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Can I rent TrakQuip or RTMS or do I have to purchase licenses? |
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You are in the rental business, so are we! You may choose to purchase or rent TrakQuip or RTMS from us. In either case, there are some fees charged to install the software and provide initial training.
Rental Terms and Conditions:
- A six-month minimum commitment is required. After that, you may terminate the license at any time.
- The software licenses are renewed on a quarterly basis upon receipt of your rental payment; otherwise, the license expires.
- Full support is included in the rental fee; no additional charges apply except for custom programming requests or extended training requests.
- Updates are provided at no additional charge and may be installed easily from our website.
- Rental clients are required to maintain an active Internet connection to allow us to support the software when required and to provide license updates.
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What is the difference between TrakQuip and RTMS? |
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Both software packages provide similar functionality. RTMS is used exclusively by those businesses engaged in the rental and service of oilfield rental tools. TrakQuip, having broader application, is used by all enterprises that need to track the cost and utilization of assets while providing services. Examples include: equipment rental market, construction companies, ship builders, medical companies, light manufacturing, etc.
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What are the system requirements for TrakQuip and RTMS? |
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Our products are designed to operate in Windows including Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7 and Server 2008.
Application servers (Citrix, Server 2003 and Server 2008) should be configured to provide one processor per 15 users.
SQL Servers should follow Microsoft's recommendations for SQL Server.
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How are TrakQuip and RTMS different than other Equipment and Rental Management software packages? |
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FLEXIBILITY.
Early in the design of our software, we realized that each client had unique requirements.
The TrakQuip and RTMS user interface is flexible and easily modified to fit your needs. A simple preference change and TrakQuip and RTMS give you the workflow you are looking for.
TrakQuip and RTMS also give you what no other software package can, a tailored solution that serves the needs of clients of all sizes. All of our modules contain most, if not all, of the functionality required to manage your business, but for any specific needs you might have, however, our project managers and programmers will work with you to handle the necessary modifications.
We are proud to state that the design of our software is the direct result of a request from our very successful clients.
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What is the difference between Equipment and Rental Management software and most business software? |
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Most business software systems assume that inventory will be consumed, whereas equipment and rental management software "uses" assets to generate revenues through the delivery and return of assets.
Equipment and rental management software must be able to track the history of an individual asset including utilization, total cost of operations, total cost of ownership, and return on investment, and it must be able to generate invoices to customers using a variety of calculation methods not available in most business software systems. There are literally hundreds of methods of calculating charges. Below are a few common examples:
- Day/Week/Month: this logic offers equipment to the user on a daily rental basis, but if the user retains the equipment for longer periods of time, the rate charged gradually diminishes. Extra charges may apply for overtime based on the hour meter on the equipment.
- Minimum charge plus daily: this logic charges a minimum which includes a specified number of days (typically 3 to 30) and then begins charging a daily rate for extra days of usage.
- Once per job: this method charges a single rate for each job or contract, but the utilization is tracked.
- Usage vs. Stand-By: this logic charges two different rates for equipment located on-site. The charges for days when the equipment is in use are typically more than the days when the equipment is not being used, but is available for use.
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Why doesn't TrakQuip or RTMS include a General Ledger Module? |
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This was the source of considerable debate within our company. In the end, we decided that we wanted our software to emulate the operations of the clients business and to report the results to the accounting software of your choice. TrakQuip and RTMS integrate with your accounting software, giving you a tailored solution that fits the exact needs of your business. Here are some of the reasons we chose not to include the general ledger:
- There are approximately 1,600 accounting software packages on the market today ranging in price from $100 to 1,000,000+. Many of our clients selected a financial package prior to selecting their operational software and want to continue to use it. In addition, many of our clients are also in other businesses (i.e. construction) and need a financial package to encompass their entire business, not just the rental portion of their business.
- To emulate the operations, we needed to include functionality that would not meet "Generally Accepted Accounting Practices."
- We are business software developers, not accountants. We felt that the choice of financial software should be a choice you and your accountant make. We simply supply the data to your accounting software package
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How do TrakQuip and RTMS exchange data with my accounting software? |
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The development of each accounting interface is influenced by the technical capabilities of the accounting software, the wishes of the client and the wishes of the accounting software developers and consultants. In many cases, we provide several different interfaces to the same accounting software to meet the requirements of our client.
Most modern accounting software packages provide one or more methods of exchanging data with other software. These methods include ODBC (open database connectivity), XML (Extensible Markup Language), EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and ASCII (text or "flat files").
"SHARE, PUSH or PULL": This term refers to whether the applications share common data files or whether one pushes or pulls data from the other. For example, a client may make a policy decision that new customers will be added first to the accounting software and then later to the equipment and rental management software. Based on the technical capabilities of the software and the wishes of the client, the accounting software may deliver the changes directly to the equipment and rental management software or there may be an option in the equipment and rental management software to pull the changes from the accounting software or a file prepared by the accounting software.
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What data to exchange? |
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Some of our clients are engaged in the rental business exclusively. These clients typically use the AR and AP module and simply report the general ledger transaction data to their accounting systems. In some cases, additional information might be transferred to the payroll system and also bank reconciliation information.
Some of our clients are engaged in other businesses (e.g., construction) for which our software tracks only a portion of their revenue. In this situation, invoices created in the equipment and rental management software are typically loaded into the "order entry" or accounts receivable module of the clients primary accounting software. To the accounting software, these invoices appear as sales orders that have not yet been posted. This gives the accounting software the opportunity to perform "data integrity checks" prior to posting. In this situation, the client will normally load Accounts Payable directly from the PO distributions module.
Very commonly, maintenance data is also exchanged. Examples would include customers, tax codes, chart of accounts, jobs, terms codes, etc. Again, the decision to push or pull data depends on the client's operations and policy decisions.
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Can I create my own reports? |
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Yes! Our software includes a suite of standard reports, but many of our clients appreciate the flexibility of creating their own.
Our software uses the MS SQL Server database. Today, almost every report writer on the market can utilize connections to these databases and generate reports. RTMS and TrakQuip users may use the "Reporting Dashboard" to create reports. The "Reporting Dashboard" is a .Net application that allows users to create and maintain reports from multiple data sources.
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What benefits are provided by your support agreement? |
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- A fixed budget amount for the total cost of supporting your software investment.
- Funds the on-going development required to make the software capable of supporting new versions of Windows.
Your support agreement allows you to request support an unlimited number of times with no additional charges.
We work each day to make improvements to our software to ensure it will work well in your new version of Windows. As a supported customer, you never have to pay for updates.
Note: Additional charges do apply when requesting additional programming or extended training.
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How can I get support for my TrakQuip or RTMS software? |
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We offer a comprehensive online help system, web support, and toll-free phone support. A competent and professional support staff, residing in our Baton Rouge office, is available to you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to support your efforts for years to come. For additional information, please visit our Support page.
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How do you communicate with and support your clients. |
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As part of the terms and conditions for installing TrakQuip or RTMS, each client is asked to maintain an active Internet connection. We have invested in several software products that allow you to invite us to share the desktop of your machine. This means we can talk on the phone and work together on your computer to resolve your problem NOW! And, we do not have to try to interpret technical information or provide technical information, you can just show us your problem and we can solve it for you. We can do anything via this method that we could do if we were sitting right next to you.
If you are not in a hurry, we appreciate receiving emails with screen shots of your problem. You will receive a quick response via email or phone.
During the day, your phone call will be answered by a real person that can solve your problem. At night, an answering service will answer, but will immediately make calls to convey your message to us. We will respond in minutes and never leave you in a bind!
If you would prefer to solve your own problems without our assistance, we provide several tools to assist you. Online help files provide step-by-step instructions (with links to movies) for each area of the software. You do not need special software or equipment to use these help files; they work in your existing web browser.
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How do you respond to problem reports? |
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When received, a reported issue is assigned a Case ID and recorded in our CSTask database, including information about who reported the issue (for regular communications), the product and version, a description of the issue and the steps necessary to reproduce the problem. Each report is assigned a severity. "Critical" indicates that the issue prevents the user from continuing operations, and will be addressed immediately. "Severe" indicates that the issue seriously impacts business operations and will be addressed very soon. "Tolerable" indicates that the issue does not significantly impact business operations, and will be addressed as time and resources permit.
If appropriate, the support person receiving the call will provide instruction to the user to resolve the issue. If the issue cannot be resolved with instruction, then immediately, a support representative will attempt to reproduce the issue on our test databases. If the issue can be reproduced, the steps necessary to produce the issue are recorded so that the development team can locate and correct. If the issue cannot be reproduced, further investigation by the development team will be required.
During the process of resolution, regular communications are delivered to the user as the status is updated from initial investigation, to correction, to testing and finally delivery to the client.
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Where can I find TrakQuip and RTMS training materials? |
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Your installation CD has a folder that contains help files that are stored as "html" documents. Within the help files are step-by-step instructions that you can view from your browser. You can also find online assistance from the help menu of your software.
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Is additional TrakQuip or RTMS training available for a new employee or cross-training a current employee? |
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Yes. Each month, Corporate Services offers hands-on training classes in our Baton Rouge facility or online web classes. For more details on the training classes we offer, please visit our Training page.
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How often should I backup my data? |
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At a minimum, we recommend that the databases be backed up to some degree nightly or weekly. Remember that some backup routines will skip files that are open, so make sure that all database connections and TrakQuip/RTMS applications are closed. You can also create a backup of the database from the Utilities menu.
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Are TrakQuip and RTMS compatible with Windows and MS Office? |
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Our software is installed with a Microsoft SQL Server database. Therefore, our applications are highly compatible with both Windows and Microsoft Office.
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How often should the TrakQuip/RTMS System be updated? |
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As often as you feel necessary. However, we suggest that users update fairly often because of frequent modifications and improvements being made in the program. It is normally easier to incorporate small changes rather than giant leaps.
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How do I update TrakQuip/RTMS? |
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Users of Version 7 or higher simply click the menu Help-->About and then click the button that reads "Check Website for updates."
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What programs do I need to download to perform a successful update of TrakQuip/RTMS? |
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An Internet browser is required. Beyond the browser, tools like MS Office, MS Access, MS Excel, MS SQL Server Client Tools are useful, but not required.
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Will an update of TrakQuip/RTMS affect the data? |
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No. However, it is always safe practice to back up all databases before every update.
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