Creating milestones

Accountants Enterprise with Practice Manager only

Milestones are created from Maintenance > Assignment > Milestones.

The Milestones page enables you to add milestones which are then applied to schedules and jobs if required. You can define the name, whether it is shown on the Job Manager — Job Sheet and where it is placed on the planner.

There is only one set of milestones for your practice — and the list of milestones is applicable to all jobs. If a milestone is not applicable to a certain job, the milestone still needs to be completed; otherwise your reporting will be inconsistent.

Available fields

Field	Description
Short Description	This short description is displayed as the column label on the Job Manager — Job Sheet for the milestone. The short description is limited to a maximum of 15 characters.
Description	This longer description for the milestone may be used in reporting. The description is limited to a maximum of 50 characters.
Position	This field indicates the position of the milestone on the Job Manager — Job Sheet in order from left to right. Position 1 is the first milestone column on the left.
Start Milestone	This field is used if the milestone is to be used as a starting milestone. When a milestone tagged as Start Milestone has been completed, the completion date on the Start Milestone is taken as the actual start date.
End Milestone	This field is used if the milestone is to be used as an ending milestone. When a milestone tagged as End Milestone has been completed, the completion date on the End Milestone is taken as the actual end date.
Show on Planner	This field indicates whether or not the milestone is shown on the Job Manager — Job Sheet. If this is not selected, the milestone will not be displayed on the Job Manager - Job Sheet.

Historical reporting may be affected if you deselect a used milestone.

To make use of reporting on milestones, a Start milestone and an End milestone must be flagged. A job is deemed as started when the status of the start milestone is set to Complete. A job is deemed to have ended when the status of the end milestone is set to Complete.

To set up a milestone

Select Maintenance > Assignment > Milestones on the main menu or Maintenance > Maintenance Map > Assignment > Milestones. The Milestones page opens.
Enter a short name for the milestone in the first blank row of Short Description at the top of the table. The description is limited to a maximum of 15 alphanumeric characters. The name is displayed on the Job Manager — Job Sheet.
Enter the milestone Description. The description is limited to a maximum of 50 alphanumeric characters. This information will be displayed in reports.
Indicate the Position of the milestone on the Job Manager — Job Sheet in order from left to right. For example, if you enter position 1 the milestone is displayed in the first column on the left.
Click the Start Milestone checkbox, if the milestone is to be used as the starting milestone. This will be the actual start date. You can have only one start milestone for an assignment type.
Click the End Milestone checkbox, if the milestone is to be used as the end milestone. The date this milestone is completed will be the actual end date. You can have only one end milestone for an assignment type.
Click the field and edit the text to modify an existing milestone.
Click OK to save the changes and close the Milestones page.

To use reporting on milestones, a start milestone and an end milestone must be flagged for each job. A job is started when the status of the start milestone is set to Complete. A job has ended when the status of the end milestone is set to Complete. When the status of the end milestone is set to Complete, the job/schedule will no longer be displayed on the Job Manager — Job Sheet.