BillQuick Online uses shorthand abbreviations, called IDs, to identify master records and items. Client, project, activity and expense code IDs are used while making time and expense entries, creating budgets, estimates and fee schedules; and more. These IDs have a specific character length and can include alphanumeric characters and punctuation marks as well; say, a client ID can be ABC 2021. Descriptive IDs can communicate useful information, especially if you plan their structure well. You can sort the grids by IDs, making it easier and faster to work in BillQuick Online.
Whatever
you adopt as a policy for ID structures, communicate it to your managers
and staff who will set up employees, projects, budgets and so on. If you
need to change an ID for any reason, use BillQuick Online’s Change
ID screen.
Client ID can communicate who a client is without requiring a reference to the company name. Say, ABC Corp. communicates the company name, ABC Corporation or HUD shortens the company name Housing and Urban Development.
For Project ID, the best practice is to combine the Client ID and a descriptive abbreviation for the type of work involved in the project. For example, a corporate tax return project for a client might be ABC-1120Tax. Your ID structure can also communicate the start date of a project and its phase. For example, ABC-Const-2021:II indicates it is the second phase of the parent construction project, started in 2021.
For companies offering a single category of services, BillQuick Online provides the option to auto-create project codes (Global Settings-Master Information panel). A Project ID structure includes a static portion and a variable with numerical increment. For example, CAD-2021-{000} combines the static CAD service for the year 2021 with the incremental numbers inside curly brackets. The first project created would be CAD-2021-001, then CAD-2021-002, and so on. Automatic generation of IDs can save time during initial setup. However, if you decide to include the fiscal year in the IDs, be sure to change it at the start of a new year.
Activity and expense items support both a Code and Sub-code. While BillQuick Online requires only a single-level code, you might prefer a two-level code structure to separate activities and expenses by department, function, type, etc. For example, TAX could be the main activity Code for the Tax Department, while PREP and REV would be the sub-codes that define the individual tasks of preparing and reviewing tax returns. Similarly, an architectural firm can use DRFT (drafters) and ARCH (architects) as main codes, and then add sub-codes based on tasks such as preliminary drawing, CAD, etc. to differentiate the two groups.
You can link budgets and fee schedules to a single project or multiple projects. To ensure all users understand which items to use with single projects, make sure the IDs they see communicate well. For example, if a budget is for a single project, make the Budget ID similar to the Project ID. Budget ABC-I is clearly a budget for the first phase of project ABC while ABC-II is for the second phase. If a budget is for multiple projects, use general and descriptive IDs that refer to the type of work or service. For example, a general budget for all network installation projects can use the identifier NET-INST.