Project Management Module

Updated

Overview

The project management feature offers you a way to add more project tasks to your mission control analysis space. Classification templates can be created to send to site supervisors for field data entry and then imported directly into a proposal. This feature works well for big box retail projects and large commercial chain store projects. The project management feature has great capabilities for builder home projects and custom home projects.

Getting Started

The project management feature is available for activation by contacting support at pacific solutions. There is no fee for this function, however, you will need to reach out and ask for it to be activated. Email pacificsolutions-support@cyncly.com

The project management administrator setup needs to be given to specific people through the Report/Admin Options settings. Navigate to the Admin>Report/Admin Options area to provide administrative access to the Project Management button under the Value List selections.



We advise giving access to the setup of the project management templates to a limited number of people. The access to this area is only needed for those that will be creating the templates or “checklists”. The overall function can be used by everyone at the proposal/quote.

Please see the Report/Admin Options article for more details on using this feature.

Creating Classification Templates for Project Management

The administrative person will navigate to Admin>Value Lists>Project Management to begin creating templates. Click the gear icon to the right of the template field.


Create a template name and click the add button to create a new template. Click the close button at the bottom to return the newly created template list.


  1. Type in a template name.
  2. Click the add button to add the new template name to the Templates list.
  3. View the new template in the template name list.
  4. Click the close button at the bottom to close the template window.
  5. Toggle the Edit button to “Edit On” to enter the template lines.



Basic Template Entry

Enter each header label name, field type, and required status. This is the basic setup for a classification template. More advanced tools will be discussed further on in this article.


  1. Type in the header label name.
  2. Select a field type. There are three:
    1. Value List – use the gear icon to specify the values to be selected from the list.
    2. Date – This field type will provide a calendar date selector.
    3. Free Form – This field type will allow you to free hand type any entry.
Toggle the edit button to off when you are finished editing the template.


Map of Template Headers to Project Management Tab

This illustrates the way the template information displays at the project management tab on the proposal. The value lists selection menu and the pop out calendar selection. All required information is highlighted in red with a red “R” preceding the header label.


  1. Value list field type
  2. Date field type
Note: making modifications to existing templates in the admin area will also affect all proposals and jobs where that existing template has been used. You will be changing existing data. The system will warn you that you are affecting all areas where that template has been used.

Required Header Labels

Once you have marked header labels as required, you may want to save the required selections. Use the gear icon next to the “Req” column to save the required selections. The system keeps track of each save so that a previous save may be restored if needed. Each time the template is marked to Edit Off, the system creates an auto save point. You can also use the Required settings area to restore previous required selections.



  1. Click the gear icon next to the Req column.
  2. Click the Save Current button to save your required selections.
  3. Click on the Restore button next to one of the settings you would like to restore.
Note: Once you restore a past required setting, clicking on the save current button after that will override the restore point you selected with the new save credentials.

Sort Order

You may need to rearrange the order of the header labels after they have been entered. For example, you may need to add additional header labels at some point and then rearrange the new header labels to a different position in the list.

The sort column is where you would renumber the header labels to resort them into a different order. You may not insert a line. The new header label must go at the end of the list and then the sort order numbers must be used to place the labels in the appropriate order.


  1. Click into the existing sort order number in the header label line.
  2. Enter a new sort order number for the line.
  3. Click the OK button.

Note: when using the template to classify a proposal, the system will automatically place all of the required headers at the top of the list and resume numbering of non-required headers based on your sort order.

Best Practice: Resort your template to place all required headers at the top of the template list. This will reduce confusion when comparing the template to the proposal.

Classifying Proposals with Templates

Each proposal can be classified and matched to a project management template. Locate the proposal and open the proposal’s Project Management Tab. Click in the Classification field to select the appropriate classification template for that project.



Once the classification template is selected, the project management tab will populate with the headers and fields. Use this project management tab to keep track of project milestones on a macro and micro level.

Project management data can be entered into each job from the Project Management Tab.



  1. Use value list menus.
  2. Use Date selection calendars.
  3. Use free form entry fields.

Mission Control and Project Management

Once the project proposal has been sent to a job (sales order), the project management items can be viewed inside the mission control area.



  1. Click on the Misson Control button to open the standard mission control screen.
  2. Click the project management button to open the project management mission control screen.
This screen displays the project management classification template headers across the top. There are 99 columns available. The columns that initially display are the required headers first and then the rest of the headers in sort order. Initially, this carries over the same data from the standard mission control screen.


  1. Use the filters to isolate the list to classification (template name).
  2. Use the page navigation filter or arrows to scroll through the list pages.
  3. To view additional columns, navigate to the far right of the screen and use the Navigate Filter to display another set of columns in groups of 10. Use the back-and-forth arrows to navigate through sets of 10 chronologically. 

If all required fields contain data, the job light for the Required milestone will illuminate on the front of the job.

Managing Project Management Data in Mission Control

The project management data can be modified directly in the mission control screen. This work much the same way that is does in the opportunities pipeline. Click into header fields to enter and change data as needed while in the project management list view. These changes will be carried over to the project management tab at the job.


  1. Work with the field data directly in the project management list view.
  2. Use the return button in the top left corner to return to the standard mission control screen. Then use the return button in the top left corner of the mission control screen to return the job record set.

Exporting with Project Management

There are two places where information may be exported. One is in the mission control project management area and the other is in the admin area when setting up templates.

Exporting the project management information from the mission control area will export the filtered data to a spreadsheet for analysis across multiple projects. Exporting the template data from the admin area will export that header labels to a spreadsheet which can then be imported into a proposal.

Exporting Mission Control Project Management Data

The export button will only show once the project management data has been filtered to a classification. 


  1. Click the Export button to begin the export process.
  2. Click the OK button. The system will automatically name and export the file to the desktop. The system will alert you and display the filename and location in the export dialogue message.
  3. Locate and open the file from the desktop.

Note: Each time you export this file, the system saves a new file on the desktop. The file is data and timestamped in the file name which creates a new file for each export.

Exporting Template Project Management Data

The export button is an action that is found by clicking on the Actions button in the admin project management template area. This will export the active template information to a spreadsheet.


  1. Select the template you want to export from the Template list field.
  2. Click the Actions button and select the Export Classification option. The system will automatically name and export the file to the desktop. The system will alert you and display the filename and location in the export dialogue message.
  3. Click the OK button.
  4. Locate and open the file from the desktop.

Take the comma separated value file and save it as .xlsx format and give it a new name. The exported template can then be handed off to someone such as a site supervisor to take into the field and fill in data. This data can then be used to import into a new proposal later.

Note: Each time you export this file, the system saves a new file on the desktop. The file is data and timestamped in the file name which creates a new file for each export.

Note: The export creates a spreadsheet with the Header Labels across the top horizontally in columns. When entering data in the spreadsheet export, enter the data in the row cell below the column header. This is the format for importing this data directly into a new proposal.

Importing Project Management Classification Template

There are two import locations for project management. One is in the Admin area for creating new templates and the other is in the proposal for bringing in field data.

Best Practices: Map header label data to proposal fields before you export the classification template to be used by field personnel. Mapping instructions will be covered later in this article in conjunction with importing classification information to a proposal.

Admin Project Management Import

Project management templates can be defined in a spreadsheet before creating them in the project management administration area. This provides a way for all parties involved in the process to create, edit, and finalize headers to the spreadsheet prior to importing it into the system to create a new classification template.

The format of the spreadsheet needs to be .xlsx format to be imported.

Create each header label horizontally with a header in each column in the spreadsheet.


Finalize the template header labels to import into a new project management template or to import into an existing template.

Note: importing into an existing template in admin will replace the existing template with new headers and will modify all jobs the template has been used.

Best Practices: Archive templates you no longer wish to use and make new templates so that existing job data is not interrupted.


  1. Create a new template in the Manage Template screen accessed by the gear icon next to the template selection list.
  2. Enter a new template name and click the Add button.
  3. Close the Manage Template screen.

Be sure that this new template name is displayed in the Template name field before importing.

The Edit button will be automatically placed in the ON status.


  1. Click the Actions button at the top of the Header Label column.
  2. Select the Import Headers option.
  3. Locate the template .xlsx file for import.
  4. Click the Open button to import the template headers.

Mapping Project Management Headers to Proposal Fields

The project management header label date entries can be mapped to specific proposal fields at the proposal when importing from a spreadsheet that was exported from the admin project management directly into a proposal.

You may wish to establish a map of header label data to proposal header fields so that when a field classification template is used onsite, it can be imported into a proposal and some of the data can be imported into specific proposal header fields such as sold to name, line of business, etc.

The mapping of proposal fields to project management header labels is completed in the admin area for project management. Navigate to Admin>Value Lists>Project Management.


  1. Select the classification template to edit and map to proposal fields.
  2. Toggle the Edit button to the ON status.
  3. Click in the Import To field next to the header label to map.
  4. Select a proposal field to map the header label.

Toggle the Edit button to OFF once the mapping is completed.

Proposal Project Management Import

Project management classification templates can be exported, given to site supervisors or clients, filled in with field data and imported into a proposal. To export the project management template, follow the instructions in the Exporting Template Project Management Data section above.

Once the template has field data entered and it has been saved to a place where it can be retrieved by the import proposal process, you can import this directly into a proposal’s project management tab.


  1. Locate the proposal with the find button.
  2. Open the Project Management Tab.
  3. Select the Classification template from the menu list.
  4. Click the Import button.
  5. Select the .xlsx file for import.
  6. Click the Open button to import the field data.

The system will confirm the import is complete. Click the OK button to close the confirm message.

Note: the field data must be in the same order as the header labels. The header label column cannot be moved around in the .xlsx file. They must remain in the same order as the exported template from admin.

Note: When the classification template has header labels that map to proposal fields, that data from the imported spreadsheet will fill in the corresponding proposal fields upon import.









ProjectManagementModule-v23b8.1-20240417BG-KB
Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful