This feature enables you to forecast fees and resources (hours) for a period estimated in the Tasks/Stages/Phases screen. When you provide the estimated Start date and End date of a Task, Job Forecast will disperse the estimated fees and hours within the given period on a monthly basis. You can then edit them and forecast the resources in a way that suits your cash flow. You can even forecast the Subtask resources for each Task.
Category Archives: General
Splitting Invoices
Sometimes a job/project needs to be split and invoiced to multiple parties with the invoices containing the same invoice line details.
Within Abtrac you’ll create the first invoice with the total amount and then split that invoice and amount between multiple parties.
Simple reports to get started with invoicing
Getting started with your invoicing normally starts with a few reports to see who you’re invoicing and for how much. This can then be checked with project managers to confirm they are ready to invoice the clients and if they are happy with the amounts.
There are two basic reports that can get you going. Unbilled Work Quick Summary and Timesheet Entries.
Unbilled Work Quick Summary
Unbilled Work Quick Summary is found in the invoicing section and as the name suggests this will be a summarised report that you can run against one or all jobs to see quickly whats outstanding out of all your billable time.
Timesheet Entries (Billable WIP Only)
The Timesheet entries reports are found in the Timesheet Entries section and can be used for invoicing and also general reporting. The trick is to tick ‘Billable WIP’ (shown below) to only show information that hasn’t yet been billed.
The timesheet entries report shows information based on timesheets which may be easier for a project manager to confirm what’s billable, what to hold for the next billing cycle or what may need to be written off.
As mentioned this is the simplest way to get information to show what may be billed. Both of these reports have a number of grouping and filtering which can change the information shown, and there are also other reports that show the information in greater detail. If you would like to know more about reports used for invoicing please contact us.
How to Archive data (make items non-current)
How does making items non-current help you
Simple, fewer pieces of information to load means you will have a faster system.
Screens such as the searches, timesheet entries, invoices, and some reports all load with the current data that is available in the system, so it’s pretty straightforward to think that making items non-current will give you a quicker response for all these pages.
How to create an Abtrac desktop Shortcut or Bookmark
Here we will show you how to create an Abtrac shortcut on both your Windows and Apple Devices in multiple browsers. Click the links below to go to your preferred browser.
We will cover Google Chrome, FireFox and Safari. While you can use Abtrac on other web browsers these are the preferred options which have the best performance and reliability.
Continue reading
Data grid screen customisation (User Control Settings)
Have you tailored your screen layout specifically for your staff and jobs? Or are you still using the ‘off-the-shelf’ layout?
Take time to adjust your User Control Settings in Abtrac and make your daily data entry just that little bit simpler by adjusting the columns your office can see. Continue reading
Search People
Abtrac client contacts search screen is the first point of call to quickly look up details about any client, contact, or person.
Once logged in you can click the following link to see the page, or go to Clients, Contacts & Jobs then Search People.
Use this screen as your contact management or phone book and search most fields related to a client person.
How to Disable and Clear your browsers AutoFill features
Modern browsers are getting smarter (or scarier) and can remember the information you have put into forms on websites and this is not just AbtracOnline but any form you fill out.
Sometimes this information will be automatically put into AbtracOnline if the browser thinks that it’s saving you time by adding the information for you.
Here are the instructions on how to turn that off if you find it more of a hindrance than helpful. (n.b. these instructions are accurate as at September 2018 and may change as the browsers change. Feel free to call us for assistance if they don’t make sense.)
How to Write Off Time
Sometimes you have leftover time for a job/project that you just can’t invoice. The best way to clear that time is to write it off.
You can do this in two ways:
Invoice Status
With AbtracOnline you can assign a different status to an invoice so your team knows where you are up to with its creation. Examples of these statuses can be Draft, Returned for Edits, Approved, Committed.
This is helpful when there is a team of people creating an invoice but one final person signing off on the contents of the invoice.
Job/Project Documents
The Abtrac document manager is where Abtrac can keep a reference to the documents associated with any Job/Project and where these documents are stored on your local machine/server.
N.B. This feature works with files on a Windows machine where the machine knows the type of files it’s trying to open. i.e it cannot open files that the machine doesn’t have the specific software for.
The installation of this will allow you to easily manage and access these documents from within Abtrac and the Job/Project itself.
The benefits to our clients who move to AbtracOnline
Use it anywhere
AbtracOnline can be used anywhere you have an internet connection.
If you have people working on-site, in different offices, or working from home they can all access Abtrac without needing to connect to your local network via VPN.
Greater connectivity to Accounting packages, 12d and others
With API connections available from MYOB, Xero, 12d Synergy and others you can easily sync your information from Abtrac with these other packages.
Chrome Update Version 57.0.2987
Issue Logged: 27/03/2017 08:47 NZDT
It’s come to our attention that the latest Google Chrome update released Friday 25th March is causing issues with some data entry screens in AbtracOnLine, including timesheets.
If you have already updated to Chrome Version 57 then we would ask you temporarily to run AbtracOnLine using Firefox or Internet Explorer (preferably Microsoft Edge if you are using Windows10).
AbtracOnLine is not the only site affected by these changes and we are working both in house and waiting for further updates from Google and our database partners to resolve these issues.
We will add updates to the status of this issue both in this post, and through notifications within AbtracOnLine.
We appreciate your understanding as we work with others to provide a prompt resolution.
Resolved:
Progress Update: 24/04/2017 06:55 NZDT
Abtrac Version V6.04.17.4758 was published on April 21st and has resolved issues users were experiencing when running Abtrac with Google Chrome v57.
On April 20th Google Chrome also announced an updated version (Chrome 58.0.3029.81) which will roll out to all desktops in the coming weeks. It is purported to contain a fix for the .asp call back problems introduced four weeks ago. The wider development community are currently continuing testing of this new version, including our component providers at DevExpress.
Although Google have announced a solution we’ve released an updated version as planned.
We have appreciated your patience and understanding dealing with this unexpected issue over the past month.
Thank you for your support this year
Seasons Greetings
From The Abtrac Support Team
We wish you and your staff
a safe and restful holiday and all the best for 2017
Our office will close from mid morning Thursday 22nd December.
We will open again Monday 9th January.
Tips for using Abtrac Tables (also known as Data Grids)
Most of the high use screens in Abtrac are data entry tables (data grids).
The support team are often asked simple questions about searching, filtering and getting things just right – particularly when you are starting out using AbtracOnLine.
- The way the grids and columns in each screen are displayed can be customised for all users by an administrator
- All grids can be filtered and sorted as a one-off at any time
- Some grids (like timesheets) can also be customised at a user level
- Each Abtrac user can also choose how many rows they see – for all the grids accessed under their login
- Using Grid Layout anyone can save their own specific layouts (including filtering and grouping) on certain screens
In this article we’ve included some tricks to filtering and sorting, and a few handy ‘everyday use’ tips for using Abtrac Grids…
