User Guide

Overview

Overview is the summary screen of the selected project. At a glance it answers two questions: where the project stands and how much has been billed.

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1. What it is for

Overview is the summary screen of the selected project. At a glance it answers two questions: where the project stands and how much has been billed. Below that sit the counters of the day's work, the latest records from the site and the team's notes.

The page is mostly read, not filled in. There are two exceptions: project details and project notes are entered here. Every other number on the screen is calculated from other modules' ledgers and cannot be changed here — Overview only gathers and shows them.

The page always describes one project: whatever project is open in the title bar, the numbers belong to it.

2. Opening it, and who can see it

At the top of the sidebar, under no group heading: Overview. It is the first page that opens when you start the application and when you switch projects.

Your permissionWhat you can do
ViewYou read every block. Edit details and Add note are visible, but when pressed they tell you that you have no permission
EditYou can edit the project details, add notes and change or delete your own
No permissionThe module appears dimmed and locked in the sidebar; the application opens on the first page that is available to you
NoteAccounts with the Viewer role cannot add, edit or delete notes even when the project permissions are open. This restriction belongs to the account, not to the project; your company administrator changes roles.

3. Anatomy of the screen

Overview
NoteThe screenshots in this section contain no real company data; the project, person and firm names and the figures are examples.

From top to bottom the page is made of five blocks. The layout is an order, not a grid: the project itself at the top, the money measure right below it, then the counters of the day's work, and the flowing records at the bottom.

The project strip

The project strip

The wide strip at the very top. On the left is the project photo, next to it the project name and a badge for its status (Active · On hold · Completed). Under the name sit the project location and the "Started on …" line. Information that was never entered takes up no room: if there is no location, that line is not drawn at all.

There are two buttons on the right:

ButtonWhat it does
RefreshReads every block on the page from the server again. While it runs the icon spins and the button reads Refreshing
Edit detailsOpens the project details window. Without permission the button stays dimmed with a padlock icon

The lower band of the strip shows completion: a large percentage on the left and, to its right, a bar splitting production into three, with the name and count of each segment beneath it — Completed, In progress, Pending. Colour never carries meaning on its own; each segment's name and count is written out.

This band can say three different things:

  • The percentage and the bar, once the counts arrive.
  • "No production items defined yet — progress will appear here as the work list is built." That means the work list is empty; it does not mean 0%.
  • "Completion could not be calculated — production records cannot be reached right now." A Try again button appears next to it.

The warning strip

The summary figures come from six separate groups, and if one cannot be read the others still fill in. When a group fails, an amber strip appears under the project strip: "Some summary values could not be loaded", and the sections that could not be read are named. The strip carries a Try again button.

NoteA card whose value could not be read shows . That does not mean zero; that group's data could not be fetched at that moment. The warning strip names which group it was.

Progress Payments

The progress payments block

The main measure of the page. The card is titled Progress Payments, with the description "Total amount and distribution over the last 12 months".

There are two figures in the left column:

MeasureWhat it shows
Total Progress PaymentsThe sum of every progress payment record on the project. Below it, how many records it came from; with no records at all it says "No progress payments issued yet"
This MonthThe total for the current month. Below it, a line comparing it with last month

The comparison line can say four things: an increase or a decrease on last month, "Same level as last month", or — when there were none last month — "No progress payments last month." Movement under half a point does not count as change; it reads as the same level.

On the right is a column chart of the last twelve months. Hovering over a column shows the full name of the month and its amount. Axis labels are written every other month, but the last month is always labelled.

NoteMonths with no progress payment are not skipped in the chart; they stand at zero height. If they were skipped, the gap between two columns would sometimes mean one month and sometimes four, and the chart would mislead.

Project Details

The narrow card to the right of the progress payments block: Project Details, "Permit and site information." It carries four rows — Block / Parcel, Construction Area, Landscape Area, Building Inspection.

A row that was not filled in is not drawn. If all four are empty, the card says "No project details entered" and carries an Enter details button.

The measure strip

The measure strip

Below the details sit four small cards side by side: Open Orders, Pending Dispatches, Critical Stock, Active Subcontractors. All four count quantities; none of them holds money. Each card has a second line beneath it giving one detail about that number.

The cards take on colour only when there is something to warn about: pending dispatches and critical stock stay neutral at zero and turn amber and red above it. They also stay neutral when the value could not be read — a number nobody could fetch should not look like bad news.

Site Feed

Site Feed

The wide block at the bottom of the page: Site Feed, "Latest records from the site." The badge next to the heading gives the total number of records — all of them, not just the ones loaded so far.

The records are laid out as a timeline. Each record carries the production item at the top, next to it its location (block · unit · room) and the name of whoever wrote the note, the time since it was entered on the right, and the note itself below. If the subcontractor doing the work is known, it appears as a small badge. When there is a photo, a small preview sits beside the note; clicking it opens the full-size image.

The list scrolls inside the card, not the page. As you scroll down the next records load by themselves; there is no button to press. When the feed ends, "All notes loaded" appears at the bottom.

Project Notes

Project Notes

The card to the right of the site feed. It has two sections and both are always open:

SectionWho sees it
GeneralEveryone with access to the project
PersonalOnly whoever wrote the note

Personal notes are set apart by the accent stripe along their left edge and by the Personal badge; colour is never left to carry it alone. Under each note sit the name of whoever wrote it and how long ago it was written.

At the top right of the card is the Add note button. While a section is empty it also carries its own Add general note and Add personal note buttons.

4. Fields

Entered fields — project details

All four are entered from the Edit details window and none of them is required.

FieldDescriptionRequired
Block / ParcelThe block and parcel number on the title deedNo
Construction AreaThe construction area in square metresNo
Landscape AreaThe landscape area in square metresNo
Building InspectionThe name of the building inspection firmNo

Construction Area and Landscape Area are free text. If what you type can be read as a number, it is shown formatted and with an unit; if it cannot, it stays exactly as you typed it and no unit is added. The hint line inside the window tells you which of the two it will be as you type.

Notes have a single field: Note. It cannot be left empty. When adding one you also choose a Note Type (General or Personal).

Calculated measures

These are not entered; they are counted from other modules' records.

MeasureHow it is calculated
Completion percentageThe ratio of production items marked Done to all production items on the project
Completed · In progress · PendingThe counts of production items marked Done, In progress, and everything left over
Total Progress PaymentsThe sum of every progress payment record on the project — there is no date limit
This MonthThe progress payment total for the current month
The column chartThe progress payment total for each of the last twelve months
Open OrdersOrders whose status is neither Completed nor Cancelled
second lineThose among them whose status is Awaiting quotes
Pending DispatchesDispatches that are not archived and whose status is neither Delivered nor Cancelled
second lineThose among them whose status is In transit
Critical StockMaterial items whose stock level has reached or fallen below the minimum stock threshold defined for them
second lineItems whose stock level is zero or below
Active SubcontractorsThe number of subcontractor firms defined on the project
NoteA material with no minimum stock threshold does not count as critical. With no threshold there is nothing to fall below. If you want a material to appear in the critical warning, you have to enter its threshold in Stock Tracking.

5. Step by step

5.1 Entering and editing the project details

Edit project details
  1. Press Edit details in the project strip. If the details card is completely empty, the Enter details button inside it opens the same window.
  2. Fill in the four fields. None of them is required; to remove a value you entered by mistake, just clear the box.
  3. Watch the hint line that appears between the field name and the box: if your value was read as a number it says "Will be shown as … m²", and if it was not it says "Not recognised as a number; will be shown as you typed it".
  4. Press Save.

What you save does not stay on this page alone; it also appears in report headers.

5.2 Adding a note

Add note
  1. Press Add note at the top right of the card. If you use a section's own add button, the type comes preselected.
  2. Choose the Note Type. The line above the selector tells you who will see it: "Everyone with access to the project can see it" or "Only you can see it."
  3. Write the note and press Save.

The note field takes several lines; Enter starts a new line, it does not send the note. Sending happens only through the Save button.

5.3 Editing and deleting a note

The edit and delete icons are drawn only on your own notes. They do not appear on someone else's note because the server enforces the same rule: if they were drawn, they would be two buttons that could never work.

The edit window has no type selector — only the text of the note changes. Turning a general note into a personal one would mean losing it from the sight of the colleagues who have already read it.

CautionDeleting cannot be undone. The confirmation window says so.

5.4 Moving through the site feed

  1. Scroll down inside the card; the next records arrive by themselves.
  2. To enlarge a record with a photo, click the small preview in the note. The window that opens also carries the name of the production item and its location.
  3. Press Close to close it.
NoteNo record is added to this feed from here. A site note is written in Site Data Entry while the status of a production item is being recorded; Overview only lays them out in time order.

5.5 Refreshing the page

Refresh in the project strip renews every block together. The icon spins while it runs. If only one block failed to load, using that block's own Try again button is quicker; it repeats only the query that failed.

6. Things worth knowing

The blocks do not wait for each other. The page is drawn from several separate queries, not one. When progress payments cannot be read, the details, the notes and the site feed stay on screen. That is why you never see an error screen covering the whole page.

"—" does not mean zero. If you see a dash on a card, that value could not be read. The warning strip above names the group that failed.

The total and the chart do not cover the same period. The total on the card covers the whole project; the chart shows only the last twelve months. A progress payment older than twelve months is in the total but not in the chart.

Completion counts production items, not quantities or amounts. The percentage tells you how many production items are finished; large and small items count the same. For financial progress look at Progress Payments, and for progress against the schedule at Production Planning.

"Pending" is not a status but a remainder. The pending segment of the bar is everything outside completed and in progress.

Notes belong to the project, not to you. When you switch projects the notes change too. A personal note also lives inside one project — it is not visible once you move to another.

Active Subcontractors counts every firm defined on the project. It does not look at whether they worked that month; the number is the record count in the Subcontractors module.

A user who cannot see Overview does not meet an empty screen. Without permission the application opens on the first section available to them. If no section is available at all, the screen says so and asks them to contact their project manager.

None of the numbers on this page are produced here. Where they come from:

  • Production Report and Site Data Entry — the completion percentage and the site feed come from the production records kept there.
  • Progress Payments — the total, this month and the twelve-month chart are read from that ledger.
  • Order Management — the open order and awaiting-quotes counts.
  • Dispatch Tracking — the pending and in-transit dispatch counts.
  • Stock Tracking — the critical and out-of-stock item counts; the critical threshold is defined there.
  • Subcontractors — the active subcontractor count.
  • Projects — the project name, photo, status, location and start date are entered there; the detail fields are edited from this page.