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Alarm Master V303 Improvements
Revolution
- Estimating
- Project Management
- Advanced Grids
- Stock Requirements
Evolution - Rewritten – no visible change to user but significant code changes.
- Invoice Creation
- Central Station Import
- Word/Excel Interfaces
Minimum Screen Size 1024 x 768
Integration with other Software
- Office 2003 or greater.
- Sage V11 or greater
Memos Double click on a memo field adds date, time, username and a blank line
Colours Screen colours can be set using the style drop down
Post Codes For certain countries that do not use Post Codes, these can be hidden by setting the USE_POSTCODE value on either Branch or Install Tables.
If you do not use post codes then the correspondence files are stored against the Quotation Reference or Contract Number and are not interchangeable once a quote has been copied from a contract. Nor can the same correspondence folder be shared by multiple contracts.
Maps Many address screens now have a Map button which will launch an internet browser and, using Google Maps, show a map of the selected location. PC Data Services can accept no responsibility for the results shown in the browser window as even Google can get it wrong.
Correspondence Folders New Sub folders can be created using the CORRSTRUCTURE.ADT Table System line 179 and 180 can be used to direct Invoices and PDA jobsheets to be stored in these sub folders, rather than in the root folder.
New Grids
- Contracts Open with filter STATUS <> DEAD or DORMANT
- Jobsheets Open with JOBNO < 0
- Quotes open with STATUS <> DEAD or LOST
- Click on left of Grid to select fields for Grid – more fields = slower grid
- Search and Locate options always visible
- Click on columns to sort by that value i.e. Status below
- Drag a field to Group by that column i.e. contract type
Filter on Column
Previous filter history is saved
Contracts
Monthly Charges - Group To
Previously when the monthly invoice schedule was established all that was displayed in the Contract was the sum of all the individual charges. The monthly charges screen now has a Group To field which can have values between 1 and 4. All charges with a Group To value of 1 will be displayed in the main Contracts screen under the Maintenance Charge, Group To = 2 will be grouped to Monitoring etc.
Edit Contract
Now PO Required Call Out and Maintenance
Status of DEAD or DORMANT
This will then offer to set the following values
- No of Services to zero
- Contract Type to NONE
- Invoice to XXX
- Remote to N
- URN’s to Inactive
Quotes
If System Ref Data Line 175 is set to Y then in the Quote grid the user will be able to only see quotes for which he has been nominated as the Salesman
Stock
New Fields:-
- Supplier Reference is now the Short Code
- Sales Nominal Code for Accounts
- Purchase Nominal Code for Accounts
- Sage Department
- Stock Type i.e. Stock, Assembly, Sub Assembly, Consignment
- Units of Stock i.e. each, Box 10, per m
- Condition i.e. New, Refurbished, Used, Demo
- Weight
- Item has Commission Hours in addition to Install Hours
Auto Order
When raising a Purchase Order for a job, orders will only be automatically created for stock where the Auto Order is Y. Cable and other sundries would typically be Auto Order = N
Redundant Stock
If an item is Redundant it will not be shown on the selection screens by default
To make a stock item Redundant, first select the check box Show Redundant Stock.
Then select the Stock Edit Option
You will then be able to select the flag Redundant Stock and set this to Y and you will be able to enter narrative details of what this item has replaced by
Alternative Suppliers
Can be used in the creation of Purchase Orders.
Assemblies
If a stock item is marked as an Assembly you can define the parts that make up this assembly in the Parts List
Prices
Can now be in £ € $’s etc. if currencies are defined in the Rate Tables.
Defective Stock
Having issued stock to a job, if you receive stock back as defective then it should be recorded.
You can raise Goods Return Notes to ship the goods back to the supplier, however the 10 held as DefWarranty will remain showing as stock you own.
Ultimately, if the supplier returned 5 as repaired and scrapped 5, this would be recorded as two transactions
- A stock transfer from DefWarranty to put 5 back into the main store
- A stock adjustment of 5 to record 5 as being scrapped/credited
Issuing and Invoicing of Stock
When completing a job the Stock Transaction Screen now has two Tabs
Stock Transactions on Job
This allows materials to be listed on an invoice without showing all the different stock transactions which made up the final bill of materials.
The values to invoice are taken from those items as marked Include On Invoice = Y.
Stock Locations
Stock will now be identified
F – Free Stock available in store (location will be blank for main store unless using the Branch Tables in which case there will be a location per Branch.
A – Allocated Stock – this is material allocated to a job but still in the store
V – Van Stock – this is material which has been issued to a van
D – Defective stock
Jobsheet Materials Allocation
When booking a job the Materials button now takes the user to a Stock Requirements Screen. Each item can be given a number of conditions such as
- Chargeable
- Warranty Replacement (Track Return)
Where an item is marked as Track Return the program can be used to monitor if the loan item or defective part has been returned to stock.
Stock Requirements
Where you can batch up requirements and place one Purchase Order for multiple jobs
Supplier Invoices
If no purchase Order has been raised but an invoice or expense has been received which is chargeable to a job
New Estimating Spread sheet
Do not edit the new sheet directly in excel.
- Pink Input Fields
- Blue Calculated
Multiple spread sheets can be created and saved into the correspondence folders. NOTE please do not edit these outside the Alarm Master environment.
The Gross Margin can be manipulated to achieve the desired estimate.
Save estimates into correspondence folders
Double click onto Code Fields to bring up Product Selection Screen
Product Selection Screen
Products are grouped by the Product Group Code or there is text search. Set the Qty and Rate to be carried forward to the estimating sheet. Double click on an item or select OK button.
Edit Quote and select Load Excel Estimate. Select desired Estimate to import
Items from Estimate will now be loaded into Specification. Note on this build if the qty on the Spreadsheet estimate is 5, 5 separate items will be included in Specification if the Split Qty In Spec is set to Y in the spreadsheet. This can be defaulted using system table line 324234424
The descriptions of Recurring and non recurring charges can be set into the excel estimate as can be the charges to be applied.
Issue Items to a Job
Items to be included on the invoice can be marked Y or N as appropriate
Project Management
Two methods have been included for Project Management
- One Job -> One Budget -> One Total Spend on Job -> One Job Costing.
- No progress reporting
- One Project -> Many jobs each with their own budget
- Weekly progress reporting – if required
In both of the above:-
Labour Costs are collected through timesheet entry
Committed Costs are collected through Purchase Orders Raised/Goods Received
Material Costs are collected through Issues to the Job or recording Supplier Invoices
Projects
A Project is a way of grouping together jobs for the purposes of additional analysis. Typically these could be
- Installation of new Alarm/CCTV systems in a new building
- Installation of the same system in a number of houses
- All maintenance work for a customer
Projects can be invoiced either by using an Invoice Schedule or by Summary Invoicing as with Accounts, or by individual Jobsheet as at present.
Defining a Project
The screen below can be used to define a Project and also an Invoice Schedule
If you enter the
- Project Invoice Value
- No of Invoices to raise
- Date of 1st Invoice Due
- Retention %
- Retention Period (months)
Using the Create Invoice Schedule this creates a linear invoice profile which can then be manually edited, if required.
Sub projects
Projects can have sub projects for detail monitoring
Variation Orders
Against each project a list of variation Orders can be recorded including reference to the agreed changes and which job these were completed on and when these were invoiced
Project Performance
A project may last over a number of months and be recorded on a number of Jobsheets. A procedure has been built to simplify input of regular progress reporting and monitor the Performance of Projects that are currently in work.
This procedure should be run on a regular basis as the duties of a Project Manager. Budgets have been assigned to a Friday of every week. If no progress is entered for a number of weeks the Alarm Master will simply carry forward the previous week’s figures.
From the Project Screen select Update Job progress.
- Enter the Update Progress to date
- Fetch the jobs to update
- Select the jobs in turn and (b) enter the latest % Complete, the latest estimate of how much the job is really going to cost and its estimated finish date.
- Select Calculate Performance.
Repeat 3 and 4 until all Jobs have been processed or alternatively Repeat 3 until all progress has been entered and then Calculate Performance.
The missing orders have now been placed and although we are a little over budget this was because all the sub contract orders were placed at once.
Individual Job Costing
Jobsheet Budgets
The overall project Budget can be broken down and allocated to individual jobs for materials and labour (both as £).
Final Job Costing
Once all the:-
- Timesheets
- Purchase Invoices
- Materials Issues
- Job Invoiced
Have been entered you can then return to the Jobsheet and using the Calculate Job Costing determine the overall cost variance (Green Underspend to Budget, Red Overspend to Budget) and design Gross Margin (taken from quotation) and achieved Gross Margins.
Project Invoicing
Every month, or whatever time desired a Project Manager can go to Project Invoicing and select an Invoice to date. This will then present all Projects which are due for invoicing; the value to invoice and the actual spend to date on this project.
The Project Manager can then change the value to be invoiced or elect to suspend this invoice if required.
The total spend to date on a Project is calculated from
- Labour – Timesheet hours (entered via Jobsheets) x Labour rates
- Materials issued to job
- Value of Purchase Orders Placed
Purchase Orders
This screen shows only those suppliers for which Purchase Orders have been raised and have not been marked as complete when processing the Purchase Invoices.
If you also wish to see completed Orders, select the check box.
If you only wish to view orders awaiting authorisation, select the check box.
When you expand a supplier you can see all the orders for that supplier and by expanding the order, see the items on the order and the order history
New Purchase Order
If you select to create a new Purchase Order then the first screen presented will be a supplier selection screen
If you create a Purchase Order for One supplier but then wish to re assign it to another supplier you can use the ? button to select an alternative supplier.
When you add an item a new screen is displayed. Each Order Item can now be for a separate job. If the main required for job is completed, it will be copied down to the individual order items but these can be changed if required.
Purchase Order Authorisation – email request
Individuals who can authorise a Purchase Order are displayed in the drop down list. A PO can be authorised by selecting the Padlock symbol if you are on the list of possible authorisers.
If you can not authorise a PO you can email a request to a selected individual. To the right is a free text box into which can be placed any supporting information.
Strict PO Authorisation
If it is company policy that an individual is not allowed to authorise his own PO’s then System line 178 can be set to Y and this will prevent self authorisation
Printing Invoices
Major change in background processing
Reporting
Where allowed the Print Preview email button now uses Outlook as its method of sending emails
Alarms in Planner
- Set reminder to who and when
Labels
Make sure each colour is unique otherwise the label defaults to the first colour i.e. selecting WIP.
Sage Multi Company
- Currency tables i.e. Purchase in €, sell in £
Fire Alarm Activations
False Alarm with good intent etc.
Fire Alarm Certification
NSI Certificates for BAFE now exported to table
- IF, NSI Silver in respect of Modules
- QF, NSI Gold in respect of Modules
- NI, NSI/BAFE Silver in respect of System Installation
- NQ, NSI/BAFE Gold in respect of System Installation
Central Station Import
The import routine has been rewritten to try and prevent Key Violations which sometimes occur when the Central Station Export file is not in the correct order.
Because a number of customers were simply treating the import as a clerical exercise rather than looking at the information presented, activations will only now be marked as Genuine if the Police or Fire Brigade have been called by the Central Station.
An Action Code has been added. This will default to S99 and users should update the Action Table with the default description for import actions.
Complaints Register
This is reached via the right-hand button on the Contract Database form, to enable you to record complaints and action taken.
Enhanced Report Selection Criteria
Previously if you wished to construct a report for which you selected the records for example for one Engineer then previously you had to type in the engineers name in exactly the same way as it appears in Access Rights. It is now possible to link in different tables and use these as part of the report selection process thereby eliminating the potential for error.
Data Pipelines
Create the data pipelines with the appropriate selection as usual, then create another data pipeline which contains the data you wish to use as part of the selection process. In the case below we have selected the snames table, field name and the selection criteria is ENG = ‘Y’ so that snames only shows Engineers
Design Report
Design the Report as previously using the jobsheet data. Now select the Parameter Editor from the Generation Properties editor on the left, this will open the Parameter Editor.
Using the Parameter Editor, add button, add a new Parameter
In the LookUpSettings set the data Pipeline to SNAMES and the NameField to be NAME and the ValueField also to NAME.
Replace the UserName Parameter1 with a meaningful name for this context, i.e. EngineerName.
In the AutoSearchSettings set the DataPipeline to be JOBSHEET and the FieldAlias to be ENGINEER
Return to the Data Tab and the Jobsheet Pipeline and in Query Designer, the Search option
Against the search option JOBSHEET.ENGINEER, select the Parameter Option and link this to the Engineer Name Parameter which we have just created.
When the Report is run the Search Option for Engineer should now appear as below and display a list of Engineers from which to pick.
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135a Belgrave Drive, Boothferry Road, Hull, HU4 6DP
Enquiries/Support Phone: 01482 607350 - Fax: 01482 326393
Email: sales@pcdata.co.uk
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