Project ID

(Required) This is the unique identifier for the project This field is subject to validation procedures which ensure that no two projects have the same number. It must be filled out to create a new project.

 Because the Project ID is used in the file names created for the project, you cannot use certain characters in the ID. If you stick to letters, numbers and these symbols: "-", "_", "!", "$" and "&", you will not have any problems.

 If you want to use your standard project numbers and they have more than ten characters, use a readable abbreviation of the project name as the ID, and include your project number as part of the Title (below).

There is a longer discussion of Project IDs in the "How to" section under "Setting up Clients and Projects."

If the Project ID template feature is enabled, this button will appear when you use Add or Edit to create a new project. It uses a template to create the next sequential project ID that matches the template. The template can be created as a simple text file named "ProjIDTemplate.txt" and stored in the "Plugins" folder found in the FF&EZ data set. 

Type

The "Design project" type is the default and should be picked for projects in which objects will be placed in more than one area and room. 

The "Sales order" type is used for projects created strictly to document simple sales orders or product selections and includes streamlined functions that make it easier to create a simple quote. 

When a sales order project is created and saved, the system automatically creates a "General" area and a room named "Items" and then opens the project and takes you directly to the Specifications Form. After creating each spec, the Save/Object button displays the Object Function subform with most fields already filled in for you. You only need to specify a quantity. A sales order project can be converted to a design project at any time—the only difference is that the program's default behaviors during the initial project setup change slightly.

Title

Enter up to 40 characters for the project title, for instance "Ashbury Hotel - Airport." Your entry here will appear in the heading of reports, exactly as you type it. See "Location" below for more information about how this field is used in reports.

Location

Enter up to 40 characters describing the general location of the project, typically the city and state. Enter the information as you wish to see it  in the title block of all project reports. 

Note: This field is meant for "formal" use in a title block, not as a project address. The separate project address (as in, shipping address) will appear as needed on reports where this is important, whereas the basic FF&EZ title block consists of the project Title and Location (typically City and State/Province, and sometimes an urban area location) plus your company name, address and phone numbers from the Setup Screen. For example, a typical project title block might contain

Title:                Ashbury Hotel - Airport

Location:        Metropolis, California

We strongly advise against entering an actual address in "Location." It can cause confusion with vendors as to where an item is to be shipped, especially if you print ordering-related reports or have the Purchasing system. For more information about how addresses are handled in FF&EZ, see "Working with Addresses."

The "info dot" is a quick way to see more detail about the item next to it. Here, you can see more information about the client simply by placing the mouse pointer over the dot. The pop-up that appears will include live links to email and web pages if you have entered them on the Client screen.

Client ID

(Required) This is a short code for the project client. If this is a new client, click on the New button next to the Client ID field, and the system will display the current client list with "add" mode already in effect, to allow you to add a new one. After using the New button to create a client, FF&EZ will return to the Projects screen. See the Clients section for details about adding clients.

Client Ref/PO #

This field allows you to record the client's own reference number for the project, or a single overall purchase order #. This information can be transferred if you develop sales and purchase order export functions and will appear on each purchase order created from project FF&E in the Design/Purchasing version.

PO Prefix

(Purchasing System Only) You can set up project-specific sequential purchase order numbers by entering an alphanumeric code in this field. Be sure to read the full explanation in the Project List - Purchasing section.

Currency

Optional: You can override the currency set up for your system on any project by selecting an alternate currency from the list if ISO standard currencies shown. If a currency has a symbol available in the standard font, it will be shown to the right.

Use symbol?

If a symbol is available for a selected project currency, you can choose to use it on screens and reports instead of the ISO code. Note, however that the ISO code is the most explicit about which currency is being used.

Designer

The name of the person in charge of project design.

Project Mgr

If there is a separate project manager, list that person here 

Salesperson

The person credited with the project sale.

Started

Use this field to indicate the date the project was started. This fills in automatically when creating a new (not cloned) project. When cloning a project, be sure to verify or adjust the existing value. 

Note: There are a number of very useful shortcut keys available when editing a date field. These can make date entry much faster and easier, so be sure to check them out!

Issued

Enter the date the documents will be issued, if applicable. The date will appear at the bottom of all reports. 

Revised

Enter the most recent revision date for the documentation. If entered, this date will appear at the bottom of all reports. 

Install

Enter the current target date for installation of project FF&E. If entered, this date will be compared to the lead time for items you specify to help flag items whose ordering time-frames are critical to project deadlines.

Closed

Flags the project as "closed" for further activity. This does not prevent you from using the Open button to access the project's contents or run reports, but the project will not appear on lists where projects are selected for new activity (such as a new purchase order). The project does appear on the list of projects when importing specifications.

If you have the purchasing system, be sure to read the additional information about closing projects on the Project List - Purchasing page.

If the "Hide closed projects" option is enabled, a closed project will "disappear" when you save it and the system will display a reminder that the "record" doesn't meet the current display filter. If you have a list of projects you are closing, you may want to disable the "hide" option until you finish closing them.

Purge

Flags the project for purging from the system, using the Purge Projects utility. Since this is a permanent deletion, a warning message will appear when this field is checked. You cannot access this field unless you mark the project as "closed" first.

Limit field size?

This is a special field used for backwards compatibility with other FF&EZ systems that still use the 10-character Tag and Specification ID field widths. You should not select this option unless:

1. You are exporting Design projects to another FF&EZ system where the version is older than 4.2.
2. You normally use Tags and Spec IDs that are wider than 10 characters (this size was introduced in version 4.2). 

If selected, this option will limit your entries for those two fields plus certain others that were widened in later versions. It only affects the project where it is selected. Other projects retain the wider fields. If you need this option, be sure to select it when the project is created so the limitation is in effect as you create your objects and specs.

1 - Invoice us

This is the setting to use if you are selling FF&E for a profit to outside clients. This assumes that vendors will send invoices to you for payment by you, and you will in turn send your client invoices for your sell price. If you are the "client" (that is, this is an internal project), see the next options for the best fit.

2 - Invoice client directly

For most design firms or departments that are assisting a client with design and basic purchasing functions, the items that are ordered will be billed on vendor invoices mailed directly to the client. 

Important: If you are an internal department managing the design and purchasing for company-owned projects, you should choose this option or the next to enable the widest array of management reports. Under this setting, your "client" might be the department that "owns" the project or the project itself or the name of a G/L account, with billing and shipping addresses set appropriately to make special functions like deposit requests perform their own intra-organizational routing.

3 - Invoice client but send to us

This option is a variation on the "Invoice client directly" option above, but in this case, all communications with the vendor go through your firm (or department), acting as an agent for the client. Selecting this option will produce a similar result in the way addresses are used, with one exception: The billing address on order-related reports will automatically consist of the client's name (from either the client record or the first line of the project billing address) followed by "c/o" and your firm's or department's name and address.

Other Fields

Project Markup
Project Margin

Enter a percentage representing the standard markup to be applied to the price of FF&E items. If your system has been set up to use profit margin calculations instead of markups, this field will be labeled that way.

This is intended to be the profit (if any) built into the FF&E cost figures. Leave the markup as "0" if there is none or if you plan to price each product manually. You can change this field at any time (see note below).        

The percentage entered here is copied into the specification data when a new specification is created. It can then be overridden with a different markup for that particular item, if desired. Note: This is not the same as the vendor discount (See Vendors). 

If you change this rate on a project later (or if you are cloning another project), a pop-up tool will appear that allows you to determine how to apply the new rate.  

By default, the tool will only apply the rate to existing specifications that have the old rate, and will leave any with a different rate unchanged, since this is likely to be the result of setting prices manually.  Therefore, if you want to change all specifications to the new rate, be sure to select the "all specifications" option and the "Also apply change to specs with "locked" prices.

Note: For finer control over markups without having to set each price manually, use the Utilities> Pricing Tool command on the FF&E Worksheet, the Object List screen or the Specifications List screens (it is the same command on each).

Purchasing Mgmt Fee

This percentage is used primarily in the Design/Purchasing version, but will appear on quote formats if you use it. This is the percentage that will be applied to item costs (not prices) for purchasing management services. A number entered here will be copied to each spec, and in the Purchasing version, is transferred to any orders created, where it changes the way the Purchasing module creates invoices. You can override this number on each spec. Entering a 10 = a 10% fee.

Like the tax rate, if you change the fee on an existing project, you will be prompted to specify how to apply the new fee percent. See the discussion above under "Project Markup."

Tax?

Checking this box will add a tax amount when purchasing management fees are invoiced (see "Tax Rate" below).

Quantity variance adjusts client amount

(Design/Purchasing version) As orders are shipping and invoiced by vendors, the quantity that was originally ordered may change based on manufacturing over- or under-runs or on forgetting to account for case quantities on the original order. FF&EZ allows you to note variances on the Expediting List screen, however you will want to control whether those variances affect the amount invoiced to your client. 

On cost/sell projects, there may be a fixed quote to which you agreed, in which case you will normally not invoice a variance. In that case, you will want to unselect this option, otherwise the invoice will reflect the quantity adjusted by the variance.

On the other hand, for purchasing management projects in which the client is paying the actual cost of each item plus a management fee, you will typically want to leave this option selected. This option is automatically selected for new projects.

Important: This option must be set and shipping variances must be noted on affected order items before an invoice is generated for them. This option does not affect check requests, which will always show the actual shipped quantity (including any variance).

Sum component price to primary order item

(Design/Purchasing version) For most cost/sell projects, the client is quoted a single cost for each object, even if it is composed of multiple components that are ordered separately (such as COM fabric that is shipped to a furniture manufacturer). This option, if selected, will automatically move the sell price (not the costs) to the primary component when FF&EZ creates the purchase orders needed to create each object. It has no effect on objects that are made up of a single component (or those made of a single component plus "image only" specifications).

Note: Project markup (or purchasing fee %), sales tax and shipping rates can be changed at any time. When you change any of these rates, the Rate Change Options dialog will appear, from which you can indicate how you want the change applied to existing specifications

Project Budget

Enter the total budget for all FF&E items you will be tracking in this project. This figure will be compared against the aggregate budgets for project areas, rooms and tag occurrences, as well as the actual costs derived from the tags. 

Area Unit of Measure

FF&EZ defaults to using square feet (sq ft) as the measure of area (as in, the area of a room), unless this is changed on the Setup Form.  This unit is used when calculating budgets or costs per unit area. For any specific project you can override that setting here if needed for specific international projects.  Note if you enter just an "f" or just an "m" the system will convert these to "sq ft" and "m²" respectively when you move out of the field.

Tax Rate, Code

FF&EZ provides a way to estimate the tax amount for each item. The rate you enter here is copied into the specification data when a new tag is created. It can be overridden, if desired, for any item. You should enter the tax rate that will be most common among the FF&E items. You can change this field at any time (see highlighted special note just above this section). 

The tax rate is applied differently, depending on the billing type: 

• On a "vendor is to bill us" type, it is applied to the sell price of each product, because this billing type is used for profit-based projects. 
• For the other types, it is applied to the base cost plus vendor add-ons for each item. The cost associated with any support specifications will include taxes, and is calculated in the specification for each support item. 
• If your are subject to a VAT, see "Apply as a VAT type" below to determine how to set that up. 

You also optionally apply this rate to any purchasing management fees charged for a project by selecting the "Tax PM fee?" option next to the purchasing management fee rate.

The "Tax Code" field (to the right of the rate) is only used for recording special tax district codes that are needed for custom export processes.

All tax rates and their application are subject to the laws of the various taxing districts involved in a project. FF&EZ is not intended to be a calculator of the exact taxes that might be applicable in any situation (in other words, if you have questions about this, please contact a tax advisor or government administration.)

Apply as a VAT type

If this option is checked, FF&EZ assumes that the tax rate will be applied to both purchase order amounts (the cost you pay) and to invoices generated from the system (the sell price or purchasing management fee). This includes freight and the purchasing fee if the associated "Tax?" option is checked for these two amount types.

Note: this option does not affect purchasing management projects, since the client pays the vendor directly (including the associated VAT). If a tax or VAT should be charged on your fee, simply use the "Tax?" option next to the "Purchasing Mgmt Fee" field.

Even if a VAT applies, there are exemptions like "business-to-business"  sales where you would not use this option. If you are new to the system, we strongly recommend reading the sections "Working with Markups, Taxes, Freight and Fees" and (if you have the Purchasing module) "Working with Order Markups, Taxes, Freight and Fees" to be sure you understand the options.

You can specify that individual vendors are exempt from the VAT by using the associated option on the Vendor List screen. This does not affect the VAT on sell prices, only the purchasing costs.

Copy spec tax
to PO

(Design/Purchasing version) In Design/Purchasing systems, this option controls whether the tax rates on individual specs in purchasing management projects are copied to orders when they are created. In many large purchasing management projects (where the client pays the vendor, including any tax) the tax amounts can be too complex for a simple calculation, so a tax quote is used on the order instead of a tax rate. This field is visible but disabled in FF&EZ-Design systems. 

Estimated Freight        

Approximate shipping costs will be added to each item if you use this field. The cost is added to each item instead of to the project total to allow item costs to correspond more closely to item budgets. If shipping is also taxed in this project, enter a percentage that includes the tax on the shipping amount. As above, you can override this rate for on given specification by entering a different rate there.

If you have the Design/Purchasing version, freight rates estimated here do not transfer to the purchase order. On the purchase order there is a field for a "Freight Quote" which is intended for official quotes from vendors for the actual freight cost.

Tax?

This checkbox determines whether the tax calculation will include the estimated freight (on a quote) or the vendor's invoiced tax amount (on orders). 

Billing Address

If the "Use client address" option is checked, this set of fields is ignored and the billing address will be the main address found on the client record. If you uncheck the option, you must fill in an address here, and it will be used as the default billing address for purchasing-oriented reports. 

Special Case: if the Billing Type selected for the project (see above) is the "Invoice client but send to us" type and you are using this set of fields instead of the client's own address fields, the billing address supplied to vendors assumes that the first line of this address contains the client's company name, but will use your own company address (see Setup Form) as the billing address.  However, the full billing address shown here will be used for your billings to your client.

Shipping Address

If the "Use client address" option is checked, this set of fields is ignored. If you uncheck the option, you must fill in an address here, and it will be used as the default shipping address for purchasing-oriented reports. Note that you can override this address on each spec as needed (see Working With Addresses). 

Add

Used to add a new project to the system. Choosing this command will create a blank record on the screen. You will then need to fill in an ID for the new project. The system will check this ID to make sure it does not already exist. If the ID is valid, you can enter the rest of the information for the project.

To cancel the Add command, press [Esc] or use the Cancel button.

Add> Import

 An alternative to adding a new project is to use the Import option that appears after you select Add. To create a project by import, you must have an FF&EZ Data Archive (FDA, FDZ or ZIP) file that was created with the Project Export command (see below). Projects can only be imported by adding a project; if you are importing an updated version of an existing project, you can either 1) Delete the existing project, 2) assign a variation of the original Project ID, such as adding a suffix ("12345B") or 3) change the original Project ID first ("12345-OLD"). This last is the recommended (safest) approach.

When importing a project, vendors that do not exist in the target system will be created automatically. However, unlike the Vendor Form Import function, any Vendor ID that already exists will not be replaced and will be used for incoming products that specify that vendor ID. For this reason, you will need to compare and coordinate the vendors used in both systems to avoid inconsistent usage. For more information, see "Importing Projects."

If you are interested in importing project data from a non-FF&EZ data source, please see the complete discussion of this process in the "How to" section Importing Data from External Sources.

Edit

The Edit command is similar to the Add command, except that you are working with an existing record. The Edit command always acts on the record currently highlighted on the screen, so if you wish to edit some other record, use the up and down arrow keys or the Query command to highlight the desired record first. Note! You cannot move to another project if the current project is still open.

Changes you make to a project record will be reflected in all parts of the project without any further changes on your part. If you change the spelling of the Project ID, the system will change the spelling in all related items as well. 

This command is not needed to open a project with the Open command and get access to the other project content screens. If you edit the project record, be sure to save your changes before returning to the other screens showing project content.

You can start the editing mode (of the project setup) by simply double-clicking on a project in the Project List. As per the note above, this does not open the project and is not required to do so.

To cancel the Edit command, press [Esc] or use the Revert button. 

Although you can use this command while working on the "content" screens (like the FF&E Worksheet) of an open project, remember that no changes you make on this screen will appear elsewhere in the project until you Save them (the usual procedure for any editing screen). If you return to an already-open project's content screens without saving, you will not seen any difference (for instance, if you changed the project's "Title" or its tax rate). If that happens, simply return to this screen and click Save.

Clone

This command allows you to copy an entire project. It copies the project currently highlighted on the project list screen. If chosen, the system will display the project editing screen, with all information copied except the new Project ID, which you must enter to complete the required field entries. You can make any other changes to the general information about the new project before you save it or later with the Edit command.

You can cancel the Clone command by pressing [Esc] or clicking on Cancel.

When the Clone command is selected, the system will display an option window in which you can control whether the specification status fields are reset for the new project:

The status fields are the design and client approval dates, the vendor quote references (quote ID, date, etc., not the cost or price), submittal status, revision group code and the specification's internal notes. This allows you to make a copy of a project as a "backup" or "snapshot" before making major changes while also supporting the need to re-verify various status items (such as whether vendor costs have been checked) on new projects cloned from an existing one.

Delete

(Undelete)

The Delete command is used to permanently remove a project from the system. Unlike other screens that require just a simple confirmation, if you choose this command, you will be asked to confirm your choice by typing "YES". While using the list at the top of the screen, the shortcut for the Delete command is the [Del] key (this key works on text as expected when you are actually editing text entries). 

You can undelete (restore) a project if you accidentally delete it. To do so, right-click on the Delete button. FF&EZ will display a list of deleted projects. When you select one and confirm it, the project and all of its contents (at the time of deletion) will be restored. You can only restore a deleted project if the File Cleanup command has not been used to compress the database.

Note: Prior to version 4.1.10, the contents of deleted projects were not marked to flag them as part of the project's set of deleted records. That is, there is no way to determine if deleted records were deleted prior to this and might create invalid data. These cannot be properly restored with this tool. (If you have a deleted project from the prior version and want to restore it, contact tech support to see if this is possible). 

Open

Once you have highlighted the project upon which you want to work, use this command to "open" it. The system will make the project's "content" data available by enabling the "project content" buttons on the "Views" section at the upper left side of the form. You can also open a project by moving the highlight onto it in the list and pressing [F2], the hot key for the Open command or the shortcut Ctrl-O.

Note: You do not have to be editing a project (with the Edit command) in order to open it with Open! This is important, because while only one person at a time can edit the information on the Project screen, many people can open a project and access its contents at the same time — as long as they do not all try to "edit" the project setup information first. You can edit the project information while you have it open, but be sure to save your changes so they will show up in the rest of the project. If you forget, a warning will appear to remind you.

Subsets

Opens a window displaying optional categories to which major project elements can be assigned (see below).

Export

This function is used to create an FF&EZ Data Archive (FDA) file containing all the data about a project, including the client and vendors used in the project. This file can be used for archival purposes, however it can also be sent, via disk, e-mail or "cloud" drive, to another FF&EZ system. An archived project can be imported to another system when the Add command is used to create a new project. After clicking the Add button, an Import button will appear that is used to start the import process. See "Exporting Projects." 

You can export a project with or without the associated images. An option on the export setup will create a folder containing both the FDA file and the associated images, which is then moved to a compressed "folder" (zip file) named with the project ID. Note that this file can be quite large, since image files may not further compress and your email system may limit the size of files you can attach to a message.

If you plan to use this command to transfer projects to another FF&EZ system, be sure to read the discussion of how to handle vendors between the systems under "Importing Projects."

Query

When you choose this command, the system will display the Query Form. This command is used to limit the display (and subsequently, reports) to projects that meet certain conditions. For more information, see the Query Form topic.

You can close the Query form by pressing [Esc].

Print

This button displays the Reports Form and allows you to print basic reports about the projects on the Project List. 

Hide Closed Projects

On older systems, especially if you use a separate project for many small orders, you may have hundreds of projects that you don't need to see, but don't want to delete or purge. This option controls whether projects you've closed with the "Closed" field are displayed in the list. Note that this does not affect whether projects are included in reports, which normally have a separate option to control this. 

Tips

The "Tips" option controls whether or not you need "fly-over" help or hints when your mouse cursor hovers over a control or a field. This can be extremely helpful for new users, since these explain the purpose of the item and may list shortcut keys that can speed up simple operations. 

Sub-Projects

Each project area can be assigned to a sub-project. Sub-projects can then be used in queries to view and print multiple areas of the project. Note: This is a required field on the Area List form, but each new project will already have one sub-project that is assigned automatically. You can add new ones as needed.

Phases

Each project room can have a phase assigned to it. The phase can be used in queries to view and print specific groups of rooms according to their assigned phase. This list shows any additional phases that were added via the Rooms form.