General

Restoring Deleted Rentals: Deleted rentals can now be restored to any desired date instead of the original date. A restore form now comes up for you to select the date to restore the rental to.

Copy Rental - Form: This form is now colored yellow so it is more noticeable that a copy is being performed instead of a move. There is also a rental number prompt to keep the same number or use the next sequential number.

File List Tool: Applications outside of Visual Dispatch can now be executed by assigning files to the Execute File List. This list can be setup by selecting "- Setup File List -" from the Execute File tool drop down list. This new tool is located to the left of the Print icon on the main tool bar. Click the drop down arrow to the right of the icon to see the list of files or simply click the icon image to run the most recently executed file.

Tool Bar: The Main Tool Bar now shows a text description directly below the icon. By right-clicking on the Tool Bar, you can switch back to the old look if desired.

Merge Contacts: You can now merge contacts on the Contacts tab of the Customer form. If you have two of more contacts that refer to the same person with the name entered differently, merge them together with this feature.

Upload to FTP Site: This item located in the File menu will upload a copy of your database directly to our FTP site. This is used when your actual data is needed to resolve any issues.

Multiple Lines for all Grids: Right-Click on any list and select "Allow Row Height to be adjusted" and click OK. There will be a gray column on the left edge where you can click in-between the rows to adjust the row height. This will cause any text that is wider than the column width to word wrap to the next line.

Check Box Columns When Printing: Check box will now display an X for boxes checked when the list is printed. Previously, checked boxes displayed a -1 and unchecked displayed a 0.

Propagate - Selected Days: You can now select the days of the week to include/exclude by clicking the "More Days" button located to the right of "Include: Sat/Sun". If you normally propagate across selected days of the week or always include Sat or Sun, click the "Set These Days as Default" button to save your selection for next time.

Propagate - Shorten Date Range: Instead of using the "Deleting Bars After" feature to shorten a scheduled date range, you can now use the propagate form to shorten the date range. Right click and open the pop-up menu from the Spreadsheet or Chart and select an earlier "To" date. Click OK and you will be prompted to shorten the resource's date range by so many days

Comments & Notes - Printing: You can print the customer, employee or equipment comment's box by clicking the print button located below the box.

Date Stamp: There is a "Data Stamp" button in the lower left hand corner of all the comment boxes that will put the current date followed by a colon at the top of the box. If there is existing text, it will shift it down a line and insert the date with the cursor in position ready for your next comment.

Integration

MS Word® Integration: We have expanded into integrating directly with Word, Excel and Acrobat Reader. Populate your own lease agreements, inspection forms and preprinted tickets with a direct connection to Visual Dispatch. Contact us for more details.

MapPoint® Integration: A MapPoint tab has been added to the Rental form that will plot the job site on a map as long as there is an address or a intersection entered for the Job address. This application from Microsoft needs to be installed on your computer in order to pull up maps in Visual Dispatch. You can now export all the jobs scheduled on any given day and import them into Microsoft MapPoint®. Select "Export > Jobs for MapPoint®" from the file menu and follow the on-screen instructions. This integration will have many more functions added to it as new updates are released.

MapQuest® / Google Links: If you do not have MapPoint installed, two links above every address field for MapQuest and Google has been added. As long as you are connected to the Internet, you can plot any address directly on the Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or MapQuest.

WebView Feature: View real-time schedules on the Internet generated directly from Visual Dispatch. While using the program, schedule changes are instantly sent to a secure off-site server that can be viewed from Internet browser. Contact us for more details.

QuickBooks® Users : When new customers are added to Visual Dispatch, they are automatically added to QuickBooks when transaction data is imported.

DayView Spreadsheet

Calendar: Double-clicking the date of the schedule will open the calendar for selecting a new date.

Sorting With Support Resources: When sorting the DayView Spreadsheet, support resources will now be displayed. To return back to the same sort order as the equipment chart, select the "Equipment Chart Sort Order" check box located in the upper right hand corner.

Displaying Stand Alone Support in Bold: When a resource is scheduled on a day that its primary resource is not, it will now be in bold text so it is not mistaken for other support equipment.

Multiple Resource Propagation: Propagate multiple resources from the DayView Spreadsheet by holding your Shift or Ctrl Key and selecting the resources that need to have a different end date. This feature will make all the selected resources end on the date selected off the propagate form. This will also shorten the date range if the date selected is earlier than the end date of the resource's date range.

Print Multiple Job Tickets: You can hold your Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple resources that you want to print a ticket for. Right-click on one of the highlighted rows and select "Ticket > Print Ticket" and a ticket will be printed for the selected resources.

Solid Select Bar: A setting has been added to the Spreadsheet options to have a solid select bar instead of a hollow dotted bar. However, when using the solid select bar, status colors will not be displayed on the selected row.

Redundant Displayed Data: Display or don't display redundant data. There is an option in "Tools>Options>Spreadsheets" called "Display Redundant Data...". When checked, the DayView Spreadsheet displays the same customer name for all the support resources of a rental. Any other main rental information like, Customer Phone, Contact, Job Name, Address, etc... is also displayed redundantly for all the support resources. By Un-Selecting this check box, all the support resources will not display the duplicated information related to the rental, instead, the cells will be blank. This will make it easier to view the block of resources for each job.

Misc1,2,3,4: These four fields can now be printed on the operator's ticket. These fields are located on the Rental Form directly under the Quoted Price.

Ticket

Sign By - Start/End of Job: A "Sign By Line" at Start & End of Job with a separate Disclaimer can now be printed on the ticket. If the option to have the Disclaimer and Sign by at the Start is selected, it will print directly below the "Depart, Start, Duration, Date Range" section of the ticket. If the Sign By at the End is selected, it will print at the bottom of the ticket. The Disclaimer for each will be printed directly above the Sign line.

Resource Blank Line: An option to have a "Resource Blank Line" printed on the ticket at the end of each resource line has been added.

Resource Serial No.: An option to have the "Resource's Serial No." printed on the ticket at the end of resource information line has been added.

Job Count: An option to have the "Job Count" printed on the ticket has been added. If unchecked, the "Job # _ of _" will not be printed on the ticket.

Lift Comments: An option to have the "Lift Comments" printed on the ticket directly below the building image has been added..

Company Logo: An option to have your "Logo" printed on ticket and company info displayed above the gray header of the ticket has been added. All the position settings for the logo and company info are modified on the Printed Items tab of the Invoice Option form. Click the blue hyper link next to the ticket option to adjust the settings.

Header: You can now have your company name displayed in the gray header of the ticket. This is set up on the Header tab of the Ticket Options. If no items are selected to be displayed in the gray header, it will not be printed on the ticket.

Blank Ticket: When right clicking on a bar or row, there is a new item in the pop-up for printing a blank ticket. All the fields that are normally filled in will be blank lines for manual entering.

Print Settings: An option to "Print For Faxing" has been added so the ticket can be printed with no gray shaded areas.

Preview: You can now preview a ticket from the right-click pop-up menu. The preview will show how the ticket will look once it is printed.

Non-Rental: Tickets for Non-Rentals can be made from the Charts or DayView Spreadsheet.

Invoice

Bill To: The address position has been moved to the right so it lines up with a standard window envelopes.

Customer Account #: An option has been added to have the customer account # placed under the address in the bill to box.

Bill To Box: An option has been added to have the Bill To box printed or not.

Bill To Address: An option has been added to have the Bill To address displayed in all caps following the postal standards also eliminating any punctuation marks.

Append Description: There is a new option on the the Line Items tab of the Invoice options form. The rental description can be appended to the list of line items and if the description is wider than the column width, it will add extra line items to display the entire description. There is a choice for which column the description will be placed in, the Description, Equipment or Job Task column. With this option set, it will be its own line item with no other data for the other columns and will follow a blank line item after the list of line items.

Chart

Columns: Stored Location has been added as a column that can be displayed on the Equipment Chart.

Bar Text Display: The following new bar text displays have been added: [Rented Size, Employee] [Rented Size, Equipment] [Rented Size, Bar Text] [Support Info] [Support Info-ID] [Forman, Phone] [Customer Name, Job Task] [Rented Size, Address, City] [Rented Size, Address, City, Estimated Length]

Bar Text Display - Customize: The first item on the list is "-- Customize --". When this is selected, a Bar Text list will appear for you to pick and choose which items you want to have listed on the "Bar Text Display" drop down list. This list is the middle drop down list located in the Tool Bar when any Chart is displayed.

Functions: Double-click an idle bar will now open the rental.

Functions: Double-click on any bar in the Week, Month and Year view will open the rental.

Functions: Add rentals by double-clicking on a empty cell while in Week, Month or Year view. A default bar is added and the propagate form will open.

Functions: Hold the Shift key down while clicking on a Bar or Idle Bar and a small text box will appear with pertinent information about the rental and resource. This text box will stay open until you click something else.

Row Height: Adjust the Row Height of the chart to make the bars taller. Right-click on the chart and select "Row Height" from the pop-up menu. You can select one of the presets, Small, Medium, Large or select "Custom Size" to get the precise height your looking for.

Font Size: Adjust the Font Size of the bar text by right-clicking on the chart and select "Font Size" from the pop-up menu. You can select one of the presets, Small, Medium, Large or select "Custom Size" to get the precise size your looking for.

Bar Text Alignment: Adjust the Bar Text alignment by right clicking on the chart and select "Align Bar Text" from the pop-up menu. Bar text can be left justified or centered on the bar.

Time Scale: Change the Time Scale for the DayView chart. Right-click on the chart and select "Time Scale Intervals" from the pop-up menu. There are four intervals to select from: 15 Minute, 30 Minute, 45 Minute and 60 Minute. The default is 60 minutes which shows 1 hour for each time square. The interval you select will set the time cell accordingly. The smaller the setting, the more time cells per day. A smaller time interval will display a wider bar for the time range of the bar.

Rental List & Report

Report Date Range: Last 30, 60 and 90 day "Preset Dates" have been added to the Dates drop down list.

Rental List - Multiple Selection: You can now copy, move or delete multiple rentals. By holding down the Ctrl or Shift key and clicking or pressing your arrow keys will highlight multiple rentals.

Rental List - Memo Columns: There are 3 memo fields related to the rentals that allow unlimited text. The "In-house Comments", "Description" and "Route" can now be displayed on the Rental List. Since these fields usually contain lots of data, you can right-click and change the properties to display multiple lines. When this property is selected, there will be a gray column on the left edge of the grid where you can adjust the row height. Add these columns by right-clicking on any column heading and select them from the "Insert Column" list.

Rental Form

Rental Form - Foreman & Phone: A Foreman and Foreman Phone field has been added to the Job tab of the Rental Form. There is a option setting in the Rental options that will control how these fields are populated when a job site is selected. These fields can be displayed on the DayView Spreadsheet, Rental List and Ticket. They can also be displayed as a Bar Text selection for the main charts.

Rental Form - Resource Chart: The resource form can now be opened by double-clicking on the resource name in the leftmost gray column. Other options are accessible by right-clicking on the resource name, row or bar.

Rental Form: A button has been added to open the Lift Comments text box to the actual width that will be printed on the ticket. The Lift Comments text box is located on the Job Tab of the Rental form directly below the Check Lift button. The button to the right of the Lift Comments text box will enlarge the text box when clicked and will restore back to its original size when clicked again.

Default Printer Selection: The default printer can be selected from the Page Setup for various print jobs. For example, if you print the Equipment Chart to a special printer other than your system default printer, you can set the Page Setup to always have the chart print to a specific printer. Select Page Setup from the File Menu. The ticket and invoice is setup in the options form.

Rental Form - Resource Chart - New Resource: There are two new ways to add a new resource to the Resource Chart tab of the Rental form. You can double-click in the white grid area below the last resource or right-click any where on the chart and select New Resource from the pop-up menu

Rental Form - Resource Chart - Edit Resource: There are two new ways to open an existing resource for editing. Double-click the equipment number or employee name in the gray Resource column or right-click on a resource row and select Edit Resource from the pop-up menu

Fixes

Fix: If the customer hyper-link on the rental form was clicked and a change was made to the customer, the rental form would refill as if the customer was selected for the first time.

Fix: When printing the MapPoint tab, only one copy would be printed

Fix: If the program was minimized when the exit confirmation message appeared, the Yes or No button could not be clicked.

Fix: The New button on the employee's cards tab would not become active after adding a new card with the Master List button.

Fix: Changing the primary phone for an employee after deleting others caused an error.

Fix: Sometimes a system file would become unregistered causing the program to have an error during startup. If this happens, the program will reregister the file in the background and startup normally with no errors.

Fix: Selecting New Resource from the right-click pop-up menu on the Resource Chart tab of the Rental form caused an error. This was only in the white area below the last resource.

Fix: When idle bars were set not to be displayed, they were still displaying on the chart in week view mode.

Fix: If a database file is set to Read Only attributes, the program will change it for normal operation with uninterrupted activity.

Fix: Selecting "Default Layout" from the Columns form and clicking OK would produce an error on some lists.

Fix: DayView Spreadsheet would occasionally close due to an internal record being deleted.

Fix: Resources that had a time bar starting on one day and ending on the next were showing up on the DayView Spreadsheet twice.

Fix: Auto delete setting on the Rental Options form was not changing correctly with the up/down buttons.

Fix: Rental History button was not disabling when the grid was in edit or new mode. Clicking it during these modes would cause an error.

Fix: When printing all jobs on one ticket, jobs that ended at midnight from the previous day were being included on the ticket.

Fix: Using the Fin status with multiple resources that were not scrolled into view on the chart caused an occasional error.

Fix: When opening a resource form from a chart while both the employee and equipment chart are opened and adding a new piece equipment would cause the two charts to toggle back and forth after the resource form was closed. Doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del was the only way to stop this action.

Fix: If a resource ticket was opened from within the rental form and the rental form was closed before the ticket form, errors could occur.

Fix: When an invoice was printed with the word "discount" in the Equipment column, an asterisk was printed with a zero percent value.

Fix: Printing a ticket from the Stored Rental list where the rental did not have any resources assigned to it, caused an error.

Fix: The "Match Primary Resource" item was not displaying in the pop-up menu if only an employee was assigned to the resource.

Fix: Printing the Status List caused an error.

Fix: When printing the chart, extra resource columns would appear occasionally.