New Video How to Attach an Equipment Picture in the proper format
I had someone call and say he could not get pictures into TATEMS.
You don't actually upload a picture into the program.
When you use the Equipment Picture button in TATEMS you are creating a link to a picture of that equipment on your computer or on a server.
The picture must be in a specific format. It must be in the bitmap format have the .bmp extension.
You can use Microsoft Paint which is included in all versions of Windows to open your picture
and then save it as a .bmp(bitmap) file.
It is also best if you re-size the image to either:
5 x 3 inches or 320 x 216 pixels at 72 dpi
Then you can link to the picture using the Equipment Picture button.
And from that point on when you click the Equipment Button or print a unit information report you
will see the picture.
The only exception is if you delete or move the picture to a different location.
Here is the video that shows you how to do it all:
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New Driver Efficiency spreadsheet report
We got one of our cars back from the body shop. Hopefully we'll get the other one back by the end of the week.
We filled up the other day for $3.69 per gallon at an Arco station near us here in Las Vegas. Now I'm glad we traded in our 14 MPG Yukon Denali SUV late last year for a 25 MPG Camry. I loved that Yukon though.
We had a request a while back for a somewhat complex spreadsheet/report that would display the Miles Per Gallon or km/L for each driver on each piece of equipment. This would allow you to see if some drivers are costing you more per mile.
So the spreadsheet we created has the following columns:
Equip Num
Average MPG/KpL
Driver
Driver Started On Equip
Driver Ended On Equip
It is sorted by Equipment Number then Driver Start Date then Sort Order number.
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.
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005tatems2005be.mdb
The video link below shows you where the underlying data query is.
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
The video link below will help you to see how to change the path to your TATEMS data if you need to.
You can get the spreadsheet at our website and it's called:
TATEMS-DriverFuelEfficiencyReport
It's completed for you online and ready to download at the link above or here:
http://tatems.com/spreadsheets
This spreadsheet is number 56 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.
Have a great weekend!
Shell-shocked! You never know when disaster will strike
I was looking forward to a normal day when the call came in. I just got out of the shower and my wife’s phone was on her nightstand ringing.
“Can I talk to Mom?” my daughter said. I walked the phone down the hall to hand it my wife. As she spoke she stayed calm but it didn’t sound good.
Our daughter had been in an accident. Our Honda was crumpled and un-drivable but Thank God she was not injured, and neither were the people in the SUV.
Fast forward a few hours and my wife and I are on our way to the body repair shop so they can begin repairs. I’m waiting patiently for the pedestrians to cross in front of me before I make a right turn. When suddenly BAM! We get rear ended in a 3 car accident. The car behind us runs into us after she got rear ended.
Thank God for no injuries.
Now our Toyota has to go the body repair shop for repair.
2 accidents in one day can cause you to feel a little shell-shocked. I had not been in an accident since I rolled my Dad’s VW when I was 18.
I'm feeling like, ok when will the next accident happen?
The unexpected can happen at any time, that’s why it’s so important to have insurance.
You need to insure against losing your data too.
Please make sure you back up your data every day. The best practice is to make sure it’s backed up off site.
At a bare minimum get a copy of your data off your computer and onto to an external flash or hard drive.
I made a video that shows you much of what I describe below:
In order to save and backup your TATEMS data, you need to make a backup copy of a file called tatems2005be.mdb.
tatems2005be.mdb is the file that contains all the data you entered into the program.
This file is in the folder
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005
Or the folder below on a 64 bit system
C:Program Files (x86)TATEMS 2005
TATEMS must to be closed on all computers whenever you backup or restore this file.
If you ever have to reinstall the program, you will need to restore this file back into its folder after reinstalling in order to work with the backed up data.
A couple of additional things need to be addressed here. There is a Backup and Compact feature in TATEMS under
Tools->Backup and Compact.
You can see this feature in action if you go to TATEMS Training Videos then click on the “Backup and Compact data” link
The Backup and Compact feature only allows you to backup the data to the same folder where the data file is housed.
So if the data file is in
C:Program FilesTATEMS 2005
then the backup file will be created in that folder.
The backup file will be Date/Time stamped within the actual file name. It will look something like this:
tatems2005be7-19-2006-09-12.mdb
The 7-19-2006 is the date part and the 09-12 is the time part in 24 hour time (9:12AM).
This can be useful if you want to go back to a “point in time” backup to see where some mistake was made or something went wrong.
These “point in time” backups and any backups for that matter should be moved off the hard drive to a CR-R, a Zip drive, USB drive or memory card for safe keeping.
The “point in time” backups should also be moved off your hard drive because they can quickly start taking up space, especially if you do them on a daily basis.
You can always link to a point in time backup by using the Networking Tool in TATEMS.
Under: Tools->Networking. This will allow you to see what's in a file without having to rename it.
Regardless of which approach you use to backup your data, you should do it on a daily basis.
New spreadsheet-Periodic (90 Day) Inspections Due and Past Due with extra columns
Our prayers go out to the people of Japan and hope that things will improve soon for them.
I had a request last week to create a new spreadsheet to display the 90 Day Inspections(or user defined number of days) Due or Past Due along with the Location so that they could sort the list by Location
When I created it I also added the Deptartment or Area and the Customer fields in addition to the Location field.
This spreadsheet will link to and display the following columns fromyour TATEMS data:
Location
Dept or Area
Customer
Equip Num
Date Insp Completed
Next Inspection Due
Equip Desc
Equip Sort Order
Here is a short video to that shows you the Spreadsheet in action.
You can get the spreadsheet here
Have a great week!
Thanks Again
Marc Ready
TATEMS update to version 4.3.01
Just a quick note to let you know we just released an a new update.
You can update to version 4.3.01 here:
Why so soon after we released 4.3.00?
Well we had some feedback that when you closed the Reminders Popup screen in version 4.3.00 an error occurred, causing you to have to restart TATEMS.
The weird thing is that the 4.3.00 update did not touch the Reminders Popup screen…
This update fixes the issue though.
Thanks Again,
Marc
Video Updating Odometer Readings Spreadsheet
When I first mentioned this spreadsheet about a year ago my daughter had just received a $300 ticket.
I'm happy to say she hasn't been in any more trouble with the law and God willing she will graduate from college in May.
I originally created this spreadsheet because one of our clients wanted to see a printout of all odometer entries for all equipment.
Basically it's what's called a cross tab query.
The way it works is for each date you have entered odometer readings, there will be a column with the date at the top except for the first column which has the Equipment Number
So then each row has the Equipment number and all the odometer readings taken.
Like this
| Equip # | 01-10-2010 | 01-17-2010 | 01-24-2010 |
| 101 | 25000 | 25250 | 25500 |
| 102 | 13232 | 13596 | 14025 |
| 103 | 96300 | 97230 | 98356 |
When I created this spreadsheet it displayed only 2010 odometer readings from TATEMS, hence the name:
TATEMS All Odometer Readings Each Date Has Own Column For All of 2010
I wanted to show you how you can change the date range on this spreadsheet to 2011 or any range you want.
So I created this short video for you.
Was this useful for you?
Parts Replaced Under Warranty Spreadsheet
I created another spreadsheet to display all parts that were installed that have a warranty. This would allow you to check to see if part was under warranty when it failed.
To make this as useful as possible; you should add a note as to the warranty duration when you add a part to a Work Order and check the Warranty Box for the part.
Here are the fields that will display in this spreadsheet
Equip Num
Work Order ID
Requested Date
Completed Date
Part Num
Part Descr
Qty
Cost Per Unit
Total Cost
Notes
Warranty?
You can download it here:
TATEMS-PartsReplacedUnderWarranty.xls
You can also find this and many other spreadsheets we have created here
http://tatems.com/spreadsheets
Here is a short video tour of the Parts Replaced Under Warranty spreadsheet :
Do you think we should add a warranty term next to the check box for the part in TATEMS?
Please leave your comments below.
Thanks Again
Marc
Discover quantities of each filter or part installed in your fleet
What’s been happening with us
It’s been a crazy couple of months for us. Our landlord stopped paying the mortgage so we had to scramble to find a new place to rent.
Luckily we found a place only about 2 blocks away from where we were so that was nice and the new place has a nice in-ground pool and spa. Something we have not had here in Las Vegas since 2004, other than the vinyl above ground pool we put up last summer. But we are finally getting settled in and happy to be at the new house.
I’ve been working on getting this new TATEMS blog up and running to make it easier to communicate with our clients, and hopefully get some guest contributors as well. If you would like to contribute an article please let me know.
I have a whole bunch of new training videos planned and a multiple new updated of versions of TATEMS planned for 2011.
New spreadsheet and video training
A few weeks back one of our clients wanted to see the quantity count of each filter installed on his fleet. So I created the spreadsheet for him that pulls the live data he needs from TATEMS.
I wanted to show you how to customize it so that you could see quantities installed, not only of particular filters, but any type of part and for any date range.
The spreadsheet currently displays these columns:
| Part # |
| Part Description |
| Qty Installed |
You can get the spreadsheet here:
TATEMS-QuantityOfDifferentFiltersInstalledFromWorkOrders
The search criteria field used is a Part Description of “Filter” and Work Order Date Requested between “1/1/2000” and “12/31/2020”. It only applies to parts/filters used in the Work Orders section of TATEMS Maintenance Software.
The video below shows you the spreadsheet in action. It also teaches you how to customize the spreadsheet; to alter what Part Description you may want to use and to how to narrow the date range.
By the way, if you have an older verion of Excel or if your TATEMS data file is on a server click here for a video to help get it working
Thanks Again
Marc