Track the Date a Job State Changes

This article explains how to create a Custom Process in FYI to automatically track the date a Job State changes in FYI, for example, from Planned to In Progress. This process can be scheduled to run automatically at regular intervals.

Once the Jobs are automatically updated with the dates, a new View can be created on the Job List with to display the dates the Job changed status. The list can then be exported to Excel as a CSV file if required.

Watch the tutorial or follow the steps below to build a process to automatically track the date when job states change.

Create Custom Fields and Automation

Step 1 - Create Custom Field Definitions for each Job State date

A "Date" type Custom Field will need to be created to capture the date that each job changes to a different state.

While users can choose to update these dates manually, you can also create an automation process to update the field automatically. This automation process will be created in a step later in this article.

When creating the Custom Fields, ensure they have the following:

• An appropriate Name, for example, Planned Date. This should clearly indicate the purpose of the custom field.
• The Applies to must be ticked for "Job". You can also enable the field for Client if preferred.
• The Type of "Date" is selected.

Refer to Managing Custom Fields.

Step 2 - Create a View for each Job State

You'll now need to create a View for each Job State to be used by the automation. When the automation process runs, any jobs that match the view will be updated accordingly. For this example, we'll create a view for all jobs in the "Planned" state.

Refer to Sorting and Filtering Jobs Lists and Saving Changes to the View Layout, Modifying and Deleting Views for detailed instructions.

1. In FYI, click the Jobs menu to open the Jobs List.
   
   
2. Click the Filters tab and filter by one of the Job States, for example, Planned.
   
   
3. The Jobs List will refresh to show only the jobs that match that criteria.
   
4. Add or remove any additional columns as needed using the Columns tab, for example, the "Planned Date" custom field created in the previous step.
   
   
5. Use the View Tools to save the view
   
6. Save the list with Automations ticked (you can untick the List option if preferred since this view will be used by the Automation to update the Planned date).
   
7. Repeat for each Job State, for example, First Review, Completed, etc.

Step 3 - Create an Automation for each Job State View

When a Job State changes, a custom Automation Process will be used to insert the current date into the Job State Custom Fields created earlier.

Each view created in the previous step will require its own separate Custom Automation Process.

For detailed instructions, refer to Setting up Custom Processes.

1. Click the Automation menu to open the Processes tab.
   
   
2. Click Add Custom Process.
   
   
3. Update the Fields for the Automation.
   
   The Name is used to describe the Automation. For example, "Jobs: Update Planned Date."
   Tip: By entering the same text at the start of the name for each automation, for example "Jobs:", you will be able to group them together when viewing the list of processes.
   
   The Description provides more detail on what the automation is used for.
   
   The Schedule is used to define how often the automation should run. Click the Pencil icon to edit the schedule. For this example, we have set the Automation to run every hour. Note that if the Job changes multiple states within an hour, only the current State at the time the automation is run will be used.
   
   Select one of the Filters created in Step 2. A custom process will need to be created for each of these filters. When selecting the filter, ensure Run Only Once Per Job is ticked.
   
   
4. Click Add Step.
   
   
5. Select FYI Actions and the Update Job step.
   
   
6. From the Set Custom Field drop-down select one of the Custom Fields created in Step 1.
   
   
7. The field will be added to the Actions for the step, for example, "Planned Date". Using Merge Fields, Select "Current Date" from the Merge Field section 'General'. Refer to Including Merge Fields in Automations.
   
8. Click Save.

Step 4 - Create Jobs List with Job State Dates

Finally, you can create a View in the Jobs List with the columns displaying the dates of the Job State changes. This view can also be exported to CSV if required.

Refer to Sorting and Filtering Jobs Lists and Saving Changes to the View Layout, Modifying and Deleting Views for detailed instructions.

1. Add the Columns for each of the Custom Fields created earlier.
   
   
2. To limit the view to only Jobs where dates have been entered, create a Filter for the first Job State in the process, for example, Planned Date. Use the Relative Filter with the date Is Known. Any job without a Planned Date will be excluded from the view. 
   
3. Use the View Tools in the top-right corner to export the report to CSV if required.
   

View the Job History

When the automation is run to change the Job State, an entry will be added to the Process History tab for the job. Refer to Job Processes, Process History and Process History Checklist.

For example, the Process "Jobs: Update Planned Date" is displayed at the top.

If a user manually changes the date, the Activity tab will display the changes. Refer to Job Activity. 

For example, the user Anna Jordan manually changed the Planned Date for the job after the Automation had already set the date (displayed as "System").