Job States Overview

Job States are used to track the lifecycle of jobs within a practice, offering a flexible way to manage workflows and streamline operations. 

Job States can also be combined with Automation Processes to help streamline day-to-day work. For example, Custom Processes can be used to automatically create documents or tasks, update job information, or complete jobs based on changes to the Job's State or when a final invoice has been created. Jobs can also be locked when in certain states to prevent new Time or Disbursement Entries from being created. 

When used effectively, Job States provide a consistent and efficient approach to job management.

Managing Job States

Creating New Job States

By default, FYI offers several key Job States to assist practices in getting started with managing their jobs:

• Planned
• On Hold
• In Progress
• Completed
• Cancelled

For practices synchronising Jobs, new Job States can be created and synced from your integrated practice management solution, for example, Xero Practice Manager or MYOB. The Job State must be assigned to an active job, and will be created in FYI when the job is synced. Refer to your integration in the Apps and Integrations section for information on sync frequencies.

For practices on the Pro or Elite plans where Jobs are not being synchronised, Job States can be created directly within FYI. Job States can also be archived when no longer required.

For more information on adding and archiving Job States, refer to Managing Job States.

Job State Settings

Job States can be customised to based on the needs of the practice.

Renaming a Job State

For Job States created in FYI, once the Job State is created it cannot be renamed. You will need to create a new Job State, and use Bulk Update to reassign jobs to the new Job State.

For practices synchronising Job States from Xero Practice Manager, renaming a Job State in XPM will create a new Job State in FYI. You will need to bulk update jobs to use the renamed Job State and archive the old Job State. Refer to Jobs Bulk Update and Archiving Job States.

Note: This excludes case-sensitive changes. Changing a Job State from 'In progress' to 'In Progress' will update the existing Job State.

Deleting a Job State

Job States created in FYI can only be archived, they cannot be deleted.

For practices synchronising Job States from Xero Practice Manager, Job States deleted in XPM must be manually archived in FYI. Refer to Archiving a Job State below.

Archiving a Job State

Job States that are no longer required can be archived. Once a Job State has been archived:

• Jobs with that Job State selected will not be displayed in the Jobs List, unless the Unhide the Inactive Jobs option is selected.
• The Job State field on the Job - Summary tab will be displayed as read-only and cannot be edited. You will need to use Editing Jobs using Bulk Update to select a new Job State.
• The Job State will not be available to select within filters or the Job State field drop-down list, for example, in the Job List, or when selecting a new Job State for a job.
• The Billing Job's Budget values will be recalculated to exclude any values from a Workflow Job with an Archived Job State selected.

Before archiving a Job State, all jobs currently assigned to that state must be reassigned: 

1. Filter the Jobs List by the Job State to be archived. 
2. Use Bulk Update to assign a different Job State for those Jobs.
3. Once all jobs are reassigned, update the Job State to "Archived".

Working with Job States

Selecting a Job State

Best practice is to manage the Job State directly within FYI, even when integrated with a practice management solution.

The Job State for a Job can be updated in a variety of ways:

• From the Job - Summary tab
• Using Jobs Bulk Update
• By dragging and dropping a Job on the Jobs Board into a different Job State column
• Using an Automation Process step to update the job
• Creating a Job from a Job Template will automatically set the Job State to the default Job State selected in the Template.

Using Job State in the Jobs List

The Job State field in the Jobs List provides an effective way to manage and monitor the progress of Jobs. Using the Jobs list, you can create custom Views to focus on a particular Job State, for example, to filter specifically to jobs currently In Progress. These views can then be selected in Custom Automation Processes.

Additionally, the Jobs List Grouping feature allows practices to group jobs by Job State, providing a view of the total number of jobs in each State.

Auto-Update of Billing and Workflow Jobs

When updating a Billing Job's Job State, the Workflow Jobs will be updated automatically for consistency. This will apply when a Billing Job is set to a Job State with a Type of:

• Completed
• Cancelled
• Archived.

For example, if a Billing Job is updated to "Completed", the associated Workflow Jobs will also be set to "Completed". 

If needed, the Workflow Jobs can be manually updated to select a different Job State.

Using the Job Board

The Jobs Board, a kanban-style board, displays a column for each Job State, unless the Hide from Board setting has been enabled for the Job State. The order of the columns will be as per the order of the Job States in the Practice Settings.

The Job State can be easily updated by dragging and dropping jobs from one column to another.

Cancelling a Job

The Job State is used to mark a job as cancelled. By default, FYI includes a Job State of "Cancelled", however if any other Job States are created with Type of "Cancelled" it will be treated in the same way.

When a Job is marked as cancelled:

• It will be hidden from Job Lists, unless Unhide the inactive Jobs is enabled
  
• For practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager with XPM Workflow Jobs enabled, the XPM Task will be updated to Complete.
• For practices on the Elite plan:
  • If a Billing Job is cancelled, the associated Workflow Jobs will be updated accordingly.
  • If a Workflow Job is cancelled, the Budget Amount and Budget Hours on the Billing Job will be recalculated to exclude the Workflow Job.

Using Automations

FYI offers a range of Automation Recipes for Job Management, specifically based on the Job State. These automations can be used to save time and streamline operations.

• Track the date a Job State changes - for example, when a Job was moved from In Progress to Completed. This can provide an overview of team efficiency, identify any bottlenecks or delays, and highlight opportunities to improve workflows.
• Job Rollover Process - One of the suggested options for the Job Rollover Process is to create a standalone process based on the Job State. This can be triggered manually, or automatically on a particular date, for example, at the start of the financial year.
• WIP Write Off Completed Jobs - Available for practices on the Elite plan, this Custom Automation will automatically create a Final invoice for completed jobs with a WIP balance greater than $0.
• Final Invoice Auto Complete Job - Automatically sets the Job State to Completed when a Final Invoice has been raised for the client.
• Fringe Benefits Tax Job - automatically create FBT workpapers and create tasks for Planned FBT Jobs.
• Year End Compliance Job Kick Off - automatically create documents required to complete annual compliance jobs. 
• Year End Compliance Job - Start to Finish - automatically create meetings, workpapers, emails and tasks to assist in the completion of annual compliance jobs.
• Job Rework & Review Processes - automatically create tasks to assist in the completion of the review and rework steps to complete client work.

For more custom Automation Process recipes, refer to Process Automation.