Horizon Tutorial - Booking an Inspection

Transcription

1 Horizon Tutorial - Booking an Inspection Horizon is built to save you time and effort, while reducing the chance for errors when booking inspections. With Horizon booking an inspection is easy and fast! Data from the work order is automatically transferred to your reports, cover letters, contracts, invoices, Accounts Receivables and Business at a Glance. In this session we will cover: 1. Booking an Inspection The First Step 2. Client Information 3. Inspection Address 4. Property Description 5. Inspection Type and Fee 6. Date, Time and Inspector 7. Notes 8. Agent Information 9. Sending a Confirmation 10. Completing your Work Order 11. Customizing your Work Orders 12. Previously Inspected Homes 13. Log of Activity Let s get started. 1. Booking an inspection the first step: 1.1. Start by logging in, to get to the Home screen There are two ways to start booking an inspection: Go to the Schedule screen and double click on an open date, time and inspector. When the pop-up box opens, click Inspection. This takes you to the Book an Inspection screen (Figure 1), and also enters the date, time and inspector into the Work Order automatically for you You can also just click on the Book Inspection tab on the top of any screen. This will take you to the Book an Inspection screen too (Figure 1). Figure Enter as much client and property information as you need, but fields with an asterisk (*) are required. Page 1 of 26

2 1.4. Enter the client s address if possible, because Horizon uses this to send the final report. (The client receives an with a link to their report.) 1.5. You may click on the yellow exclamation point next to the city field to select a city from your own pre-defined list. You may edit this list in the Text Options section of the Profile Identify who booked the inspection. You can edit this data later in the work order. Note: When you click the Next button at the bottom of the screen, one report credit will be used After you click Next, you are brought to the first Work Order screen (Figure 2) The standard navigation tabs are across the top of the screen Across the top of the screen are 8 links: send to pda - This sends the work order to the PDA side of Horizon send to web - This sends the work order to the Web side of Horizon cancel inspection - This cancels the inspection download work order - This creates a PDF of the work order download contract - This creates a PDF of the contract contract not yet accepeted Notification that the client has accepted the contract or not download invoice - This creates a PDF of the invoice log - This creates a log of all the people who booked or revised the inspection, and when need help? - This takes you to the Booking an Inspection tutorial Just below those 9 links is a Status button. The default position is Tentative. You can change it to Confirmed by clicking Tentative The inspection address is displayed beside the status. Figure 2 Summary Panels Data Entry Panels There are 8 screens where you may add information to the work order. The screens are summarized in the smaller panels on the left side of the work order: Page 2 of 26

3 Client Information Inspection Address Property Description Inspection Type/Fee Date/Time/Inspector Agent Information Notes Confirmation One of the data entry screens is always displayed to the right of these summary panels. In Figure 2, we are on the Client Information screen Click on any summary panel on the left side to get to that data entry screen. o The circled arrow on the right side of the summary panel turns green to indicate which screen you are on. o The background of the left-hand panels stays white until that screen has been visited. The background turns gray once you have been on that screen. This allows you to see at a glance whether you have completed the work order. o As you add information in the data entry panels, the data is summarized in the left-hand panels. This allows you to always have an overview of the work order on screen. In Figure 2, the client s name and address is shown in the left-hand panel called Client Information. The inspection address is shown in the next left-hand panel called Inspection Address. Let s have a quick look at each data entry panel, starting with Client Information. First, a quick note: There are no Save buttons on these screens. Your entries are saved when you click on the next screen or tab. Sometimes your entries won t show up until you leave the screen. It s very fast and efficient, but may take a couple of minutes to get used to. 2. Client Information (Figure 3): 2.1. You can enter who will be attending the inspection in the Attendees note field at the top of the screen You can also check the box marked DO NOT CONTACT CLIENT. This is useful if you send marketing pieces to clients after the inspection. Some clients do not want to be contacted, and this allows you to mark that clearly You can enter two client names with contact information. Figure 3 Page 3 of 26

4 2.4. Clicking SAME ADDRESS copies Client 1 s address to Client 2, so you do not have to enter the information again When you re finished adding information, click on the next left-hand summary panel. Your entries are automatically saved. 3. Inspection Address 3.1. Let s go to the Inspection Address screen by clicking the Inspection Address panel on the left side of the work order. See Figure This screen is very straightforward. It shows the address you entered on the first Booking an Inspection screen. Notice that the summary panels on the left have a grey background once we have been to its data entry panel. Where we see white summary panels, we know we have not been there yet. A great tool to make sure you collect all the data! You ll notice that you can also dynamically select a city by clicking on the yellow exclamation point field to select a common city. Once again, your default city is automatically selected for you. next to the city Figure 4 Page 4 of 26

5 4. Property Description: Figure The Property Description screen is straightforward too. Add as much or as little info as you need You don t need to make an entry in each section You may click on the next to the Price and Square Feet fields to quickly select an estimated price and square footage from your database Again, your selections will be summarized in the left panel when you leave this screen. Note: we don t see all the data on the left panel because we don t want to make the screen so long that scrolling is needed. And you are never more than click away from any screen with all the detail. Figure Look at the Property Description summary panel in Figure 6 below. We have said this is a detached, single family, 2-story home with 10 rooms, 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms. The purchase price is $250,000 for this 2,200 square foot home built in Now let s move to the Inspection Type and Fees screen. Page 5 of 26

6 5. Inspection Type & Fee (Figure 6): You can set up all of your standard fees for all of your inspection types in the Invoice section of My Profile. If you haven t looked at this section yet, we ll get to it in Setting up the Invoice document. It s very easy. If there are taxes, Horizon will calculate them for you. Again, you can set these up in the Invoice section, with the percentage and name of the taxes. For one-of-a-kind inspections or unusual fees (friends and family discounts!) you can edit your standard inspection types, fees and taxes on-the-fly. Figure The red No Fee notice is displayed in the left panel until you set a fee for the inspection. This is just a reminder for your convenience. Select as many inspection types and fees as you want. Horizon will total them for you. You can mark the inspection paid on here at any time, so this work order will not show up on your Accounts Receivable reports. Page 6 of 26

7 6. Date, Time and Inspector (Figure 7): 6.1. This screen does what it says. Figure This is where you can schedule your inspection If you have used the Scheduler to start the booking, you will have already selected the Date, Time and Inspector for this inspection. Those selections will appear on this screen The default inspection duration is 2.5 hours If you did not use the Scheduler, all inspections are set by default to start the next day at 9:00am with 2.5- hour duration. You can change this by clicking on any day in the calendar and/or selecting a new time and duration You may have noticed the Conflict Detected in the summary panel for this section We booked this inspection without looking at the Scheduler, and Horizon is telling us we have double booked ourselves We can see the conflict details in the data entry panel, as the addresses show up as red links Why are the addresses links? So we can click to move instantly to any other work order! 6.8. We can resolve the conflict by moving the time date or inspector for either work order The Inspector's name is assigned by default to the inspector who is logged in. You can assign this inspection to anyone on the dropdown list. (Your list is built in the Manage Inspectors section of My Profile) A client or agent may request a specific inspector. You can note this by checking off the box titled, This Inspector Only The inspector s name will appear in red in the left panel under Date/Time/Inspector if it is a request When this inspection shows up on the Scheduler, it will have a red border around it, indicating that the inspection should not be moved to a different inspector All the inspections for that day are shown on the right side of the larger right panel We adjusted the inspection time to resolve the conflict and made the inspection a request for this inspector. See Figure The Conflict Detected note is gone, and the inspector s name is in red on the summary panel because it is a request for that inspector. Page 7 of 26

8 Figure 8 Page 8 of 26

9 Now let s look at the Agent Information screen. 7. Agent Information - Figure 9: Figure You can click to add the buyer s agent and/or seller s agent from your database. Your database is imported or built in My Profile, Managing Real Estate Agents. (You can also put relocation company contacts, attorneys, etc. in this database.) 7.2. Scroll through either or both lists, and highlight the correct name Any notes in the database about that agent will show up here The agent s name and phone numbers appear in the summary panel. Page 9 of 26

10 Figure Click Remove Agent to remove an agent from your Work Order We have already entered some agents in our database You can add individual agents or import a whole list of agents from the My Profile section. See Managing Real Estate Agents You can also add agents on the fly in the Work Order Let s add a new agent by clicking Create New Agent (See Figure 11). Page 10 of 26

11 Figure Agent Information (Figure 12): Each Agent must be linked to a company. Page 11 of 26

12 Figure If the company is already in your database, just add the agent s information and select a Company Name from the list Click Add to save your entries This agent will now be added to the list and will appear on both drop-down lists on every future work order If the agent s company is not listed here, click New Company. See Figure 13. Page 12 of 26

13 Figure Enter the agent s name and phone numbers, and then type in the Company name Click Add to save the new company and agent. See Figure 14. Page 13 of 26

14 Figure This agent and the new Company will now appear in the drop-down lists for all agents in all future work orders You can add more details in My Profile/ Manage Real Estate Agents. We cover this further in the Manage Real Estate Agents tutorial Referred By - Click on who referred the client to you on this screen. See Figure The default position for Referred By is None, and there must be one (and only one) entry here This will allow the database to track your sources of business accurately Booked By works the same way. You made an entry on the first Work Order. You can edit it here. See Figure You can also click on the next to the Booked By Other: field to quickly select who booked the inspection from your pre-defined list When you are finished with the Agent Information screen, click on any other summary panel. Page 14 of 26

15 8. Notes: This section is straightforward. You can enter any text you want here. We ve entered some information for the inspector in Figure The Note can be up to 1024 characters. The remaining number of characters allowed shows at the top of the screen You can also click on the to insert your own common notes that you have created in the Text Options area of your Profile. Figure Sending a Confirmation Horizon makes it very easy to send a confirmation to agents and clients alike This ensures everyone knows the date, time, address and inspection fee Go to the Confirmation screen by clicking on the left panel Figure 16 shows what it looks like. Page 15 of 26

16 Figure To send the , click the To: button, select the client by clicking add, and hit the green Send button on the bottom of the screen You can add the agent s address if you have their address in your database Just click on the CC: link. See Figure The agent s name will appear in a pop-up box. (The client s name appears too.) 9.9. Click add to enter the agent s address in the CC line You can also enter any other address. Just enter the address. If there is already an address on the line you want, just put a semicolon after that address, and add another The inspector's address is included as a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC), so the inspector knows about the inspection You can also click on the next to the BCC field to control who will receive a blind copy of the confirmation . You may edit this list in the Text Options section of the profile You also have control over whom the reply should go to. In the Reply-To Override field, (Figure 16) just click on the to select the person to whom the reply will go to. Horizon will default to the first person on the list You can also click on the next to the Subject and Body fields to dynamically insert your own common content or subject lines. For example, this gives you the ability to quickly create an with your contract inserted in the body. Page 16 of 26

17 Figure The subject line is Home Inspection Confirmation The client's name has been inserted in the salutation line The inspection address, date, time, fee and duration are shown If you do not want to include any of this data, simply uncheck the box beside that field For example, you may want to hide the Fee field, if the inspection is complimentary These fields cannot be edited on the Confirmation screen. Why? You don t want the confirmation to show a different time, address or fee than the Work Order itself You set up the confirmation wording one time in the My Profile section under Confirmation . All of your confirmation s will have the wording you set up You can change the wording of the confirmation for any individual Work Order by simply changing the text in the Confirmation screen before you send the When you click on Send , a pop-up box will ask you if the data is correct. See Figure 18. (You don t want to forget to include the inspection fee!) If you click OK, the will be sent. Page 17 of 26

18 Figure Let s see what happens after you have sent your confirmation Horizon tells you when the was sent, by whom and to whom. See the log at the bottom of Figure Horizon will place the date of the sent in the Confirmation navigation pane. (Figure 19) This will remind you that an has already been sent, and save you a click What if the inspection is re-scheduled? No problem, just revise the work order to show the new date and time, and go back to the confirmation Your changes to the data will be reflected. Your changes will also show up on the Scheduler! By the way, you can change the date, time, duration, inspector and status on the Scheduler too. Changes will show up on the Work Order and Confirmation . How cool is that? What if you have to correct the client s name or address? Again, no problem The body text will be the default text. You can revise it if you want, before sending a confirmation . After you send the confirmation , the body text will always revert to the default text You will have a copy of the for your files, since Horizon sends you a Blind Carbon Copy What if you have to send another copy of the ? No problem, you can resend the to the people you sent it to, or you can send it to others, or both Once again, you will be able to check look at the Confirmation Navigation panel tab to see if a confirmation has been sent. If you send confirmation s more than once, the most recent one will appear here. (Figure 19) Page 18 of 26

19 Horizon really is about simplicity and flexibility! Figure Completing your Work Order: You have several choices at the bottom of the Work Order screen If you don t do anything, the Work Order will be kept on the Home screen and will show up on the scheduler as Booked Send to PDA: This changes the Work Order status to Ready for PDA. The next time this Inspector connects his PDA to the Internet, this Work Order will be sent to his PDA Note: While the Work Order is on the PDA, the inspector controls it. No one can change the Work Order from the web side, because we don t want to create conflicting versions of a Work Order You can still download the work order, contract and invoice on the web while the work order is on the PDA Send to Web: This sends the Work Order to the web side and changes the Work Order status to Inspected. You can write the report on the web side. You will not be able to send the Work Order to the PDA after this is done. Page 19 of 26

20 Cancel Inspection: Whenever you cancel an inspection, it will go into a recycle bin for 90 days. Horizon lets you revive that inspection if you want. You can access all of your cancelled inspections from the Home page. If you already started to write the report, the data is also saved for 90 days You will also be able to record the reason(s) why your inspection was cancelled. This data can be exported later into excel to help track your results Home: Takes you to the Home screen to view all inspections and their status. This leaves the inspection in the Booked pool, without sending it to the PDA or the web yet Download Work Order: This allows you to get the Work Order as a PDF you can print out, store, or send to someone. See Figure 20. Figure Download Contract: This allows you to download the contract as a PDF you can print out, store, or send to someone. You may want to take a paper copy (or two) of the contract to the inspection to get it signed on site Contract not yet accepted: This is a switch at the top of every work order screen. Once your client sends you a reply accepting your contract, you can click on this to change to Contract accepted. Anyone who looks at the work order will know that the contract has been electronically signed already Download Invoice gives you the same options. And that s it! Well, almost. We know that home inspectors work orders are as different as home inspectors. So we have added some flexibility for you. Page 20 of 26

21 11. Work Order Customization Do you want to capture other data on your work orders? These are typically things that are not included in your report, but are important for the inspector to know or have for your archives Here are a few examples: MLS numbers Weather at time of inspection Time inspection started and ended Time people arrived and left Proprietary report numbers (although Horizon numbers every report for you.) Was a signed contract received? Report delivery instructions Payment method? Payment terms? Payment received? Pre-listing report status Draft sent for approval on Aug Approval received on Aug Final delivered on Aug Scripts that booking staff should use mouseovers allow these to come up instantly as needed Directions, map coordinates etc Lock box or gate code number Thermostat set at Fan was in auto or manual mode GFCIs reset? Range and lights turned off? Door locked? Radon canister placed? Date and time Radon canister picked up? Date and time Additional contact info (extra s, company name, etc.) Relocation company details Ancillary suppliers contacted? Property occupied or vacant? Utilities on? (Gas, electricity, water) Pool open? Configuration (Basement, crawlspace, slab, piers, grade beam, pole) Callback? List of contractors, associations, etc, that people booking inspections can give to callers. (We don t do air quality testing, but here is a company that does.) Page 21 of 26

22 11.8. Let s start by clicking on Work Order Customization in My Profile. Figure This takes us to Figure 22. Figure 22 Page 22 of 26

23 There are 8 data entry screens, so you can put custom text in any work order screen The boxes will appear at the bottom of the data entry screens in your work order, with two to a row You can arrange the text boxes however you want. (Sort Order) You can title the boxes and set the size of each box You can hide or show boxes (Visible) You set them as Required, meaning people cannot leave the data entry screen of the work order until they make an entry You can set them as Read-only so people cannot change them. This makes sense for instructions, scripts, fee schedules, etc When you set up a box, it will be available on future work orders. It won t change those that have already been created In Figure 22 above, we have created four boxes on the Property Description Let s look at creating a custom text box: Click Add a New Item at the top of the screen in Figure This takes you to Figure 23. Figure At the top of the screen, we can determine if the item is to be Visible (turned on or off) We can decide whether it is going to be Required, meaning that you'll have to make an entry in that box before you leave that data entry screen in a work order We can decide if it is going to be Read-only, meaning that users will not be able to enter any data On the next line we can decide on which data screen we want the entry to appear. Remember there are eight data screens We can enter the title of the custom text box under Title We can enter text that will appear as a pop-up when we mouse over the box under Mouse-over Text We can enter Default Text that will appear in the box automatically We can select the text box height in pixels We can select the background color. You can color code your custom text boxes as a memory aid. For example, all scripts for booking people may have a green background And that's all there is to it! Page 23 of 26

24 You can add as many custom text boxes as you want, to any panel in the work order. This gives you excellent flexibility! When you are done, just click Save and Back Let s see what these look like on the work order screens. See Figure You can see the 4 custom boxes at the bottom of the data entry panel If you mouse over these, you see the mouse over text that has been entered You can see one of the fields has some default Text (Client History). Sometimes it is faster to delete the entries that don t apply, than to type stuff in The top two boxes have white backgrounds, the bottom two have gray The top boxes are 20 pixels high, the bottom ones are 30 pixels high. Figure Previously inspected - Figure 25 Here is another way Horizon helps you without you lifting a finger! Horizon will let you know if you have inspected the home before, as you fill out the Work Order. Page 24 of 26

25 Figure A red note will appear at top of the screen, and you will have a link to the work order for the inspection done previously If you have inspected the house more than once previously, up to three most recent instances will appear, and Horizon will let you know how many other times it was inspected This is an excellent tool to keep you from looking foolish, and wasting time looking for old reports. 13. Log of Activity - Figure Horizon provides a log of activity in the button that the top rate of each panel. You can see who created and revised the work order, and when. See log in Figure 25. A typical log is show in Figure 26. Page 25 of 26

26 Figure 26 Congratulations! Now you know all there is to know about booking inspections, and customizing your work order. PDA Tip: If you book inspections from the field, you may want to keep a couple of blank work orders on the PDA (Pocket Horizon) so you can take an order onto the PDA. The PDA can t create a new work order, but it will let you edit one that is basically blank. Page 26 of 26