Project Diary

Top  Previous  Next

Full Version Only

Clicking Miscellaneous Project Diary on the Menu Bar will display a list of all your entries in the Project Diary. You can sort the list by any column by clicking the column heading. Click the same column heading again to sort in the opposite direction.



The list is divided into two sections. On the left is a list of all projects that have diary entries. Clicking on a project will display all the entries for that project in the list on the right. Double-click an entry on the right to open the entry in the Project Diary screen.

You can search using either section by clicking a field in any column you want to search (i.e. Date) and start typing. Quick Estimator™ 2005 will move to the nearest match. Keep typing until you find the one you want. If there is more than one match (i.e. you have more than one entry for one day) just hold down the Shift key and hit Enter. Quick Estimator™ 2005 will move to the next match.

Check the Options button and select View Notes to display entry notes. Select again to hide.

Click the Options button and select Add New Diary Entry to add a new diary entry.

The Project Diary screen is where you add, view or edit project diary entries. The top part of the screen has info about the entry and the lower part lists the activities for that day. See the image below.



You can use the Browse By Subject or the Browse By Project drop-down list to browse through your existing entries.

Clicking the Options button will display the drop-down menu shown below.


Select Add New Entry to add a new entry.

Select Print to print project diary entries. See the Printing The Project Diary topic.

Select View Estimate to view the estimate for the selected project.

Select View Job Tracking to view job tracking information for the selected project.

Select Delete Entry to delete the current entry.

Adding A New Diary Entry

If you print out the Daily Job Sheet and have your foreman fill them in each day, then you can use them to help you fill in the information.

You must first select the project this diary entry belongs to from the Project drop-down list. Once you select a project the current date will be entered in the Date field. You can change it as needed. Also if you had selected a foreman for the project on the Projects screen, then that foreman will be selected in the Foreman field. A default subject will also be entered in the Subject field for you. Edit this as required. This all helps to speed up entries and save typing.

You can enter the weather conditions in the Weather field and add notes in the Notes field.

Check the Automatically Update Job Tracking Info box if you want the actual quantities updated in the Job Tracking each time you add an entry for a project. This can save a lot of work plus it makes it easier to track the progress of the job.

To add activity details for the day first select the category (Materials, Labor, Subcontract, Equipment & Miscellaneous). Then select an item from the Item drop-down list. Only items that were included in the estimate will be available from the list. If the item you want is not on the list, you can click the button to open the Cost Book Item Selector screen which you can use to select an item from your cost book. See the Cost Book Item Selector topic to learn about using this screen.

Next enter the quantity used/installed for that day in the Today's Quantity field. The Unit field will already be filled in for you.

When you click on the Labor category to enter labor items, a small button will appear to the right of the Today's Quantity field.

You can just type in the quantity as normal or you can click the button to open the Project Diary Labor Task Details screen as shown below. You can use this screen to break down each labor item to the individual employees who worked on it and how long they spent on it.

Simply select an employee from the Employee drop-down list. Then enter the hours the worked on that task. If you have entered the hourly rate for your employees on the Employees screen, then the cost will be calculated for you. Repeat for each employee who worked on the task.

The Cost Per Man-Hour, Total Man-Hours and Total Cost will be shown at the bottom of the screen. Click the Close button to return to the Project Diary screen. The Total Man-Hours will be entered into the Today's Quantity field for you.

You can print a report named Detailed Blank Daily Time Sheet from the Estimate Print Options screen. This report will list all the labor item from the estimate with room to add up to four employees and their hours for each item. Use this screen on site to collect the required information to fill in the Project Diary Labor Task Details form.

---