Using Your Job Schedule - January 2016
The job Schedule has had a few updates over the last couple of version releases and I want to share with you some new features and ways in which you can use the schedule to manage your jobs and production status. The new features are mostly the new buttons at the top of the job schedule which link to existing features of the program. We have also added a new column into the schedule called Notes which is designed for a quick note as to where you are up to with the job.
NEW COLUMN - NOTES
The new “Notes” column has been added to give you a place to put quick notes about the situation of the job. Last year in the crazy season there were so many jobs waiting on replacement stock, or the customers last bit of detail or etc. We found this really handy to have a quick view over each day and helped us keep on top of the jobs.
We also used this to allocate work
In the above image you can see that we have marked the day the work is to be done and the team member who has been allocated the job. This was terrific; we could access the situation at 4:30pm and allocate work for the next day so that everybody knew what they were required to do. By looking at it each afternoon, you can see what jobs allocated for that day did not get done and you can consider the reason and then allocate for next day. It was great allocating work this way as you could direct the flow of work and balance out a full day of work for each person (and see if they achieved the load). The staff could also go to the AwardPro Job Schedule, sort this list by the notes column so they could see all the work allocated to them. They could even print the list out to have a list on the bench. This really did work well and staff appreciated the organisation of it.
So how do you add these Notes? Easy! Use the Schedule Notes Button to open the note pad. There is also a link to this note pad on the sales screen so you can add note from there as well.
NEW BUTTONS
We have added Link buttons to Schedule Notes, Job Management, Job Plan and Sign Off Report. The internal notes button was already there.
Schedule Notes Button: This is the way you add notes to the job schedule as I have just detailed. Just keep in mind that we have reduced the auto refresh of the job schedule to every 20 minutes rather than every minute so when you add a note it won’t show until the refresh happens.
Job Management: We have added this button so that you can see Job Management details such as when art was sent etc and the date and time of it being sent. It just saves opening the job screen and then opening the Job Management Screen. Just a short cut really.
Job Plan: This button opens the job plan for the specific job. This way it saves you opening the job – Job Management screen and then the Job Plan. It’s a short cut so you can check the plan or create a plan for the job. Some of you may be wondering what a job plan is - it’s a really good and simple project management tool that lets you step out the stages of a complicated job, and allocates finish times to stages of the job. Check the Help section in AwardPro for more info.
Sign Off: Again just a link to an existing feature – the Sign Off Report. The Job Schedule itself shows you that artwork has been sent and if it has been approved, Job Management screen shows you when it was sent, The Sign Off report tells you when it was sent but also gives you the tool to send a pre-written chase up email to hurry your customers along with their sign off.
So the Job Schedule updates are all about managing production from the Job Schedule Screen. These simple links and tools make you day easier and more efficient and makes your jobs run on time.
Enjoy.
It’s January, the dollar is not doing so well, costs are rising, your profit in your business is fantastic or perhaps a little underwhelming. AwardPro gives you great tools to increase you retail prices quickly and efficiently. The Mark Up Centre in the System Set Up Module is the key to this. You can update all prices or specific product types, you can increase the retail price (or reduce) by a certain percentage or you can adjust the Mark by increasing or decreasing it e.g. 135% to 138%. My good old Uncle Len was my first accountant all those years ago and I remember him telling me to increase prices by at least 3% each year to cover overhead inflation increases.
About 40% of the AwardPro user group use recommended retail price whilst the others (myself included) ignore this and just set a mark-up based on their own findings. Letting wholesalers set the profitability does not make any sense at all. They want you to sell their product and the cheaper you sell it the more profit they make. In any case not many of them actually mark-up exactly as they say they do when you consider the leaving out of centres by some, hardware by others and plate costs.
AwardPro helps you see the profit in jobs, products and product types. It’s a facility that makes it easier to manage pricing, so take advantage of this tool! Once prices have been set you can even print to excel the product type price lists for easy upload to your website.
Do you make custom designed products in your business? AwardPro product editor is a great tool for making up custom products. Let’s step through the process of making custom products.
Firstly the program comes with a pre-built base product with the Code: CUSTOM. You can set the mark up to whatever you charge for custom products. You might even consider making a few products such as CUSTOM100, CUSTOM200, CUSTOM300 ETC (100 representing 100% mark-up) This way you can choose which mark up to use based on the cost of the goods etc.
Now you can gather quotes for parts etc., and create the parts/components as you go – Add-New. I like to attach supplier’s component quotes for custom pieces to the component and tick it as send with supplier orders so that the quote from the supplier is sent to them when you order the goods. If the supplier quotes via email text you can paste the info into the Component Screens not pad (or save the email and attach) none of this is critical but I find it quick to do and easy reference for future years.
Drawings of the parts can also be attached to the component so that whenever you send an order to the supplier the tech drawing is sent with the order to ensure the correct part is being made. These kind of features make life easier for years to come as the information is all there and automatically attached to the purchase order. AwardPro second year users know exactly how good this is.
Back to the product; the components have been added in, we even add in Ink and paint and adhesive where relevant, and now you can add processes and process charges to the products. Laser Cutting, Digital printing, sand blasting, assembly etc. You can allow assembly to be covered in the mark up or add it in as a process.
Just like Components, Products can have attachments. So the overall design image can be attached with manufacturing instructions and be attached to the order and set to print when job sheets are printed. Again this is set up for years to come…. Hooray Hey! All Products have a manufacturing notes note pad so if you don’t have or need a diagram, you can just write out what to do. The notes come with rich text editing so you can bold text, point form and colour highlight. This is invaluable and should be done because a) your team will have instructions every year on how to do it so that stuff ups don’t happen and B) they won’t ask you as many questions.
AwardPro is great for standard products but equally great for custom products. Make sure you are taking advantage of all the tools the program has to offer. IT is designed to make you look good.