For Jobs that are regular in nature and workflow despite being for different clients, such as producing accounts, you can create and apply a Job Template which can be used to auto-populate certain selections for the Job and related Tasks.

We have provided some default templates for Annual Accounts, Tax Returns and VAT Returns. Whilst these templates are locked and cannot be edited, you are able to Duplicate them into editable templates to save you time creating new templates from scratch.

Creating a Job Template
About the Job
Client Association
Work Association
Dates
Recurrence
Tasks
Activating the Job Template for a Client
Other Functionality Available for Jobs

Creating a Job Template

1. Launch Admin Centre from the home screen.
2. Select Applications > Practice Manager Plus > Customise Practice Manager Plus.
3. Select Job Templates which will display the system default.
4. You can either:

• Click Duplicate and enter a new name for your template. This will copy all the settings for Dates/Recurrences/Tasks within the default whilst allowing you to edit.
• Click Create to start from scratch.

About the Job

Give your Template a new name, for example, Individual Tax Return, and provide details of the Job Name and Description. You may have different templates for different types of individuals where the dates, recurrences or actions differ. For instance, you may have a group of individuals who will always have their return information ready for filing early in the year and the template dates could be set accordingly.

Select Activity Type which describes the nature of the Job. There are system activity types set up for you or you can add your own in Client and Non-Client activity types found in Customise Practice Manager in Admin Centre. You can choose whether to assign the Job to an individual or a Team. The assignee or team members 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.

Client Association

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.

Work Association

Work Items are 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.

If you have chosen to associate this Job with a client and there are work items created for this client, 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.

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).

Dates

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.

Deadline: You can choose from:

Custom - a date can be entered when the Job is created

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

Due by - 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 reminder date has passed the date will be highlighted orange. When the due date has passed, it will be highlighted red on these screens.

Start from - 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.

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

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.

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.

Actions

You an 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/Add Actions to display the Actions dialog.
3. From the Action dropdown list, select Task Completion.
4. Now select the result Change Task Status and select Completed.

Therefore, when the Task is complete the status is update to Completed,

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

5. Click Add Result.
6. From the Result 2 dropdown list, select Notify User and select the user to be notified when the Task is complete. This will appear in the Notifications panel for the user.

Activating the Job Template for a Client

Now the Job Template settings are complete, to enable its use for a client or groups of clients, you can use the Bulk Service Wizard located within Services Offered in Admin Centre.

The wizard can be used to allocate services, fees and Job Templates to a selected list of clients. 

1. Go to Admin Centre > Applications > Customise Practice Manager > Services Offered.
2. Click Bulk Service Wizard.
3. The Bulk Service Wizard dialog is displayed.
4. From the Select client tab, select the clients you'd like to apply the services to.
5. Click Continue to the Select services tab.
6. Select all the services you want to activate.
7. Click Continue.
8. From the Add fee/templates tab enter the Fee basis.
9. Enter the Expected Fee if required.
10. Select the Default Job Template to assign a default Job Template to the service.
11. The Assign Default Job Template dialog is displayed.
12. Select the Job Template from the list and click Assign.
13. Select whether you would like to Activate? the Job Template for this service instantly using the wizard.
14. Click Continue to display a Summary of the service and template that will be activated for the selected clients.
15. Click Update to update the client records with the selections made and to activate the services and Job Templates.
16. Alternatively, to use the Job Template for an individual client on an ad hoc basis, from Active Work within the client record you can select Create a Job and Apply the required template.

You can now also Bulk Update from within Practice Manager - in Active Work from the client record or Work Management from Practice Manager, when creating a Job.

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 in Practice Manager Plus will explain how to do these and more.