Creating Custom Documents for different IT Work

[bawalker]

Hello all,

This is a question that I've been wondering about for some time and hopefully I can express it in the most clear and concise manner possible for easy understanding.

I have a need in my computer repair & consulting business to get more customer signatures for work that is performed. Thus I need to create certain types of documents that can be printed out based on a type of work order. For example, a customer calls with a system crash and their OS needs to be re-installed. I want to get the customer to sign a document indicating they do NOT want me to backup their data, or that they DO want me to backup their data and requirements/dangers/etc associated with that.

I would like to have numerous types of forms based on certain types of work regarding user data and or privacy issues. So that when I'm on site and either finish a job or am about to begin a certain job, I can have these certain pre-defined printouts with me that they sign and I file away.

- How do I go about creating those in CommitCRM?
- Do I need to create them in another program first (Word, Acrobat, Excel, etc) and then import them intoCommitCRM?
- Does CommitCRM handle the editing of such documents?
- Once a document is created, can be be associated with a certain item(s) or item code(s)??
- Does CommitCRM have the ability to show that I would need to print those documents once a certain Item has been selected/performed on a ticket before or after the ticket is completed? If not, could that be added to a feature request later?

If anything else arises question wise along this topic, I'll definitely post. :)

Bradley

[Support Team]

Hi Bradley,

Great questions :-)

I'll give you our input on this, and I will be very happy to hear what others have to say about their implementation.

I can think of a few ways to create such documents:

1) Use RangerMSP's Document Templates. This feature lets you define a Word template, edit it as you wish, and include Accounts information in the document. This way you can add the customer's name and details in the document itself when you actually create it.

Once you have the RangerMSP Template, you can use it when creating new documents in the system. You can then choose to which account you want to associate the document with, and this account's data will be merged into the document.

You can find more details about using Document Templates from within RangerMSP here.

2) Another option, if the document is always the same, and you do not need to merge any special account information in the document, you can simply create the document for the first time (simply edit it in Word), link it to your own account, and when you need to create it again, copy the document. When creating a new document in RangerMSP, you can create it based on a different RangerMSP document.

3) The third option, which is more advanced, can be helpful in case you want to merge other information in the document, such as a specific Asset information, etc. In this case, you can prepare a dedicated customized report for this purpose, via the Reports window, and edit it to contain the contents you need in your document. Each time you need to print this for a specific asset or ticket, simply print out the report (you can print the report directly to PDF and send it via email, which can be convenient in some cases).

You can learn more about reports and reports customization (inlcuding a short tutorial video) on our Web site here.

So these are my ideas for managing the documents and how they can best be created.

As for reminders - what you can do is use Activity Templates for this purpose. Each Activity Template can contain tasks, tickets and appointments, and you can use this in order to standardize your work on similar jobs.

For example, if the customer calls with a system crash and their OS needs to be re-installed (your example), you can use an activity template which will apply all the required tasks for this kind of job. One of the tasks can be a reminder to print out the relevant documents and get the customer to sign them.
When you finish handling the ticket, the system will alert you in case you have any open pending tasks, so you will not forget to perform any of the steps. You can find more details about using Activity Templates, and watch a short tutorial video on the subject on our Web site here.

I hope this input is helpful. Will be happy to hear more from others!

Sherry