Description fields in all related areas (for example, Expenses) from 80 to 200 characters.

We have completely re-written the way Sales Orders are created and Shipped to enable users to Bin Locations to select where the items should be shipped from at the time Shipment actually occurs.

We now allow different locations to be specified for the Sales Order, each individual Item, AND each individual Shipment, allowing for more than one location to be selected for a single item/shipment.

We have built in logic that will automatically try to Ship materials from locations based on their Priority Order (Bin 1 being highest, and Bin 7 lowest), and actual Quantities Available in each location. These automatic decisions can easily be over-ridden to ship from any location that contains that item.

We have allowed Items to be manually selected to be Back Ordered, and separated it from the concept of Items simply being "Un-Shipped".

In the Sales Order, Items can be added in by many different means. In the screenshot below, you can either click the Add Items by Type, or the green '+' button to the right of the Items listing.

Clicking on the '+' button will bring up a screen where users can select the Item and Quantity. You will not need to select the location here, because that will occur at the Shipping stage.

Once you have added the Items required to the Sales Order, users can click the "Ship Sales Order" button on the Sales Order dialog. That will bring up the Shipment dialog. Here you can select the Items you wish to Ship, click in the Location cell to modify the Location to ship from, double-click in the Shipment Qty and Back Order Qty cells to determine what amount you wish to ship or back order. You can also select the reports you wish to generate, and whether you wish to generate the Invoice, all from this one place.

Other enhancements include:

- Displaying Quantities per location in the Inventory Item record

- Allowing a default Item to be assigned to each location.

Management Software Holiday Schedule 2009

2009-12-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

One of the season's greatest pleasures is thinking about those who have made this year memorable. We're delighted to take a moment to thank you for being a valued client of JobOrder. We would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a bright new year.

Management Software will be closed on December 24, 2009, and December 25, 2009 for the Christmas Holiday. We will be open from December 28, 2009, through December 30, 2009.

We will be closed on December 31, 2009, and January 1, 2010, for the New Year's Day Holiday. We will be back at work on Monday, January 4, 2010.

All of us at Management Software wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Selecting the Right Business Productivity Suite for Project-Based Organizations Involves a Team Effort

2009-12-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

   In an ideal world, all project-based organizations, such as advertising agencies, architectural firms, and engineering companies, work in an atmosphere of maximized business productivity. In this state of business euphoria, creative types become more creative, programmers become more innovative, and team leaders have more control of managing money, time and people.

   Unfortunately, often times in the real world, business processes have a tendency of getting in the way, limiting the ability for members of project-based organizations to optimally use their talents to deliver the best possible end products for their customers. Therefore, in order to be successful, it is essential for project-based organizations to find a way to get business processes out of the way.

   Business Process Management (BPM) software can solve many business process problems throughout the organization. But before giving the IT department the task of implementing a BPM solution, it is important to initiate an organization-wide team investigation.

   This white paper provides the reader with information on what project-based organizations need in a business productivity tool and how to go about selecting the right tool for their organization’s unique needs.

Paths To the Right Solution: Team-based Search Initiative

   The road to maximized business productivity involves some work. In the case of selecting the right tool, it is important that representatives from different teams and departments are involved in the search process. A critical step in choosing the right solution involves the creation of an internal team whose goal is to decipher which solution is best for their organization.

   In order to be successful in this initiative, project-based organizations must form a complete core team that not only knows about the current business processes which run their organization, but also intimate with it. Core team members should consist of those individuals who will live with the deployment of the project and who will most likely be using the tool every day.

   This core team brings in the IT architects for tool evaluation into the selection process, but should not base their choice solely on what the IT people say. Above all, it is not recommended to simply hand the tool selection process over to the IT department and wait for a response and final implementation.

   Before the search begins, project-based organizations should make a list of what’s needed by all departments. Their evaluation should consider the opinions and motivations of all parties involved, which in all likelihood, is everyone that is part of the organization.

The Right Tool Maximizes Business Productivity

   In order to be successful, project-based organizations must maximize business productivity. This means that business processes, the underlying tasks necessary to run a business, must get out of the way of those whose focus is to produce and deliver quality work to their customers. Simply put, maximizing business productivity in a project-based organization releases the grasp that repetitive work has on creative and innovative energies crucial to the success of a project-based and customer driven organization.

   Project-based organizations need an extensive and increasingly adaptive set of business processes to run cost-effectively and at the most optimal level possible. Technology can certainly help in this endeavor. The challenge, however, lies in the challenge of finding the right technology that not only meets the needs of your organization, but that can be adapted to personal preferences of individuals using the system.

   High on the list of selection criteria among project-based organizations are Business Process Management (BPM) tools. There are many solutions on the market today that emphasize a few disparate capabilities often tied to BPM tools. However, ideal BPM tools have evolved beyond the technology basics of business process management and have converged multiple capabilities into a single software suite of tools.

   The right solution should enable project-based organizations to streamline the execution of business processes by automating workflow tasks, eliminating redundant steps, and supporting congruent execution of tasks. Additionally, managers should feel empowered to take full responsibility for designing and optimizing their end-to-end processes. When a cost-effective tool enables process managers with direct control and management of executing processes, there is minimal reliance on the IT organization.

   To make the IT organization’s life easier, it is also important that the chosen system enable organizations to initially set up the tool once – with core functionality to automate the whole business process for the entire organization for a long period of time. If the system needs some alterations in the future, data should be secure and the process of change should be easy and not require a rewrite of the entire business process.

The Ideal Solution

   Since the goal is to get business processes out of the way, the right BPM software tool should offer an easy-to-learn, multi-platform, multi-user management tool which offers project-based organizations a full array of powerful tools to streamline and refine the entire business process – from the moment a prospective client calls to the moment the final invoice is sent.

   Ideally, because everyone in the organization will use the tool, it should make everyone happy. It should offer a cross-platform, client-server solution for estimating, time and expense tracking, prioritizing, resource scheduling, invoicing, accounting, and reporting. Additionally, the tool should include accounting functionality with A/R, A/P and G/L, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and more. Therefore, everyone, whether they use Macs or PCs for their design, drafting, programming, or accounting, should be able to learn and use this tool for maximum business productivity throughout the organization.

   The ideal BPM Software tool yields numerous benefits. With the right business process management automation tool, project-based organizations can:
* Unify and streamline all your business processes for greater productivity and profitability
* Provide immediate access to all information
* Eliminate clerical inefficiencies
* Cut administrative overhead
* Deliver work more reliably and cost-effectively
* Realize improved profitability and sustainable growth

   While all the above benefits can be realized with an ideal BPM Solution, the top three benefits for project-based organizations, especially small to mid-sized companies, are increased reliability, cost savings, and improved efficiency.

About Management Software

   Management Software is a leading developer of business process management software for service businesses on Macintosh and Windows. Management Software is based in Homer, New York, where it has provided vertical software applications, custom programming services, consulting, and training since 1989.

   Using the technology of 4th Dimension, a relational database programming environment, Management Software develops affordable software applications for automating business operations and procedures.

About JobOrder

   JobOrder is comprehensive and robust software that automates the flow of information throughout your entire business – from the moment a prospective client calls for a proposal until the final invoice is sent.

   JobOrder provides state-of-the-art functionality and automation capabilities for project-based organizations, including advertising agencies, architectural firms, construction companies, consulting firms, design firms, engineering companies and job shops. JobOrder is an easy-to-learn, multi-user management tool that is designed to maximize business productivity. With JobOrder, your organization will:

   * Create accurate estimates every time
   * Systemize jobs with detailed specifications
   * Prioritize traffic and reschedule staff in seconds
   * Manage change orders
   * Monitor resources effortlessly
   * Send invoices out promptly
   * Streamline accounting
   * Generate reports instantly
   * Identify problems before they get out of control
   * Plan for the future with confidence

   Unlike other products on the market that emphasize one or another of these functions, JobOrder offers its users a full array of powerful tools to streamline and refine your entire business process.

   Everyone, whether they use Macs or PCs for their design, drafting, programming, or accounting, can use JobOrder. JobOrder offers a cross-platform, client-server solution for estimating, time and expense tracking, prioritizing, resource scheduling, invoicing, accounting, and reporting.

   JobOrder includes Accounting with A/R, A/P and G/L, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and more.

For More Information
   * Call us toll-free at 800-734-9143.
   * Send us email at sales@joborder.com.
   * Visit our website at www.joborder.com.

Victor Siegle
Management Software, Inc.

© 2009 Management Software, Inc. JobOrder is a registered trademark of Management Software, Inc. All other trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Customer Support Policy

2009-12-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Management Software has unbundled our Customer Support services for our current clients so that every JobOrder client can specify the exact Customer Support services they require.

In order to be eligible for Customer Support, each customer must maintain an active JobOrder Software Update Contract, which provides you with all major and minor updates to JobOrder and to our database language, 4D, for one year or longer. Please see our Software Update Contract document for more information.

In addition to the Software Update Contract, please either purchase a Customer Support Contract or provide an open Purchase Order number for billable support time. We will bill time against your Customer Support Contract or your open Purchase Order only when appropriate.

If you choose a Customer Support Contract, we will email a monthly Support Contract Status report showing how much time has been used and how much time remains.

We provide multiple levels of Customer Support, both non-billable and billable:

Non-billable: Problem reports emailed to support@joborder.com

Non-billable: Feature requests emailed to support@joborder.com

Non-billable: Short, straightforward email questions or telephone calls under 5 minutes long with clear answers.

Non-billable: Minor changes to JobOrder forms or fields.

Billable: Long telephone conversations or email responses.

Billable: Custom forms programming.

Billable: Custom programming for specific enhancements requested and authorized by customer.

Billable: Training at customer site or GoToMeeting classes over the Internet.

Non-Billable Time

Because some problem reports and some feature requests are not an “urgent” priority, we have established a non-billable email address to deal with low priority questions.

Problem reports emailed to support@joborder.com, and feature requests emailed to support@joborder.com will be handled on a “time available” basis. If Management Software determines that a problem reported to support@joborder.com affects a major process in JobOrder, problem resolution efforts will escalate to our highest priority response level. When issues are resolved or completed, an email reply will be sent to the requestor at no charge.

Time spent investigating and solving problem reports emailed to support@joborder.com is not billable. Except for the billable time explicitly described below, time spent programming in JobOrder to resolve problems reported by JobOrder clients is not billable.

Time spent programming feature requests emailed to support@joborder.com is not billable. All new features added to JobOrder are described in the New Features document updated with each release of JobOrder.

Reasonable conversations requesting price quotations for future paid enhancements to JobOrder are not billable to our customers or resellers. If the time required to prepare a price quotation will be more than 30 minutes, we will quote a fixed price estimate to develop the specifications and bid document.

Please Note: If a problem cannot be reproduced or if a feature request requires elaboration, all telephone conversations and emails about these subjects will be billable under our normal Customer Support terms described below. If you are not sure if your report or request will be considered billable, please contact Brandon Regard at Management Software for clarification via phone at 800.734.9143, extension 17, or via email to brandon_regard@joborder.com.

Minor changes to JobOrder forms or fields are non-billable if they don’t interfere with form appearance or function.

Billable Time

If the telephone conversation or email writing time exceeds five (5) minutes, all time spent by our Customer Support staff on the telephone or responding to emails about the following topics are billable:
Customer Support Questions
Feature Requests
Implementation Questions
Hardware or Networking Questions
Problem Reports
Training Questions

When problems are reported via telephone or email directly to Customer Support, these problem reports receive our highest priority response and remain active until resolved.

Option One for Customer Support Time prepaid
Customer Support time can be purchased in advance in blocks of 10 hours, 50 hours, 100 hours, or 250 hours, which do not expire until used. Customer Support time is subtracted from your Customer Support Contract by the minute as time is used.

Option Two for Customer Support Time with open Purchase Order
Customer Support time will be billed monthly on your open Purchase Order when time used exceeds one hour or is unbilled for more than three (3) months.

Please let us know your preferred method of billing.

Whenever appropriate, we will quote custom programming on a fixed-price basis after approval of specifications. Authorized custom programming time will be billed on an hourly basis if a fixed price has not been previously quoted. Problem-solving time and additional programming time on previously authorized hourly custom programming work is billable.

Custom Forms design and programming are billable, either with a fixed fee for new forms, or on an hourly basis for modifying existing forms.

Non-billable feature requests are programmed according to Management Software’s priorities. The priority for a specific feature can always be escalated if the client is willing to contribute to the development costs.

Customer Support Hours are from Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM, Eastern Time.

This document may be updated at any time to reflect improvements and changes in our Customer Support Policy. Please check with your JobOrder representative for the latest edition.

Management Software, Inc.
75 South Main Street
Homer, NY 13077 USA

Software Update Contract

2009-11-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

In order to be eligible for Customer Support, each JobOrder customer must maintain an active JobOrder Software Update Contract, which provides you with all major and minor updates to JobOrder and to our database language, 4D, for one year or longer.

At Management Software, we make a world-class commitment to creating "best in class" software. Recognizing that nothing stands still in our industry, we work to continuously improve JobOrder and to increase its value to you.

What is a Software Update Contract?

Management Software offers you the opportunity to license in advance and to automatically receive updates to JobOrder. This is provided to you in the form of a contract called a Software Update Contract. For the term of your contract, Update Contract provides you with a license and an opportunity to receive all major and minor updates to JobOrder and to our database language, 4D.

A new Software Update Contract begins on the day JobOrder software licenses are purchased and renews on the day after the expiration of each old Software Update Contract. Each Software Update Contract expires based upon the date of original purchase. When you first purchase JobOrder licenses, purchasing the accompanying Software Update Contract is mandatory for the first year.

If your Software Update Contract has expired, you can either purchase a new Software Update Contract beginning at the expiration date or a multi-year Software Update Contract beginning at the expiration date. Multi-year Software Update Contracts are discounted as follows:
5% for 2-year Software Update Contract
10% for 3-year Software Update Contract

Our enhancements to JobOrder are continuous. You will get the benefits of all the enhancements, no matter when you renew.

If you don't renew ANY licenses, then you can use ALL the existing JobOrder licenses, but you will not receive ANY support or any updates from us. You will not be able to update your structure with any JobOrder releases after your Software Update Contract has expired.

If you renew some licenses, only the licenses that you renew will be usable during the renewal period and you will receive regular support and updates.

JobOrder's licensing works the way you expect it would work. If, for example, you have 25 licenses and you only renew 20 for the next year, then only 20 users can login at any one time. If economic times improve and you renew 24 licenses the following year or the year after, there is no penalty for the licenses that are re-renewed, you would just pay the regular Software Update Contract price per license.

The only case where you would have to pay retroactive fees is if you don't pay for ANY licenses in your Software Update Contract. In that case you would have to pay for your next Software Update Contract retroactively from the date of expiration.

The Benefits of a Software Update Contract

A Software Update Contract is very valuable. In fact, it may be critical to the success of your project. Technology changes rapidly. Microsoft and Apple regularly release new versions of their operating systems technology that is incompatible with prior versions.

We absolutely commit to continually adapting our software to accommodate changes in the world around us, but we cannot afford to do this for free. Software Update Subscriptions are one of the mechanisms by which we are compensated for our efforts.

Additionally, later versions of JobOrder will include new features that have been requested by our user community. They also incorporate other fixes that may have been developed during the same period. Our Software Update Contract is the mechanism for you to obtain a license for these updates.

Purchasing and Fulfillment

Update Contract updates are available to registered customers with a currently in-force Software Update Contract. Update contracts are available at the time you acquire your initial license of the base product, or by renewal.

Management Software does not automatically ship updates to customers. When an update becomes available, we will notify your main contacts by email. Once the contacts receive notice, they can download from our ftp site. Or, they can ignore it. If your systems are running well, and the new features are of no interest to you, there is no obligation on your part to accept or apply any updates.

Update Contract vs. Customer Support

A Software Update Contract provides only software updates. Our Software Update Contract does not include, nor does it otherwise provide an entitlement to, any type of customer support. Software Update Contract is simply a software license to new versions of JobOrder, provided for in advance of their release.

Contract Term

Your Software Update Contract entitlement period is the term specified in your contract, normally one year. The contract term starts on the date you first license JobOrder, regardless of whether you acquire additional licenses mid-term.

This document may be updated at any time to reflect improvements and changes in our Customer Support Policy. Please check with your JobOrder representative for the latest edition.

Management Software, Inc.
75 South Main Street
Homer, NY 13077 USA

Secrets of Success with JobOrder implementation

2009-11-23T09:00:00.001-05:00

JobOrder differs from most other computer software because it involves your entire organization, not a single person or department. Implementing JobOrder requires a clear commitment from everyone in your organization. The value of JobOrder is comparable to the value of exercise; the more you use the features of JobOrder, the more your organization will benefit from the synergies they will find in easily accessible and clear information. Likewise, non-participation by key members of your organization can dramatically reduce the significance of JobOrder to your productivity growth.

Experience has taught us that the deep examination of your organization's processes during the implementation of JobOrder requires careful thinking and some extra work. We will be accessible to you via on-site consultations, telephone support, or email correspondence whenever necessary to support your implementation of JobOrder.

Preparation

Top management support

Support from top management is the single most important secret of success with JobOrder. Because the analytical reports from JobOrder will affect every member of your staff, strong commitment from the top acts as a clear signal for everyone else to participate actively in JobOrder.

Responsible System Manager for hardware and software

In most organizations, users adopt JobOrder at an individual pace. It's important to have a responsible System Manager who can train new users and answer questions.

Recommended or optimal hardware configurations.

In most organizations JobOrder will be the only Client - Server software. Because Client - Server software sends a lot of information rapidly across your network, it can expose bottlenecks in your network. Please consult with your JobOrder representative to make sure that your hardware and network are optimized for JobOrder.

Training

Thorough training of JobOrder concepts for key staff

Initializing System Preferences in JobOrder requires your JobOrder trainer to gain a clear understanding of your organization and your organization's key staff to master the concepts and terminology in JobOrder.

Detailed training of daily procedures for all staff

JobOrder is simple to learn and is very consistent, but takes a few hours to master. Please make sure that you schedule training classes for all of your staff who will use JobOrder daily.

Detailed training for new staff

New staff sometimes enter a job without proper training. Please be sure to schedule JobOrder training for them.

Ongoing training about new topics

Management Software releases new versions of JoOrder regularly. Sometimes we will add major new features that can revolutionize your business processes. Please be sure to always read our Release Notes carefully for an overview of new features.

Ongoing communications

Review of database during startup

When setting up JobOrder for the first time, you will discover that many business functions can be accomplished through many different pathways in JobOrder. As you begin using new areas in JobOrder, please send us your data file so we can make sure that you are following the optimum pathways for you.

Effective coordination with accounting staff for JobOrder"s internal accounting system or with reseller for link to external accounting system

A big advantage of JobOrder is that many accounting entries are made automatically, just by keeping job-costing up to date. Please take advantage of the time-savings this offers by linking JobOrder with your accounting system.

Preventative Maintenance

Regular and frequent Preventative Maintenance with 4D Tools, DataCheck, and your preferred hard drive maintenance utilities is crucial to keeping your JobOrder database in optimum health.

Just like changing your oil is crucial to keeping the engine of your vehicle in optimum condition, running preventative maintenance tools in JobOrder is crucial for the speed and accuracy of your database.

Billing Levels

2009-11-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

JobOrder allows you to set up multiple Billing for Activities or Inventory Items that are billing at different rates for different types of Clients. For example, you can set up separate Billing Levels for Wholesale versus Retail, or Government versus Commercial, or Pro Bono versus Regular. You can have up to 9 Billing Levels.

Generally, a default Billing Level is copied into a Job or Estimate from a pre-existing Job, Estimate, or Template, and can then be changed.

The Billing Level in the Client record is a default Billing Level, to be used when a new Job or Estimate is prepared for that client.

Unlike Jobs and Estimates, Templates are not linked to specific clients, so Billing Levels in Templates are used only for specialized functions, not for the normal flow of information.

In Proposals, the initial Billing Level is copied from the Client, and can then be changed. In Estimates, the initial Billing Level is copied from the parent Proposal, and can also be changed.

When you copy a Template to an Estimate, the Estimate already has an initial Billing Level taken from the parent Proposal and is not affected by the Billing Level in the Template.

In Jobs, the initial Billing Level is copied from the Client, and can then be changed. When you copy a Template to a Job, the Job already has an initial Billing Level taken from the Client's Billing Level and is not affected by the Billing Level of the Template.

However, when you approve an Estimate to create a Job, the Billing Level of the Job is taken from the Estimate, overriding the client's Billing Level.

Available Hours

2009-11-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

The powerful scheduling features in JobOrder allow you to schedule staff, rooms, and equipment linked to activities in Jobs.

To track resource availability and utilization and to help with scheduling, JobOrder needs to know when each of your resources is available. This information is stored in the Available Hours Area, one record for each combination of resource and date. You can manually change a resource's availability by adding or editing records in this Area. Usually you will use JobOrder to generate most of these records automatically using an administrative function.

Whenever you add a new Resource, you specify the days and hours it is typically available on the Hours page of the Resource record. The defaults are stored in a special Resource record created by JobOrder called Working Days Standard. You can change the default working hours by editing this record.

You should specify any days your organization does not work by creating records in the Holidays area, one record for each ordinary workday that most everyone in your organization will not be working. If there are a few people who will be working on a certain holiday, you can manually add Available Hours records for them.

Adding Available Hours for a Year
Before each year begins, you should have JobOrder create Available Hours records for all your resources. You can create Available Hours records for many years at once if you like, but we suggest doing only one year at a time. If your fiscal year matches the calendar year, you can do it at the same time as you close out accounting.

NOTE: Adding Available Hours for all your Resources can take a long time if you have a lot of Resources. We recommend starting the process at the end of a workday and letting it run overnight in this case.

You should also add Available Hours records for each new resource you add to JobOrder. This is most easily accomplished by clicking Add Hours on the Hours page of the Resource record, but can also be done using this procedure.

To add Available Hours records for a year:
  1 Bring JobOrder's main palette to the front.
  2 Choose Holidays from the Administration menu to open the Holidays Area. Add a record for each ordinary workday that most everyone in your organization will not be working.
Holidays are for exceptions: days you would normally expect to be working, but won't be. "Normal working days" are defined in the Hours page of each Resource record. If none of your Resources are marked as being available on weekends, for example, it is not necessary to define each weekend as a Holiday.
  3 Close the Holidays Area. At the main palette, choose 'Add Available Hours for Year' from the Administration menu.
  4 Choose to add 'Available Hours records for all Resources'.
You may also choose to add Available Hours for one Resource, or for all Resources in a particular Department. If you are not adding Available Hours for all Resources, click Choose Resource or Choose Department as appropriate to choose the Resource or Department for which you want to create Available Hours records.
  5 Enter the year for which you wish to add Available Hours.
  6 Click Add Available Hours.
JobOrder begins creating the Available Hours records for the specified resources for the specified year. Any existing Available Hours records for those resources in that year are deleted first.
  7 If there are any exceptions (for example, people who will be working on holidays), open the Available Hours Area and edit or add records to handle them

Notification Rules

2009-11-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

In most Organizations, management constantly worries about deadlines and budgets 'slipping through the cracks'. JobOrder offers a consistent, automated feature called 'Notification Rules' to watch for all important deadlines and budget problems, and many other items, to make sure that they are not ignored or missed.

Notification Rules tell JobOrder to notify certain individuals or groups whenever certain conditions are met, allowing you to inform staff members of important milestones, events, and problems related to Jobs. For example, you may want the entire Job Team to be notified whenever a Job is complete or want the company president to be notified whenever any Job goes more than 20% over its budget. And that’s just the beginning.

There are dozens of specific types of Notification Rules. JobOrder divides them into five broad categories:

Deadline: A deadline is nearing or has passed.

Amounts: Excessive costs, insufficient profit margin, etc.

Hours: Excessive time spent on an Activity, Job, etc.

Leave: Staff leave request has been approved or rejected.

Workflow: A Job or one of its components has been changed.

When creating a new Notification Rule, JobOrder first asks you to choose what kind of rule you are adding. You can select a broad category of rule using the pop-up menu above the list, or select All Types. Then double-click the specific kind of rule in the list to display the Notification Rules form.

Notification Rules has two pages, Resources to Notify and Rule Details. The Resources to Notify page is the same for all types of Notification Rules. The Rule Details page varies slightly for each kind of rule.

Resources to Notify

On this page, you can choose who should be notified when the rule is triggered, and also specify comments about the Rule.

Rule Details

On this page, you can specify the values that trigger the rule. For example, for a Deadline rule, you can specify that the rule should trigger when it is within a certain number of days of the deadline. For other kinds of rules, you can often specify that the rule triggers when a certain absolute threshold is exceeded or when a ratio (of, for example, actual to budgeted amount) is exceeded. You can also choose to trigger the record any time its constraints are reached, or to apply it only to one particular record (Activity, Material, Job, etc.).

Billing Rules

2009-11-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Organizations often have a problem with making sure that Invoices are generated appropriately and on-time. JobOrder has a mechanism called 'Billing Rules' to automate the generation of Invoices. Invoices will not fall through the cracks when Billing Rules are enabled.

Billing Rules govern the automatic creation of Invoices. You can define Billing Rules in Templates, Estimates, or Jobs. You can print the generated Pro Forma Invoices in the Reports Navigator (go to the Billing category, then choose Print Invoice)—you'll find a checkbox for printing only the Invoices generated by Billing Rules.

You can choose to have Invoices automatically generated:
n at the beginning, completion, or closing of a Job
n at the completion of a Phase or Activity
n when an Expense Detail exceeding a particular dollar amount is entered
When the Billing Rule is triggered, you can bill the total unbilled amount, or a specified dollar amount or percentage.
You can also choose to have the Invoices generated immediately, or a day or more after the rule is triggered.

Billing Rules created in one area will be copied to another when appropriate. For example, copying a Template to a Job will copy the Billing Rules in the selected Template to the Job.

Billing Rules have the following options:

Amount to bill:
Dollar amount to bill
Or
Percentage to bill
Or
Bill entire remaining unbilled amount

Billing is triggered by:
Initiation of the Job (signing of the contract)
Or
Completion of the Job
Or
Closing of the Job
Or
Completion of a specific Activity in the Job

When to bill:
Immediately
Or
Xxxx Days after the Billing has been triggered

Billing Rules in Jobs will generate the following Invoices.

Amount to bill:

1. ‘Dollar amount to bill’ generates a ‘Prebill’ Fixed Charge for the amount specified. The Work Center will be the Work Center defined in System Preferences: Invoices: Work Center for Billing Rules.

2. ‘Percentage to bill’ will generate a ‘Prebill’ Fixed Charge for the amount calculated. The Work Center will be the Work Center defined in System Preferences: Invoices: Work Center for Billing Rules; or

3. ‘Bill entire remaining unbilled amount’ does the following:

For ‘Bill by Budget Fees’, it bills all unbilled Activities.

For ‘Bill by Actual Fees’, it bills all unbilled Time slips.

For ‘Bill by Budget Expenses’, it bills all unbilled Expenses.

For ‘Bill by Actual Expenses, it bills all unbilled Expense Details.

It then generates Applied Prebills for all Prebills generated by previous Billing Rules for this Job.

Documentation with Multiple Approvals in Jobs

2009-10-26T09:00:00.012-04:00

Managing the approval of documents by multiple users can be a difficult task. JobOrder offers a powerful business process to handle document approvals. Here is an outline of the steps to do this.

1. Set email preferences

Go to System Preferences - Email Sending & Receiving.

a. In order to send and receive emails in JobOrder, you need to check the boxes “Start Email Sending Services” and “Start Email Receiving Services”, as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1

b. Next, click the “Edit Email Account Settings” button to display the Email Account settings dialog so you can define the email accounts to be used for sending and receiving (see figure 2)

Figure 2

c. The top section, Outbound email settings, is for filling out the information for your SMTP server, used for sending emails out of JobOrder.
   i. From Address – this is the email address JobOrder will use to send its emails

   ii. Account ID – this is the account name JobOrder will use to log onto the SMTP server, generally matching the first part of the ‘From Address’

   iii. Server – this is the address of your SMTP server. It can be in DNS format (ie ‘mail.myhost.com’) or in TCP/IP address format (ie 192.168.1.200)

   iv. Password – this is the password for the SMTP server account

   v. Email attachment limit – many email servers impose a limit on how large an email can be. This size limit includes both the body of the email, all headers, and any attachments included with the email. This needs to be set in order to help reduce the number of failed emails that JobOrder attempts to send because the attachments are too large.

   vi. SMTP Server requires authentication – this is a special setting that may or may not be required by your mail server. Ask your email administrator if you’re unsure.

   vii. Send Test Email - use this button to test the settings you’ve entered by sending an email to someone (generally yourself so you can check it immediately)

d. The bottom section, Inbound email settings, is for the email address used by JobOrder to receive emails for automatic processes. This should be an email dedicated to this purpose so that email replies don’t get lost.
   i. Reply-to Address – this is the address to which email replies will be sent. This can sometimes be different from the actual account id used for retrieving your email.

   ii. Account ID – this is the account name used to log onto the specified POP or IMAP server for downloading emails.

   iii. Server – this is the DNS name or TCP/IP address of the POP or IMAP server being used to receive messages.

   iv. Password – this is the password for the account.

   v. Protocol – this is the email receiving protocol to be used for downloading messages. POP, or Post Office Protocol, is designed to dowload messages and delete them after downloading. IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, is designed to leave the messages on the server to allow access from multiple locations.
   1. See http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/tips/protocol.html for a good description of the differences between IMAP and POP.

   vi. TCP Port – this is the port used to communicate with the IMAP or POP server. When choosing the Protocol above, the default port for that protocol will be set here. In exceptional cases, non-standard TCP ports are used by mail servers as an extra security measure.

   vii. Test Login – click this button to try logging into the email account specified by the above settings. JobOrder will simply attempt to connect to the server and log out without actually downloading any messages.

2. Set Documentation handling preferences

Figure 3

Go to System Preferences - Documentation (see figure 3)
a. If multiple people need to approve a particular piece of Documentation in order for it to be considered approved, select “Approvals are by Workgroup”.

   1. If selected, the Approvals tab in Documentation will have a list of the approvers with appropriate controls for adding them from Vendor Contacts, Organization Contacts, and Staff Resources for Internal Approval.

   2. If not selected, the Approvals tab in Documentation will have sections for choosing a single Vendor Contact, a single Organization Contact, or a single Staff Resource for Internal approval.

b. Choose the path to the folder where all Attachments are to be stored.
   i. When running in a Client/Server environment, you will be navigating the disk drive(s) attached to the SERVER, not the CLIENT machine on which you are currently operating.
   1. The SERVER handles the storage and all future access to the Attachments.

   2. If a network volume is to be used, it needs to be accessible to the SERVER, not all the individual CLIENT machines connecting to the server.

   ii. Keep in mind that these Attachments are also used in other areas such as Contracts, Emails, Email Requests, Invoices, Requisitions, Resources, Priorities, and Estimates. JobOrder organizes each of the types of Attachments based on the area name, and then the internal sequence number within that area.
   1. In other words, all Attachments for Estimate #7392 will be stored in a folder hierarchy as follows
   a. Attachments - Estimates - 7392
   b. In order to avoid potential file name conflicts, all files are stored in the folder using a date/time stamp. JobOrder handles the translation automatically.

c. Set the Letters to be used for the emails being sent out
   i. Approval Request Letter – this is the letter in the Letters area which is used as the body of the email sent to the approver (or list of Approvers when using Workgroups)
   1. In order to be used as an Approval Request Letter to which a reply can be sent to JobOrder and properly processed, the body of the Letter must contain one or more of the following lines
   a. [ ] Approved
   i. Place an X (case does not matter) between the brackets in order to “Approve” the files attached to the email.

   ii. Note that the line in the Letter must have a single space between the “]” and the word “Approved” in order to work properly. Any extra words after “Approved” are ignored.

   iii. File attachments may be returned with the reply email sent back to JobOrder.

   b. [ ] Approved with changes
   i. Place an X (case does not matter) between the brackets in order to “Approve with Changes” the files attached to the email.
   1. This item is intended to specify that changes have been made to any files returned with the reply.

   ii. Note that the line in the Letter must have a single space between the “]” and the phrase “Approved with Changes” in order to work properly. Any extra words after “Approved with Changes” are ignored.

   iii. File attachments may be returned with the reply email sent back to JobOrder.

   c. [ ] Rejected
   i. Place an X (case does not matter) between the brackets in order to “Reject” the files attached to the email.

   ii. Note that the line in the Letter must have a single space between the “]” and the phrase “Approved with Changes” in order to work properly. Any extra words after “Approved with Changes” are ignored.

   iii. File attachments may be returned with the reply email sent back to JobOrder.

2. Text just before comments – this is a specific phrase contained in the Approval Request Letter which is used to show where freeform comments may be entered in the reply to the email.
   a. Comments may also be simply entered at the beginning of the email reply. Specific phrases automatically inserted by common email applications (Outlook, Outlook Express, Mail.app, Eudora, Entourage) are used to find the end of the comments at the top of the email reply

3. Text just after end of comments – this is a specific phrase in the Approval Request Letter which is used to mark the end of the freeform comments area.
   a. It should be located AFTER the ‘Text just before comments”. If not found after the ‘Text just before comments”, the comments will end up being ignored.

ii. Confirmation Letter – this is a Letter sent in response to a received Approval Request email to let the approver/rejecter know that the email was received.
   1. Leave this blank if you do not want to send out these confirmations. Depending on the amount of emails going in and out of JobOrder, sending this email can become an annoyance to the Approvers.

iii. CC: Recipient Letter – this is a Letter that gets sent to any people included in the CC: list of a Documentation letter.
   1. This Letter should not contain the lines for approving or rejecting the Documentation. The CC: recipients are meant to be people who receive the attachments as an FYI type of courtesy.

3. Check Security Access for Jobs
   a. Check your Security Access records to be sure that the Documentation page in Jobs (see figure 4) allows the Documentation page to be seen either in the list of Related Areas or, preferably, as a tab on the Jobs page.

Figure 4

4. Add desired Notification Rules
   a. The following Notification Rules are available for assisting in the Documentation workflow
   i. Job Documentation has been approved or rejected for…
   1. This rule creates a message for the JobOrder Message Center to let specified Resources know when an Approval or Rejection email reply has been received and processed by JobOrder.

   2. Messages created by this rule are also emailed to the specified Resources whose Personal Preferences specify to send Notifications as email.

   ii. Documentation Approval Reply Received after Completion…
   1. This rule creates a message for the JobOrder Message Center to let specified Resources know when an Approver has emailed a reply AFTER the Documentation record itself has been marked with a Completion Date

   2. Messages created by this rule are also emailed to the specified Resources whose Personal Preferences specify to send Notifications as email.

5. Add Documentation Records to Jobs
   a. Modify a Job and switch to the Documentation tab (or Related Areas tab with Documentation selected). See Figure 5.

Figure 5

i. The list in Figure 5 shows
   1. Documentation records sent out to the Approver(s) in black text.

   2. Documentation Approval Requests returned by Approvers in Magenta text if the reply contained attachments.
   a. The name of the Documentation Item is the root of the original that was emailed out with the name of the Approver appended for easy grouping.

   b. These records differ from the originals in that they do not allow for approval requests. They are there for storage and historical trail.

3. Create Next Revision
   a. Use this button to duplicate the Documentation record currently selected in the list, adding an appropriate revision number to show that it’s based on the record being duplicated.

4. Create a Document for each Activity
   a. Use this button to automatically create a Documentation record for each Activity in the Job Overview. Revision number 1.00 is automatically added to signify it’s the first revision of the Documentation associated with the Activity.

5. Clear all
   a. Deletes all the Documentation records, their Attachments, and Documentation Approvals

ii. Add a Documentation Record

   Figure 6

1. In Figure 6, we see that the General Information for a Documentation Record
   a. Item
   i. the descriptive name of the Documentation

   b. Job Name
   i. the name of the Job to which the Document is associated. This is for information only here.

   c. Description and Location
   i. notes on where the physical Document is located, if it is not in the list of Attachments.

   d. Comments
   i. Freeform comments regarding the Document.

   e. Activity to complete automatically after Approval
   i. If this Document is associated with an Activity, this field specifies the next Activity which is marked as complete if this Documentation is approved.

   ii. If this Activity has a Simple Dependency, the Dependent Activity will be automatically set to start on the same date as the Activity being marked as Completed. The entire Dependency chain will be traversed and updated accordingly.

   f. Activity to start automatically after Approval
   i. If this Document is Approved, you can specify an Activity whose Scheduled Start date will be set to the date of the Approval.

   ii. If Simple Dependencies are specified for the Activities, DO NOT USE THIS FIELD. Simply setting the “Activity to complete automatically after Approval” will take care of this

   g. Scheduled Creation
   i. This is the date you expect the Documentation record to be created
   ii. Mostly important when the Documentation records are tied to actual Activities in the Job Overview (the Item name matches the Activity name)

   h. Scheduled Completion
   i. Used to show the expected completion date on calendars and timelines so that the workflow can be more easily managed.

   ii. Matches the Activity Scheduled Completion date where applicable.

   i. Actual Creation
   i. Used when Routings are involved. Currently inactive.

   j. Actual Completion
   i. The date the Document is completed and no longer used.

   k. Attachments
   i. Add Folder
   1. Used to add all the files in a selected folder on your hard drive (or any mounted network volumes)

   ii. Launch selected Attachment
   1. Downloads the attachment from the server and tells your computer to open it. This requires the computer to recognize the file creator or extension automatically.
   a. When attached from a MacOS computer, the file creator and file type are stored in fields of the Attachment record in order to aid in this.

   b. When attached from a Windows computer, the extension of the file name is used. The Windows registry of the computer launching the file would need to know how to handle the document based on its extension.

   c. If a MacOS computer is opening a file attached by a Windows computer, the extension may or may not be recognized and handled automatically. Likewise when opening a file Windows that was attached by a MacOS computer.

2. Documentation Approvals by Workgroup. See Figure 7.
   a. Select a Letter for ‘Approval Request’
   i. Allows you to choose a Letter to be used for this Documentation Approval Request.

   ii. The selected Letter overrides any Letter currently set in System Preferences - Documentation.

   iii. Leave this blank to use the one in System Preferences

   b. Approvals
   i. This is a list of people who will be sent emails requesting their Approval or Rejection
   1. Mail merges the Letter specified above or the one in System Preferences
   ii. Add Approvers using controls along the right of the list

   c. Add Approvers
   i. Use the controls to add whole workgroups of Contacts, or individual Staff members or Contacts.
   1. Only those Staff Resources and Contacts with email addresses can be added.

   ii. Choose Staff
   1. Choose a Resource of type Staff to be added to the list of Approvers

   iii. Add Workgroup Members
   1. Presents a dialog of all Keywords used in the Contacts area which begin with the word “Workgroup”
   a. Choose a Workgroup from this list to get a list of all Contacts (from both Vendors and Organizations) which use the selected Keyword

   b. Accept the list of Contacts to have them added to the list of Approvers

   c. Cancel the list of Contacts to return to the list of Workgroup keywords and select a different Workgroup.
   i. This loop can be repeated as many times as necessary to get to the correct Workgroup

   2. Choose by Organization
   a. Select an Organization (by name or id depending on System Preferences) to get a list of Contacts at that Organization

   b. Then select the Contact at that Organization to add him/her to the list of Approvers

   3. Choose by Vendor
   a. Select a Vendor (by name or id depending on System Preferences) to get a list of Contacts at that Vendor

   b. Then select the Contact at that Vendor to add him/her to the list of Approvers

   d. Email Request
   i. Sends the approval request emails to the list of Approvers
   ii. Marks the “Request Sent” date of each record
   1. As each Approver replies to the email sent, the appropriate fields for “Request Returned” and “Approved On” or “Rejected On” will be marked.
   a. If attachments are returned with the reply, a new Documentation record is created to store the returned attachments. The name of this Documentation item will be that of the current Documentation record + the Approver’s name.
   i. These Documentation records will not have an Approvals page

   e. Send to Submitter
   i. Send Selected Approval
   1. Select an Approval in this list and an email will be sent to the submitter indicated in the Job Record to show the submitter the status of that Approver’s reply

   ii. Send All Approvals
   1. The submitter gets a list of the Approvers showing the dates the request was sent, returned, approved, rejected, etc, as well as any attachments returned and any comments from the email.

   Figure 7

3. Documentation Approvals (by an Individual)
   a. To be documented in the future.

4. Archival Information

   Figure 8
   a. Storage Archive ID
   i. The storage identifying information used to locate the hard copy

   b. Storage Location
   i. Where the hard copy is located

   c. Storage Medium
   i. The type of medium on which the hard copy is stored

   d. Date to retain until
   i. Date when the hard copy can be destroyed

   e. Date destroyed
   i. Date the hard copy of the Documentation was destroyed

   f. Approval page displayed
   i. The type of Approval being used
   1. Workgroup
   2. Individual

   g. Created by
   i. The Resource who created the Documentation record

   h. Sequence #
   i. The JobOrder internal sequence number of the record

Project Management Complexities: Four Plus Four Equals Thirteen

2009-10-19T09:00:00.002-04:00

A Sea of Project Management Complexity: Fuzzy Math

   Projects involving one or two people are pretty simple. In the case of a single person project, communication with others in the organization is less than likely. A two-person team has only two interactions. But adding a third person to the mix means complicating matters quite a bit.

   Teams with at least three members will eventually have to interact with each of the other two members, for a minimum total of six interactions. Now, as project teams dive into the planning stages, it is likely that the entire group participate in team meetings to communicate together. These meetings discuss execution of strategies, planning, development, and evaluation of results. This necessary group dynamic now increases the number of interactions to at least seven – six one-on-one interactions and one group meeting.

   Now, put four people in a project team, and there is a minimum of eight one-on-one interactions. Plus, there are four different ways three team members might need to communicate with other members, plus the interaction of the entire group – a total of thirteen ways to interact. Four plus four equals thirteen.

   And that’s just for starters. The reality is that projects probably involve many more than four people working on interrelated tasks all at one time. Interactions between team members are constant and take place on multiple occasions. This is necessary to ensure that everyone that is part of a team remain on the same page and is kept up-to-date with current date.

   Now, if distance and time is added to this scenario, the number of interactions can be overwhelming and regarded as “untrackable.” Throw in vendors, customers, and bosses – and the scenario becomes unbearably complicated.

   Given these numbers and scenarios, it is no wonder why many projects fail and tasks get overlooked or simply “fall through the cracks.” Tracking these interactions and activities is enough to make any project manager insanely busy. Luckily, there are ways to solve this problem while tracking it all through the use of technology, specifically, business productivity software.

   Business productivity software can solve many business communication and process problems throughout the organization. In fact, small to mid-size project-based organizations are more frequently seeking cross-platform business productivity software solutions at higher rates than ever before because of the many immediate and tangible benefits they offer. This is because business productivity software eliminates clerical inefficiencies, cuts administrative overhead, and enables project-oriented organizations to deliver work more reliably and manage changes.

Initial Questions: A Good First Step to Simplify Things

   Before implementing a software tool to streamline internal communications and alleviate the pressures of tracking activities, timelines, schedules, budgets, and related tasks, there a number of questions a project manager must ask:

* Who gets information from whom?
* Who needs information from someone else, but isn’t getting it in a timely manner because too many interactions are taking place at the same time?
* What kinds of interactions are taking place?
* When are these interactions taking place?
* What kinds of information would be useful to the team as a whole, but simply isn’t available because it would require too much time to gather?

   Answers to these questions are a critical first step, but it won’t solve the problem. There are other issues to worry about in regards to project team dynamics.

   Consider the complexity of the jobs project teams are assigned to complete. Factor in the myriad of tasks that must somehow come together into a single deliverable result to the inherent complexity of communications in an organization of reasonable size. It becomes clearly apparent that, while one team member perceives their jobs as being fairly simple, the jobs the entire organization does and the things that must happen in order for work to get done at all are anything but.

   Any organization larger than a handful of people is swimming in a sea of complexity. There is a synergy of activities taking place – while a team member is working on their task, another is working on their own, while yet another is talking to someone else of the team about a topic that’s related. Without a coherent, centralized system that keeps everyone in a team up to date on what’s going and on who’s doing what, the risk of incomplete tasks are increased. Multiply all these interactions, with the number of people in a team, and throw into the mixture some client changes, and soon, chaos abounds – that is, of course, without the right tool.

Business Productivity Software: A Calming Breeze

   The right business productivity tool is designed to help organizations cope with all that complexity. It provides not just the information a single person needs, but delivers the information everyone in the team and organization needs. Additionally, the tool has to be able to adapt to organizations, regardless of size, and must also be flexible enough to grow as the organization expands.

   It is natural to think that a tool designed to calm the storm is complex to use in itself. Logically this is true. And many tools out there are extremely complex. But the right tool is simple-to-use, straightforward, and uses concepts anyone in a team or organization can master in a few hours. Each piece works like every other piece of its type, and the pieces are connected to one another in a way that makes intuitive business sense.

   Furthermore, only the pieces essential to getting the job done need to be utilized. When selecting your tool, it is imperative that team members are not forced to use aspects of a tool, which will add work to their life and are not necessary for their jobs.

   The right tool allows one team member to focus on a piece of the package, while another can focus on another. Additionally, at anytime, in case it’s necessary to switch gears or tasks, the tool must enable any team member to easily learn those pieces needed to complete the work.

   An organization’s needs are certainly complex. Therefore, the right business productivity tool is complete, offers powerful automation of administrative tasks, flexible to meet the changing needs taking place in an organization, and adapts to be as complex or simple as work demands it, but no more. It should never be unnecessarily complex.

The Learning Process: Reveal What’s Beneath the Surface

   The process of learning how to manage interactions via the use of technology is also learning about the organizational process – what works, what needs to change, what should be implemented. Ideally, a business productivity tool, while moldable to fit the needs the needs of an organization, brings to light explicit concepts and interrelationships in the organization that were always there, but just beneath the surface.

   These hidden dynamics are not in the conscious of project team members during the planning phases. The process of learning how to use a business productivity tool should be one filled with enlightenment. Perhaps a new way of taking on a task is discovered. Essentially, the ideal business productivity tool will help project teams and individual members understand their own job better and to see how individual roles fit into your organization’s “big picture.”

   Please email if you have any questions.

   Victor Siegle

JobOrder 2010

2009-10-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

We are working hard on the development of JobOrder 2010 and hope to have a beta release around January 1, 2010.

JobOrder 2010 will be based upon 4D v11 SQL Release 5, our programming language, certified for Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 and for Macintosh OS X 10.5.8 and OS X 10.6.1.

4D v11 SQL Release 5 is a dramatic upgrade from 4D 2004.7, the programming language used for JobOrder 2009. For more information about 4D v11 SQL, please visit http://www.4d.com/us/products/11reasons.html

JobOrder 2010 will greatly facilitate the development of JobOrder 2010 Internet, JobOrder 2010 iPhone, and access to JobOrder via SQL report writers. JobOrder 2010 has many internal changes, including improvements to both speed and stability.

Our current plans are to release the shipping version of JobOrder 2010 in early 2010. We will keep you updated through this Blog.

Please email with any questions.

Victor Siegle

Going Beyond Project Management - Adapt to Change. Adopt Profitability.

2009-10-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

Change: A Product of an Old Adage

Project-based organizations realize that customer-focused project management is far superior to product-centric project management. In other words, "the customer is always right". This famous adage that puts your customers’ wants and needs first has always been a motto for project managers. However, never has this saying been more critical to the success of project-based organizations than in the current, unyielding pace of business.

Project managers are faced with an unenviable challenge. Everyday, they are tasked to ensure that all facets of a project are working harmoniously for the common good – delivering a quality end product for the client in a timely manner and within budget. This involves managing schedules, budgets, people, and deadlines.

Being the primary contact point for clients, project managers understand that customers will only remain loyal when they get their needs met, fast. This still holds true even if the client decides to change a detail in a project that is already in progress. Worse, the client is still right even when making a change toward the end of the project or when certain phases are nearing completion.

Well-oiled, project-based organizations are synergistic in nature, meaning that a multitude of activities, ranging from creative development to accounting, occur all at the same time by different members of a team. When a client calls asking for a change, a wrench is thrown into the midst of the gears, which can cause a total breakdown of the project and risk its execution and completion.

But client-facing project managers learn from experience that saying ‘No’ to changes is just unacceptable to the majority of clients. Moreover, denying the client the ability to make changes portrays the organization as unprepared, uncooperative, or worse of all, incompetent. Therefore, in order to follow the mantra, “the customer is always right,” avoiding or disallowing changes in projects is not an option.

In today’s world, where ideas come and go at a rapid rate, there are many pressures. Enabling change for the purposes of meeting client needs is not only recommended, but also required. An organization that rejects change pushes prospects into the open arms of their competitors, who may also find flexibility a difficult challenge, but will do everything in their power to embrace it. This reality thrusts the project-oriented business into an environment where it is essential to adapt to changes in order to remain competitive and profitable.

To attain profitability, organizations must be able to effectively manage changes in projects, as well as key assets within the organization that are most likely to face the process of change – mainly people and knowledge. By establishing change processes and implementing business productivity software to manage and automate all underlying business tasks within the organization, project oriented organizations can be successful even in the midst of changes.

Implementing Change Control Processes

Left to its own devices, change will create a number of problems. Unmanaged change increases the potential of causing disruption to projects already in progress, which can result in a mediocre end product, missed deadlines and budgets, and ultimately contribute to the deterioration of the relationship with the client. This results in business and productivity losses affecting the bottom line and potential loss of the client.

Designed to consistently handle the inevitable changes that crop up from the shadows, an intelligent change control process, to handle any request that changes the specified project requirements, can help alleviate the pressures of meeting customer change demands. To work, it is necessary to integrate a change control process into the original project contract. This way, if a client needs to make a sudden change in the project, they would have to ask for it through a change request.

The control process should be designed so that good or necessary changes, which will improve the end product, get through, with appropriate adjustments to the cost and time. On the other end, the process also makes sure that the bad or inappropriate changes never get implemented into the project.

Making a Change

When a client submits a change request, immediately assess it to see if it's even worth investigating. During this process the organization, and not the client, needs to figure out how long it's going to take to analyze the impact of the change. After the investigation, compare the estimated benefits with the disadvantages. If the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, then approve the change.

Remember, as a project-based organization whose goal is to make the customer happy, it is imperative that the interests of the customer take precedence over the desires of the organization. In the long term, a happy customer means more business.

Should the conclusion that a change request is more disadvantageous to the project than it is beneficial, consider working with the client to revise any areas of the change request to make it more feasible to accomplish. However, always keep the original budget and schedule as outlined in the original contract in mind. Should the changes require additional money, it then may be a good idea to persuade the client to drop the change request.

Change request processes will differ from organization to organization. Nonetheless, creating a change process is necessary. Establishing the control process early on empowers project-oriented organizations to maintain control of the project. Plus, the organization is covered by the contract and the client gets what they want, but pays for it if necessary. Everybody’s happy.

Tools for the Job

Managing changes to projects within the organization requires knowing what information has changed, who made the changes, and when they were made. To address ever-changing business demands project-oriented organizations must implement an automated business management process which not only helps to manage changes to information throughout the organization, but also to manage all the underlying business processes that run an organization.

Small to mid-size project-based organizations can use technology to help in this endeavor. With the right tool, managing changes in projects effectively opens the door to improved customer satisfaction. The ideal solution offers a well-designed business productivity process that incorporates automation of tasks and priorities, flexible workflow, resource and user impact assessment, and an easy-to-use user interface.

Additionally, this tool ensures that changes taking place throughout the organization are communicated, reviewed, and learned in a timely manner, saving priceless time and keeping data up-to-date.

Business Productivity Software

Changes to projects are inevitable. Expect clients to make changes to their projects. The main challenge throughout the change process will be to match customer intent to the business intent of an organization while reducing the cost of servicing customers.

The key to achieving this is by establishing change processes, which clients will agree to, and implementing cross-platform, business productivity tools to automate the business process.

Small to mid-size project-based organizations are more frequently seeking cross-platform business productivity software solutions at higher rates than ever before because of the many immediate and tangible benefits they offer. Business productivity software eliminates clerical inefficiencies, cuts administrative overhead, and enables project-oriented organizations to deliver work more reliably and manage changes.

The ideal software should offer an easy-to-learn, multi-platform, multi-user management tool, which offers project-based organizations a full array of powerful tools to streamline and refine the entire business process – from the moment a prospective client calls to the moment the final invoice is sent.

Ideally, because everyone in the organization will use the tool, it should make everyone happy. It should offer a cross-platform, client-server solution for estimating, time and expense tracking, prioritizing, resource scheduling, invoicing, accounting, and reporting.

Additionally, the tool should include accounting functionality with A/R, A/P and G/L, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and more. Therefore, everyone, whether they use Macs or PCs for their design, drafting, programming, or accounting, should be able to learn and use this tool for maximum business productivity throughout the organization.

Please email if you have any questions.

Victor Siegle

© 2009 Management Software, Inc.

Can We Do It?

2009-09-28T09:00:00.010-04:00

One of the main problems faced by organizations is resource overload. JobOrder offers a powerful feature called 'Can We Do It?", available both in Estimates and in Jobs.

In Jobs, "Can We Do It?" button is a Power Tool, used to determine whether you have enough hours to complete one selected Job or all Jobs within the scheduled time. See the screen capture below.

In Estimates, the "Can We Do It?" button is located on the TimeLines tab. You can enter a hypthetical "Estimate Start Date" and then click ""Can We Do It?".

JobOrder will find all uncompleted Activities in Jobs not on hold that overlap any of this Estimate Activity date range and will then find the earliest Scheduled Start Date for any Activity and the latest Due Date for any Activity in this selection of Activities.

The “Starting Date” will be earliest date of the earliest Scheduled Start Date for any Activity or the earliest Scheduled Start Date for any Estimate Activity. If the Starting date is before the current date, we will set it to the current date. The “Ending Date” will be the latest date of the latest Due Date for any Activity in this selection of Activities or the latest Due Date for any Estimate Activities in this Estimate. If the Ending date is before the current date, we display an error message and end the calculation.

For each Activity assigned to an individual, we compute the Hours Required from the Hours Budgeted minus the Hours Completed minus the Hours Scheduled. If an Activity is assigned to a Team, we calculate the Hours Required from the Hours Budgeted minus the Hours Completed minus the Hours Scheduled. We then divide the Hours Required by the number of days in that Activity and divide again by the number of Resources on each Team. If an Activity is assigned to Full Staff Access, we compute the Hours Required from the Hours Budgeted minus the Hours Completed minus the Hours Scheduled. We then divide the Hours Required by the number of days in that Activity and divide again by the total number of Resources. We perform the same calculations for all Estimate Activities.

We then compute whether or not we have the hours available for the new Estimate. First, we query for each Activities assigned to a single Resource. We compute the Hours Still Needed as the Hours Required minus Hours Available. Second, we query for all Activities assigned to a Team. If we get to the last date for an individual and the Hours Still Needed are positive, we add the balance of Hours Still Needed to the first date of the next Resource on that Team. Go to the next Resource for that Team and repeat this process. If we can not adjust the Hours Required so that the Hours Needed for every date for that Resource for that Activity are zero, and we have reached the last Resource on that Team, we display an error message and end the calculation. If all of the Hours can be adjusted, continue. We perform the same comparisons for all Estimate Activities. If all of the Hours Needed have been adjusted correctly, we display a success message that “Yes, you have enough Hours Available” for this Estimate.” Otherwise, we display a message that “Not enough Available Hours exist for this Estimate”.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder and Snow Leopard compatibility – additional information

2009-09-21T15:59:00.007-04:00

AT THIS TIME, WE DO NOT RECOMMEND RUNNING JOBORDER ON SNOW LEOPARD UNLESS YOUR USERS CAN TOLERATE OCCASIONAL GLITCHES.

We have completed basic testing of JobOrder 2009 on Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.1). We found and fixed one problem involving our scheduling plug-in.

If you plan to run Snow Leopard, please download and install the latest release of JobOrder 2009, posted at:

ftp://ftp.joborder.com/Public/

If you are running Macintosh OS X 10.6, please also upgrade to Macintosh OS X 10.6.1.

One minor change is that the Macintosh operating system will ask for the user account password the first time that you print from a new JobOrder session. You may see a dialog similar to the password dialog shown below.

This change is beyond our control in JobOrder 2009 in Snow Leopard. JobOrder 2010, the next major release of JobOrder, is now being programmed and will eliminate the need to enter the user password before printing.

In JobOrder you can select Attachments at several locations including Interactions and the Attachments area itself. In Macintosh OS X 10.6.1, JobOrder 2009 may crash after you attach several documents. We do not have a workaround or fix for this problem at this time.

We have also have several reports of random crashes back to the Finder, mostly from 4D Write, and are continuing to investigate.

If we receive any more information about Snow Leopard, we will update the JobOrder blog.

JobOrder works correctly on Windows. None of the above changes affect JobOrder on Windows.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is comprehensive.

JobOrder Digital Asset Manager

2009-09-21T09:00:00.008-04:00

JobOrder’s integrated Digital Asset Manager lets you store, archive, share, and reuse logos, brand guidelines, photography, drawings, and fonts throughout your company. The Digital Asset Manager offers thumbnails, keywords, user-definable asset subjects and types, checkout and return, and fast asset searches. Best of all, it’s integrated with JobOrder’s scheduling, estimating, job costing, project management, and accounting.

You can open the Digital Asset Manager in one of two ways:

• Choose Digital Asset Manager from the Plan pull-down menu when the main JobOrder menu window is displayed. The Digital Asset Manager displays thumbnails of all digital assets managed by JobOrder.

• Click the Digital Assets button on the Initialize page in a Job. When opened this way, the Digital Asset Manager displays only thumbnails of assets assigned to the current Job.

JobOrder stores only thumbnail images of assets in the Digital Asset Manager, not assets themselves. The assets normally remain stored in their original locations on your computer’s hard disk or on a network file server (however, you can have JobOrder make copies of the actual files in a readily-accessed location when they are imported to the Digital Asset Manager; see Preferences section at the end of this document). Users who do not have access to the folder a particular asset is stored in will be able to see the asset’s thumbnail in the Digital Asset Manager, but will not be able to actually use the asset.

The main Digital Asset Manager window is shown below.

In the example, one of the assets (“Acoustic Guitar.jpg”) is selected, as indicated by a red outline.

• To select an item and unselect any other items that are already selected, click the desired item.

• To select or unselect an item without affecting the status of other items, hold down Control (Windows) or Command (Macintosh) while clicking it.

• To select a contiguous range of items, click the first item in the group, then hold down Shift while clicking the last item in the group.

The size of the thumbnails can be adjusted using the pop-up menu just above the thumbnail tray.

Searching for Assets by Any Indexed Field or by Keyword

You can search for assets based on the information associated with the assets, such as asset number or type, creation date, and so on. A full list of the available fields appears on a pop-up menu below the button bar, next to the small magnifying glass icon ( ). To search for assets:

1. Choose the field to search using the pop-up field menu.

2. Choose an operator from the pop-up menu to the right of the field menu.

You can choose to search for assets where the selected field is exactly equal (=) to the value you enter, not equal (#), greater than (>), greater than or equal (>=), and so forth.

3. Enter the information you are searching for in the field to the right of the operator pop-up menu.

If you are searching on the Inactive field or by keyword, a pop-up menu appears instead, allowing you to choose True or False for the value of Inactive, or a keyword if you are searching by keyword.

4. Mark the Query in Selection checkbox if you want to search only the currently selected assets. Otherwise all displayed assets are searched.

The Digital Asset Manager continuously searches as you specify your search terms. Thumbnails of items that do not match the search query disappear from the thumbnail tray, leaving only the items that do match. To clear the query and display the thumbnails of all available items, click the Show All button in the button bar.

You can also conduct searches via the Query button (with the larger magnifying glass) in the Button Bar. The query dialog works the same way it does throughout JobOrder.

Using Preset Queries to Find Assets

As a shortcut, a number of commonly used search queries are available from the Preset pop-up menu. These queries display a dialog to let you enter or select the desired value.

For example, to search for all the items that share a relationship, choose Query by Relationship from the Preset pop-up menu. A dialog like the one at right appears, displaying the available relationships. After you choose the desired relationship, only the thumbnails of assets sharing that relationship are displayed in the thumbnail tray. All other thumbnails are hidden.

The available preset queries include:

• Query by Description: Enter the text to be found in the description of the assets.

• Query by Keywords: Select one or more keywords assigned to the assets.

• Query by Keywords in Current Selection: As above, but only searches currently selected assets.

• Query by Partial Keyword: Enter the text to be found in the keywords assigned to the assets.

• Query by Relationship: Select a relationship shared by the assets. (See the Relationships page of the Digital Assets record.)

• Query by Rights Contract text: Enter the text to be found in the Rights Contract of the assets.

• Query for Active Digital Assets: Shows only assets that are not marked as Inactive.

• Search by Path: Enter the text to be found in the file system path of the assets. Useful for finding all assets on a particular server or in a particular folder.

• Show All Related Assets for the Selected Assets. Finds assets that share a relationship with the selected assets. You mark related assets by selecting them, then clicking the Relate button.

After you complete a search query, thumbnails of items that do not match disappear from the thumbnail tray, leaving only the items that do match. To clear the query and display the thumbnails of all available items, click the Show All button in the button bar.

Adding and Removing Assets

To add assets to the Digital Asset Manager, drag them to the main Digital Asset Manager window from the Finder (Macintosh) or Explorer (Windows). Alternatively, click the Add button in the button bar, and then choose Add File or Add Folder. When adding a folder, all the contents of the folder and all the folders it contains are added.

When you have opened the Digital Asset Manager from a Job record, the new assets are automatically assigned to that Job. If you opened the Digital Asset Manager from the Plan menu at the main JobOrder menu screen, new assets are not assigned to a Job. (However, you can assign assets to a Job by clicking the Assign button and selecting the desired Job.)

JobOrder can generate thumbnails for most graphics formats (TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PDF, etc.). Generating thumbnails may take a moment, especially for a large number of files. Non-graphics files can still be organized and managed, but they will appear in the Digital Asset Manager with generic icons.

After you add items to the Digital Asset Manager, the existing items are hidden and the new items are shown alone as a convenience, since you might want to assign relationships or apply rights to them immediately. To display the thumbnails of all available items again, click the Show All button in the button bar.

To remove assets, first select the assets to be removed, then click the Remove button. You will be asked to confirm their removal. Note that this only removes items from the Digital Asset Manager; it does not delete the original asset from your computer’s hard disk or a network file server.

Collecting Assets

When you are ready to send a piece out for printing, JobOrder can conveniently gather the assets you need into a specified folder. Note that you must have access to the assets being gathered on your computer’s hard disk or a network file server, as the assets themselves are not stored in JobOrder. Select the assets you need (for example, by searching on keyword or description, then selecting all of those), and then click the Collect button.

JobOrder first confirms that you wish to collect the selected items, and then asks whether the assets should be grouped into folders. Depending on your answer, JobOrder will do the following:

• Yes: Assets that were originally in different folders on your computer’s hard disk or a network file server will be copied into separate subfolders inside the collection folder.

• No: All assets will be copied directly into the collection folder, without creating subfolders.

After you choose whether to group the collected assets into subfolders, collection begins. Collection only copies files; the original files are not moved or touched.

Checking Out and Returning Assets

To help manage changes to assets, assets should be checked out while they are being edited. Only one JobOrder user can check out a given asset at a time. Once checked out, an asset must be returned before it can be checked out by another user.

To check out assets, select them in the thumbnail tray, and then click Check Out. For convenience, the items being checked out are shown alone in the Digital Asset Manager (all other items are hidden). To display the thumbnails of all available items again, click the Show All button in the button bar.

After you have finished working with assets, check them back in by selecting them in the Digital Asset Manager, then clicking Return. JobOrder prompts you for a note to be attached to the asset’s Check Out and Return History, indicating the reason for the checkout.

Applying Rights to Assets

Each asset in the Digital Asset Manager can have rights associated with it, to remind you how your license for the asset allows you to use it (for example, print only or Web only). Rights can be edited for individual assets in the Rights Management tab of the Digital Assets record window, which we will describe later. However, since it is common for assets to have similar rights, JobOrder lets you assign rights in the Digital Asset Manager thumbnail tray, copying a right from an asset that already has it to one or more other assets.

To apply a right to one or more digital assets:

1. Select the assets to which the rights should be applied.

2. Click the Apply Rights button.

A floating Apply Rights window, similar to the one shown at right, appears.

3. Select the asset that has the rights you want to copy.

The name of the asset will appear in the Apply Rights window.

4. Choose the right to be copied using the pop-up menu below the source asset’s name.

5. Click Apply.

Editing Digital Asset Records

To edit a Digital Asset’s record, double-click its thumbnail in the Digital Asset Manager. The Digital Asset record has five pages: General, Assignments & Checkout, Notes, Rights Management, and Relationships.

General

The General page of the Digital Asset record contains general information about the digital asset, including its name and categorization, information about the image (if the asset is an image) and the disk file, and a thumbnail, description, and keywords.

Digital Asset Information

• Asset ID. JobOrder automatically generates Asset IDs when you add new digital assets (the format is the word “AUTO” plus a number), but the generated ID can be edited if the items already have IDs you wish to use.

• Asset Number. Records the automatically generated sequence number of a digital asset.

• Asset Name. JobOrder automatically fills this field with the name of the digital asset’s file, but the name can be edited. Changing the name here does not affect the name of the file on your computer’s hard disk or a network file server where the digital asset resides.

• Asset Type. Optionally enter the type of asset, or select a previously used asset type from the adjacent pop-up menu.

• Asset Subject. Optionally enter the subject of the asset, or select a previously used asset subject from the adjacent pop-up menu.

• Binder. Optionally enter the name of the binder that contains the asset, or select a previously used binder name from the adjacent pop-up menu. This field can be used to organize assets separately from their organization on disk.

• Folder. Optionally enter the name of the folder that contains the asset, or select a previously used folder name from the adjacent pop-up menu. Like Binder, this field can be used to organize assets separately from their organization on disk. (The field is not related to the folder in which the asset is stored on your computer’s hard disk or a network file server.)

• Date Added. Automatically records the date this digital asset was added to the Digital Asset Manager.

• Inactive. Mark this checkbox to have this digital asset excluded from a search query for active assets. You might mark this checkbox for old versions of assets which you wish to keep associated with a given Job even though they are no longer being used.

• Added By. Automatically records the name of the person who added this asset.

Image and File System Information

• Select File. Click this button to select the file on your computer’s hard disk or a network file server that contains this asset. Use this function if the asset has been moved on the disk and can no longer be found.

• Launch Application. Click this button to open this asset in the application your computer usually uses to open this type of file. You must have access to the asset’s disk file.

• File Type. Automatically records the file type of the asset.

• File Size. Automatically records the size of the asset’s file in kilobytes.

• Created Date, Modified Date. Automatically records the date and time the asset’s file was created and modified. (Note that this is different from the Date Added field, which records when the asset was added to the Digital Asset Manager.)

• Path. Automatically records the file system path to the asset’s file.

• Width, Height. Automatically records the width and height for image assets.

Thumbnail, Description, and Keywords

• Thumbnail. Displays a thumbnail of the image for most types of image assets, or a generic document icon for non-image assets.

• Description. Enter a description of the asset.

• Keywords. Lists the keywords assigned to this asset, which can later be used to find particular kinds of assets or asset subjects. Select keywords that describe this image by clicking the Select button, or remove keywords by selecting them and clicking the - button.

When selecting keywords, a dialog appears that lets you select which of the previously used keywords apply to this asset. Click the desired keywords to mark them for inclusion (or to unmark a marked keyword). Click the Add Keyword button to create a new keyword. Click Exit after you have marked all the desired keywords.

Assignments and Checkout

The Assignments & Checkout page of the Digital Asset record allows you to add and remove job assignments and to check out and return the Asset.

• Job Assignments. This subform lists the jobs with which this asset is associated. Assets are assigned to Jobs in two ways: by adding assets when the Digital Asset Manager has been opened from a Job record (which assigns them to that Job), or by clicking the Assign button when the Digital Asset Manager has been opened from the Plan menu at the main JobOrder menu screen. You can de-assign an asset from a Job by selecting the Job in this subform and clicking the - button. Double-click a record in this subform to display more details about a job assignment.

• Check Out and Return History. This subform lists the occasions on which this asset has been checked out. Use this when an asset needs to be used exclusively by one staff member (e.g. for editing) for some period of time. When an asset is checked out, it cannot be used by other JobOrder users. Click Check Out to check out the asset. Click Return to return the asset and make it available for other JobOrder users (you will be prompted to enter a note about what you were doing with it). Double-click a record in this subform to display more details about a checkout event.

Notes

The Notes page (not shown) contains the Notes subform, a convenient alternative to the Notes Center for viewing and adding Notes associated with this digital asset.

• Double-click to view or edit an existing Note.

• + Enters a new Note about this Digital Asset and adds it to the Subform.

• - Deletes a selected Note.

Rights Management

The Rights Management page (not shown) contains the Rights Contracts subform, which allows you to keep track of which rights you have purchased for this asset, their duration, the vendor from which the rights were purchased, and quantities involved. For example, if you have licensed a photograph to be used in a maximum of 50,000 brochures during this year, this information can be recorded and tracked to avoid overrunning the license and incurring costly penalties.

• Double-click to view or edit an existing Rights Contract.

• + Enters a new Rights Contract for this Digital Asset.

• - Deletes a selected Rights Contract.

When entering or editing a Rights Contract, the Digital Assets Rights page, shown below, appears to allow you to record the duration of the license, information about the vendor, quantities, and even the contract itself.

Relationships

The Relationships page (not shown) contains a subform that allows you to review the relationships an asset is part of. You might mark as related any number of assets that are all of the same subject, or in the same style, or of the same type (illustration, photo, etc.), from the same session, or for any other kind of relationship you can think of. Each type of relationship can be given a name and assigned easily to assets by selecting them in the Digital Asset Manager thumbnail tray and clicking the Relate button.

• Relationships vs. Keywords. Relationships and keywords are both ways of “tagging” assets and can be used for many of the same purposes. The difference is primarily one of how you create them and how you use them later. Relationships can be easily assigned to more than one asset at a time right from the thumbnail tray, while keywords can only be easily edited in individual records. You can search by any particular keyword, but not by relationship—instead, the Preset menu in the thumbnail tray has a query that finds other assets that share a relationship with the selected assets.

You might use keywords for broad categories you might want to search on (e.g. “animals,” “landscapes,” “product,” etc.), while using Relationships to track images of the same subject, from the same photo shoot, or for the same client. It will all depend on your organization’s working style.

To remove a relationship from the asset, select it in the Relationships subform and click the - button.

Digital Asset Manager Preferences

At the bottom of the Documentation page in the JobOrder System Preferences is a checkbox labeled “Store Digital Assets as files, not just as Thumbnails.” (Opening the System Preferences requires an access level of Database Administrator.)

If this checkbox is marked, JobOrder copies each file added to the Digital Asset Manager to a folder inside the Attachments folder selected at the top of the page. Each asset’s record then points to JobOrder’s copy of the asset. This folder can be shared on the network so that all JobOrder users have access to all asset files.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder enhances productivity.

Workplan by Assignment

2009-09-14T09:00:00.005-04:00

JobOrder has a powerful feature called 'Workplan' both in Templates and in Estimates. Workplan allows users to create Template Activities or Estimate Activities based upon the estimated hours and billing rates for individual staff Resources. This works well when the individuals who will perform the work are already known, but is awkward when the individual resources have not yet been determined. An alternative solution is to allow Workplan by Assignments. In Workplan by Assignments, users select the Assignment (such as Senior Designer or Art Director) of the person who will perform the work, but without selecting the actual individual. We have added a System Preference to select ‘Workplan by Assignment or Workplan by Resource’.

When ‘Workplan by Assignment’ has been selected, we display a tab in Templates and Estimates for Workplan by Assignment. This page looks almost identical to the current Workplan page, except it displays Assignments rather than Resources.

The Workplan page for an Estimate copied from the Template above is shown below.

When an Estimate is approved into a Job or a Template is copied to a Job, JobOrder optionally brings up a dialog for each Assignment in each Activity. It displays all Resources (with a popup to limit by Team) in a spreadsheet-like form that displays one row for each Resource and one cell for each day of the week that the new Activity is scheduled to start.

You can enter the hours to be scheduled for each Resource performing the specific Assignment. You are not required to schedule the entire hours budgeted.

The Activity will be accessible for Time slip entry by anyone on the Team specified when the Activity is created, but the Team Members without scheduled Time slips would have to select the Activity manually to enter time.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is practical.

JobOrder and Snow Leopard compatibility – more information

2009-09-08T19:19:00.008-04:00

We have completed basic testing of JobOrder 2009 on Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). We found and fixed one problem involving our scheduling plug-in.

If you plan to run Snow Leopard, please download and install JobOrder 2009, which was posted today at:

ftp://ftp.joborder.com/Public/joborder_2009/

One minor change is that the Macintosh operating system will ask for the user password the first time that you print from a new JobOrder session. You may see a dialog similar to the password dialog shown below.

This change is beyond our control in JobOrder 2009 in Snow Leopard. JobOrder 2010, the next major release of JobOrder, is now being programmed and should eliminate the need to enter the Admin password before printing.

One additional point about the Snow Leopard installation that may be important is this report from the Sophos blog:

"Unfortunately during the course of… the Snow Leopard update… Apple downgraded your installation of Flash to an earlier version (version 10.0.23.1), which is known not to be secure and is not patched against various security vulnerabilities. The version you should be running is the latest version of Flash Player for Mac - 10.0.32.18.  Mac users are not informed that Snow Leopard has downgraded their version of Flash without permission, and that they are now exposed to a raft of potential attacks and exploits which have been targeted on Adobe's software in recent months."

The latest Apple Software Update to Macintosh OS X 10.6.1 will fix this problem.

If we receive any more information about Snow Leopard, we will update the JobOrder blog.

JobOrder works correctly on Windows. None of the above changes affect JobOrder on Windows.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is comprehensive.

Finding the Perfect Match – for your business software requirements

2009-09-07T09:00:00.006-04:00

Finding appropriate software to help you manage your business can be a very difficult task. Your business is complex, filled with endless details, and requires subtle decision-making skills. In contrast, business computer software is often simplistic, rigid, and isn't very intelligent.

If you have a successful business, the secrets of your success are the UNIQUE characteristics and business processes that differentiate you from your competitors. But no business software exists to automate your unique business processes because, by definition, your processes are UNIQUE.

JobOrder can supply the missing pieces of your jigsaw puzzle.

Finding software to satisfy ALL of your exact requirements at a reasonable price is now both possible and practical. You don’t have to settle for canned software that does not satisfy you and you don’t have to spend a fortune on customized software that may never be completed; JobOrder combines the best of both worlds, starting with very powerful software and adding adaptations specifically for your organization directly into our software.

The programming wizards at JobOrder will listen carefully to your requests and will then customize programs and reports to give your management the power that they have always dreamed was possible, but didn't know how to achieve.

When future versions of JobOrder are released, you do not have to pay for re-integrating your code. All of your customized code is added to the original code base of JobOrder, saving you money and saving us effort. We don't know of any other software program that combines the ability to customize with the ability to deliver updates containing your customized code effortlessly.

Implementing JobOrder requires a clear commitment from everyone in your organization. The value of JobOrder is comparable to the value of exercise; the more you use the features of JobOrder, the more your organization will benefit from the synergies they will find in easily accessible and clear information. Likewise, non-participation by key members of your organization can dramatically reduce the significance of JobOrder to your productivity growth.

Experience has taught us that the deep examination of your organization's processes during the implementation of JobOrder requires careful thinking and some extra work. We will be accessible to you via on-site consultations, telephone support, or email correspondence whenever necessary to support your implementation of JobOrder.

If you have an organization of 10 to 400 people and have the motivation to deal with your problems, JobOrder's staff will guide you through all the 'Secrets of Success' to a successful implementation of business process software perfect for your UNIQUE organization.

Please call us today to learn how your dreams can be answered.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder enhances productivity.

Change Orders simplified

2009-08-31T09:00:00.010-04:00

JobOrder has a complete Change Order system. To enable it, please select System Preferences: Jobs 2: Related Areas displayed in Jobs: 'Change Orders enabled in individual Jobs'.

The complete Change Order system is intended for companies such as construction companies that require detailed approval and management of multiple Change Orders in a single Job. Because the complete Change Order system requires all items added or modified in a Job to be controlled through the Change Order system, managing simple Change Orders can become more effort if it is worth.

If you need occasional Change Orders, it is much simpler to create a new Estimate with a single Phase called 'Change Order for Specific Items', where you replace 'Specific Items' with the details of your specific Change Order.

In that Estimate, add the appropriate Activities and outside Expenses. After the Change Order Estimate has been approved by your Client, go to Jobs and Approve the new Estimate. The Change Order Phase will be added to the Job as a new Phase and you can then schedule the Activities and purchase the outside Expenses. You can then manage and schedule the Job with the new Change Order Phase exactly as you manage and schedule regular Jobs.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is ingenious.

Information about JobOrder and Snow Leopard

2009-08-28T09:00:00.006-04:00

Apple's latest operating system release, Macintosh OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") is now available.

Please DO NOT install Macintosh OS X 10.6 on Macintosh computers running JobOrder at the present time.

Please DO NOT RUN JobOrder on new Macintosh computers preinstalled with Macintosh OS X 10.6.

Apple has changed some System privileges in the Library/Application Support folder that affect 4D, our development language.

We will post more information soon as we either have a workaround or more information about an upgrade. This information is current at 3:00 PM on Friday, August 28, 2009.

Please call or email if you have any questions.

Victor Siegle

Apple, Mac, OS X, and Snow Leopard are all registered trademarks of Apple Corporation. 4D is a registered trademark of 4D, Inc.

Bank Reconciliation

2009-08-24T09:00:00.004-04:00

Bank Reconciliation in JobOrder 2009 is an example of a profound solution to a very complex real-life problem.

Bank Statements can now be reconciled for any period in the 3 current accounting years. JobOrder now stores both the Date of Bank Reconciliation (the date that appears on your bank statement) and the Date of Actual Reconciliation, which is the calendar date when you perform the reconciliation. Items are now color coded to show their reconciliation state, either un-reconciled or reconciled within the date range displayed or reconciled at a date later than the displayed date range. Until you see this feature in action you will not be able to visualize how powerful and useful it will be.

Bank Reconciliation also stores a History of Bank Statement Balances In a new area called 'Bank Reconciliation Snapshot', accessible through JobOrder Accounting.

Bank Reconciliation in JobOrder is an invaluable tool for monitoring cash on hand and resolving cash balance discrepancies. There are, however, several best practice procedures to make reconciling your cash accounts even easier:

Always have your bank statement on hand when reconciling. Reconciling from memory or based on a memo or email cannot match the accuracy of an official statement.

Reconcile as soon as you receive a statement from your bank. Reconciliation is a somewhat tedious, but necessary, exercise. Reconciling in a timely fashion just makes life easier.

Use deposit tickets. Either lump deposits using your own ticket number and store a copy with your receipt from the bank, or wait to create deposits in JobOrder until you have a ticket number from a bank receipt. Sometimes your bank statement will not itemize checks you deposit on your statement. Having a ticket number from your bank to reference in JobOrder makes reconciling deposits that much easier.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder - Amplify business intelligence

Work Orders - Configure and Create

2009-08-17T09:00:00.017-04:00

Work Orders are a valuable new feature in JobOrder. JobOrder has a powerful feature called Priorities, useful for assigning tasks in order of priority. A JobOrder customer wanted to assign Work Orders to Activities and to maintain a historical record of these Work Orders. By using the 'Terminology' feature of JobOrder to change 'Priorities' to 'Work Orders' we were able to provide them with a powerful Work Order subsystem almost effortlessly.

Go to System Preferences: Priorities and enter the values shown here:

You can create new Work Orders either via the 'Manage Work Orders' Power Tool or directly in an Activity. We will discuss 'Manage Work Orders' first. In the Navigator search box at the top right, enter 'Manage Work Orders' and select it. You will see:

Using the Filters at the top, you can display Activities by Job, Project, Client, Project Manager or Resource.

When you have found the Activity for which you want to create a Work Order, please select it by clicking on it, and then click 'Add a new Work Order for the Selected Activity'.

You will then see a new window to enter the Work Order details:

Generally, you will NOT enter a Resource and will leave the Work Order blank ('Unassigned') at this stage. After entering appropriate information, please click 'Create Work Order'.

The Work Order will be created and a dialog about printing the Work Order will be displayed, as follows:

If you click 'Yes', the regular Custom Form dialog will be displayed and the new Work Order will be printed. Please make sure that you have added an appropriate Custom Form with the Form Name 'Work Order'.

Because the Work Order is a Custom Form, you can create essentially ANY format, fonts, images, and content for your Work Order. Either we can program the Work Order Custom Form for you or you can create your own, by learning to use the tools in the Custom Forms area.

When you return to the 'Manage Work Order' form, you will see the newly created Work Order in the 'Work Orders for selected Activity' grid at the bottom of the first page.

You can use the 'Arrange' tab to assign Work Orders to specific Resources, if necessary, by dragging Work Orders between Resources. The 'Select Resource' popup lists all Active Resources. If you scroll to the bottom of the popup, you will find an 'Unassigned' selection which can be used to show all Work Orders that have not been assigned to specific Resources.

If you leave the 'Manage Work Orders' area and go into the Activities area, either by drilling down through a Job or by going directly to Activities, you will see a tab called "Work Orders'. This will display all the Work Orders that have been created for this Activity.

You can click on a Work Order and click 'Print Selected Work Order' to reprint an existing Work Order.

You can click 'Create Work Orders' to add a new Work Order to this Activity.

You can double-click on an existing Work Order to edit the Work Order. You will see:

This form contains all of the information related to a Work Order.

On the 'Print Fields' tab, JobOrder stores the values from when the Work Order was FIRST created, whether it was printed or not. 'Update Print Fields' will overwrite these values with the current values of the parent Activity.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder - Bond with your business

Activity Allocation

2009-08-10T09:00:00.009-04:00

An Activity is a component of a Phase, which is a component of a Job. If you think of a Phase as the stages of development of a Job (or a proposed Job, as created through an Estimate), then the Activities are the discrete parts of a Phase. They are the specific things you do, or steps you take, to accomplish a Job. Whereas a Phase may encompass weeks or even months, Activities are often only a few days or hours long.

Every Activity must be attached to a Phase. A Phase could theoretically have no Activities, only Expenses or Materials, but in most Jobs, every Phase will have at least one Activity.

Activities allow you to budget time in advance, to bill for time on completed Jobs, and to compose a work schedule. For this reason, Activities are one of the key ingredients of Jobs, and since Jobs are at the heart of JobOrder, you will likely visit the Activities Area frequently, usually through a Job.

In the process of creating an Estimate or Job, you may not know the detailed Activities that will be created later, but you do know the total number of hours that will be budgeted. JobOrder has recently introduced a concept called Activity Allocation that allows you to split up the total number of hours into specific Activities.

In an Estimate Overview or Job Overview, please select an existing Activity. When you select it, the green area display information about the selected Activity and displays an "Allocate" button. If you select the Allocate button, JobOrder will create a new Activity to use some or all of the budgeted hours of the original Activity. JobOrder will ask you to name the new Activity, will create it automatically, and will then display it for you to allocate some or all hours. The new Activity will have its Budget Hours default to the remaining hours of the original Activity.

After you Accept the new Activity, JobOrder will return to the Overview screen. The original Activity will now be displayed in orange with a "◊" sign in from of the Activity Description and the new Activity will be displayed in green indented below the original Activity. The original Activity will be adjusted to show the remaining Budgeted Hours that have not been allocated.

If you edit the new Activity, a new button called "Activity Allocation" will display the status of all the allocated Activities, as shown here:

Activity Allocation can be very useful if you have only an approximate idea of how much time will be required and want to learn from your actual experience by allocating from a pool of time. This is another good example of how JobOrder includes practical, easy to use features which provide great rewards to management.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder – Bliss through knowledge

'To Do Manager' and 'Personal To Do' items

2009-08-03T09:00:00.009-04:00

JobOrder has an interesting area called 'Priorities'. The Priorities Area is used to store records for the Prioritizer. A Priority is an Activity that has been assigned the order, precedence, or importance in which it should be completed. Priorities can be assigned to individual resources or can be temporarily left unassigned. You can only create Priorities in the Prioritizer, but you can edit them in the Priorities area. The Prioritizer allows you to manage Priorities by resource and to reassign them to other resources.

Because Activities are always contained in a specific Job, each Priority is, by definition, always connected to a specific Job. But it can be very useful to manage simpler Priorities, not assigned to specific Jobs. JobOrder calls these 'To Do' items and allows you to assign them either to specific resources or to leave them temporarily unassigned.

To Do items are managed in the 'To Do Manager' and in 'To Do Personal' which is a simplified manager designed for use by individuals managing their own To Do list. At the top of this post is a screen shot from JobOrder showing the relationship between Priorities, Work Orders, and To Do items.

In the To Do Manager, you can display To Do lists for 2 resources and you can drag between the 2 resources to reassign To Do items. You can also drag up-and-down an individual's list to reschedule their To Dos. Although To Do items can have an optional 'Date Required', generally To Do items are performed sequentially.

To Do items are a rapidly evolving concept in JobOrder. Please email with any suggestions or enhancement requests.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is simple.

Prioritizer

2009-07-27T09:00:00.007-04:00

For the next several weeks, we'll describe some unique features of JobOrder. Users can manage their time with Scheduled Time Slips and can enter Completed Time Slips in many ways.

In some organizations, tasks are performed sequentially, organized by importance. The Prioritizer allows you to organize tasks by importance and is used when the date due of a task is of secondary importance.

Prioritizer allows JobOrder users to define elegantly and simply the tasks to be performed by their Staff. The Prioritizer displays a dialog allowing you to display open Activities in open Jobs filtered by Jobs, Programs, Clients, Job Managers, or Resources.

The ‘Selected Activities’ area contains the following filtered columns:

Job Name or Job ID (depending upon what is selected as primary in Personal Preferences)
Phase
Activity Description
Access (“Full” or Team Name or Screen Name of Resource)
Scheduled Start Date
Due Date
Actual Start Date
Hours Budget
Hours Completed
Hours Scheduled
Hours Not Used
Revenue Budget (If Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)
Revenue Accumulated (If Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)
Revenue Balance (If Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)
Cost Budget (If Resource Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)
Cost Actual (If Resource Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)
Cost Balance (If Financial Access is enabled in Security Access)

In 'Selected Activities’ area, you can double-click on:

Job Name to edit Job
Phase Name to edit Phase
Activity Description to edit Activity
Access to edit Team, if it is a Team, otherwise Beep

Selecting an Activity in ‘Selected Activities’ populates the ‘Resources in Selected Activity’ area. The ‘Resources in Selected Activity’ area contains all Resources with access to the selected Activity.

You can click on the ‘Select’ column of a Resource row or use the ‘Quick Select’ popup to choose the Resources for which you will create Priorities for this Activity.

The ‘Quick Select’ popup allows you to select Resources by:

All Active Staff
Resources for Team…
Resources for Supervisor…

Clicking the ‘Create Priorities’ button brings up a dialog to define the new Priorities to be created. In the dialog you will create new Priorities, one for each selected Resource.

Clicking the ‘Create Priorities’ button brings up a dialog to define the new Priorities to be created. In the dialog you will create new Priorities, one for each selected Resource. JobOrder fills in the most appropriate defaults.

Permission to create Priorities for a specific Resource is granted to the Resource themselves, the Resource they report to, and the Job Manager of the Job containing the Priority. All Permissions are, of course, contingent upon appropriate Security Access.

Work Status radio buttons:

First button: Only one Resource can work on this item.

If one person clicks on this item in the Daily Log, the identical Priority will be deleted from the other Resources.

Second button: Multiple people can work on this item.

Each time a Resource opens this Priority, a comment will be added to Time Slip Details with their name and time. If a Resource enters a Completed Time slip or a partially completed Time slip for this item, another comment will be added to each related Time slip.

Second button: Multiple people can work on this item.

Each time a Resource opens this Priority, a comment will be added to Priority Details with their name and time.

If a Resource enters a Completed Time slip or a Scheduled Time slip for this Priority, another comment will be added to each related Priority.

Check box for ‘Complete related Priority’ when Completion = 100%.

We added 2 areas for ‘Priorities for...’.

Each area contains a popup with every person with Time slip Access in the selected Activity.
Each area contains the following columns:
Activity Description
Time slip Details
Phase
Job
% Completed
Date Completed
Priority Number

When creating Priorities, if the first ‘Priorities for...’ area is empty, the first Resource populates the first area.

When creating Priorities, if the second ‘Priorities for...’ area is empty, the second Resource populates the second area.

If the ‘Priorities for...’ areas already have Resources, JobOrder will refresh them automatically when creating new Priorities.

Additional selected Resources will not change the 'Priorities for' areas automatically. They will have to be selected individually via the popups.

We allow the user to drag a Priority slip higher or lower in one area, or from one area to another to switch Resources.

Double click on a Priority to edit a Priority record. The editing form will display a subform with all the Time Slips linked to the Priority being edited. In this Priority record, clicking on the "Delink" button next to the Time subform will 'delink' the Priority from the Time slip. We have added a button named 'Delink' instead of '-' in order to be specific that the Time slip is not being deleted, just being disassociated with this Priority.

In a Priority record, we have added the ability to attach files, just like Documentation.

In 'Priorities for' we added a mechanism to place Priorities ‘On Hold’. A check box for ‘On Hold’ allows you to show only Active Priorities or all Priorities. ‘On Hold’ is separate from the "-" button. You can place a Priority On Hold whether or not it has linked Time slips. Priorities can be linked to either Completed or Scheduled Time slips.

Each of the two 'Priorities for' areas has a ‘Done’ popup, showing how many days of ‘Done’ items to display:

Today
2 days
3 days
7 days
14 days
This month (beginning from the first day of the current month)
Last month (beginning from the first day of the previous month)
This year (beginning from the first day of the current year)
Last year (beginning from the first day of the previous year)
Show All
Hide All (default)

Each of the two 'Priorities for' areas has a ‘To Do’ popup showing how many open Priority items to display.

10 (default)
25
50
100
All

'Lowest priority' always means the lowest priority of the _displayed_ Priority Time slips. The average person may have hundreds of Priority Time slips, but they only work on the ones they are looking at, selected with the 'Active' query for 1, 10, 25, or whatever number of items.

The Active items will be displayed with consecutive numbers as 1,2,3,4, etc.

In 'Priorities for' we have added a popup for 'Filter Priorities by' with a popup for:

All (default)
Past Desired Date
Past Required Date
Desired this Week
Required this Week
Resolved this Week
Changed this Week
Priorities for selected Activity
Priorities for selected Phase
Priorities for selected Job

Priorities for selected Client (if these are selected, we keep them in the original order, so they may be displayed as 1,4,12,26, etc.)

We have added an additional element to all the Resource popups and lists called "Unassigned", with a Resource Number of 0.

This keeps this ‘Unassigned’ Resource separate from specific resource queries, and allows us to easily see the Priorities which are not attached to a Resource. No real Time Slips can be attached to these Unassigned Priorities.

On the Prioritizer dialog, we added a button for 'Instant Activity'. After an Activity has been added, the Prioritizer is refreshed.

Tabs in Prioritizer

Tabs are labeled:

Add
Arrange
Edit Details

The ‘Arrange’ tab shows the Priorities for 2 selected Resources, allowing you to drag between the two.

The ‘Edit Details’ tab shows the Priorities for one selected Resource and a text block containing the Priority Details for the selected Priority, similar to Instant Traffic Status.

Daily Log

In Daily Log, both Time slips and Priorities will be displayed as separate areas.

When selecting a Priority, we display a new dialog, similar to the existing Scheduled Time slip dialog. You can enter the actual hours (or actual start-stop time). JobOrder will create a new Time slip and will update the existing Priority with the Completion %.

In Daily Log, we allow completed Priorities to be used again to create new Time slips, just by clicking on them.

When a Time slip is created from a Priority, JobOrder looks at the Work Status radio buttons and takes the appropriate actions:

If “Only one Resource can work on this item’ is enabled:

If one person clicks on this item in the Daily Log, the identical Priority records will be deleted from the other Resources.

If “ Multiple people can work on this item” is enabled:

Second button: Multiple people can work on this item.

Each time a Resource opens this Priority, a comment will be added to Priority Details with their name and time.

If a Resource enters a Completed Time slip or a Scheduled Time slip for this Priority, another comment will be added to each related Priority.

If the field “Complete related Priority’ is enable, when Completion = 100%” all other related Priority Items are marked complete.

Notification Rules

In Notification Rules, we have added new rules for:

Priority has been added
Priority has been changed
Priority has been completed (important for Contacts at Clients, in addition to regular Resources)
Priority has changed from Active to On Hold or from On Hold to Active.
Priority Required Date due in less than xx days
Priority Desired Date due in less than xx days.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder enhances productivity.

New features in JobOrder 2009 (continued from July 13, 2009)

2009-07-20T09:00:00.004-04:00

To experiment with JobOrder, please download a JobOrder 2009 demo from:

ftp://ftp.JobOrder.com/Public/demo.

Download the ‘.dmg’ for Macintosh OS X or the ‘.exe’ for Windows XP or Windows Vista.

JobOrder contains almost endless features customized for some specific customer, noticed by other customers, and then generalized and expanded to solve more business process problems. In the next several blogs, I’ll describe some of these impressive features, including:

Activity Allocation
Accounting Reports
Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Reports
Asset Tracking
Available Hours
Bank Reconciliation
Billing Worksheet Report
Cash Flash
Contacts
Credit Card Distribution
Daily Log
Date Shortcuts
Digital Assets
Direct Time Entry
Documentation
Estimate Approval
Expense forms
Expenses
Form Positions
FreeForm
Help System
Holiday Leave Request Power Tool
Impressions and Meter Reading Report
Instant Activity
Inventory Waste Report
Invoice Analysis Report
Job Shop Summary Reports
Job Status Reports
Job Summary Reports
Jobs
Job, Estimates, and Template Overview
Job ‘Reset’ Scheduled Start Date and Due Date
Leave Request Manager
List views of areas
Literature Request Manager
Manual Entry of Purchase Tax on Units Expense Details
Meeting Planner
Message Center
Meter Readings
Notification Rules
Parent Organizations
Payment History View
Personal Preferences
Programs
Purchase Order Line Analysis Report
Purchase Orders
Purchase Orders not required
Recalculation Manager
Referral Report
Resource Rate Evaluation
Resource Usage Report
ScoreBoard
Security Access
SkillFinder
Simple Direct Time Entry
Simple Jobs and Simple Estimates
Simple Profit and Loss Report
SmartScheduler Allocation
Spell Checking
Statement of Work Calendar
Storage
System Preferences
Terminology
TimeBlocks
Time Slip Journal
Total Hours Report
Traffic Status
Utilization Budgets
Vendor Invoice Payment Analysis
Work Centers
Work Center Subsidiary Report

A wide range of small to midsize project-oriented organizations, including ad agencies, architects, consulting companies, design firms, engineering firms, and job shops run their businesses on JobOrder. Finding PRACTICAL solutions to their business problems is their never-ending goal.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is practical.

New features in JobOrder 2009

2009-07-13T09:00:00.003-04:00

To experiment with JobOrder, please download a JobOrder 2009 demo from:

ftp://ftp.JobOrder.com/Public/demo/

Download the ‘.dmg’ for Macintosh OS X or the ‘.exe’ for Windows XP or Windows Vista.

JobOrder 2009 includes a new visual interface, designed to coordinate with Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) and Windows Vista.

The Navigator (formerly called the “Main Palette”), the List view, the Record view, and the Road Maps are more colorful and will brighten up your workday.

At the top right of the Navigator, a new Search box allows you to search AREAS, HISTORY, POWER TOOLS, and REPORTS. Type all or part of the item for which you are searching and press 'return' or 'enter'. For example, you can find every function in JobOrder related to Time Slips by typing ‘Time’ in the Search box.

On the left side of the Navigator, we have added a 'Finder' mechanism, containing 'HOME', 'AREAS', 'POWER TOOLS', 'REPORTS', UTILITIES' (if you have Database Administrator security access), and 'HISTORY'.

'HOME' displays the 16 main icons and the Search box.

'TOPICS' has two major options: 'System Topics' displays all the AREAS, POWER TOOLS, REPORTS, and UTILITIES in JobOrder, organized by the main categories of Accounting, Administration, Buy & Sell, Plan, and Track.

'User Topics' allow you to create your own categories and to add any AREAS, POWER TOOLS, or REPORTS, organized as you choose. Use the 'Add Topic', 'Delete Topic', 'Add Item', and 'Delete Item' buttons to manage 'User Topics.

'AREAS' contains all the AREAS in JobOrder to which you have access, organized by an 'A – Z' Rolodex at the top of the page.

'POWER TOOLS' contains all the POWER TOOLS in JobOrder to which you have access, organized by an 'A – Z' Rolodex at the top of the page.

'REPORTS' contains all the REPORTS in JobOrder to which you have access, organized by an 'A – Z' Rolodex at the top of the page.

'UTILITIES' contains all the UTILITIES in JobOrder to which you have access, organized by an 'A – Z' Rolodex at the top of the page.

'HISTORY' contains the last 25 records you have accessed in JobOrder AREAS, organized by an 'A – Z' Rolodex at the top of the page.

PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY: You can use drag and drop to create subcategories with favorite items under 'AREAS', 'POWER TOOLS', 'REPORTS', UTILITIES', and 'HISTORY'.

For example, if you want to have 'Media Rates' always appear under AREAS, you can click on AREAS, click 'M', click on 'Media Rates', and then drag it back to the word 'AREAS'. By single-clicking on the triangle at the left of the word 'AREAS', you can expand or collapse all the items that have been dragged as favorites.

This same drag and drop principle also works for 'POWER TOOLS', 'REPORTS', UTILITIES', and 'HISTORY'.

Please email if any of this information needs additional clarification.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder 2009 is now available!

2009-07-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

JobOrder solves business process problems for project-based service businesses. With a consistent, easy-to-learn interface, JobOrder stores all of your project information in one place, eliminating endless double entry, and gives you analytical tools to solve problems you thought were impossible.

There is one simple and unique secret to our success. For most businesses in our target markets, JobOrder’s existing code will solve 95% of your problems. But that’s not good enough. We’ve learned that creative service businesses always have unique skills and processes that distinguish them from their competition; otherwise they have no reason to exist. But if you have unique skills and processes, it’s CERTAIN that canned software will not help you automate your processes; by definition, what you do that’s special is UNIQUE.

JobOrder’s programmers will LISTEN to you, understand how your UNIQUE processes work, and modify our software to meet your SPECIFIC requirements. We build your processes into our code base so that you NEVER have to pay for integrating your custom changes into JobOrder upgrades.

Customizing JobOrder to meet your specific requirements is the best of all possible worlds; you can take advantage of millions of dollars of existing “best practices” software code, pay once for the customization to include your UNIQUE features and then keep your amazing software a secret from your competitors.

Because JobOrder’s operating principles are so straightforward, your staff can learn the basics of JobOrder in a couple of days of training. When you want to move on to more advanced concepts, you’ll discover that the operating principles are the same as the basic concepts; that makes learning new concepts a straightforward matter of understanding where we store the information and the terminology we use to describe it.

Victor Siegle

JobOrder is comprehensive.
JobOrder is practical.
JobOrder enhances productivity.
JobOrder is simple.
JobOrder is powerful.
JobOrder is automated.
JobOrder is ingenious.
JobOrder is organized.