What’s a task and what’s an item?

A list of your products is available at ‘Sales’ ➝ ‘Products List’ ➝ ‘My Tasks’ or ‘My Items’.
Both tasks and items can be added to an invoice and billed to your client.
Only tasks can be added to projects. Staff will be able to log hours to these tasks (not to items)
Units of tasks are always ‘hours’ and cannot be changed, while the units of items can be entered and changed by you manually.

Create a new task template

To create a new task go to, Sales ➝ Products List ➝ My Tasks ➝ Create a Task.
When creating a task on the product list it’ll we be a global task that means it can be added to any project and is visible in reports.

On task page you can change the following fields:

• Task Name (must be unique)
• Price with and without tax (hourly rate)
• Tax (learn more about taxes)
• Default Discount (will be applied automatically when invoicing it)
• Task is Billable

Create new Task in Project

You can also create a new task in a project. More here ➜

Delete task template

You can’t permanently delete tasks in zistemo. If you click on “delete” the task will be accessible via the delete tab:

Since task names must be unique the system adds automatically the prefix “CANCEL” in front of the task name, so that the old name will be free to use again. When un-deleting a task, please remember to remove the “CANCEL” prefix from the task name again.

Further, you cannot delete tasks that are used in any documents like invoices, retainers, estimates, purchases, etc. You only can archive this task. Archived tasks are no longer available to add them to projects.

Task’s Log

On the task’s log you can review who did changes on the task. You can see it by clicking on “View activity”

There you can see logs when someone:
– archived/deleted/activated the task
– changed  task name
– changed price with/without tax
– changed tax
– changed default discount
– marked task as billable/non-billable
– changed description (only that it was changed, not the whole description text)

Create a New Item

To create a new item go to, Sales ➝ Products List ➝ My Items ➝ Create an Item

With zistemo, you can easily customize a product description as much as you need, at any time, from its name to its unit price. Go to the “Create an item” page to review and edit any of the following fields:

• Name
• Unit – choose from the list or create a new one by entering unit name
• Price without tax – price per unit
• Price with tax – the final price including taxes – this field becomes available if the tax is applied
• Tax – choose tax from the existing list or create additional tax at “Settings” ➝ “Taxes” ➝ “Add New Tax”
• Description – additional info (notes) – up to 2000 characters.
• Product number – internal product number
• Product cost – item cost (internal price)

There’s also the “Tracking inventory” option which will help you keep track of your product stocks. Read more about the Inventory in zistemo here.

Note: You can clone tasks/items via the dropdown on each task/item line.

Item/Task description formatting

By default, you cannot format your items/task descriptions. But you can switch this feature by going to Settings -> Preferences -> checkbox “Enable the format editor on item/task descriptions”:

Save settings and start to format products descriptions:
– on the Item/Task page:

– on the Invoice page:

Here’s how it will look like on the invoice:

If you will switch off the description formatting, then your formatted descriptions will be displayed with html tags:

But the invoice preview will not be changed (will be displayed with formatting).

Your product list is used for creating invoices, estimates and projects.

On the invoice or estimate body you can choose tasks and items by clicking ‘Add New Line’. (Sales -> Invoices -> Create Invoice)

…Then choose a product from the list.

For projects you can only choose tasks. Add a task and select “From template” to use a default task.

Print list of Tasks/Items

On the Tasks/Items grid pages you can see the ‘Print’ button. Use it to print your list of Tasks/Items.

This list will also include all info displayed in the Tasks/Items table: for Items – item number, description, stock, product cost, unit, unit price; for Tasks – description, unit, price.

If you are using filters, this list will include only Tasks/Items that meet these filters’ criteria.

1. How to create a new product through the estimate/invoice/project?

If you would like to create a new estimate item, go to the Estimate page (Sales -> Estimates -> Click Create Estimate or the little arrow next to the Estimate line  you need  to edit

, scroll down to the Estimate Items, insert the name of the product and the other data (unit name, price, tax).

If you would like to include the new item to your product list, open the row end menu and click ‘Save Product’.

Or click ‘Save Product’ on the active line:

Note: This new product will be saved as a task – if its’ unit name is an ‘hour‘.
If its’ unit name is anything other than an ‘hour’, the new product will be saved as an item.

How to add an Invoice Task or an Invoice Item please watch here:
How to create a task/item

On the Project Page

(Dashboard ->Time and Projects -> Projects -> Pick a project (or add a new one):

you can create a new task by opening the tasks drop-down ➝ clicking ‘[new task]’

After clicking ‘Save’ this task will be automatically added to your products list.

2. How to edit an existing product through an invoice/estimate/project?

If you want to update an existing product on the invoice/estimate page choose this product from the list:

➝ click ‘Edit Product’ on the row end menu

➝ make changes and click ‘Save’

To update the task data on the Project page, choose this task from the tasks dropdown:

➝ click on the pencil icon to open the edit task page

➝ make changes and click ‘Save’

3. How to create temporary (one-time use) products for an invoice/estimate?
To create a one-time use product on the invoice or estimate page, add a new line to the body of the document.

Insert the name of the product and other data (quantity, unit name, cost, tax)

The new product will not be saved on your product list and will exist only on this invoice or estimate.

Each of your products or services has its units of measure. For tasks, it’s ‘hours’ and it’s a constant unit while for products or services, you can create and use any unit you want.

For instance:

• if you sell home appliances, you might sell light bulbs individually, or in packs of 3, packs of 12, or in cases of 36;
• if you sell gardening supplies, you might use boxes, packets or pallets as units.

With zistemo, you can customize units to make sure they fit your business. That’s why we created Units List. Find it on Sales -> Products List -> My units

Here you can manually add a new unit by simply clicking ‘Create a unit’ button. Subsequently, you’ll find this on item-, invoice- and estimate pages. At any time, you can change the unit name or delete it.

What will happen if I delete a unit?

Deleted units are still on for existing entries (invoices, estimates or just items) but will not be available on the units lists anymore.

It’s easy to spot deleted units: they become red.

What will happen if I edit a unit?

If you have used an old unit name for items in the invoices or estimates – the unit name will stay the same for existing entries. You can use the new unit name for next invoices/estimates.

In case you want to change the unit name for old invoices/estimates, just edit the invoices/estimates and choose the new unit from the drop-down.

zistemo helps you to track the number of available items (products) your company holds for reselling. It’s commonly known as Stock or – and as we also call it here – the Inventory.
To set the number of products you have in your stock, go to “Sales” -> “Products List” -> “My items” -> choose the one you need and check the box “Track Inventory”.

Next, enter the amount in the “Current Stock” field:

From now on, each time you will create invoices that include these items and send them to your clients – the number of available products will decrease accordingly. Also, if you delete an invoice or you send a credit memo (credit note), the product’s stock will be increased automatically.

Items inventory tracking

If you want to see your items inventory history, you can open it by clicking on the ‘Current stock’ amount in Items list:

Now you will see all incoming (stock check-in) and outgoing (stock check-out) actions made with the chosen item:

The items inventory can be manually changed (manual incoming or manual outgoing) or automatically (income through Purchase Order or outgo through the Invoice).
– Manual income.
You can manually add items, just go to the ‘Edit Item’ page and click the ‘Correction’ button:

then enter the incoming quantity and the product cost:

– Incoming through a Purchase Order.
If a Purchase Order is marked as delivered, then the delivered items will be automatically added to the stock (more about Purchases). You can quickly review this Purchase Order by clicking its number on the Inventory History list:

– Outgoing through an Invoice
If you sell the items, the stock quantity will automatically be reduced through the inventory. You can review the invoice with these items by clicking the invoice link on the Inventory History list:

Note: you can also change at any time the number of manually added/reduced items, just click the pencil icon in the Inventory History and enter the correct quantity:

How zistemo calculates the cost of outgoing items

Attention: if you add items manually or through the purchase order, then each item has its own cost. Therefore, the first incoming item has one cost, the second another etc.
When you sell items or you manually reduce their quantity, then the cost will be calculated in a chronological order (by date) – the first item will be reduced first:

Example:
first incoming items – 100pcs *10usd
second incoming items – 50pcs *15usd
third incoming items – 20pcs *17usd

If  you sell 160 pcs, their cost will be:
Cost (160 pcs) = 100*10 + 50*15 + 10*17 = 1920usd

Reorder Level

Here you can insert a reorder level. As soon as the inventory hits the reorder level, you will get a notification via slack and system bell:

System Bell: You will receive a notifications as soon your inventory reaches the reorder level. Click on Details and update the item:

You can also set up a slack notification. Find more infos about “setting up slack notification” HERE

Note: You can also import items through My Menu -> Import -> choose ‘Import Items’ from the drop-down menu.

Here, you can download an example of how this file should look like:

Next, click “Browse files” and choose the CSV file with the items from your computer.

On the next step, you will see a preview of the items which will be imported. The good news is that if some rows in the.CSV have errors, you will be able to download the “error file”, correct them and then import again.

Click on the “Import Items” and you’ll see how new rows will appear in your items list:

Note: Please use “UFT-8” for encoding

Subtotals

When creating invoices/recurring invoices/estimates/purchases, you will see the total amount at the end of the document’s table.
But zistemo also helps you use ‘subtotals’. It’s very simple: add some items to your document and click ‘Add Subtotal’:

If you wish, you can enter a name for this subtotal header and description (or leave it empty) and you will see the total amount of previous items:

In case you change your mind, you can delete this line by clicking ‘Delete’ in the line-end menu:

If you leave the “Subtotal” line, it will be displayed on the invoice/estimate/purchase preview (therefore on the document which will be sent to your client):

The format of the invoice with subtotals will indented differently for a better overview.

Page Breaks

Sometimes an Invoice, Estimate or a Purchase can be really long. For example: You want on the first page a specific product group and not more – you should use the option “page break” to break the page.

If you create your Invoice/Estimate/Purchase, just click on the right arrow and choose “add page break”

You will see the added page break:

If you take a look into the “preview” you will see the page break:

Text Blocks

You can also add pure text fields without quantity or prices to your invoice, estimate and purchase order.
You able to create, load, save, delete and move text blocks instead product lines.

To create a text block either you go to “Sales” -> “Product List” -> “Text blocks

or create directly the text block in the process of the creation from the invoice, estimate, etc..

Do not forget to press “save text block”:

The already created text blocks you can simply choose via the dropdown:

Enjoy!

Note: A set can have multiple Items and Tasks, also Sets can be only created out of existing Items or Tasks.

To create a set, simply click on the “create a set” button:

Afterwards you can choose a name and also the items and task you wish to add to the set:

There is also the possibility to “edit”, “clone” or “delete” the Set by pressing the arrow on the rights site:

The created Sets are enable in Invoices, Estimates, Retainers and Purchases

Learn how to add sets to a project

If you are working in a craft business, this feature will suit you good. For example: As a user for Car Service Company, you want to use Items from the estimate, into the project and also afterwards to the invoice With this feature, you can do this easily.

You can see the expected or calculated quantity per item in your project, also the staff is able to add more needed material to the project – without seeing any price info on the items.

Inventory? zistemo keeps an eye on your current stock also. If your staff decides to need more items, to solve the current issue, they will just add items as needed and zistemo takes care of your correct inventory stock.

Starting from an estimate

If you create an estimate for a client, you are able to add items to the estimate (more infos HERE & more infos about “creating an estimate” you can find HERE)

You either start to add your predefined or a new item/s to the estimate.
Add a new “item” simply by clicking “save product”:

Creating a Project out of an estimate

If you convert an estimate into a project, zistemo will show the items in the Project overview:

If you just create a project, you are always able to add items to the current project via “items” tab.

Add/Search new item

As an Account Owner, Administrator, Team Leader (needs to be assigned to the project) & Team Member (needs to be assigned to the project) you are able to add/search for new items:

To search for an item, just type into search-field an already existing item (min 3 characters). Only already existing items can be added:

Add the quantity for the selected item you want to use in your project and press “save”:

Update the item quantity

As an Account Owner, Administrator, Team Leader (needs to be assigned to the project) & Team Member which is assigned to the project you are able to update the quantity of the items as needed. Simply go to the “Items” tab and increase or decrease the quantity amount of the item:

Team Member View

Your Team members are able to quickly get a view onto the needed items and can also add, change quantity and delete items. Also the staff is able to add more needed material to the project – without seeing any price info on the items.

Invoice Items from project

Of course you can add these Items to the invoice.  Also, maybe you don’t want to invoice the full project or you don’t want to add all items to your invoice. You can do it al following:

First, generate an invoice for a project with items. in this example we used as a billing method flat project amount but it works with all project billing methods. Might be that for some billing methods you won’t see the following screen since for hourly billing there’s the invoice wizard. Anyway, you’ll see that all items will be added to invoice. We’ll change which items and quantity later.

Now, Generate the invoice and you’ll see all items added to the invoice. Now you can edit the quantity of the items or even delete the items from the invoice. The system will recognize it and count it at the project correctly.

As you go back to the project you’ll see a new column “invoiced” where you can see how many items you already invoice from this project. If you converted a estimate to a project, you’d see how many items you estimated.

Please note that the invoice needs to be activated as for draft invoices the systems do not count the item sin the invoice against the project items.