This release includes two new features:
Important new feature
We're excited to introduce Quotes into TidyWork. Quoting can now be done in its own dedicated area, separated from Projects. Quotes also enable you to cost time against rates, rather than needing to identify individual users. When a quote is accepted it becomes a project, giving you the full power of TidyWork.
Previously to create a quote TidyWork users created a Project and set the status to proposal. Quotes have a similar look and feel to projects, but are completely separate.
Users who are familiar with using Projects in a proposal status will find two key differences when using Quotes.
First, there is a complete separation from Projects. You must have the Estimator role to access Quotes. This means your sales team and your project team don't have to see each other's items.
Second, in Quotes you can estimate time required without assigning the quoted work to actual users (staff). This means your sales people can accurately estimate the cost and charge of time without knowing who will end up doing the work.
Quotes will be automatically on for all new sign-ups after this release. To avoid disruption of existing accounts, it will be initially disabled. You can contact us using the support system inside your TidyWork solution to request it be enabled for you.
To access quotes you'll need the new Estimator role. Like all roles this can be turned on in a user's settings.
Only users with this Estimator role will be able to access the quotes tab.
Quotes have five possible statues:
Only Quotes with a draft status can edited. (If you want to edit a quote with another status it will first have to be switched to the draft status.)
Quotes can be for a fixed price or Time and Materials, allowing you to provide a frim quote or a flexible estimate.
For a tasks in a Quote, the time is estimated against a charge rate (rather than assigned to a user in a Project). These charge rates are the global charge rates. The cost of this time is the global charge rate, unless Quote Cost is set for that charge rate. You can now set the Quote Cost on the Charge Rate screen.
A quote can be accepted be pressing the Accept Quote button on the Quote Console. This will open a dialogue where you will have the option of changing key parameters and assigning the Project Manager before pressing Accept.
On acceptance the quote status will be changed to Won. A new Project will also be created with a status of Not Started. The Project Manager will need to assign the tasks to Users from the Project Edit screen.
We want to further improve how TidyWork handles quoting. We'd love to get your input on how we can make it awesome. Please use the support button in your solution to give use your feedback on quotes. We'd like to know what you want added, what's good, what's annoying and how use it.
Some of our customers want to be able to create sub projects, or groups within a project that include both labour and materials. This will be really useful for breaking down a project into phases or steps when quoting. It will also allow for reports to be broken down in the same way.
This new feature allows materials to be assigned (written) to tasks, so they can be grouped together. Previously materials could only be written against a whole project. This feature allows more granular control.
The option to group materials to tasks can be controlled at both global and project level.
This feature is available to those on a Jet plan or above.
In Global Settings, there is an option to group materials to mandatory or disable by default. This setting can be found in Global Settings > Company > Advanced.
In the project edit screen, the global settings can be overridden to allow or disallow grouping on a project.
When adding a material to the material plan, a dropdown box allows you to group the material with a task.
When adding a material, the option to group with a task will become available if the project requires.
The project console will also display materials grouped by task if enabled.
There is a new Project Proposal template which allows for grouping by tasks in a customised proposal. You can find an example template in Global Settings > Templates.
Relevant reports now allow for this grouping of materials by tasks:
