SYNCrew Forms: How to set up

Forms are easy to set up. To edit or create any form, click “settings” in the left navigation, then click “Custom Forms.” The following assumes you are already there.

How to create a new form:

  1. Click “New Custom Form” at the top of the page
  2. On the pop up, enter the name of the form and, optionally, one email address (you can add more emails while editing the form later)
  3. Click “Save”
  4. Now follow the steps to edit forms below

Setting up Forms

This refers to the options at the top of the forms setup page

  1. Enable: This option just enables or disables the form. If there is a check box showing, the form is enabled.
  2. Send to project email: When this option is selected, completed forms will be sent to the email(s) that are listed for the Project. You can see these emails by clicking “edit project” from the project profile page.
  3. Email address for completed form: Whenever a form is completed, these emails will receive the form.
  4. Name: This is the name that shows up on the form list in the app and admin portal
  5. Project: This setting managed when the form can be seen by workers in the field. If you want the form to appear both clocked in and out, you just need to copy the form once completed and set the copy to have different project settings
    1. Clocked in project: The form will show anytime a user is clocked into any project (as you are now)
    2. Single project: The user will see the form when they are clocked into ONLY that selected project. They will also see that form if you select “allow user to see while clocked out” AND they search for that project.
    3. Allow user to select: These forms will only be seen while the user is clocked out. 
  6. ALWAYS CLICK “UPDATE” AFTER EDITING THESE SETTINGS OR THEY WILL NOT BE SAVED

Adding and editing form fields

This section shows how to add data elements to forms and change the options for photo requirements and reordering

To add a new element:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a drop-down menu and submit button (circled in green in the image above)
  2. Click the menu and select the option you want. You can read the various field types at this page: http://www.syncrew.com/faq/app/syncrew-forms-overview/
  3. Click “submit”
  4. A form will open where you need to put some text in the Label. This label is what will show on the form and each label on a form needs a unique name. Click “Save” once you complete the label.

Editing a data element: Click the “edit” button next to the label, at the right site of screen. Make whatever edits you desire in the pop up and click Save. One trick for elements that have lists (like “pick lists”) is that you can enter multiple items at one time separated by commas. So “Option1, Option2, Option3” will create three separate options.

Changing Order: The screen shows the elements in the order they will appear on the Worker app and also on emails and PDFs. To cahnge the order, click the blue up or down arrow at the far right of the element. This will cause the element to move by one slot in the list. To go multiple spaces, just click the button multiple times.

Removing a data element: Simply click the “remove” button next to the element you with to remove. Once removed, the element will no longer show up on newly completed forms but it will be there for forms that were completed before it was removed.

If you have any trouble, please contact your account manager or support@syncrew.com

Other links:

Importing Projects

If you want to add more then a few projects, it can be easier to add with our import tool. If you just want to add a single project, see here.

1) Go to Settings in the left navigation and select “Import”

2) Select “Projects” to import from the menu at the top-right

3) On the next page that loads, click the icon next to Select CSV (circled in red below). It will open your computers file system to select the file you wish to import. Then click “Start import.” You can also click to download a header file if you need (circled in green).

4) The next screen will show you all the projects you are loading. You can update any addresses that did not map as you expected by updating the addresses or moving the pin on the map. You can also delete a location by clicking the red “X”

5) Once you review everything, scroll to the very bottom and click “Finalize import”

Quickbooks integration: Common causes of errors

Below are some issues we have seen on multiple occasions so we posted there in case you are having a similar issue.

EXTRA SPACES: Spaces in SYNCrew Accounting Name field. This is the most common issue we see. Clients will enter a space at the front or back of the field, or before or after the “:” that is used to break up the Project and Job. If you suspect this is the issue, contact support@syncrew.com and we can run a quick audit to check for this.


SAME ACCOUNTING NAME ON TWO PROJECTS: For the integration to work and prevent duplicate entries from being made into Quickbooks, each project in SYNCrew must have a unique Accounting Name (or Project Name if you are using that in your QB Sync settings).

MIDDLE NAME MIS-MATCH: Too many letters stored in the middle initial field in Quickbooks. This is a strange one but has popped up a few times and is hard to track down. The Middle Initial field in QB can only hold 5 characters but sometimes multiple names will get put in there. In the examples below, you can see that “Robinson” is the second, first name in SYNCrew, but just Robin fits in QB.

This particular problem will allow the Work Block to be written into QB, but it will NOT be confirmed within SYNCrew and re-running Web Connector will cause duplicate entries to be made.

Pre-Start: Getting SYNCrew set up


1) Add projects: You can email us a list of addresses to import for you or you can click the link to see how to add directly. Add Projects


2) Add employees: You can email us a list of names and cell phone numbers so we can add, or you can click the link to see how to add users directly. Please note that worker accounts will receive a text message with login info as soon as you create the account so let your team know its coming and please don’t do in the middle of the night! Add users


3) Pick a start date: We recommend a few days before the start of your next payroll so your crew can install the app and try it out. If they have any trouble, they can reach us at 415-968-1593 for help. On the first day, we recommend sending a text to each employee reminding them to get started! If you share the start date with us, we’ll check in on everything as well!

4) Get started and let us know how things are going! If you have any trouble or questions, you can reach us at the info below or check out our help website HERE.

Officially open 8am to 5pm Pacific time, but text or email outside those hours are often answered when urgent. Please note that mornings and lunch time are the highest call times so please just leave a message and we’ll always get back to you within a few minutes.

Clock out a worker who is currently clocked in

When an employee’s current status is clocked in, an admin user can clock him/her out manually. To do this, click on the employee’s name (either in the dashboard or in the teams page) to open that employee’s profile page.

Then, click “Clock Out Worker” as shown here:

Finally, in the form that opens, just select the date and time the employee should have clocked out, input any other relevant information as required (like work order number or description of work) and click submit. The clock out will be created right away.

How to disable a project (delete a project)

SYNCrew was designed to allow for an unlimited number of projects. Since the app uses GPS to always show the nearest projects at the top of the list, you could have 10,000 projects in a single city and each worker would always see the one they are near!

Even so, many people like to keep their project lists clean which is certainly a noble goal! When you do not expect any more work to be done at a project, you can disable it. A disabled project will not show up on the worker app so they will not be able to clock into that project anymore. All work associated with the project still exists and can be searched for.

To disable a project: Go to Settings –> Manage projects. Then click the “make inactive” button next to the project. If you have a lot of projects, use the search bar to find the one(s) you want to inactivate. 0

In the event that you need to re-enable a project, you can search for it and click to enable it, just as we disabled the example above.

A note on deleting projects: Since projects usually have work connected to them, the system does not allow projects to be deleted. If work never commenced you can just inactivate them or rename the project to a new one (although we do not recommend renaming projects as you may do it by mistake and it will impact any work that was associated with that project).

Quickbooks Integration & de-duplication explained

One major issue when you connect critical data (like hours for payroll and billing!) is that you need to be sure that everything goes though AND that it only goes one time!

Technical steps to send data from SYNCrew to Quickbooks Desktop

1. Quickbooks user clicks the “Update selected” button in QB web connector.
2. QB Web Connector contacts SYNCrew and create a secure connection.
3. SYNCrew will then send the information over one Work Block at a time (think of each row of a Work Block report).
4. For each Work Block that SYNCrew sends, Quickbooks will validate that the employee and customer (& project if used) match.

IF THEY MATCH:
5. The hours are added to the Employee timesheet in Quickbooks
6. Quickbooks confirms this addition and SYNCrew notes that the Work Block has been send to Quickbooks. If the QB Web Connector connects to SYNCrew while the same time period is selected again, that Work Block will be skipped.

IF THERE IS NOT A MATCH:
5. The import process stops and QB Web Connector displays an error that describes what issue was found so the user can fix (usually by adding the Customer:Job or employee in QB.
6. Nothing is reported back to SYNCrew so that SYNCrew will try to send that Work Block next time.

What if additions or edits are made AFTER the sync to QB?

  • Work Block added AFTER sync to QB: If a work block is added to SYNCrew AFTER Web Connector has run, you can simply run the Web Connector again and only new events will be added to QB.
  • Edits made to a Work Block AFTER sync to QB: In this case, the Work Block as it was at the time Web Connector was run, will remain in QB and the updated Work Block will not be synced. This is because the Work Block has already been flagged as synced so the Web Connector skips it.
  • If you add time manually into QB or through another method (like an IIF file): These hours are NOT noted in SYNCrew as having been synced and so they will be sent again one time if you sync to QB.

Need Help?

We know this can be a bit complicated so if you something strange happened, please contact us with the details so we can detmine how it happened and advise on cleanup and also how to prevent going forward.

As always, if you have any questions, you can contact your account manager or email support@syncrew.com to get further details.

Quickbooks Desktop Integration

SYNCrew can export data to Quickbooks Desktop! This flexible integration will let you get hours your team enters in SYNCrew directly into Quickbooks

Initial Setup: The initial setup is a bit complicated due to the flexibility SYNCrew has built to make sure the hours get in how you need them. For that reason, we insist on helping you so please email support@syncrew.com and ask to get this going.

How to pull data: When you wan to pull data from SYNCrew to QB, just follow these steps. Note that most people run these at the end of each pay period but you can run at other times or use the custom dates. Regardless, we recommend not running while workers are still clocked in for that period.

START IN SYNCREW: Open SYNCrew and do the following:

  1. Open SYNCrew and click on Settings in the navigation section at the left (circled in yellow below)
  2. Select QuickBooks underneath Settings (circled in green)
  3. Select the pay period you want (circled in purple)
  4. Click Save (circled in red)

Configuration screen in SYNCrew before each QB export

MOVE TO QUICKBOOKS: Open QuickBooks and do the following:
5. Go to the file menu and select “Update Web Service”
6. You may be asked to approve SYNCrew’s access at this time, please approve.
7. A window will open that shows you available apps yous can update and use. Make sure the box next to SYNCrew is selected (circled in orange) and then click “update Selected” (circled in green)

8. Once you click “Update Selected,” it may take some time depending on how many employees you have and how long the pay period is, but status bars at the bottom will keep you posted. Once the progress bars get to 100%, you can check the status to see if it was successsful or if there were errors:

IF EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT, you will see a window like this that shows “last result: ok.” If you see this, you are done and all data should be in QB!

IF SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT, you will see a window like this that shows “last result: qbwc error:…” and then a description of the error. The error will usually be that the Customer:Project or Employee is not in Quickbooks. Once you fix the issue in QB, go back to step 7 and click “update selected.” If your projects and employees are not up to date in QB, this make take a few tries to get it fully synced.


Please note, we always recommend reviewing hours in QB to be sure they are correct!


Further reading: This integration was built to be as seamless as possible, but it is a bit complicated out of necessity due to the many ways our clients use both SYNCrew and Quickbooks.

Exporting Lists (Workers or Projects)

Occasionally, it will be convenient to export a list of Worker Users or a list of current projects. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Click “Settings” in the navigation panel at the left, then select “Export” in the sub-menu that opens
  2. For both Workers and Projects, there is a menu to select whether you want to see ALL, ACTIVE, or INACTIVE
  3. Once you pick which group, click the appropriate “export” button for what you want to export. A CSV file will download immediately and this file can be opened in your text editor or spreadsheet program (typically Excel)

The screenshot below shows how to export INACTIVE PROJECTS:

Daily Site Reports

Daily site reports are a quick an easy way to keep your customers updated about your employees’ activities at their sites. If your employees are using SYNCrew correctly taking good, relevant photos and writing down good notes about their site visits, you can easily use this feature to share relevant information about the visits with the site’s owner. The feature gives you a lot of options to tailor this report and also allows you to edit the language in case there are grammatical errors or incorrect information.

To start, you need to enter the client’s email address(es) on each location, that way the report can be emailed to the client. You can also enter generic or specific site info that you want to be shown in the report (optional)

To run the actual report, select the “Reports” menu item and then the “Daily Site Reports”.

Continue reading “Daily Site Reports”