ServiceDesk 4.4.47 Update 02/01/10

A while back (see entry accompanying Rel. 4.4.7) we added a spiffy new report in the (Ctrl-F9) FundsControl form.  Called the Reconcile Items Collected  Report, its purpose is to summarize all items of money as ostensibly received (typically on the prior day) -- for the purpose of comparing to monies as actually found in hand, to assure you actually got all the monies you were supposed to. 

With this release, we add a beautiful new companion report.  As its title (indicated in this section's heading) suggests, its purpose is to provide a summary of all items that were ostensibly deposited to the bank, within any period (typically, we expect, it will be used on a daily or weekly basis).  This can: (a) provide a simplified basis for you to enter the amount in your checking ledger; and (b) provide an added cross-check for comparison purposes. 

Here is a basic image of the report:

With addition of this report, we had to once again do some re-arranging of the option-selections as initially presented in the FundsControl form.  There are now, simply, too many options to place in the initial listing.  Instead, two of the initially-presented options will bring up sub-menu options.  The one as applicable to this report is logically titled "Deposit-related functions.

When you select that, you'll see the sub-options as follows:

Please note this is where to find the new report, and is also the place to now find the "Assemble Deposit" and "Confirm Deposit" functions, which used to be on the initial menu.   

It's very difficult to please everyone all the time.  It's also true, we've found, that while new users sometimes complain about ServiceDesk being too keyboard-centric (i.e., not enough dependency on the mouse), whenever we make an established function depend more on the mouse, established users quickly lodge a loud chorus in protest. 

This happened in regard to the enhanced Checkoff methods, as introduced in Ver. 4.4.45 (see third item in prior entry, as pertaining to that release).  In response, I've done the following:

(a)    With the list of Checkoff statuses displayed (standard means to invoke is by doing a Shift-Click on the item, within the tech's list of jobs, you want to check off), you can use your keyboard's Up and Down cursor keys to move the mousepointer from one item to the next.

(b)    With the mousepointer over any particular item in the Checkoff list, you can hit Enter on your keyboard to make the selection.

(c)    There's is also a new/alternate means to first display the Checkoff list.  With the mousepointer over a tech's list-item job reference (yes, this particular mousepointer positioning you must do with the mouse), hit Shift-Enter on your keyboard. 

Hopefully, these improvements will allow everyone (on both sides of the mouse-vs.-keyboard divide) to be happy.

I should mention (while simultaneously placing a pitch here for two of our major supplementary products), I somewhat resisted making the investment (it consumed a whole morning) programming this very minor tweak.  It's because, those of you who are still doing manual check-offs for routine dispatch-related events, in my opinion, should not be! 

Optimally, requests for confirmation and check-offs of confirmation should all be handled via automation as facilitated via SD-CyberOffice.  When you use that system as intended, these check-offs occur automatically, without any per-item effort required by office personnel. 

Similarly, confirmation of dispatching to the techs, check-offs of arrival and departure, and check-off of PVR status should, optimally, all occur via automation with the techs as facilitated by SD-Mobile.  In my humble opinion, you should not be consuming separate resources to manually handle these mundane (albeit important) tasks.  Automation is much smarter. 

To put it another way, this improvement involved polishing the edge on a tool which -- for the fully-advanced user -- has been largely superseded regardless.