Using Hierarchy Functionality

Once a hierarchy has been set up, you can view:

• The existing hierarchy groups and containers are being used to organize your equipment records.
• The position of a selected equipment record in a hierarchy group and in relation to other equipment in that group.
• Financial information, service history, and scheduled maintenance history for an equipment record, both individually and combined with the other equipment in its group.

Viewing the hierarchy

Select Inquiry > Equipment > Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry. This read-only version of the Equipment Hierarchy Maintenance window allows you to view and search within the hierarchy. Unlike on the maintenance window, you cannot add containers, move nodes, or otherwise edit and maintain the hierarchy from the inquiry window. Like the maintenance window, however, you can view hierarchy groups and detailed equipment information. You decide how you want equipment to appear on the Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry window. You can also use the hierarchy or the search bar to locate a specific equipment record.

Customizing viewing options

When you make changes to the appearance of the Equipment Hierarchy windows, for example, resizing the window panes or changing the view, the window will apply those same specifications the next time it is opened. These preferences are saved per user, per company. 

In addition, your preferences for loading the window and viewing equipment in the hierarchy are saved for the next time you open the window.

• To show or hide any level of a hierarchy group, select the plus or minus sign next to the node (company, container, or equipment) that you wish to expand or contract. Right-clicking on a record and choosing Expand All expands all nodes on the left window pane.
• If you want to use lines to aid in displaying hierarchical relationships, open the Hierarchy User Preferences window by choosing Options > Preferences, and mark the Show Tree View Lines checkbox.
• If you have a lot of equipment records that take a long time to load when you first open the Equipment Hierarchy windows, you may want to change the number of equipment records that load at once. Select Options > Preferences and specify a List View Load value. This allows you to use the window without having to wait for every record to load.

Searching for equipment in the hierarchy

Using the Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry window to search for equipment is useful if you do not know the exact equipment ID you are looking for and you want to avoid scrolling through a long list of records in an equipment lookup window to find it.

If you know the group to which the equipment belongs, you can drill down on the appropriate containers and parent equipment until you locate the equipment record.

If you do not know where the equipment is in the hierarchy or do not want to sift through a long list of contracted nodes, you can also use the search bar.

Every field that appears on the information bar is searchable; you can search for all or part of a serial number, or you can enter the equipment model, for example, TRENCHER, and select Find Next (Ctrl - F) until you find the correct trencher on the list.

Once you find the equipment you are looking for, you can open the record by right-clicking on the equipment and choosing Equipment Manager.

Viewing equipment that belongs to a hierarchy

If you are looking at a specific equipment record, you can determine whether the equipment is part of a hierarchy group in two locations:

On the Equipment Manager window

1. Select Cards > Equipment > Equipment Manager, and select an Equipment ID.
   • The icon on the bottom of the window indicates the equipment's position in a hierarchy. To view a description of each equipment icon, see Setting up hierarchy groups.
   • The equipment is a component in a hierarchy group, you can zoom on the immediate parent of this equipment to view the parent's record in the Equipment Manager.
   • The hierarchy icon indicates if the equipment has components; you can zoom on the icon to view those components on the Equipment Component Inquiry window.
   • This abbreviated version of the Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry window displays only the selected equipment and any records that are underneath this equipment in its hierarchy group.
2. Mark the Show All checkbox if you want the entire group to appear on the list view on the right pane; otherwise, only direct components of the record that is selected on the left pane will display.
3. If the selected record has no components, only the selected equipment displays.

On the Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry window

Zoom on any Equipment ID field, and select Equipment Hierarchy.

The Equipment Hierarchy Inquiry window opens to the selected record, but the entire hierarchy, not just the group of the selected equipment, appears on this window.

Viewing information for a hierarchy group

The Hierarchy Financial, Service, and Scheduled Maintenance Inquiry windows are similar to the Equipment Hierarchy Maintenance and Inquiry windows; on the left pane, you can view the hierarchical organization of all equipment in the company and select a record to display details on the information bar.

On the right pane, you can view financial, service, or scheduled maintenance information for the selected equipment, but with one important distinction from viewing this information on the Equipment Manager; you can combine information for multiple equipment records in a group.

Marking the Combine Members checkbox on any of the three windows combines information for all components of the record that you select. If you select the company node or a container, the checkbox is automatically marked and disabled; because the company and container nodes are used for organizational and reporting purposes only, the only information that displays at those levels is that of the equipment underneath.

Viewing financial information for a hierarchy group

1. Select Inquiry > Service > Hierarchy Financial Inquiry. This window contains the same financial information as the Rental, Sales, and Total Financial tabs on the Equipment Manager.
2. Select the equipment record or container that you wish to view information for. To view group profitability, select the top-level equipment in the group. For company-level financial information, select the company node.
3. Mark the Combine Members checkbox to combine financial information for the selected equipment and all its components.

Viewing service history for a hierarchy group

1. Select Inquiry > Equipment > Hierarchy Service Inquiry. This window shows the same current and historical service calls as the Service and Service History tabs on the Equipment Manager. You can use the search bar to find an equipment record and see the service calls for that record.
2. Select the equipment or container that you wish to view service information for, and mark the appropriate checkboxes to display Open, Closed, and/or Complete service calls. To view all service calls for a group, select the top-level equipment in the group. You can also view all service calls for all equipment in the company by choosing the company node.
3. Mark the Combine Members checkbox if you wish to combine information for the selected equipment and all its components. The right pane displays the service calls that fit your criteria. You can double-click a line to view a call in the Service Call window.

Viewing scheduled maintenance for a hierarchy group

1. Select Inquiry > Equipment > Hierarchy Scheduled Maintenance Inquiry. This window contains the same information on current, future, and historical scheduled maintenance records as the Scheduled Maintenance and Scheduled Maintenance History tabs on the Equipment Manager. You can use the search bar to find an equipment record.
2. Select the equipment or container that you wish to view scheduled maintenance for, and mark the appropriate checkboxes to display Projected, Current, Inactive, and/or Historical records. To view all records for a hierarchy group, select the top-level equipment in the group. You can also view all scheduled maintenance records for all equipment in the company by choosing the company node.
3. Mark the Combine Members checkbox if you wish to combine information for the selected equipment and all its components. The right pane displays the scheduled maintenance records that fit your criteria. You can double-click a line to open a record in the Equipment Scheduled Maintenance window.

Inactivating equipment in a hierarchy

When you inactivate an equipment record that is part of a hierarchy group, the entire group is inactivated. Inactive equipment cannot be attached to active equipment, and vice versa; you can, however, attach and detach inactive equipment from other inactive equipment and sort inactive equipment into containers.

Example:

MIL0016 and MIL0017 are separate, inactive equipment records.

You receive an error message if you try to attach active MIL0020 to inactive MIL0016, or vice versa; however, you can attach inactive MIL0017 to inactive MIL0016. To add a component, the records must both be active or both be inactive.

When you reactivate an inactive equipment record that is part of a hierarchy group, the other group members are also activated. To keep a record inactive, you must first detach it from the group.