aasinc wrote:Why do estimates appear on the scheduler? We are very unhappy with what Mitchell has done with the scheduler, to the point of finding a new shop management system!
You can turn that off in your setup. See the pic below.....
toggle here to turn estimates off/on in scheduler
estimatesoff.png (52.23 KiB) Viewed 7625 times
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1 Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203 www.motorcaralternatives.com
I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
Has there been any thought to allowing access to the revised "7.1.5" Schedule in a hosted Sandbox. This would allow users to critique it and decide whether they wish to upgrade prior to causing any potential disruption in their "live" system?
IMHO, the schedule should be flat with minimal bells and whistles. Again, in my opinion, you should be able look up a customer, have a text field for: services needed, what time, drop or wait, some way for us to estimate duration and the system tally the time for quick display, and the capability to print it.
GUTHTIRE wrote:Has there been any thought to allowing access to the revised "7.1.5" Schedule in a hosted Sandbox. This would allow users to critique it and decide whether they wish to upgrade prior to causing any potential disruption in their "live" system?
IMHO, the schedule should be flat with minimal bells and whistles. Again, in my opinion, you should be able look up a customer, have a text field for: services needed, what time, drop or wait, some way for us to estimate duration and the system tally the time for quick display, and the capability to print it.
There really isn't the option to provide a sandbox environment for Manager SE, since it's a local Windows application using a local database instance. Setting up a remote test environment there would be quite a bit of additional work, setting up VPN connections, etc. It's never our intent to implement changes that negatively impact our users. I honestly think you'll be much happier with this upcoming version, as it addresses a number of items you specifically mention here.
GUTHTIRE wrote:
IMHO, the schedule should be flat with minimal bells and whistles. Again, in my opinion, you should be able look up a customer, have a text field for: services needed, what time, drop or wait, some way for us to estimate duration and the system tally the time for quick display, and the capability to print it.
THIS!!! All I want to do is capture the customer's name, vehicle, phone number, what time they are dropping off, what they are dropping for, and an estimated duration for repairs and a total of the estimated times for all appointments that day. In my mind, I schedule about 5-6 hours of work per day per tech, knowing that it will likely turn into 8-9 with upsells. I need to be able to easily glance at the schedule and see that I have 6 hours scheduled for tech #1 tomorrow, then adjust the duration of the appointment when we upsell brakes, filters, etc. to know when I've scheduled him 8+ hours. The ability to carry them over to the next day would be nice
Please know that we've heard these concerns and have worked hard towards providing users with the best of both worlds; in a short time we will release an update that transforms the Appointment Editor, the Scheduling and Appointment tabs and the way they interact with estimates & orders. The Appointments tab will replicate much of the old scheduler combined with more data (Drop Off times, etc.) and display options.
Below is a sneak preview of the many changes that will appear in the imminent SE 7.1.5 release:
Improved Schedule Appointment Tab Usability
Save Layout/Settings of the Appointment tab.
Added button to revert to old style view
Ability to apply group sort, and reset default grid layout/sorts.
Ability to easily ungroup or apply default groups to appointments
Appointments will appear in one of four groups:
1. Previous: Appointments that have end date before today
2. Today: Appointments that started today, or started earlier and end today or later
3. Tomorrow: Appointments that start tomorrow
4. Future: Appointments beyond tomorrow
Each group will have a sum of order hours.
Job Hours column hidden by default. Job hours summary when visible.
Scheduled Event Report Updated
Added the customer business name when present
Added two new reports to support the scheduler
Scheduled Events by Technician.
Scheduled Events Summary.
Improved Plate-to-VIN lookup
VIN automatically entered (via Plate to VIN) will check for duplicates before decoding and displays a VIN selector.
Technician on WIP stays in Sync with Schedule
New appointment will use the Default Labor Technician when not in Technician View
When in Technician view use the Currently selected Technician (current behavior)
Creating an appointment from an existing Order should copy the Order's Labor Tech
Changing the Labor Tech from the Orders Options should update existing/previous Labor Tech on the existing Appointment
Changes made on the WIP to Labor Tech are updated the Labor Tech
Order Technician will update when an appointments Technician is changed
Dragging Appointments to an alternate Labor Tech on the Schedule will modify all Labor Techs on the attached order
Changing the system default labor technician will not change existing Appointments tech assignments
Shop Events default to none for the technician
Added the option "Auto Adjust Appointment Time Span" to match Order hours
Added a checkbox on appointment Editor setting is for that appointment only
Setting inherits the system wide setting by default on new appointments
When the setting is checked on an existing appointment, future changes to the repair order labor hours will adjust appointment end time
Users can alternately 'disable' (uncheck) on an existing appointment
Implemented a more user-friendly date and time control
All four dates (Drop off, promise, start/end) have a separate editor for date and time
Time Drop down shows hours in the range of visible shop hours. If visible shop hours is 12-12, or 5-5, etc..
Improved Print Functionality from the Schedule
Added a new Schedule option for Default Drop Off Time
The User can now set a default drop-off time for new appointments, much like the default promised time.
Added Drop Off Time Value to Work In Progress
The Drop Off Time has been added to the end of the WIP.
Added Search/Filter to scheduler view
Entered filter text shows any appointments matching: Vehicle YMM/License/Vin, Customer First/Last, Subject, Phone, Notes, Email, Technician, Resource, RO/INV#, Hat#. If not matching, the appointment is hidden.
Case insensitive search.
Added drop down for Appointment State: All shows all, Open shows only open and so on. Selection should be saved (per user, as all scheduler view settings are).
Added Check boxes for Order phases (EST, INV, RO/SO, Posted INV). When not checked, the unchecked ones are filtered out of view. Selection should be saved (per user, as all scheduler view settings are).
Optimize TimeLine View Layout
Added Timeline Icon/Button to Ribbon.
Defaults to 30-minute increments.
Modified Left Pane to be Collapsible (month controls).
Keep Promised Time Synched in Appointment Window when updated in WIP/ORDER
Tim McDonnell -
Sr. Product Market Mgr / Forum Moderator / Mitchell 1 Media Developer
Figured I'd chime in with another issue I run into. So I stopped by the shop today (Sunday) to finish up some paper work and I figured I'd go ahead and look at the schedule for Monday. We had a car towed in late Friday afternoon and I'd like to put it on the schedule for Monday morning and block off about 3 hours for it. However, if I put it on Monday, the customer will get a text message from us due to message manager pro sending out reminders.
The same also happens with a customer who came in Thursday, dropped off, and after getting the car looked at, we find he needs a strut. So I have his original appointment on Thursday, but we will be replacing the strut on Monday. Question is, do I drag and drop the appointment on Monday and adjust for estimated time? Also, anyone have tips on these customers not receiving reminder texts for appointments when their car is already here? I realize this is probably more an issue with how I manage MMP, but hopefully someone has some tips/tricks/ideas.
Even it there was someway to just create a block that was a 'note' containing info like 'strut on the highlander and no start/crank lexus' that I could block off about 5 hours of time with. With my 2 techs working, I try to only schedule about 8 hours of work per day, since I know oil changes will turn into brake jobs, filters, wipers, bulbs, etc. Where I'm struggling is how to handle the oil change I had 1 hour scheduled for that turns into a 4 hour job and how to represent that on the schedule. Even trickier if the parts are special order and we push the job to the next day
Dragging Appointments to an alternate Labor Tech on the Schedule will modify all Labor Techs on the attached order
please don't do this.... or allow it to be toggled off. the "auto tech update" thing has been a major PITA as is. If you accidentally hit the "tech column" and the scroll wheel the techs get re-assigned.. sometimes we have 3 different techs on a job and they all get changed throwing tech efficiency way off... its horrible.
Dragging Appointments to an alternate Labor Tech on the Schedule will modify all Labor Techs on the attached order
please don't do this.... or allow it to be toggled off. the "auto tech update" thing has been a major PITA as is. If you accidentally hit the "tech column" and the scroll wheel the techs get re-assigned.. sometimes we have 3 different techs on a job and they all get changed throwing tech efficiency way off... its horrible.
Agreed! I want to be able to assign a tech in the scheduler but I don't want that tech to auto fill all the parts/labors. Many times jobs are split between techs. Please give us a way to turn this automation off.
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1 Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203 www.motorcaralternatives.com
I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
Dragging Appointments to an alternate Labor Tech on the Schedule will modify all Labor Techs on the attached order
please don't do this.... or allow it to be toggled off. the "auto tech update" thing has been a major PITA as is. If you accidentally hit the "tech column" and the scroll wheel the techs get re-assigned.. sometimes we have 3 different techs on a job and they all get changed throwing tech efficiency way off... its horrible.
Agreed! I want to be able to assign a tech in the scheduler but I don't want that tech to auto fill all the parts/labors. Many times jobs are split between techs. Please give us a way to turn this automation off.
If it helps, it was designed not to overwrite any lines you've already individually set. For example: Tech A is the default for the order, Tech B is manually assigned to a line item or two. If you are in the Schedule and intentionally move it from Tech A to Tech C, only the lines assigned to Tech A are changed on the order.
Silky7 wrote:
If it helps, it was designed not to overwrite any lines you've already individually set. For example: Tech A is the default for the order, Tech B is manually assigned to a line item or two. If you are in the Schedule and intentionally move it from Tech A to Tech C, only the lines assigned to Tech A are changed on the order.
I wish it did. I want to be able to utilize the technician assignments in the scheduler but still be able to assign techs manually as I've done for the last 14 years.
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1 Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203 www.motorcaralternatives.com
I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
Hey All:) I'm back to beat a dead horse...but I feel it needs beating....
When will we be able to enter in recurring appointments? And when will we be able to right click and highlight a time for a Shop Event on a particular day instead of having it default to the current date/time? Both of these issues would be greatly appreciated for both the service writers as well as the technicians.
Currently I'm having to use Outlook for any recurring appointments or shop events, and Scheduler just takes entire too long to try and set up weekly events or shop events, and then I HOPE I don't double book myself.
We are doubling our size next month and I would REALLY like to get everyone on a single calendar.
Logic tells me that we should be able to highlight a specified amount of time and right click and then have the system automatically either do an appointment or a shop event at our liking, might be a good suggestion?
Attachments
This is what happens when choosing "all day event" Very hard to distinguish
All day event.JPG (16.28 KiB) Viewed 7522 times
This is what would be helpful/useful for blocked appointments.
We combed all of the input in this area for the last 14 months to determine the main stories to address for 7.1.7 to deliver and there are additional Schedule stories to be delivered in a few weeks with 7.2.x:
•Schedule Window now includes a Help button on each screen
•Appointment State colors are now editable
•Appointment editor to alert when 'seeing' recommendations
•Printing Reports with schedule open, will now maintain focus and leave Manager in the Foreground
•The Source of the invoice is now maintained in schedule, WIP, and order
•Scheduler will now remember what the user selected to Show/Hide while in the schedule screen
•Editing appointments with an order open caused customer information to be switched (FIXED)
•Improved Schedule Appointment Tab Usability
We know that there are certainly some additional concerns and some of these are written up as development stories to tackle as resources permit. Getting these two releases (7.1.7 and 7.2) out there and gaining user feedback will determine the next steps.
Tim McDonnell -
Sr. Product Market Mgr / Forum Moderator / Mitchell 1 Media Developer
The scheduler in 7.1 coming from 6 is ludicrous. Why you need it over complex and time consuming is beyond me. Most small shops are not running Dr office with time scheduled to the minute. You created an extra hour a day trying to make a quick appointment now. Looks like a pad and paper from here on out!
I don't understand why right mouse clicking on a date and time, then typing the first few letters of a customer to find them, selecting the intended vehicle and saving the appointment can take much more time than the old schedule. The old scheduler takes 5 clicks to record just an appointment, no note, no jobs, no category, The new schedule requires only 1 mouse click extra to do the same thing (3 more if I want to get really fancy), and as a bonus identifies the vehicle you will be working on. An additional bonus is the calendar can stay open, reducing time.
Well when you don't have customer data it's a pain..... I am not going to create a new customer over the phone. So "DAVE" calls fine i will enter it. what happens when a different dave calls without any data either...
The old schedule i could enter " . " (or what ever i want) as a name a quick note O/C (oil change) and done. NO TIME, DATE etc needed.. So how does this new schedule save me time?
Schedule>Right click>New appointment>Find customer (useless when not in system) > either in system or create new customer >add vehicle screen (again no info if a new customer)>Save and close now i can ENTER data quickly for example O/C (oil change)
So tell me where this saved me time and makes it more efficient?
For what it's worth..when I have a first time customer call I gather ALL their info. Then I set an appointment. If for whatever reason they don't show I can at least market to them. Being a one man shop the schedule don't clutter as it would for several techs. I liked the old schedule as well but have become use to the new one. It was a learning curve but it is a work in progress.
Jeff Fitzgerald - retired
Treasure Coast of Florida
"there will be enough time to sleep when we're dead"
