Using the Work Tickets Module

Within the Aspire system, a Work Ticket represents a single job or task that your company has been hired to perform for a customer. Aspire automatically generates work tickets in the following situations:

When Winning Opportunities – This is how most work tickets are created. When you win an opportunity, Aspire creates a work ticket for each occurrence of every service on the opportunity except for As Needed opportunity services.
When creating As Needed Tickets
When creating Quick Tickets

Work ticket lifecycle

Work tickets go through a series of statuses as shown below, ending with either a Complete or Cancelled status.

The work ticket lifecycle is driven by the Scheduling board.

When a work ticket is first created, its status is Open.

When your team adds a work ticket to the Schedule Board, the status updates to Scheduled.

Some services in your Service Catalog can be marked as Requires Approval. Completed Work Tickets with services that require approval will show the Pending Approval status.

Automatic approval
If the person who marks a work ticket as Complete is the Property’s Account Owner, services that require approval will be automatically approved. You can deactivate Automatic Ticket Approval in Administration > Configuration under the Work Tickets heading.

After work crews have marked the ticket as complete, the status is Complete.

Quick tickets
When you create work ticket from quick tickets, they start in either Pending Approval or Complete status depending on whether an associated service requires approval.

At any point in a work ticket’s lifecycle, it may be marked as Cancelled.

Multi-year contract work tickets

When a multi-year contract Opportunity is won, Aspire creates all work tickets when an end date is provided, or up to two years of work tickets for open-ended contracts where the end date is left blank. For open-ended contracts, you’ll need to add an end date to the contract and renew it when the opportunity drops below a full year of future available work tickets.

The Work Tickets module

The Work Tickets module is comprised of two tabs.

Work Tickets screen

The Work Tickets tab shows a list of all the work tickets that have been created in your Aspire instance. Like most other lists, you can use the usual filter, display, sort, and group actions and save your selections as saved searches.

Unlike other list screens, the Work Tickets screen also provides additional quick access filter drop-downs to filter tickets by Status, Service, Vendor, and Time.

Click the panel icon to view details and notes about a ticket without leaving the list screen.

Click on a work ticket to view its details.

Check the box next to one or more opportunities, and click the Bulk Actions menu to:

Complete - Complete selected work tickets if they’re in Open or Scheduled status and there is no unapproved time or materials on the tickets. If some tickets don’t qualify for completion, Aspire displays a list of the ones that couldn’t be completed. This option is only available if you have Complete Work Ticket permission.
Uncomplete - Return selected work tickets to a Scheduled status. If no visits are associated with the tickets, the status will be returned to Open.
Approve - Approve selected work tickets with no unapproved time or materials and that are in Pending Approval status. This option is only available with the Approve Work Ticket or System Admin permission.
Work tickets can only be completed or approved if the month specified for completion is not closed in Aspire.
Cancel - Cancel the selected work tickets if there is no unapproved time or materials on the tickets. Any work tickets whose invoice type is Fixed Price on Payment Schedule, Fixed Price on Completion, or Fixed Price Open Billing are ignored and not canceled. This option is only available if you have the Cancel Opportunity/Work Ticket permission.
Anticipated Start Date - Change the scheduled date for all selected Open status work tickets.
Email - Send an email to the Primary, Billing, or Property Contacts for all selected work tickets. Aside form filling in the usual email fields, you can also attach a formatted PDF for each work ticket to its email if you have the Ticket Bulk Email permission.
Print - This generates and displays a work ticket PDF for printing or saving all selected work tickets. You can choose the format of the PDF file based on any work ticket layouts established by your company.
Uncancel - Uncancel the select Cancelled status work tickets. This option is only available if you have the Cancel Opportunity/Work Ticket permission. If your system is set up to adjust revenue variance, if a revenue variance adjustment exists for the work ticket’s opportunity, division, branch, and contract year, the work tickets won’t be uncanceled.
Delete As Needed Tickets - Delete the selected As Needed work tickets.
Swap As Needed Service - This is useful for managing snow work tickets. Learn more in our article about Swapping As Needed Services.
Partial Occurrence - This option is only available for work tickets that are not complete and whose invoice type is Per Service. You must also have the Partial Occur permission. This option lets you specify the percentage of work completed to reduce (or increase if a percent value greater than 100% is specified) budgeted revenue for the work ticket and therefore the amount the customer will be invoiced. Proportionally adjusts estimated cost, estimated labor hours, and materials. This option can only be applied to work tickets that are not complete and where the work ticket is invoiced Per Service.
Example: Suppose it starts snowing in the middle of the day, and crews can’t plow the whole lot because it is full. The crew member or subcontractor can provide a partial completion percent from the Aspire Mobile App or the Subcontractor Portal. In that case, their value can be displayed by adding the Sub Partial % column to the search list to provide guidance when office staff enters the partial completion percentage.
Trigger Auto Expense Creation - For selected work tickets whose opportunity service is Fixed Payment, generate purchase receipt recommendations in the Purchasing Assistant for services provided by a subcontractor during a selected time period for which subcontractor auto-expenses are established. Learn more in our Auto Expenses article collection.

Dynamic Forecasting tab

You need the View Dynamic Forecast or the Edit Dynamic Forecasting permission to access the Dynamic Forecasting tab.

The Dynamic Forecasting tab is used to input, manage, and analyze forecast data. It provides a ticket-level dashboard showcasing forecasted revenue, labor hours, and material costs annually. Customizable filters cater to various revenue structures and verticals.

Use the Dynamic Forecasting tool to ensure accuracy and efficiency by replacing manual processes with automation. Seamless data export to Excel maintains compatibility with existing workflows, empowering you to conduct further analysis and make informed decisions.

Screen capture of the Revenue Forecasting screen on the Work Tickets area.

The Dynamic Forecasting tab has three sub-tabs: Revenue, Hours, and Materials.

Use the search bar to filter by specific opportunity names, service types, property names, or division details. Use the year filter next to the search bar to display past, current, or future years.

Each row in the tool represents a single work ticket, focusing solely on work order tickets. Forecasting occurs on an annual basis, displaying 12 months at a time. Select a cell to edit the data. Past months are locked from editing on the first day of the next month when the forecasted values change to actual values.

Columns that are displayed by default in the grid view:

Column Position	Fields
Left Default	Opportunity number and name, work ticket number, and Service name.
Right Default	For the row, displays the total estimated: Revenue on Revenue tab. Total hours on Hours tab. Materials cost on Materials tab. Select the Arrow icon to expand the Estimates data to further drill into columns for Earned and Remaining data.
Middle Default	This section displays data based on the selected tab and year filter: Revenue tab: Shows forecasts entered as a percentage of the estimate in dollar amounts. Hours tab: Displays forecasts entered and shown in hours. Materials tab: Forecasts entered as a percentage of the estimate are displayed in dollar amounts. To edit a value, simply select the cell. The yearly breakdown is structured as follows: Past year (12 months): Months are locked and display actuals. Current year (12 months): Past months show actuals, while current and future months are editable for forecasts. Future year (12 months): All months are editable for forecasts. For future months, you can select a cell to edit revenue percentages, allowing for more precise planning of revenue, labor hours, and material spend. Use this feature to flexibly adjust forecasts as new information becomes available. Tip: If you attempt to enter an amount that exceeds the estimate, a warning icon will display, indicating the amount by which you are exceeding the estimate. When working in the material or revenue grids, you cannot enter percentages greater than 100. For the current month, a tooltip will display the actual value and the difference between the actual and the estimate.

With your cursor over the column headers, select a menu that displays next to the title to add additional optional fields. Select the horizontal line menu to configure the column display. Choose to pin the column to the left or the right, autosize one or all columns, or reset the column configuration to the default.

The following optional fields are available from the vertical line menu:

Left Optional: Property Name, Branch, Division
Right Optional: Actual, Remaining

Hover over a month to display a tooltip that contains the following information:

Current Month: Displays an arrow and percent indicating the difference between the actual and forecasted amounts.
Past Months: Displays an arrow and percent indicating the difference between the actual and forecasted amounts.

Select Export to export data to an Excel spreadsheet. The export includes all columns and all rows, hidden or not. Past months will include forecasted and actual values.

Example

For a work ticket with a price of $10,000, 100 hours, and $3,000 material spend, the forecast for January (25% revenue, 25 hours, $1500 material spend), February (25% revenue, 50 hours, $1500 material spend), and March (50% revenue, 25 hours, no material spend) would be displayed as follows:

Revenue View: January: $2500, February: $2500, March: $5000
Hours View: January: 25, February: 50, March: 25
Materials View: January: $1500, February: $1500

Now you know all about the Work Tickets Module’s basics! Explore the other articles in this section to learn more.