Abtrac Job Templates are also known as Proposals, Fee Estimates, and Mail Merge Documents.
They allow you to create editable proposal documents and letters that contain information from Abtrac, such as client contacts, job, project and task details. This information can be intertwined with other details such as terms of engagement etc.
These are document templates only – they are not custom reports and cannot be used to create new analytical reports within Abtrac.
Create the different document templates your business uses, such as proposals, fee estimates, letters of engagement or other client-facing documents. For different types of work you add different sections with the required information.
Creating your different proposal document templates
To create a document template, navigate to Administration > Settings > System Settings.
Under Clients and Jobs/Projects select the Default Job Template Button
Edit the document template name to represent the type of template you are creating using the pencil on the left and then click on the name of the newly created document to edit the layout.
After clicking on the name you’ll see the following screen where you’ll customise your template.
The left-hand side options are items you can place on the screen.
The right-hand side has your data source, and your properties (font sizes, label names etc.) you can apply to the items on the screen.
Proposal Templates use a document report designer for creating client documents such as proposals and letters. They do not create new reports or allow custom reporting within Abtrac.
See also Can I create custom reports in Abtrac?
Video: Creating Project Template Documents
Creating different proposal template sections
Each template can have up to 20 different template sections.
To create a section go to Administration > Settings > System Settings.
Under Clients and Jobs/Projects select the Job/Project “Document Sections”
Manage Document Sections (Default Job Templates)
When the manage document sections screen is open, click on the plus at the top to create the different template sections or blocks that sit within your template.
Section Name and Numbers
Give the template section a name and give it a section number (the number has to be unique and is required when creating the actual report).
Section Text
You can either copy and paste the content from a Word Document or write it and style it using the design buttons at the top, or using the HTML window at the bottom.
To add data-related fields from Abtrac, place your cursor where you want the field to appear and then click on the button on the left-hand side to give you the list of available fields
Once your template sections are created then you can move on to designing the report and using this information.
Linking Document Sections to your Proposal Templates
To add the template sections you created in the first step of this process drag a rich text box onto the screen from the left-hand side (item shown in blue above).
To bind the rich text to your sections, select the rich text and on the right-hand side switch to the properties tab using the “cog wheel” icon and edit the HTML Expression by clicking the ellipsis button to include the section number you set up in the earlier step.
This is where the section number comes from in Manage Document Sections, and why it’s important to be unique
Creating Proposals for a Project
Load any job/project and go to the print section.
Then select the template report you want to produce and click print.
The above template that was created will finally look like this through all the steps.
Sections for Documents
Job Document Template
Example of proposal letter for a selected project
Abtrac KB# 2110