NOTE: Refer to the
AyaNova Support Forum for
support for AyaNova v4
Feature
answers about AyaNova CE 1.9.4.4 maintenance and service call software
We invite you to review the
AyaNova v3 web site
for information on the new features now available.
Where
is the manual?
Now
that I have AyaNova maintenance and service call software downloaded and installed, how do I use it?
We
have technicians that are off-site during the day and need remote access to view
their scheduled work orders, enter in completed work orders and print these for
the client - does AyaNova service call and maintenance software do this?
How
do I import my customers or other data into AyaNova service call and
maintenance software?
Customization:
Can
AyaNova service call and maintenance software be customized for my specific needs?
How
do I create a customized report to be used with AyaNova?
Can
the work order Numbers assigned by the program be customized or edited to select
the starting number to use?
Does
AyaNova maintenance and service call software synchronize with Palm or Pocket PC?
Is
there a developer's API for AyaNova maintenance and service call software?
Accounting:
Where
do I enter taxes?
How
do I generate an invoice?
Can
AyaNova service call and maintenance software integrate with my accounting or point of sale software?
Now
that I have AyaNova downloaded and installed, how do I use it?
The owners manual is located on the
manual
page
of our web site.
Press F1 key from any screen
within AyaNova service call and
maintenance software
for “Help” on the screen.
If you have a specific question or one not answered in the “Help”
or AyaNova Manual, please refer to the
AyaNova Contact web page where you can view the AyaNova forum
for questions and answers, or email us directly.
We
have technicians that are off-site during the day and need remote access to view
their scheduled work orders, enter in completed work orders and print these for
the client - does AyaNova do this?
You would want to use
ARAS (AyaNova Remote Access Server) which is an optional add-on to the AyaNova
service call software.
With
ARAS, service personnel / remote offices can enter work orders, check their
schedule and much more remotely with an any web browser without setting foot in
the main office.
Your
customers can request service, check on the status of work orders in progress
and even reprint their own work orders all with just a regular web browser
All
reports (including work orders) available in AyaNova can be printed or
downloaded through ARAS, even customized reports.
ARAS
can fax work orders and other reports with it's integrated fax software
Check out the
ARAS
web page
for additional information, download and try it out for 30 days
free with full functionality.
How
do I import my customers or other data into AyaNova?
AyaNova maintenance and service call software does not have a built in import / export function
because it uses a standard Access 2000 compatible database format which means
you can use any of thousands of products to import or export data.
The most common method is to use Access 2000SP1 which can open
the AyaNova database file SCDATA.SC directly for importing or exporting.
The AyaNova database file can be treated exactly the same as any Access 2000
database.
Note that AyaNova does not require Access, is not written
using Access and is a completely stand alone program. We chose the most
widely used database format in the world for easy importing and exporting and to
encourage 3rd party developers.
Information on the database can be found within the AyaNova
Manual reference section, and detailed information on the
database schema can be found in the AyaNova
database schema documentation
If you do not have Access 2000 or any other product that
supports Access 2000 (JET 4.0) databases or do not want to do it yourself,
you can contact an experienced database consultant by searching on the internet
or via your phone book.
Refer to the Local Services web
page for developers that may be able to do this for you.
We will happily provide any information required about the
AyaNova database to anyone who needs it, however, we can not help you learn how
to use Access or any other 3rd party software so some experience is required to
import or export data.
If you have one of the compatible versions of QuickBooks as
listed on the
AyaNova QBI (QuickBooks Integration) web page you may be
interested in the optional add-on QBI (QuickBooks Integration) which
one of its many features is the ability to import QuickBooks
customers and items into AyaNova.
Can
AyaNova be customized for my needs?
There
are generally three aspects to the overall AyaNova package which people are
interested in customizing or working with:
Program:
AyaNova
CE is not customizable. Custom fields and localization (field label
editing) will be a feature in the next generation AyaNova
that is in development.
We have
added many user suggestions to the mainstream release of AyaNova
maintenance and service call software
at no extra cost via free maintenance updates over the last
couple years.
We have
now come to the place where any additional features would require so much
"re-writing" of the existing AyaNova that we are in
development of a complete re-write of AyaNova from scratch so that we may
incorporate many new features such as expansion of inventory and
parts; additional PM features; managerial control of field labels
and accessible screens; SMS and email notifications; as well as MSDE
/ SQL Server back-end to accommodate larger businesses and much much
more. Refer to the
AyaNova Support
Forum for more information on the next generation AyaNova.
Database
and custom functionality that doesn't come with AyaNova itself:
AyaNova
uses a very common database format and it's not unusual for users with specific
needs not addressed by the program to develop additional functionality outside
of AyaNova that uses the AyaNova database.
If you
are interested in this, you can contact an experienced database
consultant by searching on the internet or via your phone book or refer to the Local Services web
page for developers that may be able to do this for you.
If you are a developer, in addition to the
AyaNova Manual reference section on the database, please also
refer to the
AyaNova
database schema documentation
Reports
All
reports in AyaNova service call and
maintenance software can be customized and even
completely new ones can be added that didn't originally come with the program by
anyone with a copy of Crystal Reports 9 or higher software and some database
experience. Refer to the Local
Services web page for developers that are familiar with
customizing reports for AyaNova, or if you have Crystal Reports
experience, refer to the AyaNova Manual
reference section on customizing reports and to the
AyaNova
database schema documentation
How
do I create a customized report to be used with AyaNova?
See the "Customizing Reports" section in the
AyaNova
manual
for details.
Refer also to the
AyaNova
database schema documentation
for information on the database schema for tables and fields.
If you are not familiar with Crystal Reports, you can contact an
experienced database consultant by searching on the internet or via
your phone book or refer to the Local Services
web page for developers that are familiar with AyaNova report
customizations.
.
Can
the Workorder Numbers assigned by the program be customized or edited to select
the starting number to use?
The
numbers generated by the program are guaranteed unique numbers and
tie together all the data in the AyaNova program. For this reason
the workorder numbers are automated and cannot be edited by the
user.
The
"Our reference number" field on the workorders is provided if
users have to enter in another reference number.
If you
have just purchased AyaNova licenses, and wish to have your next
workorder number begin at a specific number, please contact
AyaNova Support for details on
what is required.
Does
AyaNova synchronize with Palm or Pocket PC?
Not at this time. We do have this on the list of features to add
to future release of AyaNova.
You may be interested in ARAS (AyaNova Remote Access Server)
which allows a remote user (any device including computer, pocket pc
etc) with nothing more than a standard web browser (PC or MAC) to
access the AyaNova database remotely via an Internet connection to
enter workorders, search client history, view their schedule and
much more. This is useful for remote technicians to not only check
changes in their schedule by accessing the same database as internal
users, but perform searches on previously entered information, check
unit history, enter in details of work performed etc.
The full-featured ARAS trial is available from
http://www.ayanova.com/aras.htm along with detailed information
and configuration information in the ARAS Installation &
Configuration Guide.
Is
there a developers API?
A developers API is not at all required to write
add-on applications for AyaNova. The database is completely open and we
both encourage and can provide information on all aspects of the database.
If your organization has experience with ANSI / JET 4.0 SQL then you will have
no problem working with the AyaNova database directly.
All
AyaNova data is stored in the single SCDATA.SC file and it can be treated as any
other JET 4.0 database.
See
the
AyaNova manual
for
comprehensive information useful to developers (reference section)
Refer
also to the
AyaNova
database schema documentation
Do note that if you obtain value out of the add-on application
that you create, others may too and may be interested in purchasing
it from you. Let us know if you wish to list your contact
information and details about your add-on application on our
Local Services web
page.
Where
do I enter taxes?
It is possible to
customize the work order reports so that they calculate simple taxes and display
them on the report. However they are not a substitute for an accounting
system.
All reports can be customized using Crystal Reports 9 or higher.
Additional details can be found within the
AyaNova Manual reference
section.
If you do not have Crystal Reports, or Crystal Reports
experience, contact one of the developers on our
Local Services web
page, or your local computer center, or search the Internet for
Crystal Report developers.
Taxation issues are best
handled by accounting software written by people that understand the taxation
system in each region. See the
accounting
system integration question
for more details.
AyaNova is strictly a
service management application, not an accounting one. Since AyaNova is
not used for accounting purposes there is normally no need to enter taxes
anywhere in the program.
Because AyaNova maintenance and service call software is used
world - wide with hundreds of potential tax systems and rates in all the
countries AyaNova is sold to, we intentionally have left out any taxation
features.
How
do I generate an invoice?
Many AyaNova users use the Detailed Completed Workorder
report as an invoice itself.
Do note that AyaNova is strictly a
service management application, not an accounting one.
What is recommended is that completed work orders be printed and attached to an invoice to explain in detail the charges that would be on an
invoice. When an invoice is printed from your accounting program, its number can be entered on the work order
to serve
as a cross reference. This is helpful for both your organization’s accounting
staff and your customer’s accounting staff. The entry on the work order also
signifies that the work order has been billed to the customer.
Many
of our clients have told us that this feature alone more than repaid their
investment in AyaNova service call and maintenance software as it completely eliminated work orders forgetting to be
billed.
Can
AyaNova integrate with my accounting or point of sale software?
We have added support
for accounting software integration starting with
Quick Books as an
optional integration
and will be adding others based on their popularity
and requests by users of AyaNova maintenance and service call
software. The whole goal of our
integration features will be to avoid duplicate entry wherever possible.
Visual Automation Pty Ltd has developed AccLink Lite which enables you to link or import your accounting software Customers, Items/Products and Jobs to AyaNova Clients, Parts, and Projects from MYOB or Sage Line50
Refer to the Local Services web
page for developers that may be able to do this for you.
The developers listed on that web page may be able to provide AyaNova
integration with the listed accounting software based on the amount
of interest received. Please contact them stating your interest in
AyaNova integration, listing your accounting program and version,
and what features you are interested:
Note: it is
possible to interface now with any accounting or even non-accounting software
that supports some method of transferring data to other applications or to a
common file format.
AyaNova service call and maintenance software uses what is probably the most common file
database format in the world (JET 4.0) so getting data into and out of AyaNova
is so easy it's trivial for any database developer.
We are happy to provide any information to any developer
interested in developing for AyaNova, the database is completely open and easy
to work with. See the developers API
question
for details or see the developers info in the AyaNova
manual
reference section.
Refer also to the AyaNova
database schema documentation
If you would like to
explore that possibility see the
customization
question
on this page for links to the developers that can do that for you.