atinkerersnotebook: Using Service Management to Track Service Orders

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Источник: http://atinkerersnotebook.com/2013/0...ervice-orders/
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The Service Management area within Dynamics AX allows you to track all of your service order contracts and service orders for your customers, will track all of your time and expenses against the service orders, and will also pass along any chargeable items to the receivables department for automatic invoicing to the customer.

Service Management has additional functions as well that allow you to track the items that are being serviced, define the tasks that are allowed to be performed against a service order, and also track the symptoms, diagnosis, and resolution to service order issues, making it a great tracking and analysis tool.

In this walkthrough we will show how you can create service agreements and orders, and then how you can use the additional tracking features within Service Management to get a tighter handle on your service orders.

Creating a Service Agreement

Service Agreements are the basis for all of your service orders. They allow you to define the default structures of your Service Orders and also link back to the project management area so that you are able to bill for any activity that has been performed against the service orders. As a result, the first step in the process of configuring Service Management is to create a Service Agreement.

How to do it…

To create a Service Agreement for a customer account, follow these steps:

1. From the Service Management area page, select the Service agreements menu item from within the Service agreements folder of the Common group.
2. When the Service Agreements list page opens up, click on the Agreement wizard button within the New group of the Service agreement ribbon bar.
   
3. When the Service Agreement wizard is displayed, click then Next button to start the process.
   
4. Select the Customer account that you would like the service agreement to be associated with.
   
5. Then select the Create a new project option from the Attach project drop down to tell the system that we want to create an entirely new project to track this information.
   
   
   Note: If you have already created a project for the customer, and would like to mingle the Service Agreements, then you can select the Use existing project
   option.
6. Within the Project contract group, enter a description of the Service Agreement into the New project contract field.
   
7. When you have done this, click on the Next button to move to the next step in the wizard.
8. For the new project creation defaults, select Time and material for the Project Type.
9. Select a Project group.
10. Enter the name of the Service Agreement into the Project name field so that we can easily trace the project back to the agreement.
11. Finally set the default Line property. In this case we want all lines to be chargeable unless we override the value.
    
12. When the project defaults have been defined click on the Next button to continue to the next step.
13. For the new agreement creation defaults, enter a Description for the Service Agreement.
14. Enter a date into the Start date field to specify when you want the agreement to be effective.
15. If you want to have default service technicians to be associated with this Service Agreement then you can also specify those here as well.
    
16. When you have configures the defaults for the Service Agreement click the Next button to continue on.
17. When you reach the confirmation page, click the Finish button to have the system create your Service Agreement.
    
18. You should receive an Infolog box showing that the Service Agreement has been created.
    

Creating a Service Order

Once you have a Service Agreement you can start creating Service Orders and posting time and material against them.

How to do it…

To create a Service Order, follow these steps:

1. From the Service Management area page, select the Service orders menu item from within the Service orders folder of the Common group.
2. When the Service Orders list page opens up, click on the Service order button within the New group of the Service order ribbon bar.
   
3. Enter a description of the Service Order into the Description field.
4. Within the Reference group select your Service Agreement that you set up in the previous step.
   
5. This will default in the Customer account, and the Project ID for you.
   
6. Alternatively, you can select the Customer account from the dropdown, and then select the Service agreement from the filtered list.

Posting Time to a Service Order

Once you have a Service Order record, you can start posting time and materials to it, and recording activity.

How to do it…

To post time to a Service Order, follow these steps:

1. From within the Lines tab on the Service order click on the Add button in the tool bar to create a new service order line.
2. To post time against the Service Order select Hour
   from the Transaction type drop down.
   
3. Select the Category for the line from the drop down to specify the type of labor that is being assigned to the Service Order.
   
   Note: If you drill into the Project Categories then make sure that the Active in journals check box is marked.
   
   Also, if you want to update the default costs and prices for the labor that is being assigned to the Service Order then select wither the Cost price or Sales price options from the Setup menu item.
   
   This will allow you to specify the default rates that will be applied when these Project categories are used on a Service Order.
   

Posting through the Service Management Portal

The Service Management area also has a web portal that allows you to view and update Service Orders, and Agreements through a web site.

How it works…

The Service management portal is part of the default Enterprise Portal. As soon as you access it, you will be able to see all of the same information that is available through the traditional windows client.


You are able to add service lines through the web site as well.


How cool is that.

Configuring Service Order Stages

If you want to track the lifecycle of your Service Orders then you can easily do this through Service Order Stages. These allow you to define the stages that your Service Order will progress through, what transactions can be performed at any of the stages, and also when the Service Order is closed or not.

How to do it…

To configure your own Service Order Stages, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Service stages menu item from within the Service orders folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Service stages maintenance form is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create the initial stage.
3. Give your stage a Service stage code, and a Description.
4. Then mark the valid operations that can be performed at the stage.
5. Note: You can use the Service Stages to manage when lines can be posted, if deletions are allowed and a lot more.
6. Continue adding additional stages to your Service stages, but for each additional stage, you will need to specify the parent Service stage.
   
   Note: If you check the Tree view check box, then you will be able to see the complete route for the stages.
   

How it works…

To change the state of the Service Order, just select the record, and then click on the Next Stage button within the Service stage group of the Dispatch ribbon bar.


If you have defined multiple options for the next stage in the process, then you will be asked which stage you would like to move the Service Order into. Select the option, and then click the OK button.


Now you will see that the Service stage for the Service Order has change the next stage in the process.


Configuring Service Reason Codes

If you mark any of the Service Order Stages to as having a Reason then you will also need to add a set of reason codes Dynamics AX for the Service Stages to reference.

How to do it…

To create your own Service Reason Codes, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Service reason codes menu item from within the Service orders folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Service reason code maintenance form is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create the initial stage.
3. Give your stage a Service reason code, and a Description.
   
4. Continue adding additional reason codes, and when you are finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

Signing Off and Posting Service Order Lines

Once you have entered time and materials against a Service Order you can approve the lines by signing off on them, and also post the lines to the project allowing them to be tracked and also invoiced.

How to do it…

To sign off on Service Order lines, and then post them against the project, follow these steps:

1. Select any of the lines that you want to approve for posting, and expand the Line details tab so that you can see the General subtab.
2. To approve the line, just check the Sign off check box.
   
3. Once the line has been approved, you will be able to select the Post service order line option from the Postings drop down menu within the Lines group.
   
4. When the Post service orders dialog box is displayed, select a to and from date that you want to capture the time and materials from, and also check the transactions that you want to include in the postings.
5. When you are ready to post the lines, click on the OK button.
   
6. If there are unposted transactions, then you will receive an Infolog that tells you that they have been posted to a journal.
   

How it works…

Once your transactions have been posted, you can view them against the projects that are associated with the Service Agreement.

From the Project management and accounting area page, select the All projects menu item from within the Projects folder of the Common group.

Select the project that is associated with your Service Agreement.

From the Manage ribbon bar, click on the Posted transactions menu item within the Related information group.


This will show you all of the transactions that have been transferred from the Service Order over to the Project.


Drilling into the record will show you more information about the line item.


Invoicing Service Orders Time & Material

Once you have posted the transactions to your Service Agreement Project you can use the Invoice Proposal function to automatically generate the invoice transactions for the customer so that they can be processed by the receivables department.

How to do it…

To generate and post an Invoice Proposal, follow these steps:

1. From the Project management and accounting area page, select the Posted project transactions menu item from within the Transactions folder of the Common group.
2. This will show you a list of all the transactions posted through the Projects.
3. From the New group of the Project transactions ribbon bar, click on the Invoice proposal button.
   
4. When the Create invoice proposal dialog appears, it will show all of the uninvoiced transactions. To create the invoice proposals, just click on the OK button.
   
5. You will now be taken to the Invoice proposal that was created from the transactions. To convert the Invoice proposal into an AR Invoice click on the Post button within the Functions group of the Invoice proposal ribbon bar.
   
6. If you want to Print the Invoice, then you can check the option on the Posting dialog box. When you are ready to post, click the OK button.
   

How it works…

The Invoice Posting process will show you the invoice that is generated. You can automatically email this to your customer as well through the print management function.


If you look within the Receivables area, you will also see the invoice transaction has now been added to the customer account.


Creating Project Statements for Service Agreements

As you start accruing time and expenses against your Service Agreement you can take advantage of the Project Statements function within the Projects to track how much the agreement is costing, and if you are breaking even.

How it works…

From the Project management and accounting area page, select the All projects menu item from within the Projects folder of the Common group.

Click on the Project Statements button within the Statements group of the Control ribbon bar.


The first time that the Project Statements dialog box is displayed for a project, it will not show any information. To populate the statement, specify the from and to dates for the statement and then click on the Calculate option in the menu bar.


The system will now show you a break down on all of the costs and revenue for the project.


You can also create a pivot table view of this data within Excel by clicking on the Export to Microsoft Excel button in the menu bar.

When the Export dialog box is displayed, specify a file location for the statement, select the dimensions that you want to export to Excel, and then click on the OK button.


This will create a Statement for your project within Excel.


Very cool.

Creating Periodic Service Intervals

If you have service orders that repeat on a regular basis, then you can configure Service Intervals and then assign them to lines on your Service Agreements and then have the Service Management area automatically generate the Service Order jobs for you.

How to do it…

To define Service Intervals and adding them to Service Agreement lines, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Service intervals menu item from within the Service agreements folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Service intervals dialog box is displayed, you can create new intervals by clicking on the New button in the menu bar.
   
3. Give your Service Interval a code and description, and from the Range dropdown, select the general time frame that you want to manage the interval in.
   
4. Then within the Frequency field select the number of Ranges that you want to space the interval.
   
5. Repeat the process for all of the different intervals that you can think of.
   

How it works…

To use the Service Interval open up your Service Agreement and add a new line. Within the Service Interval field, select the frequency that you want to perform the service order task.


And then specify the start date for the task so that the frequency has a beginning.


Creating Periodic Service Orders

From the Service management area page, select the Create service orders menu item from within the Service orders folder of the Periodic group.

How to do it…

To get the system to create your scheduled Service Orders automatically, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Create service orders menu item from within the Service orders folder of the Periodic group.
2. When the service order creation dialog box appears, select a to and from date that you want to search for recurring service order tasks, and also select the transaction types that you want to include. Then click the OK button.
   
3. If there are Service Agreement lines that fall within your date range and transaction type, the system will notify you that they have been created.
   

How it works…

You will see the new Service Orders automatically show up.


Drilling into the detail you will be able to see the task that was assigned to the work order.


Printing Service Orders

Once the Service Orders are created, you can also print them.

How it works…

From your Service Order click on the Work Description button within the Related Information group of the Service Orders ribbon bar.

When the print dialog is displayed, select the options that you want to include in the Work Instructions and then click the OK button.


This will print out all of your work instructions for you technician to use and sign off on.


Creating Service Objects

The Service Management area allows you to track what the Service Orders and Service Agreements are related to through what a called Service Objects. A Service Object could be something that is tracked as in inventoried item, or it could just be a reference to something that is being serviced.

How to do it…

To define a Service Object, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Service objects menu item from within the Service objects folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Service objects maintenance form is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new record.
3. All you need to specify for the Service Object is the Description and the Service object group.
   
4. When you have defined all of your Service Objects click on the Close button to exit the form.

Assigning Service Objects to Service Agreements

Once you have defined your Service Objects you can start assigning them to your Service Agreements and Service Orders.

How to do it…

To associate a Service Object to a Service Agreement, follow these steps:

1. The first step is to associate a Service Object with your Service Agreement. To do this, open up your Service Agreement and then click on the Service object button within the Relations group of the Service Agreement ribbon bar.
   
2. Then the Service objects maintenance form is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar.
3. From the Service Object dropdown box, select the Service Object that you configured in the previous step.
   
4. You can continue adding Service Objects to the Service Agreement.
5. When you are done, click on the Close button to exit the form.

How it works…

Now you will be able to associate the Service Object with any of the lines on your Service Agreement and get better reporting.


Creating Service Tasks

You can also define the tasks that you are allowed to perform against a Service Agreement as well through the Service Tasks.

How to do it…

To configure Service Tasks, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Service tasks menu item from the Setup group.
2. Within the Service tasks maintenance form, click the New button in the menu bar to create a Service task record.
3. Then assign your Service task a code and Description.
   
4. Repeat this process to add as many Service Tasks as you like and then click the Close button to exit the form.

Assigning Valid Service Tasks to Agreements

Once you have defined your Service Tasks you can start assigning them to your Service Agreement and Service Order lines.

How to do it…

To associate a Service Task to a Service Agreement line, follow these steps:

1. The first step is to associate a Service Task with your Service Agreement. To do this, open up your Service Agreement and then click on the Service tasks button within the Relations group of the Service Agreement ribbon bar.
2. Then the Service tasks maintenance form is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar.
3. From the Service task dropdown box, select the Service tasks that you configured in the previous step.
   
4. If you switch to the Description tab, you can also include internal and external comments and notes for the tasks.
   
5. You can continue adding Service tasks to the Service Agreement.
   
6. When you are done, click on the Close button to exit the form.

How it works…

Now you will be able to associate the Service task with any of the lines on your Service Agreement and get better reporting.


Note: If you add multiple lines to your Service Agreement then you can start differentiating the tasks that are being performed.


Defining Repair Conditions

The Service Management area also allows you to track repairs that have been performed as part of the Service Order process. The first part of this process allows you to define a set of Repair Conditions which are general repair categories.

How to do it…

To define Repair Conditions, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Conditions menu item from the Repair folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Conditions maintenance for is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Condition record.
3. Then add a Condition code and a Description for the condition.
   
4. Continue adding Conditions and when you have finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

How it works…

This will open up the Ratings maintenance form with all of the Evaluation Criteria Groups listed on the left, and all of the Evaluation Criteria for that group on the right.

Defining Repair Symptoms & Codes

The next piece of information that you can track on repairs are the Repair Symptoms. These are usually the initial symptoms that are reported that initiate the Service Order. They may not be the actual cause of the problem, but they may be the most noticeable ones. There can also be two levels to the Symptoms, the Area which would be where the problem was reported, and also an optional sub-symptom called the Symptom code which may describe what was happening to the Symptom Area.

How to do it…

To configure your own Symptom Areas and Symptom Codes, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Symptom areas menu item from the Repair folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Symptom area maintenance for is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Symptom area record.
3. Then add a Symptom area code and a Description for the condition.
4. Continue adding Symptom areas until you have created them all.
   
5. If you want to add more detail to the Symptom areas then you can click on the Symptom codes menu item to open up the Symptom codes maintenance form.
6. To add a sub-category of the Symptom code, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Symptom code record and then add a Symptom code and a Description.
   
7. Continue adding you Symptom codes and when you have finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

Defining Repair Diagnosis Areas

The Service Management area also allows you to track the Repair Diagnosis on the Repair. These are usually the actual problems diagnosed by the technician during the Service Order. There can be two levels to the Diagnosis, the Area which would be what the problem is, and also an optional Diagnosis code which describes how to fix the problem.

How to do it…

To configure your own Diagnosis Areas and Diagnosis Codes, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Diagnosis areas menu item from the Repair folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Diagnosis area maintenance for is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Diagnosis area record.
3. Then add a Diagnosis area code and a Description.
   
4. Continue adding Diagnosis areas until you have created them all.
5. If you want to add more detail to the Diagnosis areas then you can click on the Diagnosis codes menu item to open up the Diagnosis codes maintenance form.
6. To add a sub-category of the Diagnosis code, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Diagnosis code record and then add a Diagnosis code and a Description.
   
7. Continue adding you Diagnosis codes and when you have finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

Defining Repair Resolutions

The final piece of information that you can configure to track the repairs is the Repair
Resolution. This is used to track what was done to complete the repair, and you can use it for reporting and analysis.

How to do it…

To configure your own Repair Resolution codes, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Resolutions menu item from the Repair folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Resolutions maintenance for is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Resolution record.
3. Then add a Resolution code and a Description for the condition.
   
4. Continue adding Resolutions and when you have finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

Defining Repair Stages

If you want to, you also have the option to track the Repair Stages, so that you can track the progress of repairs.

How to do it…

To configure your own Repair Stages, follow these steps:

1. From the Service management area page, select the Repair stage menu item from the Repair folder of the Setup group.
2. When the Repair stages maintenance for is displayed, click on the New button in the menu bar to create a new Repair stage record.
3. Then add a Repair stage code, a Description for the condition, and if the stage is the end of the process, then check the Finished check box.
   
4. Continue adding Repair stages and when you have finished, click on the Close button to exit the form.

How it works…

This will open up the Ratings maintenance form with all of the Evaluation Criteria Groups listed on the left, and all of the Evaluation Criteria for that group on the right.

Recording Repair Operations

Once all of the codes have been configured for your Repair process, you can now start tracking the repairs against Service Orders and Agreements. This is a great way to track what has been done in the past, and also if a Service Order is being continually raised against a Service Agreement or a Service Object then you can start tracking if the resolutions for the repairs are actually working.

How it works…

To start the Repair tracking process, select your Service Order that you are working on, and then click the Repair lines button within the Repair group of the Service Orders ribbon bar.


When the Repair Lines maintenance form is displayed, click the New button in the menu bar to create a new Repair record.

Select the Condition (the general problem) from the drop down list.


If you know the area that the problem is being reported to happen then you can select it form the Symptom area drop down box.


If you have additional details about the Symptom, then you can also select it from the Symptom code drop down list.


In the Description field, enter in a brief description of the problem.


If you have a more detailed description, then select the Note tab, and you will be able to enter a virtually unlimited number of lines in the Text field.


As more information is gathered on the Repair then you can also update the Diagnosis area, the Diagnosis code, and the Resolution.


When you have finished updating the Repair click the Close button to exit out of the form.

Summary

In this walkthrough we have shown a number of the features that you can easily take advantage of within the Service Management area of Dynamics AX. By leveraging the Project accounting area, the Service Management functions give you a lot of power without having to invest a lot of effort in the setup.

You can use many of these features to track both external and internal service projects, so you may want to try using this for:

• Customer Service Orders (as we have shown in this example)
• Simple internal maintenance repair operations
• Help desk support tracking

Additionally, there are features that we did not describe in the walk through that you may want to investigate. They include:

• Using the dispatch board to schedule technicians
• Sourcing repair items from inventory
• Creation of Service Orders from projects

Take a look at the Service Management module, it’s simple to configure, and could help a lot.




Источник: http://atinkerersnotebook.com/2013/0...ervice-orders/