All-In-One Field Service Management Software by Aptora

Customers & Accounts Receivable

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Assign Work Orders to an Invoice (how to add them)

How to Assign (add) Work Orders to an Invoice

Assigning work orders to an invoice allows you to consolidate multiple work orders into a single invoice, providing a streamlined way to manage your projects and billing. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of assigning work orders to an invoice using the Assign Work Orders form. Follow these steps to ensure a smooth workflow:

Assign Work Orders Form Access

A work order may be assigned to an invoice after the invoice has been created. In order to do this, you must use the Assign Work Order form.

  1. Ensure that you have already created an invoice. At the top of the Invoice Info box, make sure to select the appropriate Customer:Job for the invoice.
  2. You can navigate to “Menu” > “Assign Work Orders” to access the Assign Work Orders form.

The screen below shows any work orders that have been assigned to that specific Customer:Job that you previously selected.  

Using the Assign Work Orders Form

 The Assign Work Orders form is designed to show you any work orders that are assigned to a specific Customer:Job. This is an alternate process that you would use if you were not going to create an invoice directly from a work order and would prefer to start with a blank invoice or use a different workflow. You may notice that not every work order for that Customer:Job is showing up inside of that form. For this to happen, you must select the checkbox that says “Include Invoiced Work Orders” in the top left corner of the form. Otherwise, this form will show only work orders that have not been invoiced when you first open it up.

After you have decided whether you want to see invoiced work orders, you must find the work order that you are trying to assign to the invoice. After you find that work order, you should be able to select the furthest left checkbox to choose that work order for assignment to the invoice.

Adding Work Order Items to an Invoice

You will find three radio buttons at the bottom of this form. These radio buttons provide you with different options for how your items are going to get pulled into this invoice from the work order. For the scenarios below shows two work orders that have the same items on them. Pictures of the “Items” tab from those work orders are included below. 

If you select the first option, “If duplicate items, update the quantity”, then this will cause any duplicate line items to show up as one line item with the quantity equal to the sum of all that line item’s quantities from any work orders that you are assigning. 

The second option, “Do not add items that are duplicated”, is for any scenario where you only want the first occurrence of that line item to be pulled into the invoice. If you have two separate occurrences of that line item on a work order, then only the first one and its quantity are going to show up on the invoice. 

The last option, “Allow duplicate line items”, is for any scenario where you want your invoice to look exactly like your work orders that you are assigning. If you have multiple occurrences of one line item on a work order, then both of those occurrences are going to get pulled into the invoice as their own line item. 

Conclusion 

The Assign Work Orders form is very useful if you want to assign multiple work orders to one invoice or if you do not want to create an invoice directly from a work order. Doing this will allow you consolidate many work orders into one invoice and add them to that invoice at your own rate. If you have a long project that you are working on and want to create many work orders for that job, this is the process to combine all those work orders into one concise invoice. This form also works with multi-day work orders as well. You should only have to assign the Master work order number that is inside of Total Office Manager to the invoice. Doing this will pull over all the items that were added to your multi-day work order over the days that it was completed.

Tips

  1. This list contains all Work Orders for the Customer:Job assigned within the Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate with a status other than Canceled.
  2. If a Work Order has been assigned to more than one Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate, it may appear multiple times within this list.
  3. The Type column indicates what the WO was created from (Invoice or Estimate). If it is blank, it was created from scratch.
  4. Work Orders need to be associated with an invoice for best reporting.
  5. When Primary is checked that WO is the most relevant WO to this invoice. You could also consider Primary as the lead technician.
  6. This information is also used in Contractor Compass®.

Related Content

Item Reservations (reserving sold items)

Batch E-Pay Credit Card Processing

How to Process Customer Credit Cards with the Batch E-Pay Utility

The E-Pay (EPay) utility will allow you to select one or more unpaid invoices and process customer credit cards in a batch mode. This help topic covers where to find that feature and how to use it.

Using the Batch E-Pay System

If you want to process multiple Customer payments at the same time, you can easily use this form. This is also helpful if you have customers setup on a monthly payment plan to charge their credit card or checking account (ACH).

Accessing the Batch E-Pay Form

  1. Open the Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate List.
  2. Select one or more invoices that have a balance.
  3. In the upper left-hand side of the list, click Actions > Batch EPay

Step-by-Step Instructions for Processing Customer Credit Cards with Batch E-Pay

  1. From the main menu, click Customers | Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate List.
  2. To process multiple payment transactions for both Sales Receipts and Invoices, right click to select all or manually highlight the Transactions to process.
  3. Go to Actions | Batch EPay. A new form will appear. This form will show you all customer Accounts with the Balances to be processed.
  4. Sale Receipts will be processed for the full amount of the Sale, this cannot be changed.
  5. Invoices will have a field to enter the amount to process. The Amount must be entered the first time or a warning message will be received preventing the Transactions from being processed. Once the amount is entered for the first time, the form will remember the last payment amount by Invoice and suggest this for the next time Batch E-Pay Transactions are processed. To process Invoices for the full amount, click the grey box next to the item listed to select the Customer Invoice and then click the button that says, “Amount = Balance”. This will load the full balance due. Important: Please verify that the amounts are correct before clicking the Process button!
  6. Click the red X to delete any listed Transactions you do not want to process through Batch E-Pay.
  7. Once the Process button is clicked, a Report will appear to display what Transactions were approved and which were declined.
    • Each Sale and Invoice selected to be processed will be displayed on this Report.
    • The Customer:Job on the Transaction, the Transaction Date, the Transaction Amount, the Gateway response, the Authorization Code and the Encrypted Credit Card Number or Bank Account Number will also be displayed on this Report.
    • The Report will display the total number of Transactions approved, not approved, total Transaction amount approved and not approved.
  8. If the Transaction being processed is a Transaction type of Invoice, and an approval is received, a Receive Payment will automatically be created and applied to the Invoice, reducing the Invoice balance.

Important Notes on Batch E-Pay

  1. Batch E-Pay Processing uses normal Security Settings for Invoices, Sales, Receive Payments, E-transactions and Credit Card Processing within the User List Security Settings. (All located within the Customer section of Security)
  2. Make sure the Credit Card Gateway is setup by going to Customers | Electronic Transactions | Gateway List. The default Deposit to Account set within the Gateway will be used for Batch E-Pay Processing.
  3. Set the default Gateway to be used for Batch E-Pay Processing within Edit | Preferences | Company | Company Preferences Tab | Default Gateway. The Administrator user will need to set this preference.
  4. If you are using E-Check to electronically charge a Customer’s Checking Account, then you will need to set a default E-Check Type within the Gateway. To verify this, go to Customers| Electronic Transaction| Gateway List. Edit the Gateway and select a proper default E-Check Type (Typically PPD or WEB).
  5. When using Batch E-Pay to process payment types of Credit Card and Check you should have the Customer:Job Payment Method setup within the Customer’s account. Customers that pay using a Credit Card should have a Payment Method of Credit Card (Authorize CC, or Visa, MasterCard, etc.) with the Credit Card Number, Expiration Date, Name on Card and Billing Zip Code. Customers that pay using a Check to be processed electronically should have a Payment Method of Check with the Bank Routing Number, Account Number, Bank Account Type and Bank Name. The Preferred Payment Method on the Customer:Job Account is used when processing payments through Batch E-Pay. To verify this information, go to Customers | Customer:Job List.  Double Click to edit the Customer and click the Payment Info tab.

Tips Related to Batch E-Pay

Create a New Customer Payment Term

To easily access Sales Receipts and Invoices for processing through Batch E-Pay, you can create Terms specifically for Payment Methods you accept and charge on a reoccurring basis. You can then assign these Terms to each Sale or Invoice. When the Sale or Invoice has the new Terms you can then create a User Filter in the Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate List to filter by Invoices and Sales with the specific Terms you created. This condenses the Invoice/Sales List to only Invoices and Sales that need to be processed through Batch E-Pay.

To create a new Terms, go to Company| Lists| Terms List, right click and select New Terms.

  • For recurring Credit Card Payments enter Auto CC, Batch CC or Reoccurring CC. Leave the Standard option selected and click Save and Close. Assign this Term to a Customer:Job that has recurring Credit Card Payments or assign the Terms to the Customer’s Invoice/Sale. Do not use this Terms on anything other than Invoices/Sales.
  • For recurring Electronic Check Payments enter ACH, Batch ECheck or Reoccurring ACH. Leave the Standard option selected and click Save and Close. Assign this Term to a Customer:Job that has recurring Credit Card Payments or assign the Terms to the Customer’s Invoice/Sale. Do not use this Term on anything other than Invoices/Sales.
  • To create a Filter that lists Invoices and Sales with these Terms go to Customers| Invoice/Sales/Credit/Estimate List. Within the List click the New Filter option beneath Filter Options within the Default Filters Panel to the left. When the New Filter form loads, put a filter name within the Name field such as Batch E-Pay, select Terms within the Field, Select Equal within the Condition and type the exact Terms Name within the Criteria field. If there are multiple Terms, select “And” within the And/Or field then continue to enter in the additional Terms as noted above. The Criteria field must contain the Terms name exactly as the Terms name is listed. Click OK to save.

E-Pay Form Field & Button Definitions

Buttons

Send Notification Email: This will send an email notification to the user whose credit card is being processed. The software will use the customer’s default (main) email address. The email will be sent from the Gateway to the email address provided within the Customer:Job account. The contents of this email vary by the gateway or processor. Aptora has no control over the content. 

Amount = Balance: This button will populate the “Amount” field with the amount shown in the “Balance” field. You must select the rows that you want to affect. You can right-click for Select All.

Process: This will send the amounts in the form to your Gateway to charge Credit Cards (Authorize and Settle or Authorize Only depending on your gateway settings)

Exit: Closes the form and does nothing.

Print List: This prints the list of transactions found in the grid.

Export: This exports the list of transactions found in the grid. You will have a chance to select a delimiter and enter a file name.

Fields

Date: Invoice or Sale Date

Number: Invoice or Sale Number

Type: Transaction Type (Sale or Invoice)

Cust:Job: Customer:Job name on Transaction

Total: Invoice or Sale Amount

Balance Remaining: The amount due on the Invoice or Sale

Amount: The amount to be charged to Credit Card. This field can be edited.

Cust:Job Balance: The total balance (money owed to you) for that customer.

Last Payment Date: The date of the most recent payment that customer has on record.

Last Payment Amount: The amount of the last payment (mentioned above).

Additional E-Pay Tips

  1. Within the Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate List you can create a filter for Invoices with a balance or sort transactions by date. If you are only displaying the Transactions to be processed you can simply right-click within the List and Select All.
  2. If all Transactions are displayed, manually highlight the specific Transactions to process by holding down the Shift key and highlighting the Transactions with the mouse.

Additional Help Topics Related to Customer Credit Card Processing

Electronic Transactions List – Credit Card Payment History

Sales Opportunity Manager (SOM)

Manage Sales Opportunities and Sales Leads

The Sales Opportunity Manager (SOM) is an integrated part of Total Office Manager and its overall Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. SOM allows you to enter and track sales leads. You can set up product lists, sales closure probability lists, qualifications lists, and Sales process stages.

Form Access

  • From the main menu, click Customers | Sales Opportunity Manager
Sales Opportunity Manager File Path

Field and Button Definitions

To create a new Sales Opportunity, select Sales Opportunity Manager from the Customers main Menu option and then select New Sales Opportunity.

Info Tab

Info Tab – Sales Opportunity Manager
  • Info Tab Date – Select the date Customer:Job: Select the Customer:Job for whom the Sales Opportunity is being created.
  • Customer:Job – Select the Customer:Job associated with this lead.
  • Bill to Address or Work Address – Select the button for either Bill To Address or Work Address associated with this lead.
  • Department – Select the Department associated with this lead.
  • Sales Rep – Select the Sales Rep working with this lead.
  • Marketing Source – Select the Marketing Source that generated the Sales Opportunity. This might be Google or Billboard.
  • Marketing Campaign/List – This is used as a campaign, group, audience, email list, or direct mail list. Example: “Furnace Tune-up Prospects” or “Service Agreement Sale”. These can be used to help organize an email or mailing list. The complete list can be found in the Marketing Type list.
  • Employee Lead – Select an employee who may have been associated with this sales opportunity.
  • Product – Select or create the product that has the potential to be sold. This is a required field. Description: A brief description of the product.
  • Financing Activity – Select from:
    • Financing Offered and Bank Approved
    • Financing Offered. Bank Declined. Paid Cash
    • Financing Offered. Bank Declined. Sale Lost
    • Client Declined Financing (Paid Cash)
    • No Financing Was Offered
  • Description – Enter a short summary of the sales lead.
  • Qualified – Yes or No, determined by the list of questions you’ve created to determine whether or not a Sales lead is legitimate.
  • Timeframe – Choose a predefined timeframe (1-2 Weeks, 3-4 Weeks, 1-3 Months etc.)
  • Pop up “Notes” form when opening this Lead – Opens the Notes for the Customer:Job selected.
  • Follow-up Date – Select a date to follow up with the Customer:Job.
  • Anticipated Close Date – Select a date where the Sales Rep thinks the sale will be final.

Profile Tab

The Profile Tab provides more detail about the Lead that can be used to measure the wants and needs of the potential sale. Each question on the Profile Tab will be questions you’ve created. These questions will most likely be unique to you and your business.

Profile Tab – Sales Opportunity Manager

Sales Opportunity Tab

Sales Opportunity Tab
Sales Opportunity Tab
  • Product – Auto populated from the Info Tab.
  • Priority – Set a priority for this lead (Low, Medium, High).
  • Probability – A customizable field that states the name and percentage you have to win the sales opportunity.
  • Stage – At what stage in the Sales Process are you? (These stages will be defined by you).
  • Status – What is the status of this Sales lead? (On hold, In Progress, Awarded, Not Awarded (rejected).
  • Estimate – If an Estimate has been created within Total Office Manager it will appear in this dropdown list.
  • Amount –Amount of the selected Estimate. Reason Won/Lost: Enter a brief description of what won or lost the sale.
  • Resolved – When was the sale won or lost? Enter a date in the date field for recording purposes.
  • Explain Reason – A more in-depth description of the reason behind why the sale was won or lost.

Appointment Tab

The Appointment Tab will display any Appointments that have been created. By clicking the Appointments menu button, you can select from the available options to add/edit/delete appointments accordingly.

Appointments Tab – Sales Opportunity
  • New Appointment – Create a new Appointment.
  • Edit Appointment – Opens the selected Appointment if any changes need to be made.
  • Delete Appointment – Deletes the selected Appointment(s).
  • Complete Appointment – Marks the selected Appointment(s) as complete.
  • Find Appointment – Opens the Schedule Board to locate the Scheduled Appointment.
  • Memorize – Allows you to create multiple Appointments for multiple users given the same parameters of the selected Appointments.
  • Repeat Appointment – Allow you to have this appointment repeat on a specific date or future reoccurring dates. The User Defined Tab will list any User Defined Fields that you have set up and assigned to the Sales Opportunity Lead form.

User Defined Fields Tab

The User Defined Tab will list any User Defined Fields that you have set up and assigned to the Sales Opportunity Lead form.

User Defined Tab – Sales Opportunity

Tips

  1. We use the term “Customer:Job” to mean customers, jobs, prospects (have not spent money with the company). The Customer:Job list is where you can see all of these contact types.
  2. The Sales Opportunity List contains a lot of features. Use the Batch Updater to change department, status, probability qualified, follow-up date, and more. You will find this feature under the Actions menu.
  3. The Sales Opportunity List includes a column called Date of Last Sales Contact. This field shows the most recent date that a sales related entry was made in the Customer:Job’s > Contact Log. The Contact Log Topic used for that entry must be sales related. On the Contact Log Topic form, select from the “What Best Describes This Contact Log Entry”. Select any option that includes the work “Sales”.
  4. The Sales Opportunity List includes the ability to add a Contact Log entry to two or more contacts. You will find this feature under the Actions menu.
  5. On the bottom of the main form, you may notice “Reminders”. This lets you know there are new sales opportunities that do not have a Status. Once the status is set, they will no longer be in that Reminders count. The idea is to allow anyone to enter leads and notify the main person who may assign them.

FAQ

Q: Why can’t I change the Product once the Sales Opportunity has been saved in Total Office Manager?

A: In Totals Office Manager (not the app), you must select a Product to Save. This field is required because the program creates tables and other things inside the database. Those are “set” in the database. The Product you select determines the Profile Questions and the Qualification Questions. If the Product were changed later, we found it extremely difficult to programmatically resolve all of the the differences to the structure of that sales opportunity. So we decided to disallow changing it. The app does not require a Product to be selected, since the technician may not know what product is ultimately proposed. Note: We did add a Create Copy to the Sales Opportunity menu to make it fast and easy to make a copy and change the Product.

Related Content

Video: Sales Opportunity Manager Reminders on Status Bar

Video: Creating a Sales Opportunity in Aptora Mobile II

Sales Opportunity Manager (SOM) Work Flow

Schedule New Appointments

Gateway Settings for Bambora (Canada Only)

Activate the New System  

Click Edit > Preferences > Customer Payment > Company Preferences. Check the “Use Gateway Payment Profiles” checkbox.  

Do not click the Batch Convert button at this point. This will be covered later.  

Create a Bambora Merchant Account  

Bambora 

  1. If needed, create a new account by logging into https://bambora.com  
  2. You will need the following information from your account. 
  3. Merchant ID 
  4. Payment API Access Passcode 
  5. Profile API Access Passcode 

Copy Merchant ID and Admin API Access Passcode  

  1. In the upper right of the page you will see your Merchant ID. Make a note of it. You will need it.  
  2. Navigate to: Configuration > Payment Profile Configuration. Under Security Settings, locate API Access Passcode. If there is no code, click the Generate New Code button. Copy the API access passcode.  
  3. Obtain Payment Profile API Access Passcode  
  4. From the upper right of Bambora’s web page, click Administration > Account Settings > Order Settings.  
  5. Under Payment Gateway > Security/Authentication, locate the “API Access Passcode” field.  
  6. If there is no number, click the Generate New Code button.  
  7. Copy that code.  

Create Gateway in Total Office Manager 

  1. You will need to create a new Gateway. Go to Customer > Electronic Transaction > Electronic Transaction List  
  2. Click Add New  
  3. In the Name field, enter a name for your Gateway. Example: Bambora Gateway  
  4. Enter the Merchant ID into Merchant ID field.  
  5. In the User Name and Passwords fields, enter your Bambora website user name and password.  
  6. Enter the Admin API Access Passcode into the Profile Passcode field.  
  7. Enter the Payment Profile API Access Passcode into the API Access Passcode field. Tester’s Note: The field might be called Payment Passcode when you test this. We are renaming it to API Access Passcode” for clarity.  
  8. Click Save. The form will close.  

Tip: Bambora’s website can be confusing regarding terminology. Be extra careful when copying and entering the API passcodes. There are two different API passcodes that have the same field name but different locations.  

 

Add a Payment Profile 

Locate the customer you wish to use and open the Customer:Job form to edit. 

Click the Manage Credit Card Profiles button. 

Select a Gateway and click the OK button. The New Customer Profile form will open. 

Enter a credit card number and other information as needed. We recommend that all fields be filled out including the CVC number. Remember, this number and the rest of the credit card information will not be saved. It will be converted into safe and secure token. 

 

Processing a Credit Card Using a Profile 

From the Receive Payments form, click the E Pay button. 

 448534XXXXXX1891 Visa 

Please Note: The Batch Token Conversion ignores expired credit cards. 

Related Content

Electronic Transactions – Credit Card Troubleshooting

https://www.aptora.com/help/electronic-check-transactions-setup/

Customer:Job Form – Tax Info Tab

Using the Customer:Job Tax Info Tab

The Customer:Job Form – Tax Info Tab is used to store a variety of tax information regarding the customer.

Accessing the Tax Info Tab

  • From the main menu, click Customers | New Customer:Job, or
New Customer:Job File Path
New Customer:Job File Path
  • From the toolbar, click the New Customer:Job button.
New Customer:Job Toolbar
New Customer:Job Toolbar

Customer:Job Form – Tax Info Tab – Field & Button Definitions

Customer:Job - Tax Info
Customer:Job – Tax Info
  • Sales Tax Information – 
    • Tax Code – Select from the drop-down menu the sales tax code that applies to the customer. You may also create a new tax code, if the tax code you need is not in the list. Click on the hand icon to the right of the Tax Code field and Add a Tax Code. Is the customer taxable or non-taxable?
    • Tax Item – Select from the drop down menu the tax item that applies to the customer. You may also create a new tax item, if the tax item you need is not in the list. Click on the hand icon to the right of the Tax Item field and Add a Tax Item).
    • Resale # – Enter the customer’s resale number, if you do not charge the customer sales tax. When a person gives you a resale number, they are asking not to pay sales tax because they plan to resell the item, collect tax, and forward that collected sales tax to the proper authorities. This is the number issued by their local sales tax authority. You don’t have to use this field.
  • B to B Demographics –
    • Primary SIC/NAISC – Select from Industry Code is provided. Or add a new one and select if it is SIC or NAISC.
    • Secondary SIC/NAISC – Select from Industry Code is provided. Or add a new one and select if it is SIC or NAISC.
    • Number of Employees – Enter the number of employees.
    • Year Started – Enter the year started.
  • Taxes to allocate to the Customer:Job

Related Content

Sales Tax Item List

Job Costing Steps Explained (detailed overview)

Job Costing Basics in Total Office Manager

This help topic explains how to perform job costing using in the Total Office Manager software program. This article assumes that you understand the basics of job costing. To learn more about the overall concept of job costing, please read our article titled: Job Costing Concepts Explained (an overview).

What is Job Costing?

Job costing is simply keeping track of every dollar you spend to complete a job and every dollar you receive for completing it. This allows you to see total revenue and total expenses allowing you to know which jobs are profitable and which are losing you money.

Our Job Costing feature was specifically designed for service-based businesses and new construction-oriented businesses. Job costing is informative and easy-to-use.

How Job Costing Works

Job costing is integrated throughout Total Office Manager. You’ll start by setting up one or more Jobs (more on that later) and then associate payments, expenses, and various other job related transactions with that job.

Step-By-Step Job Costing

Set Your Payroll Preferences

  1. From the Main menu, click Edit | Preferences | Payrolll
  2. In the Allocate Payroll Liabilities to Job Costing field, select the correct option for the type of account you would like to allocate your payroll liabilities related to job costing to.

Create a Job

  1. Click Customer | Customer:Job List
  2. Click the Customer:Job button. Click New Customer to create a new top level Job or click Add Customer and\or Job to create a sub (child) of an existing Customer:Job.
  3. Enter contact information, phone numbers, payment methods, etc., as needed. See Adding/Editing Customer for more information.
  4. Click the Job Info tab.
  5. Select a Job Type from the list or add a new one if needed.
  6. Select a Job Status. The choices are pre-made and can’t be changed.
  7. In the Start Date field, enter the actual start date of the job.
  8. In the Projected End field, enter the projected completion date of the job.
  9. The Job Completion Date is the date the job ended and will be used later, when the job is closed.
  10. In the Projected Total field, enter the amount the job is going to sell for. Alternatively, you may select an Estimate (which you would need to create for this job) and this field will auto populate.
  11. In the Description field, enter a brief description of the job.
  12. In the Job Details field, enter extensive details about this job (if you wish). You may also paste a proposal into this field or other text from another program (like MS Word).
  13. When complete, click OK to save your changes and close the form or Next to save your changes and add another Customer:job.

Additional Overhead Field

In the Customer:job form, Job Info tab, there is an option called Additional Overhead.

The Assign Overhead as Percentage of Final Amount option allows you to add overhead to your Job Costing report (this report only) as a percentage of the amount the job is finally sold for. For example, you could add 20% to cover miscellaneous overhead (like rent or insurance) that was not otherwise allocated to the job.

The Assign Overhead as a Dollar Amount option does the same thing only the amount you enter is a dollar amount and that amount stays the same (fixed) no matter what the job ends up selling for.

This feature makes it possible to “pick up” any other overhead that may not have otherwise been associated with the job. Examples may include rent, general insurance, and so forth. Typically it would be difficult to divide this check out to all of your jobs.

You might even use this feature to help pay your commission based salespeople. For example, you could tell them they get 50% of the net profit on every job and you will assign 35% overhead to each job. This overhead number comes from your income statement and could be adjusted each month or each quarter.

Adding Revenue, COGS, and Expenses to a Job

This part is simple and automatic with Total Office Manager. You will basically just do your everyday accounting and Total Office Manager does the rest. Total Office Manager will give you an opportunity to associate a job with all income and expenses. Even such things as inventory adjustments and adjusting journal entries can be attributed to a job. Here are some examples:

Each time you create an invoice or a sale, you will select the job you just setup. Total Office Manager will automatically keep track of the revenue (sales) and any cost of goods sold (COGS) you have for inventory items sold.

When you receive items, enter a bill, or write checks, you may select jobs on a line by line basis. Total Office Manager will track these items for you. Through the Reimbursables feature, Total Office Manager will remind you to add these items to your invoice. Once they become part of the Invoice, the COGS will be included in Job Costing.

When you enter expenses, you may select jobs on a line by line basis. Total Office Manager will track these expenses for you. Expenses are automatically and immediately added to Job Costing.

Non Inventory Items

This is a special type of item in Total Office Manager. With a non inventory item, you incur an expense when you invoice it (sell it).

This item type is commonly used for items you buy and sell but do not wish to track through conventional means. Examples might include nuts & bolts, strapping, wire nuts, screws, and other small items.

If you wish to have these items become part of job costing, be sure that you add these items to your invoice.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to read the Help topic, Non-Inventory Part for more information.

Service Items

When you setup service items, you will notice they have no direct cost associated with them. This is because you do not actually buy them in the traditional sense; like you do regular parts.

However, many service items require labor to install them or perform. Examples may include inspections, cleanings, etc. Total Office Manager allows you to easily associate labor with these service items.

This is done in timesheets. When you enter your employee’s hours, you have the option of selecting a service item. The cost of the labor for those hours becomes the cost associated with that service item.

To setup a service item, click Customers | New Invoice Item and select the Service Item option.

Adjusting Journal Entries (AJE)

You can make AJEs and attribute them to a specific job. Be sure that you select a Customer:Job for EACH line item that you wish to be including in your Job Costing reports.

Remember that certain account types will not affect your job costing report summaries. These include the following:

  1. Accounts Payable
  2. Accounts Receivable (increases the A/R for this job but not recommended)
  3. Bank
  4. Credit Card
  5. Equity
  6. Fixed Asset
  7. Long Term Liability
  8. Other Asset
  9. Other Current Asset
  10. Other Current Liability

This means that if you make AJE using any of the above accounts, your Job Costing report summaries will not be affected. Generally when it comes to job costing, AJE are used to move income, expenses, and cost of goods sold so only these account types will affect job costing.

Adding Payroll to Job Costing

Hourly Employees

When you prepare timesheets, you have the opportunity to select a customer:job. You do this on a line item basis per day.

Salaried Employees

If you wish to associate part of a salaried employee’s payroll to a job, you must use the timesheet. Just enter that employee, pick the correct job, and enter their hours. Total Office Manager will divide their weekly salary by 40 and multiply by the number of hours you enter.

When you use the timesheet for a salaried employee, you are NOT creating additional payroll for them. The timesheet simply tells Total Office Manager where to allocate their salaried payroll.

You’ll see what we’re talking about when you open the timesheet. You access timesheets by clicking Employees | Timesheet/Time Tracking

Review Job Cost Related Reports

  • You have several reports that will show you details about your jobs. These include Job Costing, Income Statement by Customer:Job, Sales\Invoice\Credit\Estimate Details, and Transaction Details by Account.
  • The Job Costing report is the most common of all job cost related reports. This report includes all of the setup details of the job as well as the profitability of the job. Click Reports | Job Cost
  • The Income Statement by Customer:Job report is the same as the regular income statement. This option simply creates an IS for a particular customer:job. Note: The IS by customer:job will NOT include payroll taxes. Payroll taxes are only attributed to jobs in the Job Cost report (mentioned above). This report will NOT display extra overhead; which is setup in the Job Info tab (mentioned above).
  • The Sales\Invoice\Credit\Estimate Details report is located under the Reports menu option. It displays a selected record and details include amount, COGS, labor for service items, balance due, and more. Use this report as a invoice level job costing report.
  • The Transaction Details by Account report includes an option to filter by customer:job. This report is typically only used by accountants for diagnostic purposes. Most managers will not use this report to evaluate a job’s profitability.

Job Costing FAQ

Question:  I use non-inventory items when entering bills (or writing checks). This item seems to mess up my job costing reports and income statement. Why doesn’t a cost appear on my income statement, or other reports, for this item?

Answer:  There is no cost actually associated with non-inventory part unless the box called “This item is purchased for and sold to a specific Customer” in checked. When checked, you select a COGS or Expense account. Unless this box is checked, Income will be reduce when this item is purchased. I other words, when you buy this item, the Income account that is associated with this item is debited. If you plan to use non-inventory items for job costing, you would generally want to check that box.

Question:  I have a service item called “Inspection”. I sell this item on invoices. I use this service item on time sheets and properly associate an employee and a job with this item. Why doesn’t a labor cost appear on my income statement for this item?

Answer:  There is no labor cost actually associated with this job. In order for you to see the cost appear, you need to incur the cost. By entering the hours on a timesheet, you’ve only said how much time you’ve spent and you haven’t really recorded any cost.

Question:  Why doesn’t COGS show up on our Income Statement by Job? We enter bills and select a customer with each line item. We are using inventory items. We go into Reports and select Income Statement. We select a specific Customer:Job and preview the report. Many of our bills do not show up in COGS.

Answer:  The Income Statement will not show COGS until you create an invoice (or sale). Bills do not affect the income statement; they affect the balance sheet. This is because the income statement is based on accrual accounting. When you enter a bill, your inventory assets go up (debited) and your liability account (accounts payable) goes up (credited). COGS accounts don’t change. When you use inventory parts, Total Office Manager increases your COGS accounts when you sell an item, not when you buy it. This is correct behavior. Try using the Job Cost report instead.

Question:  How can we do accurate job costing when we do not use inventory control (we don’t use inventory items)?

Answer:  If you do not use inventory parts (Inventory type items), consider using the Expense tab when entering bills. Select a COGS account or an expense account from your chart of accounts. This will cause your COGS (and expense) accounts to go up immediately when creating the bill.

You could also use a Non-Inventory Item type with the “This item is purchased for and sold to a specific Customer” option checked. This will cause Total Office Manager to immediately raise your COGS account when the bill is entered. You may then use the same item when creating your invoice. Total Office Manager will not duplicate the COGS.

Create a Non-Inventory Item Type

Your first step is to create a Non-Inventory Item. Here is how to do it:

  1. Click the Item button on the main tool bar.
  2. In the Type field, select Non-Inventory.
  3. Check the “This item is purchased for and sold to a specific Customer.” check box.
  4. Enter a description of your choice such as “Parts and Materials”.
  5. Click the Accounting Information tab and be sure to select the appropriate accounts for Income and COGS\Expenses.
  6. You do not need to enter a direct cost or retail price. These can be added as needed when entering bills and creating invoices.
  7. Complete the rest of the fields as needed and click the OK button.

Procedures

Use this item when buying materials for the job and when invoicing the job. In other words, select this item when entering a bill. Simply enter the amount that appears on the bill or the portion that is purchased for a particular job. Don’t forget to select the Customer:job.

You can create additional items if it’s helpful and these items can be reused as needed.

Software Job Costing Tips

  • The cost of equipment and materials does not become part of job costing until an invoice is created. Sales (revenue) does not become part of job costing until you create an invoice. Please see In-Progress Invoice for more information.
  • Purchase Orders and Estimates are displayed on the main Job Costing report (shown on the transaction list) but do not have an effect on the job costing or financial totals. This is because these are what accountants call “non-posting” transactions.
  • Receive Items and Bills are included in the Job Cost transaction list but do not affect the Job Costing report (the main report). When an invoice is created, the Job Costing report is then effected. In other words, a sale actually must take place before the Job Cost report totals are affected. This prevents costs from being doubled when sales are created.
  • The Expense Tab (on Bills and Checks) immediately effects job costing and do not need to be included on an invoice.
  • Non-Inventory Items do not affect the main Job Cost report unless the “This item is purchased for and sold to a specific Customer.” option is checked. Until this box is checked, there is no COGS account selection. Be sure to read the Help topic, Non-Inventory Part for more information.
  • Service items do not affect the main Job Cost report unless the “This service is performed by a subcontractor, owner, or a partner.” option is checked. Until this box is checked, there is no COGS account selection.

Job Costing Related Help Topics

Assign Work Orders to an Invoice (how to add them)

Assign Work Orders to an Invoice (how to add them)

Percentage of Completion AKA: Progress Invoice

 

Barter Exchange Transactions

How to Manage Barter Exchange Transactions

These instructions cover how to use barter exchanges within Total Office Manager.  The most common scenario is an even exchange of goods/services at one time and more rare scenarios in which goods/services are fulfilled by one party at the time of exchange, but the other party makes full repayment by installments over time.

For example, you repair a unit for a lawn care vendor that maintains your grounds. You agreed to repair the unit in exchange for lawn care services. A Barter Exchange Agreement would be entered into by both parties.  The barter exchange would be completed in full once the labor to repair the unit is done and the exchange for 6 months’ worth of grounds maintenance is performed.

You do not want to credit your grounds maintenance vendor for 6 months’ worth of services at the time of the exchange. Instead, you enter an invoice for the repair work completed for your grounds’ maintenance company. Each month the vendor performs lawn care maintenance, a payment is entered equal to the amount of the bill your company receives for the grounds care services to reduce the balance of the invoice. The bill is then also paid using the “Barter” bank account.

It is important to note that the IRS and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles consider these exchanges at their fair market cash value. Because of this it is possible to use barter for a partial payment of an invoice. It is strongly advised to speak with your qualified tax professional to make sure the entries your are in line with their requirements for your tax filings.

Requirements Within Total Office Manager

  • A bank account for use with barter exchanges
  • A payment method for use with barter exchanges
  • A terms for use with barter exchanges
  • A customer and a vendor for use with barter exchanges.
    Please Note: While making a separate vendor account is not required, it is recommended to keep barter and traditional transactions separated.

Entering a Barter Exchange Transaction

  1. Enter the invoice or sale for the customer as you normally would.  It is recommended that you use an invoice if this is going to be an installment over time barter exchange, and use a sale receipt if the exchange will be completed for both parties at the time of the exchange.  If using a sale receipt make sure to set the Payment Type field to “Barter”, and set the Deposit To field to the “Barter” bank account.  It is recommended that an invoice be used if the customer is going to only pay part of the balance by a barter exchange.

  2. If using an invoice, you will need to enter a payment each time the vendor performs services or provides goods to repay the Barter Exchange Agreement.  Make sure to use the “Barter” bank account for the Deposit To field.  This will decrease the balance owed by the vendor, as shown in the customer’s Accounts Receivable account, to you and then you can use that balance stored in the “Barter” bank account to pay the bills generated by the vendor providing the service/goods that generated the payment that you just received.  If the vendor has provided their service/goods then you would enter in the bill for that service/good.

  3. To pay bills from services rendered/goods received from the vendor in a barter exchange, consider the following.  Since the balance information is being kept on the customer side of the barter exchange it can get rather difficult to keep track of bills paid from a vendor if a separate barter account is not created for the vendor.  It is possible to use the existing vendor account to enter bills associated with barter exchanges, just make sure you change the terms to the “Barter” terms and make detailed memos on what bills are included in barter exchanges.  If you use a separate vendor account for barter exchanges, you do not have to keep track of how much or what bills have been paid out of the “Barter” back account because the sum of all bills entered should be equal to the amount of payments/sales receipts entered.  The way of paying bills is the same regardless of which way you chose to enter your vendor barter exchange bills.  Process the bill normally, except only select bills that are for barter exchange, and pay that bill out of the “Barter” bank account.

Pick Ticket Sheet

Using the Pick Ticket Sheet (aka: Pull Sheet)

The pick ticket feature consists of a report that may be printed from the Estimate form. The idea is that a sales person would create a comprehensive estimate that contains all of the various equipment, materials, and technical notes required to complete a sale. This sale may consist of something simple like the sale and delivery of an appliance or something more complicated like an entire system replacement.

When the job is sold, the Estimate is marked “Awarded” (sold) using the Status selection at the top of the Estimate form. The Pick Ticket may then be printed and handed to the installers or warehouse personnel. The equipment and materials could then be pulled (or “picked”) for the job. As items are pulled, the Pick Ticket is marked appropriately. These items may then be staged for later pickup by the installers or delivery personnel. The delivery driver or installers would get a copy of the Pick Ticket.

When the delivery or installation is completed, the driver or installers would write down everything that was returned on the original Pick Ticket. The Parts Manager would verify the Pick Ticket against the items returned.

An inventory adjustment may then be used to return all unused inventory to stock.

Form Access

  • From within an estimate, click Menu | Print Pick Ticket

Customer:Job – Title List

Introduction

Customer:Jobs – Title List is where titles specific to individuals listed under that particular category. To think of it one way, these “Titles” refer to their position at an organization. A title would be something like ‘Homeowner’ or ‘Site Manager’ depending upon the job role of that individual.

The use of Titles is not something that’s required to use Total Office Manager and is a feature that is in place for the user to more easily identify the specific roles of contacts. It is available for both Customer:Jobs and Vendors.

Form Access

  • From the main menu, click Company | Lists | Title List.

Customer:Job - Title List File Path
Title List File Path

Usage

Perhaps the easiest way of using the commands available in this list is through its right click menu from the Customer:Job – Title List.

Title List – Add New
  • To create new title, right-click anywhere in the list and choose New Title from the pop-up menu.
  • To edit a title, right-click on it and choose Edit Title from the pop-up menu.
  • To delete a title, right-click on it and choose Delete Title from the pop-up menu.  Note: It may not always be possible to perform this action — inactivation may be more appropriate.
  • To inactivate a title, right-click on it and choose Make Title Inactive from the pop-up menu.  This can also be done by Checking the “Inactive” checkbox within a record (see below).
  • To export whatever information is currently displayed in the list, right-click anywhere in the list and choose Export List from the pop-up menu.

Creating a New Title

Create New Title
  1. Right click anywhere in the Title list and choose New Title from the pop-up menu.  The “Add Title” form will appear.
  2. Enter a name in the “Title” field.
  3. For the title to appear on customer records, check the Customer checkbox.  For the title to appear on vendor records, check the Vendor checkbox.  Both checkboxes may be Checked simultaneously, so that the title will appear on both customer and vendor records.
  4. Click the OK button to finish and close the form, or click the Next button to save and go on to create another.

Usage

The Titles for Customer:Jobs and Vendors are found under the Contact Tab of the corresponding form. Users have ability to show the Title or remove it or change the position of the columns.

Title – Contact Tab

Related Content

Customer Type List

Vendor Types List

Customer Type List

 

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