Work Orders Parts and Labor update

We released a new version 4.4.04b of TATEMS on June 19th 2013.

We have released several new versions over the past couple of months starting with version 4.4.03 released on May 3rd 2013.

In the 2 minute video below I show you how we have updated the Parts and Labor screens so that you will see what data you missed if you did not fill everything in.

Just In case you can't see the video here is a description:

While you have the Work Orders screen open you click on the Labor Completed Tab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then click the dropdown to choose an employee without entering a number of units (hours) or a description

Adding Work Order Labor without adding hours and description

 

Then click on either the Add Labor to Work Order button or the Save and Close button and you will see a message telling you what data is missing,

If you click OK you will be able to go back and correct the entry, if you click cancel after clicking on the Add Labor you will be taken back to the Labor for Current Work Order Screen with and the data you previously entered will still be there.  If you click cancel after clicking Add Labor To Work Order you will be brought back to the Labor for Current Work Order Screen but all your data will be removed and you can start over.

If you click OK after you click the Save & Close button then you will likewise be brought back to the Labor for Current Work Order screen to correct your mistake. But if you click the Cancel button after clicking Save & Close the data will not be saved and the Labor For Current Work Order screen will simply close.

I hope this feature is helpful for you.

All The Best!

Marc Ready

PS. If you are blocked from YouTube you can view the video below

Fuel Log Report Criteria Update

This video showing you the new Fuel Log Report Criteria is the first in a series of videos I'll be creating to show you the updates in TATEMS version 4.4.03b

Actually if you have version 4.4.03 then you have 23 of the 25 updates in the list at:

http://tatems.com/updates/updatelist.cfm

In short a video below I show you update number 25 from that list:

“Added Customer, Location and Dept/Area criteria most fuel log reports”

This update number will change and get pushed down in the future as new versions are released.

So in case you have trouble seeing the video, when you go to Reports->More Reports->Report Type:Fuel Log  you now have 3 new criteria you can use to narrow down the equipment you are viewing in most of the fuel log reports.  The 3 new criteria are Customer, Dept/Area and Location.  Location is not included in the last report on the list. If this is a must have then please feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks Again

Marc Ready

 

New Feature request- Automatic Entry of Lower Interval Lube/Services (PM’s)

 On a personal note

I hope your week is going well and if you’re in a cold part of the country or world that you’re keeping warm.  Sorry I was too sick last week to create a blog post but I’m finally starting to feel a little better so here goes…

New Feature Request (NOT RELEASED YET AT Time of this post!)

We have had numerous requests come in for TATEMS to automatically show lower interval Lube/Services aka PM’s as being completed when you enter a higher interval Lube/Service.

So here is what we came up with.

Let’s say you have a truck with Lube/Service type called 5000 Mile Oil Change with an interval  of every  5000 miles. You also have a Lube/Service 25000 miles Major with 25000 mile interval.

Currently when you enter the 25000 Mile Major you would also have to manually enter the 5000 Mile Oil Change.

Automatically Insert Lower Interval Lube/Services

With the next version upgrade release of TATEMS we have added something new.  It’s a new window that will pop-up in the scenario above and display any lower interval Lube/Services for that equipment and allow you choose any or all of them to be automatically entered.

It will also add some text in the lower interval entry  in the Notes/Other field that says “Completed during 25000 Mile Major Lube/Service”

This takes those lower interval Lube/services off the reminders popup for you and shows them as completed in the Lube/Service tab.

Just in case you don’t want to see the pop up window asking you if you want to add those lower interval Lube/Services, we had added two check boxes to the Misc User Preferences screen under the tools menu. The first check box says: “Stop Asking to Add Lover Interval Lube Services” and  the one below it says: “Always Add Lower Interval Lube Services”.

Does that make sense?

Once I have the new version ready, hopefully in the next few days, I’ll make a video of the feature in action along with some of the other things we’ve added or improved.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks Again and Take Care

Marc

How to use the Cost Per Mile – Cost Per Hour report with video

Question

Did you ever wonder how much your vehicle costs per mile/km or hour to run?

Calculating Cost Per Mile/Km And Cost Per Hour

Well we added the Cost Per Mile Report in the version 4.4.02 release, and I wanted to show you what it is and how to use it so I made this quick 5 Min video for you.

Enjoy!

Step By Step

Here are some quick written instructions and screen shots showing you the steps.

Click on Report->All Equipment Reports->Cost /Mile / Hour

And you will see this screen:

Then you can choose the date range up at the top.  Then you can pick and choose any or all of your equipment.   You can also choose the view and pint certain groups of equipment like Equipment TypeTruck/Tractor for example.

The next step is to click the checkboxes for what you want to include in your report.  In the video above I chose Fuel Log, Work Orders, Depreciation Amount, Insurance, and License Fees.   I left out Repairs Completed and Parts For This Equipment because you would not normally be tracking costs under those tabs when you are using Work Order.

Then click the Preview Report button and you will see a report that looks like this:

The Beginning odometer and ending odometer readings are the closest reading to the dates you selected and the report shows you those readings and the dates they were captured.

The cost data encompasses the entire date range selected.

You can see that you get cost per mile, Cost per hour (if using hour meter readings), and WO Labor, WO Parts and Work Order overall costs.  You also see in this report the total Fuel Costs for that date range and your total over costs to operate that vehicle for that date range.

I hope you like this report and that it helps you with your fleet management.

Thanks Again

Marc

P.S.  Please comment on share this post!

P.P.S. I see the report says Cost Per Mike 🙂  It's already fixed on the next version that is in the testing phase.

New Version 4.4.02 Now has ability to attach external documents

We have released a new version of TATEMS Fleet Maintenance Software. Now you can attach external documents like pictures, scanned invoices, purchase orders or any document to a Work Order.  You can also add attachments to a piece of Equipment without it being linked to a Work Order.

Here are a couple of screen shots:

 

We have also added a new Cost Per Mile/Km Report under:

Reports->More Reports->All Equipment Reports->Cost/Mile/Hour

Plus a new report that will print out all the data on a piece of equipment over a date range.  It can be found under:

Reports->Current Equipment Reports->Unit Information Report With All Equipment Data.

I'll try get some videos posted in the next few days to show you the new features.

You can see a list of the new features and improvements here:

http://tatems.com/updates/updatelist.cfm

And you can get the update here if you are eligible.

http://tatems.com/updates.cfm

Please let us know if you have any questions or need any help.

Thanks Again

Marc

Outrageous! Mini Cooper Tale

Daughter Gets A New Car

Last week my youngest daughter bought her first car.

She bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla with about 35K miles on it from CarMax.  She also got the extended warranty 100,000 miles on the odometer Or 75 months from purchase at Carmax for about $1000 (for the extended warranty).

My wife Karen and I discovered Carmax when we first moved to Las Vegas In 2003 and have probably purchased about 6 cars from there since.

We don't even bother going to other dealers, we went to a few here before finding Carmax and it was not a good experience.

The Mini Cooper Tale

We just heard a car purchase horror story from the lady who owns the UPS store.

She purchased a used Mini Cooper from the local BMW dealer a few months ago.  She paid about $15000 for the car and they offered her an extended warranty for $4500! Which she turned down.

Outrageous price for the warranty I thought and also a red flag.

Like, is there something about this make/model/year of car that causes it to breakdown and be expensive to repair?

It had 50K miles on it and she had some issues with it having  an oil leak.

She thought they had fixed it but when she drove up to Utah the Engine blew.

In Utah she got an estimate for the engine repair for $7500!

She wasn't happy and she has been calling the local BMW dealership  to see what they can or will do and now all they do is hang up on her.

Nice.

So if you are going to buy a used car save yourself from grief and If you have a Carmax near you go there, it is a much different  “no pressure” buying experience and make sure you get an extended warranty, even if it's still under factory warranty.

In my experience they have more that paid for themselves.   Like the time the transmission on my GMC Sierra had the be replaced.  It only cost me the $50 deductible.

We just heard a car purchase horror story from the lady who owns the UPS store.

She purchased a used Mini Cooper from the local BMW dealer a few months ago.  She paid about $15000 for the car and they offered her an extended warranty for $4500! Which she turned down.

Do you have any used car tales? Leave your comments below and have a great week!

Thanks Again,

Marc

 

How To create TATEMS Spreadsheets from Scratch

In this post, I am going to go over how to create a custom spreadsheet that links to your TATEMS data.

I have created and posted a number of these custom spreadsheets that you can download for free at

http://tatems.com/fleetmaintenancesoftware/spreadsheets.cfm

Hopefully not too technical

This might be a little technical for some, but if you take the time to learn it, I think you'll like the results.

Here is a video that shows you this process using Excel 2003:

The written instructions

Below explains how to do it using Excel 2010

In Excel click on Data->From Access

 

Then you will want to navigate to the:

TATEMS2005be.mdb

file in

C:\Program Files\TATEMS 2005

Or it will be in the :

C:\Program Files (x86)\TATEMS 2005

folder.

Then choose tblEquipment and click Ok

Then on the Import Data popup choose properties

The Query

Then click on the Definition Tab and paste this SQL statement into the “Command Text” box”

 

SELECT tblEquipment.*,tlkpEquipmentType.sEquipmentType FROM tblEquipment,tlkpEquipmentType WHERE tblEquipment.lEquipmentTypeID = tlkpEquipmentType.lEquipmentTypeID

 

Then change the “Command Type” from table to SQL then click OK

 

 

Then click OK and then click on again on the Import Data screen:

 

This will show you all the columns for each piece of equipment and the equipment type. You can delete the columns you don't need and rename the others.

Get any data you want

You can use this technique to grab whatever data you need from the database by using different SQL statements.

You can also use the wizard in Excel to create your queries.

In Excel click on

Data->From Other Data Sources-> From Microsoft Query

then choose:

Microsoft Access Database*

from the list of data sources.

then click ok.

Then in the “Select Database” window, you will need to navigate to the:

TATEMS2005be.mdb

file in:

C:\Program Files\TATEMS 2005

Or it will be in the :

C:\Program Files (x86)\TATEMS 2005

folder.

or on your network.

You can use the Drive at the dropdown at the bottom or use the network button if needed.

And also check the box that says Read Only

Joining Two Tables Together

Then you will be presented with the Query Wizard window and you can choose the columns inside the tables that store the info you are looking for. You usually want to expand the table called tblEquipment and choose the fields you need. In the screenshot below I have selected: sEquipNum, sEquipDesc from tblEquipment and sLocation from another table called tlkpLocation.  So, if you need info like Location which is stored in another table called:

tlkpLocation

then navigate to the:

tlkpLocation table

and choose:

sLocation

The wizard will automatically join the 2 tables together so that the Location, in this case, will be linked to the proper piece of equipment. After you have chosen the columns to display then click next and on the following screen you can create your own criteria for the report.

Filter Data

On the next screen, you will be able to filter the data if you want to.  If not just click next.  In the screenshot below I have selected the sLocation field then I chose equals from the first dropdown in the left column and once I selected that then the right-hand column populates with the data I want to filter for. I will choose King City from the list in the screenshot below. You can also filter on multiple fields.  Once you have selected a field to filter by and created the filter you can move to another field and filter by that field.

Sort Order

Then click next and you can create your own sort order. You can sort by multiple fields, in order of importance. In the screenshot below I will just sort by the sEquipYear field as seen in the screenshot below.

Then click next and you can then choose to either return the data Microsoft Excel to view it or you can view the data and the query in the Microsoft Query window. If you are familiar with SQL then you can manipulate the query to suit your needs. I'll choose the View data or edit query in Microsoft Query as selected in the screenshot below.

Microsoft Query

You can now see the data you have selected and once in the Microsoft Query Window you can customize your query even further.

 

For example, you can set the names on the column headers to a more user-friendly name by clicking on the column you want to rename and then click on Records->Edit Column.  I have selected the sEquipNum column to edit in the screenshots below and will change it from sEquipNum to Equipment #.

 

 

Once you have the query the way you want it you click on the little “exit door” icon at the top to return your data to Excel.

After you click the “return data to Excel” icon you will see the Import Data dialog popup and on that screen you just click OK

I hope this gives you a basic idea of how to create your own reports in Excel with your TATEMS data.

All The Best!

Marc

Girl on a High Wire between two speeding Big Rigs

Well summer is about over and yes I hit my goal and I am able to eat pizza on movie night again 🙂

Check out this great video of World record-holding highliner Faith Dickey crossing a slack line between two speeding Volvo trucks.

Will she make it before the trucks reach the tunnel?

http://youtu.be/1zXwOoeGzys

How do you get a boat with an 85 foot mast under a 65 foot bridge?

A little ingenuity…

In other trucking, transportation and equipment news:

• Diesel just topped $4 per gallon average in the U.S.
• Trucking Industry looking to add 30,000 more jobs
• DEA goes under cover as driver without trucking company knowing, gets shot 8 times
  

In TATEMS news we are working on getting a number of new features out the door. For example, the ability to attach items like scanned documents or pictures to a Work order and to the equipment itself.

I hope you have a great week!

All The Best!

Marc

How To Report Tire Costs In Your Fleet

So this week I created a short video to show you how to see what you have spent on tires for a specific date range.

Just to reiterate and add to what's in the video.

Click Reports->More Reports->Report Type:Work Orders

Then choose

“All Work Orders Parts Totals by Equipment #”

Then enter your date range and then if you just want to see what you are spending on tires enter the word “tire”(without quotes) in the “Part Desc” field and also in the “To” field.

Then click preview.

As long as your part description matches the word you are searching for you will see all of that description of parts installed for that date range.

You can also use a wild card asterisk * before and/or after the “Part Desc” word you are searching for to see part descriptions that maybe include more that one word and your not sure what the other word was.

Until next time…

Thanks Again

Marc Ready
PCHelp, LTD

New Video Version 4.4.00 Parts Inventory Screen updates

I hope everything is going well for you this week.

Hopefully, this video is not as choppy as the unfinished house they are tearing down on the hill above us. More on that in a minute

I just finished up this video but updated my Camtasia Studio (Screen Cam Software) to the latest version so it might be a little bit choppy as I am just getting used to the new interface.

Last week I forgot to post the sample Terms that you can paste into the bottom of your work orders so I have added it here:

SAMPLE TERMS for WORK ORDER

I am also posting the previous Video regarding all the new Preferences settings in Version 4.4.00 below.

So anyway someone starting building a huge multimillion dollar house on the hill above our neighborhood about 5 or 6 years ago.

It was all framed and had roofing material stacked on top of it and then it just sat there.

We figured they ran out of money or something.

Then we find out from our neighbor that they were forced to pay for all the utility lines to all the lots on the entire street. Not only that but the houses in our neighborhood that back up to the hill had contracts that said no houses would be built behind them.

So today they are chopping it up and tearing it all down… I've included some video below. It's going to be weird not seeing it up there anymore. It's really become a landmark around here that you could see for quite a distance.

It may be Las Vegas but we don't go into town much, so you can see what passes for excitement around here. 🙂

Oh well. By the way it's 104° F here in Las Vegas today while they were doing the tear down…

And for you dog lovers you might get a chuckle of this video my daughter took of her trying to get
our dog Kiba to play dead. Enjoy!

Please let us know if you have any questions or need any help.

All The Best!

Thanks Again,

Marc