Frontline Education is pleased to announce the latest enhancements for Help Desk (GetHelp), which includes parts management features for site inventory, product assignment, inventory history, and minimum stock.

Parts Management: Grid, Site Inventory, Product Assignment, Inventory History, Minimum Stock, User Management

Help Desk and Asset Management customers can now add and track untagged consumable parts at each site. "Parts Management" helps inventory the untagged parts needed for repairs across your district, whether they be for technology, maintenance, or operations. Your teams will have the perfect spot to track your consumables.

User Management: Roles

Admins have permissions to view, edit, and add parts to the "Parts Management" grid. Admins can also determine which technicians have the following permissions:

• View Parts - Ability to only view the "Parts"/ grid.
  • If "View Parts" is unchecked, then "Add/Edit Parts," "Add/Remove Inventory Quantity," and "Add/Remove Associate Product" will be disabled.
  • "View Parts" allow technicians to see all parts across all sites, regardless of their site permissions.
• Add/Edit Parts - Add new and edit existing "Parts Catalog" items
• Add/Remove Inventory Quantity - Update inventory quantity for parts at the site
• Add/Remove Associate Product - Associate a product in the "Product Catalog" to a part

Editing Permissions for Parts Management in User Roles

1. Log in as a "Service Admin."
2. Navigate to the top of the application and locate the "Admin" drop-down menu.
3. From the "Admin" drop-down, select User Management to access further options.
4. Within the "User Management" options, select Roles to proceed to the permissions editing interface.

Parts Management Grid

Upon successful login, admins and technicians with the necessary permissions will notice a new “Parts” option in the top navigation bar of the application. Clicking on Parts will display a drop-down menu, where users can select All Parts to proceed to the "Parts Management" page.

The "All Parts" page will display the "Parts Management" grid. This grid will automatically populate with data if your district has previously set up "Parts Management" in the Asset Management system. The grid provides a comprehensive view of all parts, facilitating efficient tracking and management.

For districts that have already integrated "Parts Management" within Asset Management, the grid will reflect all parts data from the existing system, ensuring a seamless transition and immediate usability of the feature. If you need a refresher on "Parts Management" for Asset Management, please review documentation here.

Parts Management Catalog

The "Parts Management" grid now boasts in-line editing capabilities, streamlining the process of managing parts within your catalog.

To add a new record:

1. Click Add Record at the top of the "Parts Management" grid. A new, editable row appears at the top of the grid for immediate data entry.
   • You can add records directly within the grid, eliminating the need for navigation to separate pages.
2. Click Save Changes at the top of the "Parts" grid to add the new part to your catalog.
3. (Optional) Click Cancel Changes to close and discard any modifications to your catalog.

Caution: Any unsaved changes will be lost if you navigate away from the grid, alter filters, or refresh the page. It is highly recommended to save changes frequently to prevent data loss.

Part Number Field

• Must be a unique identifier.
• Can be a duplicate to product number, as parts are its own unique catalog.
• Max character limit is 30 alphanumeric characters and minimum of 3 characters long.

Part Name Field

• Must be a unique name.
• Can be a duplicate to product name, as parts are its own unique catalog.
• Max character limit of 30 alphanumeric characters and a minimum of 3 characters long.

Part Type and Part Area Fields

• "Part Type" and "Part Area" are drop-down menus created by users who have access to add and edit parts.
• To add a new "Part Type" or "Part Area" to the drop-down list, navigate to Asset Management and manage the list in the Asset Management "Parts Catalog."
• "Part Type" and "Part Area" fields are searchable. Click the name from the drop-down and the grid will filter for your selection.
• To navigate to the next field from the two drop-down fields, you must click on the field; tabbing to move between drop-down fields is not enabled.
• Max character limit of 100 alphanumeric characters.

Quantity Field

• The "Quantity" field in the grid is not editable from the "Parts" grid.
• Automatically aggregates all site inventory for that part. Steps to add inventory to sites are described further in this article.
• Field type is integer and the character limit is 5,000,000.

Note: When the "Quantity" number appears in red, it signals that the quantity has dropped below the set minimum stock level for that part.

Cost Field

• Optional field.
• The field type is decimal, and it does not display the dollar sign ($).
• Can accommodate costs up to $100,000.00 per item.
• Specific to each item and is not an aggregate value for all parts in inventory.

Minimum Stock Field

• Optional field.
• Accepts integer values with a maximum limit of 500,000.
• When the "Quantity" number appears in red, it signals that the part quantity has fallen below the minimum stock level set by the district.

Inventory Tab

Within the "Inventory" tab, users can directly edit inventory quantities for different sites. This in-line editing feature allows for convenient adjustments of inventory levels, either adding to or reducing the stock at various locations.

To view more details about a specific part, click on the + plus sign located to the left of the part's row. This action will expand the row to reveal additional information and access to the "Inventory" tab.

Adding Inventory to Sites

1. Click Add Inventory to view a list of sites.
2. Check the box next to the desired site.
3. Click into the site's Quantity box.
4. Click Save to associate the part to selected sites.
5. Sites already assigned to a part on the "Inventory" tab will no longer display in the "Assign Sites" listing.
6. Once the site is added to the "Inventory" tab, use in-line editing to add or change the Minimum Stock.

Updating Current Inventory

When a part has been used to solve a ticket, a technician will need to update the inventory of the part at the site from which it was removed. The technician will need to navigate to the part used, open the "Inventory" tab, and highlight the site quantity to update.

For example, if the technician uses 3 parts from the highlighted 10, the technician will update the quantity to 7. When the quantity has been changed, but not saved, a message will appear to remind the technician to save their changes.

Once the changes have been saved for quantity updates, the "Inventory History" grid will update. It will show the quantity adjustment, the user who made the change, the date of change, the final quantity, and the source where the change happened (either Help Desk or Asset Management).

Products Tab

As an admin or technician with permissions, you can assign products to parts. This assignment will allow users to see which products use certain parts.

To view more details about a specific part, click on the + plus sign located to the left of the part's row. This action will expand the row to reveal additional information and access to the "Products" tab.

To initiate product assignment:

1. Click on Assign Products. This action opens a modal, enabling a comprehensive search across the entire Asset Management "Product Catalog."
2. Search by product number, product name, manufacturer, or product type to pinpoint specific items.
   
3. When assigning products to a part, simply check the boxes adjacent to the desired products.
   • Once selected, a blue checkmark will appear, signifying the chosen products.
4. Save your changes to confirm the assignment, or click Cancel to reject selections and close the modal.
   

Inventory History Tab

The "Inventory History" tab logs all adjustments made to the part’s inventory quantity, including who made the adjustments, a timestamp of the changes, and the quantity count changes.

• To view more details about a specific Part, click on the + plus sign located to the left of the part's row. This action will expand the row to reveal additional information and access to the "Inventory History" tab.
• The "Inventory History" tab displays the date, user (first and last name), site name, quantity adjustment, and the final quantity of the part.
• Negative adjustments are indicated with a negative (-) sign.
• The source field specifies where the change occurred, whether in Help Desk or Asset Management.

Other Considerations

• All parts within the system must be entered manually. Currently, there is no functionality to facilitate the bulk creation or import of parts through Excel spreadsheets.
• The search feature does not support special characters. When naming parts or entering relevant information, users should be mindful that special characters will not be recognized in search queries.

Previous Releases

The following are release notes for prior releases.