Viewpoint Terminology
Viewpoint uses certain nomenclature, and concepts throughout the application and it can be helpful to understand each of these items and what they mean.
The key distinction to understand is that Viewpoint separates Revenue from Costs.
Revenue Terminology
Revenue is money that comes into Synergy from our clients over the course of a project. Viewpoint primary calls to this side of the equation as Contracts, referring to the prime contract between Synergy and the owner.
Contracts are set up in the PM Contracts module and contain information relating to the prime contract as well as billing information for our progress claims.
Contract Items are the billing line items that the owner will see on our progress claims. Contract Items use and independent scheme from the cost codes we use to track costs on our projects and should be aligned to customer expectations for invoicing purposes
Cost Terminology
Costs are the money that Synergy pays out during the course of construction to our employees, subcontractors, and suppliers. In Viewpoint, there are four important named concepts: projects (jobs), phases, cost types, and subcontract items.
Projects (Jobs)
Projects are the entirety of the scope required to complete our work on a given project. A Project in viewpoint contains basic information about the physical address of the jobsite, change order markups, as well as all of the phases codes and their associated cost types (defined below).
Viewpoint doesn't use the term Project consistently, in some places of the software you may find Job used. These are interchangeable within Viewpoint and refer to the same thing.
Phase Codes
Phase Codes (sometimes called cost codes outside of Viewpoint) are the individual elements of work that make up the project. An example of a phase code could be rough carpentry, skidsteer rental, or painting. When costs are incurred on our projects, they are charged to a phase code either on an employee time card, purchase order, or subcontract.
Cost Types
At Synergy, we use three Cost Types (labour, material, and subcontract) to differentiate different types of costs that can be incurred on a phase code. Cost types provide an additional level of detail that can be reported on separately from the base phase code. Each phase requires at least one cost type to be active, but may have two or all three cost types active, as a project management team, we can select which cost types apply to any given phase code. For example, the Mechanical phase code may only have the subcontract cost type active, while the superintendent phase code may only have the labour cost type active, and the temporary power code has all three labour, material, and subcontract.
Subcontract Items
When issuing subcontracts, it is possible to have multiple items listed on a subcontract to help clearly define the subcontractor's scope. These are called Subcontract Items, and they provide an added layer of detail when issuing subcontracts. Subcontract Items must tie back to a phase code, but do not need to use individual phase code for each subcontract item.
For example, if we had a mechanical prime contract that included:
- $100,000 for plumbing
- $80,000 for HVAC
- $50,000 for sprinklers
- $30,000 for controls
- $15,000 for mechanical trenching and backfill
On our project, we wanted to track the first four line items under a mechanical supply and install phase code and the trenching in a separate phase code, we could do the following:
| Subcontract Item | SI Description | Amount | Phase Code | PC Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plumbing | $100,000 | 220000 | Mechanical |
| 2 | HVAC | $80,000 | 220000 | Mechanical |
| 3 | Sprinklers | $50,000 | 220000 | Mechanical |
| 4 | Controls | $30,000 | 220000 | Mechanical |
| 5 | Mechanical Trenching | $15,000 | 312400 | Trenching & Backfilling |