The TBS Tool and Equipment Tracking program was designed to track tools and equipment that is owned by a company (or organization), and is issued to employees for various lengths of time. A history is kept of all transactions. Items can be sent out for Repairs, with info about the last employee who had used the item, so that you can identify employees who may need additional training on the proper use of items.
When you first start the program, you will see a menu similar to the following (only the top part of the screen is displayed below). All of the operational items in the TBS Home Inventory and Warranty Tracking occur in the Browse (Data Entry) function and Reports.
When you click on the Data Entry menu option, the following menu is displayed:
All of these menu options work on a 2 screen approach. The first screen (called a browse screen) is where you can find existing data, select to add records, or delete data. A typical browse screen:
A browse screen lists all of the records that exists in the database at that point in time. When you start, many of the data files will be empty (As is the example above). In many cases, there will be more than one tab at the top of the data display area. When there are multiple tabs, you can click on each tab and that will change the sort order of the data displayed. To add a new record, click on the Insert button towards the bottom of the display. To change an existing record, click on the Change button. To delete a record, highlight the record you want to delete, and click on the Delete button. When you are done, click on the Close button to return to the menu.
To find a specific record, you can start typing the first few letters of the key (depending on the tab you are currently on) and the highlighted record will change to reflect the first record that matches what you have typed. For example, assume you had clicked on the 3) Room Location tab above. And that one of the rooms was labeled: "Garage". As you type in GAR, the display will change to show the first record that has a key that matches that. If there is no match, the next record will be display and highlighted.
When you decide to Add, Change, or Delete a record, a screen similar to the following will be displayed (This is an example of the 2nd screen type - a data entry screen).
There are tabs across the top - in some cases, you will have to enter data into more than one tab before you can press the OK button to save the record. If you can not answer all of the fields right now, enter as much as you can, then come back and "Change" the record to fill in the missing fields.
You will
occasionally see this lookup button to the right of some fields (in the example
above, to the right of Manufacturer Id and any date field). When you press the button
next to the Manufacturer Id, a screen will pop up listing all the Manufacturers. Highlight
the one you want and press the "Select" button. The other field that you will
see this button next to is a date field - when you press it a calendar will
pop up allowing you to select the date.
The Data Entry Menu again:
| Multiple Item Check Out | Check out up to 10 items at a time to a single employee. |
| Multiple Items Check In | Check in up to 10 items at a time from a single employee |
| Check Tools Out | Allows you to search for an Item, then assign that item to a specific employee for a certain period of time. |
| Check Tools In | Allows you to receive tools back from being checked out. |
| Maintain Repairs | Allows you to review the repair transactions for the items you have. |
| Maintain History | Each time a item is checked out to an employee, a history record is created. This menu option allows you to review those transactions. |
| Maintain Tools | Allows you to set up and maintain the tools and equipment that will be assigned to employees. |
| Maintain Employees | Allows you to set up the employees that will be checking items out. |
| Maintain Vendors | Allows you to set up vendors that you buy items from or use to repair equipment. |
| Maintain Manufacturer | Allows you to set up the manufacturers of the items you have. |
| Maintain Company Info | Allows you to set up your company name and address information. |
The Reports Menu
The reports menu allows you to print various reports. All the reports are first displayed on the screen, where you can review them, and decide if you want to actually print out a hard copy report. You can zoom in on the report, scroll to another page (by clicking on the up or down arrows next to the Page No. field), or print the report by clicking on the printer icon. When you are done viewing the report, click on the windows close button in the upper right hand corner.
You will first need to set up Employees, Vendors, Manufacturers.
Next set up the tools and equipment you will be assigning to employees.
Now you can Check Tools Out to an Employee. You can also use this function to record an item as having been sent out for repair
When the employee returns the items, or it is received back from being repaired, use the Check Tools In menu option to record the item being returned.