20.2. Operating Requests

• Request No. - number assigned to a request;

• Ageing Status - indicates whether a request is due, overdue or scheduled;

• Request Type, Group - are used to group requests by type, group. Details in Request Setup.

• Category - determines the default invoicing rule for the request;

• Related Request - allows you to link this request to another request;

• Status - select a request status from the list, determined by the request type selected. A request entered trough the webstore will use the default status;

• Resolution - for a closed request, select from the list a resolution;

• Priority - indicates the priority for closing a request. Select from the list one of the values: high, medium, low or minor priority.

• User Priority - indicates the request priority from the user point of view. Select from the list one of the values: high, medium, low or minor priority;

• Subject - the request subject;

• Summary - short description for the request;

• Confidentiality - the confidentiality level used to determine if the request can be viewed by others. By default a user can see his created and allocated requests. The confidentiality level also determines how notifications are sent;

• Source - select from the list the request source;

• Request Amount - an amount linked to the request;

• Total Invoice Quantity - the total invoice hours entered for the request;

• Invoiced - if checked an invoice will be issued for this request;

• Self Service - if checked, the request can be updated through the WebStore.

• RMA - if checked, the request can be used to generate a total or partial return order;

Action section - is used to enter the action made on a request:

• Representative - here you can select the allocated user;

• Role - you may select a role. The request is allocated to any user with this role;

• Action Date - enter the date for this action (update). By default the current date will be used;

• Date next action - enter the scheduled date for a request action (update);

• Entry Access Level - you can select a confidentiality level for the action (update) ther than the one selected in the Confidentiality field

• Standard Response - select a standard response from the list. the response will be displayed in the result field and can be edited;

• Mail Template - you can select a mail templated used to send notification

• Result - enter any information you'd like to share with the users receiving request notifications;

• Product Used - select a product that will be used on the request invoice;

• Time Type - type of hours spend,used for reporting, in addition to activities;

• Spent time - time spent (in hours) for for this action (update);

• Activity - select an business activity when entering spent time, used for cost analysis;

• Invoice hours - the hours entered here determine the invoiced amount;

Schedule Plan section:

• Task Status - select from the list an informative value;

• Estimated effort - total time (in hours) estimated for this request;

• Realization Percent - displays the consumed hours as a percent of the estimated time;

• Consumed hours - displays the total time spent for this request

• Start Plan - scheduled date for the first action (update) for the request;

• Due date - scheduled date for closing the request;

• Start Date - the date when the request was added. Can be edited;

• Close Date - the date when the request was closed. Can be edited;

• Generate RMA button - a RMA order can be generated from the request (if the RMA checkbox has been selected and in the Reference section the fields: Order and Shipment/Receipt). The order lines are influenced by the additional fields from the Reference section. Details in Returns

The Reference section is used to associate requests to an existing document or record. Most of the fields in this section are automatically filled in if the request is created from a record using the Request button on the toolbar. You can fill in any of the fields below:

• Business Partner - the business partner associated with this request;

• B.P. Contact - select a contact for the business partner to receive request notifications;

• Project, phase, Subphase - select the project associated with the request and optionally the phase and subphase;

• Order - optionally, enter the order associated with the request

• Shipment/Receipt - optionally, shipment the order associated with the request

• Invoice - optionally, enter the invoice associated with the request

• Payment - optionally, enter the payment associated with the request

• Product - optionally, enter the product associated with the request

• Lead - enter the lead associated with the request, if the request is based on a lead;

• Campaign - enter the marketing campaign associated with the request, if the request is based on a lead;

• Agent - enter the sales representative associated with the request, if the request is based on a lead;

• Sales Region - enter the sales region associated with the request, if the request is based on a lead;

• RMA Order - displays the RMA order generated from the request;

• RMA Shipment/Receipt - displays the generated RMA shipment;

• Quantity Allocated - quantity that has been picked and is awaiting shipment;

• Planned Quantity - the anticipated quantity for this project or project line;

• Product Family, Product Family Version - optionally, enter the product family and respective version associated with the request;

• Trello Card ID - displays the ID of the Trello card linked to the request (the Trello Integration component is required);

History section:

• Date last action - the date that the last action was made on;

• Last Alert - the last alert that was sent for this request;

• Last Result - the result of the last action;

• Created On - the date that the request was created on;

• Created By - the user that has created the request;

• Updated - the date that this request was last modified on;

• Updated By - the last user that has modified this request;

• Start Date - this field is updated the moment you have added a request, but it can be modified;

• Close Date - this field is updated the moment you have closed the request, but it can also be modified;

• Change Request, Fixed In - fields related to generating change requests for bills of materials (not yet implemented)

• Request Invoice - the invoice that was generated from the request.

• Lead Time - number of days since the request was created;

• URL - the webpage of the business partner associated with the request.

Updating Requests

A new record in the Updates tab will be created whenever the request is saved with changes to any of the fields below:

• Representative

• Confidentiality

• Entry Access Level

• Activity

• Action Date

• Result

• Request Type

• Category

• Priority

• User Priority

• Status

• Group

• Time Type

• Consumed hours

• Mail Template

• Standard Response

When updating a request, notifications are sent and invoices can be generated (depending on the invoicing rule selected for the request category).

The Updates tab displays all the actions that have been taken on the request. The fields in this tab correspond to the ones in the Request window.

The History tab displays all the modifications that have been done on a request. A new record will be made in this window for any modification saved in the Request window.

Notifications

The Update Recipients tab indicates the users that are notified the moment this request is updated. In this window you can enter all the users/contacts that should receive notifications when the request is updated:

• the user that is allocated to this request

• the user that has created this request and

• the user/contact for the allocated business partner

• any other user that needs to be notified of the request updates based on the request type, category or group.

Notifications will be sent depending on the confidentiality level used:

• Public - notifications will be sent to all the members in the list above

• Partner Confidential - notifications will be sent to all the members in the list above, except the users defined for the request category;

• Internal - notifications will be sent to the request representative;

Even if a user is indicated more than once, he will only receive a single notification for each update.

The All Emails tab displays the users that have been notified the moment the request was updated and the e-mails they have received. The emails can also be viewed in the Updates tab, Email secondary tab, for every update.

The Comments/Note tab contains a record with the request summary.

In the Members tab you can allocate additional users to a request, which will receive notifications.

• Owner- indicates the user is responsible for the request;

• Trello Member ID - the Trello user ID associated with the members. (the Trello Integration component is required).

Processes

The Request Update process is used to update multiple requests simultaneously. Before running the process you can specify the following parameters:

• Selection filters for the requests that will be updated: Type, Status, Group, Category, Business Partner, Sales Rep (user), Role (allocated role);

• Parameters indicating the new values applied to the requests: New Type, New Status, New Group, New Category, New Sales Rep, New Role;

The Invoice Requests process generates customer invoices based on requests marked with "Invoiced" using the invoice hours entered on the request. Before running the process you can specify the following parameters:

• Request Type, Group, Category, Business Partner - selection filters for the processed requests;

• Product - product used for invoicing (by default, the product on the invoice is used and if not available, the product on the request category);

The Generate Sales Orders from Request process generates sales orders from requests following the same rules as the process used for invoicing. The warehouse o the order is taken from the request's project.

The Reopen Requests process can be used to change the "Closed" status for a request and reset it to the initial request status (e.g. Registered). A "Result" text can be entered, which will appear on the action through which the request will be reopened.

Reports

The Metrics on Requests Report, displays for requests, depending cont the Report Type parameter, the following information:

• Status Count - number of time reached the request had a specific status;

• Status Between - number of transfers between two statuses

• Time until First Status - time passed since the initial request status;

• Time until Last Status - time passed since reaching the last request status

The Request Control report, displays, depending on the selected parameters (selection filters for requests), a list of requests, and for each request the following information, customer, request number, category, status, creation date and closing date, if invoiceable and the generated sales order number.

The Related Requests Report report displays, depending on the selected parameters (selection filters for requests), requests which were selected as related on other requests. A request can be linked to another request using the Related Request field from its definition.

The Requests from Customers and Employee Requests from Employees reports display, for a year, the number of requests and tasks entered each month for customers and respectively, employees. The following selection filters are available for the requests counted: Organization Category, Closed Status (option to display only closed requests, open requests or both).

The Closed Requests by Employees displays, depending on the selected parameters (selection filters for requests), the number of requests closed by employees each month for a specified year.

The Work on Requests Review report displays, depending on the selected parameters (selection filters for requests), the number of requests for which actions have been entered by employees in a specific period, grouped by date and indicating the entered hours.

The Request Flow Analysis report displays the number of requests for a specified period as described below:

• requests open at the beginning of the period

• requests entered within the period

• requests closed within the period

• total requests open at the end of the period

The period (by default the current month) is defined using the Date (interval) parameter. The other parameters represent selection filters for the requests and tasks processed.

The Support Requests report is not available in the current SocrateCloud version.

The Open Requests on Expired Projects display requests with an open status on a project with Stop date before the current date.