Overview
You can create new projects in BQE CORE either from scratch or from existing project templates. If your company specializes in certain project types (for example, schools, churches, restaurants, car dealerships, residential and commercial), you can expedite setting up these projects by using project templates. With templates, you can get off to a quick start on projects you frequently work on. After creating standard templates, you can then create new projects from them easily and quickly. Click to watch this video on projects templates in CORE.
You must create different project templates containing general or common data that you want to copy to similar new projects. For example, you can create a generic project and save it as a 'Residential Project Template'. When you are creating a new residential type project, you can base it on this existing template and save time entering all the common properties from scratch. You can edit the templates, if required, and add phases to them.
When creating a new project structure based on a project template with a hierarchy (including parent project and phases), the new Project ID needs to be entered while the new Project Name is pre-filled by the template name, but can be overwritten. The new phases inherit the ID, Name and Description of the template's phases to preserve the original structure, but these can be overwritten, if needed. You can choose which project attributes you want to copy from the template to the newly created projects, such as project rules, assignments, budgets, fee schedules, classes, contacts, groups, to-dos, etc.
Project templates are further enhanced to streamline the project creation process and eliminate manual data entry. Additional project phases can be added to existing project templates. When setting up a new project template, project managers can also choose to designate a standard set of to-dos and other attributes to that template, which can then be cloned when creating new projects from it.
How To
Field Descriptions
| Field Name | Field Description |
| Project Templates > Create Project > | |
| Manager | Person who manages the project. You can assign employees as well as vendors (contract employees and outside consultants) as project managers. CORE auto-fills the project manager with the same ID as the client manager, if you leave it blank. |
| Contract Type | It determines the billing arrangement for a project. Whether a project is billed per hour, lump sum, or not billed at all, it is a best practice to record time and expenses against it to take advantage of the project management features in CORE. |
| Contract Amount | This is the total consideration for the project (billable and non-billable Service Amount + non-billable Expense Amount). You can include or exclude billable expenses and taxes in this amount, depending on how you bill. Although contract amount is required for fixed-type contracts, it is a good practice to set it for hourly projects as well. The original contract value is saved for reference till you apply a new calculated contract amount. If the contract amount is changed after creating invoices, past invoices continue to use the original contract amount. Contract amount for a parent project can be allocated to its child projects using the % of Project value. Example: If the contract amount of a main or parent project, NET-001, is $100,000 and Phase A is 60% of the total project, then CORE assigns $60,000 to NET-001:A. |
| Recurring Amount | Recurring contracts involve billing a fixed amount after a specified number of days. The project is billed for that amount irrespective of how much time or expenses are spent on it. A contract amount is not required but can be entered for reference and tracking profitability. |
| Fixed Fee Amount |
Fixed fee contracts involve billing direct costs (time and expenses) plus a fixed fee (profit) to the client. You can set the fixed fee here. |
| Contract Amount |
As a project manager, you can enter or calculate the contract amount for the project. The Contract Service Amount gets pre-filled with the entire amount by default. You can then manually assign some portion of it to the Contract Expense Amount.
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| Calculate Contract Amount | CORE provides options to calculate the contract amount on a percentage of construction cost basis or unit cost basis.
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Create Project Templates
You can create a new project profile from scratch containing general or common data that you want to copy to similar new projects and then save it as a template. You can also save an existing project as a template.
To create a project template, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Projects.
- Click Create Project and select From Scratch.
- On the Create Project screen, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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Project ID
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Project Name
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Client
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Manager: Person who manages the project.
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Contract Type: It determines the billing arrangement for a project.
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Contract Amount: Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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Recurring Amount
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Fixed Fee Amount
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Click Split Amount if you want to split the Contract Amount into:
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Contract Service Amount: Amount spent on the labor or service part of the contract. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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Contract Expense Amount: Amount incurred on the expense part of the contract amount.
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Click Calculate Contract Amount if you want CORE to calculate the contract amount on a percentage of construction cost basis or unit cost basis. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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Enter other information about the project, if needed, and click Save & Done.
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In the detail view, click Actions > Save as Template.
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On the Save Template dialog, enter the required information and click Save.
Edit Project Templates
You can view and edit your project templates in CORE.
To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Projects.
- In the list view, click More > Project Templates. (Alternatively, you can access this screen directly from the Projects menu > Templates & Tools > Project Templates.)
- On the Project Templates screen, select the project templates on the grid that you want to delete and click Actions > Remove. Alternatively, you can use the row-action menu to delete them individually.
- You can select a template on the grid and click
to select View Details. You can view the project template details on various tabs.
- On the Details tab, you can enter more details or make your changes, say change the template name or other attributes of the project. You can even add project phases to the existing template.
- Click Save.
Duplicate Project Templates
You can copy a project template to a new one.
To duplicate a project template, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Projects.
- In the list view, click More > Project Templates. (Alternatively, you can access this screen directly from the Projects menu > Templates & Tools > Project Templates.)
- On the Project Templates screen, select a template on the grid and click
- On the Duplicate Template dialog, enter the new template name.
- Click Duplicate.
A new template is created and displays on the grid. You can edit it, if required.
Remove Project Templates
To remove a project template, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Projects.
- In the list view, click More > Project Templates. (Alternatively, you can access this screen directly from the Projects menu > Templates & Tools > Project Templates.)
- On the Project Templates screen, select a template on the grid and click
- You can also batch remove the templates by selecting them on the grid and then clicking Actions > Remove.
This un-assigns the selected project template to the projects.