Projectmates Construction Software Blog

Customize Your Projectmates Site

The easiest way to simplify Projectmates for your users is to customize the site layout.  This will allow you to emphasize the modules that users will be using more frequently and group or hide those that will not be used as much.  These options are avialable under the Site Admin tab for site administrators (Sorry, asp clients will not have access to these options since they are sharing the site with others).

For those of you with access to the Site Admin area, you can begin customizing your site by clicking on the Custom Content menu and choosing 'Manage Site Layout.'  Here you will find each module and group of modules listed.  You can change the names of these modules (For instance, if you'd rather call 'Invoices' 'Pay Apps' or vice versa). You can remove modules from a grouping so that it has it's own button and is more obvious to users.  This may be useful if, for instance, your users will be using the Budget, but not the other contract modules such as change orders and invoices. You can simply change the Budget uncheck the 'hide?' box so that the budget Button appears by itself on the menu, and, if desired, hide Const Subcontracts module.  You can then drag and drop modules so that they appear in the desired order and change the icon that is displayed for each button.

Customizing the site layout will help your users navigate through Projectmates more smoothly and help new users adjust to the system with minimal difficulties; however, you should think through how you want the site layout setup very carefully before making any changes.  Changing the site layout frequently or doing so after users have already become adjusted to Projectmates can cause confusion and frustrate existing users.

Linking Action Lists to Schedules

Did you know that you can link your Action Lists with your Scehdules, so that when one changes, the other automatically updates? It's an easy way to save yourself time and keep schedules up to date.  You can create these links from the action list module in a matter of minutes. 

Lets say, for instance, you have an action list thread for a 'Punchlist' and there is a scheduled task on your schedule for Punchlist Completion; you can link the items from the action list to that scheduled task.  Just open up your 'Punchlist' and select 'Edit Items.' From this screen you can check off the items you wish to link (or just hold down Shift and select the first and last item to select all items at once) and click the Edit button.  Change 'Link to Schedule' to 'Yes'  Then, select the schedule and task that you wish to link these items to.

That's it! Your Punchlist thread and the schedule are now linked.  If you change the date on the Schedule, the due date for the punchlist tasks will be updated automatically. Likewise, once tasks on the Punchlist are completed and verified, the percent complete on the schedule will be updated.  So, you always know how close you are to completing a task and your schedules and due dates stay up to date.