Give parts their install hours by category

Install hours belong to the kind of thing being installed, not to each part number: every in-ceiling speaker takes about the same time, every switch takes about the same time. So your company keeps one list of categories, and each category says how long one unit takes to install. A part in that category takes those hours, and picking the part onto a proposal brings them with it, the same way it brings the part’s cost.

Before you start

The list lives in Admin › Catalog Categories. Changing it (adding a category, its hours, people or system, merging or retiring one) needs the right to change settings.
Giving a part its category is a catalog edit: anyone who can edit the catalog can do it.
Install hours go on your company’s labor component, the one the scorecard prices labor with.

The list

Admin › Catalog Categories shows every category under its group, as the catalog shows them. The counts along the top say how many categories you have, how many live parts carry one, how many do not, and how many parts have hours a person changed.

Each row shows:

Install hours: the hours one unit takes, per person. Work counted by the foot (cable) says “a foot” instead of “a unit”. A category with no hours (software, a service plan) says None.
People: how many people the work takes. The scorecard counts hours times people.
System: the system a proposal line starts in, one of your company’s systems. It can be left blank.
Parts: how many live parts are in it. The number opens the catalog filtered to those parts. Under it, how many keep hours of their own, and how many are bought in packs or boxes.

Use the chips to show the categories in use, the ones with no install hours, or the retired ones. Find a category searches by name or group. Add a category opens a short form: a group (a new group is made by typing its name), a name, the hours and whether they are per unit or per foot, the people, and the system.

How a part’s hours are worked out

A part takes its category’s hours for each piece it puts in:

A part sold each takes the category’s figure once.
A part sold as a pair takes it twice: a pair of speakers is two speakers to install.
A part bought in a pack or a box takes none for now, because only part of a pack may be installed. Its page says so.
A category that counts hours by the foot gives hours only to a part sold by the foot.

The hours go on the part as a labor row. On the part’s page, under its size, the row says From the category and how the figure was worked out (for example “0.5 h a unit, 2 in a pair”).

Change a category’s hours

Click the hours, the people or the system on a row, change it, and press Save. Before you save, the row says what the change moves: how many parts take the new figure, how many keep hours a person gave them, and that lines already on proposals, change orders and projects keep their hours.

A part follows its category until somebody changes the part’s own hours. Once they do, the part keeps them and a category change passes it by. On the part’s page its row then says Its own hours, with the category’s figure beside it and Follow the category, which puts the category’s figure back.

Merge two categories

Merge on a row moves its parts into another category you choose. The dialog says how many parts move, how many take the other category’s hours and how many keep their own. The merged category is then removed. Every change is in the activity log.

Retire a category

Retire takes a category out of every picker. Its parts keep it, and keep their hours. The Retired chip lists retired categories, each with Bring back.

Map a vendor’s sections

Most parts come from a vendor’s price list or store, and the vendor already sorts them: a list’s headings (“In-ceiling speakers”), a Category column, or a store’s own categories. Map each of those once and the vendor’s parts take the category, with its hours, now and on every later list.

On the vendor’s list page, Sections and Categories lists every section the vendor’s rows carry, how many of your parts sit under it, and what Florio proposes:

When most of a section’s parts already matched your old catalogue, Florio proposes the category they share, and says how many agree.
When they split across categories, Florio proposes Florio suggests each part: the section is too broad for one category (lighting control that holds dimmers, keypads and gateways, say), so its parts get no category from it.

Choose a category for a row and it saves at once. Use Florio’s proposals fills every row that has a proposal; check them, then Save. A sub-section with no mapping of its own takes its section’s.

A section never moves a part a person gave a category, or one that matched the old catalogue. New parts from a mapped section land in its category when their list is applied or their store is read.

On a list’s reading page, Headings: Brands and Categories uses the same picker, so the first list from a vendor can be mapped before it is applied.

Florio’s suggestions

Parts that no vendor’s section placed, and that did not match the old catalogue, wait in the Catalog under Categories. Florio suggests a category for each, once a night after the night’s reading: it reads the part’s words on the vendor’s list, the maker’s own words and specifications, and the section it came under, and picks one category from your list, with one plain line saying why. When the words do not say clearly what the part is, it says so and suggests none.

Nothing goes on by itself. Suggested by Florio lists each part with the category Florio suggests, its line why, and the hours the category would give it:

Approve gives the part that category and its hours. Tick several, or Select all, and Approve selected does them at once. The vendor and suggested-category filters narrow the list first.
Choose another opens your list to pick a different category. No category at its foot turns the suggestion down.

Without a category lists the parts Florio could not place, the ones whose suggestion was turned down, and the ones not suggested yet, each with why it waits. Use Choose a category on a row, or tick several and Set a category for the selected.

A part a person gives a category leaves both lists. Every change is in the activity log, as the person’s who made it. The nightly suggestions are switched on for your company on request; while they are off, the parts wait under Without a category for you to place.

On a part’s page

Once your company has categories, Category on a part’s page is a picker of the list, grouped, with what each category gives. Choosing one saves at once, and the part’s hours follow the new category unless they are its own. The chip beside it says where the category came from: From the old catalogue, From a vendor’s section, or Set by the person who chose it. The line under it says what the category gives: hours, people and system.

If the page has changes you have not saved, the picker waits until you save them.

The catalog’s Category column shows each part’s group and category. The Category filter beside the search narrows the list to one category, or to the parts Without a category. The filter is remembered for you.