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**Kevin Mikelonis** · 04-22-2006, 09:32 PM

When I first sought out BizMgr, it was to create service orders for my service department to handle projects designed in D-Tools which had been installed and completed.

I anticipated using work order to deal with this need. Unfortunately, D-Tools did not design the BizMgr for this specific use, and the requirement of creating a work order from a sales order called for some creative thinking and an extra step, but some great benefits have come from our approach.

-Making this all work starts with having Project Statuses and Project Phases in D-Tools account for project support through your service department.

So...

-Have a Project Status and Project Phase called Warranty Support

-Have a Project Status called Project Phase called Non-Warranty Support

-Upon completion of a project (collection of final check) make a copy of the project using 'copy project' and rename it Support XXXXX Residence. For instance if the project was named 'Blanco Residence Systems' the new copied project would be named 'Support - Blanco Residence Systems'

-Archive the original project using 'archive'

-Set the project status for the newly created support project to 'warranty support'. This is useful in other ways as you can now see all projects that are in warranty by sorting by column in your project lookup window. Set an annual recurring reminder in your CRM program or company MS Outlook Calender for the date you do this to take the project out of 'warranty' and place into 'non-warranty' and call the client for follow-up when the reminder trips your service manager to do so. Great customer service! A chance to offer upgrades!

-At this point, you have all the products in the original project available to push into a sales order from the support project if they need replacing during the warranty period, and beyond.

-See where this is headed? ... Say Yes!

-In the case of supporting a project which does not need any products to do so as in the original question asked here in this thread, labor SKUs are the answer.

-If you have really accounted for all the costs of a project, you will have included in the original project, a labor SKU for each system installed called 'warranty support' such as 'Labor - Warranty Support - Structured Wiring - X hours'. This labor SKU would carry your labor cost, but no sell price. This way you can load hours for each system into your projects to return to the project during the warranty period, and already have the costs accounted for, so they do not nibble away at your net profit during the warranty period. *ATTENTION COMPANIES THAT BONUS PM's FOR BRINGING PROJECTS IN UNDER ESTIMATED HOURS!* Creating similar SKUs for non-warranty support allows you to charge for system support outside the warranty period.

-So to handle a support call for a project, go to your 'Support - XXXXXX Residence Systems' project, use BizMgr to create a sales order for the support call, and select the items (or labor SKUs) to be applied to the work order for the support call. This also is handy, as you can see over time by reviewing your sales orders for this project, what type of equipment is failing. The clunky part here is having to create the sales order to get to the work order! TIP* Open the Support project ahead of time to get the component IDs of the items to be replaced adn added to the sales order, as they are not identifiable by system or room in the sales order!

-Lastly, create a work order from this sales order and assign resources.

-Dispatch and go!

As you can see, there is a way, but knowing how you business process works and having it built into D-Tools makes D-Tools a stronger piece of software which reachs beyond design and proposal generation!

04-22-2006, 09:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
Kevin Mikelonis Certified Partner Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 364	Service Orders through BizMgr When I first sought out BizMgr, it was to create service orders for my service department to handle projects designed in D-Tools which had been installed and completed. I anticipated using work order to deal with this need. Unfortunately, D-Tools did not design the BizMgr for this specific use, and the requirement of creating a work order from a sales order called for some creative thinking and an extra step, but some great benefits have come from our approach. -Making this all work starts with having Project Statuses and Project Phases in D-Tools account for project support through your service department. So... -Have a Project Status and Project Phase called Warranty Support -Have a Project Status called Project Phase called Non-Warranty Support -Upon completion of a project (collection of final check) make a copy of the project using 'copy project' and rename it Support XXXXX Residence. For instance if the project was named 'Blanco Residence Systems' the new copied project would be named 'Support - Blanco Residence Systems' -Archive the original project using 'archive' -Set the project status for the newly created support project to 'warranty support'. This is useful in other ways as you can now see all projects that are in warranty by sorting by column in your project lookup window. Set an annual recurring reminder in your CRM program or company MS Outlook Calender for the date you do this to take the project out of 'warranty' and place into 'non-warranty' and call the client for follow-up when the reminder trips your service manager to do so. Great customer service! A chance to offer upgrades! -At this point, you have all the products in the original project available to push into a sales order from the support project if they need replacing during the warranty period, and beyond. -See where this is headed? ... Say Yes! -In the case of supporting a project which does not need any products to do so as in the original question asked here in this thread, labor SKUs are the answer. -If you have really accounted for all the costs of a project, you will have included in the original project, a labor SKU for each system installed called 'warranty support' such as 'Labor - Warranty Support - Structured Wiring - X hours'. This labor SKU would carry your labor cost, but no sell price. This way you can load hours for each system into your projects to return to the project during the warranty period, and already have the costs accounted for, so they do not nibble away at your net profit during the warranty period. ATTENTION COMPANIES THAT BONUS PM's FOR BRINGING PROJECTS IN UNDER ESTIMATED HOURS! Creating similar SKUs for non-warranty support allows you to charge for system support outside the warranty period. -So to handle a support call for a project, go to your 'Support - XXXXXX Residence Systems' project, use BizMgr to create a sales order for the support call, and select the items (or labor SKUs) to be applied to the work order for the support call. This also is handy, as you can see over time by reviewing your sales orders for this project, what type of equipment is failing. The clunky part here is having to create the sales order to get to the work order! TIP* Open the Support project ahead of time to get the component IDs of the items to be replaced adn added to the sales order, as they are not identifiable by system or room in the sales order! -Lastly, create a work order from this sales order and assign resources. -Dispatch and go! As you can see, there is a way, but knowing how you business process works and having it built into D-Tools makes D-Tools a stronger piece of software which reachs beyond design and proposal generation! __________________ Kevin Mikelonis Process Dealer Services Group D-Tools Certified Partner PO Box 3443 Paso Robles, Ca 805.275.2308 www.processdsg.com info@processdsg.com Stuff That Works