A detailed look at the fields and dependencies in the Office/Depot records, how to create a new Office/Depot record & editing existing Offices/Depots.
“Office/Depot” records hold information about the location of your own organisation’s sites e.g. workshops, local/branch offices etc. These are used to denote base location of Teams and optionally, employee home addresses, if required as a noted address for drop/collection of parts/materials.
Some features are dependent upon your select plan for your account.
Indicates a feature is only available in Standard plan or above.
Indicates a feature is only available in Enterprise plan.
Where Office/Depot Records are Used
The following files refer to Office/Depot records so if you plan to use any of these, setting up the records in this file will be important or even critical:
Data Sources:
- Territories
- Teams
- Vehicles
Activity/Forms:
- Part Logistic
- Equipment Collect
Pre-requisite Files for Office/Depot Records
When setting up Office/Depot records, it is recommended to review the other data files that may need to be referred to by each record. These are the files that you may need to setup in advance:
- Currencies
- Users
- Contacts
Field Descriptions for Office/Depot
The ID section holds the unique ID and names for the record:
Reference - holds the unique ID for the record (most records in have one of these). It cannot contain any spaces or non-standard characters. Once the record is saved, it is not possible to edit it afterwards. In most default situations, the Reference is automatically set using a counter sequence, however, you can setup your own if you prefer.
Name - the formal name of the Office/Depot for addressing reasons and is usually the entity name e.g. ABC Systems Limited, XYZ Metals Inc. etc.
Nickname – a short friendly name useful where screen space is limited e.g. “New York Office”.
The Address section holds the physical address of the Office/Depot:
Floor/Room– the floor, room or location within the building or site.
Building - the building name or number of unit on site.
Address 1 – first line of address.
Address 2 – optional second line of address (not including city or town name).
City – name of town or city.
County/Province – name of county or province. This is dependent upon State field selection (which in turn is dependent upon Country selection).
Postcode – the postal code or zip code of the site.
State – name of state (if applicable). This is dependent upon Country field selection.
Country – name of country. This field defaults to the setting in Account Settings and must be selected from the in-built list of countries.
The Communications section holds the preferred contact and the supplier’s phone/email:
Phone – will automatically populate with the phone information from a selected contact. It is also possible to enter a phone number directly.
Email – will automatically populate with the email address information from a selected contact. It is also possible to enter an email address directly.
Manager – allows selection of a User who is may be the most senior person.
The Other section holds miscellaneous additional information:
Type – the type of location. The options are:
- Headquarters
- Regional
- Employee's Home
- Collection Point
Memo – a free text field that can be used for any purpose.
Time Zone – the time zone where the Office/Depot is located (this is also set from Country/State).
Status – defines whether the record is in use or not. Initially, records are set to a status of “Draft”. Only “Active” status records are available for selection within the system.
Creating a New Office/Depot Record
To create a new Office/Depot record:
- Click on the “Plus” button.
A menu will appear. - Within the “Data Sources” section, find “Office/Depot”.
- Click on “Office/Depot”. A new “empty” Office/Depot record will appear.
- Populate all fields as you require.
- Click on the “Create” button.
- You may need to refresh the page to see the new record in a view using the Refresh button on the top bar.
Editing an Office/Depot Record
To edit an Office/Depot record:
- From the main menu, select Office/Depots.
The default view for Office/Depots will open. - Click on the Quick Filter button.
- Enter criteria for the Office/Depot record you are looking for and click Apply button.
- The view will update. Find the record you are wanting to edit.
- Click anywhere on the row that shows the record. The record will open.
- You can edit any field that allows editing (some could be set to read only).
- Click on “Save” button to save changes.
Deleting an Office/Depot Record
To delete an Office/Depot record.
- From the main menu, select Office/Depots. The default view for Office/Depots will open.
- Click on the Quick Filter button.
- Enter criteria for the Office/Depot record you are looking for and click Apply button.
- The view will update. Find the record you are wanting to delete.
- On the left side of the view is a column containing checkboxes.
- Check the box of the record you want to delete.
- Click the “Delete” button on the top right.
A slide in dialog will appear prompting you to confirm the delete, by typing in the word “DELETE” again. - To confirm, click the “Delete” button and the record (or records will be deleted).
Note: You cannot delete a Office/Depot record that is already in use with a Work Item i.e. Jobs. You can delete Site records referred to only by other Data Sources however this will leave those records without an associated to a valid Customer record. If this happens by accident, you can manually recreate the record ensuring the Reference is identical. You can also change the status of the record to prevent it appearing on screen in future whilst maintaining historical integrity.
Customising or Adding New Fields
Solarvista™ is built upon a uniquely flexible platform that allows you to edit fields (or remove them in some cases) as well as add your own fields. These new fields (or edited characteristics of existing fields) automatically become available within the web portal and the mobile apps. For more information, refer to the Customising section.
Importing Cause Data in Bulk using Import Tool
If you have a lot of Cause information to enter, you may prefer to upload this using the Import Tool that’s built into Solarvista. The Import Tool enables Cause records to be created from “CSV” text files. CSV files can be created from a wide range of popular applications including Microsoft Excel. For more information on importing data into Solarvista, please refer to the article here.
Continue the Setting Up Data series with Tax Rates.