Overview

What problem are we trying to solve?

We know that our clients are faced with challenges with job cost control in the following areas:

When creating purchase orders (POS) from an authorised quote.
When allocating a single line item to multiple vendors.
Tracking decisions made per line item on a quote (cash settlement, cancelling scope requirements).

To help tackle these challenges we wanted to provide the ability to manage quote line items by status so that you can keep track of the progress of each line item throughout the repair process, and see what purchase orders an approved line item has been allocated to.

Line Item Management allows the supplier to see liability, and approved items in a single quote, with the option to update the settlement or status of each item at different stages in the lifecycle of the quote.

What to expect

The Line Item Management update in R2 includes:

An upgrade for Quotes and Purchase Orders to have pre-defined group labels.
The ability to apply a status to a line item status in quotes.
The ability to view what purchase orders a line item is allocated to, within the original quote.
The ability to allocate a line item to multiple POs, and a system preventing the duplication of line item costs when allocated.
Automation of the Project Cost Summary with the remaining and allocated budget on the PO.

Definitions

Budget = (quote line item Buy Cost * Qty)
Remaining Budget = (quote line item Buy Cost * Qty) - Allocated Cost
Allocated Cost = Sum of all (PO linked line item Buy Cost * Qty) linked PO type in Draft, completed and Sent status
Committed Cost = Sum of all (PO linked line item Buy Cost *Qty) linked PO type in sent, Completed status

Changes & New Features

Quotes App

#	Feature
1	Quote status changes New colouring/icons New quote types
2	Bulk status update New action button to update line item statuses
3	Line Item check boxes New checkboxes to select line items for status change
4	‘Committed Cost’ column New column to reflect line item budget assigned to purchase orders
5	‘Status’ column New column to display line item statuses
6	Line Item status popper Upon hovering on a line item status, a popper will appear displaying relevant costs and linked purchase orders

Continue reading to see further details on each new feature.

Quote Statuses

We’ve made some changes to the colours of our quote statuses, so that you can tell what stage the quote is at with a quick glance. There are also some new statuses/status types you should be aware of.

Quote status customisations are available. Below are the defaults:

Status Types
Draft Quote has not yet been approved/cancelled/cash settled/published.
Published Quote has been finalised and sent for approval.
Approved Quote has been approved by client.
Cash Settled Quote has been cash settled.
Declined Quote has been declined/cancelled.

Line Item Statuses

You’ll see a new line item ‘Status’ column. The line item status can only be changed from ‘Draft’ once a quote has been published.

Line item status behaviour customisation can be requested. Below is the default:

Status
Draft Line item has not yet been approved/cancelled/cash settled. Automated only - this can't be selected manually Default status of line items when added to a quote
Approved Line item is approved to be completed/actioned. This status is can only be selected if the Quote is in status type “Publish” If an item has been cancelled/cash settle/allocated/Scheduled/completed it cannot be changed to “Approved”
Allocated Line item has been assigned to a vendor/trade. Automated only - can't be selected manually Upon generating a Purchase Order with the line item, the status will update to ‘Allocated’
Scheduled Line item has been scheduled with a vendor/trade. Automated only - can't be selected manually Upon sending a Purchase Order with the line item, the status will update to ‘Scheduled’
Completed Line item that has been actioned/completed by vendors/trades. This status can be selected once the line item status is ‘Scheduled’
Cancelled Line item is not to be actioned e.g Insurer states it is not covered. This status can be selected if the Quote is in status type “Publish” and the line item does not have any linked PO with a status different than Cancel
Cash Settled Line item is to be cash-settled. This status can be selected if the Quote is in status type “Publish” and the line item does not have any linked PO with a status different than Cancel

Updating Line Item Statuses

You can update line item statuses in three ways:

Manually
When changing the quote status
Automated based on a purchase order

Updating Manually

You can use the new ‘Bulk Status Update’ button to update line item statuses:

And use the new checkboxes to the left of line items:

To update line item statuses, select the checkbox/es and then select a status using the ‘Bulk Status Update’ button.

The statuses enabled for selection will be based on certain criteria (see the above table for individual line item statuses). Upon selecting a status, a ‘Confirm Status Update' pop-up will appear, asking you to confirm the status change.

After confirming, if the line item status update was for ‘Cancelled’ or ‘Cash Settled’, a new “Create a New Quote?” modal will appear.

If you select ‘Yes’, a new ‘Draft’ quote will be created, with the cancelled/cash settled line items.

Updating when changing Quote Status

Updating the quote to a certain status type can automatically update line item statuses accordingly. Currently, three quote statuses have this behaviour:

When changing the quote status type to ‘Approved’
When changing the quote status type to ‘Cash Settled’
When changing the quote status type to ‘Cancelled’

When updating a quote status, and bulk line item update can occur successfully, a new pop-up will appear (see table below), if you don’t want to proceed with the changes select ‘Cancel’.

Approved
Cancelled
Cash Settled

After confirming, if the line item status update was for ‘Cancelled’ or ‘Cash Settled’, the new 'Create a New Quote?” modal will appear

When updating a quote status, and the bulk line item update can’t occur successfully, a new modal will appear and the quote status change will not happen.

This will appear due to line item status behaviour preventing the status update (e.g. Attempting to cash settle a quote that already has line items completed).

Updating based on a purchase order

When a line item is linked to a purchase order, updating the purchase order in certain ways can automatically update line item statuses accordingly.

Currently, two line item statuses are automatically controlled by a linked purchase order:

Allocated - when a purchase order has been created and is linked to the line item

Scheduled - when a linked purchase order is moved to the status ‘Sent’

Committed Cost

You’ll also see a new ‘Committed Cost’ column, which is only visible once a quote is published. The value of this column is the total line item amount on the linked purchase order/s.

Line Item Status Popper

Upon hovering over a line item status, you will be able to see the breakdown of linked Purchase Orders and costing.

Popper when you hover over the line item status

When you expand the popper you will be able to see which Purchase Order’s a line item is attached to.

Please see the definitions above for more information on how the costs are calculated.

If there are no linked Purchase Orders, users will see a tooltip advising this.