Helpful Hints > Service Items

The heart of the ASI Service Center system is the Service Item. Anything you or the customer owns can be tracked in the Service Item table, as long as it has an Item Code and a serial number. One of the best features of ASI Service Center is that this tracking can be automatic if you sell the items out of your inventory, but you can also add Service Items that you did not sell, or that were sold before you installed ASI Service Center.

Service Items are usually serialized parts that you carry in inventory and sell as finished goods to customers or dealers. If the item in inventory is set up for service tracking (see Service Item Setup), then as soon as you sell it on a Sales Order invoice, it will appear in the Service Item database. Along with the Item Number and Serial Number, the Service Item will also store information about your purchase and your sale. You also automatically maintain a service history. Every time you complete a Service Order for that item, ASI Service Center creates a permanent record of the work done. All of the information on a Service Item is visible from the Service Order Entry screens if the customer should call you with another problem.

There are several ways that Service Items can be added to the database. The most common is automatic. When you enter a serialized Item in your Inventory Management system, you can select the “Service” button on the Additional panel and check the box to track item. From that point on, any time you sell that inventory item, a Service Item is automatically created. In the Track Service dialog, you can also select a default Original Warranty Code to be used for the Service Item. If the customer belongs to a Group (see Group Codes), then the Group Information can determine the warranties that are used. There is a way to choose between multiple Warranty Codes in Sales Order or in Service Order if you wish (see Warranty Processing).

The second way is to manually add items in the Service Item Setup and Maintenance program on the ASI Service Center Setup menu (see Service Item Maintenance). You will need a valid Item Number, and will also need to know the serial number of the part. If there is no serial number, then you will need to make one up. Every Service Item must have a unique Item Number/Serial Number combination.

If a customer calls in with a problem on a piece of equipment, and you cannot find the serial number or item number in your Service Item database, you can add that Service Item “on-the-fly” from within Service Order Entry.

If you return a serialized item using a credit memo, the system will check to see if this item exists as a Service Item. If it does, then it is important that your records reflect that the item was returned. If there have been no repairs, or Service Orders, on the Service Item, then the Service Item is completely removed during the update of the credit memo. If there have been repairs, then the program will keep the Service Item and its history, but will change the end-user to the “company owned customer” (on the Service Order Options Main Tab ) and will reset the in-service flag.

If you later resell a Service Item that was returned, the program will find that the Service Item already exists in your permanent database. In this case, the assumption is that this is a used item, and the “Condition” flag is set to Used.