It's been a while since I posted. I hope everything is going well for you and yours.
In this post a new spreadsheet and a Kiba update…
Cristy, one of our California clients asked for an equipment list that shows
whether each piece of equipment is out of service or not.
So the Excel spreadsheet I created will link to and display your TATEMS data just like the other ones posted at:
http://tatems.com/spreadsheets
This is number 63 on the list an is called oddly enough:
TATEMS-Equipment-List-With-Out-Of-Service-Column
I know, pretty original right?
The columns included in the spreadsheet/report are:
Equip#
Our of Service?
Desc
Make
Model
Year
VIN/Serial#
License
Sort Order#
Once you refresh your data you can sort and filter any way you want to.
This video shows you the columns and how to link your data if your data is on a network or on a 64 bit version of windows:
Now for a little Kiba (our puppy, now 8 months old) news.
A few weeks ago we had a scare…
He got a hold of my pack of trident gum on my nightstand. The Gum has “Xylitol” in it which is poison to dogs.
We took him to the vet and they forced him to regurgitate and took his glucose readings…
He came through it with flying colors and is fine and hyper crazy as ever…
A few days ago we got some snow in the hills near our house here in Las Vegas. So we took him and Maya(Golden Lab) up to his first snow (about a 15 minute drive) and he had fun biting it and romping around a bit. We couldn't get very far off the highway so we had to keep them on leash.
Kiba's first snow experience!
Until next time…
By the way if you have a request for a custom spreadsheet I can create and share let me know.
I'm going to change things up a little and put the tip at the top…
Now on to today's Tip:
Last week one of our clients asked if we could create a spreadsheet that would display all the items on the Inspections/Permits tab in TATEMS for all equipment.
This new spreadsheet links to your live TATEMS data and will display the following fields which you can now filter and sort any way you want to in Excel.
Equip #
Desc
Last DOT Insp
Next DOT
Last 90 Permit
Next 90 Day
Last Annual State Insp
Next State Insp
Last Over OverAxTollerance Permit
NextOverAxle Permit
Last Motor Carrier Certificate Reg
Next Motor Carrier
Last Smoke Insp
Next Smoke Insp
The spreadsheet is called:
TATEMS-InspectionsAndPermitsLastAndNext.xls
It is spreadsheet number 62 on our Spreadsheets page:
If you have Excel 2007 or 2010 and you are running a 32 bit version of Windows and your TATEMS data is NOT on a server or other computer then you should be able to simply open and run this spreadsheet.
In the video below I show you how to use it on either a 64 bit version Of Windows or if your data is housed on a server. I also show you how to Filter and sort the data in this spreadsheet.
Other random stuff…..
As I write this on Saturday afternoon, it's suppose get up to 94° F today and we've had a few thunderstorms here in Las Vegas. The Gas prices at our local Sam’s club is at $3.55 per gallon… It’s going up.
Our Sprolie puppy Kiba finished his recovery from neutering and is as feisty as ever.
Thanks for visiting and remember to share TATEMS with a friend or colleague.
It's hot here today supposed to get up to 112° F here in Las Vegas and Gas at the local
Costco was down to $3.32 per gallon yesterday.
We just released a new version of TATEMS and it includes the following changes and improvements.
Added New checkbox to preferences to Always Display the Parts Notes field on a Work Order/Invoice printout. If unchecked the Parts Notes field will not display even if there is notes added to a part
Changed the way the “Parts Notes” field in a Work Order/Invoice printout is displayed. If there are no “Parts Notes” then that row will no longer display the the word “notes” and it also shrinks the empty row to save space and paper.
This video shows you the 2 updates listed above:
Updated All Equipment Due Next 30 Days report to include the new Work Order short description field
This video shows you update listed above:
Updated Lube Service Types- Now when a Lube Service Type is inactive you won't see it in the dropdown list even if used previously for that equipment, It still remains in Lube/Service History
Changed Accomplished by field in Lube Service tab so that it does not ask you if you want to add to list, Instead you can double click to bring up personnel windows
Updated Equipment Summary Screen to display the Miles/Km to go – Hours to go and Days to go in the Lube/Service list
Resized Lube Service Display on Equipment summary screen to fit extra fields and resized windows on sub tabs to utilize extra space
This video shows you the 4 updates listed above
Updated Work Order printout to display Invoice # instead of WO Num when it is printed as an invoice.
Updated Work Order Printout to display Make, Model, Year, Lic Plate, Serial/Vin and Moved Warranty and Recall to Footer by Cost Totals
Updated Work Order Screen to prevent inadvertent data entry into the Labor and Parts Cost totals fields
Updated Work Order screen to display Make, Model, Year, Lic Plate, Serial/Vin and Moved Warranty
Added Status bar and tool tips to Cost Totals fields and un-editable fields in the Work Order Screen
This video shows you the 4 updates listed above:
Added usability feature to simply double click to enter the current date into all date fields except date ranges on reports. Will also ask before changing if a date is already entered into the field
Updated Equipment Summary screen to display Vin number as Serial/Vin Number
Updated Current Life Remaining Until Replacement on Financials Popup window to not display error when Life Expectancy Years at purchase is not filled in.
This video shows you the 3 updates listed above:
Added dropdown to Inspectors Name to select from Personnel file, you can also just enter inspectors name
This video shows you the update listed above:
Updated Repairs Completed Reports under Reports->More Reports to also sort by completed date (For people who still use the repairs completed tab instead of using Work Orders)
Our puppy Kiba is not doing so well, He got clipped (neutered) yesterday.
The Vet says he has to stay confined for 10 days and he's already getting antsy.
Gas prices are down to $3.35 per gallon at the Sam's club nearest to us here in Las Vegas.
It's supposed to get up to 102 ° F today. It's cooling down…
Now on to today's Tip:
I had a request from a client yesterday for a filters report that could be broken down by customer or a list of equipment.
So I created a spreadsheet that will link to your TATEMS data And display the following columns in Excel:
Equip Num
Customer
Location
Dept Or Area
Lube Primary
Lube Secondary
Air Filter
Air Inner
Fuel Primary
Fuel Secondary
Hydraulic
Trans Filter
Water Filter
Other Filters
Once you open it up in Excel you can sort it and filter it anyway you want.
I show you how in this video:
You will need to have Microsoft Excel to use this spreadsheet and have it link to your TATEMS data.
This spreadsheet will link to your TATEMS data if it’s in the default installation location on 32 bit Windows.
It’s completed for you online and ready to download at the link above or here:
http://tatems.com/spreadsheets
This spreadsheet is number 61 in the list on that spreadsheet page.
I hope this tip has been helpful for you.
Please leave any questions, comments or requests for special Excel Spreadsheets below. If your spreadsheet requests are feasible I’ll get them created and posted in a future TATEMS Tip.
Thanks Again,
Marc Ready
PCHelp, LTD
P.S. We plan to have a updated version of TATEMS in a a day or two.
P.P.S. We are also about ready to release a beta version of our new TATEMS Reminders program. This program runs in the windows notification tray down by the clock separately from TATEMS. It will automatically send out different reminder types via email to as many people as you need to send them to. Let me know if you would like to try out the beta version.
That's where the user will log in to the server and see an entire remote desktop with a TATEMS icon on it.
In this video I show you how to setup TATEMS in Terminal Services Server as a RemoteApp.
This is where the user clicks an icon on their own desktop and TATEMS opens. It looks like TATEMS is running on their own computer but it is in fact running on the server.
It's also a great way to restrict users from having access to an entire desktop on your server.
Either way you setup TATEMS on a Terminal Services Server you will find performance improvement and better stability, especially if you want to use TATEMS on a wireless network or over the internet or via a VPN.
Usually you will have an IT person handle this for you and if you do you can point them to these videos.
If you need help with this or anything else please let us know.
Also please make sure you stay current on your Support and Version Upgrades extensions with us.
It's been a crazy world the past couple of weeks. We live in interesting times.
I pray you're doing well and staying safe wherever you are.
My wife and daughter drove to Arkansas last week to visit her parents and they decided to drive back though the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It sounded nice. I'm still waiting to see the pictures though.
Gas prices here in Las Vegas this week are at $3.39 per gallon at out local Sam's club and it's going to be 104° today.
Now on to today's tip:
I have been getting more and more people interested in installing TATEMS on Windows Terminal Services Server.
This allows you to run TATEMS entirely on the server and can really speed things up if you have multiple users accessing TATEMS on a network.
It's the only way you can use TATEMS over the internet or from remote shops that are not on your local area network.
We are in the process of partnering with a company that will offer Terminal Services Servers over the internet with TATEMS pre-installed; for a monthly fee per user plus a setup fee to anyone who wants it. These servers are completely maintained by the company we are partnering with and we will make sure TATEMS is updated and running properly on them as well.
If you are interested in this service please let me know. You will also be able to install and run other applications besides TATEMS on the servers if you need to.
If there is little or no interest we probably won't proceed.
In this video I demonstrate how to setup TATEMS on a Terminal Services Server (TS) that needs to have multiple users accessing the program at the same time. There are two types of remote access to the server you can take advantage of when setting up TATEMS on TS.
The first way is to grant the user remote desktop access. This is where the user logs in and sees his personal desktop that resides on the server and the TATEMS icon is on that desktop. He launches and runs TATEMS on the Remote desktop.
The other way is to setup what's called a RemoteApp. This is where the user gets an application icon on his computer for TATEMS but when he launches the application the program appears to be running on his computer but it is actually all running on the server. I'll go over setting up TATEMS as a RemoteApp in a second video in the next couple of days.
What's nice about either method is that TATEMS back end data file and front end files reside on the same computer(the server). So you don't get the performance degradation you get when you access the back end file over the network.
Here is the first video showing the setup of TATEMS in Remote Desktop Access environment on Windows Terminal Services Server:
I am also including some written instructions from out knowledge base:
For Terminal Services do a Full Install Logged as Administrator
and using Add/Remove Programs or the Terminal Service Application
installer to navigate to the setup file called:
tatemsmsi.exe on the CD or download.
When TATEMS is installed on Terminal Services
or Cirix only one person at a time can access
via remote access.
If you need to let more than one person at a time
use TATEMS via remote access then each additional
simultaneous user will be required to have their own license.
Here is the work around to let more than one person at
a time have access to TATEMS.
After the install is finished…
Create a sub folder for each user that will log in to use TATEMS
in this folder
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005
(or in C:Program Files (x86)TATEMS 2005 on 64bit)
For Example for you might use
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005Scott
copy this file
TATEMS2005.mde
in the
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005
folder to each users sub-folder folder
( EX.C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005Scott ).
Then log in as each user and send a shortcut to the desktop for that file in the corresponding folder that matches the user name.
You can use the wrench.ico as the icon for the shortcut you create.
Then use the shortcut you create instead of the one created by the installer.
You can delete or hide or move the one created by the installer.
Whenever you do an update you will need to copy TATEMS2005.mde to each of the users sub-folders. You can create an Xcopy batch file to do the job for you.
You will need to own a separate license for each different user when logged in to terminal services or Citrix server in this configuration.
When you want to add a driver to the Driver History for a piece of equipment you have to make sure they are setup as a driver in the personnel file.
Otherwise they won't show up in the list of available drivers.
To do that, click on Forms->Personnel
Then choose the employee and then make sure the driver box is checked.
By the same token, when adding Labor to a Work Order the employee must be setup as a Fleet Technician in the personnel file for them to show up in the Labor Dropdown
as an available employee.
I hope this tip has been helpful for you.
If you need help with anything please send an email or give us a call.
The last week or so around here has been a little crazy.
It was only 95 ° here in Las Vegas today, well below normal and the Gas prices have been getting lower. We filled up for $3.55 per gallon last Friday and have seen it as low $3.31 per gallon on the other side of town.
I usually make breakfast in the morning for my wife and me and a few days ago I did what I usually do.
I left my wife's breakfast on the counter and yelled upstairs to let her know it was ready.
Then I grabbed mine to sit down and watch TV.
She took longer than usual to come down. I was already finished when she walked over to her plate and found a plate full of ANTS! Oops…
So we spent the next few hours trying to eradicate them.
The next day as I'm making breakfast I noticed water in the kitchen sink. I thought it wasn’t draining because there were some plates on one side that were blocking the drain.
We removed the dishes and it still would not drain. So I grabbed the bathroom plunger and turned on the garbage disposal and stupidly tried to plunge the other side.
All of a sudden boom! The pipes burst, water goes spraying out the front of the cabinet, soaking my pants and flooding the cabinet under the sink and the floor.
Oh what Fun!!!
I took apart the pipes and used a 6 foot snake to try to clean it out, put it all back together, no go, tried multiple Liquid Plummer bottles, no go.
Finally got a hold of my landlord and she sent in the big guns drain cleaning service. He had to go in about 15 feet to the main drain and that did the trick.
Drama over…. For a few days.
So it’s about 6AM Monday morning and I’m downstairs in morning prayer and hear my 23 year old daughter coming downstairs to let the puppy “Kiba” out (Kiba means fang in Japanese).
A few minutes later I hear the door open and then a big bang, and the cats go flying, bells jingling and I’m thinking “what’s going on” So I look up, I don’t see my daughter, then I look behind me, the cats are staring towards the door, then I look down, and my daughter has collapsed on the floor.
I freak!
I jump up and she is laying there on her side, and the floor is hard tile, she is unconscious and her eyes are open.
As I keeled over her and starting asking if she was aright she slowly came back around.
Well thank God, it turns out she just fainted and after a while she was able to get up and eat something.
We figure it was just low blood sugar. She said as she was sitting out back waiting for the dog to finish his business she started feeling ill, like she wanted to lay down. She thought she could make it back inside but just couldn’t make it.
Scared me to no end… the sight of her laying is something I’ll probably never forget. You never want to see your child hurt in any way.
And now on to today's tip…
Shelly, one of our clients was looking for a report to show all the Labor hours and costs even if the Work Order was still open.
We did not include a time clock feature for labor items in TATEMS in order to keep it as simple as possible for technicians to use.
But due to popular demand we will be adding a way to track start and Stop times and dates on each labor item in a future
update.
In the meantime I created this spreadsheet that will let you see all the dates associated with each work order and the
associated labor so I created the spreadsheet profiled in the video below:
It’s called:
Labor on Work Orders Pending and Completed.
And it will link to you TATEMS data and display the following columns:
Equip #
Work Order #
Date Requested
Date To Complete By
Date Completed
First Name
Last Name
Labor Description
Labor Notes
Hours/Units
Cost Per H/U
Total Cost
You will need to have Microsoft Excel to use these spreadsheet and have it link to your TATEMS data.
The video also shows you what you will probably need to do in order to make it work on your computer if you are not running
Excel 2007 or 2010 or if you have a 64 bit version of Windows or if your TATEMS data is on a network then
see this video:
You can get the spreadsheet at our website it’s called:
TATEMS-LaborOnWorkOrders-PendingAndCompleted.xls
It’s ready for you online and ready to download here:
It is spreadsheet number 60 in the list on that page.
I hope this tip has been helpful for you.
Have a great Weekend and a Happy 4th of July
Thanks Again
Marc
P.S. If you need a custom spreadsheet let me know below and if you are on Facebook please click the like button… If you do… actually like this post that is…
If you missed it I also posted a Video last week showing you a couple of ways to handle Tools or Equipment that you keep on your Trucks or Vehicles
Fixing Odometer Entry Mistakes.
From a previous tip:
I had a customer call me with a weird problem today.
Whenever he ran his mileage report under Reports-More Reports Report Type: Equipment, then select the report called “Equipment Miles/Km Traveled – Hours Run”
he was getting a reading of -26066 miles traveled.
I did a quick scan of his entries via remote access and could not see what the problem was.
So I download a copy of his TATEMS data file so I could have a better look.
What I found surprised me. In the middle of all his entries he had lower odometer reading for a date of Jan 7 2800 instead of Jan 7, 2008
so the report results was always skewed. He also had a current entry April 1, 2009 that had a lower odometer reading by thousands of miles than the one entered just prior to it.
It's an easy fix but sometimes those miss entered numbers and dates are hard to spot.
So…
If you make a mistake, in order to correct it, you can click on the “Update Odometer and Hours” button.
Then you can click the “View All for This Equipment” button to find your mistake and delete it or change it.
After you have fixed it, click the “Update and Close” button.
In the short video below I demonstrate how to delete or edit An Odometer Enter that was entered incorrectly.
I hope this tip has been helpful for you.
If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.
