What's New in Version 12

Here is brief list of the new features that have been added to ESC Version 12. Click on any of the links to learn more about that feature. You can also click here to view a full PDF of the new features.

Note: Before some of these features will work permissions must be given to users. See Enabling the New Features in Version 12 for more details on how to do this.

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.
• Purchase Orders can no longer be deleted if items have been received from them.

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. Find out more about these changes here.

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 partnered 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.