Lesson 2: Producing inquiries
In this topic, you'll learn about using inquiries to get the information you need. Later in this course, you'll learn how to share them with others.
Ajera provides a set of standard inquiries that target information most commonly needed by architectural and engineering firms. The inquiries contain links to other standard inquiries.
One of the most powerful aspects of inquires is their flexibility. You can create, move, or remove columns and change the information and type of information that appears. For this reason, inquiries are very helpful when you need to see specific information in a certain way or when you need to get at information you can't find elsewhere so as to research an issue.
When you need to customize an inquiry, you use a standard inquiry as a starting point; you do not create an inquiry from scratch. A good way to think of a standard inquiry is that it is like a template. Like any template, you do not overwrite the standard inquiry, but you change it and then save it with a different name.
Know which inquiry you need
Because so much information is available through inquiries, it is important to develop a plan to help you know exactly what you need and how to get it. It helps to determine which inquiries contain what you need. In some cases, it also helps to know how to link an inquiry to another inquiry so that the information is simple to access and analyze.
Types of inquiries
Let's take a look at how Ajera groups inquiries on the main menu and at some general examples of the type of information you'll find on inquiries within those groups:
| These types of inquiries | Contain information such as |
|---|---|
|
Project |
Project dates, project manager, project type, hours budgeted, hours worked, total contract amount, spent amount, billed amount, work-in-progress (WIP), and Reported Percent Complete (RPC) |
|
Employee |
Name, job title, employee type, contact information, hours worked on a project, phase, and activity, and expense report details |
|
Resource |
unavailable in ajeraCore Employee, employee type, activity, vendor, units/hours, actual start and completion dates, project descriptions, and phase descriptions |
|
Client |
Client name, client type, contact information, client invoice details (write-off, outstanding, and aging), client receipt details (receipt method, total amount, amount by activity type, adjustment, prepayment, and deposit bank name) |
|
Vendor |
Vendor name, vendor type, vendor contact information, vendor invoice information (write-off, outstanding, and aging), vendor payment details (bank name, payment number/reference, check date, invoice number, and amount), and vendor insurance details |
|
In-house Expense Log |
In-house expense status, description, log date, and notes |
|
Department |
Department name and status |
|
Bank |
Bank account names, account numbers, bank entry details (bank name, entry number, and amount), bank account and credit card statement details (bank name, statement beginning and ending dates, reconciled payments and deposits or charges, remaining amount, and statement beginning and ending balances) |
|
Transaction |
Billing status, transaction type, date, activity, activity type, employee, employee type, hours type, units/hours, and cost, spent, and billed amounts |
|
General Ledger |
General ledger account details (account type, account group, and net profit) and general ledger entry details (accrual department and account, and cash basis department and account) |
|
Payroll |
Check summary details (pay period, regular and overtime hours and amounts, total hours, gross pay, deductions, employee tax, net pay, employer tax, and fringe amounts), check detail (GL account and department, pay date, hours, and employee and employer amount), deductions, fringe benefits, accrued vacation and sick time, taxes, and 940 and 941 preparation |
|
Session |
Session task, employee performing the task, and date and time of task |
|
List |
Details for activities, contact names, and contact types |
Inquiries and inquiry descriptions
To begin knowing what inquiries contain and which inquiries you will need:
- Look at the inquiries by opening them from the
- Review the inquiry descriptions in help. To return to this course, click the Back button.
Anatomy of an inquiry
Let's take a look at a sample inquiry and its components.
An important thing to remember about inquires is that you can control the type and amount of information in them.
In addition, you can link to other inquiries from an inquiry. For example, the Project inquiry lists general information about projects and contains links to the Phase inquiry, which contains detailed information for a project.
A close-up look at the Inquiry toolbar
Use the toolbar to change the way you view the inquiry, to change properties for it, and to save, print, or export it.
Creating an inquiry
You create an inquiry by changing a standard inquiry.
Work with columns
Here are some ways you can work with columns to display the information you want on an inquiry:
- Add a column by selecting it from a predefined list, or create a column by entering a formula.
- Move columns so information appears in a logical order.
- Delete columns to focus on only what you need and remove clutter.
- Sort, group, or subtotal by column.
- Set column properties to define its format.
- Link the column to another inquiry to easily view related information.
Set conditions
In addition, you can set conditions for an inquiry, as needed, to limit the data that appears in the inquiry. For example, you may want to see only transactions for a certain date range or a specific client. Or you may want anyone who uses the inquiry to see only their transactions, not their coworkers' transactions.
Set time periods
You can set column properties or inquiry conditions so that data for a specified time period is displayed in an inquiry column or an entire inquiry.
Be sure you understand how time periods work on an inquiry and how they can affect the information that appears. For more information, see the following:
This link goes to help. To return to this course, click the Back button.
Displaying inquiry data for a specific time period
Example
For example, you reviewed the standard reports for Business Development, but you need some specific, additional information. Before getting started with your BD efforts for a new project, you want to first review historical and current information on existing BD projects.
You start by opening the standard inquiry, BD phase. You then add some predefined columns. You create other custom columns by using a formula. Your result might look something like the following:
Printing and exporting an inquiry
To open an inquiry, select it from the
Preview and print an inquiry
To preview and print an inquiry, click 
(Print) on the toolbar and make a selection as follows:
- To set margins, page orientation, and paper type for printing the inquiry, select Page Setup.
- To preview the inquiry as it appears when printed, select Print Preview. To then return to the normal view, select Print Preview again.
- To print the inquiry, select Print.
Export an inquiry
You can export an inquiry to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, or Adobe Acrobat (pdf).
To export an inquiry, click 
(Export) on the toolbar and make a selection.
Learn the details
This link goes to help. To return to this course, click the Back button.
Test your knowledge
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