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Despite having 77 pre-built reports, dashboards and other business intelligence metrics already available in the ‘Reports’ tab, sometimes you just need more data. Luckily Powercode records nearly everything that happens in the system. So if you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “it would be great to see the data on this type of customer for this service with these characteristics” we can give that (or just about anything else you can think of) to you through our ‘Custom Reports’ feature.

From the “Add New Custom Report” button at the top of the Custom Reports’ header a MySQL query can be entered with the choice between a standard report or a report with an address range or date picker. Then anytime you or an employee need to access that data, just click on the report that was created.

You’re welcome to write your own reports in MySQL or you can call or email support and we are happy to build the report you need for you!

As you’re staring your ISP everyone does everything and people jump in where they can. However as you begin to scale and bring on additional employees, specialization occurs and the more access users have the more problems can happen. You may not want a support agent to be able to apply any credit they want and there’s also areas of our software that many employees probably don’t need to see like the financial dashboard. We have built granular permissions the admin can set so users can access or see only what they need to do their job but not be in areas they don’t belong.

To use permissions, navigate to the ‘Config’ tab, then ‘System Configuration’ and click on ‘Permissions’. The best thing to do is find a group that has the most similar permissions set for the user(s) then select ‘Clone’ from the ‘Select an action’ dropdown on the right. Name the group and add the desired users, note that a user can be in multiple groups and will be held to the most restrictive setting applied to them. Then click through each tab and select whether the user can see a function (switch from ‘none’ to ‘view’) or impact it, like applying a credit or taking entering a card number (change to ‘edit’). Also be aware that there are functions nested under every arrow that become selectable once the first function is set to ‘view’ or ‘edit’. To see it in action watch the video here:

Need a simple time clock solution for your employees? We have one built right into Powercode! Once enabled, whenever a user logs in it starts the clock in the upper right hand corner which runs until the user logs off. There’s also the option to automatically log out a user if they’ve been idle for a pre-set duration. Then reference the reports that show the duration, last activity and number of page loads for all users for a given day. Or view the more traditional report showing the same data for a given user over time.

To begin using this feature, from the ‘Config’ tab navigate to ‘System Configuration’ then ‘System’. On the bottom right under ‘Services and Controls’ change the ‘User Check In Required’ dropdown to ‘On’. After that set the ‘Idle Time Before Check Out’ and whether or not the running time clock should be displayed. From there the two reports live under the’System Reports’ heading on the ‘Reports’ Tab.

We’ve added a new report to help you see a breakdown of all your sub accounts and their relevant transactions, something that was not readily available before. We display a details of the taxable and taxed debits and credits for each category under your Account Classes. You can choose form any date range and drill down by Tax Zone if needed. As with all our our newly resigned reports, in addition to a .csv or .pdf you can export to excel or print directly.

This handy tool can be found under the ‘Reports’ tab at the top of any page. Then it’s under the ‘Financial Reports’ heading right below the Account Class Report. So see it in action see below!

Things happen in your network and sometimes waiting for upset callers to call in doesn’t provide the best customer service or maybe you’re looking to up-sell some customers into a higher speed service. These are two of the many great uses for the Mass Notification feature in Powercode. From the ‘Accounts’ tab select ‘Send Mass Notification’.  Also note that if you have Twillio SMS integration enabled then there’s the option for sending both text and email with different messages for the same notification.

After entering in the email address the notification is coming from and providing a subject, the body of the message can be created. Notice that this feature has many of the same elements as ‘System Emails‘ including variables tied to customer’s individual data and html formatting ability. From there choose which of the following seven organizational options apply to your message: Status, Service, Customer Group, Network Site, IP Address Range, Children of Equipment, Customer Tags. Multiple sub options can be selected from the same option behaving as an ‘And’ operator to expand the reach of a message. Multiple options can also be selected also functioning as an ‘And’ operator to specify the exact customer criteria to be reached. Be aware that a customer will be included if it meets any one criteria in each option group.

In the example above, an account that was delinquent and served off of the Nordin East Network Site would get this notification as would someone who was active connected to Shawano Toni Tower, but an account with the status of lead off of Nordin East would not. As sub options are being added the two buttons at the bottom update in real time to show how many contacts meet these criteria. Click on the ‘Export X Contacts’ to see exactly who will receive the notification if sent. Make sure to always pay attention to the status as you will rarely want to message accounts that are no longer customers.

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.

Tune in to streamline your workflow and make sure you’re providing your customers with the best experience!

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.

Effective use of templates is a great way to increase efficiency, visibility and productivity in your field tech teams. Days can be completely filled with jobs eliminating waiting around and managers can set mandatory fields for text, numbers or files (images) to guarantee the right information is being recorded for the specific job that was done. There’s also a ‘Request Rescheduling’ checkbox on the failed templates which drops the job into the stand-by list to make sure these not completed jobs don’t slip through the cracks.

To begin using templates start by creating a ‘Completion Template’ from the ‘Install’ tab. Give the template a name, be sure to include if it’s of the success or fail variety, and if it should bring up a contract at completion for the end user to sign. From there add the fields of your choosing for text, number, image, file or selection and if each is mandatory to complete the job. For an install, some popular fields are speed test of the radio, signal strength or other radio stats and length of cable used can be handy too. A picture of the install itself can be used for training and a picture of the radio’s view to the access point can help with troubleshooting in the future. The ‘Completed Jobs’ report will show the successful and failed jobs by ‘Job Template’ based on a date range with all of the completion fields for helpful analysis.

The same completion template can be used for one or many different jobs so only make additional ones to capture different information.

These completion templates can now be added to ‘Job Templates’ also under the ‘Install’ tab. It’s encouraged to create a new job template for each type of job a tech might do as opposed to just having an install or service call. A realign shouldn’t take the same amount of time as a cable run nor would the information needed on completion be the same. Then over time comparing these job types to the historical check-in/check-out duration data it can be seen whether the time given to complete is sufficient, too little or too much. Take note that in addition to the basics of name minutes and type can be set to not show drive time or require notes. Also, jobs can be restricted to specific techs which is helpful when applied to some of the more complex or involved scenarios.