[Dyna]

I wish to use service manager to record faulty products returned from customers. When products are returned we may repair, replace or credit them. Sometimes customers return more than one product at a time.
I would like to know how we could record multiple products in a single service manager job so that we still have the ability to record individual actions/details against each product.
I think I need to use a card file linked to service manager to do this but am not sure how this can be done so that the multiple products are displayed on the service manager screen for the related job by default rather than going into the menu option to display the card file containing the products for the related job.

[COBS Tech Support]

How many products do you need to track per job?

What kind of information do you do you need to track relating to the repair?

What kind of information do you want to print out relating to the repair?

[Dyna]

most of the time it is 1-3 products, but on some occasions it can be 20+
however we can restrict to a finite number if it is easier. It is no issue. It will only mean doing multiple jobs.

for the repair (i,.e. for each product) we need to track following:
action ( repair/replace or credit)
nature of problem - can be editable list
date sent for repair
current location of product( repairer, warehouse, salesman, customer, transit)
date sent to customer
reference ( a tran no we can put to associate with credit if we issued a credit note, delivery docket if replaced , etc)


printout required would
a. listing of above fields per job
b. be a report which will enable us to identify if we have any repairs outstanding
c. get a summary by product code of faulty products over a period.

[COBS Tech Support]

My suggestion would be to create multiple fields for each repair item you want to track. This should be very practical for up to 6 items per job. (Possibly more.)

For example, create the field PCODE1, PCODE2, PCODE3 and so on to hold the product code of each of your repair items. Repeat the above procedure for return date, e.g., RETDATE1, RETDATE2, RETDATE3, and so on.

The advantage of the above approach is that you can have all the information on a single page (depending on how much you can practically fit on a page.)

The disadvantage of the above approach is that it definitely does complicate your reporting. Because for any reports that you write, you will need to inspect/list multiple fields.

You could potentially store the information in a separate card file, and then access those items via a menu from the service manager. However, there is no way you can integrate the contents of that card file directly into your main window. It will have to be a 'pop-up' window that appears after you open it from a menu option.