From enquiry to invoice

This tutorial runs through all required steps, starting with the initial customer enquiry to final invoice.

Note: Kompass form field labels can be customised for different Kompass instances. Therefore, it is likely that some fields will be named differently in your version of Kompass.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro

"From Enquiry to Invoicing" will assist you in creating the basic elements and information necessary for successfully running Kompass. From creating an organization and its contacts to setting up proposals and proposal items, all the way to acceptance, creation of tasks, recording of hours and project status, to finally invoicing the completed work. By the end of this tutorial, you should feel quite confident in executing these tasks and procedures.

Each chapter comes with a tutorial video demonstrating how to perform the described steps.

Kompass field labels can be customized for different Kompass customers. Therefore, it is likely that some fields will be named differently in your version of Kompass. If unsure please let us know or speak with the Kompass implementation champion in your organization.

Step 1: Create the Organization

  • Go to the Organizations page and then click "Create" located at the top right.

  • Complete the form and click "Save" when complete.
SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Name This will perform an automatic search for existing organizations to avoid creating duplicates. Required
2 Category A category for which the client mainly operates. Required
3 Address First Line
Required
4 Town / City
Required
5 Address Postcode
Required
6 Country Pre-filled. Required

Should you want to learn more about the rest of the fields above, please check Create a new organization.

Step 2: Create the Contact

  • Go to the previously created organization and click "Create" in the "Contacts" section

  • Fill out the form and click "Save" when complete.

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Organization If the contact to be created is coming from the organization page, this field will be pre-filled. Required
2 First Name
Required
3 Last Name
Required
4 email
Required
5 Lead Source Where this contact came from originally i.e., advert, event, recommendation etc. Required

Should you want to learn more about the rest of the fields above, please visit Create a new contact.

Step 3: Create the Proposal

  • Go to the previously created contact and click "Create" in the "Proposals & Projects" section

  • Fill out the form, mark the area or insert a marker on the map and click "Save" when complete.

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Name Descriptive title for the project. Required
2 Project Category Select one of the defined project categories. Required
3 Organization Pre-filled if opened from the contact page. Required
4 Details Description of the project and what work will be done. Required
5 Address First Line The address for the project. Required
6 Address Country Pre-filled. Required
7 Map Mark the area of the project or set a point marker using the toolbar at the bottom of the map display. To pan through the map, select the hand icon. To drop a marker/point for the position of the project, select the pin icon. You can drop more than one points. To draw the area of the site, select the area/ polygon icon. Click around the area of the site. The cursor will have a cross shape, allowing you to draw the polygon/area. Once your cursor comes close to the first point, it will convert to a hand. At this point, click to close the polygon. If you want to delete one of the plotted items, click the bin icon. If you want to delete all items, click the warning icon. Required
8 Enquiry By Select the organization contact who sent the enquiry. Required
9 Enquiry On Pre-filled with today's date. Required
10 Proposal Submission Deadline Date when the customer expects to have a proposal. Required
11 Estimator Person who is responsible for creating the proposal. Required
12 Probability Probability of this proposal being accepted. Required

Step 4: Create a Proposal Item

  • Go to the previously created proposal, then click "Sales" and "Create" once complete.

  • Fill out the form and click "Save"

Required fields are:

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Name Title of the proposal item describing what work will be done. Required
2 Description Explanation of the work being done. Required
3 Visibility Select if this proposal item will be visible on the proposal. Pre-filled. Required
4 Department Select the department who will be predominately doing this work. Required
5 Service Select a departmental service. You must choose a department first to filter through relevant services. Required
6 Type Select if this is a lump sum or rate proposal item. Required
7 VAT Rate Select the sales tax rate. Required

Note: In the Financials section, the "Price" field will sum up all costs and overheads & profit added above. However, users can manually change the price. If the edited price is less than the target gross margin set by your organization, the "Gross Margin (%)" field will turn red to indicate that your price will yield less than the set percentage.

For more information regarding proposal Items, see Reference, Quote Items.

Step 5: Create a Proposal Document to Send to a Client

  • Go to the previously created project, then select "Documents->Proposal" to create a word document with the proposal details.

Note: The "Documents" are dynamic templates which are set up separately for each Kompass instance. You can freely define as many documents you need on this drop-down menu and we will set the templates for you.

  • Change and save the return .docx file, then send it to the client.
  • Record that the proposal has been submitted to the client by editing the Proposal and completing the "Proposal Submitted" and "Expected Award Date" fields.

Step 6: Create a Project from the Proposal

  • Go to the previously created proposal and its proposal items. Then select a proposal item that has been accepted by the client and is ready to move forward.

  • Complete the "Set accepted" form.

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Accepted Date the proposal was accepted. Required
2 Accepted By Client contact who accepted the proposal item. Required
3 Order Confirmation Type of confirmation i.e., purchase order, signed contract etc. Optional
4 Order Confirmation Details Enter any further details about the confirmation process. Required
5 Project Manager The manager in your organization who will manage the project. Required
6 Client Project Manager Client contact who is managing the project. Required
7 Deadline Set deadline for all works to be completed. Required

Step 7: Create a Task

  • Go to the previously created project and to its Operations tab. Then click "Create" in the "Tasks" section.

  • Fill out the form and click "Save" when complete.

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Name Title of the task. Required
2 Proposal Item Proposal item this task is linked to. Required
3 Start Start date of task. Required
4 End End date of task. Required
5 Type Type of task. Required
6 Details Description of what work should be done Required
7 Team People assigned to this task (it will then appear on their schedule) Required

There is a quicker way to create tasks from the Sales tab of your project. Click Actions and then "Create Tasks".

A new window will open where you can click "Create".

New tasks will be created in the operations tab under "Tasks" section.

Step 8: Record Hours Worked on Tasks

Note: This is normally done by the person who was assigned and completed the work, but it can also be done by project managers, which we will show here.

  • Go to the Diary, then select the person you want to create a diary entry for (1).
  • Fill out the pre-scheduled task and click "Save" (2) or select "Create" (3) from the top to create a new entry.

Note: Depending on the configuration of your Kompass instance, you might see only some or even none of the start, end, breaks, and travel fields. If start and end do not appear, you will be able to edit the hours directly.

Step 9: Record a Project Status Change

  • Go to the projects list, search for the desired project, then click on its "Status."

  • Complete the total completion of the proposal item. Kompass will automatically set today's date in the "Status On" field. Should you need to record the status from a previous date, click the "Status On" field and select required date. Click "Save" when finished.

For an extensive tutorial on recording status, see Tutorials, Record Project Status. Also, for an analysis of all columns in the status update window, see Project Status.

Step 10: Create an Invoice

  • Go to the previously created project and its "Finance" tab. Then click "Create" in the "Invoices" section.

  • Complete the invoice form and click "Save" when complete.

SCREENSHOT MARKER NAME  DESCRIPTION  REQUIRED/ OPTIONAL 
1 Organization Organization that will be invoiced. Pre-filled. Required
2 Project Project that we are invoicing for. Pre-filled. Required
3 Invoice Reference Invoice reference Required
4 Type If this is an invoice, a credit note or a journal entry. Default is invoice. Required
5 Date Post date of the invoice. Required
6 Due Date Payment due date for this invoice. Required
7 Amount Net How much to invoice for this proposal item and this nominal account. Required
  • Go to the previously created invoice. Select "Documents->Invoice" to create an invoice .docx document which can be edited and then sent to the client.

Note: The "Documents" are dynamic templates which are set up separately for each Kompass instance. The document might not be called "Invoice" in your system.

Summary

This was a full run through of the process of an enquiry that resulted in a project ready to be invoiced. This guide presented one method for accomplishing this, and other tutorials will show how to do this using other methods as well.

  • Describe and try at least two methods for ensuring that there are no duplicate organizations in Kompass.
  • What is the difference between proposals and projects?
  • What are the similarities and differences between organization category, project category, department, and service?
  • In the following sentence, which are most likely to be the organization category, project category, department, and service? "An international bank is interested in building a boat jetty in a lake next to their HQ, and it contacts your company. Initially, a hydrographic scan of the lakebed is conducted by your surveying department."
  • You won three new projects with a large company based in Washington, DC. Each of them is located in a different state and is managed by a different client representative. Invoices must be directed to the respective representative and not sent to the HQ address. How can you handle this in Kompass?
  • Create a proposal with 3 proposal items. The first proposal item must only include staff. The second proposal item must only include equipment. The third proposal item must only contain subcontractors and other expanses. Use random numbers.
  • For the proposals above, set the following prices: 1st proposal item- 40% gross margin, 2nd proposal item- $10,000 on top of the current cost of the proposal item, 3rd proposal item- remove any overheads and profit.
  • For the proposals above, update the proposal items to allow the following:
    • Your employees will be heading to the site, and you will thus be charging the client per diem. You don't know how many days you will spend on site.
    • You will use the equipment only for the first 10 days of the project. However, that might change, and you might have to add more days. Additionally, the client prefers to be charged per diem.
    • All subcontractor costs and other materials will be purchased for the needs of the project and paid as a lump sum.
  • The client above decided to go ahead with your first two proposal items, but they will provide subcontractors and material themselves. Take all necessary steps to accept the project.
  • The client decided to cancel the project. Take all necessary steps to abandon the project.
  • Quickly consider the implications on your managing practise when reviewing the following project statuses:

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