Team Management SystemsACOWIN

Contracting Solution for Windows

Installation and Startup GuideRevision 2.0

Welcome to Acowin!This booklet will take you through installing your Acowin software, connecting your workstations, entering your official Acowin license code, and completing some basic accounting and company setup. We’re going to assume that you already have your computers networked together through Microsoft Windows, and your printers are already

properly installed. This Installation and Startup Guide will tell you everything you need to know in order to get Acowin up and running. Please be sure to review these pages carefully before you begin software installation. If you have any questions about the topics covered in this booklet, or you encounter any difficulties during software installation, please contact Team Management Systems Support for assistance:

Team Management Systems16520 South Tamiami Trail, Suite 207Ft. Myers, Florida 33908Phone: (239) 437-8898Fax: (239) 437-9088On the Web: www.acowin.comE-mail: support@acowin.com

Please check out our Help and Tutorials!This booklet is only one of the helpful resources available to you. Acowin has an extensive Help system, which you can reach with any of the yellow question mark buttons you’ll see on almost every screen – there’s a big one right on the Main Menu. The Introduction to Acowin Help chapters would be a great place to start learning about the program; they’ll teach you about the mouse, the toolbar buttons, and other basics. Also, there is a complete set of multi-media tutorials on your Acowin CD. They use animation and voice narration to cover every aspect of the system, from getting logged in and taking your first service call, to applying payments and exporting data to your

1

accounting software. To run the tutorials, insert your Acowin CD, allow the install program to run, and choose Tutorials from the menu. (If the CD doesn’t run automatically, open up your My Computer icon, choose the CD-ROM drive, and run the program called “launch.exe”.) The tutorial programs are self-contained, so you can view them on any computer.

Before You Begin…Here are some basics to keep in mind before you begin software installation.

This software was designed for the Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows XP operating systems. The ACOWIN program has not been tested on other operating systems. Running it under any other operating system is not recommended by Team Management Systems.

If you are installing Acowin on a Windows 2000, NT, or XP system, it’s important to make certain you log in as an administrator. Under these versions of Windows, only an administrator can install new programs correctly – other user accounts may not be allowed to do so. Any user name could be given administrative privileges; if you’re the only person who ever uses your computer, it’s quite possible that your normal login name is designated as an administrator. Check with your Windows system consultants, or take a look at the User Accounts tools in your Windows Control Panel, if you’re not sure you have administrator access.

Windows 98 has certain file-sharing limitations that make it unsuitable for use on a server if more than three workstations are being supported. If your network will include more than three workstations, it is strongly recommended that you make sure the server is running Windows 2000, NT, or XP.

The minimum workstation hardware configuration is a Pentium 200 with 32 megabytes of RAM. Every workstation should meet these minimum requirements. Team Management Systems recommends at least 64 megabytes of RAM and a Pentium II 450mhz or better processor in the workstations for best performance.

The minimum server configuration is a Pentium 200 with 64 megabytes of RAM. Team Management Systems recommends a server with at least 128 megabytes of RAM and a processor speed of 700mhz or better for best performance. Also, see the note above concerning the use of Windows 98 on the server.

Your Windows display must be configured to at least 800x600 pixels, with a minimum color depth of 256 colors. To confirm or adjust these settings, click on your Start button, then choose Settings/Control Panel/Display.

2

Choose the Settings tab at the top of the Display Properties window. The Screen Area and Colors portion of the screen is pictured below. You can use 256 colors, High Color (16 bit), or True Color (32 bit) for your Colors selection. The High Color (16 bit) selection is recommended.

If you have a trial copy of the software, you’ll have 30 days to evaluate it and make a purchasing decision. During the evaluation period, you will only be able to run the program on a single computer, designated as a server. You cannot connect any workstations to an evaluation copy of the program. Upon purchase of the ACOWIN system, you’ll be given a validation code to register the software, so that it can be used beyond the 30-day trial period. You may also purchase workstation licenses to allow access to the same program from other computers on your network. The entire procedure for licensing the server and workstations is described in this guide, so if you’ve already purchased the full version of ACOWIN and some workstation licenses, just follow these instructions. If you’re working with a demo copy and want to obtain a validation code, contact Team Management Systems at (800) 299-7351.

Before you can install any ACOWIN workstations, you must have an operational Windows network. This consists of at least two Windows personal computers, connected using network cards and a hub or switch. The computers must be able to “see” each other across the network, meaning that if you double-click the Network Neighborhood icon on any of the computers, all of the computers should appear in the resulting window. This guide presumes that you have a Windows network up and running already. For the purposes of the ACOWIN software, your network will be divided into a server where all the data resides (typically the most powerful computer available to you) and a number of workstations that access the information. The server could be a “dedicated” machine, meaning nobody uses it for anything other than storing data, or it could be someone’s desktop computer that you have selected to be the server because it’s fast and has a big hard drive.

3

Regular backups are very important to safeguard your data. If your network doesn’t already have a disk or tape backup system, you should seriously consider purchasing one. See the last page of this guide for a discussion of the various backup options available.

Installing the Acowin Server SoftwareYour first step will be to select one of your computers to be the server, where all your data will reside. The ACOWIN Server program will be installed on this computer. Only one computer on your network can be installed as a server; the rest will be workstations.

Insert the ACOWIN CD into the server’s CD-ROM drive. The installation program should run automatically. If it doesn’t, you can open the My Computer icon, then double-click the CD-ROM drive. Locate the file called launch.exe on the CD and double-click it to run the install program.

You can click the Next button to accept all the defaults during the installation process. Be sure to indicate that you accept the license agreement!

The program will ask if you want to install a Server or Workstation. Choose Server.

The install program should finish without any further questions for you. When it’s done, you’ll have a new ACOWIN icon on your desktop. Double-click this icon to run the program for the first time. You will be asked to enter your CD key, which should be printed right on the ACOWIN package.

The program will notify you that you’re in demo mode, and have 30 days to register. If you’re ready to register the full program, click the “Register” button. The computer will display an alphanumeric Server Code and ask you to contact Team Management Systems to obtain a final activation code. Call TMS at (239) 437-8898 and give the tech support people your Server Code; they will process it and read you a final activation code over the phone. Once you’ve entered the activation code, your server will be fully licensed and ready to handle workstations.

In order for the workstations to access ACOWIN’s data, you must share the \Acowin\Data folder on the server’s hard drive. Sharing a drive or folder makes it available to other users across the network. If you want to share the entire drive, open the My Computer icon, then right-click on drive C: (or whichever drive you installed ACOWIN to) and choose Sharing.

4

Select the Share As option, choose Full Access, and click OK. To share only the \Acowin\Data folder, locate it with My Computer, then right-click on it and choose Sharing, as described above. A little blue hand will appear under any shared drive or directory in the My Computer display, to indicate that network sharing has been enabled. The workstations will not be able to run ACOWIN correctly if you don’t share the \Acowin\Data folder on the server!

Installing Acowin WorkstationsAfter you’ve got the server up and running, you can install the ACOWIN software on your workstations. Your software purchase will include a limited number of workstation licenses. Contact Team Management Systems if you need to add more workstations.

Before you can install the ACOWIN software, each workstation must be mapped to the server’s hard disk. Mapping a shared directory creates a permanent link between it and the workstation. The procedure for mapping a drive was changed a bit for Windows XP. The other versions of Windows will be discussed first, then the XP procedure will be outlined on the following page.

For Windows 98, 2000, and NT Systems: At the workstation computer, open up the Network Neighborhood icon. Locate the server among the computers listed in Network Neighborhood, then double-click it to reveal the list of shared resources available.

5

Right-click on the shared Acowin folder, then choose Map Network Drive. (If you installed ACOWIN on a drive other than C:, be sure to choose the correct disk drive.) The new drive letter you choose for the mapped resource is not important – you can use the letter suggested by Windows.

Be sure the “Reconnect at logon” box is checked, so that the link is re-established every time the computers are rebooted. The ACOWIN Workstation program will not be able to access the server if you don’t map the server’s hard disk!

Windows XP Systems: Windows XP uses a slightly different procedure to map a network drive. Open up your “My Computer” icon – you can find it on the Start menu, if you don’t have it on your desktop. Pull down the Tools menu, and choose “Map Network Drive.” A dialog box will appear, asking you to select a drive letter and enter a network path. You can click the Browse button, next to the network path, to locate the Acowin server and its shared folder. As with the other versions of Windows, be sure the “Reconnect at Logon” box is checked.

Once the mapped drive has been established, it’s time to install the Acowin software. At each workstation, insert the ACOWIN disk in the CD-ROM drive and allow the installation program to run. If the install program doesn’t run automatically. you can manually run the program called launch.exe on the CD. Your “My Computer” icon could be used to explore the CD and locate this program.

From the installation program’s main menu, choose the “Install + Update” button. You can click Continue or Next to accept all the defaults during the installation process. Be sure to indicate that you accept the license agreement!

When the program asks if you want a Server or Workstation, choose Workstation.

6

After the install program has finished, an ACOWIN icon will be added to your desktop. When you run ACOWIN for the first time on a workstation, you’ll be given an alphanumeric workstation key code. Note this code on a piece of paper and go to the server.

At the server, run the ACOWIN Registration Program, by clicking Start, then choosing Programs / Acowin / Acowin Registration. Select the Register Workstation tab of this program. Type in the workstation key you were given, then click the Process button. The program will give you an activation code to take back to the workstation. Note this code on a piece of paper.

Return to the workstation and provide the activation code it has been waiting for. The workstation is now fully licensed and ready for use.

The Acowin ToolbarThe rest of this guidebook will take you into various setup screens in Acowin. To help you work with these screens, it’s time to introduce you to the Acowin Toolbar. The Toolbar is a row of buttons that appears at the bottom of every Acowin screen. You’ll use these buttons to perform basic functions like adding a record and saving your work. The most important Toolbar buttons are pictured and described below. The Acowin Help system discusses the Toolbar in greater detail – check out the Help chapter called “Acowin Basics”, or watch the Acowin Basics multimedia tutorial on your Acowin CD.

Edit – Click this button to edit a screen and make changes to it. On many of the setup screens described below, you’ll click Edit to “open up” the screen, fill out the fields, and then click Save to save your work.

New – Click this button to add a new record to a file. For example, to add a new employee to your system, you’d go to the Employee File and click the New button.

Save – This button saves your work after you fill out a screen.

7

Revert – You can click this button to abandon any changes you have made, prior to saving, and put a screen back to the way you found it.

Exit – Clicking this button exits you from a screen and returns you to the previous screen. If you’re adding a new record or making changes to a screen, and you click Exit before you click Save, the computer will warn you that anything you’ve entered on the screen will be lost.

Creating Your New CompanyYour Acowin system comes with a fully-prepared company called “Sample”. This company already has some customers, equipment, Call Slips, and Inventory set up, along with a complete Chart of Accounts, Distribution Codes, and System Setup. You can immediately log into the Sample company to test out Acowin or practice using the system – it’s a great way to see what Acowin can do. You can initially log into the Sample company with the user name GUEST, and the password “password’. If you want, you can later use the Employee File to set up additional users and passwords.

When you’re ready to start entering live data, you’ll want to create a new company. To do this, get logged into the Sample company, then click the Setup button on the Main Menu. This will bring up the Company Information screen, pictured below.

Click the New button on this Company Information screen to create a new company. The fields on the screen will become blank, ready for you to enter your live company’s name, address, etc. The Company

Code, in the upper-right corner of the screen, is the name that will appear on the log-in screen when you select a company. Space is provided for both a Physical

8

Address and a Remittance Address; if they are both the same, you can leave the Remittance Address fields blank.

After you finish filling out the new company information, exit from Acowin and log back in. The new company will now appear in the pull-down menu to select a company on the log-in screen. As with the Sample company, the initial user name GUEST is available, with the password “password”. You can add additional users to the Employee File and set up their passwords whenever you want.

Remember that different companies are totally separate from one another. A customer you enter in the Sample company will not appear in the live company. This enables you to practice and experiment in the Sample company, without messing up your live data. Be sure to pick the right company when you’re logging in!

Important: For QuickBooks© 2003 (and later) Users!Acowin uses the QuickBooks SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) to interface with QuickBooks. This enables Acowin to send its invoices directly into the QuickBooks system, producing a seamless transition between the two programs. When you run the QB Sync utility in Acowin, every Acowin invoice becomes a QuickBooks invoice immediately.

The QuickBooks SDK system has a very specific set-up procedure, which is outlined in a separate document called “Acowin 3.0 Installation Instructions For QuickBooks Users.” You can find this document in the “Docs” folder on your Acowin CD-ROM. If you’re a QuickBooks user, you should carefully review those special instructions before performing any of the Accounting setup steps listed in this Installation Guide. Much of the accounting information will be imported directly from QuickBooks, so you’ll be able to skip a lot of the Accounting setup. The QuickBooks Installation Instructions basically replace the “Setting Up Your Accounting System” section below.

Setting Up Your Accounting SystemAfter you create your live company, you’ll want to enter your Chart of Accounts, set up Distribution Codes, and define your accounting calendar. All of this can

9

be accomplished by clicking the Accounting button on the Main Menu, then choosing Setup.

The first order of business is to look at the Account Ranges screen. This screen sets the beginning and ending number for each type of account. For example, if the screen says that Current Assets run from 1300 to 1599, then every account number between 1300 and 1599 will be considered a Current

Asset account. Click the Edit button, adjust the Account Ranges as necessary, and then click Save. If your account numbers don’t come in order, you can disable this screen by removing the check mark from the Use Ranges for Chart of Accounts? Field. This will allow you to manually select the account type for each entry you make in the Chart of Accounts.

Next, you’ll want to set up your Chart of Accounts. This is where you enter the account numbers that will be affected by Acowin. For each account, enter the account number in the “Distribution” field, and provide both a Description and a Short Description. The Short Description is simply an abbreviated

version of the account name, used on certain reports in order to conserve space. If you disabled the Account Number Ranges, as discussed above, you will also need to use the pull-down menu to select an Account Type, such as Cash, Receivables, Inventory, Current Asset, etc. It’s important to remember that only the account numbers directly affected by Acowin need to be entered here – you don’t have to type in your entire Chart of Accounts, which could include hundreds of asset, liability, and expense accounts that will never be touched by Acowin. Here are the accounts that should be entered in Acowin – for many companies, this could be as few as a dozen account numbers:

Your main operating Cash account Accounts Receivable (see note below) Inventory asset account Sales tax accrual (a Current Liability account) Prepayment account for customer deposits (also Current Liability) Any Sales Income account that would be affected by Acowin Any labor or material Cost of Goods account affected by Acowin Any Expense account you would use for discounts or writing off

uncollected debts through Acowin

A Note Concerning Accounts Receivable: Many accounting systems, including QuickBooks ©, have strict rules and restrictions concerning imported transactions that affect the Accounts Receivable account. It is therefore

10

strongly recommended that you create a separate A/R account for use with Acowin. For example, if your current Chart of Accounts uses account 1100 for Accounts Receivable, you could make a new account 1101 for “Acowin A/R”. This will keep your imported Receivables from Acowin separate from any other Accounts Receivable you may have, and gets around any special rules for imported A/R transactions that your accounting software might have.

Once your Chart of Accounts has been entered, you can complete the Default Setup screen. Use the drop-down menus at the top of the screen to select your Cash Account, A/R Account, Pre-Pay Account, and Accounting Software. The bottom of the screen contains your accounting calendar,

which determines the ending date for each accounting period. To set up the calendar, click the Auto-Fill button. The system will ask you to type the security code it displays on the screen – this is a precaution to ensure you don’t change the accounting calendar by accident. You must type the security code exactly as it appears on the screen, including capital letters. After providing the security code, click Auto-Fill again. A dialog box will appear, asking you to indicate the beginning month of the accounting year, and whether each period should end on a fixed date, or the ending calendar date of the month. Answer these questions and click OK to fill in the accounting calendar. Finally, enter the Current Period number – the first period you’ll be posting any Acowin invoices into. The Auto Fill button, security code window, and Auto Fill dialog box are pictured below.

The last important step in setting up your Accounting system is creating Distribution Codes. These are templates of account numbers. Each Distribution Code represents a separate type of invoice for accounting purposes, and specifies the income, cost, and inventory account to be used

on such an invoice. The number of Distribution Codes you need in your system will be determined by how many different combinations of income and cost accounts you have. For example, if all of your service calls will use the same income and cost accounts, you only need one Distribution Code for service calls. On the other hand, if you have different account numbers for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service calls, you’ll want one Distribution Code for each.

11

Each Distribution Code is assigned a short name in the “Code” field, and a longer verbal Description. When service invoices are being prepared and a Distribution Code is chosen, the users will see both the Code and Description fields. The account number fields should be filled out as follows:

Material Sell = Income account for material sales Labor Sell = Income account for labor sales Tax = Current Liability account for accrued sales tax Discount Material = Income or Expense account for material discounts Discount Labor = Income or Expense account for labor discounts Labor, TT = Cost of Goods account for Travel Time labor Labor, RT = Cost of Goods account for Regular Time labor Labor, OT = Cost of Goods account for Overtime labor Labor, DT = Cost of Goods account for Double Time labor Inventory CR = Inventory asset account Cost of Goods DR = Cost of Goods account for material costs

In each of these fields, you can either type the desired account number, or double-click the field to see a list of numbers to choose from. Account numbers must be added to your Chart of Accounts file before they can be selected on a Distribution Code. The system begins with a single Distribution Code called “DEFAULT”. If you only have one set of account numbers to handle all of your service call and contract income and costs, you can fill out this DEFAULT Distribution Code, and it could be the only code you ever need. If you have different income accounts for service calls and maintenance contract income, you’d need at least two Distribution Codes – one for the service calls, and one for contracts. If you have many different income accounts for different types of service call and contract, you would need to

12

prepare several Distribution Codes – one for each combination of income and cost accounts. To give you an idea of how this might work, here are three sample Distribution Codes.

This code is for installation work.

This code is for demand service calls.

This code is for service agreement sales.

If your Chart of Accounts is complex enough to require several different Distribution Codes for service calls, you should consider leaving the DEFAULT code blank, so that no one uses it by mistake, and adding new codes for each type of invoice you’ll be processing. As with the other topics covered in this guidebook, you should consult the Help system, or the Accounting Tutorial on your Acowin CD, for a more in-depth look at Distribution Codes.

General System SetupAfter you finish your Accounting setup, there are a few things you should take care of in the general system Setup area. This part of the system is accessed by clicking on the Setup button of the Acowin Main Menu.

The Company screen contains basic information such as your company’s name and address. If you didn’t complete this screen

when you created your live company, you should do so now.

13

The Settings screen controls the next numbers the computer will use for invoices, customers, Call Slips, and service charges. You can

adjust these numbers to maintain continuity with your previous system. For example, if the last invoice you generated in your old system was invoice number 5418, you can set Acowin to use 5419 as its next invoice number.

On the right side of the Settings screen are some buttons that control miscellaneous aspects of the Acowin system. The Forms button lets you choose a layout style for your invoices and

Purchase Orders. You can also load a logo graphic for use in your letterhead.

The Service Charges button lets you set the rules for applying service charges to past-due invoices. You can set how old an invoice must be before a Service Charge is applied; the

percentage used to compute the late fee; and the text messages that will appear on Service Charge invoices. If you don’t use Service Charges, you can ignore this setup screen.

(Optional) The Paging Fields screen determines which fields will be sent to a technician’s alphanumeric pager when you sent out a Call Slip with Acowin Paging, and what order the fields will appear

in. Use this setup screen to customize your pager messages and make them fit with the capacity of your paging hardware. If you’re not using Acowin Paging, you can skip this file.

The Labor screen contains your default average labor costs. These costs are used when the computer figures out profitability on service

calls. Five general classes of field labor are represented: Helper1, Helper2, Technician1, Technician2, and Supervisor. Costs can be entered for Travel Time, Regular Time, Overtime, and Double Time. Each set of labor costs consists of a base pay rate and a burden, which you can enter as a percentage or a dollar amount. Burden represents the employer overhead on labor, and includes such costs as FICA and Medicare, federal and state unemployment tax, and insurance. Note: the Employee file has a cost screen for each employee, which can over-ride the figures on this default Labor Cost screen – this is more accurate than using the default costs for everyone, but of course it takes more work to calculate individual costs for each technician.

The final screen of the Setup module is called Subsystems. This screen is filled with buttons that give access to many different files.

The contents of these files appear as drop-down menus throughout the Acowin system. Subsystems is where you can “tweak” Acowin to suit your tastes. Most of these files can be accessed “on the fly” by right-clicking on the drop-down menus, elsewhere in the system. For example, you can add new

14

Problem Codes as you go, by right-clicking the Problem Code drop-down menu that appears on the Call Slips. For this reason, you don’t have to address all of the Subsystems files right away – you’ll be able to deal with them as you encounter them later. Here are some suggestions for Subsystems files you might want to take care of right now:

Contract Types – these are the types of maintenance agreement, or service contract, that your company sells. You can build quite a bit of information into the Contract Types – you should review the

Help chapter on Contracts, or watch the Contracts tutorial on the Acowin CD, before you try to set these up.

Departments – if you’re going to divide your company into departments, you’ll want to get them set up before you add anyone to the Employee File. Using Departments is optional.

Dispatchers – this file is very important! It controls which technicians appear on the Dispatch Board for each Acowin user. Everyone who will use the Acowin program should be added to the

Employee File first, then given an entry in the Dispatchers file. We’ll take a closer look at Dispatchers when we discuss the Employee File in the next section.

Paging Carriers – (Optional) if you’re using the Acowin Paging option, you should add your paging carriers and their modem phone numbers to this file. When you add technicians to the Employee

File, you’ll indicate which Carrier they use, and enter their personal pager phone numbers.

Rate Types – this file contains your Time & Material billing schedules. Each Rate Type includes markups for materials, hourly billing rates for labor, and possibly a minimum charge. You can

create as many different Rate Types as you need.

Tax Regions – each Tax Region is a combination of local, city, county, and state taxes. The computer uses these tax rates to compute sales tax on your invoices. If you collect only state tax on

your invoices, you would only need two Tax Regions – one for state tax, and one for tax exempt customers, such as churches. On the other hand, if you have a lot of different city and local taxes to deal with, you might need many Tax Regions. The Customer/Site File has a field that tells the computer what Tax Region applies to each work site.

Zones – these are portions of your dispatching area, usually determined by geography. For example, everything north of a certain river might become the “North” zone, while everything east of

15

town might become the “East” zone. The Zone system helps dispatchers quickly determine which technicians are closest to each work site. The Zone where every service call is located can be clearly seen on the Dispatch Board. As you add customers to your database, you’ll build a file of Zip Codes, and each Zip Code can be included in one of your Zones. This way, the computer will automatically assign a Zone for new work sites, as soon as you enter their Zip Codes.

Adding Employees To Your Employee FileWith Accounting and some general System Setup completed, your final step before going “live” with Acowin will be adding your employees to the Employee File. Anyone whose labor can be applied to service calls, and anyone who will be an Acowin system user, should receive an entry in the Employee File. The basic employee information is self-explanatory: first and last name, address, phone number, etc. Most of the fields on the main Employee screen are optional, so if a particular piece of information is not relevant or you don’t know the answer, leave it blank. Here are the most crucial fields to complete:

First Name Last Name Paging Carrier and Number (if using Acowin Paging) Employee Number Name Code Employee Type

Employee Type must be set to Technician, Helper, or Installer if the employee will be working as a technician.

The Name Code will be the name that appears on the Dispatch Board, if the employee is a technician; also, if the employee is an Acowin system user, the Name Code will be their login name.

If the employee will be using the Acowin system, click the Password button. Enter and re-type a password for the employee, as

requested. The employee will need their Name Code and this Password in order to log in. You can click the Password button again to change the employee’s password at any time.

If the employee will be an Acowin user, and plans to use the Dispatch Board, you must also create a Dispatchers File entry for them. To reach the Dispatchers File, click Setup, then choose

Subsystems, then click on Dispatchers. Click the New button to add a new entry to the file. The computer will show you a list of employees. Choose the person you want to make into a dispatcher, then select an Available Tech and click the down-arrow button to

16

add them to the Assigned Techs list. Repeat until all desired technicians are on the Assigned list, then click the Save button. The order in which you select the technicians will determine the order they appear on the Dispatch Board – the first tech you add to the Assigned list will be the first tech you see on the Dispatch Board, etc. If you already have some Dispatchers set up, you can copy an existing Dispatcher’s list with the Duplicate button. A user who has no entry in the Dispatchers file will not see any technicians when they run the Dispatch Board!

Department Assignment (optional): If you’ve chosen to divide your company into departments, you can use the Departments

screen of the Employee File to determine which departments each person belongs to. A single employee could belong to several different departments, and could even be classified as a technician in some, while being only a helper in others. Your list of available departments (from Subsystems) will appear on the left side of this screen. Edit the screen, then select a department and use the right-arrow button to move it to the employee’s assigned departments in the right-hand column. Everyone is initially assigned to a department called “Default”, unless you use this screen to make different choices. After assigning a Department, you can click on the Detail button to set technician skill level. The system assumes each employee is a “Tech1” in their assigned Departments, unless told otherwise.

Individual Pay Rates (optional): One of the screens you addressed in System Setup was the Labor screen, which sets the default average hourly costs for technicians in the field. If you wish, you can set individual costs for each employee, using the Pay Rates screen of the Employee File. Individual Pay Rates are optional, but obviously much more accurate than using the global default average costs for everyone. The Pay Rates screen initially displays a message reminding you that the default rates from Setup are in effect:

17

To set individual labor costs for this employee, click the Edit button, then place a check mark in the box called Unique Rates for this employee. The screen will change to look like this:

You can now enter the specific hourly pay rate and burden for this employee. Burden can be entered as either a percentage or a flat dollar amount. The example pictured above shows a technician who makes $15.00 per hour base pay, plus a burden that begins as 45% on regular time, and is reduced slightly for overtime and premium time.

Congratulations! You’re ready to begin using Acowin!If you’ve followed the steps in this handbook, your live company is now fully configured and ready to go. You can start adding customers, taking service calls, and producing invoices. Here are a few parting thoughts, reminders, and bits of advice for you as you begin to explore the Acowin system.

Be sure you create a Dispatcher entry for everyone who will use the Dispatch Board, listing the technicians who should appear on the Dispatch Board for that user. If a user without a Dispatchers File entry runs the Dispatch Board, they will not see any technicians! The Dispatchers file can be found by clicking the Setup button on the Main menu, then choose Subsystems, then click Dispatchers.

Once you have users and passwords entered into the system, be sure to log out as “GUEST”, and log back in under your personal user name. The “GUEST” user name is only meant to be used when you’re first setting up the system, and possibly under unusual circumstances in the future (if everyone forgot their passwords, you could log in as “GUEST” to assign new passwords, for example.) You shouldn’t use the “GUEST” user name for everyday activities – among other things, the “GUEST” user probably doesn’t have an entry in the Dispatchers file, and thus would not see any technicians when running the Dispatch Board.

18

Use the Help system! You can run Help right from the Start menu (Start/Programs/Acowin/Acowin Help) and keep it on your desktop at all times, while you’re getting used to the new system. Later, you can pull up Help from within the ACOWIN program whenever you need it, using the Help pull-down menu at the top of the screen.

Every new user should read the “Acowin Basics” book of the Help system, before they get started. These Help pages explain the toolbar buttons and other bread-and-butter concepts of the system.

Most new users should learn how to add Customer / Site File entries first, then learn how to add Call Slips. This way, everyone will be able to answer the phone and take a service call when you get busy. These two files are also great ways to cut your teeth on the new system - just about all of Acowin’s features can be found on those screens. You can let new users log into the Sample company to practice, since Call Slips and invoices added to the Sample company will have no effect on your live company data.

It’s important for users to log out of the system when they’re finished using it for the day. There are three ways to log out:

From the ACOWIN Main Menu, click the “Exit” button. Pull down the File menu at the top of the ACOWIN window, then choose

Quit. Click the standard Windows close button (the “X”) at the top-right corner of

the ACOWIN window.

If your users don’t log out correctly, your workstation licenses may not be released. In other words, the system might still think they’re logged in. This could happen any time a workstation is rebooted or shut down without the user logging out of ACOWIN – a sudden power failure, for example. If you find yourself in a situation where one of the workstation licenses is hung up, you can release it from the server, as follows:

Click the Start button, then choose Programs/Acowin/Acowin Registration. This must be done at the server.

Select the Release License tab. You’ll see a list of workstations that the system believes to be in use.

Pick the license you wish to release and click the “Release” button. NOTE: if you do this to someone who really is on-line and working, you’ll kick him off the system. You should only release licenses that are truly “stuck”. It might be a good idea to ask everyone to log out, just to be on the safe side, then release any licenses that remain.

As you make your way through the system, you’ll run into pull-down menus that contain lists of choices. Most of these lists are maintained in the Subsystems menu of the Setup file. You can add new choices to almost any

19

pull-down list by right-clicking your mouse on the field. For example, if you’re setting up some Equipment and you need to add a new Brand, you could right-click on the Brand field. You should be able to build most of your pull-down lists as you go, using this approach.

Be sure to back up your data regularly! At a minimum, you should prepare a complete backup of the C:/Acowin folder on the server every night. If you keep data from several shared programs on the server, you should back up the entire server every night. There are several hardware options for making backups:

Floppy disks are inexpensive, and every computer has a floppy disk drive, but you’ll find they are too cumbersome to rely on in an office environment – backing up your entire server this way would probably require dozens of disks and a substantial amount of time.

ZIP and Jaz drives, manufactured by Iomega, provide high-capacity reusable disks that can be created much faster than floppy disk backups, with fewer disk swaps. A single ZIP disk can do the work of almost 70 floppy disks, and the more expensive Jaz disks are even larger.

CD-R drives can write a large amount of data to a special type of compact disk. The disks can only be written once, but they are inexpensive, and each one stores a great deal of data – about 500 megabytes each, meaning a full backup of your server should require only a few disks at most, and might easily fit on one. Using CDs for backups is very fast, and the resulting backup disks are durable and easy to store.

Tape drives can produce “unattended” backups – the backup software is instructed to run overnight, and the entire backup fits on a single tape. You can purchase tape drives with many different speeds and capacities. With a high-capacity tape drive, you could back up both the server and selected data from all across your network, such as everyone’s spreadsheets and word processing documents, every night.

Be sure to take advantage of the ACOWIN Tutorials, which you can access from the main menu of your ACOWIN CD-ROM. These multimedia tutorials offer a guided tour of the entire system, broken down into short, easy lessons. The Setup tutorial covers all of the setup tasks outlined in this booklet. You can bring the ACOWIN disk home and watch the tutorials at your convenience – they should run fine on almost any Pentium-class Windows computer. You will need a sound card and speakers to hear the spoken-voice portions of the tutorials.

It is strongly recommended that you install a battery backup on all of your Acowin computers, both server and workstations, to reduce the risk of damage to your data during power failures and brown-outs. You should also connect your network hub or router to a battery backup. Since Acowin is a multi-user network application, power failures that knock out the computers, hub, or router could cause damage to your data. Battery backups are very affordable, and can be purchased from any computer or office supply store. A few dollars invested in battery units will protect your computer hardware and valuable data!

20

21