Overview
This article will outline how to use the business tracking feature. The business tracking feature gives CMMS users the ability to add businesses directly to asset, parts, work orders, or scheduled maintenances.
Prerequisite: It is recommended that you read the Configure Business Tracking Settings article to add new business groups in your CMMS.
1. Add businesses to an asset
1. To begin, click Assets, and select the asset
2. To add a business, click Businesses, and New
3. In the pop up screen, add the relevant information:
- Business - This is the business you want to directly associate to the asset, you can add existing businesses or you can create a new business.
- Business Type - This establishes the type of business, i.e tenants, suppliers, manufacturers etc. These business groups are setup and defined in the Configure Business Tracking Settings article, linked at the top of this page.
- Supplier Part number - This references the part number in the suppliers catalog or in the suppliers system. Fill in where applicable.
- Catalog - The catalog references the suppliers parts or equipment catalog. Fill in where applicable.
- Display as primary business - Selecting this option will add the business name to the top of the asset form. This must be allowed by the system admin when configuring business tracking settings.
- Automatically attach this business to all maintenance created from this asset - Adds the business information to any work orders created against the asset. Essentially this automates the tracking procedure.
4. Next, click Purchasing. Enabling This is my preferred vendor will automatically add this business to any Request For Quotes (RFQs) and purchase requests for the asset.
5. Click OK when done
6. Before finishing, you will be prompted to choose one of two options for your update.
- Update - This will update any existing scheduled maintenance with the business information. This is a great way to automatically add business information to scheduled maintenance, without having to go through them individually.
- Proceed without update - This will not add the business information to existing scheduled maintenance, but will add the information to any future scheduled maintenance.
7. Click Save. Your business information has now been added to the facility. You will notice this in two areas:
- The businesses tab
- On top of the asset form
8. You will also notice the new Customer, and Vendor columns in the asset list. You can search and filter by specific customers and or vendors.
2. Add business information to the work order, and scheduled maintenance forms
Once you have the business information set up for the asset, this information will transfer directly to any work orders and/or scheduled maintenance. To demonstrate this, let's create a scheduled maintenance against Apartment 207.
1. Click Maintenance, Scheduled maintenance, and click New
2. Select the asset from the dropdown menu. The business information is added directly to the scheduled maintenance form.
3. This process can be repeated in the same way for work orders.
4. You will also notice the new Customer and Vendor columns in the scheduled maintenance and work order lists. You can search and filter by specific customers and or vendors.
3. Filter your work orders by specific customer or vendor
1. Click Maintenance, Work orders, and New
2. Select Customer or vendor (whichever is applicable), contains text and type the relevant business name into the box. You can choose to save the new filter for future use. Rename the filter and click OK to save.
3. The work orders have now been filtered by vendor. You can create multiple different filters for each customer and/or vendor.
The above procedure outlines one specific use case. The business tracking principle can be applied to a wide number of scenarios. The process of doing this will be the same across the board, it will be important to establish the correct business, customer/vendor relationship.