Creativyst Job Track Documentation & Help Pages |
Contents
Overview Creativyst(tm) Job Track software tracks completion of customer orders. You enter customer orders along with the components that must be obtained to fulfill them. Creativyst(tm) Job Track is divided into two areas. A top area lists all current jobs along with an overview of what components are required to fulfill each job. Each job listing clearly displays what components have been ordered, what components still need to be ordered, and the date they are expected to be ordered or received by. It is also easy to see when any of these steps is overdue because the buttons change from black to red. "Action Buttons" embedded directly into the job listing facilitate easy update of job status, such as marking components of the job "Ordered", or "Received". The bottom portion of the Job Track window is where new jobs are first entered and where more comprehensive changes may be made to each job. The center divider in the Creativyst(tm) Job Track window can be dragged up and down. This allows you to provide more viewing space to the list on top or the form on the bottom depending on your needs.
Once you've properly set up JobTrack with supplier lead-times for each
component, it will automatically fill most job and component dates for you.
For example, JobTrack will fill in the order-by dates for each included
component, and fill in the expected reception date for those components when
you order them; JobTrack will even provide a best-estimate promise date for
you to give your customer based on lead times.
The Job List allows you to see a "birds eye view" of all pending jobs. Using the list you can quickly see the status of an entire job, as well as the status of included components that are (or must be) ordered for each job. Each job listing takes up two lines in the above half of the display. Each two-line job listing is displayed in light gray on a white background for viewing comfort. The list is normally sorted by delivery date (the date you've promised delivery of the job to your customer). The top of the Job Track screen contains table headers and controls that allow you to determine how jobs will be displayed in the list. To view a current list of active jobs, simply click on the "List" button there (to the right of the Creativyst company name).
The top line of each job listing contains the dates that various actions are
due to be completed by in order for the job to be delivered on time. The
bottom line of a job listing contains status buttons which indicate which
action needs to be done. If these actions are past due, the button will be
displayed in red.
Normally, you will want to view a list of all "Pending" orders. That is, jobs that you have not fully delivered to your customers. Radio buttons are provided that allow you to view other types of jobs on the rare occasions that you might need to. The job types you can view in the list include:
You may also filter the list. To do this, enter some text in the filter field and hit the "List" button. The list produced will consist of only jobs of the specified type who's "Customer Name" or "Job Description" field contain text that matches the text you've entered. One important thing to note about this field is that letter-case does not matter. For example, if you enter "ocean city" in the filter field, it will list job records that contain "Ocean City", "OCEAN CITY", or any other case combination in their "Customer Name" or "Job Description" fields.
You can sort the list by invoice number instead of delivery date if you'd like. Click on the first column header ("Job/Inv #") to sort by Invoice Number. You can tell what column the list is sorted by because that column header will be gray. When the list is sorted by Invoice numbers, you can click on the "Dlvr" (Delivery) column header to revert back to sorting by delivery date.
One of the most important uses of the list is as a visualization tool. The list allows you to see "at a glance" what jobs are overdue, and what jobs have components that need action or are late arriving from their suppliers. You may also select any of the jobs in the list for editing simply by clicking on its "Invoice Number" or "Job description" at the far left side of the list. When you do this, the details of the job are displayed in the Entry Form at the bottom. When a job is displayed in the entry form you may make any detailed changes to it you wish. Be sure and hit the "Save" button once you've completed your editing so that your changes will be made permanent.
As mentioned though, the list of jobs displayed in the top half of your window
is more than just a static listing with status indicators showing what needs to
be done, The status indicators are also buttons that permit you to quickly and
easily perform certain routine tasks on each job with a single button-push.
When you push an action button, the record is automatically updated to reflect the new status of the order (or component within the order), and the newly updted record is displayed on the form at the bottom. This form already shows the changes made as a result of pushing the action button and these changes have already been saved. Unless you make further changes to the job record (like add notes for example), there is no need to save it again. The job listing in the top half of the screen will not reflect these changes until you hit the "List" button again. This allows you to perform multiple tasks without having to wait for the list to re-write itself between each task. Here is a list of the action buttons you might see on the job listing. The "Done" button performs no action and is used to indicate status only. |
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Order(component only): Seen only in component columns, this button
indicates that the component has not yet been ordered. The date above
is the date which it must be ordered by to insure it arrives on time to
fill the customer's order. This button displays in RED when today's
date is later than the order date.
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Receive(component only): Seen only in component columns, this button
indicates that the component has been ordered from the supplier and the
job is now waiting for it to be received. The date displayed above
this button is the date the component is expected to come in. If this
date is past due, the button will display in RED. Click on this button
to automatically mark the component as "RECEIVED" in the
job record (with today's date as the date received).
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Partially Delivered or Received: This button indicates that a
component or the entire
job has been partially delivered. Just like the Rcv button,
the date displayed above this button continues to be the date the order
is expected to be delivered. This status can be displayed in component
columns as well as in the Delivery column for the entire order when you
deliver the customer's order in part. In either case, the button turns
red when the delivery date is exceeded. Clicking on this button will
to automatically mark the component as "RECEIVED" in the
job record (with today's date as the date received). If you click on
this button in the "Delivery" column, the entire job will be
automatically marked as delivered (by you) on today's date.
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Customer Order (Job) Has NOT Been Delivered (Delv column only):
This button
indicates that your customer has ordered from you and their job
is scheduled to be delivered by you on the date specified (shown
above this button). This indicator is only displayed in the Delivery
column (meaning it indicates the status of the entire order). When
you click on this button you automatically change the status of the
order to "Delivered" as of today's date. If the delivery
date is over-due, this button is displayed in Red.
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The Component Has Been Received or You've Delivered the Job:
This is not a button. It indicates that a component has been
completely received from your supplier (when it is under a component
column), or that you've completely delivered the job to your customer
(when in the "Deliv" column). In the case of the
"Deliv": column, you will normally not see this button because
normally only pending jobs are listed. However, if you've selected
"All" or "Complete" job types to list at the top
of the window, you will then see this indicator in the "Deliv"
column. You will see these in the component columns for every component
that has been received in (or is already in stock).
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Indicates that there are More components included on the order that
are not part of the columns of the job listing. While this is a button,
the only action it takes is to display the order in the detail
form. Whether this button is black or red does not change its action. It
works identically to clicking on the Job Description or Job Number field
on the far left of the listing.
The purpose of this button is to indicate when there are extra components included in the job that do not fit in the list's columns. The date above the button is the latest date of all the extra actions required. If this date is earlier than today, the button is displayed in RED. |
Each job in the list gets two lines. The top line of each job listing displays
the relevant dates for each element of the job, while the bottom line contains
the action buttons which indicate what
tasks of the job need to be done next. The date above each button is the date
that task must be performed by. If the date is overdue, the button will be
displayed in red. As stated pushing the button automatically updates the
record to reflect that the task has been completed and displays the newly
updated record in the entry form (the form at the bottom).
The Entry Form
Action buttons are very helpful for doing routine edits. Some changes however,
such as adding new jobs or making detailed changes to an existing job are not
covered by the action buttons on the job list. For these you should edit the
job directly using a form in the lower window.
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If you know the invoice number, you can type it into the text box provided underneath the "Get" button and then click he "Get" button.
In either case, the job record you selected will appear in the window in the
lower half of the screen, You may increase the size of this area by clicking on
the center divider and dragging it upward.
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You may also add notes to the order. On the top right side of the form, just under the status bar, is a link that will jump you down to the bottom of the form where the note entry field is. Just under the note entry field, on the right side, you will find a jump link to take you back to the top of the form.
When you hit the "Save" button, the record will be displayed in the
form and the status bar will indicate that it was successfully saved. You may
continue to edit the job record and hit Save again as often as you'd like.
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To specify a job record as an "Extra Line" for another job use the same invoice number as the other job with an "x#" appended to the end (where '#' is a number between '1' and '9'). For example, if the original job is invoice number '10103', make the invoice number for the first extra line '10103x1'. When you do this, the "Extra" invoice number will be displayed slightly indented on the job list.
If you push the "C" button (instead of "New") while the original job is
displayed in the form, the original job will be copied into the new record. An
'x#' will be appended to the job number. The customer name and description
field will be identical. The promise date will also be identical but all the
other dates will be blanked. You will need to change the components and
suppliers. You may also want to add a code to the description to help you
easily recognize it when it is displayed in the list.
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Besides these help pages that you are currently reading, a considerable amount of help is available to you while using the program.
Hold your mouse pointer still while hovering over a button or link and a small pop-up description of the link will appear at the mouse pointer. This is called a "fly-over tip".
The field labels in the form (bottom) will also produce fly-over help balloons
for each field. In addition, you may click on these labels to display slightly
more detailed help for each field in a pop-up window.
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Creativyst (pronounced: "kree-ATE-tiv-vist") was established in 2001
to provide powerful custom and off-the-shelf software solutions to businesses
and individuals. Our goal is to make buying, designing, and using software
easy and convenient for our customers and clients.
Creativyst Job Track Help Pages © Copyright 2001, Creativyst, Inc. | JobTrack/Vxxx/www/Help/JTHlp02.htm |