ServiceDesk 4.6.24 Update 07/22/12

The request for this came from Ken at Shaughnessy Appliance (in Alberta, Canada), and in retrospect I realize it's a feature that should have been there long ago.  Quite simply, when you go to submit a claim from ServiceDesk's Alt-F4 FinishedForms context, the system will automatically do a behind-the-scenes check, to see if any other relevant claims were prior submitted within 90 days preceding.  Any such prior claim could potentially be on the same job, or on a different job but involving the same underlying unit.  Depending on which is the case, if applicable, you'll get a message such as this:

Or this:

All you need for this new benefit is to do the update. 

Improved Formatting for Lowes Claims:

From time-to-time we learn on the basis of feedback that particular elements of claim-formatting must be done in uniquely different ways, for particular underlying claimed-upon payers.  As we make these discoveries, we adjust our claim-formatting mechanisms to appropriately adapt.  Recently we learned of a whole slew of departure-from-the-normal-rule elements that needed to be applied when claims are submitted to ServiceBench, and with Lowes as the claimed-upon party.  Absent these unique applications, it turns out, claims as uploaded under Lowes accounts have required online fixing of particular element before they are accepted.  Such online fixing is not something we want you to have to do. 

This release incorporates all the unique-to-Lowes modifications, which we have just learned are in fact necessary.  If you have prior found that all of your Lowes claims required after-the-upload-online-fixing, you should now be pleasantly surprised to find this is no longer the case. 

Enhanced/Built-in Re-sorting of Certain DataFiles, Plus Reporting-Checks:

One of the most immutable rules of programming is borrowed from larger life: it's that infamous "Law of Unintended Consequences." 

Bowing to demand, we have in the last couple of years made it increasingly easy (in the latest addition of ability, see notes below accompanying Rel. 4.5.60, it's virtually automatic), to make entries to the SalesJournal on the basis of putative entry dates that are other than the true current date.  It turns out that out-of-date-sequence entries can cause issues for certain reports and processes that expect to sort through a file rapidly to find entries fitting a range of dates. 

Based on such issues, a significant while back we added mechanisms that automatically re-sort the SalesJournal with each nightly housekeeping event.  But it turns out other files are affected too, including (most particularly) the FundsJournal.  We have also found that sometimes folks simply backdate a computer, and by such means manage to input entries that mess up the normally-expected sequence of dates. 

To address such issues, this release adds further built-in, automated nightly sorting for the FundsJournal and InventoryMovementsJournal. 

Additionally, since there are number reports within the F11 Reports form that rely on the SalesJournal being appropriately sorted, this release also adds a behind-the-scenes checking mechanism, designed to assure it's not out-of-sequence whenever you go to run a report there. 

This picture likely says it all:

Sometimes folks use the FinishedForms to make a nice printed invoice for property managers, and similar.  We learned sometimes when the bill is big and the paying company sees the tech was only there for a short while, it causes problems.  This option gives you the opportunity to refrain from showing the time or times your tech was on premises at the job.