Projectmates Construction Software Blog

Subcontract Summary Dashboard

You may have already discovered that with the release of Projectmates Version 9.0 you now have access to a budget and subcontract summary dashboard. If not, then at your project’s home page, click on the Const Mgmt group and select Const Subcontracts (Note: The menu names could be different depending on how your site has been configured)

 

In the dashboard, you have an at-a-glance view of where the project currently resides in terms of budgeting. You instantly know what was budgeted, whether there is a variance, and the projected total. When the budget is breached, then the numbers in the “Budget Total” column turn red, signifying a problem. At the close of the project, you can also easily compare the budgeted costs with the actual costs.

 

Knowing that a visual summary is sometimes the best way to get an accurate grasp of the current situation, Projectmates also now offers charts that illustrate a project’s financial status. Located on the budget and subcontract summary dashboard page, you will find a pie chart and a bar chart. The pie chart illustrates the breakdown of cost commitments, while the bar chart shows a comparison of all budgeted, committed, and paid amounts.

Master Budget

If you need to manage a Master Budget for a large number of projects, Projectmates Version 9.0 has the solution.  Creating a Master Budget to distribute money amongst multiple subprojects is simple.  The Master Budget will even report back the cumulative costs spent within these subprojects as contracts and change orders are created.

You begin creating a Master Budget by creating a new project and selecting 'yes' for 'Master Project?'  From this project, you can setup a new Master Budget similar to how you would create any other budget.  Ass you add line items to your Master Budget you will be able to create subitems for multiple other projects.  This will associate those projects with the Master Budget, allowing their budgets to be linked.  The subprojects will not be able to budget more than the specified amount in the Master Budget, and the Master Budget will reflect the costs as they are added to the subprojects.  For complete instructions on how to create and manage a Master Budget, please refer to our online Help Guide.

Project Map

Did you know that you can show a map of your project along with any relevant nearby locations, such as competitors or satellite offices? With the release of Version 9 Projectmates' Construction Software has added this feature to every project's home page.  Simply put a valid address in the Project Info section to display the Project's location in red on the map. To display nearby locations, enter business names, categories, etc separated by commasinto the last custom field in the Project Info section (Custom Tab 4/Custom Field 80).  Projectmates will display the nearby locations with these specified descriptions on the Project Map.

The first time you view the map, you may have to select 'Update Location Data' to display the map on the Project Home Page.  Once this is done once, it will not be required again unless the Project Information changes.

If you would like to view the map differently, try selecting the Aerial or Hybrid views.  Also, clicking 'Full View' will not only display the map as a larger image, it will give you the option to show a Bird's Eye View or show current traffic speeds where available.

Version 9.0 Released!

Projectmates has released Version 9.0 of its web-based construction software.  Some of the enhancements made include a new and improved project home page, updates to the schedule module, and the ability to approve budgets. 

 

New Project Home Page:  Every project's home page now has an improved BIC section which allows users to filter their assignments by date or module, and also send these items to their Outlook calendar, so deadlines aren't missed. Project maps have also been added, as well as the latest photos added to the project.

Schedule:  In Version 9.0, you can track baseline, planned, and actual dates in Projectmates' schedule module. All three are displayed in both the task list and the gantt chart views, so you can better manage your scheduled tasks.

Budget: Budget approvals have been added to Projectmates.  Once approved, the specified budget columns will become locked from future editting.  So, you can create an original budget in column 1, approve and lock it, and then manage any changes to the budget using the variance column (column 2).  We've also added the ability to create a Master Budget for all or several of your projects.  The master budget can be approved and used to allocate money to multiple subprojects, as well as, report actual costs back from those subprojects.

Subcontract Enhancements

Starting in version 8.4, Projectmates has greatly enhanced the linking and logic for subcontract modules. As in earlier versions, you can still link subcontract items to your budget, but now, when these items are created, the links will be automatically carried over. No more clicking 'Send to Budget' to update your budget!  Your budget gets updated autmoatically each time you save.

In addition, you can link items from your contracts, Purchase Orders and Invoices to existing budget items at any time.  So for example, even if you are not using Projectmates Bid Package module, you can still link contract items to existing budget items.  In fact, those of you who wish to track your budget on a high level, but maintain a more detailed list in your contract can do so by linking multiple items in a contract to a single item in the budget.  You will still be able to see the details of those contracted items from the budget line item details page, but your budget log will remain uncluttered.

You may also notice a few changes to the logic that is used when creating new subcontract items.  Changes have been made to how and when items can be created to increase accountability standards in Projectmates.   For instance, a vendor submitting his/her invoices will not be able to invoice you against a contract or change order that has not been approved. 

To view a more detailed explanation of these rules, please feel free to browse the subcontract section of our user guide (you can access the user guide by clicking the help  icon in Projectmates) or click here to browse some frequently asked questions regarding these enhancements.

Get Rich

You can now use rich text formatting options on several of Projectmates modules including RFIs,  Action Lists, Discussion Forums, Field Reports, and more!  If you see a text box with rich text options as shown below, simply highlight the text you want to format and choose your formatting.  You can change a text's color, size, font, highlighting, and much more with these new tools. 

   

Note: Formatting must be done within Projectmates. If you copy formatted text from another application (e.g. Microsoft Word) into Projectmates, it will be copied as plain text.

Project Tags

Now that Projectmates 8.3 has been released, you can use project tags to label your projects. Tags offer a quick visual representation of project type or the status of projects. You can filter projects or sort projects by the tags as well.

Some examples for the tags will be “Project Status” such as Active, On Hold, Complete, or “Project Type” such as New Construction, Renovation, Tenant Improvement, etc.

Project Admins can add or change tags for their projects thru the Project Info screen.  You can select a pre-defined tag or create a new one based on the server settings.

For Site Admins: Create a custom list of tags that can be uniform throughout your projects. Go to the Site Admin tab, click 'Project Info' and then select 'Manage Project Tags'.  Choose an image and enter the corresponding Tag Name.

Work Orders

It is not uncommon for companies to spend days tapping their fingers, in waiting of work order approval. Cost of damages to both building and merchandise could be devastating.  With the release of Projectmates V8.3 software comes a brand new Work Order module to help Work Orders get processed more efficiently.   This module allows you to manage work order requests, submit proposals, approve budget amounts, and complete work orders in a timely and efficient manner.  Users that are assigned to complete a phase of the work order process receive email notifications and items will appear on their calendar, keeping everyone informed. 

Project Administrators have the flexibility to create multiple work order threads, each having different user permissions and setup options.  For example you can create work order threads by facility, such as East Central Tower or for a specific purpose, such as minor maintenance, major maintenance, etc. Project administrators can also choose to show or hide certain steps in the Work Order process giving the flexibility of creating a process with as few as 3 steps or as many as 6 depending on the level of complexity that is needed.  The diagram above shows the 6 steps in the work order process.  Only the top 3 are required.  Each step in the work order process can be assigned to and completed by a different user of your choosing.  If approvals are used, a standard approval process can be created by Project Administrators.  This approval process can contain any number of users and/or roles and you can specify the order in which they must approve.   If a propsal amount is rejected, the order will be reset to allow another proposal to be submitted.  The user responsible for submitting the proposal will also receive an email notification.

Log on to Projectmates and learn more about consolidating the effort of requesting work order repairs.

New Features in Version 8.2

Version 8.2 was just released on May 3, 2008 with new features and upgrades.  Here are a few of the highlights:

1. The ability to add comments/time/flags to Subcontract items:  You can now add comments, time tracking, or flags to all of our Subcontract modules (Packages, Contracts/COs, Purchase Orders, and Invoices).  This works the same as comments/time/tags in Action Lists.

2. The ability to update existing Budget line items through Excel:  Now you can export your Budget to Excel, update items or add new ones, and re-import them into Projectmates and existing items will be updated.  No need to delete existing item before uploading any more.  All of your links to Packages, Contract, Pay Apps, etc will remain intact.

3. The ability to send multiple items from your Budget to your Pay Application Schedule of Values:  No more opening each item in the Budget and checking a box to send that information to your Schedule of Values! Simply, check off the items that you want to include from the Budget Log, and click "Add to Pay Application."

For more information on recent upgrades in version 8.2, as well as past versions, click here or login to a Store/Project in Projectmates and click on the "What's New in Version 8.2" link on the Projectmates Corner.

Next Generation FlexForms!!!

When we introduced FlexForms in 2004, it became such a popular feature of Projectmates! We could design the FlexForms for the customers in matter of a day or two. It provided clients the ability to have their own Transmittal forms, Online Survey Forms, Project Pipeline sheets, etc. as a part of Projectmates within their projects. FlexForms are also accessible from mobile units such as Pocket PC, Treo, or Blackberry which gave users an ability to be on site and fill out the surveys from right there.

Our Next-Gen Flex Forms allows you to create your own forms and use them in Projectmates. I know our development team is genius, but this is really awesome. Just pull up your Microsoft Office Suite, create a form, upload it to Projectmates…. and Projectmates will convert it into a FlexForm! All automatic - no more programming required! How cool is that? You can add logos, drop down menus, radio buttons, calendars, automatic calculations, you name it.

I have been using a beta version of this and it is sweet! Easy to use and gives hundreds of possibilities. More details to follow…