We often are asked by our users “Can our software support End of the Month scheduling for only certain companies within the database?” The answer is yes and it can be easily be set up in a just a few clicks.

Accomplishing this task only takes a few modifications to the configuration of your calibration event (or other events that update your schedules) along with setting up a systemwide company custom checkbox. You will be modifying this within the event configuration system because completion of an event is what drives a schedule update.

The Company Setup

The first thing we will do is a setup a field at the company level so we can identify who should get End of the Month Scheduling and who should not. To accomplish this, open up Systemwide Preferences and proceed to the User Defined Labels tab. You will actually see a handful of fields that can be customized in any number of ways. We generally suggest you use a Company User Defined Status Box for this scenario. Once you are on the Company User Defined Labels tab, find an unused custom status box and give it a label. In our example we have simply called it EOM Scheduling.

SystemWide Preferences and the Checkbox Labels

Now that you have set up the checkbox at the company level check the box for the companies in your database that require End of the Month Scheduling. This is done by going to Add/Edit Companies, selecting a company, and then proceeding to the Custom Info tab. From there you will see your new EOM Scheduling checkbox. Go ahead and check that box for any customers who desire this type of scheduling.

Setting the EOM Checkbox

Modifying Your Calibration Event

Next, we need to modify your Calibration event. So for part 2 of setting this up you will need to open up Workflow Configuration and proceed to Step 7 (schedule updates) in your Calibration event. Once you have that open you should see an existing rule for updating your calibration schedules upon completion of the calibration event. Leave that one as-is for the moment as we are now going to create an additional calibration schedule update rule. Click the new icon on Step 7. That will bring up a new window where you can create an additional schedule update rule.

Creating a New Schedule Update Rule

From here, go ahead and select the Calibration schedule type in the dropdown list. Then uncheck the ‘Use System-Wide Due Date Options’ checkbox. Once you uncheck that, go ahead and select ‘ok’ at the bottom.

Creating The Calibration Schedule Update Rule

Now that you have done that, immediately open up your newly created schedule update rule by double-clicking it. This time it will allow you to click on the calendar right beside the Use System-Wide Due Date Options checkbox. That will bring up a new window and in the dropdown field called ‘Date Adjustment.’

Selecting the Event Schedule Option

Go ahead and select End of Month and click ok.

Selecting the End of Month Option

You only have one more thing to do which is tell the software when to apply this new rule. That is where the right side of the schedule update comes in handy. On the right side of all schedule update rules we allow you to create an Equipment Filter to identify when this particular rule should be applied. So in the equipment rule section, select to add a condition and look for your new Company custom field. In our example case, it is called Company (Eom Scheduling) and we configure the rule to require that field is checked.

Setting the Schedule Update Filter Rule

Now click OK to close the new schedule update rule. Using the same knowledge you just gained about editing schedule rules, open the original update rule that was found in your calibration event and simply set the equipment rule to Company (EOM Scheduling) is Unchecked then click OK. Performing this step ensures the first rule is ignored if EOM is unchecked while the second rule will pick up the EOM checkbox for companies preferring EOM scheduling.

That’s it. The only thing remaining is going to be a save the event then refresh your new event settings (right click in the IndySoft header area and choose reload all settings). And of course going back and selecting any additional companies that want EOM Scheduling. Once you start performing calibrations for equipment that belongs to companies where the systemwide checkbox is checked the due dates will automatically be adjusted to the last day of the calendar month. Since schedule update rules are filter based and rely upon company, equipment, or schedule data, you can easily expand upon the rules to apply EOM scheduling to companies, locations, types of assets, and much more.

Conclusion

Hopefully this explained some of the flexible configuration options of how your events can manipulate your schedules in a number of different ways when the rules are used in combination with a targeted equipment filter.

There are also several other rules within the Workflow Configuration wizard that can be combined with Equipment Filters to execute other functionality like conditional based updates, reminder messages for certain types of equipment or customers and much more. Please feel free to explore and contact your sales representative if you would like additional information on IndySoft’s training programs that can help optimize your efficiency and reduce errors.