If you still use Microsoft Excel for document control as many companies do, you might be surprised about the automation that DocBoss offers to save you doing work manually.
Here are 11 handy benefits DocBoss offers document controllers that may benefit you.
Upload Your VDRL or Bill of Materials
In typical fashion, your customer will provide a VDRL (Vendor Document Requirements List), especially on larger projects. This is the core document related contract between customer and supplier identifying the types of document to supply, delivery timelines, and databook requirements. You may also work with a Bill of Materials (BOM) and DocBoss helps with that too.
Maybe you’re used to manually inputting your documents into Excel. You don’t have to do that with DocBoss.
In DocBoss, you translate (upload) your customer’s VDRL into our document requirements screen. We then use this critical data to help you define the specific registers required on the project, their due dates, and the databooks.
On less formal contracts (or if your customer doesn’t provide a VDRL), you define your own project requirements. Just because your customers don’t have a formal process, doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from a process of your own!
Tag to Document Relationships
When submitting vendor documentation, it is critical to cross reference all of the relevant equipment. Generally, customers request that you provide tag number relationships for every submitted document. DocBoss not only ensures you have provided this data, but (especially in the case of auto-generated registers) we ensure that that tag lists are updated as the project changes.
If you tag your products, DocBoss might be the ideal solution for your document control work because it was designed with tagged products in mind.
Automated document numbering for all
Having a structured numbering convention is a critical piece of successful document control. In many supply contracts, suppliers are asked to provide their own number, but also to pre-number the customer’s number field based on a defined convention.
DocBoss users can program the customer convention into the system, and DocBoss will assign all customer numbering. Of course – the same is true for the supplier numbering.
Assign documents to your team for review
While sending and receiving documents to other companies is a core function in docboss, we also allow you to route documents to internal users for review and evaluations. Maybe the document you just received from your customer must be reviewed by the project manager before going back to the vendor?
No problem.
Just assign the document in DocBoss, and we’ll help you track the time turnaround time, and notify you when the user has completed the action (or maybe whether you need to give them some helpful encouragement to get ‘er done).
Custom databooks with a few clicks of your mouse
Finally finished all of the submissions? All documents approved? Time to build those databooks. But you’ve worked so hard already. Let DocBoss take it from here.
Within a few button clicks you can generate the completed databooks, burn a CD, and archive your project to your own server.
Charge for your document control work
Supplier often roll the costs for document control into the overall project cost. While this is suitable for large custom equipment – the costs for document control quickly become unsupportable for high volume, smaller equipment. The DocBoss quote module allows users to make use of the docboss structure to define the document requirements, and provide a clear, easy to read, quote for document services.
Generally provided as an appendix to the equipment quote it makes your document quotes consistent, and gives your customers a detailed breakout of the work they are receiving.
Lastly, it helps define the price structure at the quote stage, so variations can be negotiated as the project grows in scope.
Custom cover sheets for every project
Let DocBoss append the cover sheets to every document, on every submission. By uploading your customers cover sheet template to the DocBoss system, you relinquish all of the manual work of completing the cover sheets to the system. DocBoss builds the cover sheets and appends them to each document.
Never make a mistake with tag lists, titles, numbers, submission history, formatting etc. Perfect cover sheets, using your customer’s templates, every time. Included.
Custom headers and footers for every page of every document
When submitting many documents and many pages, it is often beneficial to add headers and footers to every submitted page. While working on each individual document can be extremely time-consuming (and error prone) DocBoss allows you to simply define what data fields you would like in each area, and we automate the application of the data to every document.
Yes, even password protected files.
Transmittals and index reports by DocBoss
Best practice is to provide a transmittal sheet with every submittal, listing every document being submitted. Of course DocBoss has our own default templates, but if your customer requests that you complete their template (often so they can easily upload to their system), you can simply upload it to DocBoss (after adding a few DocBoss variables), all of the data will be auto-populated on submittal.
When it comes to overall project tracking your customers will often provide a template for that purpose. With DocBoss this document is simply another template to upload. Because DocBoss tracks all of the required data, you can simply regenerate the index / tracking report exactly in your customer’s format, at any time. Even if it is required on every submittal!
All of the data is perfectly tracked in the system and reported to your customer on their template. They’ll never know you are using DocBoss.
Clear warnings for “Not Downloaded by Customer”
On the projects dashboard, DocBoss warns you if customers have not clicked the download link in the transmittal notification. In some cases, these warnings are no longer useful. You can manually clear these warnings.
So if your customer isn’t downloading their transmitalls, you’ll know and can alert them.
As an aside, the project dashboard does more than just this: It also enables you to stay on top of all of your projects, even as you’re being pulled in many directions.
Ensure document delivery
When working with customers by email, everyone has a case of a document not received. With DocBoss, you send email notifications directly to your customers. Customers click on a link, and download the documents. DocBoss keeps track of who and when the documents were downloaded.
As mentioned above you can also see when customers haven’t downloaded their documents. We will alert you if documents have not been downloaded within a timeline you define.