Overview
Projects. The heart and soul of Beeswax
Projects form the foundation of Beeswax. Just about everything is done within a Project.
Tasks, Milestones, Quotes, Invoices, etc. So its important when starting to use Beeswax that you begin thinking in terms of Projects.
Even everyday business things
That’s right…even your day to day running costs and administrative tasks should be put under a Project. We recommend creating an Admin Project for this purpose. And, it makes sense to create a new Admin Project for each Tax Reporting period.
For example, if you report tax quarterly it would make sense to create a new Project each quarter. Call it something like “Admin 2018 – Qtr 1” and assign it to your own Company. Things that you would put into this Project might be rental costs, office supplies, equipment purchases, etc.
You might also wish to put in key filing dates for tax reporting as Milestones so you and your bookkeeper (assuming you have one) have full visibility of these dates as they approach. Plus anything else that you think is important to track here from an internal perspective.
Similarly you may wish to include administrative Tasks to track activities like Bank Reconciliation. By adding and tracking these administrative things as actionable Tasks you’ll get a better understanding of how long these things actually take. Something most small businesses tend to ignore. For instance, how long should it take to reconcile a bank statement? If you’re paying someone by the hour, wouldn’t you like to capture this information in order to better understanding it. And if you don’t capture this data then you’ll never really know.
Of course you might genuinely have an internal Project that needs to be done. Such as moving offices. This should be a Project in it’s own right so you can not only track costs but manage Tasks in and around all the other things going on in your business.
Projects go under a Company.
We use the word Company to mean any entity that you work with. We needed a relative generic name that describes the entities that we assumed most Beeswax businesses do business with and this was the best we could come up with. It’s not perfect. we know. Taxonomy can be tricky. However so long as you understand what we mean then Beeswax will make sense the more you come to terms with this idea of Company.
In the majority of cases the entities that Beeswax businesses work with are in fact Companies. Either Pty Ltd or LLC etc. But whether they are actually real companies is somewhat irrelevant. You can make a Company an individual. Or individuals, such as a husband and wife who need design work done on a renovation. In such a situation you would simply create Company for them and perhaps call it something like Mr & Mrs Smith…just think about who the invoice should be made out to and give the entity this name. Simple as that.
Creating a Contact (or User) for each of them under this Company might seem added work or superfluous but you’ll see why it’s necessary when we come to tracking Invoices as well as any other communication related to the Project.
The Project List View
The Project List view shows all your Projects along with top level information that you can see at a glance. Beeswax calls this the “Red Light, Green Light” approach. Things that need your attention are usually shown in Red while anything that appears green means it’s OK.
Projects and Plans
Each Plan allows you to have a certain number of Open Projects. If you reach your quota then you will be prompted to upgrade your Plan otherwise you’ll need to Close a project in order to Open another.
Just remember that in order to close a Project you have ensure that:
- There are no Open Tasks.
- You don’t have any unpaid Expenses
- There are no unsent Invoices
- All Milestones are set to Complete
Let's look at each Role
AKA: The Boss
This is the Owner of the Account and more often than not they are also the Owner of the business. The business Owner should obviously see everything so of course they have Full Access to all parts of the application but importantly they are unique in that they are the ones who are responsible for managing the Beeswax Subscription and associated Plan.
It's likely they have a business partner or a dedicated senior staff member who needs to be able to see and do all the same things that the Owner can. That's what the Super
Admin Role which we get to next.
Business Partner or a Senior Employee
The Super Admin User also has Full Access to everything however they don’t have access to the Subscription but that’s all. These are usually Partners in the business or Senior Employees who need to see and control everything in the Business. Warts and all!
Production Manager or Account Manager
The Manager Role is generally the person who takes care of the day to day running of Projects, and oversees Tasks.
This Role would be for a Production Manager, Studio Manager or Account Manager for instance.
They generally don’t get involved in Payroll financial reports and as such are not expected to know anything about Accounting or Tax related matters.
Of course these things aren’t necessarily that difficult to understand, however, so as to avoid the potential pitfalls associated with incorrectly allocated transaction Accounts and / or Taxes we have chosen to limit this Users access and control over such things.
So, while Manager can create Quotes, Expenses and Invoices, they can’t change the Transaction Account and Tax when working on any of these documents. While Managers can create Quotes, Expenses and Invoices, they can’t change the Transaction Account allocation nor the Tax Allocation when the are preparing any
These are defined by the Items that make up these documents and are therefore meant to be set up specifically by someone with this knowledge such as your Bookkeeper or Accountant.
Your Accountant (obviously) or your Bookkeeper
This Accountant Role is obviously for the Accountant or Bookkeeper who need access to all things Money. They essentially have full access to the entire system with the exception of being able to manage the subscription.
A User who primarily works on Tasks
This Accountant Role is obviously for the Accountant or Bookkeeper who need access to all things Money. They essentially have full access to the entire system with the exception of being able to manage the subscription.
External Resource
This is someone who usually is a freelancer that needs access to Tasks but not much more. They have a similar level of access as the Basic User but we've included this for future use.
The Client
Someone who probably would like to get access to all your stuff but really you only want them to see things you want them to see. Like outstanding invoices and access to Files you share with them but apart from this you don't really need much more.
Dashboard
Projects
Companies & People
Companies
Contacts
Users
Money
Items
Templates
Bank Reconciliation
Bank Import
Scheduled
Bank Transfers
Manual Journal
Chart of Accounts
Reports
Reports
Who Owes Me
What I Owe
General Ledger
Profit & Loss
Tax Report
Time
Statement
Subscription
Subscription
Overview
Companies exist for two main reasons:
- Assigning Projects & other related things
- Grouping Contacts and Users
1. Assigning – Projects and other related things
Most things in Beeswax, like Projects, Quotes or Invoices, need to be assigned to a Company. These things can’t be assigned to a specific User or Contact.
Why? Because small businesses, those businesses that Beeswax is specifically built for, generally work with and provide services to other businesses rather than individuals or customers. In other words, we think of Beeswax as being a B2B application rather than a B2C. It’s one of the key assumptions we’ve made when building Beeswax.
Remember a Quote or Invoice is technically a legal document that relates to the obligations that your business has to another party. And therefore the name of the other party, which is usually a business, should be stated specifically. Of course you will have a contact who will receive documents from you but they are still technically representing the third party and are usually not themselves obligated to fulfil their financial obligations to pay you.
It’s the company or business they represent. When they leave the company still owes you money.However, while we think of these entities as Companies, it’s not to say that a Company can’t be something else. That’s for you to decide.In any case just remember that Projects, Invoices, Quotes and Expenses are all allocated to this idea, this entity, this concept, that we call a Company.
2. Grouping Contacts & Users
SM
JC
DJ
JC
It’s the way Beeswax groups or organises Users and Contacts. We think it makes sense to keep all Users and Contacts under the specific Company that they are associated with.