T-JACS 2022 Year in Review

We're thrilled with the advancements we've been able to make in 2022, and our most exciting feature is printable invoices.  We can now generate a PDF invoice that can itemize or summarize the time and materials on a job.  The invoice has flexible editing functions and the layout can be custom configured.  We're also able to print fewer pages by utilizing separate layouts for single page and multi-page invoices.

In the process of building invoices, job quotes got a a makeover, preparing us for when those will be able to be printed, which we expect will not be a long time coming. This year has also seen a number of notable streamlining features added that we've already seen dividends on.

The job summary report received the capability to report on multiple jobs for a customer, giving you combined totals and markups, and allowing you to see how well your job costs and invoices balance between all the reported jobs.

Time sheet entry and reporting got a boost with reports having more meaningful summaries and totals, and the time sheet entry getting a few productivity enhancements.

We've also introduced Uncategorized Preset Items (UPI).  UPI's allow easier and quicker use of vendor purchase orders by letting you add a single entry for lot materials, expenses, or whatever you require. A UPI preset entry isn't associated with the catalog or a specific cost, so it's a quick way to represent all items in a purchase with a single entry.  UPI presets are perfect for conditions where materials are all consumed on a job and inventory control is irrelevant, or if an itemized list isn't required for historical purposes or support.

Job scope lists now sport an "in use" column indicating that a scope is in use; meaning that time and materials have been applied.  Knowing a scope is in use helps you to know how a job is progressing.  This indicator differentiates between required items that are estimates only, or if they have a net quantity, indicating that they were actually used.

Your equipment records gained the ability to change the status when the maintenance date arrives, so you can see more quickly the tools and equipment that need attention.  You can also now upload multiple file attachments for equipment. The check-in process has been radically improved, allowing check-outs of equipment to specific customers and contacts, and gives you a complete check-out overview and history.

Work In Progress Reclaim (WIPR) bins got some love too, allowing you to more easily move materials out of the bin and onto another job, including the target job's WIPR bin.

Vendor Quotes are able to be printed as a PDF, or downloaded as a CSV.  The PDF also has your company name and address below your logo.

Our development strategy is that when we provide a new feature, it should work right out of the box.  Sometimes we miss something, so we reserve extra time at the beginning of the next release to addressing immediate issues.  In evaluating other issues, we prefer that an existing feature works before adding new features.  We feel that this year has been extremely successful in managing the fractures from new features, as well as addressing older issues that we attempt to fix as quickly as they are discovered.  As often as we can, we will also refresh stale code and we were able to refactor several forms and lists to bring them up to date.  This has a beneficial effect of identifying older, hidden bugs.  We still have a bit more refactoring to do.

Over the course of the year, we spent 1253 man hours developing 20 releases from version 4.75 to 4.94, adding 25,349 lines of code and changing an additional 24,217 lines of code in 1,589 program files.

Our ambitions for 2023 include new functionality related to customers and inventory, and to build out printing customer quotes. Our greatest desire is helping you to focus more on simply getting things done and to keep it together.

T-JACS 2021 Year in Review

Reflecting on all we've accomplished this past year helps drive our resolve into 2022 to further expand the most desired features in the application.  Though our expectations to have a first crack at generating invoices has evaded us, we've made significant progress along the way.  Here's a look at how T-JACS has grown in the past 12 months.

Vendor purchase orders received a lot of love with the addition of the foreign currency functionality.  That alone required more work in the undercarriage than appears to the eye, especially the care needed in managing the potential for bugs.  There were a series of releases over the year, simply refactoring currency changes throughout the application.

In addition to currency, there were numerous refactoring efforts across the application that served to improve reliability, maintenance, and code reuse.  That process also flushed out bugs that thought they were safely hidden.

A simple feature that shows the next Vendor PO Number on the Generate PO Number button was added, giving a little more control into what is going on when creating PO's.

We are so thankful to our customers that were patient with us as we worked to clarify Cost vs Price labeling, which included renaming the Materials and Expenses Worksheets and clarified the work being done around managing markups.

Generating invoices took a few steps forward with supporting tables, payment processing fees, shipping dates, carriers.  There is much more code under development that will drive us forward in our goal to advance the invoicing functions.

The Inventory Report was upgraded with filters and new columns and serial number tracking was improved in inventory

We made it easier and faster to add items to jobs by implementing the quick-add method that removed the need for a page refresh and streamlined the clunky extra step to reconcile materials from stock.

The ability to distribute expenses across the materials in vendor purchase orders was a huge win, allowing shipping costs, for instance, to be captured with the cost of materials when placing them into stock.

While we're talking about it, you might remember that the Catalog Import function received a few upgrades and fixes.

We made several first steps in Multiple Selling Units.  This feature allows catalog items to be tracked individually or grouped into boxes, for example.  There is more work to be done in this area, but it acted as a springboard towards Catalog Kits.

Catalog Kits finished off the year with an ability to put catalog items together into a kit.  This makes it possible to track multiple items stored and sold together as a kit, or explode them into individual parts and sold as an open box, for instance.  The biggest benefit is being able to set a different selling price for a kit compared to individual components, and to be able to track them.  Items can be specified on the Vendor PO as a kit, or purchased individually and assembled afterwards.  There's some cool flexibility here.

The My Active Jobs block made its appearance this year.  It simply makes it easier to select a job that you frequently work on.

The Job edit form gained the ability to edit the Invoice Number and PO Number.  Previously, those fields served as a quick way to add an invoice to a job and to see that an invoice was created, so it just made sense to be able to make direct edits in the same fashion.

Job Scopes weren't left out either, with the ability to add file attachments and a Job Type field for employee reports.

Administrators got most of the love this year, so we didn't want to leave out employees that spend most of their time in time sheet forms.  To streamline time sheet entry, several things were added to improve everyday use such as quicker copying of time sheets, quick lists to select jobs, and the overall favorite: the "Save and continue day" button.

We are excited to welcome all of our new customers this year and hope to be a critical force in the success of your businesses.  Our past customers have received their education a bit more haphazard, so we're happy that we've finally started making instruction videos this year.  It's admittedly clunky and awkward still, but our nerd is taking the acting critiques seriously, so hopefully there's some good improvement.  Honestly, I think he's hoping to be fired from that job if we can afford an actor that will work for peanuts.

Of the 20 Releases in 2021 from version 4.54 to to version 4.74, there were 2,058 files changed, with 61,820 lines of code inserted and 30,938 lines deleted, resulting in a net increase of 30,882 lines of code.  This was a very productive year, with 1,484 man-hours of effort.

We have some ambitious goals for 2022, and our greatest desire is helping you to focus more on simply getting things done and to keep it together.

T-JACS 2020 Year in Review

Statistically speaking, 2020 saw 1,969 files changed between 21 deployments from Release 4.32 to Release 4.53.  There were 60,727 lines of code inserted and 41,687 lines deleted, for a net increase of 19,040 lines.  Development man-hours for 2020 totaled 1,330. That is near the productivity of 2019, which had a net gain of 27,686 lines of code over 1,305 man-hours.

Many of our needed changes revolved around clarity, revamping terms and labels to build a better understanding of the workflow and organization of your work and assets. This has been an important year for that, and we thank our customers for their support and encouragement.

We've also done a lot of work around permissions to better define roles and improve restrictions on who can do what.  Also included was better support for mobile devices.

Invoicing received a lot of attention this year.  A few needed items included discounts, sales taxes, and shipping charges.  In preparation for a printed invoice, billing contacts, the job site, payment terms, and invoice messaging have been added. Organizing invoices became much more powerful also, allowing selection of job orders/scopes directly within an invoice, and topped off with a supporting table of invoice costs with a markup summary.

Jobs got some attention as well, allowing you to add a job site and contact when creating a new job.  Labor estimate entry for job orders was enhanced, including a potential estimates list, and now you can also transfer materials directly from the WIPR bin to a job order.  Quantity multipliers were added to scope templates to quickly build assemblies.

Reporting was another area that blossomed. Inventory Reports with pending orders were added, including allowing inventory reports to be exported to CSV. A new preorder report, where you can group purchases required for multiple jobs into one vendor purchase order was created, and a vendor purchase order report was built, printable as a PDF with the ability to sign them, similarly to work order reports.

The catalogs weren't left out either.  We added multiple selling units or units of measure in anticipation of extending that function to inventory. Alternate part numbers and trade names were added to aid in searching.  You can now add to the catalog while adding to the purchase order.  We finished off 2020 with foreign currency support, and you'll see more of it next week.

Inventory got some needed attention, with a huge facelift improving the bin selection dropdown. In a related move, we now show stock levels in the materials quick add.

A simple fix improved the workflow when adding inventory locations. After adding an inventory location, the redirect takes you to the bins tab to create bins for the new location.

Within the vendor purchase order, you can authorize bins. You can also organize your WIPR bin to make it easier for staff to restock at the end of a job.

Our primary goal remains the ability to produce simple, printed invoices.  We are much closer now than ever before. We are always looking for your feedback on how the software has met your needs and what needs are still outstanding.

On behalf of Total Job Asset Control Services Ltd, we thank you for your continued support. We’ve made amazing progress this year and we are confident that 2021 will be even better.

T-JACS 2019 Year in Review

We've had a remarkable year with many enhancements to T-Jacs.  An interesting statistic is that 2019 saw 2,020 changed files.  There were 67,140 lines of code inserted and 39,454 lines deleted, with a net gain of 27,686 lines of code.  We started the year with a hotfix on Release 4.09 and ended it with Release 4.31.  We also boosted the overall speed of the application with some system upgrades.  Of the many features added, there are a few we'd like to highlight.

Job Orders had a good share of attention this year.  For one, we renamed it from Job Scopes, making the purpose a little clearer.  We also added the ability to attach Materials, Expenses, and Estimated Labor.  A big time saver when filling out timesheets is letting employees add the order description to their time description with the click of a button.  Orders and tasks also got some organizational abilities such as duration, progress, and dependencies.

Job Order Styles were created to organize the job order templates to create reusable order structures, including materials, expenses, and estimated labor.

Using job orders, we created a Work Order Report with the ability to add approval signatures.  The Job Labor Report was changed to allow grouping by job orders or by cost centers.

The job summary reports now include estimate numbers from the job and from the job order labor estimates.

We added employee attachments for HR documents, as well as a new HR Admin role.  Note taking was improved with tracking by date, being able to mark them as confidential, and expiring them.

Filtering is new this year.  On many lists, especially job materials and expenses, you can filter by item code and title, by vendor, by job order, and by invoice.

A low stock report was created so that you are notified via My Actions when inventory levels drop below your specified threshold for each bin.

Implementing preferred rates started with defining rate styles.  With this change, customers can be classified according to the rates you need to charge them for materials, expenses, and labor.  Labor hour types were enhanced to allow customization.  Instead of just regular, overtime, and double time, you can add things like hazzard pay.  From there, we implemented custom markups for each style and expanded the markup to calculate based on percentages or fixed amounts.  Essentially, each item in the catalog has a separate customer rate for each margin style.

Expense and material catalogs gained an import and export ability using the CSV format.

Searching vendor purchase orders using  packing slip, invoice, or PO numbers was added to the global search feature.

While not technically done in 2019, we'll sneak in the bulk add feature as an accomplishment this year.  The bulk add form allows quicker entry of job materials and expenses, while simultaneously reconciling from inventory.

Our primary goal for early 2020 is the ability to produce simple invoices.  Progress towards this goal has been advanced through work done on the job order subsystem and changes allowing custom chargeout rates.  Other goals include improvements to inventory reports and adding global job order scheduling.  We are always looking for your input on how the software has met your needs and what needs are still outstanding.

On behalf of Total Job Asset Control Services Ltd, we thank you for your continued support. We’ve made great progress this year and we are confident that 2020 will be even better.

Server Migration

The T-Jacs sites have migrated to a new datacenter.  This move allows us to keep costs lower while providing a better structure with more reliability, flexibility, and growth potential.  You should also expect to have a snappier response when using T-Jacs.

As with any migration, we anticipate some growth pains.  We'll continue to monitor and tweak as issues are discovered.

The migration gives us the following advantages:

Structure

• Dedicated Database Server

  • Having the database server separate from the web server supports maintenance and backup tasks.
    

• Load Balancing

  • As needed, we can quickly add more servers to balance the traffic so that servers aren't overloaded with work.
    

• Growth Potential

  • When usage increases, the server capacity can easily scale to fit.  We can add more of everything quickly.

Reliability

• The new datacenter will allow us to prevent power outages that have plagued us in the past.

Speed

• The servers use SSD drives which are much faster than our old drives.

• The datacenter has more bandwidth for faster uploads and downloads.

T-JACS 2018 Year in Review

This past year, T-JACS continued its growth with the addition of several major features. A prime feature is the Work In Progress Report. This report shows the cost of uninvoiced work as of a given period ending.  The ability to generate this report is anticipated to save days of manual effort for your business and we feel that this alone is worth the cost of the software.

Assembled Revenue Assets, or ARA's, deserve mention.  ARA’s essentially describe a built item that can be rented out. It allows grouping work and materials into a unit that can be tracked independently of Jobs and Customers.  There is more to be done in this space, but we have a good foundation to start with.

Jobs have been given some new capabilities including: Job Styles that allow jobs to be grouped and categorized, Parking and blocking jobs that allow putting aside work that is waiting for an external event, and Prioritization that allows listing jobs in order of Urgency and Priority.

The contact database was reorganized to allow better management between customer and vendor contacts.

Vendor Quotes are an exciting new feature as well.  Quotes are built from the specified job materials and forms are produced that can be sent to a vendor to fill out the detail.  Chosen quotes are then easily applied back to the job.

Inventory gets a makeover too.  Serial Numbers are part of a class of inventory that can be tracked individually instead of as a group.  This helps support ARA’s with embedded materials.

For grouped inventory items, Tags have been added to make it possible to separate the same items within a bin.  This is most useful for items such as spools of wire.

The My Actions block was introduced to conveniently show actions that should be addressed.

Hours can be deducted from the calculated hours on a timesheet to make it simpler for entry by reducing the amount of timesheets required to accurately represent daily work.

Historical hours for apprentices from previous employers can now be recorded in the Apprenticeship Employee History.  This ability fills the gaps in the employee report.

Statistically, we’ve seen 1777 files changed, 56746 lines inserted, 22888 lines deleted, totaling 33,858 new lines of code.  This includes the usual bug fixing, general enhancements and tweaks.  The amount of little enhancements and fixes are too numerous to list here, but are available as requested.

The main development goal of 2019 is the ability to produce invoices.  To support this goal, the release frequency will need to be reduced.  Currently, updates are released at one to two week intervals.  Four to six week intervals would better support this level of development, while still maintaining frequent enough updates to facilitate good feedback.  There will be room in the development schedule to support specific needs of current customers.  We are looking for your input on how the software has met your needs and what needs are still outstanding.

As a company, we recognize that we have not done enough to support the training requirements of our customers.  We have recently been building out some tools to support this.  Through an affiliate, we have begun work to build training videos and will also be preparing web conferences this spring to address training needs.

On behalf of Total Job Asset Control Services Ltd, we thank you for your continued support. We’ve made great progress this year and we are confident that 2019 will be even better.