How Can I Track a Customer's Equipment?

Keeping track of what equipment a customer has on site is important for providing accurate and timely service.  But tracking what work has been done with that equipment is equally valuable.  This can be accomplished by attaching pieces of equipment to transactions in ESC that pertain to them.  

Let's look at how this works...

When creating or editing a dispatch in ESC, the Dispatch screen will list all of the customer's items under the Equipment tab.  Placing a check mark next to the items that the technician needs to service during their visit will 'attach' those items to the dispatch.

When that dispatch is invoiced, the attached equipment will also show as selected on the Sales Invoicing screen.  

This not only shows that equipment maintenance or services you're billing for, but also allows the equipment to be printed on the invoice for the customer to see.  

Equipment can be printed on the invoices by going to File → Print Options and selecting Print Attached Equipment on Invoices and Print equipment in the invoice body.

Equipment can also be attached to Service Agreements.  When a dispatch or an invoice is generated from that agreement, the associated equipment will be carried with it and attached to those transactions.  Quotes also behave the same way - whatever is attached to the Quote will also be attached to transactions created from the quote.  

Reporting

Attaching the individual pieces of equipment to their associated transactions makes it easy to see what equipment items were associated with those transactions; but what if you want to know what transactions are associated with those items?  That's where the Equipment Report with History comes into play.

The Equipment Report with History is available by going to Customer Info → Reports.  This report can be run for a variety of criteria, such as by a particular customer, by an equipment model, type or even by transaction dates.

The report itself will show the customer's information, then their individual equipment records.  If an item has been attached to any invoices or dispatches, those will show under the item.  Any notes included with the history will show right on the report, making it easy to determine when a unit is becoming more of a hassle than it is worth.