Running a job

Create a job, plan its phases and key dates, set its scope and labour rates, and close it out.

This article is being updated.

Jobs holds the work your business delivers. It shows by default for businesses that deliver work as jobs. If your business runs members, it's hidden unless someone turns it on in Settings → Modules.

A job is created for you when a quote is won. You can also create one yourself.

Create a job

1. Go to Jobs and select New job.
2. Pick the Customer first. Leave it empty for internal work. Once you pick a customer, pick the Address from their sites.
3. Give it a Job name.
4. Price it if you like. Choose One price and type the Price, or leave it blank to bill time and materials. Or choose Items to add items from your price book. The Type (Fixed price or Time & materials) sits beside the price, or under your items. If your role can't set a job's price, you see Items alone and no type.
5. If your role can book visits, set When and who for the first visit.
6. Under Show as, choose Simple for a quick job or Full for a project. It starts on your business's default.
7. Select More options for the rest: a Billing period and Recurring work for time and materials work, the Estimated cost, the Start date (it defaults to today), the Job number, a Description and the Team.
8. Select Create job.

In the jobs list, press / to search and N to start a new job. Search finds a job by its number, name, customer, description or site address. On a job, press T to log time and V to book a visit, and on a project 1 to 9 to open its tabs in order.

Quick job or project

A job shows in one of two ways:

• Quick job - everything on one page: Who and where, Visits, Work, Price and Time, then a row for anything else the job holds, Ordered for this job, Notes and activity and More details. Select a row to open it over the page. Work holds the job's description, its Checklist - the base scope's deliverables, each with a tick, N/A and a camera for its photos - and its Photos. If your role allows it, Settings sits at the right end of the line under the job's header, and opens the job's settings over the page.
• Project - the same job spread across tabs, for bigger work.

On a phone, the bar at the bottom of a job holds a camera to the right of its next step, or on its own when there's no next step for you. Select it to take a photo; the photo is added to the job's photos.

New jobs open the way Jobs → Settings → Defaults says, under New jobs open as. A new business starts on quick job. A won quote with more than one payment milestone or a subcontract line opens as a project. Either way can be switched at any time. If your role can change the job, open the menu at the top of the job and select Convert to project or Show as quick job. When a quick job grows, Prevarro may suggest converting it.

The job's tabs

A project has the tabs Overview, Scope, Financials, Purchases, Invoicing, Schedule, Tasks and Documents, with Settings at the right end of the tab row. On a phone the tabs scroll sideways and Settings stays in view. Financials, Purchases and Invoicing show only if your role can see the job's money, Schedule only if your role can use Schedule, Tasks only if it can use Tasks, and Settings only if your role allows it.

• Overview - the ceiling, Progress & billing with the job's phases, the customer and team, key dates, this week's schedule, recent documents and activity, and comments.
• Scope - the base scope and any variations, each with its ceiling, estimated cost and deliverables. Add a deliverable with Add deliverable, and set its status to Complete when it's done, or N/A if it no longer applies. Each deliverable has a camera for its photos and certificates, with the count beside it and the first few as thumbnails - select one to open it, or the + tile to show the rest. On a phone the camera offers Take photo or Choose file. Files added there also show on the Documents tab.
• Financials - Profitability, which shows what's Left to claim on a fixed price job, and the job's Labour rates.
• Purchases - the job's purchase orders with suppliers and subcontractors, and its expenses.
• Invoicing - the job's invoices.
• Schedule - the job's schedule.
• Tasks - the job's task board. See Tasks and boards.
• Documents - plans, permits, contracts, photos and sign-offs. Pick a category in the box beside Upload, then select Upload and choose the file.
• Settings - Approval to Proceed, who can see the job, whether all deliverables must be complete, and archiving.

Add a variation

When the customer asks for extra work, select Add variation on the Scope tab. If your role can also quote, choose Without a quote or With a quote.

Without a quote, give it a Variation name and its price or ceiling, and choose the Customer's instruction - a Customer purchase order or a Written instruction - which is kept on file as their go-ahead. A job with no customer takes a written instruction. Select Add variation. The variation becomes a new scope on the job, with its own ceiling and deliverables beside the base scope.

Plan the schedule

On a project's Overview tab:

• Progress & billing - the job's phases, the stages of the work. Select Add to add one. Each phase has a status: Planned, In progress, Complete or Skipped. New projects start with your business's phase templates for their type. A project with no phases offers to add them from your phase templates, or from the won quote's sections.
• Key dates - select Add key date for inspections, deadlines and milestones. A coloured mark beside each date shows whether it's overdue (red), due within a week (amber), upcoming (grey) or done (green). Its status reads Pending until you set it to Reached, or N/A if it no longer applies. Mark the important ones as critical.

The job's Start and Target completion dates head the key dates, and you can change them there.

Track costs

Each scope carries a Ceiling and an Estimated cost. People whose role can't see costs see Hidden for the estimated cost.

For Time & materials work, set an hourly rate for each role on the Financials tab under Labour rates. The tab lists anyone on the job whose role has no rate yet, or who has no labour role.

Close out a job

When every deliverable is done, the Scope tab offers Mark complete. You can also change the job's Status at the top of the job, or use Mark complete from the job's menu in the list.

On a fixed price job, if your role can send invoices, completing opens Complete and invoice: tick the milestones to draft invoices for, one per scope, as the job completes.

If deliverables are still open, Prevarro warns you first. Select Mark complete anyway, or Complete anyway in Complete and invoice, to go ahead. If your business requires all deliverables done, the job can't be completed until they are. Someone whose role can set completion gates turns that on for your business in Jobs → Settings → Defaults. A project's own Settings tab shows whether it applies.

A job's status is Active, On hold, Complete or Cancelled. When a job no longer needs to appear in your lists, Archive it from its menu in the list, or from a project's Settings tab. Archiving can be reversed with Restore.