Job Logging

The Job Logging page is where you enter the details about the job to be done. Information includes:

Date and time job was logged for repair or service. This is automatically set when the job is created, but can be manually changed.

Date and time the goods were received for repair or service. This is useful where jobs are logged over the phone and the goods are sent in for service. This field records the actual date / time the goods were received. Setting the received date will automatically change the job status if you have set the 'Status on Receiving' option in Job Cards setup. Note: This field is manually set and is not populated when receiving parts onto the job via a Purchase Order. Hint: You could also rename this field to be Dispatched Date / Time. Use this then to set the date / time you assigned the job to an employee to do.

Enter (customer’s) purchase order number / additional reference for the job card. You will be warned if these already exist if the option 'Warn on duplicate order/ref no.' is enabled.

You can assign a Customer Reference number for reporting / searching purposes.

Enter a Book Reference Number. This is useful to log the corresponding manual paperwork job number for the technicians onsite. This cross-reference ensures manual paperwork does not go astray.

Two fields customisable to be either a text box or a dropdown defined in Codes Setup. The option for each is found in Job Cards Setup, where Other 1 can also be made compulsory. Like other fields the labels for these can be changed by hovering the mouse of the label text, holding down control and right-clicking. Both fields can be used for reporting and searching.

Select the sales person responsible for this job. The Sales Person defaults to the Billing Customer Default Sales Person.

A descriptive name that can be assigned to the job. This name is searchable.

Enter the date the job is to commence on. This defaults to the Job Logged date if you have selected the 'Automatically set job due date to job log date' in the Job Cards Setup.

Enter Start Time when job is to begin. This can be a range from / to (eg between 10:00 and 11:30).

The estimated length in hours that the job will take to complete. You can use this to compare to actual time to complete to see how accurately you are estimated job duration.

Note: The Due Date, Start Time and Estimated Duration can be automatically calculated based on the Response time and Estimated Duration settings of the Priority Code set for the job (see Codes Setup). These fields in turn can be used to automatically create an assignment for the job if the 'Linked Primary Assignment' option is enabled in Setup.

Displays the Actual hours as calculated from time sheets attached to the job card and the percentage of actual versus estimated time.

Estimated date & time the job will be completed.

Allows the setting of a date / time you want to be alerted about this job. This can then be used on the Job Centre to display jobs which require attention.

Enter the Employee ID of the person logging job. This allows you to track who the job was logged by if required. This defaults to the Logged in Employee ID.

Shows date and time when technician was first assigned to the job. This is automatically set when you first enter an Employee ID against the Job Card.

By ticking the commenced check box, the date and time the employee actually arrived on site can be tracked. By comparing the Commenced date & time with the logged date & time and allocated date & time, employee response times can be calculated. Check this box when an employee commences work on the job. Ticking this box removes the entry from the due jobs list in the Job Centre Escalation sort order.

Enter the description of the problem here, and any other details that you feel necessary to explain what work needs to be done. If you require more space than provided on the Job Card screen, right-click on the field and select Expand. A much larger screen will be displayed. Hint: Use the Scripts option (ALT-F5) to insert standard paragraphs of text, check lists etc.

Allocate the job to a department. This allows you to report on jobs by department, branch etc. Department is also used to allow posting of invoices to different accounts when integrating to an accounting package. The department will automatically be assigned to a job in the following order:

1. Contact's default department if it has been assigned
2. Employee default department if it has been defined
3. Setup default department

Assign a Priority code to the job. The Priority Code not only determines the Jobs priority, it also determines a number of Job factors such as whether to charge for parts or labour, working hours, default Labour type etc. See Codes Maintenance for more details.

The current status of job. This code usually refers to a code describing the point in time the job is up to (e.g. reported, allocated, waiting on parts, completed etc.) The Status code can be automatically set by selected actions in TSM (i.e. assigning an employee, completing a job etc). This functionality is called “Job Triggers” and its settings are located in Job Card Setup. Note: A job status of “Completed” does not mean that the job is complete. The complete/incomplete status of a job is determined by the presence of a completed date, which is located on the Invoicing tab.

The type of service being carried out. Typically, this refers to a charge type code (e.g. chargeable, warranty etc). The service code may be used to determine the minimum profit margin on the job (defined in Codes Setup).

The physical type of job eg. Maintenance, Installation, Service etc.

We can give a Job Type various attributes:

1. Set a COLOUR in the Visual Scheduler and Job Centre
2. Set a DEFAULT LABOUR TYPE
3. Nominate Training courses or Qualifications that an employee will have to have in their employee card in order for them to be assigned to this job
4. Add a Checklist
5. Add a CHECKLIST GROUP

The warehouse location that inventory will be taken from when parts are used on this job card. Can be useful for identifying the van that the technician assigned to this job uses. Individual parts can still be taken from other locations if required.

Type of labour to be charged for this job by default. You can still charge other types of labour if you wish. Use this to define special labour rates to be charged based on job type, contact agreement etc. The default labour type will be assigned to the job in the following order

1. Contact's default labour type if it has been assigned.
2. Employee default labour type if it has been assigned.
3. Setup Default labour type.

Record the preferred payment type for the job. Used for reporting and displaying on invoices. The actual method used to pay the jobs invoice is recorded when the payment is made on the Invoicing tab or Cash Receipts screen.

The employee ID refers to the primary employee assigned to a Job Card. Although many employees can have their worked logged against assignments and time sheets, only one can be assigned as the primary employee. Select the Employee from the list of employees’ setup in TSM. Selecting the employee for the first time also sets the allocated date/time. Setting an employee along with a due date will create an assignment for the job if the option 'Linked Primary Assignment' is enabled in setup.

The E-mail button located to the right of this field allows you to easily email the Job Card details to the primary employee. Pressing the SMS button (if enabled in Setup) will send job details to an employee’s mobile phone number via SMS. You can modify the layout of the SMS message by modifying the SMS jobs Report layout.

Selecting an employee group will filter the employee dropdown to only display members of the group. Click the email button to send an email to all members of the group. Employee groups are defined on each Employee Maintenance card or in Codes Setup.

Setting the employee field can result in several warning pop-ups.

Setting an Employee that lacks the skills for a job (defined on the Job Type Code) will result in this popup:

TSM allows that Employee to be assigned anyway, but this feature is useful in cases where a customer demands certain qualifications from service staff you assign to their jobs. The employees skills are defined on their employee maintenance card on the Training/Qualifications tab.

If this employee’s Insurance expiry date is set and is expired the following warning will appear. This is useful for monitoring subcontractors’ insurance arrangements.

In the case where employees’ postcodes have been setup, right clicking on the employee field will bring up a dialog box asking to consider a list of employees with the same postcode as the site address:

A list of employee IDs will then be displayed, from which the user can choose. Selecting an ID and pressing Enter will close that screen and populate the Employee with the selected ID.

If the Employee’s default labour type is different to that on the job the following message will be displayed.