Suggested Advances
Advances > Suggested Advances is the approval queue for tradesperson payments. Every row is an amount the system believes a tradesperson has earned but not yet been advanced. Accounts (or management) check the figures and approve, which sends the advance advice to the tradesperson and starts the payment.
What you see
Section titled “What you see”Only advances with status Suggested that still have a sub job are listed, newest first, grouped by tradesperson. Each group ends with a SUM row and the table ends with a TOTAL; these recalculate live as you edit amounts.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | The tradesperson’s business name. |
| Job | Job reference, linked to the job. |
| Customer | Customer name and suburb, linked to the customer. |
| Suggest Advance (%) | The gross amount for this advance (including GST for registered tradespersons and including the materials deducted) and the sub job percentage it brings the tradesperson to, for example “$4,400 (50%)”. |
| Material Spend | Materials linked to this advance that will be deducted from the payment. |
| Total | The amount that will actually be paid (including GST where applicable, after materials). Editable. |
| Note | Free text that travels with the advance onto the payment summary PDF. Pre filled with notes from the tradesperson’s advance request or from “Resolve Advance”. Editable. |
| Unallocated Materials | A link showing the value of materials bought by this tradesperson that are not tied to any job or advance. Click it to allocate some of that spend against this advance. |
| Actions | Approve, or Auth with MYOB if you are not connected, or Link to MYOB if the tradesperson has no MYOB supplier card. |
| Bulk Approve | Tick box, shown only when you are connected to MYOB and the tradesperson has a MYOB card. |
Header buttons: Select All and Authorise (bulk approve).
What you can do
Section titled “What you can do”Adjust an amount before approving
Section titled “Adjust an amount before approving”- Change the figure in Total. The SUM and TOTAL rows update as you type.
- Click the tick beside the field to save. A confirmation shows the saved amount. Saving does not approve.
If the tradesperson is GST registered the figure you enter is treated as GST inclusive and stored ex GST. Changing the amount also recalculates the sub job’s percentage complete so progress stays in step with what is paid.
Allocate unallocated materials
Section titled “Allocate unallocated materials”- Click the amount in Unallocated Materials.
- In the Unallocated materials window, enter the amount to allocate (up to the advance amount or the total unallocated, whichever is lower). The table lists each requisition with a link to the material record.
- Click Save. The materials are linked to this advance and deducted from the payment.
Use this when a tradesperson bought paint on account without recording the job.
Approve one advance
Section titled “Approve one advance”- Check Total and Note.
- Click Approve and confirm the dialog, which names the tradesperson, job and amount.
The advance becomes Pending. If it was already approved you are told so and nothing changes.
Approve many at once
Section titled “Approve many at once”- Tick the advances (or Select All).
- Click Authorise and confirm “You’re about to authorise and create N advances”.
Every ticked advance is approved with the amount and note currently in its row. Advances already approved are skipped.
The suggestion logic
Section titled “The suggestion logic”Advances are created and topped up automatically from sub job progress:
- Progress increase: when a sub job’s percentage complete rises, the increase multiplied by the sub job price is owed. The very first advance uses the full percentage. If the sub job already has a Suggested advance, the new amount is added to it and its percentage updated, so a tradesperson never has two Suggested advances on the same sub job. If the previous advance was already approved, a new Suggested advance is created for the increment.
- Materials: unallocated materials on the sub job are deducted (ex GST for registered tradespersons) and attached to the advance at the moment it is created or topped up.
- Sources of progress: project manager reports on the iPad, tradesperson progress reports and advance requests from the trades app, manual sub job edits by staff, the automatic completion of jobs of $3,000 or less two weeks after their start, and the Resolve Advance button on a job’s Advances tab (creates a Suggested advance for the remaining balance of a completed sub job).
- Colour consultants get a 100% advance automatically when their first colour schedule is sent.
- Limits: painters cannot be advanced beyond what the customer has been invoiced. Other trades can be force advanced by project managers with the over advance permission; such advances are flagged as forced (ROCH-2060).
- Requested advances from the trades app carry the tradesperson’s note and are linked to their progress report so that approving updates their progress system wide (ROCH-1635).
Suggested advances on cancelled jobs remain listed; check the job before approving.
How it works behind the scenes
Section titled “How it works behind the scenes”Approving sets the status to Pending, records who approved and when, and, unless the tradesperson is a payroll employee, bundles all advances approved for that tradesperson in this action into one Advance Collection (tradesperson invoice request) with status Sent. The tradesperson is emailed “An advance has been issued.” with the payment summary PDF and an Upload Invoice link. Nothing is sent to MYOB until they upload their invoice; see Pending Advances and Advances Sent.
Payroll employees’ advances are approved without a tradesperson invoice and never go to MYOB.
The Link to MYOB action appears when the tradesperson has no MYOB supplier card. Open their record and link or create the card under their MYOB section before approving; the payment cannot be created in MYOB without it.
Tips and gotchas
Section titled “Tips and gotchas”- The page does not load with an amount if the sub job has been deleted, which is why only advances with a live sub job are shown (ROCH-1550). If a tradesperson says they are owed money and nothing is here, check the job’s Advances tab.
- Approving with an empty Total is refused (“Please input a value of price”).
- The SUM per tradesperson is what will appear on their payment summary. Review it before bulk approving so a tradesperson does not receive several separate advice emails on the same day.
- Amount edits are saved per row with the tick; the Authorise button uses whatever is in the row at that moment, saved or not.