Work Orders can be used for two different purposes, they can
be used internally by an organization to request and approve funding for
projects, and they can be used as contracts with customers for billable work
(including fixed price service agreements where logged hours for covered tasks
are included in fixed price).
Work Orders can be created from a link on the Admin Request
Entry page which takes the user to the Work Order Management page; they can be
created as a result of a customer entering payment information in Customer
Request Entry for a billable request which creates a work order; they can be
created as a result of a customer signing up for a Service Contract Membership
Type which automatically creates a work order; and they can be created directly
from the administrative Work Order Management page.
When Work Orders are created from either request entry or
from membership signup, some or all of the Work Order information is
automatically filled (entered) by the system.
The Work Order process can be
broken down into 5 major steps:
1)
Identify Customer.
2)
Define Scope of Work (includes narrative and Project
Schema).
3)
Define covered Items (Request Types, Services &
Products) and applicable Pricing.
4)
Define Billing and Payment Terms.
5)
Get customer approval.
There are two additional steps that are optional. They are typically applicable when the WO is
for a project:
1)
Calendar – enter scheduled and actual start and
completion dates.
2)
Cost Summary – enter budget $ amounts and either enter
or calculate actual $ amounts.
The first major step of identifying the customer is
performed automatically except when creating the Word Order directly from Work
Order Management. The customer must have
a contact record (and optionally a company record) which is linked to the Work
Order. Billing information can be retrieved
from the Contact or Company record or entered manually. Optionally, it provides the ability to create
a list of authorized requesters.
Authorized requesters are people that are authorized to place requests
for work.
The second major step is to define the scope of work. This involves selecting a WO Type which assigns
a Duration of either “One time”, “Project” or “Service Contract” and optionally
specifies a WO Template used to copy pricing and other information to the new
WO; attaching documents; and providing a written description of the scope of
work which can be copied from Request Entry (we need option to flag which field
this is in Request Form Builder) or attached as a document.
The third major step is to define covered Items and
pricing. There are three separate entry
grids, Request Types, Service Items and Product Items. If a WO Template was specified, these grids
are pre-loaded with Items from the template.
Request Types covered by the WO are entered by the user and
a Fee Type is specified for each one.
Fee Type – choices displayed as radio buttons:
§
No Fee – select if the work for the Request Type
is covered at no charge. This choice
will be commonly used for Service Contracts.
§
Fixed Fee – select if the work for the Request
Type is covered for a single per incident fee.
§
Fixed Rate – select if work for the Request Type
is billed at a single hourly rate.
§
Item Pricing – select if work for the Request
Type is billed according to the individual Task/Item rates. This selection causes all work for the
specified Request Type to retrieve the rates from the covered Service Items or
when not covered, directly from the Items table.
A limit can be placed on the number of Requests per Request
Type. Up to the limit, each request is
billed according to the Fee Type and applicable rate. Once the limit has been reached, additional requests
are billed at the Request Types default rate.
Service Items covered by the WO are added by the user and a
Pricing Method is specified for each one.
Service Items are necessary for Request Types that have their Fee Type
set to “Item Pricing”. When a Request
Type’s Fee Type is set to either “No Fee”, “Fixed Fee”, or “Fixed Rate”,
Service Items are ignored. When a
Service Item is not listed, it is billed at the Standard Rate/Price specified
in Item Management.
Pricing Methods – choices displayed as radio buttons:
§
Free – select if the Task/Item is covered at no
charge. This choice is commonly used for
Service Contracts.
§
Price Group – select to bill the Item/Task Type
at the Price Group rate specified for the WO.
§
Specified – select to bill the Item/Task Type at
the rate entered in the Rate field.
Product Items covered by the WO are added by the user and a
Pricing Method is specified for each one.
Product Items use the same Pricing Methods as Service Items. When a Product Item is not listed, it is
billed at the Standard Rate/Price specified in Item Management.
If the “Price Group” Pricing Method has been selected for
any of the Covered Items, a Price Group needs to be selected. The Price Group defaults to the customer’s
Price Group if they have been assigned one in their Company or Contact
record. Note that Work Orders for
Companies use the Price Group specified in Company Management; whereas, Work
Orders for individuals use the Price Group specified in Contact Management.
The fourth major step is to define the Billing Options and
Terms. This begins with selecting a Billing
Status of either “Internal”, “Estimate” or “Billable”. Billing Status defaults to value specified
for the Request Type. Note that when a
Request Type’s Billing Status is set to “Not Billable”, a work order is not
created. When Billing Status is set to
“Internal” the project is internal to the organization and dollar amounts are
only calculated for purposes of tracking costs and no orders or invoices are
created. The “Estimate” Billing Status
is used when the price for the work is not known at the time of the request and
the customer requires an estimate (quote).
If the customer approves the estimate, the Work Order’s Billing Status
is changed to “Billable”.
The next selection is Billing Method. Billing Method choices
include “Pre-Payment”, “Pre-Authorized”, “Retainer”, and “Invoice”. When “Invoice” is selected, Invoicing Terms
must also be selected. Invoicing Terms
choices include “Periodic”, “Schedule”, and “Upon Completion”. Other information collected include: Not to
Exceed amount when applicable; the Contract Period; Payment Terms. Payment terms are applicable when Billing
Method is set to “Invoice”. They include
choices such as “Net 10”, “Net 30”, etc.
Work Order Payment Schedule entry is used to setup a fixed payment
schedule such as for billing for completion of project phases where each record
represents a phase. A Work Order can be
specified for each Request and separate Work Order Payment Schedule Item
records assigned to each Task to track and bill the logged time for the
Task.
Billing Status – choices displayed as radio buttons:
§
Internal
§
Estimate
§
Billable
Billing Method – choices displayed as radio buttons:
§
Pre-payment
§
Pre-authorized
§
Retainer
§
Invoice
Invoicing Terms – choices displayed as radio buttons. Only available when Billing Method is set to
“Invoice”:
§
Periodic
§
Schedule
§
Upon Completion
Payment Terms – choices displayed in list box. Only available (enabled) when Billing Method
is set to “Invoice”. Default to
Customer’s Payment Terms.
Not to Exceed – text box for $ amount. Only available (enabled) when Billing Method
is set to “Pre-authorized” or “Invoice”.
Not to Exceed Label – 30 character text box for defining
label other than “Not to Exceed Amount” such as “Deposit Required”, “Minimum
Charge”, etc. Only available (enabled)
when Billing Method is set to “Pre-authorized” or “Invoice”.
When the Billing Method is set to Retainer, the customer is
required to make a payment that is held as a credit on account. Work is then billed against the
retainer. Only billed work is recorded
as sales. The Retainer is linked to a
Work Order and may only be applied as payment for the work performed on
Requests linked to the Work Order. It
may not be applied to other types of orders.
The unapplied amount of the Retainer is stored in the Work Order.
The fifth major step is to get approval for the Work
Order. Pre-paid Work Orders are
automatically approved. All other Work
Orders require the Approval Date and Approved By fields to be completed before
work is authorized. Billable Requests
that have not been approved shall display a warning message on all pages
listing Tasks; the message should state that the work has not been approved. If the Request Type has been configured to
require Work Order approval, the warning message will state that “Approval is
required” and user will be limited to entering non-billable time until approval
has been entered. Work Order Management
shall include a button to email an approval notification to a specified
person. This can be used to send
approval request to a customer or to an Administrator for approval of internal
projects.
When a new Work Order is automatically created it sets Work
Order Type to the value specified for the Request Type. The Membership
Types Management page contains a list box that lists all Work Order Types that
have Work Order Duration set to "Service Contract". When Work
Order Duration is set to "Incident" the Work Order cannot be used
with other Requests and when the Request's Closed Date is entered this is
copied to the Work Order Closed Date, thus closing the Work
Order. When Work Order Duration is set to "Project",
closing a Request does not close the Work Order. When Work Order Duration
is set to "Service Contract", closing a Request does not close the
Work Order. The Work Order is closed when the Membership expires. If a
Membership expires and is later renewed, then the Work Order Closed Date is
removed, thus re-activating the WO.
When new Work Order is auto created from a Request there are
two possibilities:,
a) If Request Item ID contains
a value, it will create a Work Order Item with Work Order Item
Type set to "Service Item" and it will not copy any Work Order
Items that are attached to Work Order Types Work Order Template ID.
b) If Request Item ID is empty, it
will create copies of all Work Order Items specified in Work Order Types
Work Order Template ID.
