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glossary
Contents

See also:
Feature Guide - Job Tickets (3.63MB)

Resources:
Billing FAQs

Change Order FAQs

Cost Based Work in Progress FAQs

Creative Brief FAQs

Customizing Estimates FAQs

Estimating FAQs

Job Diary FAQs

Job Numbers FAQs

Job Scheduling FAQs

Printing Specifications FAQs

Task Table FAQs

Traffic FAQs

Work In Progress Accounting FAQs

Production FAQs

Tracking Canadian GST Best Practice Guide

Ensuring Accurate Unbilled WIP Amounts Best Practice Guide

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The job ticket is the foundation of Clients & Profits X. It’s an electronic job jacket that manages nearly everything you do, tracking estimates, schedules, costs, time, billings, and profit.  

A job ticket is opened for every project the shop gets, including internal work, client presentations, and pro-bono jobs. Each job ticket is given tasks that describe what’s being produced, such as artwork, copywriting, design, and printing. Job tasks are completely customizable for flexibility. Job tasks serve many purposes, including estimating, scheduling, job costing, and billing. A job always has at least one task, but can have dozens.

Job tickets are always available on any computer in your shop (if you have the access privileges). So it’s easy to review your job’s progress from start to finish. Anything anyone does for your jobs appears in the Job Ticket Window. These production windows let you easily see a job’s estimate, task schedules, traffic milestones, or status. You can also analyze the job’s costs, time sheets, open purchase and insertion orders, and unbilled tasks.

	Learn all about job tickets in this Clients & Profits classroom video training session. Running time: 5:06

All this makes job tracking much faster than ever before, since there are no more thick job jackets or job binders to sort through. And since everyone in the office works from the same shared database, you’ll instantly see anyone’s changes as they are made -- so you’ll always work (and make decisions) from accurate data.

The Job Ticket window has its own File and Edit menu commands for finding and printing jobs. All menu commands work by selecting the File menu with your mouse, then highlighting the command you wish to use.

To add a new job ticket

Any new work should be opened as a job ticket, as it happens. A job ticket can be opened anytime after it is conceived, and certainly before the work begins. It's important to open new jobs as soon as possible, since purchase orders and time can't be tracked without a job number. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To clone an existing job ticket

Existing jobs can be cloned into new jobs. Cloning makes an exact duplicate of an old job, including its estimates but not due dates, status, or cost and billing amounts. Cloned jobs get the next automatic job number. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

Editing and deleting job tickets

Almost everything about a job ticket can be edited as needed. Changes can be made to jobs at any point during its lifetime, as needed. The changes you make to jobs take affect when they are saved; so anyone who prints a job report will see your changes immediately. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To add tasks to a job

The Add jobs tasks window allows you to add tasks to a new job ticket once it's been saved. Like job tickets, changes can be made to job tasks at any point during the job's life -- including after the job is closed. The changes you make to job tasks take affect when they are saved. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To re-assign tasks (resources)

The resource is the person, place, or thing responsible for completing the task. It can be a staff member, a vendor, or a freelance employee. Lookup lists can be used to find a staff member or vendor. The resource is not limited to existing staffers or vendors, so anything or anyone can be entered. The lead time should be entered as the number of days needed to complete this task. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To remove a job task

A job task can be deleted before any costs, time, purchase orders, or billings have been added to it. Once a job task has activity, it can't be deleted. Like jobs, this feature prevents billable tasks from being deleted and, therefore, not billed. Once a job task is deleted, it is gone forever. The same task can be added back to the job later if needed.

1 From the Job Ticket window, click once on a task to select it.

2 Click on the remove tasks button (or choose Edit > Remove Job Task).

You can remove several job tasks at once by selecting several tasks together with your mouse, then clicking the Remove Tasks button. Or, press and hold the Command/Apple key (on a Mac) or the Control key (in Windows) then click on the tasks you wish to delete.

To edit a job's creative brief

The creative brief explains to the client the agency's creative process for a particular job. The creative brief is a worksheet that creatives and account service can use to define the job's creative, production, and strategic goals. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To edit a job's estimate

Estimates are not "created" separately from the job ticket. Instead, estimates are an integral part of the job and its tasks. Estimates are based on the tasks you've added to a job; in fact, tasks are the basis of the estimate. So the details you enter for a task -- the task name, group, sort -- is what the client sees on the printed estimate. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To edit a job's printing specifications

When a job involves large amounts of printing, its printing specifications can be described in a detailed, on-line form. The Printing Specifications form explains to the vendor the specific printing requirements for a particular job. It is a worksheet that production people can use to define a print job's physical characteristics, such as flat size, binding, and cover stock. It replaces any manual print ordering form you may be using now. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To see a job's change orders

Change orders document changes made to a job's estimate after it has been authorized. They prevent potentially costly misunderstandings between the agency and the client when a job has gone over budget. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To edit a job's work order

A work order can be printed from a job ticket. The printed work order can then be distributed throughout the production department as the job is started. It gives the production staff everything they need to know to start the job: client, job name/title, client contacts, initial budget, start date and due date, AE/team, the job's traffic milestones, and detailed instructions. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To see a job's assets

The Asset Manager helps you organize and track all of the art files, elements, and other digital collateral for a job ticket. The Clients & Profits X asset manager helps your creatives, production staff, and AEs better organize a job's digital elements -- graphic files, word processing documents, page layouts, web pages, Shockwave files, fonts, and more. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To schedule job tasks

The ability to coordinate hundreds of jobs, tasks, and resources through a common job schedule is one of Clients & Profits X' greatest strengths. The Job Schedule window shows what tasks need to be complete, when and by whom, in order to get the job done. A job's schedule helps make your shop more productive.

To update a job's traffic information

The Job Traffic window is a snapshot of a job's progress, highlighting the major turning points (milestones), task progress, priority, and status of the job ticket. Everything you need to keep track of a job's progress is in the Job Traffic window, from managerial and staff assignments, major due dates, and status. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To see a job's timeline

The Job Timeline is a graphic representation of when the tasks for a job are scheduled to be worked on. The timeline is a job task management tool. With the schedule visually displayed, you can see if it sets realistic goals. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To print job reports

Job reports can be printed for all jobs or jobs for just one client, project, or AE/Team. The lists can also be printed for a range of status codes and dates. You can easily see all the jobs currently in-progress, or all the jobs opened for a specific client this year. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

Work in progress debits and credits

This is an important distinction, since it differs from other accounting systems. Clients & Profits X provides the flexibility to bill anything from a job, whether costs exist or not. A job can be billed for as little or as much as you can get, even if it has no costs. This ability means that your Work in Progress balance may not be what you expect. Because of its flexibility in billing, costs affect the G/L differently than you might expect too. Costs debit the general ledger when they are posted -- not when they are billed. You can choose which account is debited, such as a cost of sales account or an unbilled costs inventory account. Posting a client invoice debits A/R and credits income; your cost of sales is unaffected.