What’s the Issue?

The construction industry has a very specific format in which progress claims need to conform.

In general terms the following information is required for each stage claimed:

• Quoted Amount for stage
• Percentage Complete (% and/or $)
• Amount previously claimed (% and/or $)
• Current claim (% and/or $)

WorkflowMax users who have implemented the application in a conventional manner and who have used standard WorkflowMax Invoice templates have difficulty geneating invoices and/or claims with the right information and format.  The missing information can be addded manually but this is time consuming and frequently the standard WorkflowMax format is not acceptable.

How to Resolve

While WorkflowMax has yet to address this issue at an application level the problem can be addressed at an implementation level through some relatively minor changes to the account setup and the use of “smart” print templates.

The process we have developed requires:

1. An accepted quote with all billable work listed as a job cost
2. At the time of invoicing the user is required to input:
   1. % previously complete
   2. % claimed this invoice
3. Normal invoicing process other than 2) above
4. At the time of printing the invoice the user will need to use a Custom Invoice Template that calculates the missing data (% claimed to date) and formats as required.

An output similar to the image above can be expected but this can be customised significantly to meet specific requirements

Smart WorkflowMax Invoice Templates

WorkflowMax uses print templates to generate customised quotes and invoices.  These custom print templates are based on word documents that contain merge fields and tables that are loaded on the WorkflowMax Server.  Most users simply modify the Word files to change the look and feel of the final document but the word files can be “programmed” to do much more – hence the concept of “smart’ invoice templates.

The custom template described here has a number of fields that calculate the additional information required for the progress claim, thereby speeding up the invoicing process.