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WHAT’S NEW IN ACOWIN 5.00?

Following are the key features that have been enhanced, added to, or made available with ACOWIN version 5.00.

Getting Started – A new utility has been added to the main screen that says “Need help getting started?” Clicking this will automatically open up a “Getting Started Tutorials” web page that has the minimum tutorials that a new user should watch to understand how to navigate through ACOWIN and perform basic functions, such as how to use the Tool Bars, Search for Records, Adding Customers, Taking Service Calls, Dispatch Board Basics and more. There is also a link to take you to the full list of all the Tutorials available for the various ACOWIN modules. This is a great tool for helping new companies getting started or new employees to learn the basics of ACOWIN.

Contracts Module (Service Agreements)

  • Deferred Income – A new streamlined Deferred Income feature has been added to ACOWIN in version 5.0. Simply mark a service agreement as “Deferred Income” and the system will automatically direct invoices to your Deferred Income Liability Account. When computer generated inspection slips are posted, the system will automatically relieve the Liability account (Debit it) and recognize the income (Credit it). The amount to recognize will automatically be calculated, but can be overridden if necessary and the system will automatically break out how much should be recognized as Labor vs. Material income based on your setup.

  • Automatic Credit Card Processing – ACOWIN now gives you the ability to automatically process credit cards for Contract Invoices and creates the “Payment Received” when the credit card is approved. If you are using QuickBooks, the “Payment Received” will automatically be created in QuickBooks for you when the invoice is posted. The credit card numbers will be securely stored by an approved credit card processor and only an alias number will be stored in ACOWIN making it PCI compliant. Processing can be done for both Credit Card and ACH payments, where the balance comes directly from the customer’s bank account. Please note you must be using an approved credit card processing company to use this feature.
  • Contract Invoice Credit – An easier Contract Invoice Credit feature has been introduced making it faster and easier to credit a Contract Invoice. Simply click the Credit Invoice button in the contract file, select the invoice number from the drop down list, enter the date of the credit and click the Post Button. This will automatically credit the invoice, which will allow you to create a new invoice for a different amount, change the billing cycle, etc.

Happy Calls – “Happy Call” tracking was introduced in ACOWIN version 4.92 and was a huge hit. ACOWIN 5.0 takes “Happy Calls” a step further and allows you to E-Mail or Print the “Happy Call Survey” for customer’s that do not want to make physical phone calls or are having a hard time reaching the customer by phone during normal business hours. If a “Happy Call” is e-mailed to the customer, they can click on a link in the e-mail that will allow them to electronically fill out the survey. When they submit the “Happy Call”, it will automatically update your ACOWIN system with their response. Responses to printed surveys that are returned can be entered in the customer’s file.

Automatic Purchase Order Creation – If you have a list of material to be used on a Call Slip and you need to issue a Purchase Order for some or all of the items, you can click the “PO From Call Slip” button on the Call Slip Material Screen and select a vendor and for which items from the list you want to generate a Purchase Order. You can select all of the items, some of the items or a combination of taking some from inventory and issuing a PO for the remainder. This is a great feature for those that are using the Quick Quote system. Now, instead of having to delete the items you don’t want to take from inventory and manually adding them to a Purchase Order, the system handles it automatically for you with a click of the mouse.

Dispatch Board

  • Technician Late Indicators – ACOWIN version 4.9 introduced a Technician Late indicator at the top of the Dispatch Board. The indicator alerted users that a technician was either within 15 minutes of being late, or late for a service call, by displaying a rotating red diamond at the top of the dispatch board. The rotating diamond has now been enhanced to show Yellow and/or Red triangles indicating if a technician is close to being late for a call, actually late for a call or both. The top of the technician’s column still shows a yellow or red light respectively.


Yellow diamond indicates there is at least one call within 15 minutes of being late.


Yellow and Red Diamond indicates that there is at least one tech wtihin 15 minuts late and at least 1 tech late for call.


Red Diamond indicates at least one technician is later for a scheduled call.

  • Sorting a Technician’s Column – A new sorting feature has been added to the dispatch board. As in the past, if you click the “Digital Clock” icon at the top of a technician’s column, the open calls would automatically sort based on the Scheduled time. Now, if you “Right Click” the digital clock, you will have the option to sort by Time, Zip Code or Zone, making it easier to schedule calls in the same area.

Future Work – A new “Future Work” file has been added to the system for tracking recommended work that has not been completed. If the technician is using ACOTRUCK and the customer declines a recommended Flat Rate repair, the declined repair will automatically create a “Future Work” record when the call is uploaded back to the office. If you are not using ACOTRUCK, then the recommended work on the hand written invoice that the technician turns in can be used to manualy create a Future Work record. The next time a customer places a Service Call, the “Future Work” button will display the words in Red, indicating that there is Future Work associated with the customer’s site. The dispatcher can view the Future Work at that time and elect to include it in the Problem Text automatically if desired. A Future Work report has also been added under the Customer/Site reports menu.

Black text on the button indicates no Future Work is present.

Red text on the button indicates Future Work records exist.

Dashboard Enhancements

  • Dashboard – The Dashboard now gives you the ability to select a specific Month and Year for which you want to view the Dashboard. In previous versions, it always showed the information for and through the current month. You can now select the particular month you want to view the information through.
  • Automatic Credit Card and ACH Information – Automatic Credit Card and ACH information has been added to the Dashboard. This includes such information as how many credit cards are expiring this month, next month and how many cards associated with active service agreements have already expired. The ACH sections show how many ACH payments have been submitted and the value, how many have been declined and the value, and how many have been accepted and the value, but still need to be posted. This information is very valuable since ACH payments are not processed and approved instantly like Credit Cards.

Call Slip Word Merge – The Word Merge option has been added to the Call Slips file. This will allow you to make your own custom forms with information from the call slip file, such as material and labor details, sell prices, tax, totals and customer and site name and address information.

Project Management (Job Cost)

  • Job Cost Tech Time Entry Screen – A new Technician Time Entry screen has been added allowing the ability to enter times for mulitple jobs, phases and dates on one easy to use screen. This screen is designed to work like a time card, where all of the technician’s time associated with Job Cost call slips can be entered at one time, typically from a hand written time card turned in by installers. When the Tech Time Entry screen is saved, the sytem will automatically create the dispatch cards on the dispatch board for the appropriate dates and apply the hours and costs against the jobs.

  • Job Cost Direct Charges – A new screen has been added to the Job File that allows you to directy add costs to the Job without creating a Purchase Order, using a Call Slip or entering Dispatch Times. Direct charges can be applied to 3 different categories, Labor, Material or Miscellaneous Costs, to either the Base Contract or any Extra for the Job.
  • Job Cost Miscellaneous Charges – The ability to add Miscellaneous charges has been added to “Contract” type Job Cost jobs. Prior to this release, Misc. Charges could only be added to “Distribution and T/M” type jobs. You can now add as many “Misc. Charges” as you want to a job invoice and affect different G/L account numbers based on the Misc. Charge entered.

ACOTRUCK Mobile Work Order (Add On Module)

  • Instant “NO Charge Labor and/or Material” – This version now allows you to instantly make all Labor and/or Material on a Call Slip in ACOTRUCK “No Charge”. If using the iPad version, simply tap the word Labor or Material above the respective sections on the Work Order screen and you will be prompted if you want to “Make all Labor (or Material) No Charge”. Tapping the heading again will prompt if you want to “Remove the No Charge for Labor (or Material)”. If using the Windows Tablet PC version, click the No Charge button and select Labor and/or Material from the popup window. Prior to this release, you would have to go into each individual line item and make them No Charge. This feature allows you to make all of a section No Charge instantly.

ACOTRUCK Attachments – an exciting new feature has been added to ACOTRUCK which allows you to view documents and images attached to the call slips in the History as well as the ability to add pictures to the Equipment File and/or view previously attached images to various pieces of Equipment.

  • History Attachments – If there are any attachments associated with any of the Call Slips that appear in the History, you will be able to click the attachment button and view a list of the various attachments. A simple tap of the item will allow you to download the attachment from the ACOWIN server and allow the technician to view it in the field. Imagine being able to see the actual invoice that the customer signed or a Flat Rate Approval where the customer declined a recommended repair, and be able to show it to the customer in the field.
  • Equipment Attachments – You can now attach photos and/or view previously attached photos to a piece of Equipment in the field. If you are using an iPad or iPhone, you can actually take a picture with the device and attach it automatically. If you are using a Windows Tablet PC, you can take a photo, save it to the hard drive and then attach it. When the call is synced back to the office, the picture(s) will be automatically attached to the equipment file for future viewing.
  • Adding a PO From ACOTRUCK – You now have the option of giving your technicians the ability to add a Purchase Order from ACOTRUCK. If you elect to allow a technician to add a PO from the field, they will be able to choose from a pre-defined list of vendors and simply choose the vendor they want from a drop down list. ACOTRUCK will then connect with the server at the office, create a Purchase Order and return the PO number to ACOTRUCK. The technician can then enter items against the PO number and enter their costs. When the call slip is synced back to the office, the items will be added to the PO and automatically posted against the service call. Of course allowing the technician to add a PO from the field is completely optional based on your company’s needs and desires.

ACOWIN OnCall & All New InterCall (Add On Modules)

  • ACOWIN OnCall is an add on module that was introduced in version 4.92 and it allows employees to look up customers after hours and view basic customer information, equipment on site, history and allows the ability to add a new service call directly over the Internet. This feature has been enhanced to allow the ability to add a new customer if they are not already in your ACOWIN system. The system will verify that the address entered does not actually exist in ACOWIN already, helping to minimize the possibility of adding the same customer multiple times. Once the new customer has been added, a call slip can be created that will automatically be marked for the technician to download to ACOTRUCK.
  • InterCall – InterCall allows your customers to create their own Call Slips over the Internet. These service requests are instantly relayed to your dispatch board and assigned to a pre-determined column. You can define what days of the week that customers can schedule their calls (eliminating customers from scheduling calls on Saturday and Sunday as well as dates listed in the Holiday Calendar for example), and determine what time you stop accepting calls for the current day. Customers will be able to choose if they prefer AM or PM and can also review their service history (as in what they saw on the printed invoice) online for each of their sites. You can even define an e-mail address so that when a service call is placed via InterCall someone from your organization can be instantly alerted via e-mail.

List of Service Calls previously performed. Clicking the blue button to the left on each line will display history for the selected call.

New Service Call Submission Screen

Verification screen after customer submits service call via InterCall

New Reports:

  • PO Balance Report – The Purchase Order Balance Report will give you a list of all purchase orders that fall within the search criteria and shows you the original Purchase Order value, the received value amount and if you are using QuickBooks, the Billed To Date (BTD) amount.
  • Credit Card Expiration Report – This report shows a list of customers that have a credit card on file and the expiration date of the Credit Card. This report should be run monthly based on selecting the expiration date for the current month and used to contact the customer to get their new expiration date. By default, this report will show only cards that are currently in use for automatically billing service agreements, but can be overridden.
  • Future Work Report – The Future Work Report prints a list of Future Work entries. Future work entries are generated automatically when a technician uploads a call slip from ACOTRUCK that had suggested flat rate repairs declined. Future work records can also be created manually.
  • Deferred Income Report – The Contract Deferred Income Report shows you a summary list of all the contracts that have been defined as deferred income and the remaining deferred dollar value. You have the option to only show contracts that have a remaining amount to recognize greater than zero, and/or only contracts that have expired.
  • Deferred Income Aging Report – The Deferred Income Aging Report will list all open contracts that have been defined as Deferred income and show the value of the contract, how much has been billed, how much revenue has been recognized and the balance. This report can be used to reconcile your deferred income.
  • Employee Leave Report – This report reads the Leave data from the Employee File to produce a record of the dates and times that an employee was recorded on leave. The total leave time is displayed by employee as well as grand totals for all employees on leave during the criteria selected.
  • Job Cost Profit Detail Report – This report provides a breakdown of labor, material, and miscellaneous costs for each Phase of the selected Jobs. The actual costs incurred to date are compared to the estimated costs in each category, and a percentage of completion is calculated. Subtotals are provided for each phase, as well as for the overall Job. This report breaks out the base contract and each Extra separately. This is a good report to audit how a job or phase within a job or extra arrived at the costs shown.