The following is a post by our Vice President of Operations, Eric Rausin: 

We are proud to announce the release Electronic Service Control (ESC) Version 12. This release includes a huge amount of requests we have received from our customers over the years. Color coding dispatches, customized reporting layouts, credit holds for past due customers and a mobile management feature for the mobile phone clients are just some of the great ideas we have implemented in ESC Version 12.

If you are already an ESC customer, you can upgrade now by logging into the support portal and starting the upgrade.

If you are not yet and ESC customer and would like to get a demo of the new features in ESC Version 12, please sign up for a demo using the form at the bottom of this post.

New Features in ESC Version 12

New List Views
This revolutionary new feature allows you to quickly view lists of your customers, jobs, dispatches, equipment, agreements, invoices, quotes, vendors, inventory items and purchase orders. These lists can be customized to show just the information you want to see in the order you want to see it. Custom lists can then be saved so that they are available again with just the click of a button. Use these lists to quickly find records, print custom reports, export data to Excel, and send emails or letters.

Revised Service Agreements
The Service Agreement screen has been revised to make it even easier to use. This includes an entirely new scheduling system that can handle any scenario you can throw at it. Enhanced invoicing options allow you to include renewal amounts on particular dispatches to ensure the customer renews. Additional options on the qualification screen allow you to easily combine service work with scheduled maintenance to decrease the number of trips you make and increase your profitability. Rounding out the new features is the ability to automatically order all parts required for service agreement dispatches, ensuring that you will always have the parts you need to complete your agreements.

Color Coded Dispatch Board
Turn high priority dispatches red or make service agreement calls green. Associate any color with a priority and assign them to dispatches on the fly or assign them to customers so that their dispatches become that color automatically.

Other Dispatching Improvements

• An unlimited number of employees can now be added to a dispatch board.
• Weekly view only shows one week back from the current date. This will speed up the display of dispatch boards that contain older, uncompleted dispatches.
• The name of the Dispatch Schedule Report has now been changed to Search for Dispatch and it can be found under the Dispatch pull-down menu. This feature now includes the ability to search for dispatches by the customer’s purchase order number as well as any comments in the dispatch notes.

SPIFF Tracking
Encourage your people to sell particular items by rewarding them for selling it. A SPIFF can be attached to any billing code or inventory item to track these bonuses by salesperson. SPIFFs can be set to a flat rate or a percentage of the sale price.

Commissions
A new three tier commission system has been implemented so you can reward your personnel for selling effectively. This feature allows you to increase the commission percentage to those who exceed their sales goals. The flexibility of this system allows you to set different goals for your technicians and sales people.

Customer Status Updates
Automatically send an email to your customer to inform them of the status of their dispatch. This can be configured for each status code so you can remind the customer of their appointment, tell them when you’re on the way, and even send them a survey or a coupon after the dispatch is complete.

More Powerful Customer Entry Screen
The addition of an equipment and history tab to the customer entry screen gives you the ability to update almost everything about a customer on a single screen.

Better Email Control
Each email address entered into the system for a customer can be set to receive status updates and marketing materials, invoices and statements, or everything you care to send.

Compare Vendor Prices
When ordering parts on a dispatch, invoice or quote, it is now possible to see a list of all the vendors that carry that part, their part number, last price from that vendor and the date the price was obtained. This information will be updated automatically as you receive items and can be manually updated as well to ensure you are always getting the best deal possible.

Other Purchasing Enhancements

• You can now add extra shipping methods to purchase orders. This makes it easy to track if something is being shipped via Fed Ex or UPS.
• The date of the accounts payable invoice that is created in QuickBooks or Peachtree when items have been received can now be modified.

New & Updated Reports

• Sales Item Summary – This report can be used to see the total number of items sold for a certain period, department or salesperson.
• Technician Sales Summary – This is the report you want to motivate and manage your technicians. It allows you to track total revenue, average revenue per invoice, gross profit, hours and profit per hour for all your technicians. Show them how they stack up against each other and watch them improve.
• Rejected Quote Analysis – See the reason customers didn’t buy from you using this report. This works with the new reason rejected field that will appear automatically on a quote whenever it is rejected.
• Top Customers – See a list of your top 20 customers based on either total revenue or gross profit.
• Commission Report – See the commissions and SPIFFs earned by your employees.
• Agreement Renewal Rate – This report allows you to see how many customers have renewed their agreements and compare that against those that have not.
• Income Statement Budget Comparison & 2 Year Comparison – Although these reports are not new, they have been reformatted to include percentages. These reports are only available in ESC Accounting.
• The Sales Trend Report on the Dashboard has been updated so that it always shows the last twelve months, making it easier to get a quick comparison, particularly after the beginning of the year.

Mobile Phone Apps Upgrades

• Redesigned screen navigation to make it easier to find the information you need.
• Added a new mobile management feature that allows users to assign dispatches to other users. Managers can also modify the promised dates and times of dispatches using this feature.
• Equipment can now be attached and edited on the mobile apps, making it easy to keep accurate records of exactly what the customer has at their site.
• Ability to authorize credit cards in the field using ESC’s new Merchant Warehouse integration. The Android app even supports specialized credit card readers available directly from Merchant Warehouse.

Track & Bill Travel Time
Travel time can now be added to the working time when creating an invoice based on a dispatch. These times will be combined on the Technicians tab of the Sales Invoicing screen to increase the cost of the invoice. The time will also be shown immediately above the invoice body so you will know what quantity to use when adding a labor billing code to the invoice. This feature can be enabled by going to Company | System Setup | Dispatch and selecting Bill for Travel and Work Time.

Prevent Sales of Out-Of-Stock Items
You can now control whether out-of-stock items can be placed on an invoice. Select No and the item must be stock before it can be added to the invoice. Select Prompt to remind you when you place an out-of-stock item on the invoice. To keep things consistent with previous versions of ESC, this will be set to Yes initially. You can change this setting by going to Company | System Setup | Inventory.

Batch Email Invoices
The Batch Print Invoices screen has been renamed and upgraded to allow you to either print or email a selection of invoices to your customers. This is particularly useful for invoices created by the service agreement module.

Canadian Postal Code Support
Canadian postal codes will now be automatically saved into the Zip Code Maintenance screen when they are entered on the Enter Customers screen. This will allow you to type the postal code in the City field when creating new customers. This will automatically populate the city and province while moving the postal code to the appropriate field.

Credit Holds
ESC Version 12 adds the ability to stop users from creating dispatches for customers that have a certain credit rating. This credit rating can also be color coded so that it will be easy to see on the Qualification screen when a customer first calls you.

Customized Toolbars
Configure your toolbars to allow easy access to the features you use the most.

Change Inventory Part Numbers
Keep up with your vendors by updating part numbers at any time they change them.

Rename Jobs
Rename jobs at any time and ESC will update all transactions related to them so your reporting remains perfect.

Dashboard Flow Charts
New flowcharts have been added as tabs to the dashboard to make ESC easier to understand for new users.

Online Help
All help files have been moved online so you will always have the most up-to-date information when you need it.

Updated Employee Records

• You can now attach copies of important documents, reviews, etc. directly to an employee.
• Associate an employee in ESC with a Sales Rep in QuickBooks. This will flow over to all invoices that have the employee listed as a sales person.

Merchant Warehouse Integration
dESCO has teamed up with Merchant Warehouse to give you another option for processing credit cards. With the Merchant Warehouse integration no credit card data is stored in your office, making your computers instantly PCI compliant. The integration also features credit card authorization on all the mobile phone applications and even integrated card readers for Android devices.

ESC Accounting Upgrades

• All income statements have been enhanced to allow drilling down into the transactions that make up the totals shown on the report.
• Added a new Certified Payroll Report to help you stay compliant with jobs that require it.
• Created a new backload period that allows you to enter data in any screen without having it affect your financial statements.

ESC Software Quote Screen

There is a new Webinar available that covers creating and using quotes in Version 11 of ESC software.

The Webinar: Quoting in ESC Version 11 – Time: 47:38 – In this Webinar, Enrico Chatman, one of dESCO’s Support Technicians, presents all the new quoting features of ESC Version 11.

The Webinar is broken into two sections: a 30 minute presentation on working with quotes in version 11 of ESC and 15 minutes reserved at the end to address audience questions.

Enrico covers everything from how to create quotes on the new screen and accepting them to turning quotes into dispatches and invoices. You will see how to use the Quote List report to track the status of quotes and increase your closing ratio. If you have ever wanted your service business to create quotes for your customers and prospect more effectively, this is the video for you.

The ESC quoting module is a powerful tool for taking control of your service company’s quoting process. ESC Software’s new independent quotes module allows you to enter, edit, and manage quote status from its own screen.

With the ESC quoting module, you can to create quotes and tie them into multiple dispatches or have multiple dispatches tied into one quote. You can also create invoices and quotes from the same dispatch, letting your customers pay the bill for the service you performed, as well as letting your technicians quote for additional services while they are at your customers’ location.

You can also track which sales person made each quote for the customer, letting you monitor how they perform from the time when the quote is created. You can see the closing ratio and even see how much higher or lower the final invoice is from the quoted amount.

You’re now able to create a dispatch from a quote you’ve made when your customer accepted your quote, letting you send your technicians out to do the quoted work. This dispatch can bring over the parts from the quote so your technicians will be prepared with everything they need to complete the quoted work.

You can also create dispatches that are not billable if you want to send a sales person or technician to a prospect’s location with the sole purpose of creating a quote. The sales person can then make a quote from that dispatch that will not be billable until the quote is accepted.

Here is a summary of the new Quoting Features:

• The updated Quote List Report gives a number of different sorting options as well as summary statistics (such as quote status and closing ratios) for each individual sales person.
• There is a new screen that allows you to selectively cost out the parts on a quote when making it into a dispatch, making dispatching from an accepted quote an easy one step process.
• There is now a “Status” drop down, which allows you to keep track of whether a quote is pending, accepted, or rejected. ESC automatically updates the status to “Accepted” when you create a dispatch or invoice from the quote.
• There is a new search screen in the Quotes Module that makes it easy to recall recently modified invoices without having to enter in detailed search criteria.
• You can also make templates from the quotes you create, reducing the time you spend on common or re-occurring quotes involving many line items.
• The Quotes Module also has a new “Markup%” field, which allows you to adjust your markup percentage on individual line items as you create the quote.
• Any equipment or service agreements you attach to a quote will also carry over to the dispatch you create from the quote.

You can find a full listing of new features in Version 11 of ESC here.

Any additional questions about working with quotes in ESC software can be directed to support [at] desco-soft.com.

There are many more ESC Software Webinars available here to help you get the most out of your service software.

Version 11 of ESC is here and available for upgrade. It’s packed with new features and functions to make managing your service business easier than ever. Overall, this release is about improving your workflow. From qualifying your customers, to creating quotes, to dispatching technicians to complete the quoted work, to creating invoices, the whole process has been streamlined even further and puts you in control of the process.

Sales Invoicing

The Sales Invoicing Module underwent a complete redesign, which made it even more intuitive, added time-saving functions, and made more useful information readily available.

• The sales invoicing module has a new and clearer design and is now in the .NET framework.
• There is a new “View Details” button, which lets users with the right permissions view the costs of parts and labor used on an invoice, making it easier to see the profitability of each invoice.
• You are now able to adjust the quantity of assemblies, which will automatically calculate the quantities and costs of all the components that make up that assembly.
• This version also lets you adjust the quantity of flat rate parts on an invoice.
• You are now able to make templates out of the invoices you create, which will dramatically reduce the time you spend on creating common invoices involving many line items. Rather than having to create each invoice from scratch, you can just load the template you created and make any necessary modifications before saving.
• A new search screen in the Sales Invoicing Module makes it easy to recall recently modified invoices without having to enter detailed search criteria.
• The Sales Invoicing Module now supports barcode scanning, letting you scan parts and items directly onto an invoice.
• You can now modify the details of equipment you sell from within the sales invoicing module.
• The “Tender” button is now available right on the Sales Invoicing toolbar.
• You can create a credit memo directly from a saved invoice’s activities menu.
• The credit memo function now has its own screen, making it simpler to create a credit memo from an invoice.

Quotes

ESC now has an independent quotes module that allows you to enter, edit, and manage quote status in its own screen.

• The updated Quote List Report gives a number of different sorting options as well as summary statistics (such as quote status and closing ratios) for each individual sales person.
• There is a new screen that allows you to selectively cost out the parts on a quote when making it into a dispatch, making dispatching from an accepted quote an easy one step process.
• There is now a “Status” drop down, which allows you to keep track of whether a quote is pending, accepted, or rejected. ESC automatically updates the status to “Accepted” when you create a dispatch or invoice from the quote.
• There is a new search screen in the Quotes Module that makes it easy to recall recently modified invoices without having to enter in detailed search criteria.
• You can also make templates from the quotes you create, reducing the time you spend on common or reoccurring quotes involving many line items.
• The Quotes Module also has a new “Markup%” field, which allows you to adjust your markup percentage on individual line items as you create the quote.
• Any equipment or service agreements you attach to a quote will also carry over to the dispatch you create from the quote.

Qualification Screen

The Customer Qualification screen is the most visibly modified screen. It underwent a complete redesign with drag and drop functionality that provides the ability to modify your screen layout so it displays the information that is most important to you.

• You are able to choose from a number of our included layout templates, or create your own templates.
• There is a new “Refresh” button on the Qualification Screen tool bar which allows for a quick view of how the changes you made in different modules affected the customer.
• A “Create Quote” option is now under the Activities menu.
• There are three new columns of information in the Invoices/Quotes panel of Qualification Screen: Billed %, Associated Quote, Quote Status.

Dispatching Module

The Dispatching Module and the Dispatch Ticket Layout Designer both have new features to put you in control of the information that appears on printed tickets and what shows up in your customers’ history.

• The dispatch ticket layout design now has multiple grow-able body fields and grouping so that all the information you need on your printed tickets will appear.
• There is also a line spacing option to make your customized tickets fit onto pre-printed forms.
• The ticket designer provides the option to print the customer’s entire equipment list or only the equipment that is attached to that dispatch.
• You can now decide to post dispatch notes to the invoice and to the customer history.
• There is a new pull down menu to select which billing code to use in posting dispatch notes.
• There is also an option to select which billing code to use for dispatch notes that are posted to the invoice.

ESC Accounting Software

The ESC Accounting Software package also has some expanded features and updates, including recurring credit card transactions and “work-in-progress” options.

• You can now set up automated, recurring credit card transactions from several screens; including: “Enter Customers”, “Enter Agreements”, and “Sales Invoicing”.
• There is a new “work-in-progress” option, a WIP Enabled checkbox, and Closing Account drop down in Enter Chart of Accounts for asset and liability accounts.
• If you set the status of a job that has money in WIP accounts to “Closed”, a journal entry screen will come up that moves money from the WIP accounts to the closing accounts when you save.

Miscellaneous

• A new data structure makes auto-fill searching much faster in large databases.
• There is now a summary page that shows which invoices posted after you use the “Post Monthly Invoices” screen.
• ESC Version 11 is now compatible with Peachtree 2011.
• Version 11 works with the new HST Canadian tax.
• History and billing codes can now be up to 36 characters long, and you can make them inactive.
• There is a new billing code type called “Agreement” that maps to the Agreement column on the sales reports.
• Version 11 supports job classes in the ESC Mobile Client and ESC Front Office.
• We improved grouping in the layout designers, making it easier to create custom layouts.
• When you modify parts on an invoice that post to equipment, it automatically updates the information in the Equipment tab in the customer’s information screen.
• The inventory module now has spell check and date\time stamp for the Inventory Entry Notes tab.
• Also, inventory part adjustments are now date sensitive.

This year’s ESC Version 10 release focused around streamlining data entry and data flow. Changes to the customer and dispatch module make it easier than ever to manage customers and contacts, schedule and dispatch technicians, and make sure they are always prepared with the right parts and equipment.

Redesigned Customer Module: The streamlined customer entry screen makes it easier to enter new customers and gives you better control of your data.

• Keeping in touch with the correct contact is easier with space for six detailed contacts per location.
• Correspond directly via mail merge by clicking the letter icon next to the contact’s name and selecting the desired template.
• A ‘date added’ field is auto-filled for all new customer accounts, so you can see when each customer was added and filter reports by date ranges of when a customer was added.
• Attach a sales person to each customer so that invoices will be auto-assigned to the designated sales person.
• ESC will automatically pick the correct city and state for new customers when you enter their zip code, after you import the zip codes for the states you service.
• The customer search field auto-fills after a few characters, and in most situations, you will not need to open up the detailed search box.
• The new customer search screen is both easier to use and more powerful, now allowing you to also search by contact names and email addresses.
• The software now catches duplicate customers before they are created, even if the address is not exactly the same.
• You can eliminate duplicate customers by merging locations—transferring all equipment, history, dispatches, service agreements, attached documents and even invoices from one location to another—making it perfect for transferring information from builder to buyer.
• Making a record inactive prevents those particular customers or locations from showing in filtered lists and on reports, effectively hiding a customer while retaining your historical records.

Expanded Dispatch Module: The redesigned dispatch entry screen makes sure that dispatched technicians are properly equipped for each job site they visit.

• The redesigned dispatch screen is easier to use and lets you browse through dispatch notes for a range of dispatches within one screen, and the improved layout and default sort option keep dispatches from appearing multiple times.
• The date and time stamp and spell checking is now available in the dispatch notes field.
• Printed dispatch tickets are customizable with the new layout designer. You can place your logo on your dispatches and include an area for your technicians to note their work. There are sample templates available to help get you started.
• Attached equipment is displayed in a separate tab, which allows equipment to be attached, added and edited all in one screen.
• A price field displays on the Parts tab, letting you put prices on parts attached to the dispatch. These parts and prices can then be transferred to the mobile clients and printed on dispatches.
• A search field now displays on the Dispatch Board, letting you easily find any dispatch by entering any part of the location name or address.

Service agreement updates: Updates to the service agreements module increase the connectivity among the agreement, the dispatch it generates, and the items in inventory.

• Parts added to service agreement tasks now flow automatically to the Parts tab on the dispatch with a zero price, and then into the related invoice. This ensures the technicians know what they need to take with them to complete the job, and so the parts will be removed from inventory.
• Now there is the ability to post agreement dispatches for a particular customer, which simplifies combining service work with planned maintenance.

Inventory enhancements: Changes to the inventory screens simplify the process of entering, adjusting, and managing inventory.

• The inventory entry screen opens in a separate window that enables you to enter parts on the fly.
• The redesigned screen also features a tabbed layout that groups similar items together and makes the screen easier to use.
• Alternate parts now are displayed as a tab on the screen.
• When searching for inventory parts, inactive parts are hidden by default.
• Import all the parts ESC perceives to be in a warehouse onto the Adjust Inventory screen. The quantities can be automatically set to zero, making this the perfect tool for entering physical inventory counts.

Enhanced reporting capabilities: Alterations to the reporting functions let users better view, compare, and edit reports.

• Users can now view an unlimited number of reports at once. This makes comparing reports a breeze.
• Closing a report now returns you to the module you were working in, but you can still change the report criteria when previewing by clicking the filters button in the toolbar.

Web Front Office overhaul: The Web Front Office received a major facelift in this version. The entire interface has been updated to look more modern, and several new features have been added.

• There is a new connections server, which has been completely redesigned to make it easier to use.
• A status light indicates if any portion of the connections server is not configured correctly.
• Run multiple reports directly from within Web Front Office.
• Expanded set up screens let you add technicians, configure dispatch boards, and add inventory items.
• Recall existing invoices and change or print them.
• Dispatch ticket printing is now supported, enabling technicians to print dispatches while in the field.

Mobile client changes: The mobile client also has many expanded features to make technicians even more efficient in the field.

• Inventory items entered on the parts tab of the dispatch entry screen flow to the invoice on the mobile client for the first technician who downloads the dispatch.
• Service agreement information is sent to the dispatch tab on the mobile client, allowing your technicians to see the agreement type and all sub-tasks.

Accounting updates: There have also been improvements to the accounting integrations, as well as expanded features and forms.

• You can now modify invoices posted to QuickBooks that no longer exist. This solved the common issue of deleting an invoice in QuickBooks that was posted there by ESC. Now you can easily recover from this mistake by making sure all the transactions that were sent to QuickBooks are deleted.
• There is now the ability to print 1099 forms.
• There is also improved compatibility of the direct deposit setup screens.

ESC Version 10 is packed with new features and product expansions designed to streamlining your company’s data entry and data flow. Changes to the customer and dispatch module make it easier than ever to manage customers and contacts, schedule and dispatch technicians, and make sure they are always prepared with the right parts and equipment.

This is the first post in a series that will highlight various features that have been added in Version 10:

Expanded Contact Management

Keeping in touch with the correct contact is easier now that ESC has space for six detailed contacts per location. Now for each of your customers ESC service software supports multiple locations as well as up to six contact per location.

Each contact at each location has space for a unique phone number, extension, name,  salutation, title & email. This makes keeping in touch with the correct contact at your customers’ sites easier than ever.