Tracking and Managing Jobs in ESC

Once you have your Jobs setup in ESC, tracking and managing those jobs is easy to do.

Tracking the Job

Once a Job has been created, you can track all transactions related to that Job using the Job field on various screens.  The Job can be added to:

• Quotes
• Invoices
• Dispatches
• Purchase Orders
• Agreements

Quotes

All Quotes associated to the Job will appear on the Job Sales Report and contribute to the Estimated revenue and costs.  Estimated amounts will also appear on the Setup Jobs screen under the Job Totals tab at the top.

Invoices

All Invoices associated to the Job will appear on the Job Sales Report and contribute to the actual revenue and costs of the report.  These will also appear on the Job Totals tab of the Setup Jobs screen.

Dispatches

Placing the Job on a Dispatch will ensure that the Job carries over to any Quote, Invoice or Purchase Order created from that dispatch.  It also allows you to run the Tech Hours Report by the Job Name so that you can view the number of hours that were spent on that Job.

Purchase Orders

Individual items added to a Purchase Orders in ESC can be associated to a Job. The Purchase Order itself will not contribute to costs, but you do have the option to transfer the items to a Job when they are received.  (If you want to turn this option on, go to Company → System Setup → Inventory and put a check next to Automatically cost inventory items received to a job.)
Note: Items transferred directly to a Job should not be placed on an in invoice - this may cause your Costs to show doubled.

Agreements

Associating a Job with a Service Agreement in ESC will ensure that all Dispatches and Invoices generated from that Agreement are also associated with the Job.  

Checking / Updating a Job

To see how a job is doing at any time you can recall the job through the Job List and note or change the status. Click on the Job Totals tab to view the total amount quoted and compare that against what has been billed and applied to the cost of job. For more detail you can also run the Job Sales Report (Sales → Reports → Job Sales Report) in ESC or job reports in your accounting software.

Completing a Job

When a job has been completed and the final invoice created, head to the Job List and open the Job.  Change the status to Closed and click Save. This will set the Actual End Date on the job. This will allow you to filter out completed jobs so they no longer appear on your report and prevent new entries from being posted to the job. It can also allow you to run reports on just the completed jobs so you can see the profitability of the jobs and compare the actual costs against the estimated costs.

ESC has rules for completing jobs to make sure that someone can’t accidentally close a job that still has active entries. These rules will also prevent anyone from creating entries against a closed job. These rules make it so that you cannot:

• Close a job if there are active dispatches tied to the job.
• Create a dispatch for a closed job.
• Create new ledger entries against a job that has been closed when using ESC Accounting. This includes entries from sales invoices, payable bills, payroll, etc.
• Modify a ledger entry against a job that changes the dollar amount when using ESC Accounting.
• Create time entries or time sheets against a closed job when using ESC Accounting.

Even after completing the job we recommend keeping the job Active at this time so that it will be easy to find on reports.

Important Note: Changing the status in ESC does not affect the status of the job in QuickBooks or Sage 50.

Deactivating a Job

If a job doesn't sell within a certain time or has been completed long enough that you are sure you will not need to modify it anymore, head to Customer Info → Job List and open the Job.  Remove the Active check and then click Save.  

Doing this will make sure the job does not appear on any search screens unless you specifically request to 'show Inactive Jobs'. This is useful for cleaning up your job list, allowing you to concentrate on the jobs that are really Active or Pending.

If a Job has been created but never used, it is possible to Delete the Job instead of deactivating it.  This would be done by opening the Job and clicking the Delete button at the bottom of the Setup Jobs screen.  

Important Note: Neither deleting or deactivating job has any affect on the job in QuickBooks or Sage 50. Consult with your accounting documentation to see how to deactivate the records there as well.