In Abtrac, you can restrict non-admin users from entering time for specific tasks if your business needs to do so.
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Cloning Tasks/Stages/Phases
A Job/Project Task is the bit of the job you are working on – and can budget against. Sometimes they are called Stages or Phases.
What if I use the same tasks all the time?
When you set up Abtrac we recommend you create a non-billable client for your own company, and within that client you can setup some template jobs and assign the tasks which are structured with the details of the most common types of jobs you undertake.
Once you have template job and tasks created, each time you create a new client job you can choose to Copy Tasks from the template job to the new job.
Using Work Items to Track Deliverables and Quality Assurance Standards
Work Items are a list of things to do on a job. They are lower than tasks, (aka stages or phases). They are small steps of work that can be ‘ticked off’ as they are completed. If you already have a QA Check List of some sort for each job/project, then Abtrac Work Items are quite possibly the exact same concept. Examples of a work item might be a day-long site visit, or a 4 hour piece of work in the office to write a report. Each of these and more may all be under a task (aka stage or phase) of ‘Feasibility Planning’.
Most offices start the week and look ahead several weeks when sketching out work to be done and spreading it around the office for people to do. Using Abtrac work items, the benefit is that everyone knows what is being done and how long it is expected to take.
Tasks or Activities, Which should I use?
One Frequently asked question from new Abtrac users is whether to use Tasks or Activities in their timesheets.
Here’s the difference between the two: Tasks are Quantitative, Activities are not.
Tasks are where you enter the budget for the job.
Tasks are also sometimes called Stages or Phases.
They should be exactly the same as budget items on the fee agreement you document to the client.
You give each task an estimate of both time and fees, and then analyse them later using reports such as Actual vs Budget by Task, or Invoice Preparation Information Report. These reports compare your proposed amounts, time spent, and amount invoiced.
You can learn from them over time to see how good staff are in getting through work allotted to them as well as how good you are in your estimates. If necessary you can modify your thinking and estimating to more correctly budget the next job based on what you’ve learnt from previous jobs.
Examples of Tasks (depending on your line of work): Concept Design, Feasibility Study, Developed Design, Media Monitoring
Activities are not Quantitative.
If Tasks are the bits of the job you’re working on, Activities are what you’re doing on each bit.
Really activities are to save you typing the same comments over and over again.
There are limited reports based on activities other than those used when reviewing timesheet entries and preparing descriptions for invoice lines.
Activities are generic across all jobs whereas tasks and the values associated with them are very much specific to a particular job, especially when there are variations and extras on a job by job basis.
Examples of Activities (again depending on your line of work): Office Work, Travel, Research, Meetings, Site Visit
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