Core project management setup and workflow

Overview

Use the core project management setup and workflow to track your budgeted and actual Contract Value revenue, as well as your budgeted and actual project expenses by cost type: Labor, Materials, and Equipment.

Read the Introduction to project management before deciding which project approach to use: the core or phased setup and workflow.

Things to know

• Set up level of effort: Low

• We recommend the core project management setup as our base setup for project management use, which includes best practices. Additional recommended workflows build off of this core setup and introduce more granular cost and revenue tracking for your projects.

Best practices

• Set up your project label defaults to avoid having to manually assign labels to records.

• Use project statuses to track the progress of your projects at a high level.

• Avoid double costing issues by following the correct workflows.        

  • For more, see:                

    • Manage double costing from booking a job from a sold estimate

    • Manage double costing from chargeable materials

• Avoid Uncategorized expenses/revenue on the Budget vs Actual table.

Set up core project management workflow

1. Create a Contract Value pricebook label.        

   Note: Contract Value is only a recommended label name. You can use any label name you want.

2. Assign the new Contract Value pricebook label to default services.

3. If you're using the line item estimate/budget creation method, the pricebook should be set up and have relevant services, materials, and equipment added.

4. If you are using the rough project estimate estimate/budget creation method, create generic summary services, materials, and equipment and apply appropriate project label defaults to those items.

5. Set up payroll information, such as pay rate and labor burden, in the Technician settings so that labor actuals generate with timesheet entries.

6. (Optional) Review the Progress Billing documentation to best prepare for how to set up your budget/estimates.

7. (Optional) Set up custom cost tracking workflow, such as subcontractor, permit, etc.

8. (Optional) Set up retainage for projects.

Use core project management workflow

1. Create a project record.

2. Create a project opportunity on the project record you created.

3. Create a project estimate for the opportunity you created.        

   • Create a line item estimate: Use this method if your pricebook already contains the specific services, materials, and equipment required for the project. Line item estimates are ideal when you know that your pricebook already contains the specific service, material, and equipment tasks to include or when you want to use other features, such as requisitions, to procure inventory directly from your current stock.

   • Create a rough estimate: Use this method if your pricebook does not contain the specific line-item services, materials, or equipment required for the project. Rough estimates are ideal when you may not know the exact material or equipment tasks to include yet, or when you need an efficient workflow to create and populate a budget for your project.

4. After you've won the bid, sell the estimate to populate the project's financial information.

5. Perform the required work and track your costs.        

   • Book the necessary jobs and perform the work for the project.

   • Track costs by:                

     • Materials and equipment costs

     • Purchase order costs

     • Custom costs

   Note: You can automate labor tracking using timesheets.

6. Use the Budget vs Actuals (BvA) table and reporting to track your project progress and financial performance.        

   Note: Uncategorized transactions should be addressed in order to get accurate data on the BvA table.

7. Invoice your customer. You can invoice your customer using:        

   • Job invoicing

   • Progress Billing (manual process)

   • Progress Billing through the Application for Payment

Want to learn more?

• Visit ServiceTitan Academy and enroll in Project Management Basics

• See End-to-end guide to project management