Overview:

By placing the cursor over a button or text, it's function can be seen in the text line on the bottom line left of the date field.

The first step is to populate the Inventory fields with all of the vehicles in your fleet that will be required to have maintenance. Fill in all of the fields as possible. Then go back to the first vehicle and fill in the five service alarms such as oil change, transmissions service, rotate tires. There is a place to set up date for auto inspections and any other date function important to that vehicle. Once completed and saved, a master record with those service alarms can also be saved and then copied into each of the other vehicles in the fleet. A big time saver.

Next is to establish the usage function, this is where all of the gasoline information and mileage

is recorded. The entire program, service alarms and warranty checks are calculated from the usage entries - be accurate, be often (each fill up of fuel).

Calendar Function:

Allows the operator to review previously scheduled maintenance or schedule some appointment in the future. If a service alarm is triggered "due" the program will allows the operator to schedule that maintenance action that day or sometime into the future. a calendar date form will appear with the service due at the bottom window, just highlight, cut and paste into a time slot and save. Once an appointment has been scheduled the date field will appear in blue. The operator can select any blue date and review the scheduled appointment. If there something that the operator needs to be reminded of during the day, the is an alarm that can be set, such as a meeting, phone call or whatever.

Inventory - Set auto alarms Vehicle Inventory

INVENTORY - The inventory should contain all of the vehicles/equipment within your fleet that will be required to have maintenance. Fill in as much data as possible and the reports generated will need to have all of the information to be accurate. The most critical area in Inventory is the "Set Auto Alarms" There are 5 service alarms and 2 date alarms that is used by the program. The service alarms such as Lube, Oil & filter with a start at current mileage and every "3000" miles. This alarm will notify the operator when this vehicle needs to have that service conducted, and then allow the operator to schedule this service into the calendar function. After all of the service alarms and periodicity has been entered into the program and the usage is being entered, the program will automatically scan all vehicles in the inventory to see if any vehicles' maintenance alarms are due. Then the program will automatically scan to check vehicle warranties are close to expiration, a big money saver if there is a potential problem and that has been put off. The service alarms can work either in miles (normal) or in hours for equipment. The date alarms can be used for scheduling state inspections, smog checks or whatever the states requires. If by chance the vehicle is outfitted with tools, or items that need to be tracked enter those items into the 14 available slots. If there are up fitting items such as chemical tank or LP Gas conversion enter these into the 4 up fitting slots.

SERVICE: Service is where the operator can review all of the alarms for each vehicle. When first accessed if there is an alarm due the program will prompt the operator. Service alarms can be all the same or different depending on the vehicle/equipment requirements. Once a service alarms is indicated and the operator schedules a date, the text blocks on service will indicate what service has been scheduled, the date of schedule and when the service is scheduled to be accomplished. The service shows in the bottom of the calendar window just highlight, cut & paste into the time you wish to schedule and save. The calendar date will be shown in blue indicating an appointment has been scheduled. You can click on any day and review that days schedules and print it out. Once the scheduled maintenance has been accomplished simply edit the vehicles record by enter the date of maintenance and the mileage, save the record. The text filed will disappear and the next mileage due will update.

SERVICE CRITICAL ITEMS :

To insure proper operation

Make sure all alarms are set in Inventory
Keep same maintenance items in the same service code group. Oil changes in A, Check belts & hoses in B, etc.
Make sure that usage (fuel information) is updated weekly, the service program alarms are calculated from last mileage entered. if over 500 miles a day are place on a vehicle then a daily input to usage may be required.
Make sure to enter the date and mileage the maintenance alarm(s) were accomplished.

Behind the normal service menu, a listing of service can been seen by clicking on the blue band at the top and then reviewing and returning by clicking anywhere out side of the history field.

A Service Scan button can be press and the program will scan all records to see is any service is due. This is similar to the automatic function when the program is first started. Some shops tend to keep the program powered up and not restarted daily. The Update button should be pressed prior to printing out the service reports in the report section, this updates all of the data bases prior to printing.

Corrective Service System:

Is the heart of the program and is covered on a separate page...More

Preventative Maintenance :

The Preventative Maintenance System (PMS) has two functions (1) provides tracking of all of the Preventative Maintenance for each vehicle in the fleet. (2) a printed blank report can serve as a drivers report or feedback to the shop of potential problems. PMS covers a wider array of items than SERVICE, however a lot of shops only use it as feedback to the shop.

Usage :

The usage tab provides the operator a quick review of the selected vehicle fuel, cost & mileage information on top. Only the very first entry for each vehicle need to be treated a little different. The first entry for each vehicle will need to have the last mileage reading entered into the gray box in order to compute the current miles per gallon correctly. After the first entry, the program will search for the last record entry and get that mileage for the calculations. After there are several entries of the same vehicle a trend of fuel economy can be established by text entries or by selecting the show graph and then selecting a vehicle on top for display. The are three graphs for use and can be printed out. A decrease in mpg may indicate a maintenance action or fuel loss. When the graph function is used, the text field at the top are hidden when you remove the graph, just click on the area above usage and the text will return.