Manage equipment dropdowns and intervals
The dropdown fields on equipment items, such as type of product or location, and the list of maintenance intervals are managed in Equipment Management on the Admin tab, in the Management of drop down menus section. Add a dropdown with New dropdown, rename it with the pencil, remove it with the trash icon, and click a field’s value box to manage its values. The intervals are listed there as the field Maintenance interval: each interval has an English name, a Norwegian name and a number of days.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You need the Admin right on the Equipment row. The Admin tab in Equipment Management is shown only to users with that right. Your user administrator sets it.
- Global fields are shared with other modules. Only users with the Admin level on the Super area row of their rights can change a global field; ask your user administrator. Other users see “You must have Super user access rights to modify Global Fields.” at the top of the section.
Steps: add a dropdown
Section titled “Steps: add a dropdown”- Open Equipment Management and select the Admin tab.
- In Management of drop down menus, click New dropdown. A menu opens with two choices.
- To create a field that only Equipment uses, choose Create new drop-down, type the name and click Create.
- To add an existing global field to Equipment, choose Add from global drop-downs. A dialog with the same title lists the global fields that are not yet in Equipment. Click Add to module next to the field you want; you see “Global drop-down has been added”.
The new field is listed in the section and appears on every equipment item. In the equipment list it is available as a column (add it with Select columns if you don’t see it) and as a choice in the filter.
Steps: rename or remove a dropdown
Section titled “Steps: rename or remove a dropdown”- Rename: click the pencil (tooltip Edit) next to the field, change the name in the Edit Field dialog and click Update. A new name for a global field shows in every module that uses it.
- Remove a global field: click the trash icon (tooltip Remove) and confirm “Please confirm that you would like to remove this field from the module”. The field is taken out of Equipment only and stays available to other modules. You see “Drop-down removed successfully”.
- Delete a field of Equipment: click the trash icon (tooltip Delete) and confirm “Are you sure you want to delete this field?”. The field is deleted, and you see “Drop-down deleted successfully”. This cannot be undone, so before you delete a field, sort or filter the equipment list on it to see whether items have values in it.
The pencil and trash icon on a global field are available only to users with the Admin level on the Super area row.
Steps: manage the values in a dropdown
Section titled “Steps: manage the values in a dropdown”Click the field’s value box (“Type here to search”) to open its values. Use Add new to add a value. Each value has controls to edit, deactivate, activate, delete or merge it; they are listed one by one in The equipment Admin tab, under “Value list”. Adding a value, with or without translation, is described in Add a value to a global field, with or without translation.
- Delete a value: for a field of Equipment the confirmation reads “Are you sure you want to delete this value?”; for a global field it reads “Deleting the value will affect all modules in which it is in use. Are you sure you would like to continue?”
- Merge values: tick the merge checkbox (tooltip Merge) on the values you want to merge, then click Merge … to open the Merge fields dialog. Check the values under Fields to merge, choose the value that survives under Select a name, and optionally rename it with Use new name. The dialog warns: “Merging values will overwrite current value everywhere they are in use”.
A deactivated value is no longer offered on equipment items. An item that already has it keeps showing it, but the value cannot be chosen again.
Steps: add or change an interval
Section titled “Steps: add or change an interval”- On the Admin tab, click the value box of Maintenance interval. The list of intervals opens.
- To add an interval, click Add new and fill in English (the name English-speaking users see), Norwegian (the name Norwegian-speaking users see) and Days (the number of days between maintenances). Save is enabled only when all three are filled in and Days is not 0. You see “Interval created successfully”.
- To change an interval, click its pencil, change the names or the days, and click Update.
- To delete an interval, click its trash icon and answer the question “Are you sure you want to delete this value?”. If any equipment item uses the interval, it is not deleted and you see “Cannot delete record because it’s in use”. Choose another interval on those items first; to find them, filter the equipment list on Maintenance interval (see Find equipment and check when maintenance is due).
What you should see
Section titled “What you should see”New and changed intervals are offered at once in Maintenance interval on every equipment item, in each user’s language.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- Changing an interval’s days. Existing maintenance records keep their Due date; the new number of days is used for records created after the change. An equipment item that uses the interval but has no maintenance record yet gets a new next due date, Purchasing / Start date plus the new number of days, the next time it is saved or, for an active item, at the next morning’s check.
- Intervals cannot be merged or deactivated. To stop using an interval, move the items that use it to another interval and delete it.
- Which intervals you have. The intervals available depend on your company’s setup; they are listed under Maintenance interval on the Admin tab.
- Which fields are listed. The Management of drop down menus section lists every dropdown field assigned to Equipment, by name, in two columns: global fields that have been added to Equipment, with “(global)” after the name; fields that belong to Equipment only, without the suffix; and Maintenance interval, which holds the maintenance intervals. Each field has a value box (“Type here to search”) that opens its list of values. Fields that can be renamed or removed have a pencil and a trash icon.
- Grouped reminder e-mails (Send grouped email) are set in the Notification management section of the same tab; see Set up maintenance reminders.