Task & Subcontractor Management: Workflows in PlanRadar

Overview

This article walks through the task process from Task & Subcontractor Management: Overview in the order it happens: set up once in the office, create and assign tasks after the site meeting and the site walk, work on them as a subcontractor, and follow up until they are closed.

The example is the general contractor fitting out four office floors with eight subcontractor companies, one Task form, one plan per floor and one group per company. The steps assume you know how the individual features work. Each step links to the feature article.

Access & Permissions

Set Up the Process (Office, Webapp)

Done once by the project manager on account level. The form, the list and the groups are reused in every project.

Create the Lists

• Trade: Drywall, Ceilings, Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing, Flooring, Joinery, Painting.
• Source: Site meeting, Site walk, Client instruction, Schedule.

Create the Form

Create a form named Task and add the fields below. Keep attachments, comments and plan position enabled in the form settings. Enable the numbering sequence with the prefix T, so that tasks are numbered T-1, T-2 and so on and can be referred to by number in the meeting.

Give subcontractors edit permission for Photo when done. Read more in Create & Edit Forms, Edit Form Settings and Edit Field Permissions.

Create the Subcontractor Groups

Create and invite each company's foremen as subcontractor users. To create and invite a subcontractor in the webapp:

1. Hover over User Management and click Users. Read more in Create & Invite Users > Invite a Subcontractor.
2. Click Create user, or Invite user if the email address is already used in another PlanRadar account.
3. Select the subcontractor user type.
4. Fill in first name, last name and email address.
5. Select the projects the subcontractor works on.
6. Click Save, or Invite user for an invitation.

The subcontractor receives an email with a link to set the password and links to download the mobile app. Read more in Create & Invite Users.

Then create one group per company, for example Drywall Ltd, with the foreman as group leader. Read more in Create & Manage Groups.

Roles and Users

• Site manager: an in-house user with a role that has tickets Create, View all tickets, Edit all tickets that the user can view.
• Project manager: as site manager, plus the Statistics permission.
• Subcontractors: the subcontractor user type. No role needed.
• Tenant's project manager: a watcher.

Set Up the Project

• Upload one plan per floor. Read more in Upload Plans in the Webapp.
• Add the Task form to the project. Read more in Manage Forms of a Project.
• Add the subcontractor groups and the watcher to the project. Adding a group adds all its members. Read more in Manage Groups of a Project.
• Create and share two filters for everyone on the project: Open tasks (status Open, In Progress, Feedback) and Overdue tasks (Overdue by at least 1 day). Set Visibility (user) to All users, so that subcontractors can use them too. Read more in Filter Tickets.
• Optional: add the Task form to the favourites so it is one tap away on the mobile app. Read more in Manage Favourite Forms for the Quick Access Menu.

Create and Assign Tasks (Site Manager)

After the Site Meeting

Create the action items right after the meeting, in the webapp, while the agreements are fresh.

1. Create a ticket with the Task form, on the plan where the work is. Read more in Create a Ticket.
2. Fill in the fields:
   Title: "Close drywall on corridor side, rooms 2.10 to 2.14".
   Trade: Drywall.
   Source: Site meeting.
   Assignee: the group Drywall Ltd.
   Due date: the date agreed in the meeting.
   Description: "Electrical first fix in the corridor wall is finished. Close and fill the corridor side so the painter can start on Monday."
3. Save. The status is Open. The group is notified by email and push notification.

Where the meeting minutes are kept as a ticket, create the action items as sub-tickets of the meeting ticket, so that the minutes show all action items with their status. Read more in Use Sub-Tickets.

During the Site Walk

The site manager walks the floors with the mobile app open on the floor plan.

1. Tap the position on the plan and choose the Task form.
2. Take a photo that shows what needs doing.
3. Fill in the trade, assignee, due date and description, and set Source to Site walk. Speak the description if your hands are full. Read more in Fill Ticket Fields with Voice.
4. Save.

One task per ticket. If the same spot needs the electrician and the plasterer, create two tickets. Read more in Set the Assignee & Receivers of a Ticket.

Work on the Task (Subcontractor, Mobile App)

What the Subcontractor Sees

After logging in to the mobile app, the foreman selects the account and the project. If only one company invited them, the account selection is skipped. In the main menu, Tickets lists only the tickets assigned to them or to their group. In each ticket, every field they cannot change shows a lock icon. They can change status and progress, write comments, add photos and fill the attachment fields they have edit permission for. Read more in Quick Start Guide for Subcontractors.

Work Through the Task

Applying the shared Open tasks filter shows what is still to do.

1. Open the ticket, read the description and find the position on the plan.
2. Set the status to In Progress when work starts.
3. Update Progress on tasks that take more than a day.
4. Do the work.
5. Upload a photo of the result into Photo when done.
6. Set the status to Resolved.

Two other paths:

• The task cannot be done as described, for example because the area is not ready. Write a comment with the reason and set the status to Feedback. The site manager answers in the comments and sets the status back to Open or In Progress.
• The task belongs to another company. Write a comment and set the status to Rejected. The site manager reassigns it.

Follow Up (Site Manager)

Check and Close

1. Filter for Resolved tasks, per floor or per trade.
2. Check the work, on site or from the Photo when done.
3. If the task is done, set the status to Closed. Only in-house users can do this.
4. If it is not done, write a comment saying what is missing, set the status back to In Progress and, if needed, a new due date.

Before the Site Meeting

1. Apply the Overdue tasks filter in the list view.
2. Sort the list by assignee by clicking the column header. Read more in Tickets List View.
3. Create a ticket report as PDF per company with its open and overdue tasks, and send it with the meeting invitation. Read more in Create a Ticket Report (PDF).
4. In the meeting, go through each company's list. Agree new due dates where needed and change them in the tickets, several at once if necessary. Read more in Edit Multiple Tickets at once in the Webapp.

To check whether a company has seen a task you created, open the ticket and look at the eye symbol next to the assignee. For a group, it shows whether the group leader has opened the ticket. To list all tasks not opened yet, filter by Unread by assignee. Read more in View Read Receipts of Tickets.

The webapp dashboard shows the number of tickets per project and how many are overdue, and its ticket tabs show tickets across all your projects with predefined filters. Read more in Webapp Dashboard.

Across Companies and Projects

Statistics answer the questions that come up at the end of a month: how many tasks each company has open, how many per trade, how many came from client instructions. Create a column chart of Task tickets grouped by assignee and status, or by Trade and status. Because Trade and Source are list fields on one form, the same charts work on every project that uses it. Read more in Statistics and Creating Bar or Column Charts.

Every status change, comment and photo is recorded in the ticket journal with user and time, so the history of a disputed task is always available. Read more in Track Activity on a Ticket in the Journal.