ServiceDesk 4.8.103 Update 06/18/19

Do you ever need to concentrate, when reviewing jobs, on those whose connected appointments are coming up soon -- like maybe tomorrow -- as opposed to reviewing all jobs with pending appointments?

As a particular example, if you are having an employee use the JobsPerusal form as a platform from which to conduct triage (as opposed to, say, using our online triage site), it would make sense for him to use the combination of filters there titled "Scheduled, Awaiting Dispatch" and "non-triaged."  Thus, your employee can easily peruse through the whole set of jobs with an upcoming an appointment, which have not yet been triaged. But suppose you're swamped and there's a large backlog of items needing triage. There are more than your employee can get to today, so it makes best sense for him to peruse only through the items that have appointments that are most closely pending in time.

Right? 

You can do that now.

When picking either the "Scheduled, Awaiting Dispatch" or "Waiting for NonStocked Parts" main filters, you'll now see this added sub-filter option:

Simply use the up/down buttons to indicate a quantity of days out, and the system will automatically filter to just the jobs with pending appointments that will arise within that quantity of days.

Numerous Tweaks for Scanner Use

These improvements all relate to the relatively new facility whereby you may use a scanner to indicate each item that is being moved to or from a tech (for details on that new feature, see this entry):

• If you scan a part number and it's not in the selected list of to-be-moved items, a distinguishing tone will sound. You will thus have auditory feedback to inform you of the non-match.

• If there are multiple-matching items in the selected list, the dialog which asks you to distinguish from among the multiples will respond accurately to your selection.

• If a particular item that is a match indicates a quantity greater than 1, a dialog will clarify whether you are moving the entire such quantity as is indicated, and will accurately respond accordingly.

• The displayed focus reliably returns to the selected list after either of these dialogs complete.

Always-Visible HoldLoc References

It's long been a feature in this interface that you could float your mouse-pointer over a center- or third-column line item (the boxes that indicate items to go out with a tech) and a note will show in red text just above to indicate the HoldLoc and any notes attached to the PartsProcess item. The problem is, you had to float your mouse-pointer to see this. Now, if you click in the toggle box to set either of these two sections for scanning mode (and whether you otherwise use the scanning mode or not), a HoldLoc showing will appear just to the left of each applicable line-item.

"OnSite" Items Auto-Toggle to Green

This is so you won't be prompted to transfer such items to the tech, but will nevertheless see in the listing that they are needed for the tech's jobs for the day.

This is another one of those items where it seems really surprising that no one prior requested it, and/or that we at Rossware did not on our own realize the need for it.

It stems from this. Quite a few service companies have parts direct-shipped to the customer. Sometimes a manufacturer decides on its own accord to direct-ship to the customer. Whatever the case, you need a method in ServiceDesk to reckon and see that that's where the part is (i.e., already at the customer's location). So, there is a new item in the F8 form's HoldLoc dropdown:

Logically, when you switch a PartsProcess item to this category, ServiceDesk will refrain, within the PartsPick form, from telling you the item needs to be provided to a tech who is scheduled to go out and install the part (it will instead auto-toggle the item to green, just as it does items that are already in the tech's possession). And, in the archive-PartsProcess form's Manage-to-the-Grave functionality, there is now filtering for this category. Coming up, we will modify SD-Mobile to be explicit in telling the tech to expect such a part to be found on-site at the customer's location.

Collated Tally of Appointment Quantities by Each Day-of-Week, by Each Month-of-Year and by Calendar Day

To get to this export, go into your DispatchMap (F5), and PageUp to view any past day. Hit Alt-P on your keyboard (the general command for "Print Options"). You'll then see this set of options:

Pick the new one that you see circled above. In result, the system will create an export that looks something like this:

Based on the first two sections, you can easily make cool graphs that will allow you to see instantly on which days of the week and in which months of the year you have historically been most busy, versus least busy:

Making those graphs is a piece of cake, from within Excel or similar. Just select the particular section of data you want to make a graph for, then select the "Insert" menu, and there pick the style of graph you want. It will insert instantly for you.

Applications Journal and Journal of Pre- and Part-Pays

Just pick this button in the Alt-F9 form, and you'll see the new options:

Current-Callsheets Data

This was needed by Janice Salmon at Just Press One for automating some of their processes. To invoke the export, simply hit Ctrl-P (for "Print" Options) from within any Callsheet. In response, you'll see this:

Pick the new option that you see circled above, and the export will create for you.

You're not in the office, but would like to know when so-and-so has arrived or departed.

Not a problem. Just go to the "System Sentry" management interface (look under "File Functions" in the Main Menu). There you'll see there is a new checkbox:

If you check it, the system will send you a message of these employee time-card events on the same basis that you have set to receive other System-Sentry messages.