How to create a Job

You can create a Job for ad hoc work without using a template. This will be useful for a collection of tasks where the workflow is specific to that Job only. For Jobs that are regular in nature and workflow, such as accounts and tax, you will probably want to create and apply a template that can be used to auto-populate certain selections.

Creating a one-off Job
Create
Client Details

Services and Fees

Job
Tasks
Activating the Job for a Client
Other Functionality Available for Jobs

Creating a one-off Job

You may want general Jobs created ready to be used for certain clients at a later date or you may want to assign to a client straight away.

For general Jobs you can:

1. Select Create from the Work Management menu in Practice Manager.                                            

For Jobs for specific clients you can either do option 1, or:

2. Select Create from the Active Work in the client record.

The Create a Task or Job dialog is displayed.

Click Create Job to open the Create New Job dialog.

Create

Select No to Would you like to use a template to create this Job? Select an Activity Type which describes the nature of the Job. There are system activity types set up for you or you can add your own within Client and Non-Client activity types found in Customise Practice Manager in Admin centre. 

Client Details

Client Details

You can choose whether to associate the Job with a client. If the Job is associated with a client, it will appear    within the client's Active Work within the client record in Practice Manager as well as the Work Management screen in Practice Manager.

Client work

If you have chosen to associate this Job with a client and there are work items created for them, you will be able to click Yes to Do you want to associate this job with a work item? To link the work now, highlight the item of work you would like to associate with this Job.

Client work is the tangible 'outputs' from TaxCalc modules such as a tax return, a set of accounts, a confirmation statement, etc, so will only display if they have been created. You will see you also have the option of creating a New Period. Please be aware that tax return periods are limited to existing TaxCalc tax years, but will create automatically (if the Job has been set to recur) once the new tax year is released and installed.

Services and Fees

This screen will provide the link for this Job to a service that has already been allocated to a client.

If you have set up a Service for the client, it will appear in the dropdown box. If you have not yet set up Services for clients, please see How to use Services.

If a Fee Basis for the client has also been added to the Service, it will be automatically populated here and you can also add an expected fee for this Job if it has not already been populated.

The Fee Basis and Expected Fee can be reported on within system reports available in Report Manager.

Job

Provide details of the Job Name and optional Description.

From the Assignee field you can choose whether to assign the Job to an individual or a team. The assignee will receive reminders regarding the Job (if set) in the Notifications panel and can view their Jobs on the Dashboard view by using the Jobs assigned to me widget. 

You can set the Status of the Job:

• Planned
• In Progress
• On Hold
• Completed

Job Dates

By ticking Use work association to calculate Job dates, deadlines and due dates will be derived from the work item period selected rather than dates entered in the client record (such as usual year end).

There are several system date offsets available. The dates you set will affect how the Job is displayed in Work Management/Active Work as well as determine the dates created for future Jobs if the job is set to recur.

Start date - Enter the date you would like the Job to start from. This is displayed in the Work Management screen in Practice Manager and the client's Active Work screen. When the due date has passed, it will be highlighted red on these screens.

Due date - enter the date you would like the Job completed by. This is displayed in the Work Management screen in Practice Manager and the client's Active Work screen. When the due date has passed, it will be highlighted red on these screens.

Deadline - you can enter a deadline for completion of the Job or you can tick:

Statutory Deadline for the date to automatically populate based on the work item selected.

This option is available if you are using one of the following Job Types:

• Annual accounts
• Tax return
• VAT return
• Confirmation Statement

Reminders - You can set reminders to appear in the Notifications panel (top right-hand corner of the TaxCalc screen) for intervals before the due date and start date on Jobs.

Recurrence (optional)

As part of your practice, you will probably have Jobs and Tasks that you perform more than once and most likely on a regular basis, for example, tax returns or annual accounts,

To use a Job more than once you can set it to recur, for example, you can create a VAT return Job that occurs every quarter.

Once you have chosen how frequently you would like the Job to recur (choices from daily to yearly), you can specify how many instances you would like the Job to recur for.

The next Job will be created once the existing Job status is Complete and this can be viewed in the Work Management/Active Work screens.

Tasks

Tasks can be created to provide all the relevant steps that need to be performed before the Job is complete, for example, the first task may be to request client records and the last could be to send the client an invoice for the work with several tasks for steps in between.

There are two options when creating Tasks, Workflow mode or Checklist mode.

• Workflow mode – allows you to create sequential workflow tasks, with additional info and settings for advanced handling of work. However, these tasks can be completed in any order.
• Checklist mode – allows you to create a simplified list of tasks in the form of a checklist. These Tasks are automatically allocated with the Job assignee and due date and the status is either Planned or Completed.

Both Task types can be completed in any order. Should you choose to complete a Task before others, a message is displayed where you can decide whether to complete all previous Tasks or just the selected Task.

Edit Task

In this section you can Name the task and assign to an individual or Team. Similar to assigning a Job, the assignee of a Task will receive reminders in the Notifications panel (top right-hand corner of the TaxCalc screen).

Reminders

You can set reminders to appear in the Notifications panel for users before the due date and start date are reached for the Tasks.

View task Automation

You can automate the start of each Task by setting Task Actions within the Job. You can set up your Tasks so that when one is complete, the next Task begins and you can send a notification to specific users.

In this scenario we will set a Task to complete and notify a user that the status has changed:

1. From the Job Template navigate to the relevant Task.
2. Click View Task Automation to display the Action dialog.
3. From the When dropdown list, select Task Completion.
4. From Then select Change Work Status
5. From To select Completed.

When the Task is complete the status will update to Completed.

To notify a user of the status change you will need to add a second automation.

5. Click Add condition.
6. From the second Then dropdown list, select Notify User
7. From To select the user to be notified when the Task is completed. This will appear in the Notifications panel for the user.

Activating the Job for a Client

Now the Job settings are complete, to enable the Job for a client you will need to Activate it which can now be done during the Create process or can be done at a later date from Active Work within the client record in Practice Manager or from Work Management in Practice Manager . If the Job has not yet been assigned to a client, it will remain in the Work Management screen.

Other Functionality Available for Jobs

After creating a Job you may want to Duplicate it for another client, add some Notes or Update the assignee. Managing Workflow will explain how to do these and more.