Recurring Orders

Recurring orders will generate automatic service or install orders for labor, material or services. Recurring orders provide flexibility for handling inspection type work or frequent recurring work. It automatically generates service for all items based on the recurrence schedule.

When you create a recurring order, you select the frequency of the service and what days of the week your customer is available. SME will calculate the next service date and generate a service order. You set up the frequency in the Labor Editor or Add Items to Order window. Below are the steps to setup and process a recurring order.

See the video below for an overview of Recurring Orders

Purpose
–Generate automatic service or install orders for any type of item: Labor, Materials, or Services.
–Provides incredible flexibility for handling inspection type work or frequent recurring work
–Combines together items the recur on same frequency
–Service Orders show up only when needed

Features
–Automatically generate service or install orders for all items with the same recurrence schedule.
–Select customer site availability days
–Attach service items to equipment and subcontractors
–Automatically schedule techs or subcontractors for dispatch schedule

Create a Recurring Order

1. In the Service & Install module, click Recurring Order.
2. Click New and select the customer the order is for.
3. In the Order Summary, type a description of the recurring order.
4. Details and Settings tab - Site information is populated. Select the information that applies and check the days of the week the customer is available. When SME calculates the recurring dates, it will generate the order only on the days selected here.

5. Work Requested tab – Type a description on the services requested side for your techs on the service they are to perform.

6. Order Items tab – You can add labor, materials or services to the recurring order. The frequency set up in the labor item, service item or material is what drives the recurring orders.

In each, you will set up the frequency using the following fields:

• Next Date – Select the next service date
• Frequency - Select day, week or month
• Duration – Based on frequency selected, type the duration

Examples:

• Every 6 weeks: duration=6, frequency= weeks
• Every quarter: duration = 3, frequency = months
• Annually: duration = 1, frequency = Years

**NOTE** Items on an order that have the same “Next Date” will all be combined in one order.

Processing Recurring Orders

To be prompted to process a recurring order when they are due, you must set up your preferences for “on startup”

1. Click Preferences.
2. Select the On Startup tab.
3. Check Generate Recurring Orders.
4. Choose how many days in advance you want to be notified.

5. Check if you want to print the service order.
6. Click OK.

Now that you set up your Startup preferences, when you open SME you will receive a message when recurring orders are ready to be generated.

Click Yes. When SME completes generating the service records, go to the Service module to find the orders. Using the Search window, you can sort by order number. All the new orders generated will have the latest order numbers. Schedule your technicians and invoice the order as you would any other service order.

Generate Now

If you want to generate the recurring orders immediately for an order, follow these steps:

1. Go to the recurring order you want to generate
2. Go to Order Items and check all the line items you want to generate now
   1. 
3. Select Actions>Generate Now

View Recurring Order History

You can view a customer’s recurring order history either from the customer record or from the recurring order record.

From the Customer Record

1. Select the customer record.
2. Click Service tab to all service orders.
3. Click Customer History tab.
4. Click Recurring Orders tab. Listed on this tab you will see all items on the recurring order for this customer. Here you can view the next date. Click Edit and SME will jump to the Recurring Order module.

From the Recurring Order

1. In the Service & Install module, select Service Orders.
2. List on this tab you will find all Service Orders generated by the Recurring Order.
3. Double click on an order and SME will jump to the order in the Service module.

Search Recurring Orders

To see a list of your open recurring orders and see which orders are to be processed in the coming days, you can use the search window.

To customize your search window:
1. Click Search > Search Open Recurring
2. In the search window, click Views > Add remove fields > from recurring orders.
3. In the Grid Columns window, check the fields you want to add as columns, uncheck to remove. Fields that are helpful include CustName, NextGeneration, DateExpire, and Summary. Click OK.
4. Click Views > Save View.
5. In Enter View Name window, either enter a new name or click OK to overwrite the existing name.
To learn more about the search window, click Search Window

Custom Fields on Recurring Orders

You can create custom fields in a recurring order. If the Service or Install order has the exact same fields, then the data filled out in the recurring order custom field will follow to the custom field on the generated service or install order.

Click Custom Tabs and Fields to learn how to create custom fields.

Linking Customer Equipment to Item Repair tab

If you want to track what customer equipment your technician will be working on every time this order is generated, you can add it to the Item Repair tab on the Recurring Order. If you don't see the Item repair tab, you will need to edit your user group settings. See bottom part of this section.

1. Click the Item Repair tab.
2. Click New on the tab.
3. In the Item Repair window that opens, click Search to the right of the Customer EQ Item field.
4. A list of your customer's equipment will open. Double click to select the equipment.
5. Click OK and the equipment is added to the Item Repair tab. When the order is generated, the equipment will be listed on the orders Item Repair tab.

If the equipment you need to add to the Item Repair tab isn't listed in the customer's equipment list, you can either go to the Customer Equipment module and add it, or you can add it on the fly by following these steps:
1. On Item Repair tab click New.
2. In the Item Repair window that opens, enter the item name, description, number.
3. Check Add to Customer Equipment (image below)
4. Click OK. The equipment is added to the Item Repair tab and will also be listed in your customer's Customer Equipment list.

If you don't see the Item Repair tab in Recurring Orders, you will need to add it to your User Group on the Tab Settings tab.