Managing Equipment Types

Equipment Types are categories you place equipment into. For example: Analog Set Devices, Digital Set Devices, Circuits, etc.

Adding Equipment Types

1. Click Equipment/Services from the menu.
2. Within the Navigation pane, click Equipment.
3. You will have two alternatives for Managing Equipment Types:

• • • Within the toolbar directly above the Navigation pane, click the Manage equipment types
    • Within the Action pane, click the Manage equipment types

! If you are unable to view the Actions pane, you may need to use the scroll bar to the right of the Navigation pane to reveal the menu choices. Or, using your mouse, point at the Separation bar, and when the up/down arrow appears, right-click the line and hold it to pull the line down.

4. Using either of the choices, The Manage equipment types window opens. Click the top row, marked with an asterisk (*), to add a new record. The line highlights.
5. Type the following information required fields are marked with an asterisk (*)):

• • • Equipment Type* – type the name of the equipment. This is the broad type for example, Analog Sets, Digital Sets, Circuits, etc.
    • Inventory Policy* – click the dropdown arrow to access a list and select the appropriate policy. There are three policies to choose from:
    • Do Not Track Quantity – select this if you do not want to track no many items of each equipment item you have on you shelves.
    • Manage Total Quantity – select to track the total quantity of equipment items. This policy notifies the user when there are no items available to assign and when the total quantity is below the low safety stock level. For example, if you have 30, 2500 sets, when you are reach your safety stock level CAIRS notifies the user, if you reach zero you will still be able to assign.
    • Restrict by Total Quantity – select this policy to track the total quantity of equipment, when the items reach the low safety stock level CAIRS notifies the user, however, when you reach an available quantity of zero, the user will not be able to assign the equipment until the stock level is replenished. If you want to keep track of each item with a specific serial number, this is the policy to use.
    • Allow Cost Adjustment* – Click the box to insert a checkmark to allow any user to modify the cost of the equipment type.
    • Return Policy* – click the dropdown arrow to access a list and select the return policy for the equipment. The following two choices are available:
    • Never – when selected, the equipment is deleted from the database and does not return to the available quantity.
    • Always – when selected, the equipment returns to your available quantity, allowing you to keep an accurate count of your inventory.

! The return policy is directly related to the inventory policy. The options within the list vary depending on the policy selected. For example, if you select Manage Individual Items, the return policy list only includes Always.

• • • Default Zero Cost Billing Policy – to select the default zero cost policy, click the field to access a dropdown list and from the list select: Do Not Bill, Bill as One Time Charge or Bill as Recurring Charge. This selection allows you to include equipment in a bill that is not charged.  The equipment can appear in either the one-time or recurring charge section of the bill.  If you choose to not include these equipment items within the bill, select Do Not Bill.
    • Default Vendor Import Charge Billing Policy – if you are importing charges via the vendor media import you can select a charge policy, click on the field to access a dropdown list and from the list select one of the following policies:
    • Bill Normally – this is the default, all imported charges will be billed according to the equipment or service
    • Bill as Zero Cost – all imported charges will be billed as a zero cost to the account
    • Do Not Bill – although charges are imported into cairs they are not billed on and will not display on a bill associated to the account
    • Default System Charge Policy – the default is to bill all charges normally meaning they will be billed based on the details for each equipment or service item, however you can make a system policy to handle charges related to this equipment type differently, other than bill normally you have the following options available, click on the field to access a dropdown list and from the list select one of the following policies:
    • Bill as Zero Cost – all charges related to this equipment type will be visible on the bill as a zero cost charge to the account
    • Do Not Bill – although charges are in cairs they are not billed on and will not display on a bill associated to the account
    • Type of Service Name – click the dropdown arrow to access a list and select the type of service.
    • Report Category – click the dropdown arrow to access a list, from the list select the report category.

! The report category for the equipment type is the default category if you do not associate a category to each equipment item CAIRS uses this category.

6. To add another equipment type, click the Save button within the Actions ribbon group and repeat step #6.
7. Within the Actions ribbon group, click Save (to save and stay) to continue working with equipment types or Save & Close (to save and exit) to return to the Equipment list.

Deleting Equipment Types

You cannot delete an Equipment type if any equipment items of this type are in use, or assigned for use. You can delete equipment items if they are not in use, and/or are not assigned for use.

1. Click Equipment/Services from the menu.
2. Within the Navigation pane, click Equipment.
3. You will have two alternatives for Managing Equipment Types:

• • • Within the toolbar directly above the Navigation pane, click the Manage equipment types
    • Within the Action pane, click the Manage equipment types

! If you are unable to view the Actions pane, you may need to use the scroll bar to the right of the Navigation pane to reveal the menu choices. Or, using your mouse, point at the Separation bar, and when the up/down arrow appears, right-click the line and hold it to pull the line down.

4. Using either of the choices, The Manage equipment types window opens.
5. There are several two ways to delete an equipment type:

• • • Right-click the record selector box next to the Equipment Type to access a menu from the menu click on
    • Highlight the name in the list and within the Actions ribbon group click the Delete

6. Once you click Delete, a message box appears verifying that you really want to delete the equipment type. Click Yes within the box to continue or No to cancel the operation.
7. Within the Actions ribbon group, click Save (to save and stay) to continue working with equipment types or Save & Close (to save and exit) to return to the Equipment list.

If you have not reassigned all the equipment associated with the equipment type, a different message box appears notifying you that you still have equipment assigned to the type. You have to delete, or move these items to other Equipment types, before you can complete the deletion.