This chapter defines keywords and concepts used in this guide, describes the product, diagrams the information flow within the system, and identifies the major enhancements from earlier versions of OpenPro.com Job Cost.

Major concepts in Job Cost are identified in alphabetical sequence below.

Accounting
Accounting is the methodical collection, categorization, and organized presentation of financial records.

Alphanumeric
When the guide refers to <alphanumeric>, it means letters of the alphabet, numerals (numbers), special symbols (*,&,$,etc.) or any combination of all three kinds. In contrast, <numeric> (or <digits>), means only numbers.

Burden
Expense incurred for a job beyond the cost of wages and materials. There are two kinds, labor burden and overhead burden.

Category
See cost category.

Company Information
Company information is a collective term for the choices you make about how you will customize OpenPro.com software to your business applications. These decisions relate to all your OpenPro.com modules, and control such matters as the format of your screen display. They are made when the system is installed and seldom changed thereafter.

Control Information
To customize OpenPro.com J/C to the needs of your business you must make choices that are collectively called Control information. These decisions relate to all applications in the module, such as whether or not you access inactive files. They are made when the system is installed and seldom changed thereafter. Control Information differs from Company Information. The former controls matters specific to the J/C module. The latter controls matters common to all OpenPro.com modules.

Cost Category
A <cost category> is an aspect of a job or group of jobs for which money might be spent. Cost categories define in a fairly detailed way the types of work or costs that can go into one or more of your jobs. Examples of cost categories are: rough carpentry, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, etc. Cost categories are more detailed than cost types, and can be broken down into even more detailed categories if desired, until a very fine level of detail is reached.

Cost Item
A <cost item> is a cost category assigned to a specific job. The difference between a cost item and a cost category is that a cost item has been connected to a specific job and assigned a dollar amount. A full list of the cost items in a job is equivalent to a complete description of the work and costs that make up the job. (Example: The cost category <Finish carpentry–labor> is budgeted for the Smiths’ house to be $3,500. Therefore, <Finish carpentry–labor = $3,500> is listed as a cost item under the job for the Smiths’ house.)

Cost Type
A <cost type> is the broad classification of types of costs that go into all of your jobs. Cost types are not very specific and do not describe the costs in any detail. Examples are: labor, materials, subcontract fees, overhead, administrative expenses, etc. A more detailed breakdown of types of costs is provided by the cost categories.

Data Organization
Most of the information you enter into your computer is stored on disk. In order for computer programs to locate specific pieces of data (within large masses of data), data must be organized in some predictable way. OpenPro.com accounting software organizes your data for you automatically as it stores it on your disk.

The following are terms that are associated with the structure of data:

Character
A character is any letter, number or other symbol you can type on your keyboard.

Data File
A data file is a group of one or more related records. A data file is often referred to simply as a file. The Cost Category file in Job Cost is an example of a data file. Such a file is made up of several records, each of which contains the category number, description, etc. for one cost category.

Each file is kept separate from other files on the disk.

There are other types of files in addition to data files. Programs are stored on the disk as program files. However, references to files in this user guide mean data files unless specifically stated otherwise.

Entry
A record in a data file is often referred to as an entry.

Field
A field is one or more characters representing a single piece of data. For example, a name, a date and a dollar amount are all fields.

Record
A record is a group of one or more related fields. For example, the fields representing a customer’s name, address and account balance might be grouped together into a record called the customer record.

Debit and Credits
In addition to handling a particular area of accounting, as described above (such as accounts receivable or accounts payable), each OpenPro.com package also keeps track of the effect of those transactions on G/L. For example, when you bill customers for jobs or receive payment from your customers, this activity affects not only J/C, but also G/L.

These transactions must be recorded both in the job and in G/L under the proper G/L account numbers.

The terms <debit> and <credit> refer to the types of transactions that must be recorded in G/L accounts to accurately reflect the activity occurring in all accounting areas. (See the Glossary in the Installation and System Guide for exact definitions of these terms.)

In J/C, a debit memo issued by you to a customer increases what that customer owes you, and a credit memo decreases what is owed. Unfortunately, debit doesn’t always mean <an increase in an account> and credit doesn’t always mean <a decrease in an account>. In some accounting areas, a debit increases a G/L account and a credit decreases a G/L account. In other areas, a debit decreases, and a credit increases, a G/L account.

This occurs because of the system called <double entry accounting> (also called <double entry bookkeeping>) which is the standard method of accounting used today.

Double–entry accounting
The concept behind double entry accounting is that every entry (transaction) results in balancing debit and credit entries into the General Ledger.

Let’s look at the debits and credits involved when a typical independent business pays for goods or services bought earlier on credit:

• The debit: The disbursement (payment you make) results in a debit transaction that decreases your <money owed others> account (usually called the <accounts payable> account). This is a <debit to accounts payable>.
• The credit: The payment also causes a credit transaction that decreases one of your <cash on hand> accounts. This is a <credit to cash>.

So two entries are made into G/L that balance each other. These balancing entries form the basis of double entry accounting. If you or your accountant ever find your G/L accounts <out of balance>, it means that the proper balancing entries were not made.

No attempt is going to be made in this guide to teach you all about accounting, especially about what types of transactions cause what accounts to be debited or credited. Unless you’re an accountant or fully responsible for maintaining your company’s general ledger, don’t worry if you don’t remember whether a debit increases or decreases a particular type of G/L account.

When using OpenPro.com accounting software, you will occasionally be asked to enter the G/L account to be debited or credited. Just refer to the appropriate chapter in this User Guide, where you’ll find exact instructions about what to enter.

Within OpenPro.com General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Payroll, Order Entry/Billing, Job Cost, Inventory Control, Purchase Order, and Check Reconciliation, the software automatically takes care of all double entry accounting as you enter the required information on the screen.

Function
As used here, <function> means one or more programs that accomplish a specific task.

Each selection on a menu of an OpenPro.com package is a function. When you select a function from a menu, one or more programs automatically execute, thereby allowing you to accomplish the task you selected. In fact, selection is often used interchangeably for function.

General Ledger
<General ledger> is the area of accounting where all accounting records are brought together to be classified and summarized. Financial statements are printed based on this data.

As used here, <general> means <pertaining to many areas>. General ledger is often abbreviated <G/L> or <GL>.

<Ledger> means a book where accounting records are kept. This term evolved from pre–computer times when accounting records were kept exclusively by hand in large books called <ledgers>.

General Ledger Account
A <general ledger account> is a specific category under which all financial activity of a certain kind is classified. For example, you might have a general ledger account called <telephone expenses> for telephone bills.

Accountants are experts at defining the various G/L accounts (financial activity categories) needed by a business. Part of this definition process involves assigning an <account number> to each G/L account.

Typically, an independent business will have a hundred or more G/L accounts. In OpenPro.com accounting packages, each time any financial activity occurs in any area of accounting, the dollar amount of the activity is recorded under the appropriate G/L account numbers.

You may wish to divide your account number into a main account and a subaccount. You may also wish to incorporate a cost center into your account number structure. A cost center is a part of your company (for instance, a department or a regional office) for which sales and/or expenses (and sometimes profits) can be calculated separately from the total sales and expenses of the whole company.

The Company Information chapter provides detailed information on the format of the account number. To alter an existing format, refer to the Reformat Account Number chapter of the Information and System Guide.

Help
You can press the <HELP> on the upper right side of the screen key at any time for on–line help about a task or selection you are currently using.

Integrated
When a set of computer packages is integrated, any information generated in one package that is needed in another package is automatically supplied to that other package. You don’t have to enter it twice.

OpenPro.com accounting software is fully integrated. When J/C is used with other OpenPro.com packages, any data recorded in those other packages that J/C should know about is automatically made available to J/C.

Job Cost Accounting
<Job Cost> is the area of accounting dealing with costs and revenues accumulated and accounted for on an individual job basis. It is often abbreviated as <J/C>.

As used here, <job> means <an overall, complete piece of work a business agrees to do for a customer>. A job generally lasts for weeks or months and is individually customized to the client’s specification. Jobs are also often referred to as <contracts>.

Jobs can be run using the <Completed Job> method of accounting in which profit is recognized only when a job is completed (or when it is substantially completed). Alternatively, jobs can be run using the <Percentage–of–completion> method of accounting in which profit is recognized each period as the job progresses.

Multi–Company
<Multi–company> refers to the capability to do accounting functions for multiple companies with the same set of packages. A user wanting to do accounting functions for more than one company on OpenPro.com packages can select the <multi–company> option.

Period
A period is a regular interval of time that you use for evaluating your operation and comparing current information to historical data. At the expiration of a period, standardized reports are usually printed and running totals are reset to zero. This is called closing the period.

You define the length of your periods, which may (but need not) correspond to the accounting periods you use in your General Ledger system. Regardless of your choice, each period remains open until you explicitly close it. For illustrative purposes this guide assumes that you use monthly periods.

Post
To <post> means to take transactions from a temporary file and move them to a permanent file (where other transactions probably already exist). Often, during transaction posting, information in other data files is also updated. For example, in J/C, costs are initially entered into a temporary transaction file. After costs have been entered and verified as correct, they are posted to the permanent files.

Recognized Profit
That portion of the overall profit of a job which you currently recognize as having been <earned>, whether or not you have yet been paid for it. This is a concept that applies only if you use the <Percentage–of–completion> method of accounting.

Screen
A screen is the image you see on your computer monitor. Each screen in the system has a standard format, and each is discussed and (with trivial exceptions) illustrated in this guide.

The two main types of screens are:

• Menus. These allow you to choose which application you wish to execute.
• Data–entry screens. These allow you to enter new data into the system, or to change existing data.

OpenPro.com screens are interactive; that is, they respond to each item of data as you enter it, without waiting for you to enter the entire screen.

Selection
Selection is the name given to the choice which you make from the options available on a menu. Making this selection will either lead you directly into the desired application, or it will bring up a submenu requiring you to narrow your selection further. In this guide, all references to selections are spelled exactly as they appear on the screen, but are printed in italics.

Spool
SPOOL is an acronym meaning <Save Printer Output Off–Line>. Spooling is a technique that allows a report to be printed at a later time. Instead of reports going directly to a printer, they are saved as a disk file (which is usually a lot faster). When a printer is available, all or some saved reports can be printed in one long run (for example, overnight).

Transaction
As used in accounting, <transaction> means a business event involving money and goods or services. For example, a transaction occurs each time you gas up your car: you pay money in exchange for gasoline (goods).

Because computer software deals primarily with business events that have already taken place, in OpenPro.com software, <transaction> means the record of a completed business event involving money and goods or services.

The records of sales made and payments received are examples of transactions from the area of accounting called <accounts receivable>. The records of your purchases and the payments you make for such purchases are transactions from the accounting area called <accounts payable>. The records of quantities of goods received or sold are transactions from the area of accounting called <inventory control>.

View
To <view> information is to examine it on a screen. This is a rapid alternative to obtaining a printed report. View screens are designed to display information more compactly than data–entry screens, but without permitting the information to be modified.

Product Description
OpenPro.com Job Cost allows you to accurately track costs incurred for jobs. It provides reports to tabulate and examine these costs, compare them with budgeted or estimated costs, and track the progress of jobs. It also tracks job billings and payments, and tracks progress in terms of percentage completed and cost remaining to complete.

J/C works with other OpenPro.com accounting packages in these ways:

• Costs for materials, subcontractors, and supplies can be entered in Accounts Payable and automatically transferred to the right jobs in J/C.
• Wage costs for laborers can be entered in Payroll and automatically transferred to the right jobs.
• Materials stored in inventory and not yet allocated to any job can be transferred to the appropriate jobs from Inventory Control.
• Billings to and payments from customers can be entered in Accounts Receivable and automatically transferred to the right jobs.
• Quotations in Order Entry can be applied to the right jobs.

General journal entries from General Ledger can be transferred to the appropriate jobs. These include distribution of payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance premiums to jobs, posting of recognized profit to jobs, and adjustments because of previous entry errors.

You can run J/C without having OpenPro.com Accounts Payable, Inventory Control, Payroll, or Accounts Receivable. In this case, you enter costs and billings directly in J/C. You can then transfer these cost and billing amounts to the appropriate accounts in the General Ledger.

If you add J/C to a system that currently contains A/R, A/P, I/C, PR, or G/L, you should interface J/C to them. This is done through the Job Cost package.

You can also run Job Cost independent of any other OpenPro.com package.

J/C is appropriate for a wide range of companies that are in the business of doing jobs for customers. Using options and choices selected in the Control file when the package is initially set up, you can tailor J/C to your business.

The OpenPro.com Job Cost system is suitable for a small to medium size construction company, a general contractor, or a subcontractor. It is also suitable for job shops such as print shops, light manufacturing, advertising agencies, scientific laboratories, interior decorators, etc. It is not particularly suitable for large–scale manufacturing companies with crews working at fixed work stations or assembly lines, but it can be tailored for use in small–scale manufacturing companies.

The OpenPro.com Job Cost package includes these features:

• New or in–progress jobs can be easily entered and edited.
• Labor costs, material costs, subcontract costs, profit, and up to five user–defined cost types are tracked for management.
• Cost categories are user–defined.
• Budgets for all detailed costs can be entered. Jobs cannot be activated unless estimates are equal to the job price.
• Budgets are tracked against actual costs incurred.
• Completion estimates can be entered for individual parts of jobs. A <fast enter> function is available which will generate completion estimate entries for all cost items for a job, as well as an entry for the entire job.
• Detailed on–line inquiry is provided.
• Completed jobs can be saved for viewing or later restoration to an active status.
• Information for a new job can be quickly created by copying all or part of another job.
• Numerous reports such as Job Status Report, Job Performance Report, Job Profitability Report, and Cost Category Analysis Report can be printed.
• Job Cost can be used independently or interfaced with OpenPro.com Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Order Entry, General Ledger, Payroll, Inventory Control, Purchase Order, Intelligent Query and IQ Access, and Report Writer.
• Includes password protection and extensive data file integrity–check and backup/restore facilities.
• Allows you to use either a <traditional> multi–level menu or a <menu bar> from which you can quickly access other functions or packages from within a function.

Flow of Job Cost package
This section briefly describes the different menu selections in the package. Each topic is more fully explained in its own separate chapter.

Control File
An easily maintainable control file allows you to define various parameters that control many of the characteristics of the package. The Control file is accessed via the Control information selection.

Categories
You can maintain your master list of cost categories (cost items for jobs). You do not have to have such a master list of cost categories, but if you do, then as you enter cost items for jobs, the program checks to see that the category number you enter is in this master category file.

Job Descriptions
Use this selection to set up jobs and enter them into the system so that the other selections can track and report on them.

You can enter the basic information about a job, which includes such things as the job title, the price of the job, the customer for the job, etc.

You can also enter the cost items that give the detailed breakdown of the job.

You can print a list of jobs.

Finally, you must use this selection to <activate> a job after you have entered it.

You will not be able to enter any costs or billings for a job until it has been activated.

Activating a job means making it into an active job. (See the chapter titled Job Descriptions.) This checks to see that the estimated costs, plus overhead and profit, add up to the price of the job. This ensures that you have entered a job completely and correctly before you can start entering costs and billings for the job.

Costing
Use the Control information selection to set up J/C so that costs are transferred to jobs from Accounts Payable, Payroll, and Inventory Control.

If one or more of these other packages are not used, you can enter these costs directly from within J/C through the Costing selection. This selection prints an edit list showing all costs entered. Use this list to check the accuracy of the costs before they are posted and become part of the permanent Job Cost files.

Billing and Payment
You can set up J/C so that billings and payments for jobs automatically transfer to jobs from Accounts Receivable. The J/C Billing and payment selection lets you enter billings and payments directly from within the J/C system. You can also print an edit list that shows all the billings and payments you have made, before they are posted and made a permanent part of the Job Cost files.

Completion Estimates
Use this selection to enter your estimates of completion percentages or completion costs for jobs. It also prints a Job Inspection Worksheet that lists the cost items in jobs and has spaces to write the new completion percentages or costs to complete. After you enter these estimates you can print an edit list of the estimates entered before they are posted to jobs.

View
This selection gives you a fast way of looking into the status of jobs on file. It includes five methods of inquiry:

• Jobs You can display a list of jobs on file, pick one, and look at the cost items that make up the job. You can also look at sub–jobs and change orders on file for the job, any additional description entered for the job, and a summary of the costs, billings, and payments posted to the job.
• Costs by job You can look at all costs, billings, and payments entered for a particular job. You can limit this view to a particular time period by entering starting and ending dates.
• Costs by vendor/employee/customer You can see what costs have been entered for a particular vendor, employee, or customer for all jobs. You can select the particular vendor, employee, or customer you wish to view. You can limit this view to a particular time period by entering starting and ending dates.
• Cost categories You can display a list of the cost categories in your Cost Category file.
• G/L accounts You can display a list of the G/L accounts you have on file.

Job Status Report
You can print the Job Status Report, which shows actual costs incurred for a job compared to budgeted costs. It shows how well you are doing on the job compared to your original estimates, based on the current cost to complete. It also shows your projected costs at the end of the job.

Management Reports
With the Reports selection, you can print the reports described below.

• Job performance shows in a simple format how the actual costs and quantities (of material, labor, etc.) compare to the estimated costs and quantities for your jobs.
• Job labor analysis highlights the labor cost and hours for your jobs. It compares actual labor expended to the estimated labor for the job, shows the difference, and projects the difference to the completion of the job.
• Job profitability also known as the Bonding report that is used by construction companies. It shows the estimated and actual costs, the expected profit at the completion of the job, the profit previously recognized and to be recognized for the job, the revenue earned, and the amount billed.
• Job entry reports shows lists of detailed entries (transactions) sorted in several ways:
  • All costs for a job in date order.
  • Costs transferred automatically from Accounts Payable, either in job number order or in vendor number order.
  • Costs transferred automatically from Payroll, either in job number order or in employee number order.
  • Costs transferred automatically from Inventory Control.
  • All billings and payments coming from both Job Cost and Accounts Receivable, in either job number order or customer number order.
  • Job Summary helps you to prepare bills for your customers. For each job or sub–job it shows, by major cost category grouping: total budgeted price, costs incurred this period and job–to–date, the percent complete, and the balance to complete. It provides a space to enter the current amount to be billed.

• A/P Items for Payment shows the balance owing on all A/P open items connected with a job, up to a specified cut–off date. When you receive a payment from your customer on a job, you can print this report to list all suppliers and subcontractors who you can now pay, based on the payment you have just received.
• Cost Category Analysis based on cost categories, not on jobs. It shows the costs incurred for your various cost categories across all jobs. It also shows quantities and labor hours (if these are appropriate for a cost category) and the ratios of costs to quantity, hours to quantity, and quantity to hours. It shows all these figures for the last period, the current period, and the prior year.
• Job Closing Report useful for a company that does many short jobs of a couple of days duration. This closing option greatly simplifies the job closing process for such a company.

Distributions to G/L Report
You can show the debits and credits posted to the Job Distribution to G/L file as a result of entering costs, billings, and payments in J/C. These debits and credits will be transferred to G/L when the Get distributions selection is run from G/L. This report does not show general ledger activity for entries that were automatically transferred to J/C from other OpenPro.com packages. If you enter all costs and billings through other OpenPro.com systems, you would not use this report.

Get Costs
This selection takes the costs entered for jobs in other OpenPro.com systems and updates the accumulated job costs. Costs are transferred based on a cut–off date you enter, so you can keep your general ledger in balance with your job costs.

Close a Period
Job Cost accumulates costs for the current period. This is done automatically as costs are posted to jobs. After you have printed all reports you need at the end of the period (usually a period is a month), you must use this selection to <close> the period in preparation for posting for the new period. This selection moves the accumulated costs for the current period to the last period costs, then sets the current period costs to zero.

Close a Year
Job Cost accumulates costs for the current year in the same way it does for the current period. After you have printed all reports you need at the end of the year, you must use this selection to <close> the year in preparation for the New Year.

The accumulated costs for the year are all set to zero. Year–to–date accumulated costs are only found in the Cost Category file.

Utility
This function has four separate selections not used in the regular routine of entering information for jobs or reporting on jobs:

Close or re–open jobs
You can mark a job as closed (when you are done with it and all costs have been entered for it), or re–open a job (return it to active status) if it had been closed previously.

Save/restore detail
As you enter and post costs and billings to jobs from day to day, week to week, and month to month, the size of the data file that holds these continues to grow and can get very large. In addition to taking up a lot of disk space, a very large data file can slow down your computer.

With this selection, you can remove entries (transactions) from this data file and store them in another file temporarily, thereby reducing its size. This is the <save> option of this selection.

View saved detail
From time to time, you may want to look at the entry detail that you have removed from the main file and saved. As long as the file holding the saved detail is accessible on hard disk, you can use this selection to display the saved detail on the screen. Please note that the file holding the saved detail is not the same as the <inactive> job files described below.

Purge/save/restore jobs
This selection deals only with <inactive> jobs; that is, jobs that have been completed and marked as closed. After a job has been closed, you can either save it, with or without its detailed entries, in the <inactive> job files (where it can be accessed at a later time); or you can purge it (remove it completely) from the active files without saving it. If you save it, then you can restore it later to the active files. (Refer to the section titled J/C Control file Options in the Getting Started chapter for more information about inactive files.)

Features common to all OpenPro.com modules
This section describes some features which are present not only in Job Cost but in all OpenPro.com packages.

Password protection
You have the option to specify that passwords are required. A password is a unique code you assign to each individual using your OpenPro.com software. When passwords are required, each potential user must first enter a valid password before he or she will be allowed to use a protected function.

File recovery procedure
This function provides the capacity to recover corrupted data files. You can also use it to convert important data files to a format which can be easily interfaced to common data base and word processing packages.

Printers
You can easily select any of the more popular printers, and instructions are given to allow you to interface to other printers. Refer also to the Using Printers chapter of the Installation and System Guide.

We have included the necessary functions and instructions to allow you to upgrade from an earlier version of this same OpenPro.com package. Please refer to the Installation and System Guide for more information.

This section shows you the overall OpenPro system data flow and integration between systems.

The following diagrams show the major information flows within J/C, as well as flows between J/C and other OpenPro.com packages.

These diagrams show how the major pieces of J/C work together.

These are the files that must be set up before any jobs can be entered in the system:

These files are set up and maintained using the following selections:

These are the files that are used to set up your jobs:

The Job Master file contains both the job descriptions as well as the cost items for jobs. This diagram shows the selections used and the files updated when transactions are processed within Job Cost:

Active and inactive files:

This example demonstrates how these three terms are used in Job Cost.

Cost types and cost categories

Cost Types > Cost Categories
Labor - Concrete setting up forms (Labor)
Material - Concrete Portland cement (Material)
Subcontract work - Concrete mixing truck (Equipment rental)
Equipment rental - Electrical wiring (Subcontract work)
Overhead - Plumbing (Subcontract work)
Profit:
- Excavation bulldozer (Equipment rental)
- Excavation bulldozer operator (Labor)
- Rough carpentry (Labor)
- 2< x 4> lumber (Material)
- Nails and other hardware (Material)
- Sheet plywood (Material)

(There are always a very limited number of cost types at most 9 in the OpenPro.com Job Cost system.)
(There can be many cost categories tens or hundreds but each cost category has just one cost type.)

To get a cost item, take a cost category, put it in a job, and give it a price. It then becomes a cost item for that job.

We assume at this point that you have installed Job Cost on your computer according to the OpenPro.com Installation and System Guide. If any other OpenPro.com packages are to be used with Job Cost, these should also be installed by now. If you have not done so, refer to the Installation and System Guide and install Job Cost plus any other OpenPro.com packages that are to be used with Job Cost before proceeding.

We also assume that you have familiarized yourself with the main features of this package by reading the Understanding OpenPro.com Job Cost chapter. If you have not done so, read that chapter now, and then return to this chapter.

This chapter covers many topics about Job Cost. You should review this chapter prior to actually setting up Job Cost to become familiar with the basic concepts used in OpenPro.com Job Cost and the many features available. As needed, refer to the diagrams at the end of the previous chapter that will assist you in your understanding.

Additionally, if you are not familiar with job cost accounting, we recommend that you become familiar before reading this chapter.

Perform these steps to start using OpenPro.com Job Cost:

1. Study the General Rules chapter in the Installation and System Guide.
2. Start J/C according to the instructions in the Using OpenPro.com Job Cost chapter.
3. The Company File is set up for you as part of the installation procedure. Use Company information to modify the Company File to be appropriate for your company. See Company Information chapter.

4. Enter your valid G/L accounts, using Valid G/L accounts. If you are also using OpenPro.com General Ledger, you can enter your Chart of Accounts first, then use Setup valid G/L accounts within G/L to transfer accounts to the Valid G/L Accounts File. Before setting up your Chart of Accounts you should read the How To Set Up Other OpenPro Packages To Work With J/C section which discusses accounts which must be in your Chart of Accounts when Job Cost is being used.

The Valid G/L Accounts File is used by J/C to ensure that every G/L account entered into the system is a valid account. See the Valid G/L Accounts chapter.

5. Enter J/C control information, using Control information. The information in the J/C Control File controls how J/C is used by your company. A data input form is included at the end of this chapter to assist you in entering this data.

Before setting up the Control File you should read the J/C Control File Options section. This section discusses many of the Control file fields in detail.

6. Enter job descriptions for each of your current jobs using Job descriptions. A data input form is included at the end of this chapter to assist you in entering this data. These jobs should be entered as <in–progress> jobs.

See the Job Descriptions chapter for more information on in–progress jobs. Before setting up your jobs you should read the Jobs, Sub–jobs, and Change Orders section.

7. Enter job cost TASKS for each of your current jobs using Cost tasks for jobs. A data input form is included at the end of this chapter to assist you in entering this data. Current cost information should be entered for these jobs in order to ensure that the reports produced by Job Cost will be accurate.

8. Enter any jobs that have not yet started. These jobs should be entered as <new> jobs. Enter both the job description and cost items for each job.

9. Activate each of your jobs using Activate jobs. See the Job Descriptions chapter.

10. If you are using other OpenPro.com packages, set these packages up for use with Job Cost as discussed in the How to Set Up Other OpenPro.com Packages to Work with J/C section.

11. Begin using Job Cost on a regular basis. See the Guide to Daily Operations chapter.

This section describes the information that is entered into the Job Cost Control File. This information controls the way in which Job Cost works—both internally and with respect to other OpenPro.com packages.

OpenPro.com Job Cost is designed to be used by itself or with any combination of these OpenPro.com packages:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable Sales Order Processing
• Inventory Control
• Payroll
• General Ledger
• Purchase Order (requires Accounts Payable)

You can also use Order Entry, Check Reconciliation, and Sales Analysis, but they do not interface directly with J/C.

If you use J/C in conjunction with one of the packages listed above, the two packages communicate and work together through an <interface> between them. You are not required to interface to a package merely because you have it installed.

It is in Job Cost Control information that you specify which of these packages to interface to. P/O is an exception; interface to that package is specified in P/O Control information.

The following descriptions will assist you in determining whether or not each package should be interfaced to Job Cost for your company.

Your costs, such as equipment, materials, insurance, and sub– contracting, are entered in Accounts Payable as invoices and applied to jobs. The Accounts Payable package transfers cost information to J/C.

Billings for jobs are entered in the Accounts Receivable package as sales. Payments received for jobs are entered as cash receipts. The Accounts Receivable package transfers billing and payment information to J/C.

Invoices can be specified as being for jobs. When these invoices are posted, A/R sales transactions are generated and posted. These A/R transactions will update the amounts billed for jobs in J/C. Additionally, if A/R is used with I/C, then cost items can be entered on <Goods> line items. When the line item is posted, the cost item will be updated for the cost of the items taken out of inventory.

Quotations can be earmarked for specific jobs. When a quotation is subsequently converted to an invoice, this will update the billings in J/C.

If you maintain an inventory of material used on your jobs, you can direct the Inventory Control package to transfer these materials to specific jobs, or from individual jobs back into inventory. The Inventory Control package sends cost information to J/C.

Labor costs are entered in the Payroll package and applied to jobs. The Payroll package transfers cost information to J/C.

General Journal entries that affect jobs are entered in General Ledger and applied to jobs. The General Ledger package transfers cost information to J/C. G/L is also used to make profit recognized entries. This subject is discussed in the How to Enter Recognized Profit into J/C section.

When entering a purchase order in P/O, line items can be specified as being for jobs and the dollar amount of the line item can be distributed to one or more cost items. You can use the Purchase Order Distribution Report to list outstanding P.O.’s by job and cost item. The dollar amounts shown can be optionally transferred directly to the applicable cost items when the report is run. Later, when entering a completion estimate in Completion estimates in J/C, you may use the outstanding P.O. amount stored in the cost item (as transferred from Purchase Order). Outstanding P.O. amounts are used on the Job Status Report to determine the actual costs to date, as discussed in the chapter titled Job Status.

If you use retainage receivable, you can also enter a retainage receivable percentage in the Job Cost Control File which will be used as the default percentage when entering jobs for your customers. You can override this default percentage for any individual job.

A change order is a change to an original contract with a customer, detailing the exact changes to the original specification of a job. The change order has its own set of specifications and price, agreed upon with the customer.

A change order can either increase the job price or decrease the job price (in which case its price would be entered as a negative number.)

In terms of OpenPro.com Job Cost, a change order is entered as follows:

1. A Job Description record is entered, using Job descriptions, listing the job (and sub–job, if applicable), number of the change order, price, and approval date.
2. Cost items are entered, using Cost items for jobs. Each cost item has a cost item number that consists of the category of the cost, the sub–job number (if applicable), and then the change order number.

The <inactive files> are a separate set of files into which you can store jobs which have been closed and completed. Refer to the diagram in the previous chapter which shows the relationship of the active job files to the inactive job files.

Labor burden is the expenses incurred for workers in addition to their actual wages. It includes such things as the employer’s share of FICA (social security), federal and state unemployment insurance tax, workers’ compensation insurance premiums, and employer–paid union contributions, etc.

Labor burden can be used only when you interface to OpenPro.com Payroll.

When wage costs are transferred to the appropriate jobs, the system will automatically calculate labor burden during the transfer. The exact details of how this is done are described in the Overhead Burden and Labor Burden section on page 2–13. Here, we will address how you set up the automatic labor burden feature of OpenPro.com Job Cost.

If you want to use this automatic labor burden calculation capability, you must enter two fields in the Job Cost Control File.

The first field is the labor burden type. You can have the system calculate the labor burden in two different ways: as a percentage of the labor cost (that is, a percentage of wages), or as a rate per labor hour worked on the job.

When you select one of these ways in the Control File, you must also enter the second piece of information: the percentage or the rate.

The fields entered here are simply defaults that may be used when entering a job. You may select a different type, rate, or percentage for a specific job.

Overhead burden is all overhead expenses except for the additional expenses for labor due to employer paid taxes, pension and union benefits, etc. Overhead burden could include wages to office personnel, office supplies, rent and utilities of the home office. These are not direct job costs because they occur whether a specific job is underway or not.

You may have Job Cost automatically calculate the overhead burden. The exact details of how this is done are described in the Overhead Burden and Labor Burden section on page. Here, we will address how you set up the automatic overhead burden feature of OpenPro.com Job Cost.

You have three options for the method (type) to be used for calculating overhead burden:

1. First, it can be a percentage of labor cost.
2. Second, it can be a rate per labor hour. In these options, overhead burden is only calculated on labor entries.
3. Third, it can be a percentage of the overall job costs (i.e., all costs that are entered for a job are multiplied by a percentage to get the overhead burden).

You enter into the Control File both the method you wish to use for the automatic overhead burden calculation and the percentage or rate for that method. Your entries in the Control File are only defaults; you may change the method, percentage or rate when entering a specific job.

Each job must have a cost item into which the calculated labor burden can be stored automatically by the software. In each job description you must specify a category number for overhead burden. This category number is the category number for the cost item into which the calculated labor burden will be stored.

This field is required in the job description so that the software can verify (during job activation as described in the chapter titled Job Descriptions) that you have entered a cost item for the automatic burden calculation and so that the software knows which cost item is to be used for the automatic overhead burden calculation. A default for this category number is entered into the J/C Control File.

The cost item for overhead burden must be set up to be a non–direct cost of the job. (Whether a cost item is a direct or non–direct cost of the job is determined by the cost–type associated with the cost item. Cost–types can be set up as either direct or non–direct in the Job Cost Control file, as discussed later in this section.)

Cost types are the broad classifications of types of costs that go into all of your jobs.

When entering cost categories using Categories you must assign each category a cost type. There are four cost types built into Job Cost: labor, materials, subcontracts, and profit. You may define up to five additional cost types for such things as equipment costs, general administrative costs, different types of materials, etc. None of these are required. You may define them to tailor Job Cost to your particular business.

Additionally, you can define any of these additional cost types as either a <direct> cost or a <non–direct> cost. Amounts entered for the <non–direct> cost types are tracked in Job Cost, but are always shown separately from the direct costs. For example, you can use one of these cost types for indirect overhead burden, and thus you can track the overhead you have incurred for a job separately from direct costs.

A cost category is an aspect of a job or group of jobs for which money might be spent. Cost categories define in a fairly detailed way the types of work or costs that go into one or more of your jobs. Examples of cost categories are: rough carpentry, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, etc. Cost categories are more detailed than cost types, and can be broken down into even more detailed categories if desired, until a very fine level of detail is reached. We strongly suggest that you observe these guidelines as you set up your own cost categories:

1. Use round numbers, such as 10000, 11000, or 12000 for your main groupings of cost categories. These will be your broadest, most general categories.

2. Match the last digit of the category number to the cost type for that category.

Here’s an example:
Suppose you have a major grouping of 30000 for CONCRETE, a minor grouping of 31000 for CONCRETE FORMWORK, and need to number cost categories for CONCRETE FORMWORK—LABOR and CONCRETE FORMWORK—MATERIAL.

The LABOR cost type is <1> and the MATERIAL cost type is <2>, so you can assign category number 31001 to CONCRETE FORMWORK—LABOR, and category number 31002 to CONCRETE FORMWORK—MATERIAL.

3. Set a high number, such as 900000, for PROFIT, and another high number, such as 800000, for OVERHEAD BURDEN.

This section gives an overview of jobs, sub–jobs, and change orders as used in OpenPro.com Job Cost.

Jobs
A job is the overall, complete piece of work a business agrees to do for a customer. It usually has several parts and on large construction projects can have several hundred different cost items. In OpenPro.com Job Cost, a job is always identified by a job number <job number>.

Depending on the size and type of your business, you may want to break down some of your jobs into major subdivisions or <phases> and track costs and billings separately for each such subdivision. Job Cost provides a sub–job number for this purpose.

To enter a particular job or sub–job into Job Cost, you must first enter basic information in Job descriptions. This includes the job number you assigned to the job, the title of the job, and the total price of the job, as well as other information described in the chapter titled Job Descriptions.

If a job is not broken into sub–jobs when it is first entered, you cannot break the job into sub–jobs at a later time. You must decide whether the job will or will not have sub–jobs when you begin entering the job.

When a job is broken into sub–jobs, every cost item for the job must be a cost item for a sub–job.

Cost tasks are the specific categories of work that go into this particular job. Each cost item has a category number and an estimated or budgeted cost.

You must enter every cost item that goes into the job, as well as separate cost items for overhead and for profit. These two items must be accounted for when determining the overall price of the job.

The sum of all these estimated costs for the cost items of a job must add up to the price of the job. The same applies to any sub–job entered: the estimated costs must add up to the total price of the sub–job.

You can enter as many as 10 lines of 75 characters each of <additional description> to describe or comment upon a job or any cost item of a job. This feature lets you enter information about a job or its parts not included in the usual information kept for the job.

Examples are a description of the property (for contractors), a detailed description of the job, special circumstances about the job, the name of the foreman, the name of the architect, and special information about a cost item or vendor.

Job Cost does not let you enter actual costs for a job unless it is active. Activate jobs (described in the Job Descriptions chapter) checks the sum of estimated (budgeted) costs to verify that this sum matches the job price. It also checks other items. If everything checks out OK, the job becomes active. If something does not add up properly or is otherwise incorrect, the job is not activated and you will receive a printout showing why the job cannot be activated.

Subcontract costs Enter these through A/P Payables. If you are not using A/P, enter these costs in J/C Costing.

Other direct costs Enter other costs such as equipment and administrative costs through A/P Payables. If you are not using A/P, enter these costs in J/C Costing.

Overhead costs If you have set up a job so that overhead burden is calculated automatically, then overhead burden is calculated as direct costs are applied to jobs. This calculated overhead burden does not automatically affect OpenPro.com General Ledger. Instead, it is collected in the overhead burden cost item records for your jobs and is printed on your reports.

Labor burden If you are using the automatic labor burden calculation feature, the labor burden will be calculated in Payroll for each distribution of wages to a job. However, it will be kept separately, and it will not show up as part of actual job costs until you have made a separate general journal entry for it in General Ledger. It does not automatically affect General Ledger until you make this entry.

If you are using A/R:
You will enter billings (and CR and DR memos) for jobs through Invoices or Miscellaneous charges in A/R. In the case of Invoices, the billing may have originated as a Quotation in O/E (assuming you use that package), which has been converted to an invoice.

You will enter payments for jobs through Cash receipts in A/R.

If you are not using A/R:
Enter billings and payments for jobs using Billing and payment in Job Cost.

Lookup jobs.

See the cost is applied to the job.

If you are using G/L and you use the percentage–of–completion method of contract accounting, enter recognized profit through General journal in G/L. Such entries have a special source code that identifies them.

If you are not using OpenPro.com G/L, enter recognized profit through Billing and payment in Job Cost.

Recognized profit entered either in G/L or using Billing and payment will not automatically show up on the Job Status Report. In order for profit to show up on the Job Status Report, you must also enter a <cost> for this same profit amount, for the <profit> cost item for the job. Do this through Costing.

See the How to Enter Recognized Profit in J/C section on page for a more detailed discussion of how to handle recognized profit.

When costs are entered for jobs in OpenPro.com’s Payroll, Accounts Payable, and Inventory Control packages, these costs are transferred to jobs as follows:

1. When costs are posted in these packages, each cost that applies to a job is entered as one new record in the Job Detail File within J/C. These can be seen with View or printed with Reports. Posting in these packages does not directly update the period–to–date and job–to–date costs for your jobs, and will not show up on any other reports in Job Cost at this point.
2. All entries are posted on line realtime into the job costing system. No daily posting is required. Costing, the costs show up as accumulated period–to–date and job–to–date costs on the Job Status Report and other reports in Job Cost.

When billings and payments for jobs are entered and posted in A/R, and profit recognized entries are entered and posted in G/L, jobs are updated automatically. Because Job Cost does not keep period–to–date accumulations for your job’s billings and payments, these transactions directly update your jobs when they are posted in A/R and G/L.

Be sure that you do not post billings and payments for the next period in A/R until you have printed the Job Profitability Report for the current period.

Profit recognized transactions should be entered as described in the How to Enter Recognized Profit into J/C section. Also see the Guide to Daily Operations chapter.

When cost entries for jobs are entered and posted in G/L they are also immediately posted to jobs. The purpose of such entries is to make adjustments to cost items. For example, if you posted a cost to the wrong cost item, you could adjust this by first entering a debit which references the cost item that needs to be increased and then entering a credit that references the cost item that needs to be decreased. In each entry in General journal, the same G/L account should be used. This will have no effect on General Ledger, but will result in a shift of costs from one cost item to another to make the adjustment.

Retainage receivable and retainage payable This section covers how to handle retainage receivable in A/R and retainage payable in A/P.

When there is a retainage amount for an invoice, this amount is distributed as a debit to the retainage receivable account specified in J/C Control information. The remainder of the invoice amount is distributed as a debit to the accounts receivable account.

The A/R open item for this invoice does not include the retainage amount because the retainage is not yet due. This ensures that your A/R Aging Report is accurate.

When you are ready to bill the customer for the full-retained amount, you must enter a separate, new invoice for the customer. This invoice is for the full retainage amount. Do not, however, distribute this invoice to the job, as it was already applied to the job previously. This point is essential to keeping accurate records. Leave the job number for the entry blank. Distribute the full amount of this invoice to the retainage receivable account.

When this invoice is posted, it will have no effect on your job. However, it will turn the retainage receivable into a regular item, and it will now show up as an A/R open item and be aged properly on the A/R Aging Report. See the A/R User Guide for further discussion of this.

When there is a retainage amount on a vendor invoice, this amount is distributed as a credit to the retainage payable account specified in J/C Control information. The remainder of the invoice is distributed as a credit to the accounts payable account.

The original invoice amount on the A/P Open Item record (created when the invoice is posted) does not include the retainage amount because the retainage is not yet due. This ensures that your Aged Open Items Report is accurate.

When a vendor completes his work for you, and you receive an invoice for the full retainage due, you must enter a new, separate voucher. This voucher is for the full retainage amount. The voucher is entered as a regular <retainage now due> voucher. This is a special voucher type in A/P that is only available when A/P is interfaced to Job Cost. See the Payables chapter in the A/P User Guide for a full discussion of all the options available to handle <retainage now due> transactions.

As described earlier in this chapter, Job Cost will calculate two types of burden:

1. Overhead Burden And Labor Burden
The purpose of this section is to explain how these burdens are calculated by OpenPro.com Job Cost.Overhead burden When a cost transaction is posted (using Costing), the software will calculate an overhead amount based on the transaction. The amount is calculated as per the method to be used for overhead burden as specified in the job description. The cost item for overhead burden is updated with this amount during the posting run.

For example, suppose a cost transaction is being posted for $1000 to cost item 6108–000–000. Assuming that overhead burden is being calculated as a percent of job cost and that the percentage being used is 10%, then $100 will be added to the overhead burden cost item for the job. See the J/C Control File Options section for an explanation of how the software locates the cost item for overhead burden.

If overhead burden is being calculated based on a percentage of labor costs or a rate per labor hour, then the overhead is only calculated if the cost item is for labor. This is determined by the cost–type for the cost item, which must be set to LABOR in order for overhead to be calculated in these cases.

As the overhead burden cost item is a non–direct cost of the job, there are no debits and credits associated with the cost which is added to the overhead burden cost item. To show such costs in your General Ledger, you would have to make a separate journal entry, using OpenPro.com G/L or your guide ledger.

2. Labor Burden
The automatic labor burden calculation is only available if you are using OpenPro.com Payroll.

When Payroll transactions are posted, job related costs are stored in the Job Detail File. A labor burden amount is calculated for each job related cost. This calculation is performed per the labor burden calculation method set up in the job description.

Payroll only calculates the labor burden. In order to apply the labor burden to the job, a procedure must be followed as described below:

• Print the Payroll by Job # Report. When printing this report, specify that only the transactions not yet interfaced to J/C should be printed. This report will show the labor burden calculated for each job. The report should be printed before running Get Costs to transfer Payroll costs from the Job Detail File to the Cost Transaction File.
• Run Get Costs, transferring the Payroll costs from the Job Detail File to the Cost Transaction File. Post these transactions. These transactions will result in overhead burden being calculated automatically for the associated costs, as described above. However, this is separate from the labor burden that is being handled here.

3. The next step is to apply the labor burden to the job, as described below.

Enter and post General Journal transactions to apply the labor burden (from the Payroll by Job # Report printed earlier). Assuming that a positive cost amount needs to be applied, the debit entry would be to your cost account for the job and the debit entry would reference the labor burden cost item for the job. (See the chapter titled General Journal [with Job Cost] in the General Ledger User Guide.) The credit entry would be to a contra–expense account. This could be named >Allocated labor burden>, or whatever name your accountant recommends. The net effect of these transactions is to shift the labor expense from the general labor expense section of your P&L statement into the Cost of Jobs section of your financial statement. Since the cost item for labor burden is referenced on the debit side, the cost item will be increased when the General Journal entry is posted. (In General Journal, debits increase cost items, credits reduce cost items.)

Enter and post a Costing transaction for the amount of the labor burden (as shown on the Payroll by Job # Report printed earlier). The cost item to use is the cost item you have set up for labor burden for the job.

Since the labor burden cost item is a direct cost of the job, you will need to enter debits and credits for this amount in Costing.

Assuming that a positive cost amount needs to be applied, the debit entry would be to your cost account for the job. The credit entry would be to a contra–expense account. This could be named <Allocated labor burden>, or whatever name your accountant recommends. The net effect of these distributions is to shift the labor expense from the general labor expense section of your P&L statement into the Cost of Jobs section of your financial statement.

4. If overhead burden is being calculated based on all job costs, then overhead burden will be calculated in step 3 above on the labor burden amount. In other words, administrative overhead burden will be calculated on the labor burden.

This occurs because labor burden is a cost item of the job and, as described earlier, overhead burden is calculated on applicable costs at the time the costs are posted.

If overhead burden is being calculated based only on labor costs, then overhead burden would not be calculated on the labor burden amount because the cost type for the labor burden cost item would not be designated as being of typeLABOR. It would be given a user–defined non–direct cost type, as provided for in the Job Cost Control File.

In the Job Cost package, recognized profit is the amount of profit that you <recognize> for accounting purposes in a period. It differs from estimated or expected profit. <Recognize> is an accounting term meaning to <record in your General Ledger>. When profit is recognized, it then shows up on your P&L Statement, and not before. Using the percentage–of–completion method of accounting for a job, profit is recognized based on the percent of the job that is complete at the end of an accounting period. This differs from the completed job method of accounting, where the entire profit is recognized all at once, when the job is 100% complete. (Example: Although Job #3 is not complete by Dec 31, profit based on current estimates is $30,000, so a recognized profit transaction is entered for that amount.)

When profit is recognized on a job, you must enter it into the Job Cost system so that certain reports will print accurate information regarding the job.

This report shows all cost items for a job. A cost item for profit is always entered for a job. This is done so that the sum of the actual cost items, plus the profit cost item will equal the price of the job (which is the price quoted to the customer).

In order for the amount of profit recognized for the job to show up properly on the Job Status Report, you must enter and post a transaction for the profit cost item using Costing. Since the cost type for this cost item is PROFIT, and cost items of this type are always non–direct costs of the job, no debit or credit is entered with the transaction. Thus, this transaction is simply a memo transaction which is made so that profit will show up properly on the Job Status Report.

This report shows the amount of profit which can be recognized on a job for the current period. The calculations made by this report are described in full in the chapter titled Reports and should be reviewed by you and your accountant.

This report assumes that you are using the percentage–of–completion method of accounting for your jobs and the <Cumulative Catch–up> method of revising completion estimates. If you are recognizing profit on your jobs on a <completed jobs> basis, this report is not relevant to your business.

In order for this report to show the amount of profit that can be recognized for the current period, the software must know what profit has already been recognized for the job.

Each Job Description record contains a field (not shown on the screen) which contains the profit previously recognized for the job. If the job bills for sub–jobs, then each Sub–Job Description record contains a field (not shown on the screen) which contains the profit recognized on that sub–job.

In order for the Profitability Report to accurately report on the profit to be recognized, you must post transactions which update the profit recognized field in the job description record (or Sub–Job Description records, if appropriate) each period which reflect the net increase or decrease in profit for the job for that period. The procedure for doing this is described below. The point at which you use this procedure is described in the chapter titled Guide to Daily Operations.

Assuming that there is a net increase in profit on the job for the period, enter a General Journal transaction that references the job, but does not reference a cost item.

The account credited should be a revenue account for the job. Consult with your accountant for the exact account to use. The debit should be to the billings account for the job, as entered in the Job Description record. The debit side should not reference the job. These two entries shift the increase in profit from your billing account to your revenue account, while increasing the profit recognized field in the Job description record (or sub–job description record).

If you have a net decrease in profit on the job for the period (but a profit overall on the job), the debit side would reference the job and would not reference a cost item.. The account debited would be your revenue account. The credit side would be to a <billings over cost> account (or whatever account your accountant recommends) and would not reference the job. The net effect is reduce your profit from jobs and reflect this amount as an over billing (or as your accountant recommends) while decreasing the profit recognized amount stored in the Job Description record.

Enter a profit-recognized transaction using Billing and Payment. Assuming that there is a net increase in profit on the job for the period, the account credited should be revenue account for the job. Consult with your accountant for the exact account to use. The debit should be to the billings account for the job, as entered in the Job Description record. These two entries shift the increase in profit from your billing account to your revenue account, while increasing the profit recognized field in Job Description record (or sub–job description record).

If you have a net decrease in profit on the job for the period (but a profit overall on the job), the account debited would be your revenue account. The credit side would be to a <billings over cost> account (or whatever account your accountant recommends). The net effect is reduce your profit from jobs and reflect this amount as an over billing (or as your accountant recommends) while decreasing the profit recognized amount stored in the Job Description record.

When start–up is complete, you will be ready to use this package on a regular basis.
Daily and monthly checklists are in the Guide to Daily Operations chapter.
The remaining chapters show you how to:

• Enter:
  • Costs
  • billings and payments
  • completion estimates.
• Inquire into the status of jobs.
• Print:
  • a Job Status Report
  • Management Reports
  • a Distribution to G/L Report.
• Get costs from interfaced OpenPro.com packages.
• Close: Not needed all real time, but you can close JOBS.

The Utility chapter describes four selections not used in the regular routine of entering information on jobs or reporting on jobs: closing or reopening jobs; purging, saving, or restoring job detail; viewing saved detail; and purging, saving or restoring jobs.

If you have problems with this software package, contact your dealer or authorized consultant.

For the name and location of a OpenPro.com dealer or an authorized consultant near you, contact OpenPro.com at 1–714-378-4600

If you wish to receive support directly from OpenPro.com, please call our End User Support Department at 1–714-378-4600. email supportop@openpro.com

Or when you are in OpenPro, you can select support on the top right side and have live support chat sessions.

When you call this number, you will be billed for support on a per–minute basis.

Before the billing starts, you will be informed of the current rates, and you will be given the opportunity to disconnect before you incur any charges.

The charges for this support will be automatically included in your next phone bill.

You may go to your own dealer for training; however, if your dealer does not offer training, Authorized Technology Centers are available. Call OpenPro.com at (714) 378-4600 for the name of the Authorized Technology Center closest to you.

This guide provides the information needed to learn and use OpenPro.com Job Cost.

The chapter after this one is a guide to daily operations. It explains how you use OpenPro.com Job Cost to perform various daily, weekly, and periodic tasks.

After the guide, the next few chapters give instructions on how to enter the basic information (mentioned in the Installation and System Guide) which will set up your package according to your needs and prepare you for daily operation.

Next are chapters that you will use most frequently. They describe how to use OpenPro.com Job Cost on a daily basis.

The last few chapters describe selections that are used periodically, including such selections as closing a period.

Additional information can be obtained from the Installation and System Guide, which contains chapters that describe features common to all OpenPro.com packages.

Topics covered in the Installation and System Guide include:

• Defining multiple companies
• General rules
• Help
• Switching companies
• Defining menu selections
• Passwords
• Advanced features
• File recovery utilities
• Backing up your data files
• Glossary of terms

When beginning, you will want to keep this guide handy so you can refer to it as often as you need. Later, you may only need to refer to it occasionally. Each chapter of this guide provides instructions on how to use a particular selection of your software.

The instructions include many examples of what to enter where. In fact, you can go through the guide entering all the examples as you come across them. This <tutorial> will give you a good demonstration of the capabilities of your new software.

These examples presuppose that you have loaded the demo data. See the Installation and System Guide for instructions on doing this. Many of the examples can be used even if the demo data is not loaded, but the results may not be exactly as described here. The examples will work no matter which company you have loaded the demo data to; in this guide we have assumed Company XX, but any other company would do as well.

The examples are all consistent with each other. For instance, the sample reports that appear at the end of each chapter are those that will actually be printed when you enter the examples in the text. For this reason, it is best to begin at the beginning and proceed systematically through each example in turn.

If you skip some earlier examples, you can usually enter the later ones, but the results may not be quite as depicted if you do not enter the job we tell you to enter in the Jobs selection, obviously you are not going to see that job when you use the View/jobs selection.

You are not given any examples inconsistent with the default entries assumed in Control information. In a few cases, this means that some features are without examples, or that the examples will behave somewhat differently for you than they would for a user whose configuration is exactly the same as the defaults. All such differences are fully explained as they are encountered.

After you are through using the examples, be sure you initialize the data files before you begin entering your actual business information. See the Initializing Data Files appendix for information on how to do this.

If you are in a multi–company environment, you may wish to dedicate a test company for training purposes only, and re–load the demo data into this company as often as needed.

If you are in a single–company environment, many of these examples can be used safely provided you take care to delete any entries you have created after you are finished (and before posting anything!). The alternative is to suspend all actual processing, back up all your files, load the demo data, hold your training session, and then restore the production data afterwards.

While using your OpenPro.com software, press the <HELP> key at any time for help about what you’re currently doing.

A menu is a list of things from which something can be selected. Selecting something from a menu on a computer is the way you tell your computer what you want to do.

If you have been using previous versions of OpenPro.com software, you are familiar with the way those menus work. Selecting something from one of those menus either allowed you to perform an action or brought you another menu from which to make another selection.

The Job cost Calendar is used to keep track of and schedule work operations.

To view and edit the job cost calendar you enter the main menu, and scroll down to the section marked job cost. After you have done this you open the section and are provided with another menu for the job cost section only. Once you have entered this window you are able to access the calendar by clicking on the button marked JC Calendar.

The following screen will appear:

Marking and scheduling is made easy in Openpro.com. To schedule an event or job you first select the day or days that the job is to be done. You do so by simply adding a new job in the Job master section. Once you have done so the job will appear on the calendar and you are able to view all details pertaining to that job by clicking on the job on the calendar. Once a job is on the calendar you are able to edit and make changes as necessary.

In this section you are able to schedule jobs as the come and edit current jobs as they evolve.

To begin you start at the general menu and you scroll down to the job cost section. Once there you enter job cost and are presented with another menu.

To access Job Master you simply click on the button that says Job Master from the list and you will presented with the following screen:

Once here you have one of two options. You can either click the button that says go, on the upper right hand portion of the screen, or you can enter information into the search fields.

If you click go you will be given a list of ALL jobs entered into the system, and you can search for jobs that way. If you would like a defined search enter in the job number, job description, or customer ID into the correct fields and click go. This will bring up only the items that match your search.

Once you have entered into the job master, you are able to view, edit, delete or add jobs. The screen should look like the following:

While in Job Master you are also given the option to perform a search for another job without having to go back to the start menu.

In order to add a job you need to click on the blue button on the top left hand side of the screen labeled add new job. Once you have clicked on add new job the following screen will appear in a separate window:

To add a job, fill out all of the required information (in blue lettering). Once you have entered all of the required information you are able to fill in the other tables with information and details to that job. Once you are through entering all of the information you click the add button and your job will be entered into the Job Master.

Also, once you have added a job you are able to view and edit the job in the Job Calendar as well as the Job Master.

To edit a job you start at the jobs listing page and find the job that you would like to make changes to. You then click on the green edit button on the far left hand side of the job that you have chosen. This will take you to a similar screen to add new job, but the original information that you have entered will still be present in the columns. The screen will look like the following:

From here you are able to make any necessary changes to the job as well as add and view notes.

In order to make notes for certain jobs you will do the same thing as would to edit a job. Once the edit screen is up, there will be a button in the top right hand corner. This button looks like a pencil and paper, and clicking on the button will give you the ability to enter notes concerning the job.

This is the screen that appears when you wish to add a note. You type in the note, add key words if desired, as well as attach files and you click the blue add button at the bottom to enter the note, and save the screen as you exit. Once a note is entered into the Openpro.com system there is no way of removing it, it is a permanent feature.

To view a note that you have entered for a job you go to the desired job and click the edit button. Once there, in the top right hand corner next to the add notes button is a button with a pair of glasses and paper, this is your view notes button. By clicking this button you are able to view all notes that have ever been entered for that particular job.

In order to view or edit details to the job, you start off at the job's listing page in Job Master. From there you find the desired job and click on the gray button located to the left of the job labeled details. The following screen will appear:

From this point you are able to view and edit details by clicking on the green edit button located to the left of the job. It will take you to the following screen:

At this point you look up or edit details as you please, and once you are through you click the green save button at the bottom of the window. Once the item is saved you automatically return to the previous page.

At anytime you are able to delete a job within the Job Master. You simply clickon the delete button on the far right hand side of the screen next to the desired job. A window will appear asking your permission to delete the job, and you have to option to click yes or no. Once you click yes the job will be deleted. If you decide to click no you will return to the window you were in before you hit the delete button.

The tables are a quick way to check up on the status of jobs.

To access tables you will need to enter the job cost section of the menu. Once you are there you select Tables from the list of menu items and it will take you to the following screen:

Once at this screen you are able to view a jobs status by entering a description. You can enter one of three descriptions: Job Status Codes, Job Type or Overhead Burden type Code. Once you have selected a description you click on the go button to present you with the current status of all jobs.

From this screen you are able to edit, delete or add new records to the table.

Must have ACTIVE in the Codes for active Jobs, the Code can only be 5 characters long.

In order to add a new record you need to click on the blue add new button on the top left hand side of the screen. It will take you to the following screen:

Enter all information in the required fields (in blue) and then hit the blue add button at the bottom of the screen to enter the record into the system. Once you have added your note into the system you are brought back previous page of records, and are able to access and view your new record from there.

In order to edit a record you need to click on the green edit button on the left hand side of the screen next to the desired job. It will take you to the following screen:

From here you are able to edit the job and make changes as you please. Once you are finished making your changes click on the green save button at the bottom of the screen, and that will take you back to the previous page of records.

In order to delete a record you need to click on the red delete button on the right hand side of the screen next to the desired job. A window will appear asking your permission to delete the job, and you have to option to click yes or no. Once you click yes the job will be deleted. If you decide to click no you will return to the window you were in before you hit the delete button.

With the table type you are able to edit the description of items for the Table also known as cost types/codes.

To access table type you will need to enter the job cost section of the menu. Once you are there you select Table Type from the list of menu items and it will take you to the following screen:

In order to add a new type you need to click on the blue add new button on the top left hand side of the screen. It will take you to the following screen:

Enter all information in the required fields (in blue) and then hit the blue add button at the bottom of the screen to enter the type into the system. Once you have added your note into the system you are brought back previous page of types of tables, and are able to access and view your new table from there.

In order to edit a record you need to click on the green edit button on the left hand side of the screen next to the desired job. It will take you to the following screen:

From here you are able to edit and make changes as you please. Once you are finished making all of your changes click on the green save button at the bottom of the screen, and that will take you back to the previous page of job cost codes.

Other interfaces with Job costing.

Vouchers can select and use the number numbers.

Entering vouchers can look up the jobs to charge to.

Purchase orders.

can look up jobs.

GL journal entries, can look up jobs as well.

Time card entry.

[Last Review Date December 2015]

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