Job & Quotation Management — business view

Technical trace: Job & Quotation Management

1. Business Summary

A Job encodes the actual work to be performed: language pair, job type, mode/modality, content type, subject matter, DTP/QC levels, units, amounts, dates, files, and weighted-words. It is the bridge between sales and production.

2. Business Value

Translates customer demand into actionable production records that drive tasks, costs, vendor invoices, client invoices, and TMS workflows. This is the core production unit.

3. Users / Stakeholders

Project managers, sales, account managers, finance, clients (indirectly via PO).

4. Workflows

  • Job intake (single-action). A PM, a sales agent, or an inbound email can create a Job. The system optionally:
  • Creates the customer's PO if it does not exist.
  • Creates the Contact if a new sender.
  • Creates the Project to host the Job.
  • Fills in missing job specifications from the account's most-common patterns or default values.
  • Persists the Job and copies source files into the source folder.
  • Triggers auto-planning to generate phases/tasks.
  • Hands off to the TMS (e.g., Memsource) for analysis.
  • Specification reuse. Opportunity-job specifications can seed the Job.
  • Lifecycle. The Job moves through statuses; weighted-word analysis is captured.

5. Sub-Features

  • Cascading creation of PO/Project/Contact alongside Job.
  • File ingest into the source folder structure.
  • TMS / Memsource hand-off.
  • Auto-planning trigger.
  • Tag-based categorisation.

6. Business Rules

  • Brand isolation: the Job inherits the user's brand.
  • Source file count is reconciled post-upload.
  • Memsource path includes a delay to allow TMS analysis to complete.
  • Default specifications are inferred from account history if not provided.

7. Data Entities

Job, Jobs Tag, Tag, Job Weighted Words, Phase, Sub-Job, Activities, Follow-ups, Notes, Tickets.

8. Entry Points

  • Job screens (create/edit).
  • Email command intake.
  • Mobile API.
  • Auto-creation from opportunities.

9. Inputs & Outputs

  • Inputs: account/opportunity context, language pair, units/amounts, files, options.
  • Outputs: Job record, file structure, optional PO/Project/Contact, auto-planned tasks.

10. Integrations

  • TMS / Memsource (file ingest, analysis).
  • ownCloud (file storage).
  • Email (notifications).

11. Calculations / Logic

  • Risk factor reduces available time.
  • Weighted words from TM analysis drive pricing.
  • Total price/tax/gross profit computed via shared finance logic with many parameters.

12. Status Lifecycle

  • New → in production → delivered → closed/cancelled.

13. Permissions

  • Brand-scoped, PM/sales-creator-driven, security-engine row-level checks.

14. Reports & KPIs

  • Jobs by brand/account/type, weighted-word volumes, gross profit, on-time delivery.

15. Risks & Observations

  • The Memsource hand-off is partly synchronous — long delays block the user.
  • Many specs are inferred silently — risk of mis-specification if account defaults are stale.
  • Bulk auto-creation of Job + PO + Project + Contact is not transactional; partial failures are recoverable only manually.
  • Hard-coded source folder paths.

16. Source Code Evidence

  • app/Plugin/projects/Model/Job.php.
  • app/Controller/Component/AutomationComponent.php (job orchestration).

← Deep dives index