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Materials

Who can use this feature

Admins can create and manage Materials

All project users can add Materials to their Tasks and log actuals

Materials can be added to Tasks to forecast your daily resource demand and track planned vs actual quantities.

Creating Materials

Creating Materials lets you build a reusable library of Materials to assign to Tasks.

Creating New Materials:

  • Click your Project Title in the top left, then select Project Assets

  • Select Materials from the menu

  • click

  • Create your custom Material resource by entering the name, unit, Material type and colour

  • The Material is added to the library of Materials the team can assign to their Tasks

Material Type

Each material needs a Material Type from one of the following categories:

Material Type

Concreate

Piles

Earthworks

Roadworks

Electrical

Drainage

Steel

Other

Material Unit

Each material needs a Material Unit from one of the following categories:

Material Unit

Item

Metres

Metres Squared

Metres Cubic

Kilometers

Kilograms

Tonnes

Tons

Yards

Yards Squared

Yards Cubic

Assigning Materials

Assigning Materials to tasks helps plan how much is needed for each one, making it easier to manage demand across your project.

To add Planned Materials to a task:

  • On the Gantt, navigate to the column picker and toggle Materials

  • Click the Material cell for your task & select Materials from the dropdown menu

Material Property Rules

  • Materials are a multi-select property

  • A Quantity of the Material can be inputted when adding Materials to tasks

  • Quantities are applied per day

    • The unit quantity is split across the task's duration

  • Archived Material resources will no longer be available to add to tasks but will still exist on tasks it was assigned to before the resource was archived

Editing Planned Daily Quantities

When you add a planned Material, Aphex spreads the total amount across the Task’s planned days. If you expect to use more or less of a material on a certain day, you can adjust the daily quantity to match.

To adjust the daily planned quantities:

  • Double-click your task bar on the Gantt to open the right-hand panel

  • Scroll down to Planned Resources and click to expand your chosen Material

  • Click into the Quantity box and change the value

Material Actuals

Material tracking doesn't just stop at forecasting demand. Use Actuals to log what was used each day, directly on the Task - giving you a clear picture of performance over time, and use the inputs to automatically generate planned vs actual quantity reports.

Adding Actuals to Tasks:

  • Double-click your task bar on the Gantt to open the right-hand panel

  • Scroll down to Actual Materials and click to expand your chosen Material

  • Click and select a planned material

  • Pick a day to record the Actual against, enter the Quantity and click to confirm

View Forecasted Materials on the Gantt

Use the Resource Overlay in the Gantt to forecast Material demand day by day. You'll see how much of each Material is needed across the project, with a clear breakdown of which Tasks are driving that usage and who's using it.

View the Resource Overlay by Material:

  • Click and select Resources and click Material

  • Hover over the numbers to view your Total and Project Utilisation

  • Click to filter to a specific Material type

  • Click the Resources Configuration icon to switch between Tasks in View and Project Utilisation

  • Hover over to see the daily breakdown

What's Shown on Hover

On hover, the daily breakdown includes:

  • Utilisation

    • Quantity of Material used by Tasks in your current View (respects filters)

  • # of Tasks

    • Number of Tasks in your current View using that Material on the selected day (respects filters)

  • Project Utilisation

    • Total quantity used across the entire project (ignores filters)

  • # no of Project Tasks

    • Number of Project-wide Tasks using that material on the selected day (ignores filters)

  • Task Owner Breakdown

    • Lists each Task Owner contributing to Project usage

    • Includes Task Count and percentage of total utilisation for that day and Material

  • Cell shading

    • Darker = higher quantity

    • Lighter - lower quantity

    • Scale is relative to the values shown in the current overlay

  • Quantity values are only shown in Day View

    • In Week, Month or Year mode, cell shading remains but numeric values are hidden

Resource Overlay Configuration Options
Option
Function

Total

The demand for tasks in your current view

Project Utilisation

The demand for your entire project

Hide Un-utilised resources

Removes resources that aren’t assigned to any Tasks from the resource list

Filter by Material

Filter by Material to quickly review and manage work related to a particular Material items across your plan.

Filter by Material:

  • Click and

  • Select Material in the first dropdown

  • Select from Is, Is Not, Is Empty or Is Not Empty in the second dropdown

  • Select your desired Material item in the third dropdown

Filter Breakdown
Filter
Operator
Value

Material

Is Is Not Is Empty Is Not Empty

Multi-Select

Report on Planned vs Actual Material

Once Materials have been assigned to Tasks, all updates (including Delays, On Track & Improvement events) can be traced back to each Subcontractor. This makes it easy to understand how each Subcontractor is performing across the project.

Power BI

Connect your Project as a datasource for Power BI to report on Material Demand, and track Planned vs Actuals.

Aphex Insight

Utilise Aphex Insight to track Material Demand. See trends and drill down into specific Tasks to identify where each Material Resource is allocated.

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