About job phases

Note: Job phases, in contrast to bid items, affect estimates and some billing items and follow through the entire job.

Important! Phase 0-None is merely a place holder representing the fact that you are not using phases. To use phases, you must begin with phase 1 or higher.

Using phases in a job affects all its aspects, for example:

• Job schedules
• The job budget
• All document control
• Purchase orders
• Subcontracts
• Change orders
• Proposals
• Project management reports and analysis
• Job costs
• Change orders
• Payables
• Billing

Phases organize jobs and can represent different sections of a job, such as different buildings or lots. You can also use phases to distinguish different types of work, such as change orders or site work. Because phases flow through the entire job, they do not restrict which billing methods you can use.

Suppose a contract is for the construction of five houses. To track costs that benefit the entire project, create a phase for the project costs. Then create a phase for each lot. The list of phases might look like following:

Phases can include the billing amount and model number. The billing amount represents the total amount you are billing for the phase. When working on subdivisions, you can track which model home to build on each lot by assigning the appropriate model number to each phase.

You can also include a unit of measure and quantity measured in each phase. To continue the example above, the plans provide the total square footage for each house; therefore, enter square feet as the units and the total square footage of the house as the quantity.