Welcome
to Epic
You are reading Epic's built-in 'Getting Started' tutorial. This is quick tour of Epic's basic functionality aimed to familiarise you with the application. We recommend you skim-read the tutorial to gain an overview of Epic and then work through it in more detail. We estimate this will take between one and two hours.
The tutorial aims to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible. However Epic has been written to be as flexible as possible so that it can fit in with the way you work. Please feel free to experiment and contact us if you have any questions on how Epic could better fit your working practices.
The tutorial is written for someone who is familiar with Windows and who is willing to experiment.
If you are running the demo version of Epic, some example data has been included with the database. However this tutorial can be followed without any prior data on the system.
When you first start Epic you are presented with the Welcome screen. This offers quick access to all of Epic's functionality, recently viewed records, and help content such as this tutorial. The Welcome screen:
... will be opened when Epic starts as long as the checkbox at the bottom remains checked:
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... can be closed at any time by clicking the 'x' next to the Welcome screen's title:
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... and re-opened from the Help menu at the top:
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If you open open a plug-in (see later) or a recently viewed record from the Welcome screen it will squeeze itself to the right.
You
can close Epic at any time using the 'File/Exit' menu option or by clicking
the 
button in the extreme
top right corner of Epic's window (this may look different if you have different
colours set up on your computer).
If you have any unsaved changes Epic will warn you and give you a chance to save these before closing.
The menu options along the top of Epic do not change:
Epic is composed of plug-ins that are individually installed on your PC. There is a plug-in for each functional area in Epic. Accessible plug-ins are listed under the 'Plug-ins' menu option. If you have all plug-ins installed the list will look like this:
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Administration |
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Manhours Entry |
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Marketing |
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Marketing (Advanced Search) |
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Personnel |
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Reports |
Clicking on an option opens the window for that plug-in, putting it on top of any other window and squeezing the Welcome screen (if any) to the right. Try this now.
Epic's help has three different components:
All can be accessed from the Welcome screen or, if a separate Help window has opened, from the Table of Contents.
You can search Help for specific text and there is also facility for book marking useful content.
If you search Help via the Welcome screen, results are displayed within the same window. You can choose to switch to a separate Help window via a button at the top:
Move onto the Address Book plug-in, or return to Contents.
The Address Book plug-in offers access to a central list of companies and contacts (people) that any user of Epic can access. Users can also edit this list if they have the appropriate activities.
Open
this plug-in using the ' Address Book' option
on the plug-in menu or the welcome
screen. This displays a basic search area on the left hand-side
with a large blank space to the right we call the editor area.
This is where editors are displayed.
An editor is a window displaying details for one or more records. You
make changes and save these either explicitly or when you close the editor .
For your convenience, any number of editors can be open at once .
In fact editors remain open until you explicitly close them, even if you switch
plug-ins.
We will
open an editor now by creating a new company record. Click the
button on the
toolbar of the 'search criteria' window. Most windows
have their own toolbar which displays available actions. Hovering over
each button will display a tooltip explaining what the button does. A tooltip is little yellow
box with explanatory text that appears over buttons and fields if you hold the
cursor over them for a few seconds. Once you are familiar with Epic these
can be switched off via your user preferences.
This
opens an editor for the new company record. This has a series of
toggle sections.
Toggle sections are areas of the screen that
can be expanded/collapsed to show/hide larger amounts of information.
Clicking on the 
icon to the left of each toggle section's
title will expand that section to show its contents.
If you expand the editors toggle sections you will see that this new company record has no information yet. Call the company 'Acme Ltd'. Try adding other contact information using the 'Add' buttons in the 'Addresses' and 'Direct Communication' toggle sections. Note that you can add any number of addresses, phone numbers, etc. for the company. We will return to explain the 'Contacts' and 'Documents' sections later.
Once
you have finished click the 
. This save
button appears in the top right-hand corner of an editor whenever there
are outstanding changes that must be saved to the database. The
new company now exists on the database. We will now use the search
functionality to retrieve the database record. Close the editor by clicking
on the 
icon to the right
of the company name on the tab at the top left of the editor.
Searches are based on the name of the company or contact. They are case-insensitive and can search for text either at the beginning or anywhere within the name:
You can also retrieve all company records in the database. Clear the 'name' field (or use the 'reset' button) and press 'search'. Acme Ltd. will appear in the search results. You will be warned that this might take a few seconds. In reality, unless you have hundreds of records, this will be very quick. Such warnings can be switched off by clicking the tick box at the bottom of the warning window.
Once
you have the company in the search results double-clicking on it will display
the record. This looks a little different to the editor you saw before.
However there are fewer toggle sections and the
button in the top-right corner is now an 
button. Epic's standard behaviour
is display records to facilitate viewing rather than editing. Note how
the addresses and contact details are more compactly displayed, toggle
sections with no information are hidden, and there is no means of editing
the information. We call such windows forms
to distinguish them from editors in which you can make changes. To switch
to the equivalent editor click the button. Do this now and the
editor you saw before will open.
Note how all the toggle sections are now displayed but only those that were expanded on the form are expanded on the editor. This is done to prevent information overload on the screen. However you may prefer to have all or some of the sections expanded whenever you open a form or an editor. You can do this by modifying your user preferences.
User preferences are specific to yourself and stored centrally. Hence wherever you use Epic, you will benefit from your own selected preferences. You set your preferences by selecting the 'Edit/Preferences' menu option. Select this now. You will see that preferences are divided into 'System Settings' and 'Your Preferences'. 'System Settings' are technical and should not be changed without confirmation from your system administrator. 'Your Preferences' are options linked to yourself and allow you to tailor Epic's appearance and behaviour to best suit you.
Select the 'Editor Sections' options under 'Your Preferences' and you will see two columns of tick boxes. These list all possible toggle sections for all forms and editors available to you in Epic. Tick the following:
Click 'Apply' then 'OK', close the preferences window and double-click on Acme Ltd. in the search results again. The company form will reopen but this time all visible sections will be expanded.
Note
that only those sections for which there is data are visible. Sections with
no data are automatically hidden in forms unless you change another preference
( 'hide empty sections' in 'Your Preferences / General'). Feel
free to look through the other user preferences though do not change any of
these at this stage.
A final feature to note before we go on to create a contact is that any form
or editor can be maximised
to fill the whole Epic window. To do this double-click on the name displayed
in the tab at the top of the form or editor. To restore it simply
double-click on the name again. Now close the editor.
A contact is a person recorded in the address book. Contacts are independent of companies - they do not have to belong to any one company. Instead the address book records relationships between contacts and companies. An relationship links two records together. It has a description and, optionally, start and end dates. A record can have any number of relationships, allowing, for instance a record of all companies a person worked/works for to be stored. Relationships are used throughout Epic - not just for companies and contacts.
We create
a contact the same way as a company. Click the 'contacts'
radio button in the search criteria window and you will see the toolbar
change to display the 
button. Clicking on this
will open a the contact editor for new record. Call the contact 'Mr John
Smith', add other details if you want, and save the record - but do not close
the editor.
button.Close the contact editor - it will ask you whether to save changes - say yes - and re-open the company form for 'Acme Ltd.' (which should still be displayed in the search results window). In the 'Contacts' toggle section you will see the new relationship there as well, listing John Smith. This is hyperlinked - coloured and underlined - to indicate that clicking on it will open more information about the record. Clicking on it opens the contact form for John Smith. Close both forms before continuing.
The next plug-in is Marketing. This is a more powerful extension of address book functionality to support tracking and maintaining commercial relationships with customers. You can move onto this or straight to the heart of Epic, the Project Management plug-in, or return to Contents.
The address book functionality is relatively basic, with simple searches designed for fast look-up of public information. The marketing plug-in is more specialised and offers more advanced search options. It is designed to allow you to track the relationships between customers and contacts over time, and to record products.
Products are the object on which contracts are carried out. In ship repair a product is likely to be a vessel, however this need not be the case. Products are related to customers in the same way contacts are.
Open the Marketing plug-in - not Marketing (Advanced Search) - via the 'Plug-ins' menu. It looks very similar to the Address Book screens. However it now includes Vessels and deals with customers rather than companies. Epic makes this distinction to allow you better control the accessibility of information. Customers are companies that have additional commercial information stored - such as a history of projects. A customer is always a company so an Address Book user will see the contact details for the customer but not the commercial information. A Marketing user will see all the commercial information as well.
button. Give them the
name 'Foobar Ltd'. Note the additional toggle
sections that a customer has. Save and close the editor. If you
now search for all customers 'Foobar Ltd.' will appear but not 'Acme Ltd.'
This is because 'Acme Ltd.' is a company, not a customer. 
button on the criteria
window toolbar or via the 'Plug-ins' lists on the menu
or the Welcome screen. Note the additional search options for customers.
You can now choose to search for customers in a particular category
and/or include all companies. Note that when you switch to the advanced
search screen, the results are shown alongside rather then below the criteria.
If there is not enough room you may see the text '>>1' indicating there
is an additional tab that cannot be displayed. In this case widen the search list
be dragging its right edge. button to switch to the editor;The
relationship is added, and in the background, a new product record created.
Save the 'Foobar Ltd.' editor. You can view this product by selecting the relationship
on the 'Products' table and clicking 'view product' button.
If you now re-run the search for all customers, on the search results 'Foobar
Ltd' will now have a '+' and the product name will be displayed. You may
choose to add some more product either in the same way or via the 
button that is displayed when you
select a product search. You can try out some of the criteria you can
apply to product searches.
Close all open editors.
Now that we have a customer and a product we can move onto the core of Epic - the Project Management plug-in - or return to Contents.
This is the heart of the system, through which the management of enquiries, estimates and contracts is carried out.
Epic uses the central concept a project. This is a single commercial transaction with a customer, followed through the entire engagement. A project starts out as an enquiry, is turned into an estimate and finally becomes a contract, unless it is declined or is cancelled at some time.
Open the 'Project Management' plug-in via the 'Plug-ins' menu option of the welcome screen. A tree down the left-hand side of the screen allows you to see all enquiries, estimates and contracts, old or new, stored on the system. On the toolbar, there are options to filter and sort the displayed projects.
Projects either start at the enquiry stage - the normal route - or can immediately be added as fully-fledged contracts. This is to allow for unexpected work such as emergency repairs to be immediately recorded in Epic. We shall do this now as we have not yet discussed estimating.
However before we do so we shall change a user preference to make this tutorial easier to follow. Select the 'Edit / Preferences...' option from the top menu then go to 'Your Preferences / Projects'. The bottom option there is a check box 'show actions on toolbar as well as right click menu'. Tick this, click 'Apply' then 'OK'. You are now ready to create a project.
Select
the new contract 
button (be careful
not to choose the new enquiry 
button - the
pop-up help is useful here in distinguishing the two).
This opens the New Contract wizard. Note how we could create a new customer
and product here. If you ran through the Marketing
section you can use 'Foobar Ltd.' and the product you created by choosing the
'select existing' options. If not create new records.
Select the appropriate options in the wizard and finish it. The project editor opens. Maximise the editor so you can better see its contents This has several toggle sections that show the information that can be stored. In particular note the 'Lifeline' section which indicates the phases a project goes through. We created an immediate contract so the earlier phases are bypassed.
Close
the editor. If the project does not appear in the projects list on the left
you may have to change the filter on the list using the 
button. Re-open
the project by double-clicking the list entry for it.
As this project is at the 'Awaiting Work' stage we can create tasks for it. Tasks are the individual jobs carried out on a project. Costs are assigned to individual tasks rather than projects themselves. Tasks can be created in one of the following ways:
We shall do this last option. Tasks that are entered via the project management plug-in are classified as emergent work - that is they have not been estimated prior to contract agreement. Note it is also possible to generate estimated tasks during the contract however we will not be doing so in this tutorial.
Along the bottom of the project editor are three tabs, 'Project', 'Tasks' and 'Purchases'. We are currently viewing the 'Project' tab that displays overall project information.
Click on the 'Tasks' tab. This displays a list of all the project's tasks at the top with more information about the selected task in tabs below this. The editor is empty at the moment, though shortly it will show a lot of information so it might be worth maximising the editor if you have not already.
On the
task tab's toolbar there are is a dropdown displays 'default layout'. This gives
access to layouts
- which are different ways of viewing a project's tasks. Once we have some tasks
we shall return to this. After this there are three sets of menu options.
Clicking the little
arrow
displays each of these sets. The most recently used or suggested option is displayed
to the left of the arrows. There is more on these options later as well.
Click
the 
option from the first set. This opens the
'New Task Details' screen. As the screen explains only three fields are
editable - customer code, status and description. Each needs a little
explanation.
Epic
allows two codes for every task - the code used within the yard, and optionally,
a 'customer code'. This is used where the customer uses a different
set of codes to the yard and the two need to be cross-referenced. The
yard's task codes can be automatically generated, or entered manually.
Epic's default behaviour is to generate fixed-length sequential codes automatically,
but this can be changed via 'Edit / Preferences / System Settings / Code Generation'.
Note how project codes are configured in a similar way. In fact most codes within Epic are
configured in this way. Epic's code generators can also be customised
to match your own yard's codes.
Tasks, like projects, also have a 'status'. Statuses are used to enforce
procedural control. For instance you cannot assign hours to a task that
has not been authorised. Such control is configurable, enabling Epic to
be as flexible or as rigid as the yard requires.
The description is plain text that can be as long, or as short, as you want.
Epic has no practical limits on how much description is stored. However
it does not support formatting - so cut and paste from other documents will
loose such things as italics and different fonts.
Enter a description and optionally a customer code, leave the status unchanged,
and click 'Finish'. The task appears in the task list with the first few
columns showing the information you entered. Many more columns are empty. In
the tabs below there is more information about the task. Click through these to get
an idea of what information is available.
With a task added, the options on the menus can now be explored. The first set is to do with individual tasks. This set of options can also be accessed by right-clicking the task list:
add customer task - what we just did;
add yard task
- see yard tasks below; edit task
- opens a window to allow the task details to be edited; notes:
change status
- used to control what operations can be carried out on a task and whether
or not costs can be assigned to it
quick print
- a fast text-only extract of all the data for the task
refresh task
- see refreshingThe second set of options offer helpful tools (more can be added when Epic is customised for your yard):
sum
- opens a window that displays totals for the selected task(s)
export - uses
the information from the selected task(s) to create documents or other types
of file;The third set of options apply to all the project's tasks:
select all - select all visible tasks
set columns
- what information to display in the task list
(icon changes) - expand / collapse all selected tasks (only of use if yard tasks are being shown)
refreshes
all the project's tasksAdd more tasks and experiment with these menu options. Note that the same options are also available by right-clicking on the tasks table. Once you are familiar with the actions you may choose to use only this right-click option. If so you can hide the menus via your user preferences - reversing what you did at the start of this section.
Whilst adding and viewing tasks, you will inevitably find you have to scroll to see all the columns available. This is layouts where are useful. A layout defines what tasks and information are displayed, and which task alerts are run. Task alerts are checks that Epic automatically runs against a task to warn or inform you of a potential issue with that task (more info here).
Currently we are using the 'default layout' that shows everything. However this can be changed by selecting the 'edit..' option for the layout dropdown. It also allows you to record more than one layout so you can quickly switch between them. See using layouts for more information and then try this out. Note that the size of the tabs can also be changed by dragging their border with the task list.
Epic categorises tasks as customer tasks or yard tasks. Customer tasks are 'visible' to the customer in that they will appear on the final invoice. A customer task may include any number of 'child' yard tasks. Yard tasks behave like customer tasks except that their costs are added to their parent customer task in the final invoice. This allows the yard to control the contract at a finer level of detail than what is ultimately presented to the client. It is up to you if and how yard tasks are used. They do not have to be used at all. The differences between customer tasks and yard tasks can be summarised:
| Customer Task | Yard task | |
| visible
to customer |
yes | no |
| can
have customer code |
yes | no |
| can
have type and subtype |
no | yes |
| manually
change status |
yes | configurable |
| can
generate order document |
yes | no |
To support using yard tasks to categorise work, they include the concept of type and subtype. These can be any values you want. They can be used to filter displayed tasks in a layout and in reporting. They are configured via the 'Lists and Dropdowns' editor.
Refreshing
is the process of re-retrieving the latest data for a record from the database
and displaying this. Tasks might be edited by more than one person.
Whilst Epic will ensure that no-one's changes are lost, it cannot guarantee
that displayed task information is always completely up-to-date. Refreshing
ensures you are looking at the very latest data. Refresh actions are always
identified by the symbol.
Try
out creating and manipulating tasks and see what options are available in various
situations. You will find that you can change the status of tasks but never
to 'started'. This is because the parent project has not yet had its status
changed to 'work ongoing'. We shall do this now.
If you return to the 'Project' tab you will note that all the project information
is read-only. This is because Epic initially opens a read-only form rather
than a read-write editor for projects. This is the same behaviour that
Epic displayed for Address Book and Marketing records, and is Epic's normal
behaviour. Hence we have to click the
button to switch to the read-write editor for the project (*). Do this
now and the editor opens. In place of the button is the button. Click this
and 'Change Project Status' window opens. This lists available statuses
to change the project to and allows for other related actions. Just click
'Finish' (you can choose to 'Records vessel dates with contract' if you
wish) and the project status is changed.
* : You may be wondering why we can edit tasks even
though we were in the read-only project form. Epic anticipates that many
more people will need to add and edit tasks than will edit projects. Hence
the edit permissions for tasks are independent of their parent project.
Moreover as tasks have to be updated frequently, Epic uses a less intrusive
security mechanism that allows immediate updates without switching to an editor.
The project is now at the the 'work ongoing' status. Additional actions
and information are now available to support the management of on-going work.
Tasks can now be started (you can switch to the 'Tasks' tab to try this
out) and there are task alerts. The main addition is invoicing
functionality. Read on for this or return
to Contents.
Invoicing
Invoicing is a separate plug-in.
However it does not appear in the 'Plug-ins' menu as, if installed, it appears
as additional options on the project management
screens. Take a look at the additional columns available in the tasks list,
the extra export options ( via the button - enabled
once at least one task is selected), and the new 'Price Calculation' tab. There
are now additional available columns in the task list so we recommend you practice
selecting those columns that interest you via layouts.
The core functions of the invoicing plug-in are to assign prices to tasks and produce invoice documents for the customer. We will do both but first the concept of Epic's document repository must be introduced. The document repository allows for files to be linked to database records and a copy of them stored in a central location. They can then be read by any user with the correct permissions. These files can be anything that your computer can read, or documents generated by Epic itself.
Several types of database record can have files attached to them, including projects. Return to the 'Project' tab and expand the 'Documents' toggle section. Click the 'add document' button. This opens a standard file finder window. Use this to select any document on your computer and click 'Save'. This adds the file to the document list. Saving the project will add a copy of that file to the document repository and it will now be available to anyone who opens the project editor.
We can now create an invoice
file. Once work on a project has started, Epic can generate a running invoice
at any time. Return to the 'Tasks' tab and click on the button (enabled as long
as one or more tasks are selected). Choose the 'Invoice - Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet
(97 -2002 format)' option and then click 'Finish'.
Accept the default settings for 'Content Options' by clicking 'Next'. You then have three options for what to do with the created Excel file. Select the last option 'save in repository'. If you have Excel installed on your PC, check the 'open file on completion' check box and click 'Finish'. The Excel file will open. There is not much in the invoice as yet! Close Excel. If you return to the 'Documents' toggle section on the 'Project' tab you will see that the created file has been recorded in the document repository.
This created an Excel invoice. Epic is also comes with a built-in Microsoft Word option. Unfortunately the demo version of Epic does not include the templates for Microsoft Word invoices. In practice it is likely Epic's invoice export will be customised to your yard's requirements either with different Excel/Word templates or using a completely different format.
To create a more realistic invoice we must assign prices to tasks. Task prices can be set in one of four ways:
How the price is set and the resultant price are displayed in the 'Price Calc.' and 'Price' columns. Epic prevents these from being edited unless the task is completed (though this restriction can lifted via your user preferences). To complete a task change its status through 'awaiting authorisation', 'authorised', 'started' and then 'completed'. This highlights the different statuses a task can have within Epic. Don't worry, these status changes can be automated!
If you now click the 'Price Calc' column you are offered a dropdown that offers the options 'calculated', 'estimate' and 'manual'. If you select 'manual' the 'Price' column becomes editable - add a value here.
Note that the task's 'Price Calculation' tab and the 'Task Totals' toggle section on the editor's 'Project' tab reflect these changes. These also indicate how calculated prices are generated. The generation of task prices is extremely configurable and hence fairly complicated to explain. In summary a task's price is calculated as a summation of labour, purchase, subcontract and tariff costs. Each of these (except tariffs) can be modified by a markup (e.g. '+10%') and the total price itself then adjusted (e.g. '~100' which rounds it to the nearest 100). Full details of configuring task price generation are given in the pricing tutorial. We recommend a quick scan of this to gain a feel of the flexibility Epic offers.
Note that yard
tasks do
not have separate prices - their costs are rolled up to their parent customer task (though, as with restrictions in Epic,
this one can also removed via user preferences).
Of course, all calculated values for this project are currently zero as no actual
costs have been entered. To do so we need to use the purchases and manhours entry plug-ins. Alternatively,
return to Contents
Epic's purchasing functionality is designed to fit in with a yard's existing accounting systems. Hence Epic focuses on requesting, authorising and tracking purchase items. A purchase item is a tangible material ( a 'purchase') or a bought-in service (a 'subcontract'). Purchase items are assigned to cost centres. A cost centre is anything to which costs (purchases or labour) can be assigned. A cost centre is almost always a task in a project.
Epic
enables purchase items to be requested and authorised and then tracks their
delivery and usage. It does not handle the order/invoice/payment process
which is expected to be handled by the yard's accounting system. Purchase items
are requested either directly off the project management
screens or via the Purchases plug-ins own screens.
If you still have the project editor open select an 'authorised' or 'started'
task (create one if necessary) and switch to the task's 'Purchase' tab.
Expand the 'Purchases' toggle section (or the 'Subcontracts') and click the 'request
new ...' button. This opens the 'New Purchase Item' wizard. Enter
a description. If you have full permissions, the 'automatically authorise
on request' tick box is already ticked. Also tick the 'view purchase item
on completion' tick box and click 'Finish'.
The purchase item editor opens. Look through the toggle sections to see the information available. In
particular note that a purchase item has its own lifeline. The purchase
item also has its own export option via the button.
This serves the combined purpose of generating a hard-copy of the purchase request
and, optionally, notifying an accounting system. This necessary templates
are not available with the demo version of Epic.
To create a purchase item directly from the Purchases plug-in's own screens,
close all open editors and click the 'Purchases' option off the 'Plug-ins' menu
or the Welcome screen. Listed down the left-hand side are all purchases
and suppliers known to Epic. If there are no purchases visible try changing
the filter to check for
purchases with another status.
Suppliers are
companies that have additional information stored about them, just like customers.
Switch to the 'Suppliers' list and click the 
button.
This creates a new supplier and opens the supplier editor that looks very much
like the company editor. Give the supplier a name, save and close.
Switch back to the 'Purchase Items' list and click the '
button.
This opens the same wizard as the we saw previously but this time we have to
select the cost centre that we wish to assign the purchase item to.
Enter a description then look at the tree below. This lists all authorised
or started tasks in active projects. If there are none you will have to
return to project management and create
at least one such task. Expand 'SS Finbar' and select a task. Click
'Finish'.
The
Purchase Item editor opens. As we now have a supplier we can assign the
purchase item to this. Expand the 'Summary' toggle
section and click the '...' button beside the 'Supplier' label. This
will open the 'Select Supplier' wizard which allows you to search for the supplier.
Tick the 'allow a search with no criteria' tickbox and click 'Next'. All
the suppliers are listed. Select the supplier you just created appears and click
'Finish'. Close the editor, saving changes when asked.
The other facet to purchases is Epic's ability to import data from the accounting
system. This allows Epic to be fed up-to-date information about the purchases
- in particular the costs which are then fed through to the project
management screens. However
this requires appropriate links to your accounting system - if there are no
links Epic does not display the import options. Hence this feature is not explored
here.
The other source of cost data are manhours. However to demonstrate this
we first need to add some employees.
Continue
onto personnel or return to Contents.
Epic's
personnel functions take into account the variable and transient workforces
that repair yards, particularly small yards, employ. Switch to the 'Personnel'
plug-in via the 'Plug-ins' menu option or the Welcome screen. Currently
there are no recorded employees. However look at the two buttons on the
'Employees' list. Note the differentiation between regular and casual,
active and inactive, labour.
Create
a new employee via the 
button.
The subsequent employee editor is similar to the contact
editor but with toggle sections.
The demo includes some example values for the departments ('Personnel Details'
section) and skills ('Skills' section - click 'add skill' button then click
on the first table column) dropdowns. Further values can be added via the 'Lists and Dropdowns'
editor.
You can also add pictures of employees if you edit your user preferences. Add a few more employees.
As with purchasing, Epic anticipates that the personnel functionality will co-operate with the yard's accounting system, in particular for payroll. Whilst not displayed on screen Epic holds further data about employees which is extracted from or fed to other systems. This is made visible as required by individual yards. This ties in the manhour entry process. Close any open employee editors and move onto this, or return to Contents.
The most significant costs in ship repair are labour. It is essential that rapid and accurate labour cost data is available. Consequently much attention has been paid to make Epic's manhour record-keeping as powerful and as flexible as possible. The manhours entry plug-in has the following features:
Initial data is added directly into Epic or via an import process from another system. Switch to the 'Manhours Entry' plug-in via the 'Plug-ins' menu option or the Welcome screen. Note the different layout with big buttons down the left hand-side. Manhour entry is likely to be done by administrative or production staff who might not be as comfortable with computers as managerial staff. Hence the screens are made as intuitive as possible. The buttons indicate the three stages of manhour entry within Epic:
Click on the first button, 'Entry'. The manual entry screen opens. This is designed to make manual entry of records as fast as possible quickly allowing you to select an employee , then a cost centre, then the hours and finally the rate. All lists are configurable. Note that as soon as you click the big 'add hours' or 'add overtime' buttons a record is generated. Add a few manhour records. Do not worry about errors. These are tidied up at the next stage. If there are no cost centres presented then you must add some tasks to a 'work ongoing' project and ensure these tasks are 'started' but not 'completed'.
Note that Epic can handle multiple manhour rates. This are listed under the two categories 'Normal Rates' and 'Overtime Rates'. These categories are for the benefit of the automatic task price calculation (see invoicing or the pricing tutorial) but greater detail is stored behind the scenes.
An alternative is for the data generated on the manual entry screen to be imported directly into Epic. As with purchasing, this cannot be demonstrated without the correct links to other systems. If there are no such links, no GUI options are shown. Importing manhour data is even more powerful than the manual entry screen:
Irrespective of whether manhour records have been imported or added manually, they must then be authorised. Without closing the manhour entry screen, click the second 'Authorise' button from the left hand side. This list all records added that have not been authorised. These can be immediately saved, to be authorised later, or authorised now. We shall do this by right-click on a record and choose 'authorise'. Having done one then right-click 'select all', right-click - 'authorise' and all are authorised.
Before going any further note the project and task number for a record. Click 'save' and the list is now blank. This means the records are safely stored on the database but their hours have not yet been applied to the projects. Note if you do not save these records, Epic will try to get you to do so before you close it down.
The final stage is to actually apply these values to the projects. Click the 'Recalc' button. This does not bring up any screen but instead instructs Epic to apply all values. After a short time Epic reports that all values have been applied. Close all manhour entry screens. Return to project management screens and check out the task you noted just now. You will see the hours have been applied, and costs/prices re-calculated (you may have to refresh the task).
Move onto next steps or return to Contents.All
of the above are covered thoroughly in the training we offer, and remember that
Epic has been designed from the start to be tailored to your needs. Please
contact us if you have any questions or comments regarding
this demo or if you would be interested in viewing a production version of the
product.
Return
to Contents.
The administration plug-in is used for 'house-keeping' tasks such as adding users or changing reference information. Such tasks affect all users so should be restricted to those who understand the system and the implications of such actions. It is likely that only your system administrator will have the Administration plug-in installed so only they would see this plug-in.
Open this plug-in now. On the left-hand side is a list of administrative tasks grouped by their type. Double-clicking one of the options in a group will bring it up. This tutorial suggests a couple of options to take a look at however feel free to look at what else is available.
Warnings
Double-click the 'Edit users' task of the 'User Management Tools' group. This first brings up a list of all users on the system. If you are running the demo version of Epic there is only the user 'demo'. Select a user by single-clicking on it and you'll be shown the activities for that user. Activities are an additional layer of security. A user only has access to the functionality of the specific plug-ins installed on their computer. They can only run this functionality if they are allowed the appropriate Activities. There are read-only (ro) and read-write (rw) activities for each main functional area. Only someone given access to the Administration plug-in can change these. In the demo version they cannot be changed at all.
Double-click the the 'Edit' task of 'Lists and Dropdowns'. Opening this displays a series of toggle sections. Each section contains one or more lists to which you can add or remove items. Some of these have been pre-populated for this demo. The intent of some are obvious. Others support the powerful features of Epic that are demonstrated as you work through this tutorial.
Close the 'Users' and 'Lists and Dropdowns' windows.
Return to Next Steps or Contents.
The estimating plug-in offers some of the most powerful functionality in Epic. It relative complexity means it is not a good subject for this starter tutorial, hence we do not offer great detail here. Below are few general notes:
If you are specifically interested in estimating functionality, take a look at the estimating tutorial.
Return to Next Steps or Contents.
The reporting plug-in offers easy and immediate access to management reports. Available reports are listed and categorised. Double-clicking on a report will run it - if any parameters are required, these will be asked for. Reports can viewed in Epic, printed or exported to Adobe ACrobat PDF format.
Reports can be added and changed either by Incremental or, after training, by yourselves. Reports can even access data from other systems.
Unfortunately the demonstration version of Epic does not include the reports functionality. A mock-up of the plug-in is provided that creates some dummy reports.
Return to Next Steps or Contents.
We do not believe in crippled demo software. Nor do we believe in making unnecessary changes to someone's computer just to sell our product. This demo is a necessary compromise between these two principles. The demonstration software is a fully functional version of Epic which stores data on your own computer. You can enter and save whatever information you choose, and return to it at a later date. With prior agreement we will also be able to transfer this data to a subsequent live system.
Epic can also interact with other programs - such as e-mail and Microsoft Excel. Within the demo, such functionality is disabled if it could possibly affect the running of your computer. This covers such functionality as e-mail and most document exports. Unfortunately we cannot offer support in configuring this interaction on the demo version.
Installation
You need administrative privileges
on your PC for the download demo to install correctly.
The downloaded installer adds files only in the 'Epic Demo'
directory (or whichever directory you decided upon during installation) plus
some Windows 'shortcuts' to allow you to easily run the demo. All are removed
using the 'uninstall.exe' program within this directory. If there are any issues
running either the installer or the uninstaller please contact
us.
The following example data has been added to the demonstration version of Epic.
These are very lightweight examples designed to give an idea of how Epic looks when populated. All data is fictional and any relation to real facts or figures purely coincidental.
Technical issues or comments regarding Epic : technical@incremental.eu.com
General questions about Epic or Incremental Ltd. : enquiries@incremental.eu.com
