Admin Series: Common Admin Tasks Updated Aug. 2010 Copyright EZinspections.com Support@ezinspections.com 1 Copyright EZinpsections.com
CONTENTS I II Introduction Tasks on the Summary Page A) Monitoring Your Company B) Important Categories 1. Unassigned Jobs 2. Incomplete Jobs 3. Jobs Needing Office Examination III Dispatching Tasks A) Manually Dispatching Jobs B) Managing Auto Dispatching Settings 1. Managing Dispatch Territory 2. Other Dispatch Criteria 3. Extra Settings IV Company User Management A) Adding or Deleting a Company User B) Editing Company User Settings C) Deactivating and Reactivating a Company User V Accounting and Fee Management Tasks A) Entering Job Fees B) Managing the Fee Schedule Page C) Creating Rep Payments and Invoices VI VII Checking up on a Specific Job Managing other account options Support@ezinspections.com 2 Copyright EZinpsections.com
I. INTRODUCTION This document contains step by step walkthroughs and suggestions for usage relating to administrative tasks on the EZinspections website. Readers of this document are expected to have a passing knowledge of the EZinspections system and its functions. Additionally, supplementary materials will be referenced from time to time throughout the document. It is highly recommended that these documents be read for a full understanding of the systems referred to in the following six sections. II. COMMON ADMIN TASKS ON THE SUMMARY PAGE A. MONITORING YOUR COMPANY THROUGH THE SUMMARY PAGE For information on the specific parts of the summary page, please refer to the supplement series document on the subject, section I. Below are a series of common tasks an admin might perform on the summary page. In order to do these tasks in time to avoid problems, the admin summary page must be monitored in the following areas, for the given reasons: Unassigned Jobs Incomplete Jobs Overdue/Coming Due For Completion Unassigned jobs are not dispatched to any field rep, and they will not be aware of their existence. It is good practice to deal with unassigned jobs once a day to avoid having jobs overdue. Occasional monitoring of this field is recommended. see below for details. Resolving overdue issues is always a priority. This is a field which should be monitored daily. Support@ezinspections.com 3 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Completed Jobs Jobs Needing Office Examination Completed jobs must be monitored for two reasons: 1) The jobs will need to be submitted (except in the case of Auto Submissions. At the present time, Inspection work for BAC, FA, LPS and MCS are able to be auto submitted.) and 2) If your company uses the QC role function of the EZinspections system, completed jobs will need to be verified before submission is possible. As described below, these jobs must be dealt with by an admin for various reasons. Monitoring this field is of very important for the smooth operation of an EZinspections account. Jobs With Pending Bids Any company working in the preservation field is encouraged to monitor this section, which will notify the admin of recently created bids on jobs. Unread Notes It is encouraged that admins read notes to stay abreast of their company's operations on the EZinspections system. B. USING KEY SUMMARY PAGE CATEGORIES When using the summary page, a series of categories are presented to the user, allowing them to peruse jobs based on the current status of the job, and the tasks needed for them at that time. Below are a few such tasks, and the category that the task applies to. 1) Dealing with Unassigned Jobs When jobs are in the unassigned category, it means that there is no Field Rep assigned to them, and they may not be worked as a result. To deal with this situation, a Field Rep must be assigned to the job, at which point it will become visible to them and will be added to their own set of pending jobs. Unassigned jobs will not be pending until assigned to an inspector, but may be unassigned as a result of the Field Rep not accepting them. This is only the case when the "Explicit Job Acceptance" function is active (see section VI for more details on that). To Assign or reassign jobs to an inspector, follow the steps outlined in section II A below. 2) Dealing with Incomplete Jobs Incomplete jobs are those which have been worked, but have only been saved, and are not entirely complete. This may be as a result of not having the appropriate number of photos attached or having unfilled fields. Support@ezinspections.com 4 Copyright EZinpsections.com
It is important to monitor incomplete jobs to ensure that nothing remains incomplete for long. If this happens, it indicated that error may have been missed by the inspector, and will need to be rectified in order for the job to be submitted. To monitor this category: 1 Choose either Incomplete Jobs of one its subcategories on the Summary page, and click on it to be brought to a jobs page specific to these options. 2 If there are jobs labeled incomplete, with a Rep Due date indicating that they should have been worked a day or more prior, click on the job to go to its details page. 3 On the job details page, locate any error and deal with it accordingly. This may mean a simple edit, or a complete reassignment to a new field rep. 3) Jobs Needing Office Examination Any jobs that appear in this category are in need of admin attention for some reason.. If a job is merely in need of verification, select the icon to send it to the verified "bucket." III. COMMON DISPATCHING TASKS A. MANUALLY DISPATCHING JOBS UNASSIGNED JOBS Follow these steps to manually dispatch jobs that are unassigned. An alternative is to attempt to use the "Auto Assign Field Rep" alternative option to the one used in step 3. 1 On the summary page, select the unassigned jobs link, or one of its subcategories. Support@ezinspections.com 5 Copyright EZinpsections.com
2 On the jobs list page that is now open, check the boxes next to all of the jobs you wish to assign the same inspector. It is often useful to check that these jobs are in the same area by checking the address information. 3 click on the icon at the top of the page, and select the "Assign Field Rep" option. This will open the page shown below. 4 The jobs are now listed in a small list at the top of the page. Use the drop down to select a field rep to cover these jobs. 5 OPTIONAL you may assign these zip codes to the new rep permanently. You can also remove them from the zip code lists of anyone who had these zips already. 6 Click the Save button, and the page will refresh to show that the Unassigned icon ( ) has changed to the pending icon ( ). 7 Select Back to Job List to go back to the jobs list page you had seen before. Remember to repeat these steps until all unassigned jobs have been issued to Field Reps. This will need to be monitored. Remember that it is not good practice to leave jobs unassigned for long, or there is a risk they will become overdue as a result. B. MANAGING YOUR AUTO DISPATCHING SYSTEM The auto dispatching system on EZinspections is controlled by a series of option on the My Account > Options page. See below for the use of these functions. Support@ezinspections.com 6 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Auto Dispatch Check this box to activate automatic dispatching, which will allow the EZinspections web site to automatically assign jobs to users, as they are batch imported, based on the four parameters listed below. Maximum Pending Jobs Products Zip Codes This setting is for determining the most pending (accepted and unaccepted) and incomplete jobs that a company user may have assigned to them at any given time. EZinspections recommends a default setting of 5000 jobs. This setting helps an admin determine which products any specific field rep will be assigned jobs for. If a product is not covered by at least one contractor in its zip code area, that product will remain unassigned. Automatic dispatching will assign jobs to field reps based primarily on the zip codes that EZinspections knows they cover. Whenever a new user is added to your EZ account, it is recommended that you set up their zip code coverage list using this link. It is merely a matter of entering zip codes in a comma delineated list next to their name on this linked page. Field Rep Rank This feature only applies to situations in which a job has a product type and zip code that is shared by more than one field rep. If you wish to use this system, you will choose ranks for the applicable contractors from highest (1) to lowest (5). The default is that they are of equal rank, and have equal chance of getting the job. Job Acceptance Requiring Explicit Job Acceptance (checking the box) will ensure that automatically dispatched jobs will be seen by the contractor they are sent to. If a person does not accept the jobs assigned to them in the allotted time, the job will become unassigned, and will need to be reassigned to a new inspector, or resent to the current one. It is recommended that, if this feature is used, the admin set a window of two to three days for the field rep to accept the job. Support@ezinspections.com 7 Copyright EZinpsections.com
IV. MANAGING COMPANY USER INFORMATION A. ADDING A NEW USER OR DELETING AN OLD ONE To add a new user, open your EZinspections account and go to the Contacts > Company Users page, and select the icon at the top of the page. This will open the page shown below. On this page, fill in the blanks with the requested information. All necessary fields are marked with an asterisk. Next, select a role for the new user. Remember that, while you may create their login name and password yourself, you will not be able to look those two fields up later if the user is an admin. Other, non admin, user passwords and login names will still be visible to admins on the Company Users page. When you have entered all of the information you wish to enter, and have filled in all of the required fields, click Add to generate the new user's account. You will be notified at the top of the page when this is done. Support@ezinspections.com 8 Copyright EZinpsections.com
A single person may have more than one account within the system, but this is only recommended for users with multiple company roles, as it can cause confusion for an employee to monitor multiple usernames and passwords for such similar systems. The Process for deleting a user is very simple. You merely need to check the box next to their name, then click the icon. Verify that this is what you wish to do, and the user's information and account will be deleted. All work assigned to them will become unassigned at this time. B. EDITING A COMPANY USER'S DETAILS Follow these steps to edit the details of any company user: 1 Login to your EZinspections admin account and open the page Contacts > Company Users (linked from your sidebar). 2 Find the user you wish to edit and click on their name to go to the User Information page shown below. 3 You may edit any information about the user on this page. For example, an admin may change one of the features listed below. User Names This is rarely needed, but may come up with changing subcontractor company names. Contact Information Billing/mailing address, e mail address and phone numbers often need to be changed or updated. It is imperative that at least e mail addresses be kept up to date to ensure contractors receive prompt notifications through the EZinspections system. Support@ezinspections.com 9 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Username/Password Changing the user name and password is a common change, and is relatively easy. Note that passwords are not readable, so they should be recorded elsewhere and typed in carefully to avoid problems. Account Type A rare change, switching account types allows users to take new roles in the EZinspections account. For instance, an inspector who enters the management of their company after working with them for a long time will need their account type changed from Field Rep to Admin. QuickBooks Name If your company takes advantage of the EZinspections accounting system in conjunction with QuickBooks, they will need to keep their employees' QuickBooks names up to date to avoid delaying problems when trying to issue payments and generate invoices. 4 When the needed changes have been made, save the changed with the button at the bottom of the page. The editing page may still remain open, but a message in blue near the top of the page will notify you of the successful update. C. DEACTIVATING OR REACTIVATING A COMPANY USER Some companies prefer to deactivate user accounts for people no longer with their company, rather than deleting them. A company user who is inactive is still present in the company's system, their information can still be seen and reviewed, and can be reactivated. The method for dealing with this is very simple. Open the Contacts > Company Users page from the sidebar links, and click on the name of the client you wish to make inactive. Among their options will be the "Status" option indicated above. Use the drop down to make this user inactive, then save your changes. To reverse this, use the drop down in the upper right corner of the Company Users page to search for inactive users, then click on the user name. Once open, go to the Status option near the bottom and use the drop down to select Active, then save the changes. The user is now active again. V. COMMON ACCOUNTING AND FEE MANAGEMENT TASKS Support@ezinspections.com 10 Copyright EZinpsections.com
A. ENTERING JOB FEES When performing Property Preservation, there is an option along the top of the job details page which will allow you to edit fees. This icon will link you into the window below. Here, you'll have a list of current charges, as well as a point where you can edit them. Choosing the icon will create a new, default, charge. You will be able to rename the charge, and set the prices. Note, as shown below, that you can accidentally put in two different charges, so you should be careful. In the same location, you can remove charges from the list with the icon. Click save when you are finished to store these charges for later invoicing or generating reports. You may also use this page to generate a billing advice document with the icon, or even generate an invoice for the created fees using the icon. B. SETTING UP OR EDITING A FEE WITH FEE SCHEDULING Open the window below by going to Accounting > Fee Scheduling. Support@ezinspections.com 11 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Select the Client or Product you wish to edit the fee(s) for. You may also leave these settings to All. Next, click Find. If you wish to delete the fee, check its checkbox then click the icon at the top right of the page. Otherwise, you can edit the standard overall fee with the text box in the fourth column, or the fee for the inspector in the final two columns. Changing the Inspector Fee for all inspectors is easy. Either choose a percentage of the standard fee, or a dollar amount. and set the value (percentage or dollar value) in the final column. You can also set or change the standard fee. Clicking the Advanced option (see above) will bring you to the page shown in the image below. Here you can do the same as in the previous step, but for each field rep individually. Support@ezinspections.com 12 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Once you are finished editing the fees, click Save at the bottom or top of the page when you are done to complete the change. On the main page, this fee's edit block will be grayed out, indicating that the advanced option is in use on it. C. HOW TO CREATE A REP PAYMENT Open the window below by going to Accounting > Payments. Choose a Contractor Company or Field Rep (or leave the setting to all, to choose all contractor companies or all field reps). Use the calendar icon ( ) to choose a time period to issue a payment over. Once a Job has been added to a payment, it will not be picked up by another payment creation, so you don't have to worry about double payment. Clicking the icon may generate the warning above. Click OK to continue on to the Payments Page (although it is generally suggested that you generate payments individually, so that none get overlooked in editing). The generated payment(s) will be listed on the payments page. You can edit any of them, submit the payment PDF to the field rep, or even export the payment to QuickBooks through an IIF file. Support@ezinspections.com 13 Copyright EZinpsections.com
You can fill in the blanks here and skip to the final step (click Save!), or follow the next few instructions to edit the payment as you see fit... For now, we will edit the file with the Quick Edit icon ( ). Note that while Quick Edit is faster, a more detailed edit page, with greater control on the individual jobs and payments can be reached with the icon. On this page, you can change the payment amounts for the respective jobs, with an option to see other jobs that have not been counted towards the total. You can also find a particular job in a hurry with the search options. Finally, you can change the paid date and the check number within the above window, or in the overview window shown below. Remember to save any changes in the Accounting information window. Once the payment is finalized, and you are no longer in the edit window, click the icon to submit the payment with check number and date to the individual (which will provide them with a PDF Support@ezinspections.com 14 Copyright EZinpsections.com
report in their Field Rep account), or select be imported into QuickBooks. to export the payment to an IIF file which can D. HOW TO CREATE A NEW INVOICE Open the window below by going to Accounting > Invoices. Choose a Client from the drop down box, and use the calendar feature ( ) to decide on a start and end date for the invoice. Remember that the system will not include previously invoiced jobs. When you are finished, click the New Invoice icon on the right to go to the page below: Support@ezinspections.com 15 Copyright EZinpsections.com
Read through the generated Invoice, and uncheck any jobs you do not want to include on this invoice. Also, fill in the information at the top and bottom of the page (but you may, if you wish, leave the Paid Date and Check Numbers spaces empty), and then click "save." The Image above is what you should now be able to see. You can go back and continue editing the file with the icon, generate a PDF ( ), submit the invoice PDF ( ) to the client through e mail or export the invoice to QuickBooks through an IIF file ( of the page. ). Finally, notice that status is on the far right VI. ADMIN SPECIFIC TOOLS FOR TROUBLE SHOOTING SPECIFIC JOBS The Importation log is very useful for determining what jobs are coming into your company, and anything happening to those jobs. To locate this log, go to the icon on either the summary page or any jobs list page with a management view. From the drop down, select Importation Log. The key admin tool for trouble shooting questions on a particular job is the Activities Log, indicated with the icon at the top of its Job Details page. Each job in your company has a log of this type specific to itself, which details when anything was done to the job, from the moment it is created until it's submission and archiving after completion. VII. MANAGING OTHER ACCOUNT OPTIONS TBD Support@ezinspections.com 16 Copyright EZinpsections.com