Summary

Follow this process to open, edit, or create an issue in the Code and Contact Management module.

Step by Step

1     Open the Issue Search window (CM> Issues> Issue Search).

2     Create an issue from an issue type and complete the General tab.

• Click the Create icon to create a new issue. This will open the Issue Maintenance window.
• Select an Issue Type or click the field label to select one from a list.
  • Issue types can be activated by un-checking the Inactive toggle on the Issue Type Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Issue Type> General tab).
• Once you have selected an issue type, the other sections on the General tab will be populated and enabled.
• The Type Description field will populate with the description specified on the Issue Type Maintenance window. This field cannot be edited.
• The Issue Number field will populate with the next available unique issue number. The Issue Number functions as the index for issues, just like the Customer Number acts as an index for customers. You will not be able to modify the value in this field.
• Enter a unique Citation Number for the Issue. This field can function as an additional index if you set up this field to be unique.
  • You can force the window to require a unique citation number by checking the Enforce Unique Citation Numbers toggle during the CM Setup process (CM> Utilities> Setup).
  • The Issue Detail Listing report and printed Issues can be filtered by the Citation Number field. You can also locate issues by the Citation Number with the Issue Search window.
  • The Citation Number field will display on the description of an AR invoice if you have checked the Use Citation Number in Invoice Description toggle during the CM Setup process (CM> Utilities> Setup).
• The Issue Status field will populate with the status specified for the selected Issue Type. You can edit this field by clicking the field label to select a new issue status.
  • Statuses are user-defined codes set up on the Status Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Issue Status).
• The Issue Date field will default to the current date but can be modified when the issue is created. After the issue has been saved, you will not be able to modify the issue date.
• The Web User field will populate with the web user's username if the issue was generated through the Online Code and Contact Management application.
• The Issue Description field will populate with the issue type description specified on the Issue Type Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Issue Type> Issue section> Description field).
• The Ordinance field is a large text field that can be used to enter the ordinance number of an issue. This field is not required but will display on the printed version of the issue.
• The Notes field can be used for general notes and will display on the printed version of the issue.
• The Source fields are used to enter information on the person creating the issue. Use these fields to attach the customer that initiated contact to the issue. This is an optional section.
  • Enter a Source Customer Number or click the field label and select a customer number to add a source customer to the issue.
  • The Source Customer Number can be added to forms and will display on the Print Issue report (CM> Reports> Print Issue).
  • Enter a Source Description. The issue Source Description will display in the printed version of the issue. This field can be up to 1000 characters long.
• The Target fields are used to enter information on the person or lot the issue concerns. Select either a lot or a customer account.
  • Click the Target Customer Number field label to select a customer from a list. If you would like to add both a lot and a customer to an issue, click the Lot Number field label first and select a lot from the list. The customer account attached to the lot will populate in the Target Customer Number field, along with the Business Phone, Home Phone and Street Address fields.
    • If a step in the issue is creating an AR Invoice and you select a customer with only a Utility Billing account, an AR account will be created for that customer when the AR Invoice is generated.
    • If the issue is going to create a Utility Billing service request you must attach a lot with an active utility billing customer account.
    • If you are creating an issue that does not perform an action or only creates a service request, you do not have to select a customer.
    • If a customer number has already been selected in the Target Customer Number field, selecting a Lot Number will not affect the selected customer record. You will, however, be required to confirm the lot selection.
  • Enter a Target Description if desired. This field will display on the printed version of the issue.
• The Resolution fields should only be completed after the issue has been resolved.
  • Select a Resolution Type from the drop-down menu when the issue is complete or resolved.
  • If you select a resolution before the issue steps are complete and save the issue, you will be prompted to confirm your choice. All the open issue steps will be marked as complete, but the issue step actions will not be performed.
  • Once you select a resolution from the drop-down menu, the Resolution Notes field below the Resolution Type field will be enabled.
  • The Resolution fields will display on the printed version of the issue.
  • Resolutions are created and maintained on the Resolution Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Resolution Type).
• Click the Launch URL icon drop-down menu and select a URL type code to transmit data from the issue to the web site attached to the URL type code.

3     Complete the Steps tab.

• The Steps of the issue will populate from the steps set up on the issue type selected on the General tab in the Issue Type field. You can add, delete, or modify the steps of the issue if needed. Changes made to the issue will only affect the issue, not the issue type attached to the issue.
• Incomplete steps will display in red.
• Click the Create icon drop-down menu and select New Step to add a new step to the issue type.
  • You can have up to 15 steps on an issue and still be able to print all of the steps on a form.
• The Queue, User and Role fields are used to associate Springbrook users with the issue step. These fields serve two purposes.
  • When a queue and a user are associated with the issue step, you can use the Issue Step Search window to display, sort and export the issue step details associated with the queue or user.
  • When a queue, user or role is associated with the issue step, the issue step can be set up to notify the Springbrook users attached to the specified queue, user or role when the prior issue step has been completed and the current issue step requires their attention.
    • The issue step is set up to notify the queue, user or role in the Notification Recipient drop-down menu below. Only the user type selected in this field will be notified. For example, if an issue step is associated with a queue, user and role, and User is specified as the notification type in the field below, only the user will receive the notification. This also means that if the issue step is associated with a queue and a role but not associated with a user, no notification would be generated.
    • The type of notification generated is determined by the user's User Preferences settings (User Preferences icon  > General tab> Alert Method drop-down menu).
  • Select a Queue from the drop-down menu to associate a queue with the issue step.
    • If the Enable queue restrictions toggle is checked on the CM Setup window, this field will only be accessible to the queue member set up as Administrator.
    • If the issue step is set up to notify by queue, all the members of the selected queue will receive a notification when the issue step requires attention.
    • Queues are created and maintained on the Queue Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Queues).
  • Select a User from the drop-down menu to associate a user with the issue step.
    • Only Springbrook users that are attached to the queue selected above will display in the drop-down menu.
    • If the issue step is set up to notify by user, the selected user will receive a notification when the issue step requires attention.
    • Users are created and maintained on the User Maintenance window (SS> Security> User).
  • Click the Role field label to associate a role with the issue step.
    • If the issue step is set up to notify by role, all the Springbrook users associated with the selected role will receive a notification when the issue step requires attention.
      • For user-based roles, the Springbrook user specified on the role will be notified.
      • For position-based roles, any Springbrook user whose PR Employee record is associated with the specified position will be notified.
    • Roles are created and maintained on the Role Maintenance window (SS> Security> Role).
• The Notification Recipient drop-down menu is used to
• Select an Action from the drop-down menu.
  • Select Create/Update AR Invoice to create an Accounts Receivable invoice from a selected fee code. The invoice will be created in a new Invoices batch in AR> Invoices.
    • The batch number that will be used when creating invoices is specified in the Starting Invoice Batch Number field on the CM Setup window (CM> Utilities> Setup CM> Options section).
    • If this batch number has already been committed in the current fiscal period, the AR invoice will be created in the next available invoice batch.
    • If the batch has transactions in it but has not been committed, the new invoice will be added to the batch and the batch will be returned to the Enter Invoices step in AR> Invoices.
    • If the AR invoice that will be created in the batch has the same customer number, account number, and issue number as an existing invoice in the batch, the two invoices will be combined.
      • This process is useful if you have an issue with multiple steps that create AR invoices with different AR fee codes. This allows the separate fee codes to be charged to a single customer account to be charged on a single AR invoice.
    • The address on the invoice will be pulled from the customer account even if a lot is attached to the issue with a service address that is different than the customer account address.
    • The Citation Number field on the General tab of the Issue Maintenance window will populate the description of an AR invoice if you have checked the Use Citation Number in Invoice Description toggle in CM> Utilities> Setup.
  • Select UB Service Request to create an uncommitted service request in the Utility Billing module for a selected service request code.
    • The uncommitted service request will display in UB> Service Requests> Input after the service request has been generated and the issue step completed.
    • You must attach a lot to the issue if you are going to create a UB service request, and the UB account attached to the lot must be active. You can view the status of a UB account on the UB Account Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Customer Account Information section> Status field).
    • The customer account attached to the lot will be the customer attached to the service request.
  • Select Create WO Work Order to use a recurring estimate to create a work order in the Work Orders module.
  • If the Action drop-down menu is empty, you can enable the AR, UB and WO modules to interface with the Contact Management module on the CM Setup window (CM> Utilities> Setup> Interfaces section).
• Enter an Action Item or click the field label to select a fee code or service request code from a list. The contents of this list will depend on the selection in the Action field.
  • Fee codes are set up in AR> Maintenance> Fees
  • Service request codes are set up in UB> Maintenance> Service Request Code.
  • Recurring estimates are created and maintained on the Recurring Estimate Maintenance window (WO> Recurring Estimates).
• The Action Item Description and Action Amount fields will populate after you have selected a fee code or service request.
  • The Description field will populate with the description of the fee code or service request.
  • If you are creating an AR invoice the Action Amount field will populate with the Fixed Amount field of the fee code that is set up in AR> Maintenance> Fees> Fee Code section. You can change the value in this field if desired.
  • If you are creating a service request the Amount field will populate with the billable amount of the service request that is set up on the Service Request Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Service Request Code> Charge Info section> Default Charge field).
    • The Default Charge field defaults to the Flat Amount set up in the special charge code attached to the service request code, but this amount can be modified without affecting the flat amount attached to the special charge code. If you want to affect the flat amount of a special charge code, that amount is set up in UB> Maintenance> Special Charge Code> Charge Info section> Flat Amount field. If you change the flat amount attached to the special charge code all Utility Billing transactions attached to that special charge code will also be affected.
• The Completed Date and Completed Time fields will populate with the current date and time when you click the Generate icon to generate an AR invoice or UB service request.
  • If there is no action attached to an issue step, you can close the step by completing the Completion Date and Completion Time fields.
  • If you manually complete these fields the step will close and you will not be able to process the action attached to the step.
  • If you have accidentally closed a step you can create a new step by clicking the Create icon. Make the new step identical to the step you accidentally completed and click the Up or Down icons to move the new step to the correct location.
  • The Completed Time field will round down to the nearest half hour when an action is performed and the step is closed.
• Use the Scheduled Hours, Scheduled Date and Scheduled Time fields to record information about how long the step should take and when the step should be completed.
• Enter any additional Step Notes for the issue step. This field can accommodate up to 2000 characters.

4     Attach a Form to the step.

• Click the Create icon drop-down menu and select New Form to add a new line item in the Forms section.
• This allows you to add a form to a step so that you can print it out when processing the issue.
• Forms are created and modified on the Forms Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Forms).

5    Complete the Contacts tab.

• The Contacts tab allows you to attach a customer account to the issue. It is not necessary to complete this tab to create an issue.
• Click the Create icon to add an additional contact to the issue.
• Contacts added to an issue will print in a section titled Issue Contacts on the printed issue.
• Click the Customer Number field label to select a contact from a list. This will populate and disable the other contact details with the information attached to the customer account.
  • A new contact may be entered on this tab that does not exist elsewhere in the system.
• The Notes field allows you to attach notes to the contact information.
  • This field does not display on the printed version of the issue or the Issue Detail Listing Report, but it will be available as a field when the CM Query by Example reporting tool is implemented.
• You can have up to five contacts attached to an issue and still be able to print all of the contacts on a form.
• Click the View Data icon to open and edit an attached contact.

6     Complete the Comments tab.

• The Comments tab allows you to attach comments to an issue. It is not necessary to complete this tab to create an issue.
• Click the Create icon   to add a comment to the issue type. Any additional comments added to this tab will not affect the original issue type.
• Comment codes are created and maintained on the Comment Code Maintenance window (CM> Maintenance> Comment Code).

7     Complete the Miscellaneous tab.

• The Miscellaneous tab will display the miscellaneous fields attached to the issue.
• The labels of the miscellaneous fields are set up in the Miscellaneous Field Labels window (SS> Utilities> Miscellaneous Field Labels).
• Click the Save icon when complete.

8     Print the issue.

• Click the Print icon to print the issue. You can view the progress of the job on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
  • Once the issue has been printed, you can also display the issue information using the View Reports window (SS> Utilities> View Report).
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Print Preview to preview the report before printing.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel (Formatted) to export the report data to an Excel speadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.