Customer Master 20.2 Update Letter

Enhancements have been made to the Customer Master software application. Please take time to review these changes, which become effective with Version 20.2 of Customer Master.

This section of Client Central provides an overview of the changes made and added functionality included in the latest version of the software. Click on the Modules listed below in the table of contents for complete details. Each page refers to the changes by Module, followed by a brief summary of the enhancements included in that Module.

Customer Master’s online help has also been updated to include information on the latest enhancements. Please refer to the help documentation for an in-depth explanation of the enhancements included in this letter or contact your MACC Customer Master Software Support Representative. Web training sessions on these enhancements are also available.

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CM 20.2 Home

Delinquents

Maintenance

Delinquents

No Penalty Option for Delinquents

A new “No Penalty” option is now available for delinquent accounts, so users have the ability to send a late notice to an account, but keep the account from getting a penalty. An Expire Date, Alert, and reports are available for accounts flagged No Penalty.

A No Penalty check box was added to the Credit Node of the Service Order, with a corresponding Expire Date drop-down calendar. When checked, the account can receive a delinquent notice, but will not get a late fee during the Penalties process. The Expire Date can be set to limit the amount of time the account is exempt from penalties.

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A No Penalty Alert is available for both Inquiry and Payments at Maintenance | Common | Alerts, and will display in the Alerts window for any accounts flagged No Penalty.

The Non-Zero Balance Report found in the report’s menu of the Delinquent process, contains a new No Penalty column to aid in identifying No Penalty accounts.

The Credit Attributes report, and the Grid Report – Account can be used to discover accounts flagged as No Penalty. The Credit Attributes report has a new group box for No Penalty Options, and the Grid Report – Account includes No Penalty, and No Penalty Expire Date selections

CM 20.2 Home

Delinquents

Maintenance

Maintenance

A New Premise Equipment Interface

MACC’s new Premise Equipment interface provides versatility in managing premise equipment to the customer’s address from one application, our Customer Master software. This comprehensive and time saving interface allows users to assign/store equipment on network addresses, pull equipment items directly from Accounting Master inventory, and provision the equipment (activate or change service) with their equipment vendor. This eliminates dual entry in multiple software’s, providing a seamless equipment process within Customer Master. Users who do not have the Accounting Master Inventory interface will also be able to assign/store CM Equipment as Premise Equipment on addresses in Customer Master. Note: If your company plans to use Premise Equipment, and you plan to auto-provision that equipment, please contact your Client Relations Manager or Account Manager to coordinate with MACC’s Application Interface team. Set up will be required.

The Equipment menu has been moved from the Maintenance | Service Order menu, to its own menu item at Maintenance | Equipment | Equipment Management.

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A new Premise Equipment Removal Reason has been added to the Equipment menu, and is the table to set up and store removal reasons for Premise Equipment. When deleting CM Premise Equipment, users will be required to enter a reason for the removal.

In the Equipment Management’s Model Editor, two new check boxes were added to flag the manufacturer/model for SO Equipment, and/or Premise Equipment. Flagging SO (Service Order) Equipment allows users to add that Equipment under the Equipment node of a network tier in a Service Order. Flagging Premise Equipment sets the Manufacturer and the Model as able to be provisioned, and allows you to add equipment under the plant node of a network tier in a Service Order.

A Premise Equipment tab has been added to the Address Editor, with ability to manage and assign both CM Equipment, and AM Inventory Equipment to a service (network) address. This equipment is leased equipment only, with no POS transaction information. This table can also store CM Equipment as Premise Equipment for companies that do not use the Accounting Master Inventory interface.

The toolbar buttons include functionality to Insert, Delete, Edit, Refresh, Filter active/inactive, Reports (Equipment Listing,) Return AM Inventory, Assign Addresses (multiple,) and add Comments. The grid can display both AM Inventory equipment, and CM Equipment with applicable rows/columns to show the equipment information. Right clicking on the grid allows the export of the grid for reporting purposes.

If your company utilizes the Inventory Interface Option at Tools | Options | Inventory (Nii,) the Insert button has dual functionality to add both CM Premise Equipment (CM Prem Equip) and AM Premise Inventory (AM Prem Inv.) If not, clicking insert will take users directly to the CM Premise Equipment Editor for the selected address.

CM Prem Eq. option: The CM Premise Equipment option opens a window to select an equipment Manufacturer (Mfr,) and Model from a drop-down menu, and once selected will populate the corresponding Type, a quantity of one, and todays date in the Effective Date field. Any attributes assigned to the selected Manufacturer/Model will display in the grid, and clicking the plus sign next to an attribute will expand the grid to display all networks assigned to that address. Any networks checked/selected in the grid, will be assigned the selected Premise Equipment upon post.

Toolbar buttons include Insert, Post, Cancel, Assigned Addresses, PE Equipment Comments, and Provision. A Provision checkbox can be checked to provision the equipment, and checking the box will activate the Provision button on the tool bar. If provisioning is set up with MACCs Application Interface team, checking a network, and selecting the Provision button will provision (automatically activated or change the selected attributes on the network) through the application interface, to the equipment vendor. If not, hovering over the icon will display a fly over message of “Provisioning Equipment Not Set Up.” The Return to Grid button on the upper right is used to return to the Premise Equipment grid.

Color-coding of rows in the grid show network addresses with a Tier status of Disconnected, Suspended, and Active, as well as networks with addresses in a pending state. The example below shows a Disconnected (red,) Suspended (pink,) and Active (gray) networks at the selected address.

A color legend is available in the grid’s right click menu, to help differentiate between the colors. Select, and deselect options are also available in the right click menu.

When a CM Equipment row is highlighted, and Delete is selected, a Premise Equipment Removal Reason window will open. Removal reasons set up in the new maintenance table discussed previously, will display in the grid for selection. The lightning bolt button will execute the delete, and removal reasons can be added, deleted, and edited on the fly from the screen.

The Assign Address button is available on all Premise Equipment screens, and is used to assign multiple addresses to the premise equipment, as well as set a Primary address if there are multiples. When a CM or AM row in selected from the grid, the applicable CM (or AM) Premise Equipment Assigned Address window will open. (The screen caption changes according to the AM or CM selection.) This window lists the addresses assigned to this premise equipment in its grid. The toolbar contains buttons to add addresses, remove addresses, and set an address as the primary address. Primary addresses cannot be deleted without selecting a new primary.

Premise Equipment Comments can be made on a piece of Premise Equipment similar to Service Order Equipment comments. Highlight an AM Inventory or CM Equipment row in the grid, and click the PE Equipment Comment button on the toolbar. Any comments entered for a piece of equipment will also display in the Comments column in the grid. Clicking the Comment bubble in the grid will pop up the comment window for viewing.

AM Prem Inv. option: Selecting and using the AM Premise Inventory option to pull equipment/items from Accounting Masters inventory has some setup considerations. At Tools | Options the existing Nii node was renamed ‘Inventory’; and a new option called “Match Work Order Comp to Premise Equipment Material Comp” was added to the Accounting Master Inventory group box. When checked, and issuing inventory for premise equipment, the selected Work Order should match the Work Order Company to the Material Company, and prevent users from selecting an incorrect work order company number. Note: The Work Order’s Company, Number, and Description will be stored with the issued inventory.

A Default P.E. AM Material Company option was added to Employee Editor located at Maintenance | Common | Employee. When an Accounting Master Material Company is selected here, the AM Material Company will be defaulted to the selection for the employee when assigning AM Inventory Premise equipment. If no default is set here, and there is more than one Material Company, users will need to select a Material Company during AM Premise Equipment assignment.

Choosing AM Premise Inventory from the Insert button options opens the Accounting Master Premise Equipment Transactions window. If a default Material Company described above, exists for the employee, it is populated in the Material Company field. Clicking the Insert button from here opens the Select Premise Equipment Items screen, where Premise Equipment Items can be selected, or pulled, from Accounting Master Inventory.
In the Select Premise Equipment Items screen, a Quick search–Item Serial field has a Change List Field button on the right, used to toggle between Item Serial or Item UPC, depending on the users searching preference. The Loc ID, and Item ID field can also be used to search for items from a particular Inventory Location, and only AM Inventory Items that are marked for Premise Equipment in Accounting Master will be available for selection. When a selection is made from these search fields, the other fields will populate/pull in from Accounting Master. The Available field indicates how many of the selected items are available at the location. If this number is zero or less, you cannot save the item to the grid. The Work Order dropdown will contain all open work orders for the selected company, and when selected will tie the Item to a Work Order in Accounting Master. Clicking the Insert button loads the Item to grid below, and post adds the Item to the Accounting Master Premise Equipment Transactions grid.

AM Inventory Premise Equipment Items can be returned by selecting an AM Inventory row in the grid, and using the Return AM Inventory button (arrow.) When selected the Return AM Inventory window will appear to manage Premise Equipment item returns. Its grid contains the Premise Equipment Inventory attributes, that can be returned to the original, or a different location. The Returns group box also has options for Attributes are Returned on Lease/Issue, as well as a Salvage Rate %.

Note: Please refer to the Accounting Master Update letter for further details of the Premise Equipment Interface functionality within Accounting Master.

Premise Equipment can also be managed from multiple locations throughout Customer Master, with screens similar to the Premise Equipment functionality from the Address Editor. These locations include:

Plant node of the Service Order/Sales Lead: Premise Equipment tied to a service address can be managed in real time on the Plant node of the Service Order/Sales Lead. Premise Equipment fields were also added to the Service Order/Sales Lead Ticket Options screen so that Premise Equipment can be printed with the Service Order/Sales Lead.

Trouble Ticket: Premise Equipment tied to a service address can be managed in real time from the SO Plant button in Trouble Tickets.

The Premise Equipment fields were also added to the Trouble Preferences Editor, and Trouble Ticket Options screen so that Premise Equipment can be printed on the Trouble Ticket. The existing Equipment check box in the Trouble Ticket Report Options screen was renamed CM Equipment, and the Equipment Attributes option will print attribute information for both Equipment and Premise Equipment.

Plant Search: Premise Equipment tied to a service address can be managed in real time from the Plant Search screen.

Account Overview: Premise Equipment tied to a service address can be viewed in the Account Overview, from the new Premise Equipment tab.

Importer: The Importer tool at Tools | Mass Processing | Importer was updated with the ability to add or update Equipment. The existing Address Importer has new Field selections that can be used to import Premise Equipment to addresses in Customer Master. Two new Import Types of Equipment, and Equipment Attributes were added to import CM Equipment data, and CM Equipment Attribute data onto the database from a spreadsheet.

Multiple Grid reports were updated to include both a CM Premise Equipment, and AM Premise Equipment selectable table columns. These Grid reports include the Plant By Address, Plant By Network, and Address By Serving Equipment. Example of Plant By Address Grid Report:

The Equipment Listing report accessed in the Reports Suite | Reports | Plant, as well as from the Address Editor | Premise Equipment tab, has been updated to include both CM Equipment, and Premise Equipment. A CM Equipment, and Premise Equipment checkbox was added to the report screen to see applicable information for each. The old Inactive Equipment Only checkbox was updated to a Status drop-down menu to select Active, Inactive, or Both. In addition, a Create Comma Delimited File drop-down option was added to export the report to a .CSV file.