Can i use the Service Module?

Question

Hello all,
can i use the service module w/ the ff. scenario?
items are manage by serial numbers., but we dont sell it, we purchase the item for internal use only. this are the ff. information that i want to track.
1.     track the history of the item everytime it has undergone for repair
a.     some cases the repair takes place within the company, meaning employees within the company take care on the labor but only parts will be purchase
b.     some cases the repair takes place in business partner, (PO Service in this case)
2.     track the parts that was replace
what will be my work around for this. please advice
best regards,
Fidel

Answer 1

Hi Fidel,
You would need the following is you wanted to use the Service Module to track internal serialized inventory/hardware:
1.  Set up a customer record that would represent the internal use/company/department
2.  Manually create the Customer Equipment Card (when receiving the equipment on GRPO or AP invoice, you would want to use a warehouse that represents internally-used equipment/assets)
Repairs:  you could update the status of the CEC record when it's being repaired (or have a repair WH for when it's sent off-site).
Expenses:  related expenses could be done by creating a Service Call linked to the CEC with details/purpose, etc. which would be tracked on the Expenses tab but the transactions don't include AP (PO's), the assumption being that any expenses would be charged back to the customer, which in this case would be internal.
If you want the expenses linked to the item/CEC then you could use Activities from Service Call and you can link the PO/AP invoice thru the Activity. You could have one S/C record that would be for tracking equipment repairs and leave it open for as long as you have the item - that would be the link between the Activities and the CEC/equipment record. Whenever repairs are to be record, you would only need to pull up the CEC record and drill-down to the S/C to create a new Activity record. This will also enable you to see how many repairs are being down - you could even breakdown the Activity on internal vs external (have it as a Type, on which you can then report on overall as well as by item).
It will depend on what info you want to capture and if you need anything for reporting that would be that detailed (i.e. down to a serialized item) as to what process & setup you want to use. Try out the above and hopefully something will work out.
HTH,
Heather