We are dying over here to have to character length of the Phase description increased! The Phase Descriptions are critical and provide a lot of value to help track profitability. It's really frustrating when every word has to be abbreviated and then 1) I have to remember to be consistent with the abbreviations across the job 2) no one besides myself remembers what the abbreviations mean so I am asked 100000x for YEARS because we analyze past jobs constantly. I know in the past it has been suggested to use the "Comment" Section of the Phase setup. this does not work because 1) it does not show when the employees are entering their time and 2) it's not on the Phase Import SDX which is what we use to open a new job
Even if it was increased from 25 characters to 30 or 35 characters that could be a HUGE help. We have huge jobs that have double digit floors, double digit zones, and areas (like SOU, NOR & MID) It's so hard to keep the phases consistent with how the drawings are labeled. It confuses the CAD team, & the field crews. I'd be happy to send examples if that would be helpful :)
Marjie Maguire
| Company | Walsh Mechanical Contractors |
| Job Title / Role | Payroll Supervisor |
| I need it... | Yesterday...Come on already |
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For all those begging for phase desc increase so you can see it in Traqspera and reporting and such - what is the likelihood that your users read more than 30 characters - seems like a crazy waste of valuable screen space to me. I don't want a longer field that now needs to be accomodated on all of the apps and mobile devices. So I'm voting no thank you to taking more real estate with phase description.
Geoffrey, I did not mean for this post to cause so much backlash. You are one of the most helpful people I have encountered with Spectrum (& I've been using it for almost 10 years!) At my company, this would be a top priority. The office spends a lot of time correcting time going to the wrong phases, answering questions on past and present jobs over and over again. Should people outside of the office be held more accountable? Yes. Will they? Unfortunately No. This is something that would truly be a value add, everyday, here.
Sincerely a truly stressed out Office Gal :)
There he is, at it again. They need to take his keyboard away. It makes me dislike this system even more. About you stop tinkering with a 35 year old system and rebuild? I've been bringing it up more and more at work we need a new ERP. I've compiled a list for doing demos soon.
I would love to change the field width...but that means that we won't be able to do other projects.
So, help me understand the priority here...is this the most important thing? Is it the second or where does it fit?
I am happy to chat live about this with any Spectrum customer about this. In fact, I will be at Dimensions in a few weeks and will be happy to discuss this further.
I am not looking to start a pissing contest, but understand we have to do our best to keep over 2,000 customers happy. We have limited resources so we have to prioritize the requests.
Geoff
P.S. In Version 14, we increased the length of the phase field from 13 characters to 20. It took us a year and a half to complete this in the software. I am not saying that we won't ever do it...but understand that there is a huge cost to our resources. If clients deem that is the most important thing we need to do, we will do it.
Let me say it specifically. 35 years ago, we chose a business logic that allowed us to scale and move from Unix to Windows to NT Server and to the web. As a trade-off, the business logic has some idiosyncrasies such as the need to define the text length in advance.
Am I understanding this correctly? You made a choice 3 and half decades ago and are just doubling down and not entertaining the idea that a decision older than the public internet doesn't need updated?
As for who chose these limitations - It is us and the choices we made 35 years ago. I don't think any ERP works perfectly, but I do know that as a previous user of ERP systems, you find ways to make it work. I would rather be honest with everyone and tell folks what will and what won't happen. Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.
Geoff
Geoffrey Falk is the least helpful person in Spectrum. He comments often on 'The Network' as well. They seem to believe Spectrum works perfectly. None of the problem are with their design but how we use it. It's pretty infuriating to read some of his dismissive comments.
The 250-character comments box doesn't reflect in Traqspera or PTE. The phase description needs to be available to timekeepers in the field, not just Spectrum users.
That is good to know that I can rework the reports in BI but I do not think this solves the issue of us still having to drastically shorten the phase description to 25 characters only. When our employees enter time, they only see the phase code and the phase description. So even if we added the real description to the comment box, it will not solve the problem of guys having no clue or caring where they their time because they can't remember all the abbreviations. They end up guessing (and we have to go through with a fine tooth comb for numerous jobs or manually change the phase for them) or we are bombarded with the same calls over and over again
Each phase and cost type has a 250 character text box just for this purpose. Spectrum BI allows you to utilize this as your description.
I agree with this need request, we are often having to abbreviate the phase descriptions rather than be able to label them the way the customers have requested.
I agree the comment section is not an actual work around/solution and probably utilized resources that could have been used to just give the people what they are begging for which is more characters, PLEASE.
I actually feel a lot of the road blocks I encounter truly only affect myself and is not a true Spectrum problem lol But this is an issue I have seen brought up over & over again at my 9 years at this company + see it constantly brought up by people in different positions at different companies.
This is a constant problem for me. I handle payroll, I create the Crystal Reports, I create the Info-Links, I help create the Phase Descriptions for the jobs. This effects all employees because when they are entering their time, they see the phase description...not the comment section. Most of our employees do not even have a spectrum login because they are field users and use an iPad to enter time.
We have Standard Phases that once you add a floor, the description has to be abbreviated. Literally every single job has multiple floors. If it didn't have floors it would be massive and have areas but usually it's both areas & floors. This is how we receive CAD drawings. This is how our Schedules we receive from the GC are received. This is how we are expected to bill our jobs. This is how we track profitability. Imagine we had a job that was a loser, wouldn't it be nice to see yikes Zone 11 on floor 15 North side is so much higher than the other floors and areas, why is this? I'm sure there are others out there who are experiencing the same pains we are encountering here on a daily basis.
This is a need not a want. We also DO NOT want to hear about the comment section that is a poorly executed band aid. It would still costs us so much time making the abbreviations and then adding what we actually want to the comments which are not part of the SDX import. But more importantly 99% of the people who use these phases can't even see. Instead we have to save back up reports incase we analyze this job in two years and can't remember the abbreviations or the person who created them is no longer here.
This should be consistent across all modules many time for vendors we are abbreviating company's names since we can't fit them. If it is such a hassle to adjust this I suggest that you over shoot and do more characters than what people might need to maybe just adjust to at least 150 characters. I feel like I spend an extreme amount of time looking up abbreviations to make sure they make sense and others might understand.