ServiceDesk 4.8.31 Update 09/08/17

We thank Jeff Miceli from Appliance Tec for pointing out a very major faux pas. 

We built the PartsPick form (Shift/Ctrl-F8) to provide a super-efficient venue in which to see (and check-off appropriate movement) of each item that needs to be provided to a tech for his day's roster of jobs, and each item that needs to be retrieved back, because previously provided and not used (whether it was a special-order or spec-tagged item). 

It's really a super system.  However, there is something it was not doing that positively it should have been doing. 

Besides showing items needing retrieval that are in the special-order or spec-tagged category, this venue obviously should have also been showing expected core-return items.  Honestly, until Jeff pointed it out, we did not realize we'd omitted such an obvious element of functionality. 

However, it's there now. 

So long as, on any special-order item, you have appropriately created the expected core-return daughter band (which positively should be created when you know the primary item has a core-return fee), when the tech has indicated use of the primary item, the PartsPick form will list an expectation for return of the core.  As with other expected return items, you should only check-off the item when and if you get that core back. 

(As a side note, the next item on our agenda in regard to core management will be to extend it to inventory items; presently, express core-return management applies only to special-order parts.)

We've had an Export-to-QuickBooks feature for many years.  In nutshell, you run a SalesSummary report from the Reports form in ServiceDesk (F11), then click on a button to initiate the export.  The sequence creates a .iif format file (stands for Inuit Interchange Format), which, when you then import into QuickBooks, creates a series of journal entries, in QuickBooks, that summarize such accounting processes as ServiceDesk took responsibility for. 

One aspect of this has been slightly less than favorable.  It is that the particular accounting entries -- that you are about to import into QuickBooks -- are something of a black box, until after you do the import and see what resulted, by looking within QuickBooks itself.  Technically, you could look in the .iff file to see, but the formatting of data within that file does not lend itself to easy decipherment. 

So, the system now simultaneously (while creating the .iif file) also creates a .csv file.  When opened in Excel, this .csv file makes it very easy to see what are the particular entries (as debits and credits) that will result in QuickBooks when the corresponding .iif file is imported:

If you are at all familiar with accounting, you know the first numeric column shows debits and the second shows credits (you also know the expressions do not simply mean money-in or money-out, as they do in your checking account ledger). 

In addition to this improvement, we also added a system to alert you if the numbers as tallied indicate a reason to suspect a problem with such data as was entered to the system. 

The need for this feature arose in conjunction with a client who does much work for Samsung.  Turns out Samsung requires this client to claim, on each part used, via the same invoice number on the actual replacement part was purchased.  Samsung enforces this requirement by demanding that the old part be returned in the same bag or box that contained the replacement part.  That bag or box has a label on it (placed there when Samsung shipped the part) that indicates the invoice on which it was purchased.  If the claimed-upon purchase invoice number does not match the number on the bag or box in which the old part comes back, there is a rejection of the claim. 

Given this, we had to make a system whereby, as a tech uses each/any part from inventory, he can look at the purchase invoice number that's on its label, and tell the system that's the one he is using (this way, the system can then assure that's the one that's pulled from inventory, and that the same invoice number that automatically goes into the claim). 

If you have need for this same alteration in functionality, you can toggle to make this the mode by bringing up the contextual "Cheat-Sheet" from within ServiceDesk's Inventory Control form (F10 is the shortcut for the form, obtain the Cheat-Sheet by right-clicking on any otherwise non-functional space within the form).  You'll see the following (circled item), as a new Cheat-Sheet option:

By clicking on it, you may toggle between having this new option turned off (the default) or turned on.  If turned on, of course, the strategy will override the default strategy, which is to pull the cheapest instance of an item if it was used on a COD job, or the most expensive if it was used on a warranty job. 

If the feature is in fact turned on, your technicians in SD-Mobile will see a dialog something like this, when they are submitting any PVR on which they have indicated use of parts from inventory:

Thus, for each item used, they'll simply indicate (from the provided list) which of the applicable purchase invoice numbers (from within your stock overall) was the one involved as based on the label they see on its bag or box. 

BTW, for operability this feature also requires an update to SD-MobileLink Ver. 2.0.93 or above, and to SD-MobileLink Ver. 2.0.68 or above. 

Also (this is very important), please note the functionality that uses this has not yet been added into the iPad version of SD-Mobile (aka SDM-i).  Please do not at this time turn on the feature if you have techs using that platform.  Those techs will have no provision to indicate the invoice number on which each item they used was purchased, and, in that absence, your option to turn on the feature will really throw a wrench into workings of the system.