Q. What is a status alert?

A status alert is a warning that notifies a user if they try to add a cost or billing to a job that is on-hold, closed, or otherwise shouldn't be touched. They prevent staff members from working on these jobs. Each status code can have its own status alert. The alert itself can include both the warning text and a picture, both of which are customizable. Status alerts are configured in the Status Table. They can be set to alert users for production status, billing status, or both or neither. You also have a choice of just showing the alert to users or stopping them from continuing with their course of action when adding entries. For more information, see the Status Table section of your Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. Can I print traffic reports for only the jobs for which I am responsible?

Yes. Traffic reports, just as the Daily Job Status report, can be printed for key creative and production staffers. These people are the "traffic assignments" assigned to each job. As a key creative staffer, your initials can be entered into a job's traffic assignments. Once that's done, you can print many traffic and production reports showing the jobs for which you're responsible. For more information, see the Jobs section of the Clients & Profits X user guide

Q. Is there any way to know when a job has moved from one stage to the next as it happens?

Yes. Clients & Profits can notify you by e-mail immediately when someone changes a job's status. Each production and billing status code can be configured to automatically broadcast a message when it is used on a job. This status e-mail tells you instantly when a job's estimate has been approved, ready to bill, etc. even if you're not using Clients & Profits (it sends e-mail to any mail program, including pagers than read e-mail). Status e-mail is configured in the Status Table. For more information, see the Status Table section of your Clients & Profits user guide.

Q. What are milestones?

Milestones represent a job's key phases or steps. Each milestone defines a step in the job's work flow. Milestone-based traffic reports help balance work flow by showing the upcoming work for jobs in progress in a spreadsheet-like view. Up to 12 milestones can be tracked for each job. Milestone names are completely user-defined. Some example milestones include: Client Presentation (CL PRES), Internal Creative Meeting (INT MTG), Estimate Approval Due (EST OK), Copy Approval Due (COPY OK), Photoshoot (SHOOT), Press Check (PRESS C), Tearsheet (TEAR), Follow Up Calls (F CALL), and File Art (FILE ART). You can then assign milestones a due date, then check them off (by typing in an "Ã" or "X") when they're reached. Different types of jobs will have different milestones, based on the production process. The names of the milestones are edited in Job Types/Spec Sheets for each job type. The milestone dates for each job are updated in the job's Traffic window. Milestones for all open jobs can be updated together in the Update Traffic window.

Q. Are milestones and job tasks linked?

Yes. If a milestone and a task have the same name (e.g., PRNT for Printing) the date entered into the job schedule will update the traffic milestone automatically. Use this feature if certain tasks are critical to a job's progress (like copywriting, printing, etc.).

Q. What's the difference between "production status" and "billing status"?

Production status is used to track jobs from the production and traffic point-of-view, while billing status is used to track jobs from an accounting perspective. The production department will print their traffic reports by production status; only jobs that have the selected production status will be printed. They'll use production status to track jobs by estimate pending, in production, waiting for final approval, or finished - ready to bill. The accounting department can use billing status to note when a job's estimate has been approved, when the job has been pre-billed, and when the job has been billed, paid, and closed. The production status doesn't interfere with billing status, so each department gets job reports their way. Both status codes are user-defined and customizable.

Q. What's the difference between traffic milestones and job status?

Milestones mark key phases or steps in a job's lifetime, while status codes show the status of the job today. Traffic milestones are used for planning and balancing all of the shop's resources in order to meet all of the client's deadlines. Status codes are used to track the up-to-the-minute progress of jobs from day-to-day. Milestones are forward-looking, while status codes only focus on what's happening today. They're both useful when used together because they let production people see what they need to keep the work moving.

Q. Which should we start using first: job status, traffic assignments, milestones, job scheduling, task status? Do we have to use all of them?

No, all of the job tracking features work independently. You can pick-and-choose which features to use based on the kind of work your shop does, its volume, and how many people can manage the information. The larger your production/traffic department, the more automated your job tracking is likely to be. Small shops typically use only job status reports and maybe milestone traffic reports. Tracking jobs by production status is the best place to start, because it'll replace the manual job log you've probably been keeping. If you keep up with job status as they change throughout the week, you're daily job hot sheets will be timely and accurate. Next, track a job's milestones for the weekly traffic report. If deadlines are constantly being missed, consider using the job scheduling and the Weekly Task Planner (which lets individual staffers see the week's deadlines each day in a Daytimer-like format). Tracking the task's production status is a lot of work, so it's only practical for long, complicated jobs where details are likely to be forgotten or mistaken.

Q. How do we handle fast-turnaround jobs that only last a day or two?

Quick jobs don't need a lot of scheduling, since there are very few deadlines to plan and manage. It's important to add the job ticket as soon as possible so that it appears on the day's job lists and traffic reports. There's no need to enter its milestones or task schedules, since it'll be completed so fast. Instead, create a status code for "quick job" that identifies these kinds of jobs as quick-turnaround. They'll be easily seen on job reports this way. You can even set up the status e-mail to notify people when these jobs are added.

Q. Why can't I sometimes print job schedules from Snapshots? I enter my selections, but no job tasks are printed.

You might be confusing the job's production status with the task status. Task status is used to track the progress of job tasks. When you enter a range of status codes in the Snapshots window to print job schedules, you're selecting for job tasks that have a task status -- you're not selecting tasks by job status. Enter the status range as 0-999 then reprint the job schedule. This will ensure that all job tasks are selected for the report.

Q. How can I be sure that all open (i.e., active) jobs appear on traffic reports?

Be sure that the range of status codes you've entered selects the right jobs. For example, entering status codes 1 - 999 will select every job that has a status. But any job that doesn't have a status (i.e., it appears blank or as zero) won't be printed. Sometimes jobs have a different status than you expect, so they end up being left off the report. If so, you'll need to print reports using a broader range of status codes (e.g., 1 - 999) or by making sure all of the jobs have the correct status codes.