I run a repair shop where clients ship their devices to my location for repair.
When they call on the phone I generate a quote (I call them RMAs) and inform them of the quote (RMA) number. “IF” they send the device to my location and I receive it, then I convert the quote to a Workorder and all runs smoothly.
The problem is that I am left with the quote on the quotes grid. I am then forced to go back into the original quote and make some change that can then be filtered in order to remove it from view on the grid.
Why can’t there be a flag that can be used on the quotes grid to indicate it has been converted to a workorder. That way the quote would automagically disappear from view (if it is filtered properly) and then only the outstanding quotes are left on the grid.
Currently it takes a lot of time to force something in the quote to change so it can then be filtered from view. In many cases, my minimum wage admin persons receiving the devices and converting them to workorders, wind up missing something in the quote edit process and it either disappears from view when it shouldn’t or it gets left on the grid when it should have been filtered. We process a several hundred repairs each month and soon to grow again by almost double.
I know you can’t make a system idiot proof, but it could at least have a few steps removed to accomplish this simple task. With my luck there is already some automated way to do this and I’ve just rambled on to embarrass myself here.
If there is a simpler way to do this, please point it out and I will go back to my desk with tail between legs. If not, then could there be in the future?
Sorry for the delay - unfortuantely this forum software has developed some problems, and we are working with the developers of this forum software to try to get through them, with the latest issue being that email notifications of new topics or private messages are not being sent out - so I am not being notified right away when a new topic is made.
We have two suggestions that I would suggest to use to indicate in the quote (and also be viewable from the grid so that you can have a set filter in place) its status.
The Quote includes the drop down field Status: where it is suggested that you select to identify the status of the quote making it a lot easier to filter on to determine which quotes you are in the process of creating (In Progress), which quotesyou are waiting on a reply from the customer for (Submitted, waiting), which quotes have been rejected by the customer (Not Awarded), and which quotes have been accepted by the customer and that you have generated a workorder from (Awarded)
For example, once you have generated a workorder from a quote, it is suggested to set the Status" field to Awarded . This way, in the Quotes grid, create a custom filter on the Status: column that has a Operator of Does not equal to, and Operand of Awarded - save the filter view, and you can easily selected this filter at any time so that only quotes that are still in action are shown in the grid.
And than there are four date/time fields as well in the quote header area - that are presently localized to be Approved, Submitted, Requested, Valid Until - that you could use in what ever way you wish as well as localize to be called whatever you wish.
For example, you might have all staff that when a workorder is generated from the quote, that the date/time of this is entered in the Approved field, otherwise it is left blank- as it is very easy to enter the date/time of right now by clicking once in the date/time field, and than selecting the date/time menu option at the top which will automatically enter the date/time of right now into the date/time field
And than you can filter on the Approved column in the Quotes grid, selecting the NonBlanks filter - so that only quotes that do not have a date entered in this field will show - so you are only viewing quotes that are still not finished.
I will certainly put it onto development’s list to look into adding something that will automatically be set once a workorder has been generated.