Financials

Please note that since Financial documents are created in the same way, Quotations will be looked at in detail and used as a generic example.

Creating a Quotation

The cohesive nature of JobWatch allows you to produce Quotations in Sales Opportunities and later assign them to a job once the Quotation is accepted. You can see at a glance which Quotations have not yet had a response and which have been either rejected or accepted.  You can also add Alerts which notify you when a Quotation has been accepted or rejected, or when a deadline is reached.

If you would like to add your logo to your Financial documents, this can be done as follows:

Navigate: My Account > Administration > [Quick links] General Account Settings > Account Details and add a URL of the desired quality and dimensions in the relevant field shown below:

Back Office

Before quotations can be created, the person creating them needs to be given the relevant permissions in the back office.  Navigate: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Web Users → Roles → [type] Financial:

Whilst still in the back office, navigate My Account → Administration → (1)[side menu] Financial → (2) Financial Documents and Sales Opportunities → (3) Quotation:

Clicking on ‘Quotation’ will open a new popup with 2 options:

1. Automatic Reference
2. Edit

Automatic Referencing

This feature allows you to set up referencing according to your personal preference, using Excel-style number formatting.

The ‘Reference prefix’ field allows you to use appropriate category prefixes to enable simple sorting and searching, eg QUO/ for Quotations, PO/ for Purchase Orders, etc.

The ‘Format’ field allows you to set a default reference number format, eg to force a reference with 5 digits, type ‘00000’ into the format box, or if you want to use dashes to separate thousands, type ‘000-000’ into the box. You could also insert specific characters between numbers if desired, for example, ‘000/000’.

Finally, the ‘Next number’ field allows you to set the starting number for the sequence to ensure that it does not repeat any numbers which may have been previously used.

Edit

Clicking Edit will open a new window.

Detail Tab

By default, it opens displaying the Detail tab which allows you to select your default template for the area of Finance you are working on – in this case, a quotation.  When you have selected your desired Template, click to Save.

Notes to Client Tab

The Notes to Client function acts as a useful shortcut, eliminating the need to repeatedly type in the same information.  This is particularly useful in areas where extensive and accurate detail is required, for example, Terms & Conditions or Warranty information.

Notes to Client are set up in the back office so begin by navigating: My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Financial documents & Sales opps.  Select the type of document and then click Edit, followed by the Notes to Client tab

You can now edit existing notes or Click ‘+Add‘ to create a new one:

1. New Label – this field acts as an abbreviation of the full text so choose something which is immediately identifiable eg Warranty or Quotation.  The customer does not see this label.
2. Notes to Client – this is the full body of the text which you wish to appear in your correspondence to the Contact.

Once the back office step has been completed, the feature is ready to use.

Whenever you create or edit a Financial Document and you reach the field ‘Note to Client’, at the bottom right of it you will see ‘Select a note’.  Click on this and a dropdown menu will appear showing the labels you have created.  Clicking on the desired label will populate the ‘Note to Client’ field with the body text you added against that label. Once the text has been added an ‘i’ will appear on the right-hand side.  Hovering over the ‘i’ will display the text.

Quote Acceptance Tab

Clicking on the Quote Acceptance tab opens the Acceptance page by default and allows you to customise how your response buttons will look on your customer document/email.  An example is shown below:

Similarly, clicking across to the Acceptance Capture & Receipt page will look and allows you to customise it by adding your preferred template, button text and Custom Fields.

Will result in a customer email Acceptance Link which looks like this:

See the full Quote Acceptance article for further details

Custom Fields

Before leaving the back office, if there are any Custom Fields which you would like to create, this can be done by navigating: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Financial documents’ custom fields and then selecting the Document type:

You will then see a popup window in which you can add the desired detail, including  whether or not you wish this field to be mandatory eg:

Where you do confirm a mandatory answer, a conditional field will appear which asks if you require a specific yes/no answer or whether any answer is acceptable.  If a specific response is required then it will force the respondent to give that answer before proceeding:

Front End

Once the Back End sections are completed, it is time to move to the Front End.

Quotations can be created anywhere in the system where a line item can be added, as Quotations have to be created against line items.  A line item for JobWatch purposes, may be termed as anything which has a cost price, a selling price, or both.  This could be an item of stock or equipment, a service, travel costs, plant hire, etc.  Please note, this does not prohibit zero value line items from being included in some document types.

Quotations can be created in a number of places: CRM Financial Documents, Sales Opportunities, Contacts, against a Job or against a Group of Jobs.

If we use Sales Opportunities as an example, navigate: CRM → [side menu] Sales opportunities → Edit → [tab] Documents → [icon] Add+:

Now simply tick the checkbox against Quotation and proceed to complete:

1. Click to add a financial line item either: manually freehand; through a predefined item which has been set up in the back office (My account → Adminstration → [side menu] Financial → Predefined invoicing item); or as an item of stock or equipment which has been added in the back office (Stock & Equipment → [icon] Add stock or equipment).
2. If you click on the 3 line menu (burger) icon, it will open a menu that allows you to ‘Move up’, Move down’, ‘Discount/Markup’ or ‘Delete’ line items.
3. Ticking one or more of these boxes will add a conditional field icon ‘Selected items’. Clicking on this will give you the popup options ‘Discount/Markup’ and ‘Delete’. Whilst the 3 line menu (outlined in red below) allows you to simply make these changes for all line items, the ‘Selected items’ icon (outlined in blue below) allows you to do this for individual items on this document:
   When applying a discount/markup to an individual line item, the cost price, original selling price and selling price with added discount/markup, is shown to the user and amends in real-time. If multiple lines are selected, the first line is shown. Text explaining what the discount/markup is applied to is also displayed on the screen.
4. Change the quantity if required.
5. Depending on which financial package you are using, what you will see here will differ.  You may see a Nominal code, a Department Code or both.  Enter the department code, usually used in Sage. If Department codes have been set up in the back office (My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Department codes) then they will appear as dropdown options once you begin to type. Please note that fields 3 & 4 only appear where some options have been set up in the back office. Please note that if you have created a Nominal Code it will appear as a column between 4 and 5.
6. Enter a description of the financial line item if you have selected the ‘Add item’ option (otherwise it will have auto-populated).
7. Enter the cost of the financial line item if you have selected the ‘Add item’ option (otherwise it will have auto-populated).
8. Enter the selling price of the line item if you have selected the ‘Add item’ option (otherwise it will have auto-populated).
9. Enter the VAT code. The dropdown list will only be viewable if VAT codes have been set up (My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → VAT codes). If you have not set up VAT codes, a text box will be displayed in which you can type in the VAT percentage.
10. The VAT amount is automatically calculated.
11. The gross amount is automatically calculated.
12. Clicking on this allows you to Sort the line items into a specific order by adding one or two parameters
13. Add the Contact name. Depending upon where you are in the system when you create the Quotation, this may have auto-populated.
14. Select the document type – for our purposes here, select ‘Quotation’.
15. This sets how long the quote is valid.  If the date has passed, a red banner will appear at the top of the Financial document giving the expiry date and time and in the list view it will appear in red:Once the date has expired, should you wish to you can reinstate it by changing the number of days in the ‘Quote valid for’ field and once saved, the red banner will disappear.To set the general default period for Quotation validity,  navigate: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Account → Account settings → [section] Financial → Default validity of quotes and add the required number of days:Should you wish to set up a different validity period for a specific customer, this can be done by navigating: CRM → [side menu] Contact → select Contact → [tab] Financial → [tab sub menu] Terms:

And click to Save.

It is also worth mentioning the ‘Attachments’ and ‘Activity’ tabs:

The Attachments tab is for images, documents and videos relating to this document eg an email or a Purchase Order:

The Activity Tab displays a list view of all the document’s related activities, together with a date/time stamp:

Creating a Financial Document Against Group Jobs

If you would like to create a Financial Document against a group of Jobs, this can be very simply achieved by navigating: Schedule → select Job Group → View → [tab] Financial  → [icon] Create financial document:

You can now proceed as above.

Creating a Financial Template

An important step when looking at creating Financial Documents is to create Templates which go alongside them.  So, for example, when creating a Quotation and selecting ‘Email’, you need to attribute a suitable template to accompany the Quotation which is attached to it.

Navigate EITHER: My Account → Administration → [Quick links menu] Templates OR My Account → Administration → [side menu] Account → Templates

For more detailed information regarding Keywords, the benefits of Templates and how to create them, please read the separate Templates article.

Quotation Validity

This feature allows you to set and display the period for which the Quotation is valid, effectively setting an expiry date based upon the date of the document’s creation. Navigate: CRM → [side menu] → Financial documents → select Quotation:

If the date has passed, a red banner will appear at the top of the Financial document giving the expiry date and time and in the list view it will appear in red:

Once the date has expired, should you wish to you can reinstate it by changing the number of days in the ‘Quote valid for’ field and once saved, the red banner will disappear.

To set the general default period for Quotation validity,  navigate: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Account → Account settings → [section] Financial → Default validity of quotes and add the required number of days:

Should you wish to set up a different validity period for a specific customer, this can be done by navigating: CRM → [side menu] Contact → select Contact → [tab] Financial → [tab sub menu] Terms:

Sending a Quotation

Once you have created a Quotation it is time to send it to your Contact.

Click to select your Quotation and then click on the ‘File’ icon:

A new popup will now open:

Download – a pdf version of your Quotation will download and can be found at the bottom left of your screen.

Email – this will open a new popup allowing you to select a different Template or customise it if you wish before emailing the document to the client via the ‘Send’ icon:

For more Template information, please read the separate Templates article.

Attach to Job – this allows you to add the document to the Attachments tab of a job.  Please note that depending on where you are working in the system, this final option may not appear.

Automatic Document Sending

JobWatch allows you to decide both the method by which, and at what point in a job, you wish different types of Financial Documents to be sent out, eg by email when a job is Completed. However, it also allows for a delay in sending, even when that point in the Job is reached, in order to ensure that all relevant data has been uploaded and received prior to sending.  As a default, this delay auto-populates at 10 minutes but it can be adjusted as desired, to a maximum of 999 minutes.  Where a third party accounting system is in place, automatic document sending for invoices will be delayed until synching has occurred and the reference number has been updated.

To adjust the delay period, navigate: My Account →– Administration → [side menu] Schedule → Job Types → Add/Edit → [tab] Documents:

1. Select Financial Document
2. Choose which financial document template is to be used. New Templates can be added by navigating My Account → Administration → [Quick links menu] → Templates.  Once the Template is saved, go back in and click on the Usage tab and select Financial Documents, remembering to set it as PDF.  It will now appear in your drop-down list.
3. This is a conditional field that appears depending upon which Document type is selected in 2.
4. Select the desired format of the document from a choice of PDF, Excel, Word or Image.
5. Specify whether the document should be sent only when the job is for a specific group or for any group.
6. Choose at what point the document is sent eg when the job is Created, Completed, etc and whether you would still wish it to be sent when the job is Completed with Issues.
7. Choose the time delay before a document is sent up to a maximum of 999 minutes.
8. Choose whether the document is sent via email or is attached to the job.
9. Enter the email address which is used to send the document automatically.
10. Choose how the receipt of the document is selected eg to the Primary Person at the contact or to a Person in a specific department eg accounts.
11. This allows you to direct the document to a Person at the Parent contact, rather than to personnel at the Child contact.
12. BCC (blind copy) recipients in if required.
13. Edit the subject of the email to which the document is attached.
14. Choose an email template to which the document is attached. (These are created in My Account → Administration → [Quick links menu] → Templates)

For further information, please read the Automatic Document Sending article.

Adding an Alert to a Financial Document

It is possible to create an Alert on a Financial document in instances where the document is attached to a job.  Whilst the example we are going to look at below relates to Quotations, you will see that there are a number of other options relating to Financial Documents and you can set them up by following the same process.

Click on the (1) Alert tab on the top menu and then on the (2) ‘Create a new alert’ icon:

A new popup window will now have opened.  In the first field, entitled ‘Who’, click on the dropdown menu and look at the bottom section of options, which relate to Jobs.  Here you can set up an Alert relating to Jobs on either a very specific, granular level, eg a specific Job number; on a more generalised level, eg all jobs for a single Contact or Job Type; or as a general rule, ie all Jobs:

For example purposes, if you wish to set up an Alert informing your Sales team as soon as a Quotation is accepted, this is the process you would follow:

1. Select ‘Any Job’ in the first ‘Who’ field.
2. In the ‘What’ field, which will now have appeared,  select ‘Has its client status changed to…’:
3. There are now 3 options relating to Quotations. Select ‘Quotation Accepted’.
4. Next, select the recipient(s) of the Alert and the method of receiving it eg SMS, email, etc.  The person(s) can be chosen from a dropdown list that appears when you begin typing, or input manually through adding in freehand a phone number or email address.  Please note that when inputting a phone number it must follow the method for adding international numbers ie +, country code (44 for the UK), phone number without the first 0 eg +447809686548.
5. The fields which appear under ‘Review or edit the message that will be sent’ are conditional, depending upon the delivery method(s)you selected in the previous step: If sending an emailed Alert, you can select the (1) subject title and (2) body of the email.  The text element of these can be customised freehand. If you have created Template Alerts (Navigate: My account → Administration → [side menu] Account → Templates) these will appear in a dropdown list (3) if you would prefer to use one. As I have also opted for an SMS message in the example, there is also the option to use a custom Alert Template which has the additional Usage option of SMS (4).
6. Click to Save.  You will now see your new Alert in your Alerts Programmed list:

Creating a Job from a Quotation or Invoice

It couldn’t be simpler to create a job using the information from a quote or invoice.  simply select the Financial document you wish to create the job from and click the Assign to Job button

Then select New Job in the popup window and choose which information you wish to be copied over to it.

Recurrence Patterns

Many users repeatedly apply the same types of recurrences.  The addition of Recurrence Patterns allows you to save your most commonly used recurrences and apply them without having to recreate them.

Navigate: My account > Administration > [side menu] Financial > Financial doc recurrence patterns OR Contract recurrence patterns:

Additionally, a dropdown list on a Contract’s Job tab allows users to filter by Recurrence Patterns.

For further information on Recurrences, please read the Recurrences section of the Job Scheduling article.

Predefined Invoicing Items

Whilst Stock & Equipment items are tangible goods or products, Predefined invoicing items are intangible but chargeable items, such as a service or consultation.  In order to create one, navigate: My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Predefined invoicing item → Add and then complete the popup form appropriately.

Where you know that a certain type of job requires the same items of stock or equipment, you can also create a Predefined Invoice Items’ Set which acts as a shortcut, adding them to financial documents and jobs in one simple click.  To set these up, navigate:

My account > Administration > [side menu] Financial > Predefined invoice items’ set

When creating a Predefined Invoicing Item (My Account > Administration > [side menu] Financials > Predefined Invoicing Item) you can then select the set(s) to which you wish the item to belong:

You can see in the list view that an item can belong to multiple sets. In addition to this Sets can have multiple quantities of the same item.

Double click on a set within the Predefined Invoicing Item to change the quantity of this item. In the example below, we have determined there will be 4 of the Item: ‘Design of Bathroom’ in the set: Bathroom Installation – Large.

When creating a financial document, users can choose to add an individual Predefined Invoice Item or add a Predefined Invoice Item set. Items can be removed from a set within the financial document if not required, without affecting the set for future transactions.

The Import feature also includes 3 columns representing this feature, ‘Group’, ‘Set‘ and ‘Quantity‘. Please note that this only allows for the importing of one set name for each item at a time.

Predefined invoicing items can also be linked to a Worksheet, adding them automatically to any job where the predefined invoice item is deployed.

Note that these items can then be used as Booking Site options when the Booking site field is ticked.

Consolidating Invoicing

Invoices raised against the same Parent contact, or to one specific contact, which have not yet been sent can be consolidated into one invoice document. This enables invoicing of jobs for a given time period rather than for specific jobs.

1. Click CRM
2. Click Financial Documents
3. Set the required date range
4. Set the Document Type to Invoice.
5. Set the Status to Not Sent or a popup reminder will open:
6. Choose the contact or parent contact.
7. Select whether you wish to include sub contacts, and or filter by job types the invoices were created against.
8. Once the list displayed is correct, click the Consolidate icon.  A new popup window will now open
9. From the popup box which appears (above), select one of the three options available.  The first option is to copy over each individual line from each invoice onto the new consolidated invoice.
10. The second is to simply list a total from each invoice as line items on the consolidated invoice. Using this option, the individual lines will not be viewable.
11. This option emails the consolidated invoice direct to the Contact.
12. Click Ok.

From the ‘Create financial doc’ popup, check the line items are displayed as required.

The ‘Reference’ field should be left blank, as this will auto-populate. Reference prefixes can be customised by clicking My Account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Financial Documents & Sales Opps → Document type → Reference Prefix). Fill in details such as the bank account and the payment terms If required. (These are set up in My Account → Administration → [side menu] Financial) Click Save.

Please note, if your JobWatch system has been configured to be generated by an external package, such as Sage, then the prefixes may be pre-determined.

The original documents are then cancelled to avoid duplication and the new consolidated invoice is created. To identify invoices which are cancelled easily, they are highlighted in grey (as shown below):

If a user clicks on a cancelled invoice at a later date, they will now be able to view the red banner which advises them that the document was cancelled and the date on which the cancellation took place.

Although the example given is for invoices, you can follow the same process to consolidate other documents which are unsent and for the same Contact.

Overdue Invoices

A warning icon advising when an invoice is overdue will appear next to invoices that have exceeded their stated payment date.  Navigate: CRM >[side menu] Financial Documents

Pro-forma Invoices, Purchase Orders and other Financial Documents

Typically, a Pro-forma invoice is a document created by a Supplier which outlines the complete details of an Agreement of Sale. It acts as a commitment to sell the goods or services to the customer, on the terms and conditions already agreed between them and laid out in this document.  It usually contains detailed information, including line item descriptions, quantities, prices and a delivery schedule.  It will also include payment information, such as the Supplier’s bank details and payment terms.

Purchase orders are documents, typically sent by a Buyer to a Supplier, which confirms the Buyer’s consent to the purchase of the Sellers goods or services on the agreed terms and dates.  This is often, though not always, raised as a direct response and confirmation of a Seller’s Pro-forma invoice.

These documents work hand-in-hand and will be counter-signed by both parties.  Once the documents are signed by both, they become a legally binding agreement.

As you would expect after the above introduction,  the way in which Proforma Invoices and Purchase Orders are created in JobWatch, are essentially the same.  Navigate: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Financial documents & Sales Opportunities → Pro-forma invoice OR Purchase Order

If we use creating a Purchase Order as our example:

Select Purchase Order from the Document type list:

You will see that you now have 2 options:

1. Automatic Referencing

This feature allows you to set up referencing according to your personal preference, using Excel-style number formatting.

The ‘Reference prefix’ field allows you to use appropriate category prefixes to enable simple sorting and searching, eg PO/ for Purchase Orders, PI/ for Pro-forma Invoices, etc.

The ‘Format’ field allows you to set a default reference number format, eg to force a reference with 5 digits, type ‘00000’ into the format box, or if you want to use dashes to separate thousands, type ‘000-000’ into the box. You could also insert specific characters between numbers if desired, for example, ‘000/000’.

Finally, the ‘Next number’ field allows you to set the starting number for the sequence to ensure that it does not repeat any numbers which may have been previously used.

2. Edit

Clicking on the Edit button will open the Detail tab by default, where you can select your preferred default template for this document type.

The next tab is Notes to Client:

This function acts as a useful shortcut, eliminating the need to repeatedly type in the same information.  This is particularly useful in areas where extensive and accurate detail is required, for example, Terms, or Warranty information.

If you click on the +Add icon a new popup will open:

1. New Label – this field acts as an abbreviation of the full text so choose something which is immediately identifiable eg Warranty or Quotation.  The customer does not see this label.
2. Notes to Client – this is the full body of the text which you wish to appear in your correspondence to the Contact.

Once the back office step has been completed, the feature is ready to use.

Whenever you create or edit a Financial Document and you reach the field ‘Note to Client’, at the bottom right of it you will see ‘Select a note’.  Click on this and a dropdown menu will appear showing the labels you have created.  Clicking on the desired label will populate the ‘Note to Client’ field with the body text you added against that label.

There are additional Financial Documents that can be created in JobWatch by following the same process outlined above.  These include:

• Application for Payment
• Credit Note
• Delivery Note

You may easily track the status of your completed documents by the use of filters in the side menu.  So returning to our Purchase Order example and filtering by ‘Pending or rejected’ documents:

We get the following result:

The items highlighted in orange are awaiting approval, whilst those in red have been cancelled.  If you have the appropriate permissions for approving Purchase Orders, then you can do so from here by simply clicking to select the document (as above) and then clicking on the ‘Approve’ icon on the left.  The approved document will then disappear from your list as it is no longer pending.

3. Series

This feature allows you to add Series category names relevant to your business.  They appear as a field on your Financial Documents and you can also set spending limits against them for individuals within your business by navigating:  My Account → Administration → [side menu] Web Users → Add/Edit → select user → Edit → [tab] Financial

You will see that the limit can be attributed to a period or to a specific Purchase Order.  If the limit is exceeded, you can choose to prevent the person from creating the document, or else to allow it to be created but only to be sent once approved by their manager.

Please note, this feature is not an option on Pro-forma Invoices.

The Contract section of JobWatch enables you to simply manage all of the documents pertaining to individual contracts in a single place, regardless of the complexity. This includes everything from scanned attachments of your original agreement to a host of financial documents.  Not only can JobWatch simplify your business processes by, for example, creating invoices against a pre-determined schedule but it also allows emails or pdf downloads of either individual or summary documents to be available at the touch of a button.

Where you see this icon next to an invoice in the list view, it indicates that the invoice was raised against a contract.

The filter on the left-hand side allows you to filter invoices that relate to contracts

Setting Up a Contract in the Back Office

In order to get the most from JobWatch, it is highly recommended that you spend time personalising the back office fields, setting up the contract types which you are likely to use, creating predefined invoicing items, contract recurrence patterns and Financial document Recurrence Patterns.  If you integrate with a financial package, it is also worthwhile setting up your department and nominal codes in accordance with them.  If in doubt, your Accounts department should be able to advise you.

To begin, navigate: My Account → Administration [side menu] Financial → Financial document’s custom fields → Contracts:

One of the great joys of JobWatch is that it can act as a blank canvas for your individual business needs but with huge amounts of inbuilt functionality.  This means that you could use the form above in lots of ways eg:

Remember to tick the checkbox for ‘Mandatory’ if you wish to ensure that this custom field is answered.

The Possible answers/Default value input here will appear in the Detail tab of your contract Form, as shown in the example below:

As previously mentioned and whilst still in the Financial section, it will be useful for you to input information in some or all of the highlighted sections to speed up the process when using the system.

Some examples are shown below:

When viewing jobs in a list which are recurrences, this is symbolised by the recurrence icon:

Web User Roles

Additional permissions are also available for Web Users around Contracts.

Navigate: My account > Admin > Web Users > User roles and you will see 4 new User Role options:

• User can view contracts
• User can create contracts
• User can edit/delete contracts
• User can edit jobs within contracts

If users without permissions attempt to edit Contracts, they will be shown an error message.

For further information on Web Users, please read the separate article.

Completing a Contract Form

Now we can start to add things from the front end of the website.  Navigate: CRM → Financial → Contracts → [icon] New contract:

General Tab

It is worth noting that whilst not all fields are mandatory, the more information you put into the Contract fields, the more ways there are in which it can be used to save time later.

On the invoice creation field, you can decide between invoices which will be automatically created at preset periods ie weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc, or manually, creating them on an ad hoc basis.

There is similar flexibility around pricing, allowing you to select the method which best suits your agreed contract terms for this specific customer.

‘Line item behaviour’ options will allow users to identify new line items as either ‘Global contract line items’ or ‘Contact specific line items’ which are attributed to specific contacts via the use of the keyword, ‘Contact name’ in the line item description. Users can also choose whether to invoice to a single Contract destination eg Head Office or to different site contacts.

Detail Tab

This establishes the type of contract you wish to set up and will show all of the Contract custom fields which you added in the back office (Administration):

If you do not see the type of contract you wish to create, displayed, simply return to Administration and edit to add in the new type.

Invoicing Period Tab

You will not be able to save the details from the first 2 tabs until you have set at least one period for time for the contract to cover.  Begin by clicking Add:

This will now display as follows:

Contract line items are added in the same way as in other areas of JobWatch, for example, invoices. They are added via the 3 option buttons below:

1. Clicking on ‘Add item’ will add a blank line item to be completed with new information as free text
2. Clicking on ‘Add predefined item’ will draw on options already input into the system (via My Account →Administration→Predefined invoicing items) 
3. Clicking on ‘Add stock’ will draw on stock options already input into the system 

Alternatively, you can use the Import line items icon for instances where large numbers of line items need to be added:

‘+’ buttons on the right of your line items allow you to add keywords into the line item descriptions:

You should also take special care when completing the recurrence field. You can choose ‘Recurrence’ and complete it as in the example below:

or if this is a job which recurs regularly, you might wish to set up a recurrence pattern in the back office. In the example below, th example we created earlier, ‘office clean’, was selected from the dropdown menu and the additional information auto-populated.  You can see that the fields here are greyed out as it is a pattern and they are not editable:

Once these items have been added satisfactorily, the contract will look like this:

Which will display from the General tab as:

You can now add additional periods, for example, if a price change needs to be added after a specific period or there are additional terms.  Simply repeat the process you followed above:

You will notice that on the General tab it now tells you that the period shown is 1 of 2.  You can view all invoicing periods by clicking on the eye icon:

Additional Contract Keywords

To enhance the Contract documents the Financial section of Keywords contains.

1. Start date of invoiced period – when invoices are automatically produced against a contract, this field will show the beginning of the period covered eg if a 12 month contract states that an invoice is to be created on the 1st of each month, the first invoice would have a creation date of 1st February, a Start date of 1st January and an End date of 31st January.
2. End date of invoiced period (see above)
3. Contract start date
4. Contract end date

You may be interested to view additional invoicing options.  If so, see sections on Aggregated invoicing.

Jobs Tab

Now that the Contract has been created, jobs should be attributed against it, thus ensuring that the correct financial links are established between the job and the contract and that the agreed contract terms are applied to the jobs.

Navigate: CRM → Financial → Contracts → [tab] Jobs 

Now scroll down and click on the New job icon:

This will open a ‘New job’ window which you will notice has already populated the ‘Contract’ field (outlined below) with the correct reference number.  You should complete the rest of the form and save:

All jobs attributed to the contract in this way will then be shown in list form, with the symbol in the far right hand column showing that they have been created as part of a recurrence:

Importing & Exporting Files

There are two methods of importing jobs against the contract:

1. From the jobs list, by providing the Contract Reference of the contract it is to be created against, and two optional fields of Job Pattern/Pattern end date.
2. From within the contract itself. If this method is chosen the Contract Reference field is not required as the contract the jobs need to be imported to is the one already selected.

The Export CSV button will allow you to export the job information relating to this contact, simply fill out the popup which opens and choose between emailing the file or attaching it to the contract.

Financial Tab

Once a contract form has been created, provided the start date is 24 hours in advance, an invoice will automatically be created displaying the invoice line item description, along with either the minimum payment, or the after minimum payment value:

You will now be able to easily send or download the invoice.

Click on the relevant invoice you will then receive a ‘File’ option.  Click on it:

Click on either Download or Email.

An example of both options can be seen below:

Stock & Equipment Tab

This tab allows you to attribute stock and equipment items against the contract.  Items here may either be the same as the line items on the Detail tab of the contract, or additional to those.

Navigate: CRM ➔ Financial ➔ Contracts ➔ Stock & equipment [tab].  Now scroll down and click on the ‘Add stock’  icon:

This will open a popup window which will allow you to select relevant item of stock or equipment using the ‘Model’ search field:

Once added, the items will be listed as shown below:

Notes & Attachments Tabs

As you would imagine, these tabs contain any notes or images/documents which relate to the contract

Invoice Jobs Against Contract that are Planned or Due in a Period

The Jobs Filters field allows you to select from a single, dropdown menu.  Options are:

• ‘All jobs planned between invoices‘ – this will include all jobs with a planned start date which falls between the defined date parameters. Where jobs are rescheduled, the most recent date will be used.  It will also include instances where a job’s resource is changed but the date remains scheduled.
• ‘All jobs due between invoices’ – this will include all jobs due for completion between the defined dates.  This will exclude any jobs without a scheduled completion date but will include any which have a time constraint which would fall within this invoicing period.
• ‘All jobs completed between invoices’ – all jobs completed after the last invoice was issued, useful for ad hoc job scheduling.
• ‘All jobs created between invoices’ – all jobs which have been created since the last invoice was issued

Please note, when selecting these methods, additional precautions should be taken.  A job can have several planned/due dates and where changes occur after an invoicing period has taken place, care should be taken to avoid double-invoicing.

End Invoice Period Early

When required it is possible to edit recurrences that apply to the current invoicing period. However, please be aware that these amendments will result in the creation of an entirely separate series of documents that will be inserted between the current and forthcoming periods, detached from previous invoices raised against this contract.  For example:

We have a contract that produces 1 invoice per month, that ends after 12 invoices have been produced
After the 6th invoice has been produced, we edit the recurrence which produces a new invoicing period.

The second invoicing period that has been created will still produce 1 invoice per month, and still end after 12 occurrences have been produced (so you will have 6 from the first period, and 12 from the second period – 18 invoices in total) UNLESS the user changes the second period to end after 6 to take into account the 6 that were produced by the first period.

Users can update the start dates of future invoicing periods, following the change in recurrence.

Aggregated Invoicing

Since we know that contracts vary hugely, we have tried to enable different invoicing options for our customers to allow you to satisfy your own customers’ requirements and cashflow.  This method of invoicing allows you to create line items for jobs,  charged against contracts,  from which invoices can automatically be created periodically and which determine that period’s invoice value.

When this invoicing method is selected, jobs are added which then create the line items.  The financial values of the line items then populate the details page of the contract and are totalled to create a contract value.  This total is divided by the frequency of invoices produced and the contract duration, to produce a periodic invoice value.

For example, if:

Contract value (total of jobs’ line items) = £70,000

Invoice frequency = monthly

Contract period = 36 months

The equation would be £70,000 ÷ 36 (ie 1 × 36)

resulting in an invoice value of £1944/month.

If 2 additional jobs are added at £1000 each, in month 34 (ie with £3888 as the current cost of the last 2 remaining months of the above example),  the result would be:

( £3888 + £2000 =) £5,888 ÷ 2 = £2944/month.

Send All

The ‘Send All’ button is a fantastic time-saver, allowing you to issue large numbers of Financial documents in a single click.  Simply navigate: CRM → [side menu] Financial Documents and select either the Documents or Contracts tab.  Use the filters to display the list of documents you wish to send and then click the Send all button.

A new popup window will open allowing you to either create a template appropriate to the type of document which you are sending or else select a pre-existing template which you have already created.  You can also add any further attachments or images where desired.

Complete by pressing Send.  Be assured that no documents marked ‘pending’, ‘rejected’ or ‘cancelled’ will be included in the mailed documents.

The process outlined above is true wherever else the Send all function is available, eg Sales opportunities.

Expenses

Adding Expenses in the Back Office

Before Resources can start claiming expenses, Groups and Categories need to be created in the back office. ‘Groups’ act as digital folder headings for different types of expenses eg ‘Travel’, ‘Subsistence’, etc, whilst ‘Categories’ act as sub-folders which sit within the various ‘Groups’, eg uber, train, bus would be Categories within the Group ‘Travel’.

Navigate: My Account → Administration → [side menu] Forms → Expense Categories → Add.  This will open a new popup window, ‘Expense Categories’:

1. Enter a Group eg Accommodation
2. Enter a Category eg Hotel
3. Enter a default VAT amount eg 20%
4. If required, enter a default cost eg a toll road on a motorway
5. If you want the amount to remain fixed, leave this box unticked, however if you want Resources to be able to change it eg if there was a price change on the toll road, tick this box.
6. If the expense category or group is fuel, ticking the checkbox ‘Is fuel’ will result in a conditional field appearing, asking the user to enter the quantity of fuel.

Adding Expenses on a Device

Resources can log an expense through their device, either as a general expense or logged against a specific job. Logging an expense against a job does not prevent it from being claimed as a Resource’s personal expense.

To log an expense on a device:

1. Use the scroll function on the left-hand side of the tablet until you can see and click upon the expense icon. NB If the expense were to be directly assigned to a job, then you would click the add expense option when on the job details screen, rather than from the dashboard:

2. Click on ‘Add new Expense’ on the right-hand side:

3.  Complete all of the fields shown and add a photograph where appropriate.

4.  Once you have made any adjustments necessary eg VAT %, currency, edited the picture, etc, click ‘Save Expense’ on the right hand side (outlined above).

5. You will now see that this has been added and you can now either repeat the process with additional expenses by clicking on ‘Add new expense’ on the right hand side of your tabs, or ‘Sign and send’.

6.  Once you have added all expenses and clicked ‘Sign and send’, sign in the appropriate field and then click ‘Sign and send’ again.

Adding Expenses to a Job

Adding expenses to a particular Job from your device can be done in a similar way to that described above and at any point of the Job – before, during, or after it is completed.

1. From the Dashboard, select and open the relevant Job, then click ‘Add new expense’ on the right hand menu:

2.  Fill in the fields as shown in the previous section, following the process.  The only visible difference is the Job title, type and reference displayed as a banner at the top:

3.  When you click to ‘Save Expense’ a new popup window will open asking ‘Do you want to claim the expense for your own?’:

Selecting ‘Yes’, will add the item as an Expense that needs to be reimbursed to the Resource, ie when the Resource has paid for the expense using their own money.

Selecting ‘No’, will still record the Expense against the job but it won’t appear as an amount that needs to be reimbursed to a Resource, ie if the Resource paid for the expense using a company account, or company credit card.

4.  Once the Expense has been added, it will show as a line item in the Financial tab of the Job:

Processing Expenses

Expenses can be reconciled individually by navigating: Fleet and Resources → [side menu] Resources → the individual’s name → View.  Then click on the Expenses tab:

Each expense is then listed, allowing you to click on it to view/edit:

Only Users with the relevant back office permissions are able to approve, query or reject payments:

Changing the status, eg approving it, also changes the colour icon next to each item:

If you wish to approve all of the Expenses en masse, this can be achieved by clicking on the ‘Mark All’ icon:

To effect wider reporting and reconciliation of Expenses, you can use the ‘Expenses Report’ in the Reports tab:

Use the filters on the Display side menu to tailor the report as required, for example you could isolate a single, Resource, Team or month:

Use the Export side menu to determine which method of export you wish to use:

Use the Schedule side menu to automatically run and send the report in your desired format:

Ownership of Expenses and Adding an Expense in the Back Office

It is important to maintain an auditable trail when dealing with expenses and part of that is showing the authorisation process.  It is possible to identify the last person to change the status of each expense as follows:

Expenses can be added from a device as we have seen, but it is also possible to add one from the website, Navigate: Fleet & resources → Resources (side menu) → Filter (Name of resource) → View

Now click on the Expenses tab. Add an expense:

You will see that there is a Status date with the date stamp next to it.  If you now close it and click to edit:

You will see that a time has now been added to the ‘Status date’ field and an ‘Owner’ field created below it to show the last person to have opened it:

The ‘Owner’ will be the person who last made a status change to the expense item.

Purchase Order Creation Default Behaviour

You can amend the default behaviour around Purchase Order creation within settings.

My account > Administration > [Quick Links] General account settings > Financial > Purchase order creation limit for users without a series limit set

This option means that you don’t need to set series limits against newly created web users, as purchase orders will need approval before being issued.

Once this option is activated, it will be applied to existing web users.

Unassign a Financial Document from a Job

Mistakes happen to the best of us and this feature allows for that. Using the Unassign Job button, you can easily remove a Financial document from a job, ready for the correct reassignment whilst retaining the information and reference number.

Prevent the Creation of Job Types During Job Imports

We know that you love our imports because they are a tremendous time-saver but occasional errors in the data you’re importing can sometimes lead to unwanted additions.

An error message appears to prevent this from happening with Job Types.  When a row contains an unknown Job Type, the error report will display

‘Job type name not found, please choose a job type which already exists or create a new job type in the system before reimporting.’

Rates & Rating Tables

There are different types of rates within BigChange, those associated with a specific contact and those which apply to specific Job Types.  Both types of rates can be used  to create Rating Tables that will automatically calculate pricing for your Financial documents.

For detailed information on how to create and use these, please see the stand-alone Rating Tables article.

Excluding Cancelled Financial Documents from Send All

To maintain an audit trail it is important to retain all Financial documents, even those which have been cancelled.  When clicking the ‘Send all’ icon Financial documents which have been cancelled will not be included:

On Stop Accounts

This feature prevents jobs from being created against a contact which has been designated as ‘on stop’ and stops financial documents from being raised (the specific financial documents can be changed in the administration, see below).

In the example below (1) On stop has been ticked and (2) Apply to sub-contacts

• If you then click on to the (1) Financial tab ➔ (2) Terms the remainder of the form can be completed with special notice given to setting the (3) Credit limit, (4) On stop and whether it will (5) Apply to sub-contacts and (7) Default payment terms. 

If (5) is ticked “Yes” then two additional field boxes (6) will appear:

•  Descendants – which descendants you wish it to apply to with options being either Immediate (children) or All (children, grandchildren, etc)
• Control Type – with options being unique or shared credit capacity

When the process is complete a red banner (1) will appear across the top to advise that the contact has been put On Stop, when and by whom.  It will also show (2) the ‘On stop reason’ as in the example below:

Contacts On Stop can additionally have varying restrictions as dictated by your selection in  Account Settings.  Navigate Administration➔ Account ➔ Account settings and then scroll down to find the new section shown below:

Please note, if a credit note is raised against the contact, or an invoice is paid which reduces the account deficit to below the Contact’s credit limit, the account status will automatically change and the On Stop function will be deactivated.

Editing Pricing

The ‘Edit Pricing’ feature appears on both multiple jobs and on contracts.  This allows users to add, edit or replace line items on the selected jobs.

VAT, Nominal and Department Codes

To add and edit VAT, Nominal and Department Codes, click My Account → Administration → [side menu] Financial and select the type you wish to add/edit:

Nominal Codes

Nominal codes may be customised as required within JobWatch but if you are using a financial package, such as Sage, you will need to match its Nominal codes and descriptions:

Complete the Code and Description fields, both of which are mandatory and click Save.

Although Sage has it’s own named codes, providing that you bear in mind the organisational principles behind Sage, ie 4000’s for Sales, 5000’s for Purchase, etc, Sage Nominal Codes can be renamed.  This can be done in Sage, as follows:

1. On the navigation bar click ‘Nominal codes’ then click the required nominal code.
2. Click ‘Edit’ then change the ‘Name’.
3. Click ‘Save’ then click ‘Close’.

Department Codes

Department codes can be created in JobWatch in the same way as Nominal Codes, providing an alternative way of creating reports and drilling down for financial information. Simply complete both fields and click to Save:

VAT Codes

1. Enter the VAT code.
2. Enter the percentage of VAT associated with the selected VAT code.
3. Enter a Description of the VAT code selected.
4. The codes will list as shown.

Change Contact When Duplicating Financial Document

There are occasions when you are invoicing more than one customer for precisely the same thing. To make life easier, you can simply duplicate financial documents or Sales Opportunities and change the contact and delivery site. Please note that the only exception to this is Purchase Orders, which have been excluded because of the stock movement element of their process.

Simply click on the Duplicate icon and then add the name of the Contact:

Change Line Item Quantities En Masse

When more than one line item is selected and the ‘Selected items…‘ icon is pressed, an option, ‘Quantities‘, allows you to change the quantity, increase/decrease it by a factor or multiply/divide it.

Domestic Reverse Charge

This Tax change for the Construction industry came into effect in the UK on March 1st, 2021. To comply with the process of ‘Domestic Reverse Charge‘ in which customers need to repay HMRC themselves, BigChange created tailored functionality to help customers deal with it.

For further information, please read the stand-alone Domestic Reverse Charge article.

Flag Financial Documents

Our at-a-glance flag indicators make data assessment simple, allowing you a quick visual check on your financial documents.

My account > Administration > [side menu] Financial > Financial documents & Sales Opps > select document type 

Once the flags are set up, you can add a flag column to the list view by clicking on Column and ticking Flag from the list.

If you have Administrative permission for Financial document types, you can delete as well as add flags.  Flags can also be selected as an export blueprint column.

Tax Code Rates

Where it would be useful to have variable tax codes because of tax code changes, it is possible to set these up in Administration.  Each tax code will have variable percentage values and a date value, allowing transactions after the changeover date to be charged at the new rate but protecting the previous code for historical transactions.

Where line items need to be charged at the previous rate, this can be manually amended.

Quote ‘Mark As Not Accepted’

Ever been so busy that you’ve clicked on the wrong Quote by mistake or need to change the outcome as a customer has changed their mind?  You can do just that with our ‘Mark as not accepted‘ icon.  You can also add a brief additional note/reason if desired.

Linking to Financial Packages

To view the various CSV files which are designed to be imported into financial packages, navigate: CRM → [side menu] Financial Documents → icon Export CSV

1. Standard formatting – the BigChange default export.
2. Sage Formatting – Designed to be mapped to Sage’s requirements.
3. Sage formatting – line items – Every line item in the selection is separated for invoicing into separate rows on the export.
4. Xero – This csv export is mapped to Xero’s standard requirements.
5. Xero (with tracking value) -This code creates a Xero output, but uses the department code as a tracking category.
6. Xero (with expanded lines) – allows you to create multiple Xero invoices from a single JobWatch invoice where there are multiple line items.
7. Quickbooks – This csv is mapped to Quickbooks’ standard requirements.
8. Exchequer –  – csv reports are designed to import Sales invoices and credits.
9. Exchequer – Purchase Order – csv reports are designed to import Purchase Order data.
10. MYOB Account Right – Designed specifically to import invoices into MYOB Account Right.
11. BRB – invoices – The output created two files which can be imported into the BRB software.
12. Tradex – invoices – This output creates a CSV which is used to export data into Tradex.

Automation with Sage*

• Nominal Codes and Tax Codes are created in JobWatch as part of the initial setup during the implementation process.
• You can post direct to the ledger accounts in Sage; these will be imported as S1 invoices.
• You can create detailed invoices which will sync the invoice with all line item descriptions. These do not post direct to ledger but instead, are imported as Service Invoices (Srv Invoices under Invoices and Credits), where you can update your ledgers as required.
• The Import tool allows you to post to the Contact’s Parent Account. This is an optional setting.
• To enable successful syncing of invoices, Customer Records/Accounts must be added to both JobWatch and Sage with a unique account reference.
• JobWatch and our Integration Partner both have access to the Import Tool settings and are able to provide support on this if required, once setup is complete.
• Settings are restricted to specific users to reduce unnecessary changes being made.

* Automated Sage synchronisation is an additional, chargeable feature.

‘Marked As Sent’ and ‘Send To Financial Package’

For those whose system is set to sync with Sage or Xero, you can see a clear distinction between the date/time/status on which financial documents have been synced with your financial package and when they have been sent to a customer.

Please note, if you can’t see these columns on your display and wish to show them, click on the Columns icon and select them from the dropdown menu.

Where synced items have failed, you can click on the sync status, which will take you to the note providing error details.

Sage Automation Steps

Once the initial setup is completed (Contact RoadCrew to set up the link), the automation broadly runs in the way explained below. Settings can be edited depending upon your needs, which will be discussed at the point of setting up the Sage link. Where the information is displayed, as well as the specific information displayed, may differ depending on what you have requested in set up.

1. An invoice will be created in JobWatch.
2. If you need the references for the invoice to match in JobWatch and Sage, the invoice will be locked, blocking users from downloading, sending, or editing the invoice. JobWatch is asking Sage for the next available reference number and this acts as a safeguard, preventing changes being made to the invoice prior to receipt of this information and preventing an invoice from going out with the wrong reference on it.
3. If users do not want matching references when the invoice is created the link will poll JobWatch for new invoices which have not been synced and transfer them over to Sage.
4. When the invoice is sent, it can update the ledgers directly ie if a mistake is made, a credit must be raised in JobWatch. The alternative is to set the invoices and credits to be sent to the invoices and credits page
5. Here they can be edited before updating the ledgers.

For additional information on Sage, please read the separate article.

BigChange’s JobWatch system allows complete integration with your Xero financial software package. Once you have configured the initial setup in BigChange Administration, you can relax in the knowledge that information added within JobWatch will be seamlessly replicated within Xero without the need for double entry and eradicating concerns over missing or duplicated information.

Before Set Up

When setting this up for the first time, please ensure that the following items have been set-up in advance:

• 1. 1. A valid add-on licence – this is allocated by BigChange and is required when first setting up the integration between JobWatch and Xero.
     2. Bank accounts – These are the bank accounts that are required to post transactions against.
     3. Account Codes  – These codes represent your sales and purchases and must be added to JobWatch prior to running the integration settings.  All codes must match the representative codes in Xero.  A downloadable list of Xero codes can be downloaded here:[download1]
     4. A Web User – this must be someone with administrative rights
     5. An email address – this will be used to receive notifications.
     6. Contact groups – Contact records in JobWatch are organised into groups based on their type, eg Account, Site, Prospect but Xero only has 2 default Contact Groups: Customers and Suppliers. To synchronise JobWatch contacts with Xero, you need to create Contact Groups specifically for this purpose, containing only information which you wish to sync, so that the 2 software correspond eg ‘Xero Contact’ or ‘Account Customer’
     7. Assign JobWatch Contacts – you now need to assign all of your JobWatch contacts to one or more of the groups that you created in (6).
     8. Account references –  these create the bond between the contact in JobWatch and the contact in Xero.  The account reference is unique to both contact records and is used when updating them or when creating a transaction against the contact record. Where an invoice is created against a contact record that is not in Xero, eg a site contact, the site contact must be linked to a parent record that is in both systems and has a valid account reference.The account reference is in the CRM Record in Financials → Terms.  When creating a contact record, an account reference and type must be specified.  The account reference must match the Xero contact record and the type must be set to 1 for Xero.
     9. A valid Xero company – ie you must have the Xero software, with username and password.

Set Up

To begin, navigate to: My account → Administration → [Quick Links] General Account Settings → Financial and ensure that the field ‘Financial Integration type‘ is set to Xero

Whilst still in the Administration screen, click on the Financials side menu and select Xero integration:

This will open a new popup which you should click on in order to connect:

Complete your log in details in the form below

Once you have logged in, JobWatch will request access to your company.  Click ‘Allow access’

A new screen will now open within JobWatch, which will determine the form of integration between the 2 software, so please take special care when completing it.

You will note the Xero disconnect button underneath the menu title.  This will send a delete request directly to the endpoint.

1. Enter the licence in the textbox provided and click verify.
2. The email address is used to record the person or persons you wish to receive emails. For multiple email addresses, separate by a comma.
3. A linked user with full administration rights is required by the system for access to the JobWatch features when saving contacts, creating invoices etc.
4. Xero provides up to two tracking categories which are analysis codes used on the transaction line. To utilise the tracking categories, simply import the tracking category codes into JobWatch.  Note these can be added after initial setup if required.  The tracking category names appear as column headings on your financial documents and appear on each transaction. Note that once your account has Xero integration set up, the department code will be replaced by tracking categories for: Job types, predefined invoice items, stock and rating tables. Imports/exports/blueprints support the use of two optional tracking categories which replace the department code.
5. Use the available checkbox to choose which feature(s) you would like to synchronise.
6. Decide whether you wish Contact records to be synchronised from JobWatch to Xero or from Xero to JobWatch and the contact group(s) for the contact records that you wish to synchronise.
7. The generate account reference option enables users to create a contact in JobWatch and automatically generate an account reference of the desired format. The contact reference format takes a sequence of letters from the contact name and appends a numerical sequence to it eg DAR0001 for Darlington International.  If this option is not selected, the user will be responsible for generating a unique reference no. manually and for setting the account type to 1 for Xero.
8. When working with Xero tax codes, you must import the tax codes using the option provided and choose the tax codes that are appropriate to the tax type – Sales or Purchases.
9. As there is no currency defined against the contact record, the default currency option is used when creating a contact record. When creating invoices, credit notes or purchase orders, the currency is defined against the transaction.  It is important to note that if using multiple currencies, the currency must also be set up in Xero.
10. To match Xero, a user can define the status of invoices/credit notes and purchase orders by choosing the option that suits them. It is important to note that when choosing ‘draft’ or ‘submitted’ for Invoices, payment can only be recorded against an invoice once it has been authorised.
11. This is a numerical field, used to add a number of days to the purchase order date. Select the number of days you wish to add.
12. The default nominal (account codes) are used when processing invoices, credit notes and purchase orders. These codes work in conjunction with the tax code and are used when no nominal code is specified against a transaction.   In the same way that any nominal code is setup in JobWatch, the default nominal code must also exist in Xero. Simply select from the dropdown menu. Note that these can also be imported by clicking on the ‘Import Xero Nominal Codes‘ button.
13. The field updates the contact reference with the account reference. Note, the contact reference field is only used to provides a visual and search function, it has no impact on the synchronisation if changed. Simply select from the dropdown menu.
14. The software will use the default bank account for processing payments against invoices when a bank account has not been specified against the transaction. This is important to consider when processing foreign currency transactions and payments from JobWatch.

Contact Synchronisation – JobWatch to Xero

Contract synchronisation will differ depending upon whether you chose to sync based upon entries made in JobWatch or in Xero during setup.

When synchronising from JobWatch to Xero, please ensure that: 

• All account contacts have been organised into the correct group.  
• All contacts records are linked to an existing contact record in Xero. 
• All contacts have a valid, unique account reference that matches the corresponding Xero contact.

Contact Groups

Within JobWatch, Contact Groups can be found by navigating:  My Account → Administration → Contacts & notes → Contact groups.

• Contact records are defined by these groups. For example all prospective customers might come under a group called ‘prospects’:

• Some contacts that are referred to as customers are actually (child) site contacts which are linked to a parent contact record. Whilst jobs and invoices can be raised against these types of contacts, the invoice itself will go to the parent contact. Any site contact record that is linked to a parent should be organised into a separate contact group, ensuring that no site contacts are created in Xero.

• Account Customers are parent contacts and any customers that have an account in Xero.  The integration software requires that all contacts that have a corresponding record in Xero are contained within a group.  This helps the program identify whether any contact in this group(s) should be synchronised with Xero.
• Please note: Although it is possible to create more than one account or site group, a group cannot contain a mixture of parent and child contacts.

Creating a Contact Record

To create a new record, click on CRM and ‘New Contact’.  Now enter the name of the business or business address:

The software will first check whether or not the reference field is populated.  If the field has been left blank and the ‘Generate account ref’ box was ticked in setup

then a reference number will be generated.  The system will now connect to Xero and check whether a record for this contact already exists.  If not, it will create a record for this contact assuming that this was authorised in setup.

Please note, the Contact Reference outlined in the first image below, is used purely for record searching and is different from the Account Reference (image 2), generated when the record is synchronised with Xero.

Navigate: CRM → [side menu] Contacts → select contact → [tab] General:

Navigate: CRM → [side menu] Contacts → select contact → [tab] Financials → [subtab] Terms:

Where you have:

a) Ticked ‘Generate account ref’ in setup
b) Left the Contact Reference field blank

JobWatch will auto-create an alpha-numeric code and the 2 Reference fields (Contact Reference and Account Reference) will match.  This will not be the case in either of the following scenarios:

a) You have manually populated the Contact Reference field within JobWatch
b) You did not tick the ‘Generate account ref’ in setup

Note it has also populated the ‘Account Type’ with 1, denoting Xero, as we selected ‘Xero’ from the dropdown menu in the Group field when completing the form for this Contact (see illustration for Contact Reference above).

This is how the Contact above appears in Xero:

Contract Synchronisation – Xero to JobWatch

When synchronising from Xero to JobWatch please ensure that: 

• The contact record is assigned an account number  
• The contact record is assigned a postal address  
• The settings have been modified to include a default group

Contact Groups

• There is no equivalent to JobWatch groups within Xero contact records.  When a record is created in Xero, the contact record applies the default group that is defined in the user settings.
    
• Where a contact record already exists, the contact group is not considered, instead, the software reads the account number from Xero and updates the associated contact record within JobWatch.

Creating a Contact Record

To create a new record in Xero:

1. Log in and navigate to: Contacts → All Contacts
2. Select ‘Add contact’ and populate the fields, ensuring that there are unique entries for (a) contact name and (b) the account reference.  You must also ensure that the postal address field is completed.
3. Populate the primary person, phone and ensure that you enter a single, valid email address in the relevant field
4. Where a field is invalid or not unique, an error message will be displayed to prevent you from saving the information:
5. Once a record is saved, the corresponding record will be created/updated within JobWatch
    
6. Depending on the option selected during setup, the account reference will update the contact reference.

Synchronising Invoices, Credit Notes and Purchase Orders

Introduction

Depending upon the options you selected in the JobWatch setup configuration, you can choose to synchronise certain types of financial documents from JobWatch to Xero.

When they have been selected in setup, Invoices, Credit Notes and Purchase Orders can all be added in the usual way within JobWatch, with options to mark as: ‘draft’, ‘submitted’ or ‘approved’.  Only ‘approved’ items can be synced.

To set the synchronisation in motion, mark the transaction as sent and it will automatically sync with Xero. Please be aware that once the document has been marked as sent, no further changes can be made to it.

Refresh your screen and you will see that a blue tick appears in the ‘Synced’ column as confirmation:

Any amendments made to the transaction in Xero once the document has been synchronised, will not be reflected in the JobWatch system.

Creating a New Invoice, Credit Note or Purchase Order

Using an invoice as an example document, begin by navigating: CRM →  [side menu] Financial → [icon] New financial document

Populate the form, including a valid stock, account code, tracking categories and tax codes.  When all of the relevant information has been added, click to Save. JobWatch will have automatically allocated a Reference number where this was selected in Administration.

Once the document has been approved, mark it as sent and refresh your page.  After a short period, a blue tick will appear in the ‘Synced’ column to confirm that it has now synchronised within Xero.

You will also notice that the original invoice number assigned within JobWatch will be over-written with a new invoice number assigned by Xero.  Where you have automatic document sending in place, you may wish to add in a 60-minute delay to ensure that reference numbering is consistently applied.

Although the invoice reference number will be overwritten, the order number, whether from Job Group or Job, will appear in the Reference field within Xero to allow additional traceability:

If any of the required fields are missing information from the document, you will receive a default error message when the screen refreshes:

Go to the Notes tab and view the contact error for the invoice:

Click on the relevant note and press to Edit.  You will now be able to see precisely what remedial action you need to take in order to successfully process the entry:

Amend the document in the required manner, ie in the above example, we would need to add an invoice description line and then synchronise the invoice. Once the error has been corrected and the invoice or other financial document has been successfully synced, complete the Note to show that the issue has been resolved.

Payments

Payments can only be synchronised from JobWatch to Xero and will be drawn from either the default bank account added in the setup screen or one specified on the invoice.

To record a payment, navigate: CRM → [side menu] Financial documents → select document → [icon] Mark paid:

or from the invoice itself.  Navigate: CRM → [side menu] Financial documents → select document → Edit → (1) Payments → (2) Add → (3) Complete popup form

Where payment is to be made in a foreign currency, the Xero invoice which is generated from the payment will show the currency exchange rate against which it was made, as well as the usual payment details.

Payments cannot be made against invoices which have not already been synchronised with Xero, since they don’t exist on the Xero system.  Attempting to pay them will, therefore, result in an error note.  This is also true:

• when an invoice has not been marked as ‘authorised’.
• when a payment exceeds the value of the invoice.
• if a payment currency does not match either:
  • the invoice currency or
  • the standard currency of your company

A fully synchronised invoice will display in this way within JobWatch:

and this way within Xero:

Whilst a payment cannot exceed an invoice value, it can be paid for values below the total, meaning that making one or more part payments is possible up to a total value of the invoice.  Part payments can be viewed in the Payments tab of the invoice:

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: Can I synchronise multiple contact records? 

A: The program responds to the saving of a contact record which is created/updated and exists in one of the groups defined in the settings.  It is possible to use the import function which will create records in Xero for each contact record that is imported. However, it is important to note that there is a daily 5000 API limit on the number of calls that can be made and we would recommend speaking to your implementor before using this method.

Q: What information is carried across when creating a contact in JobWatch? 

A: The contact name, contact street, city, country and postcode is read from JobWatch and populates the corresponding Xero postal address fields.

Q: I have created a person in JobWatch, but it wasn’t carried across.  Why?

A: The software has no concept of whether the person in JobWatch is a financial person or not.  In most instances, the Primary Person within JobWatch will not be the person responsible for finances.

Q: Why do I need to organise my contacts into groups?

A: Contact records must be organised into groups to ensure that the interface only creates/updates contact records that are account contacts.  You can create multiple groups but all contacts within each group must be of the same type only ie you can’t mix parent and site (child) contacts.

Q: There are fields for credit limit and payment terms in JobWatch, can these be populated? 

A: There are currently no fields available for credit limit or payment terms in Xero. This may be something that can be added in future if the features are available.

Q: Why can’t I create contacts in both systems? 

A: The integration interface responds to changes made in JobWatch and Xero when a record is saved.  If a record is saved in JobWatch, it would respond by then saving the same record in Xero and so attempting to use both would result in multiple entries for the same contact in a perpetual circle of changes.  Whilst certain safeguards have been added to JobWatch, there are no equivalent mechanisms in the Xero API.

Q: Why is synchronisation from Xero to JobWatch not instantaneous?

A: The interface looks for changes that are made to Xero but the frequency of triggering these events is controlled by Xero and only takes place periodically.

Q: When I create the invoice in JobWatch and synchronised it to Xero,  can I view the PDF copy of the invoice in Xero?

A: The JobWatch invoice, credit note, or purchase order can only be printed from JobWatch.

Q: I have completed a job for a site, but I want to invoice the parent contact.  How does this work?

A: The site contact record must be linked to a valid parent contact (a contact record that has a valid account reference).  Once synchronised, the invoice will be created against the site contact, but the invoice will be posted to the parent contact record in Xero.  

Judo Pay 3DS

As part of ongoing credit card security enhancements, a new process called 3D Secure is being implemented by all card payment companies. This is due to be made mandatory this summer. Adding 3D Secure to our JudoPay will increase payment security for our customers.

Customers will continue to be able to use Judo Pay as normal during this transition period, however, we recommend that customers contact Judo to ascertain their new tokens and populate the new fields in Administration to ensure their service is uninterrupted.

Financials (Basic): Recording of a Live Tutorial

Financials (Intermediate): Recording of a Live Tutorial

Rates & Ratings Tables: Recording of a Live Tutorial

Contracts Part 1: Introduction

Contracts Part 2: Invoicing Methods

Contracts Part 3: Invoicing Methods & Other Features

Flag Financial Documents

Financial Payment Overdue Notification

Financial: Separate Out Marked as Sent and Send to Financial Package

Financial Document Recurrences

Predefined Invoice Items & Linked Worksheets

Predefined Invoicing Sets

Quote Acceptance

Recurrence Patterns

Sales Opportunities, Alerts & Reports

Select Which Attachments to Download

Xero Set Up & Syncing