Equipment+
Introduction
The Equipment+ module keeps track of equipment. Equipment can be things that need to be serviced regularly (check the pump every 6 months), things that should be tracked (where is my truck? who has the Volvo bulldozer?), things that can be lent out to other companies (the Volvo is at company Ventu Constructions) and so on.
It is important to be aware of the difference between an equipment type (f.ex. “Volvo bulldozer”) and a specific equipment (the Volvo bulldozer with license plate 1234567), there may be many equipments of a given type, they are assumed to be similar.
Equipment servicing is done by defining “protocols”. A protocol describes when equipment of a given type should be serviced (after 10000 km, or after 1000 hours, or every 6 months etc.), and how it should be serviced (which question forms to complete). Filling in the forms is called “executing the protocol”.
Equipment can contain other equipment, f.ex. the equipment “car” can contain underlying equipment “engine” and “brakes”; the underlying equipment may also also contain underlying equipment. The various parts may be serviced together.
Equipment may be reserved, f.ex. a task may require equipment of the types “bulldozer” and “pump”. In Planning+ you may then select exactly which bulldozer to use for a given task on a given day.
Since it is assumed that all equipment of a given type is similar it is useful to have templates, so you can create a new instance of a given equipment type by implementing a template.
Equipment may be invoiced per hour or day of usage. This is setup on the equipment type.
Equipment may have a location, both a physical location (coordinate) and a logical location (eg. a task or a user).
Notice that equipment and equipment types from the old Equipment module are transferred to the new Equipment+ module. However, not all details are or can be transferred.
What’s in this module?
You can obviously search for equipment; each equipment has its own details page where you can see notes, files, activitivies, question forms, locations, result of protocols etc.
The module provides a page with the equipment that have upcoming protocols. You can also see underlying equipment in a hierarki.
You can define custom fields and filters and update filters. You may define tooltips for both equipment and equipment types.
You may define categories of equipment: categories have no functionality within Microbizz, they are mainly there to help you organize your equipment. Categories may have sub categories.
Get started
You may want to start by ensuring that you have created a few equipment statuses and equipment types.
If you plan on using protocols you should read the section “About protocols” first.
If you plan on using invoicing you should read the section “About invoicing” first.
Workflows
Keep track of equipment that is being lent out
Every time the location an equipment is changed it is recorded and the history can be accessed on the equipment details page. This applies to both the logical location (eg. a task) and the physical location.
So if a bulldozer is moved from construction site A to construction site B, you just need to edit the equipment and select that the location is now the task that represents construction site B. If you don’t have tasks for each possible location you can instead select the coordinate on a map.
Service an engine every 2 weeks
First setup a protocol that specifies a period of 2 weeks, and assign the protocol to the relevant equipment type. Also specify that you want to be warned 2 days ahead. We assume you have many engines of this type.
Every morning you go to the “Upcoming protocols” page in Microbizz - here you an see which engines are within 2 days of requiring protocol execution. Click on the link to the equipment and select the box “Upcoming protocols”, then click on the “Execute protocol ->” button. You then get details about the protocol, number of question forms to complete, if there are other equipment that can be handled at the same time etc., and you may then continue and start the protocol execution. You will then be asked to fill in the required question forms one by one.
Once all is done the date of next protocol execution is advanced for all the equipment that were affected.
Invoicing a task per hour of use of an equipment
You first setup an invoice rule for the equipment type, so that the equipment is invoiced by the hour.
When you start using the equipment on a task you simply edit the equipment and set the location to the task. When you stop using the equipment on the task you edit the equipment and clear the location.
The next day the equipment will be invoiced automatically based on the number of hours it was located on the task.
About invoicing
Each equipment type may specify one or more invoicing rules. An invoicing rule specifies how and when to generate an invoice line for the equipment. Invoicing is performed every night and is calculated from the location info for the equipment where the logical location at some point was a task. Invoicing can be either per hour or per day.
If an equipment was located on task A for 2 hours yesterday morning and on task A for another 3 hours yesterday afternoon and on task B for 25 minutes yesterday evening, it can be invoiced for a total of 6 hours.
If there is a rule that invoices per day, two lines will be created, one for task A and one task B.
If there is a rule that invoices per hour, two lines will normally be created, one for task A for 5 hours and one for task B for 1 hour. The rules may specify rounding, so the 25 minutes may be rounded to 0 and so will not generate a line.
The invoice lines will be added to the task as product use.
About protocols
Protocols are very flexible but also somewhat complicated. A protocol describes:
which question forms to complete
how to generate a PDF for the result
which equipment types the protocol applies to
how often the protocol should be executed
when you should be warned about the protocol being upcoming (only for protocols that have a period)
When you execute a protocol on an equipment you are asked if you also want to execute the protocols for the underlying equipment. So when you execute a protocol for a car, you may also at the same time execute the protocols for the equipment contained in the car (engine, brakes etc).
Documents
When a protocol is completed a PDF may be generated for the protocol, containing the result ie. the question form answers. The protocol describes which document to use for the PDF. A PDF will be created for each equipment that was affected, and a “complete” PDF will be created that consists of all the other PDFs combined plus a start page listing the equipment.
The filename of the PDFs may be configured, f.ex. the filename may be built from the protocol name, the date and other fields. You may also configure that the PDFs should be deleted automatically after a given period. And you may configure which document to use for the start page. All of this is done in the Equipment+ settings.
About reservations
An equipment may be reserved for a given task or user on a given date. When reserved for a date, it is reserved for the entire date.
Planning+ module
On a task you may specify that it requires equipment of certain types. When planning the task on a given date in Planning+ an icon will appear that shows if equipment of all the required types are reserved for the task on that date. You may click on the icon, or select “Reserve equipment” from the menu, to create/edit the reservations; here you may choose if the reservation applies to the task or the user.
Task (old module)
If a task requires equipment a tab will appear on the task details page, named “Reservations”. This will show reservations for today and the future.
Users (old module)
The user details page has a tab named “Reservations” which shows the equipment that are reserved for the user, for today and the future.
Equipment+ module
The equipment details page has a box which shows the reservations for the equipment.
About hierarchy
The hierarchy functionality is meant to give an overview of the logical structure of the Equipments and its types subtybes underlying equipment and parent equipment.