What's new in AyaNova 5

We are very proud to present AyaNova 5 the fastest most productive AyaNova release ever. This essential release continues our tradition of task oriented design which keeps the end user in mind at all times enabling them to accomplish their daily service management tasks quickly, efficiently and in a way that just makes sense.

There are many improvements to existing features as well as some key new features that have been highly requested.

•	All areas of AyaNova have been improved for better performance and efficiency. Complete tasks more quickly and easily than ever before.

•	Compression is now built into the Data Portal at both ends. All data transferred from and to the remote Data Portal is now compressed with performance significantly faster than in AyaNova 4.

•	The internal workings of the Workorder object have been improved and changed to allow us to implement several new work order related features that speed up entry and reduce redundancy, see the workorder section for details.

•	Images used in AyaNova were improved for clarity and uniqueness enabling quicker recognition while working to improve user productivity and reduce confusion.

•	AyaNova 5 nows goes beyond service management into knowledge base / information management with a new wiki feature that allows users to collaboratively edit, share and print rich media content (images, rich text and embedded files) attached to all major objects in AyaNova.

•	Wiki pages are attached to all major objects in AyaNova and are fully editable by all users depending on their access rights.

•	Wiki pages allow rich text formatting including colors, font sizes, hyperlinks to external web pages and internal AyaNova objects.

•	You can insert pictures into wiki pages as well as embed documents and files into wiki pages. For example a manual on a unit could be embedded in the wiki page for a specific unit model or a user could keep a list of handy links and information in their personal wiki page.

•	Because the wiki pages and embedded files are stored internally in the AyaNova database, users can access and edit them regardless of their location be it on a single computer, remote computer using the AyaNova Data Portal feature or a web browser using the optional WBI web browser interface.

•	Wiki pages are an excellent way to store free form and structured information that just won't fit into the custom fields provided.

•	AyaNova administrator has full control over this feature and can view at a glance the files that are stored (compressed) inside the AyaNova database by all other users.

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Creating a work order is faster than ever before with the new client finder feature which works in conjunction with the AyaNova search database feature: enter anything you remember about the client and AyaNova will search all client records and records related to clients such as all text entered on a work order or in a project to quickly narrow down the list of clients to select from. This makes creating a workorder for a client faster, even if you do not remember the actual client's name.

•	The new duplicate option is now available in all major objects in AyaNova allowing the user to quickly make a duplicate of the record that is open. This allows a user to create new records quickly and efficiently when the majority of the information is the same.

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99% of all list selection controls in AyaNova 5 now have an auto suggest and append feature which means when you want to use the keyboard to select you tab into them and start typing and they will now not only pick the closest suggestion in the typing entry part of the box automatically (as they did before), they will also drop down the list and filter the list by what you typed. This enables the user to pick from lists much more quickly than ever before.

•	AyaNova is ready for Windows 7 the latest upcoming version of Windows from Microsoft. Our testing shows excellent performance with Windows 7.

•	AyaNova 5 has been redesigned to take advantage of the new Firebird 2.1.1 for better performance and compliance with 64 bit Windows operating systems when used in stand-alone mode.

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Now faster with Microsoft SQL server 2005 or newer. We now take full advantage of the modern features of Microsoft SQL server 2005 and newer. The SQL database server must be SQL 2005 or higher (Express or Server) to comply with Microsoft's end of life for 2000 versions which are no longer supported for use with AyaNova.

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To protect your data from malicious or accidental changes to the database and to detect rare forms of corruption, AyaNova will now take a "fingerprint" of your database's tables and fields and compare it against the expected fingerprint. If the database structure has been modified in any way outside of the AyaNova program or it's utilities or developers API, AyaNova will detect this and will not start.

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If you have reason to believe that your AyaNova database structure has been modified in any way (for example tables were added or fields modified or added or removed) be advised that AyaNova 5 will not start so you will need to ensure that these changes have been reversed before upgrading. We have always warned users against modifying their database structure for their own protection and to maintain our ability to provide support resolution in a timely manner, we are now enforcing this.

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The Regions feature of AyaNova 5 has been greatly expanded from version 4 to provide the ability to compartmentalize all relevant data in AyaNova into separate regions and limit user access to data and report templates by region. This is a key new feature for service companies that have separate divisions or many offices in separate geographic areas. All major areas of AyaNova have now been regionalized where appropriate. The AyaNova administrator can place a user in a single region or all regions as appropriate.

•	Create a unit from a part sold in a service workorder with one click. This is useful when you sell a part to a client and also want to track service on that part as a unit.

•	Banked Service for Travel or Labor now pops up displaying what the balance will be for currency, incidents and hours if you do apply - so that you can see even before you apply if it will go into the negative

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New Global Settings field for setting the Scheduled / Labor default minutes and the Travel default minutes so that when you enter a Start date/time in a service workorder for Scheduled User or Labor or Travel, the Stop date/time will default pre-enter for you what is your common amount of time spent to save you entry time.

•	Part requests in the service workorder now show the PO# ordered from so that you can easily bring up that PO to see more details on it

•	You do not need to delete a received Part Request before being able to set a service workorder to Service Completed - this way you can maintain a history of part requests along with the closed service workorder.

•	Unit Meter Reading now displays as a column in the Workorder Items grid and that specific Unit Meter Reading taken for that workorder item is available for a detailed report template for both Service Workorder and Items, and in a summary report template for the Items.

•	Labor grid and Travel grid now displays the Effective Date column that displays when that record was applied against Banked Service so that you can filter by the Effective Date to see if applied against Banked Service or not.

•	Schedule form changes to start and stop date / time now automatically update the Estimated Quantity field in the workorder.

•	The internal Report Template designer has been updated to the latest available version. (NOTE: the latest version of the internal report template designer now has a different location for the Wizard for summary report templates)

•	Unit Meter Reading now displays as a column in the Workorder Items grid and is available for a detailed report template for both Service Workorder and Items, and in a summary report template for the Items.

•	The service workorder detailed report template dataset now includes the four new custom text fields from the unit's entry screen to allow additional data from the unit to be displayed in the detailed report template

•	The detailed service workorder report template dataset now includes the Rate Description for the rate selection for Labor.

•	Report datasets for the Quotes grid and the PM grid now include the fields Client Group, Head Office and Dispatch Zone from the client.

•	The Part Inventory grid report dataset now includes the Wholesaler and the Alternative Wholesaler of the part, so you can easily sort and print off a report identifying what wholesalers need stock ordered from.

•	Expanded reporting from the Purchase Order Items grid and the Purchase Order Receipt Items grid such as ability to print out labels for received parts

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The Labor grid and the Travel grid in the Service navigation pane now can show the Effective Date column (from Banked Service) which identifies the date the banked service was applied. This column is useful to filter to show which labor (or travel) records have (or have not) been applied against banked service and when they were applied.

•	The AyaNovaLink feature provides the ability to create a hyperlink directly to an AyaNova client or unit on your desktop or in a Wiki page so that you can easily bring it up.

•	Full support for large or small menu images which are saved by user and form. User can choose larger icons for easier recognition or smaller icons to free up screen space as appropriate.

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A new "plugin" feature has been added to AyaNova allowing us and third party developers to easily add functionality right inside AyaNova via a plugin menu option. This allows us to easily add new features that don't quite fit into AyaNova itself such as utilities and add-on's outside of the normal release schedule for AyaNova. It also allows 3rd party developers and users to more easily create add-on's for AyaNova.

•	The accounting software integration optional add-on's QBI and/or PTI have been re-written as plugins and are now accessed from within the AyaNova program

•	The new plugin Client Merger allows you to easily merge existing clients together so that if you accidentally created multiples of the same client, you can have all of the service workorders for the client transferred to one client.

•	The new plugin XTools allows you to enter links to other programs, websites, etc to have quick access while within the AyaNova program.

•	See the AyaNova Support Forum development section if you are interested in creating your own custom plug-ins for AyaNova 5

•	Clients can now be automatically notified when certain events occur, such as when a Client Service Request is accepted or when a workorder is Closed.

•	Workorder reports can automatically be emailed to client's when their work order is closed through the new client notification feature.

•	The new plugin utility Client Merger allows you to easily merge existing clients together so that if you accidentally created multiples of the same client, you can have all of the service workorders for the client transferred to one client.

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Address fields now have Auto suggest combo boxes for city, state, postal code and country to make it easier when entering in address information as you can just select a previously entered zip or city etc without having to type it again. This speeds up entry tremendously and ensures no duplication through mis-spelling.

•	The Duplicate menu option in a client entry screen makes it very easy to make a copy of an existing client without having to re-type in all of the details except the new client name.

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Workorder templates now used: If a client has a default Service Workorder Template set in their client entry screen, all other template entered data will be transferred to the new service workorder created from the CSR except for the fields Workorder Summary, Workorder Item Summary, Client Reference # and Service Notes as text from these is taken from the CSR.

•	The Duplicate menu option in a part entry screen makes it very easy to make a copy of an existing part without having to re-type in all of the details except the part number.

•	As a new feature, you can not set a Part to Track Serial Number if there are existing non-serialized parts in stock. This prevents confusion over actual On Hand Amounts and actual serial numbers in inventory.

•	In a PO, now able to set to select any part regardless if that part is assigned to that vendor of the PO or not. This allows those AyaNova users that order parts from more than two different wholesalers to be able to still place a PO.

•	The Purchase Order entry screen now includes the Project selection field so that you can track if parts ordered are for a specific project.

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The Purchase Order entry screen header fields Drop Ship To Client, Project, Expected, Reference #, Vendor Memo, Notes and Custom Fields are now editable when in status Open - On Order so that you can make changes if needed before any parts are received such as updating the Expected date, or editing custom fields.

•	New Purchase Order Items grid in addition to the existing purchase order grid which you can easily filter and sort as needed to obtain reports.

•	Additional text fields have been added to the PO Receipt entry screen as useful to enter details about the PO Receipt etc.

•	AyaNova 5 now provides a Purchase Order Receipt Items grid which you can easily filter and sort as needed to obtain reports such as printing labels for received items.

•	The Part Inventory grid report dataset now includes the Wholesaler and the Alternative Wholesaler of the part, so you can easily sort and view and print off a report identifying what wholesalers need stock ordered from.

•	Four new text fields have been added to the Unit entry screen. These text fields are available via a detailed report template for service workorders.

•	The Duplicate menu option in a unit entry screen makes it very easy to make a copy of an existing unit without having to re-type in all of the details except the serial number.

•	Unit Meter Reading now displays as a column in the Workorder Items grid and that specific Unit Meter Reading taken for that workorder item is available for a detailed report template for both Service Workorder and Items, and in a summary report template dataset for the Items.

•	Purchased Here is now a viewable column from the Units grid and is also an available datafield for reporting on from the Units grid.

•	New default minutes setting controls the automatically pre-entered stope date / time on a work order when the start date / time is entered. Previously it defaulted to a fixed amount. Now you can set it to the most common time span used in your organization to save time.

•	Workorder Item Summary Template now includes the Onsite tag so that you can see at a glance in the schedule form if service is for on or off site.

•	The Duplicate menu option for a security group makes it very easy to make a copy of an existing security group without having to re-set all of the access rights except for typing in the new security group name.

•	New tighter security: Only users of type Administrator have access to grids/features of Administration pane regardless of rights given to prevent viewing by non-Administrator users and accidental changes.

•	The graphical print setting defaults to today's date, as well as defaults to a time range of 7am to 6pm and fonts preset to 10pt to save you selection time

•	If a change is made to the start and/or stop date of a scheduled workorder item via the Schedule screen, the Estimated Qty in the workorder entry screen itself will now also be updated to reflect the change in time span.

•	The latest Schedule control now provides the ability for Schedule Markers that span across different months to show without the need to make two separate Schedule Markers one for each month.

•	User drags form to the very edge of the screen so that the title bar is almost or completely obscured and has a hard time getting it back.

•	User has a laptop and when it's docked uses the monitors display as well as the docked monitor as a dual monitor setup then un-docks the laptop.

•	User has multiple monitors and AyaNova was running on a monitor that is no longer present when started again or which has been reassigned to a different location (left right etc).

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AyaNova has always had an internal list of commonly used words it ignores when indexing records for searching. These words known as "Stop" words are the most commonly used words that are so common they are not useful for searching so to save space and time they are not indexed. We've now changed the stop words from being fixed inside the program to being available for editing and modified the list for each language we support. If you find that the stop words are preventing you from searching for something that is common in your database you can remove them from the list by editing the locale value.

•	Note of course that if you create a custom locale with new stop words, this does not allow you to be able to search for previous entries of those stop word - as changes to the stop word list will only take effect for records saved after the changes are made.

•	Stop words are now also cached for better performance when saving an edited object. First update loads the list and subsequent updates reuse.

•	Unit selected in workorder item is now viewable via MBI so that the schedulable user knows which unit to provide service for