Many companies have a “functional” organizational structure, meaning that one person enters payables, one person creates purchase orders, one person creates receivables, etc. Each person has a “function” that they perform.
The software currently requires people in functional positions to have TWO processes; one for work orders and one for jobs, particularly payables. Most screens have “job” and “phase” fields where you can just enter the job/phase, but the process for work orders is entirely different.
EXAMPLES:
- Adding a “Work Order” field in 4-2 AP invoices, 12-2 Inventory Allocations, and 4-7-3 Credit Card Receipts would allow an AP person to “auto job cost” work orders. As it currently stands, you have to enter the line items, then go to the job cost window, THEN enter the work order number. This also is annoying because if you don’t know the cost code for each part, you either have to look it up or guess.
- Adding a “Work Order” field to 6-6-1 purchase orders would allow a purchaser to create purchase orders for both jobs and work orders without having to leave the 6-6-1 screen. As it currently stands, the only way you can create a PO for a work order is to go to 11-2, then “Options -> Create Purchase Order”. This is not intuitive and forces purchasers to have to procedures; one for jobs, and one for work orders.
- Allowing a work order to be specified in 9-5 takeoffs would be extremely powerful. From here, you could do a takeoff for a work order, specify vendors, and export multiple POs at once. In another product improvement I also suggested the ability to export from 9-5 to 12-2 for any line item that has the inventory location field populated. Altogether, this would allow users to start any project in 9-5 takeoffs, and get all material orders placed from one central location. This would prevent double entry, save a lot of time, and allow users to have one workflow for any takeoff.
Overall, these changes would give users a consistent experience throughout the entire software and allow companies to have one workflow, regardless if the project is a 3-5 job or an 11-2 work order.
by: Ryan B. | over a year ago | Other
Comments
Agree that Purchase Orders for work orders are cumbersome. Would be nice to create a purchase order for work orders directly in the 6-6-1 screen and not have to start in the 11-2 screen. Confusing for Purchasing Agent, billing department and estimators when trying to look something up also.
Similar to other product improvement I (and others) have made, if jobs, phases, and work order allocations were included in grids themselves, it would be equally easy to allocate to various jobs. It would allow for things like one PO for multiple jobs!