We will begin our first deep dive session by reviewing Projects, Work Orders, the Schedule, and the Checklist. These components make up a significant portion of the system’s core functionality. Gaining a solid understanding of each area is essential, as they play a key role in the overall process flow.  We encourage you to review and complete each step below prior to the Deep Dive Session 1.

Step 1: Projects

A project refers to a specific construction or remodeling job at a designated location or address. This could involve building a new home, renovating an existing property, or any other type of construction work that takes place at that particular site. Projects typically include all the planning, budgeting, and execution phases, as well as tracking the progress and any changes that occur throughout the process.

In Home Builder Solution (HBS), the project serves as the parent record, meaning it acts as the central hub for storing all of the detailed information related to a specific home build or remodel. It organizes and links all aspects of the project into one comprehensive record.  

Learn how to create and maintain projects here:  

• Creating a New Project
• Updating an Existing Project
• Deleting an Existing Project

Step 2: Work Orders

Work orders are essential for managing work at the job site. They are categorized into one of 26 classifications (such as plumbing, framing, or electrical) and consist of billing items (labor and material costs).  Work orders ensure that tasks are scheduled with specific start and end dates, assigned to the appropriate team or subcontractors, and tracked for progress to ensure timely completion and effective project management. 

Learn how to create and maintain work orders here:

• Creating a New Work Order
• Updating an Existing Work Order
• Deleting an Existing Work Order

Step 3: Schedule

The project schedule displays work orders on the calendar according to their scheduled start and end dates. Adjusting dates is easy with the drag-and-drop scheduler, enabling quick modifications when needed. When a schedule change is made, you can choose which work orders' dates should be adjusted and which should remain as originally scheduled.

Additionally, the schedule adds an extra layer of accountability for scheduling changes. Each time a change is made, a reason must be selected to explain why the work order is being rescheduled. HBS keeps a history of these changes, ensuring transparency and providing a clear record of any scheduling changes throughout the project.

Learn how to work with the schedule here: 

• Viewing the Schedule 
• Updating the Schedule

Step 4: Checklist

A user's checklist is a list of actions that need to be completed by that user, or another user with the same responsibility. Every user's checklist is unique to that user. HBS prompts each user to take action on daily directives that need their immediate attention. 

The checklist is automatically generated based on three main factors: 

• A user's current responsibilities
• Previous actions taken on the project
• Company preferences/settings (material lead times)

A User's Current Responsibilities 

Responsibilities are assigned to user roles. When a user is assigned to a user role, that user is granted the permissions and takes on the responsibilities of that role. For example, if a user is assigned to the superintendent role and that role has been assigned the Verify Work Complete responsibility, then when it is time to verify a work order, that task will be listed in that user's checklist.

Previous Actions Taken on the Project

Another factor of whether a prompt is displayed on a user's checklist is what phase that work order is in the 6 phases of the checklist process:

Company preferences/settings

The final factor HBS considers when building a user's checklist are company settings/preferences. There is a company setting in preferences called PO Approval Days, which is the number of days before the start of a project that you want to start showing checklist items. For example, if your PO Approval Days (material lead time) for windows is set to 30 days then checklist items pertaining to windows will not begin to display until 30 days prior to the start of that work order.

Learn how to work with the checklist here:

• Viewing the Checklist