Using the Projects tab is a great way to tie together Work Orders in your system. By creating a project, you will be able to keep your work orders organized and track your progress towards project completion.
A feature available to you in the Projects tab is the Gantt Chart. A Gantt Chart is a way to view all Work Orders in a single project, based on date information. This lets you visualize how quickly work is being accomplished, and in reference to the end date for your project.
1 - Creating a Project
Click the “Projects” Tab, then click on the “Plus” button at the top of the list.
Fill out the Basic Project fields:
A - Most accounts are configured to have the “Project No” populate automatically with a sequential number. If this is not the case in your account, input a unique number.
B - Fill out the “Project Type.”
C and D - Choose the “Start Date” and the “End Date (Estimated)” of this project.
E - Input a “Description” and the “Project Details.” When you are done, click “Save New Record” in the top left hand corner.
2 - Creating Work Orders and Associating them with a Project
There are 3 ways to associate work orders to projects:
Create a new work order through the Work Order tab and select a project on the “Project #” field.
Edit an existing work order and select a project on the “Project #” field.
Create a new work order through the “Related Work Orders” table that can be found within the “Related Tables” of the Project.
A - After creating a Project, navigate to the Work Orders table and click the “Plus” button on the top of the list to create a new WO.
B - Fill out the basic work order fields (Asset ID, Assign to and Brief Description).
C - Select the project you created in the “Project #” field and then click Save when you are done.
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Note 1 - You can associate multiple work orders with the same project by adding them in the same way.
Note 2 - Make sure you chose a “WO Date” between the “Start Date” and “End Date” of the Project for it to display correctly within the Gantt Chart, which will be discussed next.
If you go back to that project after creating WOs for it you will see that those WOs are displaying in the Related Tables section of the Project.
3 - Viewing the Gantt Chart
In the “Projects” tab you will also find the Gantt Chart feature. A Gantt Chart is a way to view all work orders in a single project based on date information. This lets you visualize how quickly work is being accomplished in reference to the end date for your project.
A - To access the Gantt chart, open the project you would like to view, hover over the “Actions” button, then select “Gantt Chart."
B - Now that you can see the Gantt Chart, you will notice that:
There are Trend lines for the Project Start and End dates. There’s also a Trend line representing Today’s date.
The chart displays a row per WO.
The colored horizontal bars represent WOs based on their dates.
Note - The first time you load the chart up, you may find it says there is no data to display and it will be blank. This is completely normal. If your chart is blank or if you want to configure it differently you will be able to do so by clicking the “Configure” button at the bottom right to bring up some options.
4 - Gantt Chart Configuration
Clicking the “Configure” button on your Gantt Chart, brings you to the “Gantt Chart Configuration” screen, where you will see 3 Tabs at the top:
Project Information - In this area you will be able to choose what fields designate the project’s begin and end dates. You will also be able to add a trend line for today’s date.
Work Orders - In this area you will have control over what Work Order information (Dates, Fields, Milestones) will display in the chart.
Chart Options - In this area you will be able to choose the chart colors, size, number of months to display, etc.
4.1 - Gantt Chart Configuration Example
By default, the only column to the left is the Work Order number. If you want to see more Information on the chart you will need to configure it. In this example we will add the “Asset ID” and “Brief description” as columns.
A - Click the “Configure” button at the bottom right of the chart.
B - Click “Work Orders” (The middle tab on this window).
C - Next to “Data Column 1”, click the dropdown and select “Asset ID,” then next to “Data Column 2,” click the dropdown and select “Brief Description.” Click “Save” at the bottom to view these changes on the chart.
In the “Chart Options”, you are able to change the colors of different parts of your chart. The steps below will show you how to do this.
A - Click the “Configure” button at the bottom of the chart.
B - Click “Chart Options” (the tab at the top right on this window).
C - On the “Open WO Color” click the green value to pick a different color.
D - When you are done, click “Save” at the bottom to view these changes on the chart.
