How Poologics helps the team in the field

Pools aren't built from the office!

Our points of emphasis with the project and field managers roles is to simply provide them with what needs to be done, giving them the information necessary to get that job done, and also to communicate their needs back to the home base. To that end, let's talk about these three principles.

So, what needs to be done? 

Let's start big to small. 

Templating

Projects and Phases: If you've dialed in your project template, then this is pretty automated for each project -- you should simply be able to opt-out of phases if they are not necessary for this specific project. Again, the project templates are the foundation of all scheduling and related elements in Poologics such as permitting and inspections, selections, receivables, and tasks/punch items. All of these elements will be assigned to the phases that were created on the project template. To read more about what a good project template looks like, check out these articles: 

• Setting up your account for busy season
• How to set up your project schedule 
• How to set up your project template
• How to set up your account in the quickest time possible
• How to onboard your team

Great! What else can and should we templatize? Let's automate this as much as possible to avoid communication lapses and mistakes. The next high impact templatization is the Agencies and Permits/Inspections. In step 4 of the project file creation after turning a lead to sold, you'll be asked to add your agencies. If it's set up properly, you should be able to simply select the agency (city, state, county, HOA, etc.) and then select the permit type. Once you do this, it should pull up all the created inspections in our system and layer them onto your project file's schedule. 

• How to set up agencies and inspections
• How to set up internal inspections (these can function like templatized tasks)

Project Specific Tools

Discussions are a great way to keep the home office in the loop or communicate needs. Office Coordinators in Poologics often create discussions within the project file, which triggers a notification to assigned users. If the assigned user responds to the Discussion notification in their email inbox, it will post the response directly to the project file. Clean communication channels with a log of what happened -- no more "he said, she said." And yes, you can include the customer in these conversations. To read more about discussions, click here. 

Tasks/punch items are a way to assign out a construction related or adjacent task to a team-member. These have a built in "control" in them -- if a punch item is not completed, the phase cannot be closed out!

Obviously, tasks can be anything, but we often see punch items for: 

• Purchasing
• CAD approval
• Repairing sidewalks or driveways
• Fence or pipe repair
• Electric, Gas, or Plumbing not up to code
• Read more about punch items. 

Selections

What were the customer's selections? Were they ordered? Using the selections tab (and paired with a punch item or discussion) can be helpful in finding the selections made, making sure they are on their way, and also having the data easy to find when a warranty claim is made. Read more here. 

Change Orders

See an opportunity to enhance a project? Keep your eyes open to opportunities to keep selling in the field. Here's our guide to change orders. 

Contact Information

With Poologics, you can have access to all of your team, customers, and vendor information all in one spot. Need insurance information for a vendor? It's in the vendor detail. Need a phone number? It's in the contacts tab. 

Target Dates and the Project Completion Date

If you're keeping your schedules up to date, you'll be able to communicate with a vendor, customer, or team member when you expect to hit a particular phase of construction and the scheduled project completion date.

Attachments

Have what you need when you need it. Communication is great, but sticking to on a process is better.  Get your team used to uploading documents to the lead and project files so that you don't have to call them from the field to find construction plans. To read more about Poologics as a source of truth, check out these articles: Getting your team onboard and Attachments

Electronic Documents

We provide a blank canvas for you to build a document. We've seen users create initial consultation forms to fill out, change orders (with docusign), selections documents, PM checklists for phases, etc.  Check out Electronic Documents in Poologics here. 

Scheduling Events

This is a way to notify a team member, customer, or vendor of an upcoming event such as "Dig Day." Creating an event will keep it on your dashboard, send out email notifications, and generally keep it on your radar. More about events here.

Receivables

Get paid! Depending on how your office flows, you may be taking checks in the field. If so, enter the payment, take a picture of the check, and post it to receivables section to close out the receivable. If you don't input your payment within the stated terms, Poologics will consider the payment as delinquent! The project won't be able to close until you collect the outstanding balance. More on Receivables here: 

Keep it smooth sailing.