FAQs

Advanced Questions

a

When setting up a new Customer there is a place for the salesman. When I click on the list, there is nothing there. How do I choose the salesmen?

You must set up an employee as a salesman before they will show up in the salesmen lists on the Customer and Location forms. See salesmen.

a

When I try to open the maps, I get an error message the detail says that there is already a MapPanel.

You need to install a file called pwstrv2.lic in order for the maps for work.

a

Mobile Resource Manager hosts our software but I can’t print from Mobile Resource Manager.

If you can print to your printer from another application but not from Mobile Resource Manager, you may need to download the latest driver for your printer.

Please do the following:
1. Log completely out of MRM
2. Go to the your printer company’s website and download the latest printer drivers on your machine
3. Save and/or run the driver installation files
4. Call MRM support so that they can install the latest driver on the server that houses your software
5. Test to see if you can now print from MRM
a

Where does the list for “Installed by” come from? I can’t find it in “List Types”.

This list can be used two different ways:

1. You can document the actual company that installed the equipment, such as Carrier, OR

2. You can document which of your technicians installed the equipment. If you want to keep track of the actual company, you need to add List Items to the Installed By List Type. The companies will be accessible from the drop down list shown below.

Note: If you want it to pull by the Technician that did the installation, you need to change the List Type that this field is pulling from.

Please do the following:
1. Click on the down arrow beside “Tools” on the Equipment form
2. Click Customize
3. Click on the Control Properties tab
4. In the left hand drop down box, click the second in the list “cboInstalledBy: TcbComboBox”
5. Look in the list below it. Find on the left side where it says “cbListType”.
6. On the list’s right side, select “Technicians” from the drop down menu
7. Click Save

Customizing Forms

a

Ho do I customize forms, such as renaming labels or making certain fields mandatory?

You can do this through the Tools menu on the specific form:
1. Open the form you want to modify
2. Click on the Tools drop down arrow
3. Select Customize
4. Click on Control Properties
5. Select the field you want to change. If it’s a label field, change what is in the “Caption” field. If you want to make a field mandatory or not mandatory, make changes to the “Required” field.
6. Save your changes

 

Please contact our support team if you have any questions.

Dispatch Board

a

I cannot drag and drop Service Calls onto the Dispatch Board.

The User Group you are a part of may not have edit rights on the Board. You can either change with group you are in or edit the rights for that group.

a

In the Dispatch Board list, I tried removing the date from Option 1. When I did this, it would not let me drag a call to the technician without asking to change the Site Visit date.

The program requires the date to be in the first column.

a

I keep track of multiple technicians/resources, so I need multiple Dispatch Boards. How do I create one?

The easiest way to create a new Dispatch Board is to save a copy of the existing Dispatch Board.

1. Right-click on the Dispatch Board.
2. Click the “Save As” button located in the bottom left on the Edit View form.
3. Rename the board to whatever resource you are tracking, such as Laborers.

 

TIP: When you create a new Dispatch Board to filter out specific resources, such as Laborers, you must filter the board to only pull that Tech Type. Customize the Board Options through the Board Options button located above the Dispatch Board.

a

On the Daily Dispatch Board, I would like to change the Hours column to reflect the Standard Hours instead of Estimated Hours.

Unfortunately, this would require custom coding, but there is a workaround. One thing that may help is to look at the Summary Board. This board is similar to the Multi-Day Board but only shows totals for each day/tech. By using the format string for “Summary Data” on the dispatch board options form, you can set to show total estimated/actual/standard/overtime/double-time/total charged (standard + overtime + double-time) for each day/tech. While he is on the daily board, they can use the buttons above the board to switch back and forth between daily and summary boards views. If you wish to have it custom coded, please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support.

a

Is it possible to print the DB in a date range instead of just what is shown on the monitor?

Assuming this if for a multi-day board, follow the instructions below:

1. Open board options dialog
2. Uncheck option to “auto-fit columns” for multi-day board. They may want to change the “Data Width” option for multi-day board to a width that makes sense for a printout
3. Set the board date to the first day they want to print
4. Set the “number days” option for multi-day board for the number of days they want to print
5. Use the print button. On print dialog, select proper printer and change settings for paper size and orientation as necessary

 

TIP: To make it easier on you, you could create a special dispatch board item that could prompt the user for the date and number days so they don’t have to keep changing settings back and forth.

a

Can I schedule a Site Visit for an entire day, but make it fill up the entire white space for that day on the Dispatch Board?

When scheduling Site Visits, the white space for that day automatically lengthens downward to how many Site Visits are scheduled. If you want to block out for a day, see changing tech status.

a

On the Daily Dispatch Board, is there a way to stack the Service Calls and Site Visits on top of one another instead of stacking them left to right?

Unfortunately no, but you can use the Multi-Day Dispatch Board and set it to show just one day at a time. To do this:

1. Click on Board Options button located above the Dispatch Board.
2. On the right hand side, in the Number of Days field, type in ‘1’
3. Click Save Options.
a

My Cancelled and Rescheduled Site Visits aren’t displaying on the Dispatch Board.

When the status of a site visit is Canceled or Rescheduled, they are automatically filtered off of the dispatch boards. Mobile Resource Manager can be adjusted to make display of these site visits optional. Contact support for details.

Emloyees as Sales/Techs

a

Why isn’t my Technician showing up on the Dispatch Board after I chose “Tech” as their Employee Type?

You can show their Employee Type on the Employee’s form by choosing a type such as ‘Tech’. But this does not automatically make the employee a technician. See adding a technician.

a

I need to show that a technician is on vacation. How can I change a technician’s status?

You can document a technician’s status, such as when they are on vacation, to show a holiday, or Paid Time Off. See changing tech status.

a

How do you set up the technician rates?

Once you add a Technician, you can add their Labor Costs. To do this, simply open up the Technician’s form and click on the Labor Costs tab.

Equipment

a

When you enter new equipment in the system, do you have to assign it to a location? Can you enter it in and pull the information when you need it?

You must enter the location that the piece of equipment is at. When you add a new piece of equipment, you enter the Type and Manufacturer. After you enter those two, the Model No combo box will be filled in with all model no’s of that type and manufacturer. If the Model No is not in the list, you can enter it in and will show up underlined. Also, it will be added to the Master Equipment Type list so that the Model No will show up next time.

a

When we add equipment to the invoice to requisition to the job, can we add it on the Service Call, on the Equipment tab on the More tab?

There would need to be some flag on the item to indicate it was equipment to be added as opposed to just normal parts. Also, more information would need to be filled out (equip type, model no, serial no, etc…) then it would be available from the inventory list.

Error Messages

a

I’m getting an error message “General SQL error. String or binary data would be truncated. The statement has been terminated.”

The error message indicates a text field was entered with a length longer than the database allows.

Errors

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into Visual Contract that says “cannot connect to the database DDVC”.

This can occur if there has been a change in the naming of the VC DSN name in the ODBC settings. If an upgrade has been performed, the name could have been changed in the ODBC, but not in the export.ini file. Make sure the name in the ODBC settings by Visual Contracct’s VC DSN name is the exact same name used in the export.ini file.

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into QuickBooks that says “Cannot merge list elements”.

**ERROR**: Updating QB Customer (ABC Company) (“There was an error when modifying a Customers list, element “7600000-1116250114″. QuickBooks error message: Cannot merge list elements.” /)

This can occur if there has been a change in the customer’s name in QB that hasn’t changed in MRM or that MRM  isn’t picking up. MRM Support must go into MRM Database Utilities and remove the QBID number in order for the customer to transfer back into QB to the right customer. To avoid this in the future, only change customer and location names in MRM, then export them into QB.

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into QuickBooks that says “Version of this record has different deleted count”:

**ERROR**: Adding QB Invoice (S1234) (“Object “8A70000-1135082608″ specified in the request cannot be found. QuickBooks error message: Your version of this record has a different deleted count than the one in the datafile.” /)

This happens if the customer has been deleted from QuickBooks and then re added. QB gives each customer a QBID number, then in the initial transfer of information from QB to MRM, the customer in MRM has the exact same information. For example, ABC Company has a QBID number of 123A in QB and MRM, but then you delete ABC Company and re-add it to QB. Now the new ABC Company has a QBID number of 456B, with a deleted QBID number of 123A. The customer in MRM still has a QBID number of 123A. When you try to transfer the invoices over, it looks at the QBID numbers in QB and sees that the 123A has been deleted, so it cannot link the invoice to the customer. MRM Support must go into MRM Database Utilities and remove the QBID number in order for the invoices to transfer back into QB to the right customer.

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into QuickBooks that says “Could not get Response Info”:

**ERROR**: Adding QB Invoice (S1234) (Could not get Response Info).

This can occur if there is an ampersand in a field on the invoice, such as the Customer PO number field. Please contact MRM Support and let them know about the error, but in the meantime, you could replace the ampersand with a slash. Then, conduct the transfer as normal.

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into QuickBooks that says “invalid username or password”:

**ERROR** starting QB Session: Invalid user name or password **Export Aborted: Error connecting to QuickBooks.

The MRM-QB link is setup to use a specified user name/password. This is stored in the QB file so it should not matter which workstation is running the link. Although the error would not seem to indicate it, her workstation may have a different path to the QB file and that could be the source of the error. The ini file stores the path to the QB file.

a

I’m receiving an error message when exporting invoices from MRM into QuickBooks that says “specified record does not exist in the list”:

**ERROR**: Adding QB Invoice (S1128) (“There is an invalid reference to QuickBooks Item “FORKLIFT” in the Invoice line. QuickBooks error message: Invalid argument. The specified record does not exist in the list.” /)
**ERROR**: Adding QB Invoice (S1843) (No Line Items.)
**ERROR** with XML request: QuickBooks found an error when parsing the provided XML text stream

This error is due to the MRM partno “FORKLIFT” not having a match in the QB item list. They need to add an item named FORKIFT to the QB item (inventory) list. This error is due to the MRM invoice S1843 not having any line items. QB requires invoices being imported to have at least one line item. If you have any questions, please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support.

Grids/Reports

a

Can I sort data by individual columns in a grid?

Yes.

Follow the steps below: 

1.  Click on a grid name from the left pane in order to open it
2.  Click on the column heading once to sort by ascending order OR
3.  Click on the column heading twice to sort by descending order

 

To save the new sort order:

1.  Right click anywhere in the grid to show the sub menu
2.  Hover the cursor over “Grid Layout” to show its sub topics
3.  Click Save Grid Layout Changes
4.  Check the box beside “Save Current Sort Order”
a

Can I change the widths of columns in a grid?

Yes.

To resize the column widths:

1.  Click on a grid name from the left pane in order to open it
2.  Hover the cursor over the end of a column heading to make the cursor change to two parallel  lines with left and right arrows
3.  Click and hold down the left mouse button
4.  Drag it to the left or right to change the width of the column

 

To save the new widths:

1.  Right click anywhere in the grid to show the sub menu
2.  Hover the cursor over “Grid Layout” to show its sub topics
3.  Click Save Grid Layout Changes
4.  Check the box beside “Save Current Column Widths”
a

Can I change the order of columns in a grid?

Yes.

To change the column order:

1. Click on a grid name from the left pane in order to open it
2. Click and hold down the left mouse button on the column heading you want to move
3. Drag the column to the new place in the grid
4. Release the mouse button when you’ve placed the column where you want it at in the grid

 

To save the new order:

1. Right click anywhere in the grid to show the sub menu
2. Hover the cursor over “Grid Layout” to show its sub topics
3. Click “Save Grid Layout Changes”
4. Check the box beside “Save Current Sort Order”
a

Can I open forms from grids?

Yes, but the form that will appear depends on what grid is open. The “Customers All” grid will open the individual Customer forms.  Follow the steps below, we will use the “Customers All” grid for this example.

1. Click on the Customers [All] grid to open it
2. Double click on a customer’s name
3. The Customer form will open for you to view, which will also give you access to their location and detailed information
a

I would like to include/exclude more fields in an existing grid. How can I change the existing grid in order to show the fields I want?

If you want to include any fields from an existing grid, please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support with a detailed description of your request. They will quickly make any changes to existing grids. However, if you want to exclude fields in a grid, you can do this on your own by following the steps below:

1. Click on a grid name that you want to change fom the left pane in order to open it
2. Right click anywhere in the grid to show the sub menu
3. Click Show/Hide Columns
4. Uncheck the boxes beside the field names that you do not want to see in the grid
5. Click OK. These changes are saved and take effect immediately
a

I need to be able to view and print the Technician Timesheet for our work week of Saturday through Friday by individual Technicians as well as a batch job. How do I do this?

The Technician Timesheet report allows you to select a date range to print. The report does not currently allow for selection of a specific technician but this could be added. Please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support if you want any changes to this report.

a

I’m receiving an error – “ERROR: Could not find Report Template”. What does that mean?

It means that the report template is not installed. If you have the template saved, see report templates. If you do not have the template, please contact  Mobile Resource Manager Support and they will be happy to install the report template for you.

a

How do I change the column width?

You can resize the column widths.

Do the following:

1. Hover the cursor over the end of a column heading to make the cursor change to two parallel lines with left and right arrows
2. Click and hold the mouse button and drag it to the left or right to change the width of the column
3. Right click on the grid itself to show the menu
4. Select Grid Layout – Save Grid Layout Changes
5. Check the box beside “Save Current Column Widths”
a

I want to change the order of the existing columns in a grid. How do I do that?

You change the column order in grids by clicking and dragging their column heading to their new place in the grid.

To save the new order:

1.  Right click on the grid itself to show the menu
2.  Select Grid Layout – Save Grid Layout Changes
3.  Check the box beside Save Current Sort Order

Import/Export

a

When I run the Zip Code Import procedures, I receive this error: “Application Error: qryUtility: Field ‘afterupdatequery’ not found”. What do I do?

You might receive this if there is an error in one of the tables. Please contact support to resolve this issue.
a

I clicked on the Zip Code grid and there’s nothing there.

If nothing pulls up in the grid, Mobile Resource Manager Support can conduct an import of the zip codes for  you. Please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support for further assistance

Invoices/Accounting

a

The invoices generated from MRM do not have our address listed. How can I change that?

In order to change the address on the invoice to show your company’s address, please do the following:

1. Click File
2. Click Administration
3. Click Application Options
4. Select “Report Headers”
5. On the right side of the form, enter the correct information
6. Click OK
a

The invoices generated from MRM have a prefix in front of them. I want to change/remove the prefix.

In order to change or remove the prefix, you must go into the Administration settings. See Application Options.

a

Is there a way to get MRM to export Service Contracts in Dispatch as Jobs in VC?

Right now we manually add these jobs into VC. The following are options for exporting jobs from MRM to VC that have currently been coded into the export application: (If Jobs are exported, determine what MRM items are exported as Jobs in VC. This is Ignored if ExportJobsFromVC is set to “Y”)

Options are:

– All Service Calls
– Locations with non-blank LocID
– Service Calls with blank ProjNo field
– Service Calls with no ProjNo and Service Contracts (‘MC-‘ + svccont.refno)
– Mitchs Export
– Locations will be exported as jobs if there is a service contract (propaccepted = 1)
– or at least one service call. Export will occur if either the location, any service contract, or any service call that has been entered/modified since last export.
– The related custid for the location will be used as CustID in VC
– Of the currently available choices, the closest would be “4”.
a

Some invoices exported from MRM have ended up duplicated in QB. These duplicate invoices were exactly the same, including the invoice number. How does this happen?

The way the MRM-QB link normally works, when you try to create a new invoice in QB and that invoice no already exists in QB, the import fails and an error message is generated. The only reason there would be any duplicates is if they manually set the transferred status to not transferred after it was exported to QB (if they needed to  edit it) and did not reset to transferred.

a

If I have an invoice dated June 30th, but I don’t export it into my accounting software until July 1st. What month will it post for?

Invoices go into the accounting month based on invoice date. So 06/30/xx will go to 06/30/xx & 06/20xx. The exception is that if 06/20xx is closed, the invoice will go to 07/20xx.

a

Can I issue multiple invoices for the same call?

Mobile Resource Manager only allows one invoice per service call.

Maps

a

When I click on any of the Map icons, I get an error message similar to “Access violation at address 03858CB in module pwstrv2.ocx. Read of address 00006643.”

MRM Support needs to add your map data information and set up your Map HQ addresses. Please let them know which states you need maps for.

Miscellaneous

a

Is there a way to sort by more than one item?

Yes. See the Filter/Sort button.

a

Can I locate a Service Call by doing a search by Location or Customer Name?

Unfortunately, “Service Calls [Name Search]” is not a default grid. Mobile Resource Manager Support can create a grid to prompt you to enter the Location or Customer Name and it will pull back all Service Calls associated to that name. However, there is a work around but it takes a few more steps to do:

1. Click on the Locations [Name Search] grid
2. Type in the name or part of the name of the location you want to search for
3. Double click on the specific location
4. Click on the Detail tab. There will be a list of Recent Service Calls or you can click on the Service Call [All] tab to view all Service Calls that were at the Location
a

How do I enter different Technician hours for a job? For example, Tech A arrives at 8:10 am and Tech B arrives to help at 8:30 am, Tech B leaves at 9:30 am and Tech A finishes up at 10:15.

Each Service Call can have many Site Visits. Each Site Visit can have many Technicians. If each Tech will have different arrival and departure times, they should be put on separate Site Visits (one Tech per Visit). If they will have the same arrival and departure times they can both be linked to the same site visit (many Techs per Visit).

a

I need to edit a drop down list but I do not see it in Application Options List Maintenance.

If there is a list that needs to be manipulated, please contact Mobile Resource Manager Support and they will be able to edit the list and explain how to get to it.

a

If you hover over the Closed By date in the bottom of the Main info tab you can double click it and change the closed date. Is this something that I can turn off by user?

Currently, this would only be turned off if the user group did not have edit rights to the Service Call form or if the Service Call itself was read-only (i.e. after the related invoice was transferred.)

New and Optional Features

a

Can I link documents into Service Calls in MRM?

Yes, but it is a separate feature. This feature also allows you to link documents specifically to a customer and/or location. Please contact your salesman to purchase the Document Linking feature.

Printing

a

When I try to print from Mobile Resource Manager, I get an error message “No default printer is selected.”

Please do the following:

1. Log out of Mobile Resource Manager
2. Click on Start – Printer and Faxes (or go into the Control Panel and find Printer and Faxes)
3. Make sure a default printer is selected. There should be a black checkmark beside a default printer.
4. Right click on the printer and select Properties
5. Click on the Sharing tab to see what print driver you have installed. Write this down. Close Properties.
6. Open up another application, such as Word, and try to print to the default printer.
7. Go to the website of the printer and download the latest printer driver onto your machine
8. Save and run it
9. Try to print from any application
10. Try to print from MRM

Sending Text

a

I’m getting an error message when sending text: “Error: Login Failure”.

The error message means that the login to their email account failed. The ID and PW would be the login information for their email account. If you are using Microsoft Exchange, the ID and PW would be their Windows login ID and PW. If you are using an external email account (like Earthlink, etc…) you should enter the login ID/PW for that account. This information is stored per MRM login, so if one user enters this, it doesn’t mean a different MRM user would be setup.

a

I can’t send text.

You must set up Text Service Providers, enter a Text Number for an employee, and set up Text Settings before you will be able to send text. See sending text.

Service Calls & Site Visits

a

How can I create recurring visits (1st Thursday of the month, etc.) on the dispatch board?

Instead of using the New button on the Site Visits tab to create one new visits, use the Multi button to create multiple visits for this Service Call.

a

When creating a new Service Call, I would like to change the Location Lookup list to include the Location Territory field. How do I do that?

Unfortunately, this form is not user-definable. Any changes to this form would have to be done by Mobile Resource Manager Support. Please contact them or your salesman.

Service Contracts

a

When I try to link the Service Contract to the Service Call, MRM will not allow it to save.

If you have already transferred the Invoice created on that Service Call, MRM will not allow you to link the Service Contract to that Service Call. If you would like this custom feature, please contact our support team.

a

Can we add a ‘Do Not Renew’ button on the Service Contracts form so that when it is enabled on a contract and we attempt to renew it, the contract will not renew?

We can update MRM to include a “Not Renewed” checkbox on the Service Contract form. After that, we can modify it to not renew contracts where this value is true (checked). Contact MRM support for this.

User Group Rights

a

What’s the relationship between Cabinets & Folders? Since we have multiple offices, we were thinking of setting up a Cabinet for each office location.

A Cabinet is a set of Folders. A specific folder, such as “Dispatch”, can be in multiple cabinets. The Cabinet is used as an organizational tool. The majority of Mobile Resource Manager clients have only one cabinet and may restrict rights at the Folder and View levels.

a

How do I set up user groups?

MRM is set up with 2 standard groups, Admin and Default. If you have users that need access to any and all cabinets and folders, put them in the Admin group. If you have users that you do not want full administrative privileges, put them in the Default group. To set up different groups or to edit the existing groups, see setting up user groups.

a

How do I set up user rights for an individual?

Once you enter a user, under the Group’s drop down list, choose which group you would like to add them to.