Overview
The BuildOps connector with Viewpoint Vista is designed to streamline the flow of customer, contract, and job data between Viewpoint Vista and BuildOps. This integration enhances construction management, provides valuable business insights, and improves overall operational efficiency.
This document outlines the mechanics of the integration and describes the shared objects between BuildOps and Viewpoint Vista, including details on triggering events and expected behaviors. Additionally, it provides a deep dive into Vista’s job model and its associations across BuildOps objects.
Integration Mechanics
Supported Vista Offerings
BuildOps supports both Viewpoint Vista’s Cloud and On-premise offerings. During onboarding, we will identify the specific Vista offering, set up BuildOps-specific system users, and ensure secure management of financial data.
Data Processing Workflows
The integration operates bidirectionally:
BuildOps-to-Vista: Allows BuildOps to manage operations while Vista handles financials.
Vista-to-BuildOps: Ensures financial data flows back into BuildOps for accurate tracking and reporting.
This reduces duplicate data entry and minimizes errors.
Data Workflow – BuildOps-to-Vista
A BuildOps user creates a financial document (e.g., an invoice).
The document enters the BuildOps Integration Service’s queue for processing.
Data transformation occurs, converting the BuildOps format into Vista’s format.
The transformed data is written directly to the Vista database.
The system validates the writing process and sends a success/failure response.
The processed data is displayed in the BuildOps user interface.
Data Workflow – Vista-to-BuildOps
A Vista user creates or updates a document (e.g., a customer, tax rate, AP invoice, or payment).
Every 30 minutes, the BuildOps Integration Service checks for new or updated data in Vista.
If new data is found, it is transformed into a BuildOps-compatible format.
The transformed data is imported into BuildOps and displayed in the user interface.
Notification Emails
The integration includes automated email notifications for success and failure events, ensuring timely updates for compliance and operational review.
Object Definitions
This section defines the data objects shared between BuildOps and Vista, including their triggering events and behaviors.
User Defined Fields
Viewpoint Vista supports User Defined Fields (UDFs) that are unique to each business. BuildOps’ integration supports these UDFs, which are relevant for jobs, service agreement maintenances, purchase order receipts, and AR invoices.
Integration Enhancements
For additional feature requests, customers can work with BuildOps' product team to scope requirements and enhance the integration.
Data Mapping and Key Objects
Accounts Receivable (AR) Invoice
Description: AR Invoices document financial transactions between a business and its customers.
Triggering Event: A BuildOps user drafts an invoice and clicks “Export Invoice.”
Behavior Notes:
Invoices must originate from a job.
Tax rates must be manually selected on the invoice page.
GL account mapping is based on invoice line items.
AR Payment
Description: Payments received against AR invoices.
Triggering Event: A Vista user posts a payment in Viewpoint Vista.
Customers
Description: Represents clients billed for services.
Triggering Event:
Created/updated in Vista and imported into BuildOps.
Created/updated in BuildOps and exported to Vista.
General Ledger (GL) Accounts
Description: Categorizes financial transactions.
Triggering Event: A Vista user creates/updates/deletes a GL account.
Jobs
Description: Tracks costs, time, and job progress.
Triggering Event:
A BuildOps user creates/updates a job.
A Vista user updates job contract items, phases, or cost types.
Job Phases & Cost Types
Description: Represents job divisions and expense categories.
Triggering Event: Created in Vista and imported into BuildOps.
Purchase Order Receipts & Bills
Description: Tracks received goods and vendor invoices.
Triggering Event: Purchase order receipts are created in BuildOps and exported to Vista. Vendor invoices are created in Vista and imported into BuildOps.
Sales Tax (AR & AP)
Description: Defines tax rates for invoices and vendor transactions.
Triggering Event: Created/updated in Vista and imported into BuildOps.
Service Agreement Maintenances
Description: Represents contractual work agreements with customers.
Triggering Event: Created in BuildOps and exported to Vista.
Vendors
Description: Represents suppliers of materials and services.
Triggering Event: Created/updated in Vista and imported into BuildOps.
Deep Dive: Vista Job Model
Linking Contracts and Jobs
Each Vista job is linked to a contract, and each job phase must be associated with a contract item. BuildOps automatically applies these associations during job creation.
Template Jobs
BuildOps users do not manually create contract items, job phases, or cost types. Instead, template jobs are used in Vista to standardize job setups, reducing manual entry and ensuring consistency.