To effectively have your staff learn a new software platform for their day to day time-tracking and task management requirements, they need to:
Build muscle memory
Understand their key "corners" of Drum
Ensure they maintain business processes within the context of Drum
To achieve this, we recommend following the below guide in the lead up to migrating to Drum and ensuring that staff are familiar with their required workflows.
The below guide is broken up into a "master list" of features to be aware of and how we would suggest approaching training for some role-based examples by breaking up all of Drum's features into smaller, role-specific sets.
💡 Drum is a very intuitive product, but training is required to ensure that staff can perform their requirements effectively upon migration and onwards.
Example Training Requirements Per Role
The below examples assume that your initial Drum implementation will include both the project and financial management features, as well as the sales and proposal features. If this isn't the case, and you're implementing a "core" set of features first, please adjust as required for your use-case.
We discuss what a "core" implementation of Drum vs a more complete implementation looks like at the end of this document.
You can provide each of these checklists to staff to encourage self-exploration and they can use the provided links to our documentation to understand each suggested requirement.
Alternatively, these lists can be used as a baseline structure for a more formal training plan and internal training sessions if required by the business.
There is a Google Sheet checklist version of the below items that you can copy or download for internal use here: Download the role-based training checklist
Admin/Office Team Members
The administrative team often have the broadest training requirements, as their roles require the managing and creating of the 'base' information in Drum e.g. creating projects, sending or finalising invoices, adding operational notes to projects and so on.
Manage Settings
Manage the settings of our Drum account (see "Drum Data Setup" in the reference below).
Invite and remove team-members from the Drum account.
Manage Projects & Opportunities
Add a new project with the required details (name, client, template to use).
Adjust the details (status, assigned staff, contacts, notes) of an existing project.
Edit the "original budget" or project structure of a project by manually setting the requirements via the "Original Budget" option or changing the assigned project template.
Add a new opportunity with the required details.
Allocate both projects and opportunity tasks to appropriate team-members with appropriate due-dates.
Manage Invoices
View and create invoices for projects.
Integrate invoices to the connected financial software.
Reporting
Know how to access and use the reports required for the business.
Services Delivery Team Members
The below suggestions are based on your service delivery team-members, where your key operational requirements are around time tracking and task management.
Time Tracking
Add project tasks to the timesheet.
Pin project tasks on the timesheet.
Add a new time entry to a task for a certain day on the timesheet.
Edit time entries against tasks by toggling open the task and viewing each entry.
Delete time entries against a task by toggling open the task and deleting what is required.
Submit their timesheets, ready for approval.
Track time using the real-time timer (if required).
Task Management
View and manage the tasks that I've been assigned on the Drum dashboard.
Allocate time to the tasks I've been assigned to on the Drum dashboard.
See and manage the tasks that I've been assigned to from the individual project pages.
Project Managers
Project managers tend to need more context around the budget management concepts of a project, including re-allocating time entries, managing variations or original project budget structures and creating progress claims or invoices.
Project Management
Add a new project with the required details (name, client, template to use).
Edit the "original budget" or project structure of a project by manually setting the requirements via the "Original Budget" option.
Add and approve a variation on a project with appropriate budget adjustments.
Add and approve a "cost-to-complete" estimate to a project (optional).
Manage the invoicing plan to change estimated invoice dates and values.
Understand the available and used budget figures.
Understand the project "health" (financial work-in-progress) and other key project budget metrics in Drum.
Filter and sort projects on the project dashboard to easily view their key requirements.
Time Tracking
Add project tasks to the timesheet.
Pin project tasks on the timesheet.
Add a new time entry to a task for a certain day on the timesheet.
Edit time entries against tasks by toggling open the task and viewing each entry.
Delete time entries against a task by toggling open the task and deleting what is required.
Submit their timesheets, ready for approval.
Track time using the real-time timer (if required).
Invoicing
Can create and manage a progress claim (pay application) on a project (optional).
Can convert an approved progress claim (pay application) to an invoice for integration (optional).
Can raise an invoice on a project by choosing an "invoice type" as a starting point.
Understand how to allocate time to invoices (even for fixed-price milestone payments or payment upon completion engagements).
Can attach or download a time report based on the time allocation to the invoice to provide to the client (if required).
Can integrate an invoice with their financial software and understand how Drum and the financial integration "sync" after connection.
Directors
Depending on the size of the business, directors may need to understand a combination of the previously suggested staff requirements, but for this example, we'll assume that they can take a more "overarching" role in the business.
Project Management
Understand the available and used budget figures.
Understand the project "health" (financial work-in-progress) and other key project budget metrics in Drum.
Filter and sort projects on the project dashboard to easily view their key requirements.
Opportunity Management
Understand how opportunity lead scores, deal values and dates affect revenue projection.
Sort and filter the opportunities dashboard to view the sales pipeline and activity.
Reporting
Know how to access and use the reports required for the business.
Time Tracking
Add project tasks to the timesheet.
Pin project tasks on the timesheet.
Add a new time entry to a task for a certain day on the timesheet.
Edit time entries against tasks by toggling open the task and viewing each entry.
Delete time entries against a task by toggling open the task and deleting what is required.
Submit their timesheets, ready for approval.
Track time using the real-time timer (if required).