ServiceDesk 4.8.21 Update 03/12/17

Since we introduced the SD-QuickPics feature a few years back, we have often been asked how to include these pics in emails.  The answer: it's easy.  So long as you have your Windows configuration setup to open the file type (.jpg) in a competent viewer (Windows Photo and File Viewer is typical), you can use mechanisms right within that viewer to email the pic.  Honestly, we did not feel enthused to build internal-to-ServiceDesk mechanisms when it's so easy to do it otherwise. 

However, in our class at ASTI last month, some attendees pointed out this emailing context does not auto-fill email addresses.  Nor does it provide an implicit method by which to include multiple pics within a single email. 

Okay, we were persuaded. 

Previously, the listing of pics as attached to a Job (or UIS or Visit) would look something like this:

Now it looks instead like this:

As you can see, it's different, and along the bottom contains specific instructions on how to select either a single or multiple items to direct-send via email. 

Your ServiceDesk SalesJournal is the official accounting record of your sales.  If entries have been entered wrongly there, it's fine to edit to correct them, so long as such entries have not yet been directly relied upon for external purposes (i.e., in compiling income statements, tax liability reports, etc.).  Once there has been such external reliance, it's important to leave such entries alone.  Instead of editing such an entry if it was in error, a new entry should instead be made that adjusts for whatever was wrong in the prior one. 

Last year (with release of Ver. 4.7.134) we added a feature to help you police yourself in such regard.  Basically, you can tell ServiceDesk to lock-against-editing all SalesJournal entries that precede a particular date (call it a "date-lock partition").  That new feature is accessed through this button in the SalesJournal-Read form (Shift-F3):

We did not it leave solely up to you to think to periodically update the location of that partition.  In particular, we simultaneously included programming to make it so, when you complete an export to QuickBooks, the system auto-prompts with a query asking if you'd like the date-lock partition to be moved, for you, to the ending-date of the period you just exported to QuickBooks. 

In our class at ASTI, folks requested more options for automation than this.  So, now there are several.  In particular, if now you click on the button as shown in the illustration above, you'll see this (with new option highlighted in yellow):

If you select that new option, you'll see this:

As you can see, there are many options you can pick from.  Pick the one you want, and ServiceDesk will behave accordingly. 

We've always had superb searching options, especially in regard to JobRecords (both current and archived).  We have index-based searching that is instantaneous as you type (in regard to customer names, addresses, telephone numbers and emails).  We likewise have search bases where the system looks directly within the JobRecords, looking for target matches on any of the above, plus things such as P.O. Numbers.  The archived-JobRecord context (Ctrl-F7) has additionally featured searches on street names and any targeted word or phrase within narrative histories. 

Okay, good foundation . . . what do we have now?

A few years back we added a comprehensive search into current-Callsheets (one had existed in archived-Callsheets long before that).  With your Windows focus in a Callsheet, just hit Ctrl-F (it's the universal in-Windows command to invoke a search; the "F" is for "Find").  Type a textual-search target and hit Enter.  The system will immediately search through all current Callsheets looking within all text of each (including Extra- and MoreInfo-Notes) for any instance of text that matches your target.  Upon finding any match, it will show it to you. 

One day we realized we really should have the same kind of ability in JobRecords.  So, now it is there. 

From within either a current or archived JobRecord, hit Ctrl-F on your keyboard.  Type in whatever text target you are interested in seeking (yes, universals are permitted; just look at the prompt), then hit Enter.  If the first shown match is not the one you are seeking, you will see via the prompt you may renew by looking for the next match, etc.

BTW, a big element of new accessibility via this search is narrative Job-Histories in current JobRecords.  Until now, there was no search provided for text in that specific context. 

As a slight aside, if you have your Windows focus in a narrative JobHistory and wish to select the entirety of the text (maybe to copy to your Clipboard for insertion elsewhere), another tiny addition is you can now do that using the standard Windows command for "Select-All."  The command is Ctrl-A. 

The DispatchMap has long had a feature that will insert timeframes for you into a technician's series of appointments, based on parameters you specify (e.g., length of timeframe, average time from one stop to the next, etc.).  Since it's much easier to reliably predict when the tech will arrive at his first stop, some companies like to give each first-stop customer the courtesy of a smaller timeframe (maybe just an hour or even 30 minutes).  The dialog that's involved in the Auto-TimeFrame-Estimator now has provision to accommodate this.