MainBoss Newswire
May 2006
Topics:
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1. MainBoss Tip: Great-to-know
Shortcuts!
There are many shortcuts in MainBoss that will make your work with the program easier and less time consuming. These shortcuts cover everything from entering data to printing your work orders and reports!
· Date fields – did you know that you don’t have to enter a date in the proper format in order for MainBoss to recognize it? This means that you don’t have to worry about entering slashes, commas or, in some cases, even the actual numbers! All you need to remember is what date format MainBoss is set to. For example, let’s assume that the date format under the MainBoss Administration menu is set to MM/DD/YYYY. June 01, 2006 would then be 06/01/2006. As long as you remember in what order the day, month and year values are entered, you don’t have to worry about entering any slashes or commas, etc. So, rather than typing in 06/01/2006, just type in 06012006 or even 060106 and MainBoss will automatically apply the correct format as soon as you click to the next field in the window! MainBoss will even accept words as dates! Rather than typing in today’s date, which might be June 05, 2006, simply type in the word ‘today’ and MainBoss will know what you are talking about. This works for all kinds of dates, such as yesterday, next week, next year, last month, tomorrow, today…give it a try and see!
· Setting Report Defaults – if you run the same report on a regular basis, then you can make your life a lot easier if you set up the required report criteria as defaults, rather then making these adjustments every time you need to create a report. For example, go to Work Orders -> Reports -> History. This report has many options for setting different criteria. If you use this report every month, for example, then there are probably some defaults you can set to make creating this report faster and easier. Here is what you do:
o Make sure you’re logged in with Administrator status
o Go to the desired report, such as the History report
o Set up the report as needed by clicking various check boxes. Note: Defaults can be set for any checkbox or toggle buttons, but not for pull-down fields or fields where you have to manually type something in (such as date fields).
o After you have set your report criteria (for example, you clicked on closed work orders, but not open; corrective work orders, but not preventive; you sorted by Equipment; you want to see Actual Costs only; you want to Display Cost Criteria and include Work Order Details), then you simply right-click on the title bar of the report window and select ‘Save Settings’.
o The next time you open this report, you will notice that all your default criteria is now displayed!
· Preferences – the MainBoss Administration menu allows you to set various preferences to speed up your work in the program. For example, if most of your work orders are created for one particular building, then you can set that as the default in the work order window. Or if a certain requestor makes most of the work requests, you can set him or her as the default. The Preferences menu also allows you to set your company information, including a logo, and allows you to determine your date/time formats. Simply login as Administrator and go to Administration -> Preferences. Click on Work Orders, for example, and make a few default entries, such as building, cost center and access code. Save your changes. The next time you create a work order, these default entries will already be displayed without you having to manually enter them. And of course, defaults can always be overwritten!
· Shortcut keys – along the top of the main screen, you will notice all the MainBoss menus as well as a number of shortcut buttons. By holding your mouse over each button, MainBoss will display what that particular button does. Using these shortcuts is a fast and easy way to bring up certain windows, such as generating work orders, creating a new work request or to run the Overdue Work Orders Report.
· Pull-down Fields – Whether creating a work order, setting up a new equipment record, or creating a report, pretty much all MainBoss windows contain some type of pull-down field. Whenever you see a pull-down field (which is denoted by the little down-arrow beside it), you know that the information for that field comes from one of your MainBoss tables. In the case for equipment and spaces, the pull-down list can get very long and it can take time to scroll down to the correct record. So rather than clicking down this list to find your record, simply start typing in what you’re looking for and MainBoss will jump down to the correct record! It works like this:
o Assume you are creating a new work order and need to select the right equipment, which is a HVAC unit.
o Select the ‘equipment’ toggle button and click on the Units field
o Rather than scrolling down the pull-down list, just start typing in HVA…
o You will notice that MainBoss will jump down the list as you type, displaying the record you are looking for.
o Even if you don’t know the exact record code but know that it starts with H, for example, then scrolling down through the records starting with H is a lost faster than scrolling down the entire equipment list! If you accidentally click on the wrong key and are further down the list than you would like to be, then simply click anywhere in that list to reset the search, and start typing again.
We hope that you have found these shortcuts helpful and that they will make your work with MainBoss even easier!
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2.
Upcoming Tradeshows
Thinkage
will be attending the following tradeshow to demonstrate MainBoss:
·
CHES 2006 at the World Trade & Convention
Centre in Halifax, NS from September 17-19, 2006.