Ghost Technicians?

[auto check]

Does anyone have any input? Technicians assigned to labor on a work order are mysteriously changing. I have been calling support every 6 months or so and have not been able to get anyone that can fix it. It doesnt seam to matter if the work order is open or closed, doesnt matter how many jobs are on it, doesnt matter which technician it is. If multiple jobs are on a work order then sometimes this mysterious change will only apply to some of them? For instance our technician Mike may would have 1. Alignment 2. Battery replace 3. LOF. The alignment and LOF will reassign by themselves to a technician that hasnt worked at our shop for years. It is making flat rate calculations very tough when jobs are attached to the wrong guys. The reassigned (incorrect) technician is always somebody that is no longer active. When this problem first started it was always a service advisor that would be assigned to the labor. This is also odd since a service advisor cannot manually be assigned to a job. When this happens all of the parts are usually assigned to the inactive person as well.

[Rich]

My first thought is...(and most likely wrong).....is this after a revision was transfered?

EG: i have a few LOF (revision 9) that have a tech assigned to them, and should be marked "none". If I have a job started and assigned to "Don" and transfer a revision already marked "Pat", Pats name is auto assigned to the LOF and not Don. This could happen to ANY revision.

[ricmorin]

Good point. Copy and Paste items retain tech assignments, even from history.

[auto check]

That is a good thought and may have something to do with it. We do copy and paste allot. Super strange how one service advisor keeps keeps getting assigned though.

[brianp87]

Wish I could help. I have not ran across it. I bet support can find it if it can be replicated.

[ricmorin]

Regarding those old techs that no longer work there, have you made them inactive or do they still show up in the list?

[nickscarcare]

I know here, the techs that no longer work here, even if marked inactive show up. We have to go in and delete them. Version 8.0.3

[ricmorin]

I know here, the techs that no longer work here, even if marked inactive show up. We have to go in and delete them. Version 8.0.3

Show up? Where exactly?

[nickscarcare]

In the drop down, where you pick which tech. Have not run across them showing up wrong on invoices yet.

[ricmorin]

In the drop down, where you pick which tech. Have not run across them showing up wrong on invoices yet.

That's odd. You still see them there even after marking inactive?

[nickscarcare]

Yes we do. The only way to get rid of them is to delete them altogether.

[auto check]

Our guys can be deleted or inactive and they still randomly show up. When choosing a tech in the drop down only active techs are there. The odd thing is that service advisors are never in the labor drop down menu but yet one keeps showing up.

[LazyTurtle]

Marking a technician as inactive has one function: to hide them from being selected in the scheduler. The concept of deleting a technician was discussed thoroughly and concluded with re-naming the technician with xx[technicianname]. This allows historical records to maintain their accuracy. As for the Service Writer showing up on labor lines, I suspect that there may be 2 records of that individual in the Technician Setup (Configuration Technician Setup) - one listed as a Service Writer, another listed as a Technician. You might want to call for support for assistance especially if you have an example to show us.

[ricmorin]

I suspect that there may be 2 records of that individual in the Technician Setup (Configuration Technician Setup) - one listed as a Service Writer, another listed as a Technician. .

Like this?

duplicate name.JPG (31.2 KiB) Viewed 12112 times

[LazyTurtle]

Bingo!

[nickscarcare]

so if we have them marked as inactive, when we go to a new customer and select a labor line, their names should not show up, is that correct?

[Rich]

so if we have them marked as inactive, when we go to a new customer and select a labor line, their names should not show up, is that correct?

My understanding is No, marking a tech "inactive" will only make them not show up in the scheduler. Every where else they still show up. as if you "delete" them it will cause trouble in history.

[ricmorin]

Agreed. You must delete. Inactive is for the scheduler. Apologies if i wasn't more clear on that.

Deleting WILL NOT affect history. Snip from online help reads...."A Technician record may only be removed from the system if they have no current assignments to current orders on the WIP screen. Once that work is posted or the tech assignment changed, then the Delete function can be carried out. Previous invoices posted into the History file will be unaffected and retain the original technician assignment."

[ricmorin]

Deleted techs still show in history with two x's in front of their name.

tech2.png (3.07 KiB) Viewed 12088 times

[nickscarcare]

Thank you, yes that is clarified then.