For data security purposes, Microsoft requires users to occasionally reset their Remote Desktop Services password. This help topic will show you when you need to reset your password and how to do it.
When your password expires
When your password expires, you will get an error message that reads “The logon attemptfailed” when attempting to log in.
To reset your password
Navigate to https://rds.aptora.com and attempt to log in with your current password
You will receive a message advising you that the password has expired. Click the indicated hyperlink to reset your password.
You will be redirected to a page where you will need to enter your expired password and enter your new password twice (password cannot be the same as a previous password, cannot contain your name, and must have eight characters including one uppercase letter; one lowercase letter; one special character; one number).
Once you have reset your password, the site will advise you that you have successfully reset your password.
Beginning in the 20.11.400 version, we have added an enhancement called Administrator Bypass Authorization. This functionality allows a specific user of Total Office Manager to enter their password to bypass the Administrator password entry. With this password entry, someone will now have the option to perform an Admin Override with a special password and not with the Admin password. This will come in handy when the person that holds the Administrator password is unavailable.
Form Access
From the main menu, click Company | User List/Security, edit the user you wish to give authority, click the Next button two times, check the box for Administrator Bypass Authorization, enter a password for this user, click Finish, and then supply the password to the authorized user.
Administrator Bypass Authorization Form
Note: Be sure to keep this password protected. Anyone with the password can bypass protected accounting functions.
Usage
The Administrator Bypass Authorization function is used to set up a person who can authorize credit hold removal, activate protected capabilities, override certain things, and similar actions. It should be provided only to those users who perform those tasks within Total Office Manager.
Caution
Please Note: We do not recommend supplying your office staff with the Administrator password. We do not recommend users login as the Administrator and work. We do not recommend allowing Delete permissions for users. It is important to protect the Administrator password by limiting access to only those that are essential to know it. It is important to protect the data and not allow users to delete unless it is absolutely necessary to their day to day functions. Delete is permanent and cannot be undone. Delete is commonly used in fraudulent activities. Deletes are a red flag for trouble in your company file. Void is safer as it retains the paper trail. Large amounts of deletes often indicate fraud or lack of training.
Customer locations provide the ability to assign and track work by varies addresses without creating multiple Customer:Job records. This location will be available for selection on work orders only. With the addition of the location tracking, the location will flow into the line items of invoices with the location association for the work order items used. Locations will contain no history as the history all belongs to the Customer:Job record.
Activation
Customer locations is a premium feature that must be purchased and activated from Help | Premium Features. This feature is a one-time fee of $499.00 and $69.00 – $109.00 annually for support renewal. If you are an Aptora Hosted customers, the feature is included in your month agreement pricing.
Once activated, you are ready to begin entering locations for your customers.
Location Setup
Locations may be setup from Customers | Lists | Locations or by right clicking on a Customer:Job and choosing the option to Add Location.
The location form includes the following information:
Customer – This field is a dropdown selection that will display the customer list for only customers that have are the master customer record. All locations must have a customer selection to save the record. On edit of an existing record, this field will be disabled.
Location Name – This is a text field to enter the name of the location. All locations must have a name entry to save the record. This field has a max character entry of 100 characters.
Description – This is a text field to enter the enter information about the location. This field has a max character entry of 255 characters.
Contact Name – This is a text field to enter the enter a contact for the location. This field has a max character entry of 100 characters.
Address – This is a text field to enter the enter an address for the location. This field has a max character entry of 50 characters.
Address 2 – This is a text field to enter the enter an address for the location. This field has a max character entry of 50 characters.
City – This is a text field to enter the enter a city for the location. This field has a max character entry of 50 characters.
State/Province – This is a text field to enter the enter a state/province for the location. This field will has a max character entry of 30 characters.
Zip/Postal – This is a text field to enter the enter zip/postal code for the location. This field has a max character entry of 20 characters.
Country – This is a text field to enter the enter a country for the location. This field has a max character entry of 30 characters.
Phone – This is a numeric field to enter the enter a phone number for the location. This field has a max character entry of 20 characters.
Alt Phone – This is a numeric field to enter the enter an alternate number for the location. This field has a max character entry of 20 characters.
Latitude – This field will be disabled and display the Latitude for the zip/postal code entered.
Longitude – This field will be disabled and display the Longitude for the zip/postal code entered.
Payroll Tax – This section allows for selection of the Customer:Job payroll tax to calculate when work is performed at this location.
Location Usage and Selection
Within a work order, you may select a location in the Track to Location drop down. When a location is selected on a work order, the address of the location will populate in the Work Address of the work order. You will also see the location name appended to the WO number in all work order selectors throughout the program.
With the Locations Premium Feature, invoices will now contain the WO column in the item grid. As you add work orders to invoices, the work order location will also append to the invoice/sale/estimate/credit. You may manually make this association as well. If assigning work orders within the Assign Work Orders form on the invoice/sale/credit/estimate, the items on the work order will append the WO -location based on your preference selection for items. Please Note: You may opt to show this column in the Form Preferences of the invoice/sale/credit/estimate.
Only the Custom Styles offer the ability to include the location address information. To see these details, please add the desired fields to the details section in the designer. At this time, locations are only available for selection in the desktop application. It will be extended to additional programs in the future.
Zone Pricing allows for up to twenty (20) zone price level pricing for items that may be applied during invoicing. This pricing will work similar to the Markup feature. When a zone is assigned on an invoice/sale/estimate/credit, the item retail price will be populated to the selected item zone pricing. This feature would overrule any markup applied.
Zone Pricing Activation
The zone pricing is a premium feature that must be purchased and activated from Help | Premium Features. This feature is a one time fee of $499.00 and $69.00 – $109.00 annually for support renewal. If you are an Aptora Hosted customers, the feature is included in your month agreement pricing.
Once activated, a new preference option will appear under Edit | Preferences | Items | Company Preferences. This preference will be called Enable Zone Pricing.
Invoice Item Setup
When the preference for Zone Pricing has been enabled, two tabs will appear under the Setup Bins and Reorder Points. One tab will include the Item Bins information. The second tab will include the Zone Pricing. This tab will only be visible when the Enable Zone Pricing feature has been activated and enabled. Zone Pricing may be added to any item type that is inventory part, serialized and with the special purchase box checked; other charge, service, and non-inventory part.
The Zone Pricing tab includes the following information:
Zone – This column is numbered one (1) through ten (10) as predefined zone numbers. An item may have no more than twenty (20) pricing zones.
Alias – This is a text field to enter the enter a unique alias for the zone pricing. This field will have a max character entry of 10 characters.
Description – This is a text field to enter the enter information about the zone. This field will have a max character entry of 100 characters.
Price – This is a numeric field to enter a value for the zone’s retail price for the item. This field will be formatted with up to 5 digits to the right of the decimal.
Labor Minutes = This is a numeric field to enter a value for the number of minutes allocated to this zone. This field allows for entry of 0 to 9999.
Please Note: It is advised to devise a uniform Zone Mapping your company will follow. While you may define the Abbreviations by item, you may not change the Zone order.
Customer:Job Form Zone Selection
A default Zone Pricing may be added to the Customer:Job List Additional Info Tab in the existing Markup Method field. When a zone is selected, the display in the field will be populated with the Zone Number.
Using the Customer Zone Pricing
When a customer has a zone pricing option selected and an item has zone pricing setup, the following will occur:
The Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate header field will populate with the customer’s Zone Pricing.
Each line item added will also have the Zone Pricing column will populate with the customer’s Zone Pricing.
The Price Each will populate with the item’s Zone Price.
When selecting an item on a work order for a customer with zone pricing selected, the line item Price Ea. will populate with the item’s Zone Pricing. The footer of the grid will also include a label indicating the Zone Pricing is applied.
PLEASE NOTE: The Aptora Mobile II application will also follow the Zone Pricing rules for pricing in a future update.
Aptora Mobile II is cutting edge field service management software developed to complement our award winning desktop accounting software package, Total Office Manager. Aptora Mobile II – User Configuration/Setup will provide mobile access to the information and features technicians, salespeople, and even owners need most. If you are using a tablet/phone and prefer the mobile app over the browser, you may purchase this from the Apple or Android play stores. There is a $4.99 (USD) cost to the app purchase to minimize downloads for non-Aptora clients.
Aptora Mobile II can be accessed from almost any web-enabled device with a standard web browser (such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox) including iPhone®, iPad™, Android™, BlackBerry®, Windows Phone® devices, and computers.
Total Office Manager – User Configuration
These steps must be completed prior to a user being able to log into Aptora Mobile II.
Ensure that the person is on the employee list. From the main menu, click Employees | Employee List.
If necessary, set up a new employee by right clicking within the list and select New Employee to complete a new employee record. Employee List
Ensure that the person is on the Active user list. From the main menu, click, Company | User list/Security. User List
Select a user by double-clicking. The first screen will appear with account information. Complete the Mobile User ID text field. This will be the username used to log into Aptora Mobile II.
Note: The password that is entered will be used to access both Total Office Manager and Aptora Mobile II if the user needs access to both programs.
Note: Mobile User IDs are unique to each user. If you have more than one employee with the same first name, you will need to differentiate between the two.
Example: Mike A. and Mike B. are both employees. Mike A. has a Mobile User ID of ‘Mike’. As a result, if Mike B. needs a Mobile User ID, ‘Mike’ cannot be used because that ID is already taken. Mobile User ID
Click Next and continue until the Finish button activates.
Click Finish to register the Mobile User ID.
Aptora Mobile II – User Configuration
Log into Mobile
When accessing your Aptora Mobile II site for the first time, the Administrator user account will be the only one whose Mobile User ID already has security set up to log into the application. Other users will need to be given permission to log in to the Aptora Mobile II site. This can be doing by logging into the mobile site as Administrator then following the steps below.
Aptora Mobile II Login Screen
Step-By-Step
Navigate to More | Security | User Permissions. Aptora Mobile II User Permissions
Select the user you wish to grant access to Mobile. Remember, users must be setup in Total Office Manager first. Be sure to complete the section above. Aptora Mobile II – User Configuration/Setup – User Permission – Adam Webster
Inside the grid list, you will see the permission “Login (required to use mobile)”. Check the box to the right and click save in the upper right corner. Aptora Mobile II – User Configuration/Setup – Login (required to use mobile)
The user that was just configured will now need to access the mobile application and attempt to log in.
Important Message – Aptora Mobile II – User Configuration
When logging in, users may receive a notice that says “Aptora Mobile II cannot connect to your office database because you already have the maximum number of connections allowed. Aptora Mobile II will only allow a certain number of connections (users logged in) to your company database. The number is determined by the number of licenses your company has invested in.
Example: 5 concurrent users = 5 separate licenses.
If this happens, please ask another user to log out or contact your Aptora Sales Representative to acquire more licenses.
Many of the lists appearing throughout Total Office Manager share common controls and are used in a similar manner. Most lists which display more than a handful of columns have a Quick Filter as well as a Smart Lists and Filter Center. The displayed contents of lists can generally be adjusted, sorted, and selected the same way. This topic will focus on the use of List Management – Smart Lists in Total Office Manager.
Smart List Components
A Smart List is a list of selected items chosen from the main list for easy access. You can create a Smart List for any purpose you can conceive.
For example, on the Customer:Job list you might create a list specifically for customers who have a history of handling payments badly or VIP’s. With lists such as these, you can quickly see who belongs to certain groups without going to each Customer:Job and viewing notes.
Another example, on the Purchase Order (PO) List, you might create a Smart List to group all Purchase Orders that are associated to a single Customer or Work Order. Since the PO List doesn’t include columns for “WO#” and “Customer:Job”, a Smart List is an easy way to organize items for easy viewing when the List doesn’t include a column for filtering.
These examples are not all inclusive. You can create a Smart List for any purpose you see fit.
Smart List Options
User Smart Lists – User Smart Lists are custom Smart Lists previously designed and setup by a user of the program. User Smart Lists appear only to the user who created it, thus not cluttering up other user’s Smart List area with inappropriate lists.
Global Smart Lists – Global Smart Lists are custom lists previously designed and setup by a user of the program. Global Smart Lists appear to everyone, regardless of who created the filter, thus allowing important filters to be “shared” and appear in other user’s Smart Lists areas. Smart Lists can be marked as “global” during creation or by editing any existing list.
Smart Lists Options: New – There are two ways to create a New Smart List. You can use the “New Smart List” button to create a list and add items to it later, or you can make your selections (by using Ctrl or Shift+Click) and dragging your selection(s) over to the Smart Lists area. This will prompt the system to create a new List for you to name.
Note: It is also possible to “drag & drop” selections when adding to an existing list so its important to understand which you are doing to avoid accidentally adding to existing lists when you intend to create a new one (See below for further detail).
Smart Lists Options: Edit – Allows you to edit the name of your currently selected Smart List as well as toggle its “Global” status.
Smart Lists Options: Delete –Allows you to delete the currently selected Smart List.
Usage
To enable a Smart List, click the name of the list from the Smart Lists area of the list you are viewing. The currently selected Smart List will appear in bold.
To disable a Smart List, click on any other filter option available, such as the default filters (e.g. Show All).
Creating New Smart List
Smart Lists Options: New
There are several ways to create Smart Lists. You may click on New Smart List under Smart Lists Options. The New Smart List screen will pop-up. Type in a name for your New Smart List. Decide if it should be a Global Smart List or a User Smart List. Hit OK to save.
New Smart List
Once this Smart List is created, you will then need to make your selections to add to the list. You can press Ctrl+Click (to select items one by one) or Shift+Click (to select a range of items) to make your selections. Once your selection is made you can drag your selections from the list to the Smart List area and drop above the Smart List you would like your selection added.
Add to Smart List Line
Right-Click Menu
Another way to create a New Smart List is to first make your selection of the items you would like in the list. Right-Click into the List area (for example, Customer: Job List). A menu will pop-up. Choose Add to New Smart List.
Add to New Smart List – Right-Click
Drag to User or Global Smart List Area
You can press Ctrl+Click (to select items one by one) or Shift+Click (to select a range of items) to make your selections. Once your selection is made you can drag your selections from the list to the Smart List area and drop below the Smart List you would like your selection added. When you create a new list, a line will appear at the bottom of all available lists, indicating a new one is going to be created. After dragging over, the New Smart List screen will appear to add a ‘Name’.
Drag to Create New Smart List
Adding To Exiting Smart Lists
You can add to existing Smart Lists in any of the following three (3) ways:
Drag And Drop
Select one or more items on your list and drag and drop them above to the Smart List you would like to add them to on the Filter Center.
If you want to add to an existing list, put your mouse cursor next to it. A line will appear above the name of the name of the list. The list the line appears above is the list that your selections is will be added to.
Add to Smart List Line
Right-Click Menu
Select one or more items on your list and right-click. A menu will appear and will include an option to “Add To Existing Smart Lists”.
Add to Existing Smart List
Select an Existing Smart List
List Menu
Each list contains a list menu at the top left of the list. Click on the List Heading in the top left corner and choose “Add to Existing Smart List(s)”.
When you use the “Add to Existing Smart List(s)” option, a new Window will appear, allowing you to select one ore more Smart Lists to add your selections to. Click the check box next to any the Smart List(s) you want to add to and click [OK].
Add to Existing Smart List – Menu
Remove From Smart List
To remove items from Smart Lists, activate the Smart List and select all items you want to remove. Right-click (or use the list menu) and choose “Remove From Smart List”.
Be careful not to use the “Delete” option. Delete actually deletes the item entirely and it cannot be recovered. If want to remove it from the Smart List, use the “Remove From Smart List” option. Aptora cannot recover deleted items. You will need to re-enter anything that has been deleted.
Remove From Smart List
Tips
Smart Lists can be used in conjunction with the Quick Filter.
Smart Lists are not Filters. These lists are not based on search criteria needed for filters.
Smart Lists do not work in conjunction with User/Global Filters.
All users are able to add items to and remove items from Global Smart Lists. However, only the creator is allowed to Edit or Delete the list itself.
Many of the various lists appearing throughout Total Office Manager share common controls and are used in a similar manner. Most lists which display more than a handful of columns have a Quick Filter as well as a Filter Center. The displayed contents of lists can generally be adjusted, sorted, and selected the same way.
This topic covers the use of the Quick Filter as a part of list management in Total Office Manager.
Quick Filter Usage
The Quick Filter is used to filter records displayed in a list, without having to create a custom filter (like a User Filter).
To use the Quick Filter:
Choose the column on which to filter from the drop-down box, then
Enter the criteria by which to filter. As each alpha-numeric character is entered, the list is pared-down, becoming more and more specific, automatically filtering records based on the Quick Filter setting.
Understanding the Available Conditions Found in the Quick Filter
The Quick Filter can be configured in system preferences to use either of two conditions: “Like” or “Starts With”. See the related topic, “Preferences – Quick Filter” for more information on system preferences.
The “Like” Condition
The “Like” condition is both powerful and forgiving. It is similar to the condition “Equal” but not picky about what appears before or after the criteria.
For example, let’s say the quick filter is being used to find a customer named David. Here are examples comparing the condition “Equal” and “Like”.
If the Quick Filter used the condition “Equal”, then filtering for the letters “dav” would only produce records matching EXACTLY “dav”. It is likely that this setup would produce no results unless a customer actually had the name Dav.
However, the Quick Filter uses the condition “Like”, so filtering for the letters “dav” would produce all records containing the string of letters “dav” regardless of what precedes or follows it. Results like “Dave” and “David” and “Davidson” would all appear in the list, because they all contain the string of letters “dav”.
Most users discover in short order that they like the “Like” condition built in to the Quick Filter.
The “Starts With” Condition
The “Starts With” condition works exactly as its title suggests, by filtering for entries which start with whatever characters are entered in the Quick Filter.
Other Conditions
When the Quick Filter is set to focus on some fields, two condition fields will appear instead of a single field. For example, when the focus is set on the “Balance” column, two condition fields will appear to the right of Balance instead of one. This allows the filtering of a range of data rather than a single data point.
When the focus of the Quick Filter is set to a field which allows filtering of a data range, the range will either be by date or by amount, depending on the focus. The default condition for both kind of range filtering can either be “Equals” or “Greater/Less Than or Equals”. Adjust these default in Quick Filter system preferences (see related topics, below).
Many of the lists appearing throughout Total Office Manager share common controls and are used in a similar manner. Most lists which display more than a handful of columns have a Quick Filter as well as a Filter Center. The displayed contents of lists can generally be adjusted, sorted, and selected the same way. Filters provide a way to create working lists for things needing attention. As long as all the criteria is met, the records appear in the filter. Once you learn to create filters to handle most of your daily tasks, managing your workflow processes will become easier. This topic will focus on the use of List Management – Filter Center in Total Office Manager.
Filter Center Components
The Filter Center is used to access built-in filters and to manage custom filters. Filters allow you to sort information quickly and efficiently based on the criteria you deem pertinent. The lists created when using filters will fluctuate based on the most current information available. The Filter Center in most lists is comprised of the following five components:
Filter Center
Default Filters – Default Filters provide easy access to commonly-used filters. Default Filters vary from list to list depending on the type of list and it’s contents. Default Filters are hard-coded in the program and are not editable by the user.
User Filters – User Filters are custom filters previously designed and setup by a user of the program. User Filters appear only to the user who created the filter, thus not cluttering up other user’s filter centers with inappropriate filters.
Global Filters – Global Filters are custom filters previously designed and setup by a user of the program. Global Filters appear to everyone, regardless of who created the filter, thus allowing important filters to be “shared” and appear in other user’s filter centers.
Recently Viewed – The Recently Viewed component, displays the last ten records accessed by the logged in user. Simply click on a listing to open that record.
Filter Options – The Filter Options component is used to create and manage both User Filters and Global Filters. See the section, “Creating Editing, and Deleting Custom Filters” below for more information.
Creating, Editing, and Deleting Custom Filters
The Filter Options component of the List Management – Filter Center is used to create new filters, edit existing filters, and delete old filters.
Creating a New Custom Filter
New Filter
Go to the Filter Options component of the Filter Center and click “New Filter“. The “New Filter” window will appear.
Enter a filter name in the “Name” field.
Make a selection from the “Field” drop-down box. For instance, if you wanted to filter on those who live in Kansas City, you would choose “City” from the drop-down box. Not every field in the list is available in the Field column. Note that the “Criteria” column appears only after making a selection from the “Field” drop-down box.
Choose a condition on which to filter, from the “Condition” column.
Enter the data on which to match in the “Criteria” column.
Set the “Match” field to either “All” or “Any” as applicable.
The “All” setting means the results must match all filter conditions.
The “Any” setting means the results only have to match any single filter condition. In the example above, only being a residential customer is enough to appear as a result, because ANY single condition has been met. Likewise, only being on credit hold is enough to appear as a result, because ANY single condition has been met here as well.
Tick the “Global” checkbox as applicable. When the Global checkbox is ticked, the new filter will appear in the Global Filters area of the Filter Center, for all users to share. When the Global checkbox is left un-ticked, the new filter will appear in the User Filters area of the Filter Center, where only the user who created the filter will have access.
Click OK to save the filter.
Editing an Existing Filter
Edit Filter
To Edit an existing filter, first click the actual filter name from either the User Filters or the Global Filters area of the Filter Center. The filter name will turn bold.
In the Filter Options area of the Filter Center, click “Edit Filter“. The “Edit Filter” window will appear.
Make any desired changes to the filter properties, then click OK to save the changes.
Deleting an Existing Filter
Delete Filter
To delete an existing filter, first click the actual filter name from either the User Filters or the Global Filters area of the Filter Center. The filter name will turn bold.
Right-click on the selected filter and click “Delete Filter“.
Or, in the Filter Options area of the Filter Center, click “Delete Filter“. The filter will be immediately deleted from the Filter Center.
Note: Only the creator of the filter or the administrator can delete a filter.
Tips
The width of any Filter Center can be adjusted to suit the user’s preference by using the same techniques with the Information Center. To adjust the width, simply place your mouse pointer on the right edge of the Filter Center. When your pointer changes to “split arrows” pointing in opposite directions, click to drag and drop the Filter Center’s right edge where desired. Just like the Information Center, expand/collapse buttons control display details for each component of the Filter Center.
Filters are not the same as Smart Lists. Read about Smart Lists here.
The Preferences – Items window is where users configure certain invoice item related default values and functions. Within the preference, there is a ‘My Preference’ as well as a ‘Company Preferences’ options to configure within Total Office Manager.
Form Access
From the main menu, click Edit | Preferences, or
Preferences File Path
From the toolbar, click the Preferences button.
Preferences Toolbar
Field & Button Definitions
My Preferences
Preferences – Items – My Preferences
Default Item Type – Assign an item type that preloads when creating a new item type within Total Office Manager.
Company Preferences
Preferences – Items – Company Preferences
Asset Account – Used to select the default asset account to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
COGS/Expense Account – Used to select the default cost of goods sold (COGS) or expense account to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
Income Account – Used to select the default income account to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
Adjustment Account – Used to select the default adjustment account to propose when entering inventory adjustments.
Markup/Down Method – Used to select the markup method to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
Tax Code – Used to select the default tax code to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
Preferred Vendor – Used to select the default vendor to propose when setting up certain invoice items (like inventory items, for example).
Use Item Alias Feature – When ticked, enables the “Item Alias” functionality in the program.
Use Vendor Specific Pricing Feature – Allows users to create additional item numbers to represent to same original item. Many item # can mean the same thing.
Use Inventory by Employee Feature – Check this box to associate a warehouse with an Employee and view inventory by that Employee from the Dispatch board and other places.
Warehouse Assignment by User – Check this box to associate a warehouse with an Employee and view inventory by that Employee from the Dispatch board and other places.
Use Item Assembly Feature –
Use Item Reservation Feature – Used to reserve Inventory for Customer:Jobs.
Use Labor Minutes – Used to calculate needed Labor on items on an Invoice.
Enable Unit of Measure – Allows you to purchase a container and sell by the unit.
Ex: Buy a roll of wire and sell it by the foot.
Include Inactives in Item Lookup – When ticked, inactive items are included in the selection to choose from in the item lookup.
Enable Zone Pricing – When ticked, the Zone Pricing advanced feature is enabled.
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