- Creating Groups in the Object Manager
- Scheduling Groups
- Adding Accessories to Objects
- Scheduling Objects with Accessories
- Groups vs Accessories
- Groups & Rates
1. Creating Groups in the Object Manager
Groups are created in the Object Manager. They will allow you to book all of the objects, or object classes linked to a group, in one single drag and drop.
To create a new Group you can either:
- Open the Object Manager and click on the drop down in the top left corner of the main panel and select "Second Window" and "Groups".
- Right click in the right hand panel and select "New Group".
- Or select Groups from the drop down menu next to "Type" and click on the green plus icon. As per in the example below:
In the window that appears, name your group and select whether or not it has a fixed rate. If no fixed rate is set, Farmers WIFE will automatically use the rates of the involved objects.
Select the objects that you want to include in the group.
Once the group has been created it can be retrieved from your Toolbox by filtering to "Groups".
When the Group has been added to the timeline it will appear as one object. However, all of the objects included in the group will automatically be booked, regardless of if they are visible in the timeline or not.
2. Scheduling Groups
You can choose in between two options:
- Hourline - Load from Groups: All the members of that Group will be loaded.
- Drag and drop Groups from the Toolbox to the Hourline View:
The Group will be displayed as one whole Object. The Objects inside of it will also be booked as you can see the you open a booking. As in the example below:
When you add a Group to a Booking, it also books the "children" of the Groups (in other words, the Objects that are part of the Group). That means you have both a Group Object and a number of other Objects with varying Categories.
When you open the Project and activate the View Filters (you need to open the "lock') you will see that you have a check-box called "Groups" and next to it there is a little drop-down menu allowing you to "Include Children" (which by default is on).
So from the View Filters you will be able to get three different results:
- You can hide the children and see only the Groups (By unticking Include Children)
- Exclude the Group Object from the Project View
This can be useful if you want to use groups to schedule a group of items together but then only charge for the involved objects and have not price on the group object and also not show the group object to not fill up reports/ invoices. - You can hide the Groups and the Children.
3. Adding Accessories to Objects
When adding Accessories to Object there is a Server Setting that is important to consider:
- Ignore Accessory Rates: If this setting is set to YES, when we book an Object with Accessories, the Rates of the Accessories will be ignored and only the Object Rate will be considerate. But when booking this Accessories on their own they will keep their rate.
To add Accessories to an object you have to go to the Object Manager, double click in the desire Object to open it and access the Advanced setting on the bottom. As per in the example below:
4. Scheduling Objects with Accessories
When scheduling and Object with Accessories we will schedule the Object and the accessories will automatically be added to the booking, even though we won't be able to see them in the timeline:
5. Groups vs Accessories
There are different advantages and disadvantages about using Groups or Accessories. You need to study both options and fin out which one will better suit your workflow.
However, we can find some troubleshooting when working with both:
- EMT: If the Object that we want to dispatch is member of an Object Class and we replace it when doing a Checking out, the Accessories will remain on the check out even if they are not accessories of the new main Object and therefor to needed.
- When using Virtual bookings Groups can't be added to the Budget, only through Virtual Bookings.
- Web Client Troubleshooting: When using the Web Client we are able to see all the booked Groups but when we try to book a Group from the Web Client the Children won't be booked. So to be safe we need to book the Groups from the Desktop Client.
6. Groups & Rates
There are different options on how we can rate our Groups:
- Group with Dynamic Rate: We call Dynamic rates Groups to the ones that use as their rate the total sum of all the objects involved. The setting Fixed Price is set to NO. On the Bookings and Virtual Bookings it only adds the Rates on the Involved Objects.
- Fixed Rate Groups: By ticking this Box and setting up a price for the Group, the rate will always be that one.
- Group Rate Inherit from Object Class: If we tick this box and the Group is part of and object Class with a rate set on it, it will take the Fixed Rate.
- With Activity: If we have a group with a default activity and we book this activity the rate will be the sum of the group (if Fixed Price = YES or the objects inside of it if Fixed price = NO) and the activity.