Briefs

 
A brief is used to gather information regarding a job or job prospect. It also includes resource planning in the form of a time-line or work back schedule that will assign tasks to individuals within your organization once the job has been approved. 
  • Answers from the brief are designed to be used in the creation of an estimate or the fulfillment of the job and can either replace or compliment existing documents outside the Function Point system.
  • Please note that this section can be set to a custom name.  Some common alternates include "opportunity" or "work order."  These names do not affect the system at all and can be changed in the Admin section under "System Preferences."
For instructions on how to set-up a Brief Template please refer to the Admin section.

Table of Contents

Click on any of the titles below to navigate directly to related information or scroll down to view the entire page. 
 
 
 
 
 

Find Brief

Brief Find

Enter your search criteria on the find page.

  •  This can be any information you know about the brief.
    • Part of the brief name.
    • The CSR on the brief.
    • The company that the brief is for.
    • The creation or revision date.
    • Something specific in the description.
    • Etc.

This will result in one of three potential pages being displayed: 

  • If there are multiple people are found, then the list page will be displayed.
    • Select the desired person to go straight to the details.
  • If only one person is found, then the detail page will result.
  • If there are no people found, a red stop sign with the words "Sorry, no contact was found" will be displayed.

Tips on Finding Specific Records.

  • Enter just the first few letters of a name or other information (such as city) being used to query.
    • This will ensure that spelling errors do not occur in the search and an inaccurate result.
  • To find a range of Job Numbers or Dates use three dots between the values.
    • For example July 1, 2007 ... July 31, 2007. 
      • Leaving the second value blank will go to todays date or most recent job number.
      • Leaving the year black will default to the current year.
  • If you are searching for something specific always click "find" as "find all" will always show you the entire list.
  • You can choose to search by text that "begins with," "ends with" or "contains" by selecting the appropriate radio button. 
  • Clicking a date on the calendar will populate the date field with the specific date you choose.

List Briefs

Brief List

The list view displays multiple rows of records from the module selected.

  • Selecting, Sorting, and Printing are the primary actions taken from a list view.
  • The number of rows in the found set is displayed just below the header.
    • The system default is usually set to show only 25 rows which can be changed in the admin section.
    • If a search of the module results in more than 25 records, a double arrow button with page numbers will be show above the column headings. This allows paging through the records.

You have the ability to sort through the list to present the information in a more meaningful fashion.

  • Always remove the previous sort order by clicking on the eraser icon to avoid confusion.
  • Click on the column header you want to sort by and you will see a ascending or descending arrow.
    • To change the direction of the sort, click on the column header.
    • To sort by multiple columns click on each column you would like to search by.
      • For example, you can sort by company type, then alphabetize within the company type by clicking on the company name column.
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View Brief

Brief Detail
Once doing a search or selecting a specific record you will land on the detail page. 
  • Detail pages throughout the system show only one selected record that was chosen from the module.
  • There are specific sections and features of the detail page that are consistent across all detail pages in the system.
    • The upper page details and icon placement.
    • The view of variable lower inserts.
  • The variable lower insert provides access for viewing and navigating to related contacts, estimates, projects, and jobs for the company.
Note:

The insert is defined by the white bar extending across the page with the appropriate title on the left. Just below this are icons starting with View --> Contact, Project, Estimates, Docket, Invoice, and Note are the available selections on the company detail page.

Each view permits the user to see related information.
  • Selection of the Contact icon will display all of the employees for this company.
  • Selection of the Project icon will show all projects for this company.
  • The same features exist for Estimates, Jobs, Invoices and Notes.
When viewing this related information the user may select an item to navigate to its detail page.

Example:If the user is viewing the contact insert and wants to see details about a specific person they should select this person's name. This will return the contact details page for the selected person.

Try selecting a contact. Then select the company name on the contact details page to navigate back to the company detail page. This is an example of navigation using internal related links.
 

Add Brief

Add Brief
Briefs are created from either the brief add button on the the top navigation bar, from the thumbs-up icon on the Company detail page or from the same icon on either the estimate or job detail page.
  • From these pages select the button to navigate to the brief add/edit page.
On the brief add/edit page, enter the following fields:
  • Name: A name to identify the brief.
  • Brief Type: A brief type is created from the Admin section under brief types.
    • Brief types provide questionnaires for the brief which can be configured to your company's needs.
    • You can choose to create a brief that has one or two pages of questions, or choose to have a template for creating a timeline only.
  • Company Name: The client.
  • Key Contact: The key contact at the clients company.
  • Office: The branch of the company that will be performing the work.
  • Delivery Date: Date of projected completion.
  • Budget: The financial plan or proposed budget.
  • Compensation: The method your company will use to calculate what to charge for the job.
  • CSR: Client Service Representative, the employee that would be the chief contact for this brief.
  • Estimate: (optional) If this brief references an existing estimate. If the brief was created from the estimate or job this field will automatically be filled in.
To save, select Add/Update button. After the information is saved a next step will appear.
  • The next step will take you to the Brief questionnaire where the questions from the Brief Type selected can be answered.
    • They can be answered/edited at from the detail page at a later date.
  • The final step is creating a timeline.
    • The timeline can be created from either the estimate (if there is one in the system) or from a timeline template that can be set up in the admin. section.
    • Timelines are used to plan and assign tasks (actions) to employees in the organization.
    • Tasks are created for employees only after the brief is assigned to an open job.
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