Not every company manages projects the same way. Moreover, the work done for clients is not always a simple scope of work. Sometimes you need phases. BillQuick offers a simple one-level project as well as two-, three- or four-level phased project. It enhances your project management options with four project levels – termed as a project hierarchy.
BillQuick Project Hierarchy
Every project in BillQuick can stand by itself or be part of a project hierarchy. Depending on your particular needs, a project record might be classified as a:
- Standard project
- Parent or Main project
- Phase
- Segment
- Sub-Segment
A standard project is typically one with a simple scope of work. In other words, the job does not need to be broken down into smaller jobs for management or because of client requirements.
Parent Project
A parent project signals a multi-level project hierarchy. A parent project can be a Main project in which one or more projects fall below it in a hierarchy. These child projects may be phases, segments or sub-segments.
Project Phases
A phase project is both a sub-level of the project above it and a parent to the segments below it. Similarly, a segment is a parent to sub-segments.
Main Project
Any project can be flagged with a ‘Main’ status. While it is common for a parent project to have a Main status, BillQuick does not require that. Main status triggers features and processing rules in BillQuick, including:
- Time and Expense: You can only charge time and expenses to a project with ‘Active’ status, not a ‘Main’ status.
- Contract Amount: The contract amount for a Main project can be distributed to the projects below it in the hierarchy. Thus, if a Main project has a $1,000,000 contract amount, you can specify 25% of it for Phase 1 under it, that is $250,000.
- Account Roll-Up: On the Project screen, when you choose a project with a Main status, the Account tab can roll up all amounts from the projects below it in the hierarchy. Thus, it displays the cumulative values.
- Clone Phase: On the Project screen, when you select a Main project, you can use the Create Phase button to clone it to a new project record.
- Invoice Review: On the Invoice Review screen, if you choose a project with a Main status, all invoices for the projects below it in the hierarchy will display in the grid.
Thus, when you set up your project hierarchy, do consider these features and rules. Then determine whether a particular project in a hierarchy should be ‘Main’ or not.
You may be happy to know that in the BillQuick 2012 service pack, about 25 new reports were added that included master project reports. They display data for top-level projects, with phases rolled under them. So if you have several phases under a project, you no longer have to skim through them all, but rather see the summarized information under the parent project.
You may want to check out this post: http://blog.bqe.com/2012/10/09/billquick-reports-get-a-face-lift/
Seth, I would recommend that you upgrade to the latest 2012 version. Since 2009 there have been so many new features added to the program, esp. the Project Center and new master project reports. In the Billing Review screen, you can use the Add option to view the billing records for all the phases of a project. You can also choose to view by Project and then select the phases as a From-To range in this as well as Reviewer screen. You can even add all the phases of the project to a project group and view everything by group, including reports. Also, there are Phased Invoices and Joint Invoices templates for phased projects.
This would be the best time to check the latest BillQuick upgrade!
We use BillQuick (v2009); we bought it precisely for this feature and purpose, as many of our projects are multi-phase.
However, we have been greatly disappointed with the product from this perspective, because many, many core features in the product are unaware of the project hierarchy, at least in the 2009 version. Most notably:
- billing review and adjustment (wud) cannot be performed on one screen for all phases/segments of a project
- “reviewer” experience does not provide a way to select all phases/segments of a project for review without individually selecting all of the children
- there are no out of the box crystal report or invoice templates that can reasonably format and include project hierarchy in a customer-friendly way
We actually wound up writing a completely custom SQL Server reporting services (SSRS) implementation to overcome some of these challenges during our implementation, but the overall billing and invoice review process is far less efficient than we were expecting it to be because of the lack of “all-the way” support for hierarchical project in BillQuick. From what we could tell, based on the data model, the ability to nest projects was an afterthought on the developer/product manager’s part, and was far from thought through.
I absolutely invite the BQ folks to chime in about specific improvements that may have been made in more recent versions, and to generally react to these comments.
-Seth miller
Founder and CEO
Miller systems, Inc.
Seth, that’s disappointing to hear – I am a new purchaser of BQE, and what you mention is precisely why I chose this product – the ability to generate invoices that include project phases, budgets, and remaining work. I hope that these features are more robust in the 2012 edition.
Seth, I would recommend that you upgrade to the latest 2012 version. Since 2009 there have been so many new features added to the program, esp. the Project Center and new master project reports. In the Billing Review screen, you can use the Add option to view the billing records for all the phases of a project. You can also choose to view by Project and then select the phases as a From-To range in this as well as Reviewer screen. You can even add all the phases of the project to a project group and view everything by group, including reports. Also, there are Phased Invoices and Joint Invoices templates for phased projects.
This would be the best time to check the latest BillQuick upgrade!