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|
| Q. |
Why doesn’t your software include a
General Ledger Module?
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| A. |
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. We
offer interface methods to most
accounting software packages.
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.
- In order to emulate the
operations, we needed to include
functionality that would not meet
“Generally Accepted Accounting
Practices.” This does not mean that
data integrity is not preserved, it
simply means that we offer our clients
the opportunity to “change their mind”
prior to committing the data to the
accounting software.
- We are business software
developers, not accountants. We felt
that the choice of financial software
should be a choice you and your
accountant made. We simply supply the
data to your accounting software
package.
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| Q. |
What is the difference between Rental
Software and most business software?
|
| A. |
- Most business software systems
assume that inventory will be
consumed, where rental software “uses”
assets to generate revenues by
delivering them for use and then
returning them.
- Rental 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”.
- Rental Software 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 rental
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 charge 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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| Q. | How is your software different than
other rental software packages.
|
| A. |
The one word answer to this question
is FLEXIBILITY. The longer answer
follows
Early in the design of our software,
we realized that each client operated
their business differently. Each
management team has a different
philosophy for operating their business,
managing costs, managing customer
relationships, managing their assets,
etc. In order to accommodate our clients
differing needs, we made some design
choices.
- The number one design criteria was to
develop a method of incorporating
customizations for a client into the
production version so that the user
would not have to pay to “re-program”
the changes each time a new version was
released.
- Our second design criterion was to
develop methods to allow the user to
“configure” the software for his/her
requirements. For example, the person
operating the “rental desk” has very
different requirements than the person
operating the “parts sales counter”.
Neither user should be “burdened” by the
needs of the other.
- Our third design criterion was to
develop a product that could serve the
needs of different size businesses. Our
early product used SQL Server at a time
when SQL Server required a database
administrator and an expensive Server.
Many of our clients had only 10 to 20
users in their “rental department” and
did not want to have to dedicate a
server and an administrator. As a
result, we developed a method to utilize
MS Access as the database engine in
“native DAO mode” while still supporting
the more powerful SQL Server. As a
result, our smaller clients enjoy the
simplicity of a “workgroup” environment
without sacrificing the full
capabilities of our software Since
the introduction of SQL Server 2005
and the SQL Server 2005 Express products, even our
smaller clients today can enjoy the
more robust SQL Server engine
without an on-site database
administrator.
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| Q. | How do you communicate with and
support your clients.
|
| A. |
First, let’s agree that it would be
nice if a support person was sitting
beside your desk whenever you need
assistance. While this is not physically
possible, we have done the “next best
thing.”
Today, a connection to the Internet
is very inexpensive, so we ask each
client to maintain a connection. We have
invested in several software products
that allow you to “invite us to share”
the desktop of your machine. This means
that you and we can talk on the phone
and work together on your computer to
solve your problem. We can do anything
via this method that we could do if we
were there except serve coffee or insert
a disk.
The real benefit to you is that we
can solve your problem NOW and not
later! It also means that you do not
have to try to interpret technical
information or to provide technical
information, you can just “show” us you
problem and we can solve it for you.
If you are not in a real 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 live person that
can solve your problem. At night, a
machine 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.
On-line 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; they work in
your existing Web Browser.
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| Q. | What benefits are provided by your
support agreement?
|
| A. | The support agreement provides two
primary benefits to you.
- Provides you with 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. There are no additional charges
for supporting your software with the
exception of additional programming you
might request or extended training you
might request.
As we have all become aware,
Microsoft awakes each morning with the
idea for a new version of Windows. We
work each day to make improvements to
our software to insure that it will work
well in your new version of windows. As
a supported customer, you never have to
pay for updates.
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| Q. | Can I rent your software or do I have
to purchase the licenses?
|
| A. | You are in the rental business, so
are we!
You may choose to purchase or rent
your software 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.
- Software license automatically renews
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
automatically from our website.
- Rental clients are required to
maintain an active Internet account to
allow us to support the software when
required and to provide license updates.
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| Q. | How do you exchange data with my
accounting software?
|
| A. |
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 needs to be updated in the
rental 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 rental software or there
may be an option in the rental software
to “pull” the changes from the
accounting software or a file prepared
by the accounting software.
What data to exchange?
Many 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 system. 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 (i.e. construction)
where our software tracks only a portion
of their revenue. In this situation,
invoices created in the rental 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” depends on
the clients operations and policy
decisions.
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| Q. | How do you respond to
questions or problem reports?
|
| A. | When received, a
report issue is
recorded in our CSTask database. The reported
issue includes information
about who reported the issue (so that
we can provide updates), the product and
version, a description of the issue and the steps necessary to reproduce the
problem.
IF appropriate, the support person
receiving the call will provide
instruction to the user to resolve the
issue.
A status is assigned to the report.
Critical indicates that the issue prevents the user from continuing
operations, Severe indicates that the
issue impacts business operations, but
does not stop operations because a “work
around” is available and Tolerable
indicates that the issue does not
significantly impact business
operations.
A Case ID is assigned and
an email is transmitted to the user
acknowledging the report and an expected
resolution date.
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 it.
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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| Q. | What is the difference between
TrakQuip and RTMS?
|
| A. | Both software packages provide
similar functionality.
RTMS is used exclusively by those
businesses engaged in the rental and
service of Oilfield Rental Tools. TrakQuip
has a broader application. It
is used by
the General Equipment Rental market and
also used by other enterprises that
need to track the cost and
utilization of equipment while
providing services. Examples
include construction companies, ship
builders and light manufacturing. Return to Top
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| Q. | What are the system requirements for
TrakQuip and RTMS?
|
| A. | Our products are designed to operate
in Windows including Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, and Vista.
Almost any Pentium (or Pentium
compatible) equipment with at least 128
MB RAM will operate the client software.
Application servers (Citrix, Win2000,
Server 2003) should be configured to provide
one processor per 15 users and allocate
approximately 1 GB RAM for the server
plus and additional 128 to 256 MB RAM per
user.
SQL Servers should follow Microsoft’s
recommendations for SQL Server.
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| Q. | How can I get support for my
software?
|
| A. | The Support page on this website
lists the several options available to
contact us for technical support.
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| Q. | Where can I find training materials?
|
| A. | Your installation CD has a folder
that contains help files which are
stored as "html"
documents. Within the help
files are step by step instructions
that you can view from your
browser. You can print these
documents using your browser or a
word processor like MS Word.
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| Q. | Can I create my own reports?
|
| A. | Yes you can! Our software includes a
suite of standard reports, but we do
find that many of our clients like 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.
For those who prefer, reports created using "Crystal Reports" may also used with the Reporting Dashboard.
Many of our clients use tools that
are familiar to them like MS Excel, MS
Word and MS Access to create their own
reports.
Other customers choose to use tools
like “Crystal Reports” to generate
special reports for their needs.
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| Q. | How often should I backup my data?
|
| A. | 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 RTMS/TrakQuip applications
are closed. You can also create a
backup of the database from the
Utilities menu.
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| Q. | Is
RTMS/TrakQuip compatible with MS Office and the Windows Vista operating system?
|
| A. | Our software is installed with a
Microsoft SQL Server database.
Therefore, our applications are
highly compatible with
both Windows and MS Office.
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| Q. | How often should the Rental Software
System be updated?
|
| A. | As often as you feel it to be
necessary. It is suggested, however,
that users update fairly often due to
frequent modifications and improvements
being made in the program.
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| Q. | How do I update the Rental Software
System?
|
| A. |
- Version 7+ users simply click the
menu Help-->About and then click
the button that reads "Check
Website for updates"
- Users of older versions of the
software can find instructions on
the updates page.
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| |
| |
| Q. | Will an update of the Rental Software
Program affect the data?
|
| A. | No, however, it is always safe
practice to back up all databases before
every update of the Rental Software
Program.
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| Q. | What other programs are needed to
help provide adequate support if a
problem arises?
|
| A. | An
Internet Browser is required.
Beyond the browser, some tools like
MS Office, MS Access, MS Excel, MS
SQL Server Client Tools are useful,
but not required.
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