Software Update Contract

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

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

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

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

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

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.