Have you ever wondered if you’re using ticketing to it’s fullest? Know what categories, types, and groups are for? Know when to use updates and when to use comments? Get the answers to these questions and many more.

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Managing inventory properly can ensure your tech’s have the equipment they need to complete their jobs, track trends and mitigate theft. Powercode makes it easy to know where every item is once it’s delivered. To begin using the inventory feature you will need to establish all of your products and consumables, click on the ‘Inventory’ tab at the top of any screen then click the ‘Manage Inventory’ button.  The manufacturer and type for each item will need to be built and any vendors should be added too. Stock locations indicate where the items are stored and checked out from so most will only have one unless you maintain a remote stock facility. The ‘Statuses’ and ‘Conditions’ tabs come populated with all the scenarios needed, but the ability to add custom ones for any outliers is still available.

Next make sure to click on the ‘Admin Settings’ button and enter the email address of your purchasing agent or whoever is responsible for keeping equipment in stock. Then click the green ‘Create Product’ button on left hand side under the ‘Products’ tab and add a product for each individual type of equipment that will be tracked. This default information can also be overwritten when entering the actual items into stock. Pay special attention as to whether it is an item with a trackable serial number and MAC or if it’s a consumable and check the box if so. When the count of an item/consumable in a stock location drops below the number set in the ‘Min. Stock Level’ box, a warning email is sent the address established in the aforementioned ‘Admin Settings’ box.

Now the actual items can be added to stock from the green ‘Add Items’ button under the ‘Items’ tab. If multiple of the same item are being added at once, click on the ‘Bulk entry mode’ link with the lock icon. Then click on each lock next to the line that will remain the same for each entered item. Typically that will be for all except the MAC, DUID and/or Serial. A USB barcode scanner can be purchased making input significantly quicker.

When it’s time for a tech to remove an item from the stock room, they simply hit the edit pencil icon next to the item, choose the ‘Staff’ Assignee Type and select their name from the Web User drop down. When it’s added to a customer account nothing further is necessary as it will automatically remove the item from it’s location and add it under the ‘Equipment’ tab of the customer.

To learn more or see it in action watch this video:

Powercode provides automatic emails to provide top-notch communication to your customers and alert employees of important events within the system. If you haven’t looked at your system emails lately to see what’s active and what’s not now would be a great time to review them. At the time of this article we have thirty different events that can send emails to the contact(s) listed on an impacted account. There are thirteen different triggers to let employees know of changes that they should be aware of and one for anyone who has a schedule set up.

From the ‘Config’ tab a the top and select ‘System Email’ to see which emails are currently setup, check the status column to see if they’re actively in use or not. If you don’t see an email you want already in the table, click on the ‘+Add System Email’ button in the upper left. Name the email in the ‘Description’ field and chose what should trigger it from the ‘Send Event’ drop down. Note that some events allow for a ‘Days Prior’ field. The email can be set to only send for one of your companies or all from the ‘Company Email Association’ field. The option is given to include the latest invoice each time this email is triggered, this is only recommended for new billing or delinquency warning emails. Set the from address and subject for the recurring message. Fill out the body of the email which gives basic formatting features including hyperlinking. Choose a attachment if relevant and click ‘Save’.

Make sure you are taking advantage of the dynamic variables to personalize the message to each customer. Click on the Powercode logo on the far right of the email body to show the available fields that will be populated by the associated info from each customers account, see the chart below. In addition to providing details about the triggered event this is a good way to encourage use of customer portal or provide other helpful info about their account.

When Powercode was installed default system emails were loaded with generic messages. It is a good idea to review each and make sure it captures your company’s messaging tone and includes the info you want for each type of event. To do this from the action column click the ‘Select an action’ drop down and choose ‘Edit’, then do it again on the next page. Edit your message and take full advantage of the dynamic variables.