Embedded Files
Post date: Mar 01, 2013 2:9:44 PM
If you've got a service technician going to a job, and he (or you) needs to know what was done previously, what's the best way to look up the previous work done at that site? The previous orders may not have the exact same ship to address - and even the bill to address might be different, because often property management companies change. Or possibly, the work was originally done for a general contractor, but it's now owned privately. So the name and address may not be the best way to 'find' the previous orders.
On the 'View Order Information' page, we added a link to the 'List of Nearby Orders' to facilitate these lookups.
NOTE ABOUT GEOCODING: The geocode is based on Google's determination of the latitude and longitude of a specified address. This obviously depends on the size of the building, accuracy of the street address, etc. Geocodes are updated by the program, using an internet connection, whenever a NEW order is saved, OR when a ship to address is modified. If you have older orders in your system that were saved BEFORE the geocoding was implemented, they may not have geocodes. If you would like to have these geocoded, contact us for help in getting those done.
This opens to any number of other creative prospects: for example, you might call previous customers in the 'nearby' vicinity when you are scheduling work close by to see if they can use any preventive maintenance while your truck is in the area. The good thing about using the geocode is that you can tell what's REALLY in the area, regardless of the spelling, punctuation, and even the names on the previous orders.
Every order carries with it the geocode for the ship to address - the geocode is the pair of latitude and longitude coordinates (based on a query to Google) of the specified address. It appears on the 'View Order Information' screen. Using the geocode, the List of Nearby Orders lists past orders in the same vicinity as the selected order, showing the approximate distance away, and the order number, bill to name, ship to name and address, etc. Any order that includes a description of work from the job cost entries will also display a checkbox. If you click the checkbox, it will 'open up' a list of all the work descriptions and mechanics involved in the previous work at that site.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse