Understand the core concepts
EVX Software keeps every part of a project in records that are connected to each other. This page explains the main records, how they are organized, and how they fit together, so the rest of the documentation makes sense.
The names below are the defaults. Your firm may use different names for some of them.
Modules and records
A module is a working area for one kind of record, such as Tasks, Time, Expenses, Invoices, Documents, Contacts, or Reports. Each module has its own tab, list, and toolbar. Your administrator decides which modules are active for your firm.
A record is one item inside a module: a task, a time entry, an expense, an invoice, a document, a contact. Records connect across modules. A time entry belongs to the Time module, and it also belongs to a project, a task, and a person. That connection is what lets the same work show up in the budget, on the invoice, and in reports.
The main records
Clients
A client is an organization your firm works for, such as a property developer, a municipality, or an industrial facility operator. Projects, invoices, documents, and reports are organized under their client. See Clients.
Contacts
Contacts are the people and companies you deal with: clients, vendors and sub-consultants who provide services, and your own staff. A contact can be linked to the projects and records it relates to. See Contacts and companies.
Projects and proposals
A project holds all the work, cost, and billing for one engagement. It carries the usual details, such as the client, the project manager, the contract terms, the budget, and the rate schedule, plus any other information your firm needs to track, such as site coordinates, project size, or notes. A proposal is a project at the bidding stage. When the work is awarded, the same record becomes the active project, so the scope and budget you quoted carry over. See Projects and Projects vs. proposals.
Tasks
Tasks are the activities inside a project, such as a site reconnaissance, a sampling event, or a draft report. Each task can have an assignee, dates, an estimate, and a labor category. Tasks are also where most time is logged.
Tasks can carry a price and a cost. Depending on whether the engagement is fixed fee or time and materials, those values feed the project budget, the proposal, and the invoice. See Tasks.
Time entries
A time entry records hours worked by one person, on one date, against a project or task. Time entries feed project budgets, utilization reports, and invoices. See Time tracking overview.
Expenses
Expenses record costs. A budgeted expense is a cost you plan for, and an actual expense is a cost that happened, such as mileage, lab fees, or a sub-consultant's services. Comparing the two shows where a project stands. See Budgeted vs. actual expenses.
Invoices
Invoices are built from approved time and expenses, priced with the project's rates and contract terms. See Invoicing overview.
Templates
Templates hold reusable structures. A project template sets up a project and its standard tasks in one step, so every Phase I ESA or asbestos survey starts from the same plan. See Project templates and Task templates.
Dimensions: the business context
A dimension classifies records by business context. Clients and projects are dimensions, and so are workspaces and tags. Your firm can add its own, such as sites, job phases, regions, departments, or service lines. Each item inside a dimension is a member: one client, one project, one site.
Dimensions do four jobs at once:
| Job | What it means |
|---|---|
| Classification | A record is assigned to one or more members, for example a project and a site. |
| Navigation | Dimensions appear in the left panel. Selecting a member sets the context for every module. |
| Reporting | Reports group and filter records by the same members. |
| Permissions | Access can depend on which members a person is allowed to see. |
Dimensions are configured to fit how your firm works. Project managers are a good example. Your firm can store them as contacts, or set them up as a dimension. As a dimension, project managers become a context you can select and a value reports can group by, so you can compare budgets, hours, and margins by project manager.
See Dimensions and Classifying records.
Permissions
Permissions decide what each person can see and change. They depend on the person's role, the modules they can use, and the dimension members they have access to. Two people can open the same module and see different records. See Permissions and access control.
How it fits together
A client has projects. A project has tasks. People log time and record expenses against those tasks and projects. Approved time and expenses become invoices. Dimensions classify all of these records, and permissions decide who sees which ones.
That structure lets you answer the same question from different angles:
| Question | Context you select | Records you look at |
|---|---|---|
| What work is open on this project? | Project | Tasks: status, assignee, due date |
| How many hours went to this client this month? | Client | Time entries: person, date, labor category |
| What has this site cost so far? | Site | Expenses: budgeted and actual |
| What goes on this month's invoice? | Project | Approved time and expenses, rates, taxes |
Example: a wetland delineation project
A wetland delineation project is organized by client, project, site, job phase, staff member, and labor category. Each team looks at the same records from its own angle:
- The field team selects the site and sees its assigned tasks.
- The project manager selects the project and checks status, due dates, and budget.
- The billing team checks labor categories, billable hours, rates, and invoice status.
- Principals review project status, margin, and utilization across all projects.
Every view reads the same records.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the names on my screen differ from the documentation?
Your administrator can rename items and configure dimensions to match your firm's workflow. For example, your firm may call tasks "services." This documentation always uses the default names, so a page about tasks applies to whatever your firm calls them. Your firm's EVX Software administrator can tell you which default name matches each item on your screen.
What you can do next
- Navigate EVX Software to see where modules and dimensions appear on screen.
- Next steps by role to find the pages that matter most to your job.
- Navigation, dimensions, and filters for how context and filters work together in daily use.