USING THE EMAIL AND FAX MEDIUM FOR SUPPORT

Some of our customers regularly use email or fax to correspond with our support department.  Some of you because this is the support plan selected.  Others use it as an option when the particular issue is not of the utmost urgency.  For some of you Email and Fax offer the convenience of making a submission to UDS Support while fresh in mind but when it may not be the best time to be engaged in a conversation.  For whatever reason this flexibility is nice to have, and UDS has invested a good deal of time and effort to be able to provide this kind of convenience.  Listed below are a couple tips that can be shared with our customers who use Email and Fax that will improve support when they use this media.  You might even find something about Active Accounting you did not know.  But before we get started our congratulations must go out to those of you that are already “helping us, help you” the most!

1) Providing your Active Accounting Version number on the first email could save an email back to you asking for it.  Purpose: to save you time.  Sometimes knowing the version number of Active Accounting you are using can provide us with the path to resolving a problem or answering a question.  In other cases it may not only help us focus our efforts in the right direction but actually provide the answer.  Our customers can apply the updates made available to them when they choose to do so, and making any assumptions on our part as to what version you are running when we receive your Email or Fax would be taking a chance.  You may find your Active Accounting version number by going up to the main menu and clicking on Help, then About Active Accounting in the drop down menu.  Some examples are shown below:

a. UDS Version 98.05.1017   Translates to: Still running version 5.1, should really consider updating to version 6.1 UDS.  It isn’t possible to make program changes to an older version of Active Accounting.  If you still use version 5.1 the answer to a question may be, “no you can’t, but if using 6.1 yes you can, and here’s how to do it.”

b. UDS Version 98.06.1000   Translates to: Running the first release of Version 6.1, and you need to update to the most recent point release to take advantage of the enhancements made since then.

c. UDS Version 98.06.1031   Translates to: Running the latest release of Version 6.1, and you are doing a terrific job of staying up to date!

d. UDS Version 98.06.5010   Translates to: Running the latest release of Version 6.5, the ‘Premium’ version of Active Accounting; good deal!

2) Starting out. When submitting a problem it is our suggestion to first make an effort to state in just one sentence or two what the problem is, before continuing on with a more detailed description.  We have found that the problem description can get lost amongst all the detail in an Email or Fax.  A clear statement right at the start like,  “ I can’t save a new Order Acknowledgment” or “The Customer Balance Report says Error in Balance” will provide something that all the following detail can relate back to.  This also helps avoid some doubt about exactly what program function our customer is using.  There is often more than one method of accomplishing something using Active Applications and a statement like “I’m having a problem with Invoicing…” is fine when followed closely with: “…when using Invoice Orders”.

3) Describing the problem.  Our intention is not to overwork our customers.  However, I think everyone will agree that the more “informed” UDS Support is regarding the problem, clearly the faster the ‘turn around’ on the Email or Fax will be.  If you would like feed back as to whether the method you are using is correct or if you suspect the program is not performing logically, then help us by listing each step.  If UDS can test an application exactly as you have used it and repeat the error, we are a lot further along in finding a solution for you or even fixing a problem.  Errors that are not repeatable make it difficult and sometimes impossible to verify or find the origin of the problem and create a “fix”.  UDS greatly appreciates our customer’s efforts in this endeavor.

4) Error messages.  UDS Support will be ahead of the game if we have the complete error message that might be appearing on your screen.  The error number (if one exists) and the accompanying error text are both important.  Some Error messages continue on at great length with “details”.  Don’t worry about reporting those lengthy details.  A large part of the applications you use involve reporting.  Many of our customers have taken the extra time and effort to send us reports that are either the focus of the ‘error message’ itself or may offer additional help in solving the problem or when simply providing some guidance to the UDS customer.  Sometime notes are entered in the margin or items circled adding to the clarification of the issue.  UDS wants to say ‘thanks again’ for doing so, and not to hesitate sending us 1, 2 or 3 pages at a time if you think it will help.  We really appreciate your past efforts in providing UDS Support with those.

In Conclusion: We hope you will take some time to consider the above tips because it will help UDS Support do the best job we can.  It is really all about serving you better.