Contents

Progress

Job Tracking and monitoring system

Introduction to Progress

Getting Started

Example Reports

Network Installation

File Menu

Edit Menu

Jobs Menu

Options Menu

Window Menu

Help Menu

The Toolbar

Main Window

Customers/Log New Job Window

Users Window

Categories Window

Monitor Window

Action Window


Introduction

See Also:Getting Started

Progress is a system for tracking any job that consists of a number of tasks that may be worked on by different people.  Most jobs go through the following stages:

The job is logged (for example triggered by a telephone enquiry from a customer).  At this stage information about the job and the customer needs to be recorded.

The job is passed  on to whoever will deal with it next.

The next person actions this stage of the job and records information about the actions taken.

The job may be passed onto other stages, each of which may involve other people.

The job is completed when no further actions are required.

At all stages, users need to be able to monitor jobs that may be passed to them, and management will wish to report on the jobs that their staff are dealing with.

Applications

The most obvious application for Progress is a help-desk system. However Progress can track any job, for example: enquiry processing, clerical procedures, monitoring customer orders etc.

With quality management becoming increasingly important, Progess makes it easy to evaluate if you are meeting your customer service targets.

Features

Maintain customer address and contact details.

Classify jobs into categories.

Transfer of jobs between users.

Full audit trail of what actions were taken and by whom.

Prioritisation of jobs.

Specify target completion dates.

Real-time monitoring of all jobs with optional alarm.

Flexible querying tool to report and monitor on all jobs or only those  jobs which meet a particular set of criteria.

Sort jobs according to customer, logged date, target date, priority etc.

Flexible reports: Jobs per Category, Jobs per Customer, Overdue vs On-target, Frequency of jobs etc.

Multiple jobs databases - so you could maintain one for help-desk, one for orders etc.

Full, on-line, context sensitive help.

The numbers of customers, categories, jobs and databases is limited only by your hard disk capacity.  The number of users registered with Progress is limited by your licence.


Getting Started

See Also: Customers, Users, Categories, Logging New Jobs

First of all, decide what you are going to use Progress for.  Is it to be used as a help desk system, for tracking general customer enquiries, order processing etc., etc?  You may decide to use it for all of these functions.

Let's assume that you wish to use Progress for:

Help desk calls (e.g. relating to software/hardware problems)

and

Order processing

Although you could include both of these in one database, it's often better to have a separate database for each, particularly where the users who are actioning these jobs are quite distinct from each other.

Creating a new database

Taking the example above:  From the File Menu select New and type in the name 'HelpDesk', if necessary changing to the drive and directory you wish to store the database in.  Click OK and the new database will be created with the name 'helpdesk.mdb'  In the same way, create a new database called 'Orders'.

If you look at the top line of the Progress screen, you will see that the current database ('Orders') is displayed.

Options

Next, you should decide whether you wish to allow users of the Orders database to delete jobs, or whether you wish to restrict this function.  If you decide to the latter, then select Options and enter a password.  Now, when a user tries to delete a job they will need to enter this password.  Don't forget it!

If you have more than one database, open the database by selecting the Open option from the File Menu, then set the password as required.

The Current Database

When you run Progress it will remember the database you used the last time and automatically open this one for you.


Network Installation

General

If you are installing Progress on a network, you must make sure that all users have full rights in the directory where any Progress databases are kept.  If your workstations are running Windows 3.1 then you should include the following line in their autoexec.bat files:

share.exe /L:500 /F:5100

(Please note - share.exe is not required if your workstations are running Windows for Workgroups.)

Setup

The easiest way to set up a network workstation for Progress is to use the Progress Installation disk(s) on each workstation (specifying the same target drive and directory each time).  Any Progress files (e.g. DLL files) which need to be in the user's Windows\System directory will be copied and a Progress Group will be automatically set up on the workstation desktop.

If you prefer not to do this then the following description should enable you to manually set up workstations:

Progress file	Location

*.mdb (your database files)	Anywhere

*.vbx	Windows \SYSTEM

*.dll	Windows \SYSTEM

All other files	Application directory

Please note

If  you are running a shared version of Windows, the VBXs and DLLs should be installed into the Windows directory.


File Menu

The File menu allows you to create a new database, open an existing database , repair and compact a database.

New

Open

Compact

Repair

Exit


New (File Menu)

See Also: Open, Toolbar

Select New from the File menu when you wish to create a new database.  Normally you will only do this when you first install Progress, however you may wish to have a number of different databases, for example one for each department in your business.

In the File menu, choose New.

In the File Name box, type the name of the database you want to open.

If you wish to create the database in a directory other than the current directory, select a different directory in the Directories box.

If you wish to create the new database in a different drive then open the Drives box, then select a drive.

Click the OK button.

If you are creating a database on a network drive you must ensure that all users of the system have full rights in the chosen directory.


Open (File Menu)

See Also:New, Toolbar

Select Open from the File menu when you wish to open an existing database.

When you run Progress it will automatically open the database you used the last time.  The title will display the name of the database being used.

From the File menu in Help, choose Open.

In the File Name box, type the name of the database you want to open, or click the file if it is displayed in the file list box.

If you wish to open a database in a directory other than the current directory, select a different directory in the Directories box.

If you wish to open a database in a different drive then open the Drives box, then select a drive.

Click the OK button.

If you are opening a database on a network drive you must have full rights in the chosen directory.


Compact (File Menu)

As you change data in a database, the file can become fragmented and use more disk space than necessary.  Periodically, you should compact your database in order to defragment the file.  The compacted database will usually be smaller.

Your existing database is renamed with a ".bak" extension before the Compact operation.  For example, after compacting "ORDERS.MDB", you will have two files, "ORDERS.MDB" (your newly compacted file) and "ORDERS.BAK" (which contains your original database).   You must have enough disk space for both copies.

In a multi-user environment, you must make sure all other users have closed the database as well.  Compact will not proceed if it finds other users have the selected database open.


Repair (File Menu)

This option repairs a database that may have been damaged.  Typically this can happen if the computer is switched off while the database is being updated.

If you find that you get error messages whilst using Progress then try using Repair on the selected database.  Repair will attempt to validate the database and any data that cannot be salvaged will be discarded.

It's also a good idea after repairing a database to compact it with Compact.


Exit (File Menu)

This option will quit you from Progress.


Edit Menu

Customers

Users

Categories


Customers (Edit Menu)

See Also: Logging a new Job, Toolbar

Customers generate the jobs that you record in Progress.  Each customer must have their name registered with Progress.  If you wish, you can also store their address, telephone and fax numbers.  To add a new customer, select Customers from the Edit menu, which will display the Customers Window.

You may use any customer name you like, with three provisos:

The first character of the customer name must be a letter (a-z).

The maximum number of characters is 30.

You can't have two customers with the same name.  It doesn't make any difference if it is uppercase, e.g. 'Acme' is identical to 'ACME'.

If you have a customer with several locations, then you can prefix each location with the customer name, e.g.'Acme - Croydon Branch'.   This can be very useful when you prepare reports, as it allows you to report on those jobs for a particular customer or for a particular branch of that customer.

You don't need to add all your customer names before you begin using Progress - each customer can be added the first time they call in.  However,this does mean that your users must understand any naming conventions you have set in place.


Users (Edit Menu)

See Also: Users Window, Toolbar

These are the people who will be processing the jobs entered into Progress.  Each user must be registered with Progress so that you know who has actioned some stage of a job.  To add a new user, select Users from the Edit menu. This  will display the Users Window and allow you to add/edit user details

You may use any user name you like, with three provisos:

The first character of the user name must be a letter (a-z).

The maximum number of characters is 20.

You can't have two users with the same name.  It doesn't make any difference if it is uppercase, e.g. 'Bill Bloggs' is identical to 'BILL BLOGGS'.

If you have users from different parts of  your business, then you can prefix the user name with their department code, e.g.'Sales - Anne Smith'.  Thiscan be very useful when you prepare reports, as it allows you to report on only those jobs actioned by a particular department.

You don't need to add all your user names before you begin using Progress - each user can be added the first time they action a job.  However, this does mean that users must understand any naming conventions you have set in place.


Categories (Edit Menu)

See Also: Categories Window, Toolbar

Before you start to log jobs you should think about how you are going to classify them into categories.  Categories are important because they enable you to fine-tune the reports that Progress can provide.  For example, if you are using Progress as a help desk system, then you would probably wish to set up the following categories as a minimum:

Hardware

Software

Query

That way, you can produce reports on just one of these categories if you wish.

To make it easier for your users, don't have a large number of categories, but if you must, try to group them together.  For example, if you were using a single Progress database for both help desk and order processing, you might have the following categories:

HelpDesk - Software

HelpDesk - Hardware

HelpDesk - Query

Orders - Washers

Orders - Driers

Orders - Fridges

This way, users can easily find the category they need when logging a new job.

You may use any category name you like, with three provisos

The first character of the category name must be a letter (a-z).

The maximum number of characters is 20.

You can't have two categories with the same name.  It doesn't make any difference if it is uppercase,e.g. 'Hardware' is identical to 'HARDWARE'.

You don't need to add all your categories before you begin using Progress - categories can be added as you log the first new job of that category.  However, this does mean that users must understand any naming conventions you have set in place.

To add categories, select the Categories option from the Edit menu.  This will display the Categories Window


Jobs Menu

Log New Job

Monitor1

Monitor2


Log New Job (Jobs Menu)

See Also: Customers/Log New Job Window, Toolbar

This menu option allows you to log a new job against a particular customer.  It uses exactly the same window as is used for editing Customer details.


Monitor1/Monitor2 (Jobs Menu)

See Also:  Monitor Window, Toolbar

This menu option displays the Monitor1 window or the Monitor2 window, which are identical.

You use these windows to display jobs that match criteria you may set to meet your own needs.  The monitor windows can be automatically updated so that they give you the latest position regarding jobs logged with Progress.

For example, you might set Monitor1 to list all jobs that have been assigned to you - so that you can action them as they are logged.  Monitor2 could be set to look at completed jobs, so that you can monitor the clearance rate.

If you are using Progress as a help desk system, you might use one of the monitor screens to search for previously reported calls that are similar.  This will help you to diagnose the current call you are working on.


Options Menu

Password for Deleting Jobs

Alert on change in jobs


Password for Deleting Jobs
Password for Deleting Jobs (Options Menu)

See Also: Delete Button (Monitor Window)

The password is set if you wish to restrict the ability to delete jobs to those users who know the password.  Clicking this option will allow you set or clear a password.

When Progress is first installed, there is no password, so when you click this option the "Please enter existing password" box is disabled.  To set a password, type the password in  the "New password" boxes - it must be identical in both boxes.  Don't forget the password or you will not be able to delete any jobs!

To clear the password, click this option, type the existing password into the first box, leave the new password boxes empty, then click the OK button.


Alert on change in jobs
Alert on change in jobs (Options Menu)

This option lets Progress alert you if any new jobs are logged on the system by other users.

Whilst using one of the Monitor windows, the system will automatically refresh the Jobs table at intervals in time set by the Refresh Interval

If you check the 'Alert on change in jobs' menu option, the system will beep when there is any change in jobs following this automatic refresh.


Window Menu

Whilst using Progress you will normally have several windows open (e.g. Monitor1, Monitor2, Customers etc.).

All of these windows can be moved around the screen and/or minimised to icons.   This menu gives you a number of ways of tidying up the display:

Cascade

displays one window over the other, each offset to the right and below the one it covers.

Tile

resizes each window and places them alongside each other.

Arrange Icons

windows are minimised to icons, this option will arrange the icons neatly.

Also, when you open a window, it's name is added to the list of open windows in this menu, giving you an easy method of selecting a particular one.


Help Menu

You have probably used this menu to access this help system.   There are four options:

Contents

takes you to the Contents page of this help file.

Search

allows you to search the help file for a particular topic using keywords.  You can also search by clicking the Search button above once you are in the help system.

How to use Help

will display a help file which explains the features of the help system.

About Progress

displays information about Progress - version number etc..


Toolbar
The Toolbar

The toolbar is displayed beneath the main menu and is a shortcut method for selecting those menu items you will use commonly.  When you are using Progress, If you move the mouse cursor over the toolbar button, click and hold the left mouse button, a 'hint' message will be displayed telling you what the button does.

In order, their actions are:

Open an existing database

Open a new database

Edit Users

Log a new job and/or edit Customers

Edit Categories

Display the Monitor 1 window

Display the Monitor 2 window

Save the current report as a disk file

Print a graph report

Display this help.


Main Window

The Main window is the container for all the other windows in Progress, it also contains the menu.


Customers/Log New Job Window

This window is used to maintain the list of customers and to log new jobs.  You can also use this window to select a customer name from the list.

It displays a list of Customer names, clicking one will display the address details of that customer.

Initial Letter Box

If you have defined a lot of customers, they will be displayed in groups according to their initial letter, i.e. all customers with an initial letter of "A" will be displayed first and the initial letter box will contain "A".  To view a different set of customers, click this box and type the letter that you require, the list will be updated to display all customers with the new initial.

Log Job

This will log a new job for the selected customer, displaying the Action Window.  In some circumstances, this button is replaced by the 'Select' button.  Clicking this button has the same effect as double-clicking on a customer name.

Select

This button replaces the 'Log Job' button in certain circumstances.  For example, on the Monitor window the 'Customer' button will display the Customer Window and you can select which customer's jobs you wish to retrieve by clicking the Select button (or double-clicking the customer name from the list).

Refresh

Clicking this will update the list of customers to reflect any changes made by other users.

New

This will allow you to add a new customer.  Each customer name must have a letter as the first character, (e.g. "12 Acme" is not allowed).

Edit

This will display the selected customer's details and allow you to edit them.

Delete

This will delete the selected customer.  You may also make a multiple selection of customers for deletion. (Please note - when a customer is deleted it remains in the database but is not available for selection.  This allows you to have correct historical reporting.)

Report

This will display a list of the Customers.  See also Printing Reports


Users Window

Users are those people who will action the jobs logged in Progress, this window is used to maintain the list of these users.

Initial Letter Box

If you have defined a lot of users, they will be displayed in groups according to their initial letter, i.e. all users with an initial letter of "A" will be displayed first and the initial letter box will contain "A".  To view a different set of users, click this box and type the letter that you require, the list will be updated to display all users with the new initial.

Select

This button is only present in some circumstances.  For example, in the Action window  you would select the user who will deal with the next stage of a job by displaying the Users Window and clicking the select button (or double-clicking the user name from the list).

Refresh

Clicking this will update the list of users to reflect any changes made by other users.

New

This will allow you to add a new user.  Each user name must have a letter as the first character, (e.g. "9 Kevin" is not allowed).

Edit

This will display the selected user's name and allow you to edit it.  This has the same effect as double-clicking on a user name.

Delete

This will delete the selected user.  You may also make a multiple selection of users for deletion.

Report

This will display a list of Users.  See also Printing Reports


Categories Window

This window is used to maintain the list of categories.

Refresh

Clicking this will update the list of categories to reflect any changes made by other users.

Select

This button is only present in some circumstances.  For example, in the Action window  you would select the category for the job by displaying the Categories Window and clicking the select button (or double-clicking the category name from the list).

New

This will allow you to add a new category.  Each category name must have a letter as the first character, (e.g. "29 Hardware" is not allowed).

Edit

This will display the selected category's name and allow you to edit it.  This has the same effect as double-clicking on a category name.

Delete

This will delete the selected category.  You may also make a multiple selection of categories for deletion. (Please note - when a category is deleted it remains in the database but is not available for selection.  This allows you to have correct historical reporting.)

Report

This will display a list of Categories.  See also Printing Reports


Monitor Window

See Also: Action Window, Example Reports

The monitor window displays those jobs which meet the criteria set.  Monitor1 and Monitor2 are identical and are provided so that you can monitor two different classes of jobs at the same time if needed.

For example, if you were using Progress as a help-desk system, you might have Monitor1 set up to display incoming tasks for your user name and Monitor2 to search past jobs for similar help-desk calls to assist your diagnosis of problems.

The Monitor window has the following components:

Jobs Table

Refresh Interval

Sort Order

Include

History

Search for

Logged Date/time

Refresh Button

Action Job Button

Reports Button

Delete Button


Jobs Table
Jobs table (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Alert on change in jobs, Example reports

This displays those jobs which meet the criteria set by the Include fields, the Search for text and any dates set in the Logged Date/time fields.

The width of each column is automatically sized to accomodate the data displayed, however this may mean that not all the data for a job can be displayed.  In this case a horizontal scroll bar allows you to move left and right. If you wish, you can alter the width of the columns by dragging the dividing line of column headings.

As you click on a job in this table the history is updated.


Refresh Interval
Refresh Interval (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Alert on change in jobs

Progress will automatically update the Monitor window display at the interval (minutes) set here.  In a multi-user environment, other users may be adding jobs which meet your display criteria and this facility allows you see these new jobs without closing and re-opening the Monitor window.  You can also update manually by clicking the Refresh button.


Sort Order
Sort Order (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window

Clicking this will display a drop-down list which allows you to select how the jobs are ordered.  For example, you might wish to list jobs in order of "To complete by" so that those which should be done first are displayed first in the Jobs table.


Include (Monitor)
Include (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Example reports

This contains 3 check boxes: Completed Jobs; Outstanding Jobs and Overdue Jobs.

If Outstanding Jobs only is checked then the Jobs table will display only those jobs which have not been completed.

If Completed Jobs only is checked then the Jobs table will display only those jobs which have been completed.

At least one of these boxes must be checked, both may be checked if you want to display both completed and outstanding jobs.

The Overdue Jobs check box allows you to display only those jobs which should have been completed by now.


History (Monitor)
History (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window

This shows the complete history of the selected job in the Jobs Table   It contains:

The customer's details.

The date/time it was logged at.

The priority.

To complete by date.

Which user actioned it.

The category of the job.

Any notes.

In addition, if the To Complete By, Priority or Category are changed at any time, this change is logged in the History.

You can scroll through the history by clicking the up and down arrows in the scroll bar alongside the history.


Search for (Monitor)
Search For (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Example reports

These four boxes allow you to search:

Text

This will retrieve only those jobs which have a History which contains this text somewhere within it.

Example 1:

As the history contains the Customer address, you could if you wished enter a town name in this field and Progress would retrieve all jobs for customers in that town (if they match the other criteria set).

Example 2:

Enter a user name in this box, this will give you all jobs which that user has been involved in at some stage.  In conjunction with the Overdue check box, this could help you identify if particular users are involved with more overdue jobs than others.

User

Entering a User name  will retrieve only those jobs where the person responsible for the current action is the selected user.

You can either type a User name in the box, or click the button alongside it, which will display the list of Users.

Customer

Entering a Customer name  will retrieve only those jobs for the selected customer.

You can either type a Customer name in the box, or click the button alongside it, which will display the list of Customers.

Category

Entering a Category name  will retrieve only those jobs whose category is the one selected.

You can either type a Category name in the box, or click the button alongside it, which will display the list of Categories.


Logged Date/time (Monitor)
Logged Date/time (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Example reports

Enter a date in the From box and/or a date in the To box to restrict the display of jobs to those which were logged within the specified period.

You may enter a date in any common format, e.g.:  9/7/94, 9 Jul 1994, 9 July 94.  If you don't include a year, it defaults to the current year.

If you don't specify a time then this defaults to 00:00 - i.e. the start of the day.


Refresh button (Monitor)
Refresh Button (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window

Clicking this button will do an immediate update of the Jobs Table.  Whenever you change the  Sort Order, Include, Search or Logged Date/time  items then the title for the Jobs Table will change to remind you to do a manual refresh.   Until the Jobs Table is refreshed you will not be able to carry out any other actions.


Action Job Button (Monitor)
Action Job Button (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Action Window

Click this button to action the currently selected job from the Jobs Table.   To select a job click on any part of the row containing that job in the Jobs Table.  The Action Window will be displayed.


Reports Button (Monitor)
Reports Button (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window, Example reports

Clicking this button will pop-up a menu with a number of available reports:

Job History

This displays the full history of all the jobs displayed in the Jobs table.

Jobs Summary

This shows a summary of all the jobs in the Jobs table.

Jobs per Customer

A list of all customers and the number of jobs which have been recorded against them.

Jobs per Category

A breakdown of all the jobs in the Jobs table according to the job category.

Jobs Frequency

A graph showing the number of jobs logged over time.

NB The above  reports will only include those jobs which match the criteria set by the Include, Search and Logged Date/time parts of the Monitor Window.

Overdue vs On-Target Jobs

A graph showing the number of jobs logged over time, split into those which were completed within the specified time and those that were not. (jobs which are outstanding but have not yet reached the specified completion time are considered to be 'on-target').  All criteria apart from those set by the Include option still apply.

See Printing Reports for options on printing these reports and saving them to a file.


Example Reports

See Also: Monitor Window

The monitor window displays a list of jobs which meet certain criteria.  These criteria are set by using the  Include, Search or Logged Date/time  items.  This enables you to do sophisticated reporting on the jobs logged in your system.

We will take a few examples to illustrate some of the techniques you can use:

HelpDesk system - finding a similar error to help diagnose the current job.

All details of  a job are recorded in the history.  If, for example, the current helpdesk job is reporting an error 'Insufficient memory':

Open up the second Monitor window and type into the Text field 'memory'.

Check both the Completed  and Outstanding Jobs boxes to include all jobs.

Click the refresh button.

Progress will search through all jobs and try to find any that include the text 'memory' in their history.  Hopefully, this will result in a number of jobs being displayed in the Jobs table.  You can then examine the history of each one for clues which might help you to solve the current problem.

Finding how many jobs a customer has created during a period of time

This information can be very helpful in determining the level of charges for support, potential training needs or particular problem areas.

Decide the period of time you wish to report on.

Enter the earliest date in the 'From date' field.

Enter the latest data in the 'To date' field.  In most cases you will be looking at a period of  weeks or months, however you can specify particular times as well as dates if your period is much shorter.

Click the 'Refresh' button and the Jobs table will list all jobs for theperiod specified.  The total number of jobs will be displayed just above the Jobs table.

Click the Reports button and select "Jobs per Customer".

(Please note - this report might include customers which you have deleted.  When a customer is deleted it remains in the database but is not available for selection.  This allows you to have correct historical reporting.)

Identifying your busiest periods

You may be interested in whether certain jobs tend to occur more or less frequently during particular periods of time:

Set your criteria for the type of job or customer (see the earlier example).

Click the 'Refresh' button to display matching jobs in the Jobs table.

Click the 'Reports' button.

Select the 'Jobs Frequency' option from the menu.

This will display a graph showing the number of jobs logged during the time period you specified.  Busy periods will be easily identified as those during which the most jobs are logged.

Monitoring your efficiency in dealing with jobs

When a job is logged, a target date for completion is specified.  If a job is not completed by this time then it is classified as overdue.  To report on overdue jobs only:

Click the 'Overdue' check box so that an 'X' appears next to it.

You will want to include completed jobs so make sure the 'Completed jobs' check box has an 'X' in it.

If you want to include current jobs that are now overdue then click the 'Outstanding' check box so that there is an 'X' in it as well.

If you want to limit the report to a particular period of time then enter the appropriate dates into the 'From Date' and 'To Date' fields.

Now click the 'Refresh' button and the Jobs table will display all overdue jobs

The total number of overdue jobs will be displayed.

To see if your efficiency is changing then click the 'Reports' button and select the 'Overdue vs On-Target Jobs' option.  This will show a graph from which you can easily identify if your are becoming better or worse at completing jobs within the required time.

 Is a particular user more likely to cause a job to go overdue?

When one job is dealt with by several users, it can be very difficult to identify if one of those users is less capable than others of completing it within the target time.  This would be very useful information to have, as you could then investigate the reasons and help that user to improve their efficiency.

You might think that you could achieve this by entering name in the 'User' field, but this will only produce a list of jobs for which the current  user is the same as the one you specified.  What you actually want is a list of jobs in which the specified user has had any involvement.  If you remember that the history of a job contains a complete record of what has been done to a job and by whom, you will see how this objective can be achieved:

Select overdue jobs by checking the 'Overdue' and 'Completed' boxes (see earlier example).

Enter a user name in the 'Text' field.

Click the 'Refresh' button to display matching jobs in the Jobs table.

Click the 'Reports' button.

Select the 'Jobs Frequency' option from the menu.

The displayed graph will show all overdue jobs that the specified user has been involved with at some stage or other.  Print this out by clicking the 'Print' button.

Repeat this process for a few other users, then compare the numbers of jobs for each user to identify any trends.

Identifying which types of jobs are the most numerous

This information can help you identify particular problem areas, or allocate resources more effectively.

Set your selection criteria (dates etc.).

Click the 'Refresh' button to display matching jobs in the Jobs table.

Click the 'Reports' button and select the 'Jobs by Category' option.

The resulting report will list job numbers by category. (Please note - this report might include categories which you have deleted.  When a category is deleted it remains in the database but is not available for selection.  This allows you to have correct historical reporting.)


Printing Reports

On printed reports the following buttons are active:

These buttons will enable you to move to the first, previous, next and last (respectively) pages of the report.

This button toggles between a full-page and close-up views of the report.

This button will print out selected pages or all of the report.

This toolbar button becomes enabled and lets you save the report to a file in a variety of formats.

On graph reports (Jobs Frequency and Overdue vs On-target Jobs), the following toolbar button becomes active:

Clicking this will print the graph.  It is not possible to save the graph to file.  If you wish to do this then press the PrtSc button and paste the captured image into your paint package (e.g. Paintbrush).


Delete Button (Monitor)
Delete Button (Monitor Window)

See Also: Monitor Window

Clicking this button will display a dialog which asks whether you wish to delete the selected job or all jobs displayed in the Jobs Table.

If a password has been set then you must enter the password before it allows you to delete a job.


Action Window

See Also: Log New Job, Monitor WIndow

The Action Window is displayed if you click either the Log New Job button on the Customers Window or the Action Job button on the Monitor Window.

The Action Window has the following fields:

History

This shows the customer's details, plus a complete audit detail what actions were taken, by whom and when.

Notes

This field is used to make any notes that you need on the action taken.  These notes will be automatically added to the History for this job.

Category

This displays a drop down list of the categories that you have defined in the system.

When you log a new job, this defaults to "Not assigned" - you must select one from the list before you can finish logging the new job.

You may change the category at a later stage if you wish.  For example, in a help desk application, you might discover that what you thought was a hardware problem is actually caused by the software.  If you make any changes to the Category, this change will be noted in the History.

Actioned By Button

Clicking this button will display the Users Window.   Click on the name of the user who actioned this job then click the select button, (alternatively, double click the user name).  You will be returned to the Action Window and the selected name will be displayed beside this button.  If you wish, you may type a valid user name into the box alongside this button.

The chosen user name will be remembered and automatically inserted on the next job that you action.

When you log a new job, this defaults to "Not assigned" - you must select a user before you can finish logging the new job.

Pass On To Button

If you have clicked the Completed box, this button will be inactive.

Otherwise you must select a user (in the same way as the Actioned By Button) that this job should be passed onto for the next action.

When you log a new job, this defaults to "Not assigned" - you must select a user before you can finish logging the new job.

Completed

Click this box if this is the last action for this job, a cross will appear inside the box.

Priority

This displays a drop down list of "High", "Medium" and "Low".  You use this to set the priority which has been assigned to a job.

When you log a new job, this defaults to "Low".  If you make any changes to the priority, this change will be noted in the History.

Target

This is the target date and time that the job should be completed by.

When you log a new job this defaults to 09:00 the following weekday, but this can be amended at the time.  If you make any changes to this date, this change will be noted in the History.

OK Button

Click this when you have completed all the details, this will complete the action and (if the job is not completed) pass the job onto the next user.

Cancel Button

Click here if you wish to cancel the action.  If you are logging a new job, this button will cancel this also.


Multiple Selections
You can select more than one item in a list by:

Dragging the mouse over the range of items to be selected.

Click the first item on the list, then hold down the SHIFT key as you click the last item in the block you wish to select.

Click the first item then hold down the CONTROL key as you click other items (they don't need to follow each other in the list).