FF&EZ is designed to be used in a variety of situations, from simple documentation of specifications, to the tracking of budgets which can be broken down to the item level, to contracts and proposals, to the creation of purchasing documentation.  Your approach to using the system will be influenced by your (and your client's)  needs.  The pages in this section give you both an overview of how you should approach the program and specific procedures to get you started.

One issue that comes up from time to time is that of doing "miscellaneous" specifications vs. a typical design project.  Since FF&EZ is a project-oriented system, setting up a project is a necessity in order to create specifications.  But there is really just a minimum amount of information that is needed for this, so this situation is addressed in this section.

The approach you use (and of course, you can mix them as needed) will depend on which of the following situations most closely matches that for your project.  The two main methods are "worksheet-oriented," focused on quickly building up a list of rooms and their proposed contents and "spec-oriented," where the contents list has been decided earlier in your work or before the project was given to you.  The following scenarios will help you decide which approach to pick:

• Project budgeting and planning has just started, including interviewing future occupants, but too soon for product selection. 
• I have a set of architectural drawings with rough space planning already done.  I need to present a list of everything that will be in the project, but I'm not ready to start product selection yet.  
• I have received a list of everything that is to be a sales quote and my job is simply to create the quote in the system. 
• I only need to create a few specifications requested by the client.  
• A client has an annual capital expense budget for replacing or renovating portions of a property. 

Project budgeting and planning has just started, including interviewing future occupants, but too soon for product selection.

We're assuming a more custom project here, not a repetitive building type like a hotel or restaurant (although, your first project for a brand of this buildling type would also qualify). Here you may have to mix approaches.  Although you will eventually want to build a skeleton that shows the proposed contents of each space, we are assuming that some or all spaces are custom. So you will start by using the Area List and Room List screens to create the list of all spaces in the project in a "top down" approach. 

If applicable, you will probably want to add more detail (such as the budget, occupant name and phone) when you create the areas and rooms. The room budgets can be entered directly or by using the built-in tool with the  expected room area  and a cost per square foot or square meter. 

As space planning was completed for individual spaces, you would add the room contents (objects) later with the "worksheet-oriented" approach. See the next section, which takes up as space planning is completed. 

I have a set of architectural drawings with rough space planning already done.  I need to present a list of everything that will be in the project, but I'm not ready to start product selection yet.

This situation is best handled by a worksheet-oriented approach, which allows you to quickly build a skeleton of the project (whether you add budget numbers or not) that can be presented as an overview. Use the FF&E Worksheet screen's Add command to create a list of objects in each room, which will automatically populate the Object and Specification screens with the beginnings of your product details. If you are working with a repetitive building type like a hotel, you will want to also use the Clone Into command to copy selected objects in a prototypical room into those that are similar to it. 

To save time, as you create each object, FF&EZ will create matching "placeholder" specs to go with them.  Later, when you actually begin selecting products, you will switch to the spec-oriented method to edit the specifications created earlier.  For users interested in maximum efficiency, a modification of these two methods uses prototypes to reduce data entry.

I have received a list of everything that is to be a sales quote and my job is simply to create the quote in the system.

As long as this is a simple quote or one that has just a room or two, this situation is best addressed by a spec-oriented approach in a "sales order" project (see "Sales Orders vs. Design Projects" for a comparison).  

Since you already know what needs to be in each room, it will be most efficient to simply get this list and start creating specifications, using the Specification List screen's Save + Object option or Object command to  quickly create the matching object and place it in a room.  In this case "room" may mean an actual room or it may be a "dummy" room set up to hold the contents of the sales quote (with a room name like "Items"). 

Note that if you start with a "sales order" project (with a room named "Items" instead of a physical room name), you can easily switch to a rooom-oriented project by renaming the "Items" room as needed, then editing items in the FF&E Worksheet to move them to any other rooms you create. 

I only need to create a few specifications requested by the client.

As you might guess, this is definitely a spec-oriented situation.  The difference between this and the one above is that "a few specifications" implies that this isn't really a "project" in the formal sense.  However, since FF&EZ is a project-oriented system, you still have to have some kind of project, at least one area and at least one room.  You can create a project like this for each request that comes up, or alternatively, you can keep a single project for this client, in which you create "areas" or "rooms" as needed to represent the request (also, see the next entry about "capital expense" budgets). Then, by using either the Report Form's "Filter" option to print the "current room" or the Query tool (on the FF&E Worksheet), you can limit the project reports to just the "room" for the current request.  

Whether you keep more than one project or just a single one will depend primarily on differences in shipping destinations. It is better avoid constantly specifying different destinations, which is error-prone. 

A client has an annual capital expense budget for replacing or renovating portions of a property.

This is just a variation of the "I have a few specifications" option above, but since there is an annual budget involved, here are the specific things to do:

1. If possible within your office procedures, give the project an ID that relates to the client's fiscal year, along with the property. Enter the fiscal year budget on the Projects screen.
2. Use the project's Areas List to create and indicate specific budget allocations ("Renovation of Restaurant", "Replace all sleeper sofas", etc.), and if needed create rooms within the areas (you will need at least one). Enter the budget for the allocation on the area screen for reference.
3. Populate the room(s) with whatever is needed for the capital expense expenditure. You may be creating new objects, using objects that are already in the project, or importing them from another project (for instance, the original construction project). 
4. When you print reports from the FF&E Worksheet, move into any room under that capital expense, use the "Current" option under the Report Setup screen's "Filter" section to select the current area as the filter. If you have the Design/Purchasing version, you can create orders using a similar filter approach on the FF&E Worksheet Order command's setup screen.