When a Budget/ Quote has been approved (set to Active), it is time to start planning the actual work.
There are two ways for creating bookings: the traditional mode by booking in the Hourline or Long Form, and the Scheduling Mode which offers an easy drag & drop functionality from the Budget Details to the Project Tree in the Long Form timeline (if the price is day-based) or to the Hourline (if the price is hour-based).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Traditional Mode and the Actuals Pane
If Bookings are created in the traditional way (not through the Scheduling Mode), the Actuals pane at the bottom of the Budget window lists all the financial lines from Bookings, Media Orders, Work Orders, Project Objects, Time Reported Extras.
Bookings in Edit Project window, under Actuals view
Actuals pane at the bottom of the Budget window
Assuming that the editor completed the ingest in 1 hour and half instead of the 2 initially booked hours, the Actuals in the Budget table will display 1 hour and half on both the “To Date” and “Forecast” columns:
"Forecast" & "To Date" numbers after time-reporting
The Scheduling Mode
To use the Scheduling Mode the Budget has to be 'Active'.
To enter the Scheduling Mode, click on the calendar icon at the top left of the Budget window.
1. Enable Long Form:
Make sure that the Long Form is enabled to have an overview of all the Bookings in this Project.
2. Display only what you need:
- Hide Empty Categories, Accounts and Sub-Accounts: click on the Eye icon at the top left of the Budget window and un-tick Show Empty Categories and Show Empty Accounts And Sub Accounts, to only display those containing Budget Details. In this Quote example, only Post-Production Category is displayed and Accounts such as Rushes, Deliverables - Files, Film Services have been hidden.
Hiding empty Categories and Accounts
- Select an appropriate saved View: click on the Eye icon at the top left of the Budget window to select a saved view that at least shows the Description and the Quantity. See more details on how to configure views in the Creating a Quote and Budget article, under the Budget Table chapter.
Using saved View "Quantity & Sell (Budgeted - To Date - Forecast)"
3. Scheduling Mode options:
Click on the fourth icon at the top left of the Budget window and make use of the following options under Scheduling Mode:
- Keep Activity And Rates: This option is by default active to use the same Activity and Rate as in the Budget.
- Advanced: This contains four options: Update Projects Tree, Update Object Tree, Update Classes Tree and Update Hourline Tree.
The Object Classes in the Hourline will display their Class Members below them, like the Offline in the following example:
Update Project Tree, Object Tree, Classes Tree, and Hourline Tree
- Update Timeline Trees: By default, this option is set to Yes, you can also change it to No or Ask. If already in Scheduling Mode, by selecting Now it updates the timeline trees immediately.
- Restore Timeline Trees: By default this option is set to Yes, you can also change it to No or Ask. If already in Scheduling Mode, by clicking on Now it restores your timeline trees to the previous view.
Once ready to start booking, enter the Scheduling Mode. This mode divides the window into three areas:
- The Budget window in the top right corner
- The Toolbox in the bottom right corner
- The Timeline (Long Form and Hourline) on the left side
Each area can be re-sized as needed and the Toolbox can be hidden by clicking on the Toolbox button. The Project Tree is already displaying the Project where this Budget/Quote has been created.
- In the traditional way. Use the Budget window for information, and book in the traditional way in the Long Form or the Hourline on the left side. Later attach the actuals through the Actuals Pane.
- By dragging and dropping Budget Details to the Hourline or to the Long Form (only day and hour based Objects: Resources, Users, Rooms, Object Classes). Follow these steps:
Booking in the Long Form:
- In Long Form > View Port > select a time range for the Project planning
- In the Budget window > select the line to be booked by clicking on it (gets highlighted in yellow).
- you a) Next, drag & drop it onto the specific date when it should start - make sure that the green arrow points to the right to get the Booking start on that day if longer than a day. A window pops up allowing to choose the start and end time. If day-based, the In and Out time shows the default as configured in Toolbox > Settings > Booking Defaults). If hour-based the In time is the default one and the total amount of hours is respected.
Booking in Long Form by dragging onto the date
,b) The Booking can also be made by dragging the line onto a previously marked time range, but in this case you are deciding the number of days.
Booking in Long Form by dragging onto marked time range
In this example, the Budget lines have been created using Object Classes. When creating the Bookings using drag & drop from the Scheduling Mode, these Object Classes get booked.
The benefit of booking Object Classes instead of a specific Object or User is that it allows to later decide who will be doing the job and in which Room.
To book Object Classes, configure the following options:
- In the Server Setup > Bookings tab > Default Name When Booking Object Classes: give it a name, e.g. 'TBD' (to be determined).
- In Toolbox > Settings > Class/Object > Allocate Object When Booking Object Class: If set to Yes, as soon as an Object Class is booked, Farmers WIFE allocates an Object that belongs to that Object Class, randomly. If set to No, the booked Object Class shows the class name plus the name set in the Default Name When Booking Object Classes. If set to Ask, as an Object Class is booked, a dialog will pop up asking if an Object should be allocated.
- To start allocating Objects to the booked Object Classes, click on the Object icon in the Long Form and select either:
- Allocate Object: This will allocate an available (if any) Object belonging to the Class.
- Show Available Class Members: This will open the Toolbox > Objects tab to show the available Objects belonging to that Object Class. Drag & drop an Object onto the Object Class to replace it.
- In Toolbox > Calendar > select a day for the Booking.
- If the Update Hourline Trees option has been enabled, your Hourline will now display all Object Classes and Objects added to the Budget. Make use of this view to choose the Object or Object Class where the Booking is to be created. Alternatively, use your own Hourline Views.
- In the Budget window > select the line to be booked (gets highlighted in yellow) by clicking on it, and drag & drop it onto the corresponding Object or Object Class in the Hourline. If hour-based, like in the following example, the duration is respected.
Booking in Hourline an hour-based Budget Line
If day-based, the total hours are calculated from the default Time In/ Out (as configured in Toolbox > Settings > Booking Defaults), and you can choose the start time, like in the example below.
Booking in Hourline a day-based Budget Line
When dragging multiple details from the Budget window, to create one Booking, Farmers WIFE uses the Quantity and Unit from the first selected Budget Detail: i.e., when dragging a User with 4 hours together with an Avid that has 2 days, the Booking will be for 4 hours if you first selected the User; or for 2 days if you first selected the Avid.
Keep booking the rest of the Budget Details and once done, click on the calendar icon at the top left of the Budget module again to Exit Scheduling Mode.