Release Notes for 2023-06-22

To accommodate assigning a vendor payment method to a vendor profile, the vendor profile's EFT tab has now been renamed to Payment Method.  The Pay by EFT checkbox has been replaced by a new payment method drop-down menu.  For any existing vendor profiles where the Pay by EFT checkbox was checked prior to installing this release, the system defaults the payment method to EFT - Electronic Funds Transfer.

For new vendor profiles and for all other existing vendor profiles, the system defaults the payment method to CK/CQ - Check/Cheque.

The EFT Options window (which you access by clicking Tools > Options to open the Options window, clicking Accounts Payable to display the Accounts Payable options, and then clicking the [EFT options]... button) now includes an EFT Format drop-down menu, from which you can select United States, United Kingdom, or Australia - New Zealand.

The option you select from this window determines if the system displays a Routing number field (United States and United Kingdom formats) ...

or a BSB (Bank State Branch) field (Australia - New Zealand format) on the vendor profile's Payment Method tab ...

... and determines the format of the EFT/ABA file the system generates for the payment.

The Vendor window's Payment method tab now includes a new Bank account name field.

When applicable, the system can include this information in EFT payments.

Using the Meter Reading Console, you can now bulk delete meter readings, bulk invalidate meter readings, bulk delete meter reading groups, and bulk invalidate meter readings groups associated with a selected piece of equipment.

Using the Metered equipment region (the top region), select the equipment for which you want to bulk delete or bulk invalidate meter readings or meter reading groups.

If you want to filter the equipment's meter readings for a specific meter type, select a meter type from the Meters grid and check the Meter readings region's Filter by selected meter checkbox; otherwise, leave the Filter by selected meter checkbox unchecked to include in the Meter readings grid all meter readings for all of the equipment's meter types.

Using the Meter readings grid, use any of the standard Windows SHIFT+Click or CTRL+Click features to multi-select the meter reading rows you want bulk delete or bulk invalidate (e.g., CTRL+A to select all the meter reading rows and then, while holding down the CTRL key, click each row you do not want to include in the bulk delete or invalidate process). With the rows selected that you want to bulk delete or bulk invalidate, right-click the grid. The grid's right click menu now shows only those options that apply to all the multi-selected rows.

When multiple rows are selected, the system excludes the New meter reading, Edit meter reading, View meter reading, and Mark meter reading as billable options from the right-click menu. Depending upon the rows selected, the system may also limit further the right-click menu options to display (e.g., if none of the selected rows can be invalidated, the system also excludes the Invalidate meter reading and Invalidate meter reading group options from the right-click menu).

If you click one of the right-click menu options, the system displays one of the following messages based on the option you selected, prompting you to confirm the action:

If you click the [Yes] button, the system attempts to process the requested action.

If you attempt to delete meter readings or meter reading groups and the system can delete the selected meter readings or meter reading groups, respectively, the system removes the applicable rows from the Meter readings grid and updates the data displayed in the Meters grid if applicable.

If the system cannot delete up to nine applicable meter readings or meter reading groups, based on the option selected, the system removes any row(s) that can be deleted, updates the data displayed in the Meters grid if applicable, and displays a message with error details for each meter reading or meter reading group that cannot be deleted, indicating why the meter reading or meter reading group cannot be deleted and—if applicable—letting you know if the meter reading or meter reading group can be invalidated.

If ten or more applicable meter readings or meter reading groups cannot be deleted, the error message lists only the count of the meter readings or meter reading groups that cannot be be deleted.

If you attempt to invalidate meter readings or meter reading groups and the system can invalidate the selected meter readings or selected meter reading groups, respectively, the system clears the values in the Actual, Valid, and Billable columns for the applicable rows in the Meter readings grid and updates the data displayed in the Meters grid if applicable.

If the system cannot invalidate up to nine applicable meter readings or meter reading groups, based on the option selected, the system invalidates any row(s) that can be invalidated, updates the data displayed in the Meters grid if applicable, and displays an error message with error details for each meter reading or meter reading group, respectively, that cannot be invalidated, indicating why the meter reading or meter reading group cannot be invalidated.

If ten or more applicable meter readings or meter reading groups cannot be invalidated, the error message lists only the count of the rows that cannot be invalidated.

For more information, see the Using the Meter Reading Console topic.

When you integrate Canon SnapShot with e-automate, the system displays a Canon SnapShot button:

On the New Service Work Order window for service calls for serialized Canon equipment.

On the Edit Service Work Order window for service calls for serialized Canon equipment.

On the Edit Equipment window for serialized Canon equipment.

If you access the New Service Work Order window and select serialized Canon equipment, the system displays a  [Canon SnapShot] button.

At the time of displaying the button, the system cannot yet determine if the button should be the  [Enhanced SnapShot] button or the  [SnapShot] button.

If you click the [Canon SnapShot] button, the system opens a browser window and displays the applicable Canon Enhanced SnapShot site...

... or the standard Canon SnapShot site.

If you save the service work order and then open the Edit Service Work Order window for the same service call, the system displays the  [Enhanced SnapShot] button and mouseover text...

...or the  [SnapShot] button and mouseover text...

...when applicable.

 If you click the button, the system opens a browser window and displays the applicable Canon Enhanced SnapShot site or standard Canon SnapShot site.

If you access the Edit Equipment window and select serialized Canon equipment, the system displays a  [Canon SnapShot] button.

At the time of displaying the button, the system cannot yet determine if the button should be the  [Enhanced SnapShot] button or the  [SnapShot] button.

 If you click the button, the system opens a browser window and displays the applicable Canon Enhanced SnapShot site or standard Canon SnapShot site.

For more information on this functionality, see the Integrating Canon SnapShot with E-automate and Using Canon SnapShot with E-automate topics.

If you integrate CrushBank with e-automate, the system displays a new  [Find related service tickets] button on the Edit Service Work Order window.

If a technician clicks the [Find related service tickets] button, the system initially displays a CrushBank login window.

The system will not re-display the login window if the system is able to save the technician's credentials following a successful login.

After a successful login, the system:

Displays the Crushbank Ask web site.

Populates the Search field with the Make (optional), Model (optional), and Problem Description (required) associated with the selected service call.

Displays the search results. 

The information provided may help the technician determine what parts may be required to complete the service call, what workarounds may be available for a particular issue, and what actions other technicians took to resolve similar service calls.

For more information on using this functionality, see:

The Integrating CrushBank with E-automate topic

The Using CrushBank with E-automate topic

The CrushBank User Guide

A new File > Change database to > drop-down menu now lists each company database...

...for which your company has defined a logon profile. 

If you select a different database from the list (e.g., TEST), the system closes any open windows associated with the current company database (e.g., with COMPANY A) and then—in the background—attempts to log you in to the selected database using the same credentials you used to log in to the current company database.

If the e-automate user you used to log in to the current company database is defined in the selected company database and if the e-automate user's login credentials are the same in both company databases, the system switches the databases and updates the title bar information displayed on the main e-automate window when the process completes—saving you the steps of selecting the File > Log in as different user option, entering login credentials, selecting the appropriate profile for the database, and then clicking the login window's [OK] button.

 

If the e-automate user you used to log in to the current database is defined in the selected database but is set up with different login credentials (i.e., with a different login password), the system displays the message, "Attention required: The user or password supplied was not valid." To switch databases, you will need to:

Update your e-automate user's login credentials so that they match in both databases so that you can use the File > Change database to > drop-down menu option, OR

Use the File > Log in as different user option instead of the File > Change database to > drop-down menu option.

If the e-automate user you used to log in to the current database is not defined in the selected database, the system displays the message, "Attention required: The user or password supplied was not valid." You cannot use your e-automate user's credentials to switch to a different database unless your e-automate user is defined in that database.

Additionally, if you have any applicable list windows and consoles open at the time of the switch, the system will attempt to re-open those windows after you switch databases.

For example, if you have the Customers list window and the Dispatch console open in e-automate,...

...and you use the File > Change database to > drop-down menu to switch from one e-automate database (e.g., COMPANY A) to another e-automate database (e.g., TEST) without logging out of e-automate,...

...then the system will close the Customers list window and the Dispatch console, will check to see if your login credentials grant you access to these windows in the selected database, and—if they do—will open the Customers list window and the Dispatch console, and will populate these windows with data from the selected database.

When using the File > Change database to > drop-down menu to switch between e-automate databases, note the following:

Regarding the system's automatically opening windows after the database switch that were open prior to the database switch, this functionality applies only to list windows and to the following consoles:

Accounts Payable Console

Accounts Receivable Console

Dispatch Console

Inventory Logistics Console

Meter Reading Console

If you sorted the data prior to switching databases, the system will retain the sort (e.g., if you sorted the Customers list window's data by the Name column in ascending order prior to the database switch, the system will sort the Customers list window's data by the Name column in ascending order when displaying the Customers list window after the database switch).

If you applied a QuickSearch filter prior to switching databases, the system will not retain the QuickSearch filter.

Unless the data used to populate these windows is identical in the database you are switching from and the database you are switching to, the windows will display different data after you switch databases.

If your login credentials grant you access to some but not to all of the open windows in the database you are switching to, the system will open each applicable window that you have rights to access and will then display an insufficient rights message for each window that you do not have rights to access.

This behind-the-scenes update passes the PO number from the sales order to the purchase order so that, when the purchase order is processed via PO Processor for a vendor using the standard VendorConnector connection, the PO number is sent to the vendor with the order.

The vendor can then include the customer's PO number on documents associated with drop shipments and/or any other correspondence sent to the customer regarding the order.

If a customer's name changes and/or if a customer is known by multiple different names, you can now associate each name with the customer's Customer record using a new [Aliases...] button to the right of the Name field. When you click the [Aliases...] button, the system opens a new Edit Customer Aliases window where you can manage the "also known as" (aka) names you want to associate with the customer.

For more information on using this window, see the Creating Customers topic.

A new Alias option has also been added to the QuickSearch menu for both the Customers list window...


... and the AR Console's main customer list...

...so that you can then locate customers by customer alias.

Additionally, the customer merge functionality has been updated to merge customer aliases when merging customer records.

The Last ovg. amount column shows the last overage amount previously billed for the contract. The % of last ovg. column shows the percentage of the Last Overage Amount that the current Overage Amount represents (i.e., Overage Amount/Last Overage Amount).  The closer this value is to 100%, the closer the current billing's Overage Amount is to the Last Overage Amount. The more this number deviates from 100% (above or below), the farther away the percentage of the current Overage Amount is from the Last Overage Amount—and the greater the likelihood that you may want to investigate the Overage Amount for accuracy before invoicing the contract. The Diff. of last ovg. column is the amount by which the Overage Amount has changed since the Last Overage Amount. A positive value indicates an increase in the Overage Amount since the previous billing. A negative value indicates a decrease in the Overage Amount since the previous billing.

Additionally, the QuickSearch includes new Diff. of last ovg., Last ovg. amt., and % of last ovg. filters, which you can use to locate the Overage Amounts you may want to investigate before billing the contracts.

In Tools > Lists and Codes > Customer types, you can define a customer type (e.g., Leasing) to assign to a leasing company. If you use an e-agent Customer Hold Status task to place customers on credit hold and/or to release customers from credit hold when applicable, but you do not want the system to apply this status to a leasing company that you are using to invoice your customers, you can check the Leasing pass through checkbox for this customer type.

In the Customer record for your leasing company (e.g., US Bank), you can assign this Customer type (e.g., Leasing).  Additionally, you can check the Use e-agent to place or release from credit hold checkbox to allow the system to update credit hold status when processing a Customer Hold Status task via e-agent.

For the system to be able to update the credit status of a customer that you are using your leasing company to bill, that customer's customer record must also have the Use e-agent to place or release from credit hold checkbox checked.

Then, when you process an e-agent Customer Hold Status task to place a credit hold on—or release a credit hold from—a bill-to customer when applicable, the system will see the bill-to customer's leasing pass through configuration and will apply the credit hold to—or release the credit hold from—the customer on the invoice and not the bill-to customer.

For more information, see the Customer Hold Status topic.

If you have applicable e-view category rights (i.e., Corporate, Favorites, Shared, and/or System), you can use the User Management e-view to view the following information for each user who is logged in to e-automate:

User ID

IP address

Logged in date time

Company ID

User locked

For more information, see the User Management Utility topic's "Using the User Management E-view to View User Connections" section.

Previously, instead of populating the export file with the detail from the selected subreport, the system always populated the export file with the data from the main Balance Sheet report. As a result, you could not export the data from any subreport, such as the detail for a selected General Ledger account.

Previously, if you accessed the Record Customer Refund window via Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Record customer refunds... to generate a customer refund check for a customer whose bill-to address was different from the customer's physical address (which could be a location that does not have mail service), the system printed the customer's physical address on the refund check instead of the customer's bill-to address.

Previously, if an unavailable time listing on the Service hours tab of an Employee record had an Unavailable from date/time where the time was prior to or equal to your company's Close at time on that date, and an Unavailable to date/time where the time was equal to or after your company's Open at time on that date, and the Unavailable from time was not equal to the Unavailable to time, the system used your company's Close at time on that date as the End Time for that unavailable time listing on the Time Card Entries report, causing the calculated Duration for that listing to be incorrect unless the Unavailable to time was equal to your company's Close at time on that date.

The following table shows examples based on a company Open at time of 8:00 AM and Close at time of 5:00 PM.

Unavailable From Time	Unavailable To Time	Expected End Time	Reported End Time	Expected Duration	Reported Duration
7:00 AM	7:00 PM	7:00 PM	5:00 PM	12.00	10.00
7:00 AM	10:00 AM	10:00 AM	5:00 PM	3.00	10.00
11:00 AM	1:00 PM	1:00 PM	5:00 PM	2.00	6.00
3:00 PM	7:00 PM	7:00 PM	5:00 PM	4.00	2.00

If multiple listings occurred on the same date (e.g., 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, with an expected duration of 1.00 hour each for a total duration of 2.00 hours), the system used the company's closing time for each listing (e.g., 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, with reported durations of 8.00 hours and 4.00 hours, respectively, for a total duration of 12.00 hours).

Previously, if you accessed the Contract Proposals window and attempted to perform a QuickSearch using the amount Due filter, the system displayed an "Invalid column name 'Due'...." error.

Previously, the system did not save this change.  As a result, the system did not display the invoice to be paid by the branch you specified.

Previously, the system listed one "**Missing End Meter" row for each tiered rate defined for the contract, causing unnecessary duplication since the system only needed to request the end meter once for billing the meter on the contract.

Previously, the system assigned a temporary identification number to each invoice attachment when generating the attachment, but did not subsequently replace the temporary identification number with the invoice number before sending the attachment. As a result, customers and/or their e-mail servers could interpret the temporary identification numbers as spam and not open/receive the attachments.

Previously, the Konica and e-automate systems were representing the discount rate differently.  For example, if the discount rate was 4%, meaning 4/100, Konica represented the discount as 4 (without the denominator of 100) and e-automate represented the discount as 0.04 (with the denominator of 100).  As a result, when e-automate received a form from Konica showing the percentage as 4 and not as 0.04, e-automate interpreted the discount percentage as 4.00, or 400%, causing the discount taken to be overstated on the invoice.

Previously, if you installed e-automate on a new system running Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11, and if you set your security policy to require a minimum password length of 14 characters, the system displayed the following error during installation: "The SQL server could not be initialized....  Password validation failed...." A password used to initialized the installation process did not meet the minimum password length requirement.

Additionally, if you uninstalled and then reinstalled e-automate on a new system running Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11, the system displayed the following error during installation: "The SQL server could not be initialized....  'coexecutive' is not a valid login or you do not have permission...."

Previously, if you updated TLS to 1.2 on a system that was running an older version, and if you disabled TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on that system, you could not process reports via e-automate because the system was trying to use an old ODBC driver with Crystal Reports that was not supported by TLS 1.2. 

If you access an e-automate window (e.g., the New Customer Type window) and then click the F1 key on your keyboard, the system opens an ECI Browser window and displays applicable online help content for that window.

Additionally, some new online help topics have been added to better accommodate situations where the same e-automate window (e.g., a List window, the main Report Console window, the Lists and Codes window) is used in multiple different contexts and/or for multiple different processes.  In these situations, where the system can only display one online help topic per e-automate window, the system may now display an online help topic containing a high-level explanation of how to use that type of window and/or a list of links to other online help topics that address the processes you can complete using that window.

Previously, the F1 functionality worked with earlier versions of the online help.  In these versions, the system often displayed the "Tips and Tricks" online help topic in situations where the same e-automate window was used in multiple different contexts and/or for multiple different processes, limiting the system's effectiveness for displaying context-sensitive help content.  When the online help format was updated to the new frameless layout, the method for opening a specific online help topic within the context of the online help system changed.  After this change occurred, if you clicked the F1 key, the system always displayed the "Welcome" topic (the online help's home page) instead of displaying a context-sensitive help topic.

When populating the Ticket Details page's Customer Information section's Address and Caller drop-down menus, the system now includes options associated with any applicable child customer locations in e-automate in addition to options associated with the parent customer location. Additionally, the system displays the appropriate selections in these fields if you view a service call generated outside of DeskTech (e.g., via e-automate) for which the address and/or caller are associated with a child customer location in e-automate.

Previously, you could not select a Caller or display an Address associated with a child customer location in e-automate.  As a result, if you viewed in DeskTech a service call that was generated outside of DeskTech (e.g., via e-automate) for which the address and/or caller were associated with a child customer location in e-automate, the Customer Information section of DeskTech's Ticket Details page did not list the child customer location in the Address field and the Caller field was blank.

Previously, if you accessed DeskTech using a Chrome browser that was updated to Version 114.0.5735.110, the Ticket Queue page's Title and Customer columns were blank.

The Edit Contact window's Phone number field is now a free-form field that supports up to 16 characters for international phone numbers.  Valid characters are:

Digits: 0-9

Plus sign: +

Opening parenthesis: (

Closing parenthesis: )

Hyphen: -

Previously, DeskTech did not allow you to create a new contact with a UK phone number.  If you created a contact in e-automate with a UK phone number, DeskTech displayed the phone number on the Edit Contact window but indicated the phone number was not valid. Additionally, the Phone number field only supported 15 characters. This field now support up to 16 characters to accommodate longer international mobile phone numbers.

Digital Quote Manager Admin 's File menu now includes a new Login as different user... option.

When you click the Login as different user... option, the system closes Digital Quote Manager Admin, including any secondary windows that may be open, and displays the Digital Quote Manager Administrator login window.

Because the Account Aging page is intended only for viewing invoices, the Pay checkbox column and the [Pay: [Amount]] button have been removed from the Account Aging page's Invoices region.

Sample Account Aging page before this update:

Sample Account Aging page after this update:

A new option, English (en - CA), is now available for selection from e-info's Select Default Language window.

When this option is selected, the system displays content in English, displays Province fields instead of State fields, and displays Postal Code fields instead of Zip fields. For more information, see the Configuring e-info End User Options topic.

To improve system performance by reducing the number of records that need to be loaded before displaying a web page containing table data, paging options have now been added to the following web page's tables:

Account Aging Page, Invoices Table

Invoices Page, All invoices Table

Invoices Page, Within last 30 days Table

Payment Page, Invoices included in payment Table

Payments Page, [Month Year] Table

Purchases Page, [Month Year] Table

Sales Orders Page, New items Table

Sales Orders Page, Picked items Table

Sales Orders Page, Shipped items (last 30 days) Table

Sales Orders Page, Back ordered items Table

Sales Orders Page, Canceled items Table

Sales Orders Page, Newly submitted Table

Sales Orders Page, Within last 30 days Table

Sales Orders Page, All sales orders Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (Pending) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (Scheduled) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (Dispatched) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (On Hold) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (Cleared) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (Invoiced) Table

Service Calls Page, Service Calls (History) Table

The paging options appear below the table.

Using the paging options, e-info customers can:

Display the first page of data

Display the previous page of data

Display a specified page of data

Display the next page of data

Display the last page of data

Set the number of records you want the system to display per page of data

If a paging option is unavailable based on the available data and/or the page of data currently displayed, then the paging option is displayed but disabled (e.g., if the system is displaying the first page of data, then the system displays but disables the paging option to display the first page, since the first page is already being displayed, and the previous page, since there is no page prior to the first page).

The Current password, New password, and Confirm password fields, previously positioned on the far right of the User Profile page, have been moved closer to the Change password checkbox to improve the user experience.

Previously, if the Enable language switching checkbox was unchecked in the General settings region of your e-info web site's Customer Gateway Configuration page and if a Default language was selected, the system should have displayed the e-info web site using the settings associated with the specified default language. A previous update allowed the customer's browser's language setting to take precedence over the default language setting when it should not have in this situation. As a result, the browser's language setting—not your default language setting—also determined if the site displayed State and Zip fields or Province and Postal Code fields.

Previously, if an e-info customer clicked the Invoices tile's [Aging] button to access the Account Aging page, selected an invoice to pay, clicked the [Pay...] button, clicked the [Submit] button on the Payment page, scheduled the payment, clicked the browser's back button, and then repeated the same process with the same invoice, the system allowed the e-info customer to schedule a duplicate payment. The Account Aging page showed the duplicate payments. In e-automate, if you accessed the Accounts Receivable Console and attempted to open one of the duplicate payments, the system displayed the following message: "Unexpected error information: An item with the same key has already been added." Now, if an e-info customer attempts to schedule a duplicate payment in this manner, the system displays the message, "This payment is already scheduled and cannot be resubmitted."

Previously, the value in the Current balance field did not include commas when appropriate to separate each group of three digits to the left of the decimal.  Additionally, the value in the Credit limit field was displayed correctly, but—if the web page was left idle long enough for the system to refresh the page and if the monetary amount included only zeroes to the right of the decimal (e.g., 10,000.00)—the system displayed the amount without the decimal point and the zeroes to the right of the decimal point (e.g., 10,000).

Previously, the system did not populate the e-automate Contact record's Preferred full name field in this situation even though this field is a required field in e-automate.  

When the country is available for a location in e-automate, the system now includes this information in the following locations in e-info:

Sales Order Page, Bill to Region, Address Field

Sales Order Page, Ship to Region, Location Field

New Sales Order Page, Bill to Region, Address Field

New Sales Order Page, Ship to Region, Location Field

New Sales Order Page, Orders Grouped by Ship to location Region, Ship to Area, Location Field

Select Ship To Address Window, Location Column

Order Data Window, Ship to Region, Location Field

Sales Order Page, Newly submitted table, Ship To Column

Select Equipment/Item Window, Location Column

Service Call Page, Initiation Region, Location Field

Service Calls Page, Any Table, Location Field

Previously, when the country information was available for a location in e-automate, the address information displayed in these locations in e-info did not include the country.