SimplyPats Version 5
Overview of Main Features

Updated with V5.2.6 Release Features

REV: 300708

Contents

• Supported PAT Testers
• The Main Screen
• Opening Files and Importing Data
• Importing Appliance Descriptions
• Sorting and Grouping Data
• Finding Duplicate Appliance ID’s
• Bulk Replace
• Bulk Replace Selection
• Printed Reports and File Export
• Custom Reports and Export Options
• Invoicing
• Maintain Test and Repair Prices
• Using Appliance Abbreviations, Test and Repair Codes
• Managing Retests
• Email Data
• Email Customer or Invoicee
• Setting up and Downloading from your PAT
• Manually Entering Appliances and Test Data
• Further Information

 Supported PAT Testers (correct as of May 2008)

• Metrel OmegaPat
• Metrel AlphaPat
• Metrel AlphaPat (New Zealand / Australian Firmware)
• Metrel BetaPat
• Metrel BetaPat (New Zealand / Australian Firmware)
• Seaward Supernova
• Seaward Supernova Plus
• Seaward Europa
• Seaward Europa Plus
• Seaward 2000i
• Fluke 6500
• Robin 5000/5500
• Megger PAT4 Dv3 and DV1
• KewTech KT75 and KT74
• Transmille 6080 and 6080 Plus
• Martindale MicroPat+

If your PAT Tester is not supported, please call SimplyPats Support on 0845 4300 789 (UK Local Rate)

The Main Screen

The main screen lists all of your test data in an easy to read column format.  The Appliance ID, Appliance Description, Site, Location, Test Date, Test Time, Retest Period, Retest Date, Test Number and Fail Marker are all clearly shown in the main left hand area of the program screen.



Viewing the actual test results for a particular appliance couldn’t be easier, simply click on any appliance in the left hand area to display the Test Results in the area to the right.  It’s worth noting that the Test Limits (if supported) are also shown here, together with each tests status; Pass, Fail or Skip.

Below the Test Results area you will see any Charge or Repair information (if used) together with the User, PAT Serial Number, Test Code and any Extra Notes you have made. Finally you will see the customer name and address.

Other features accessible from the Main Screen include;

• Sort columns of data by clicking on header bars
• Group data by dragging headers into grouping box
• Re-order columns by dragging them into the order you want
• Show or hide record selectors making selection of multiple records much easier
• Resize rows to display more or less data
• Colour odd and even rows to make reading across lines easier
• See full test results and repairs or charges on the highlighted test
• Print Selected Tests (left hand list only)
• Save Selected Tests into another file
• Validate Tests
• Spell Check
• Email data file (.PAT)
  

Opening Files and Importing Data

SimplyPats can open/import the following file types using File > Open File from the File Menu;

• SimplyPats Data Files (.pat)
• PatsLink (.opt)
• Seaward SSS (.sss)
• Robin Smart PAT (.rob)
• Transmille 6080 (.txt)
• Martindale MicroPAT (.txt)
• Fluke 6500 PAT Files (.flk)
• Kewtech 74 PAT Files (.txt)

You can also import one SimplyPats .pat file into an existing SimplyPats .pat file, i.e. merge two or more separate data files to create one data file.  Used with the Find Duplicate Appliance ID feature, this can be a good way of managing test data for each Site over a period of time.

Customer Quick Select

This feature brings up a list of all your customers stored in your SimplyPats\Data folder. The screen is designed to allow you to quickly open a SimplyPats data file without using the Open Dialogue to search through your files.

Of course you can sort the list in any order simply by clicking on the column title. By default the list is sorted in Customer Name ascending order.



Quick Move (CTRL + Letter)

Pressing in the Control Key followed by a letter key will move the highlight to the first customer name beginning with that letter.

For example in the above list CTRL + R would take the highlight to RSR Systems Ltd.

Open

Opens the currently highlighted customer in the list and displays the data in the main SimpyPats screen.

Find

Use this button to find a particular entry in the list.

Setting the Default Data Path

Before using SimplyPats it is recommended that you set the Default Data Path, this is the location where SimplyPats will store all Data Files and Exported Documents.

This can be set to a local PC or a Network PC if you wish to allow several users to access the data.
By default the Data Path is Set to C:\Program Files\SimplyPats 5\Data on the Local PC.

You can change the Default Data Path in the Settings > System Settings screen under the Program and Data Tab.

Importing Appliance Descriptions

"Import Appliance Descriptions", is available from the "Tools" menu, it is designed to recover descriptions from a previous data file, where the appliance id's match.

If you use unique Appliance Id's (for example unique bar code labels) you can save time testing in subsequent years or months, by not entering the appliance descriptions into your PAT machine of the appliances that you have previously tested.

Once you download your new test data, you can recover the appliance descriptions from last years SimplyPats file.

Of course if you test any new appliances you will need to give them a new label and enter their descriptions into the PAT test machine as normal.

For example this is the testing done in 2007



And now the testing done in 2008.



Notice the missing appliance descriptions, as we did not enter them in the PAT tester to save time, all except appliance AP044 which was a new Portable Radio which we tested and gave a new label.

Now we can Import Descriptions from the 2007 file.

From the "Tools" menu select "Import Appliance Descriptions" we can then choose last years file (2007) that we want to import the descriptions from.



You should see the progress bar running along the bottom of the screen as the appliance descriptions are imported. You will get a confirmation screen saying how many descriptions have been imported.



This feature should significantly speed up your testing in subsequent years.
Finding Duplicate Appliance ID’s
Clicking the Find Duplicates Icon on the Main Screen will bring up the Find Duplicates Window.



If you have imported one SimplyPats file into another, or have had to test the same appliance several times you may end up with several duplicate appliance id' in your file. This may also happen if you are testing on a client site where some appliance have a short retest period, e.g. hand tools on a building site, and you are trying to maintain a current complete asset register for your customer.



You can quickly see which duplicated appliances you have by using the "Find Duplicates" option from the "Records Menu" or by clicking on the Find Duplicates button from the main toolbar, this will bring up the screen shown above.

The find duplicates screen lists all the appliances with more than one test. On the left is the Newest Occurrence of that appliance and on the right is the next newest occurrence of that appliance.

If there are more than 2 occurrences of the appliance they are not shown, so after deleting one of your duplicates you may need to run this screen again, however SimplyPats will remind you to do this if it finds 3 or more occurrences of the same appliance.

Count Of Duplicated Appliance Id's

The Cnt column shows a count of how many occurrences of the Appliance Id have been found.

Failed Appliances

The Status column shows whether the appliance has passed or failed overall and is highlighted Red in the case of a fail. This is handy for example if you have tested an appliance twice because on the first attempt you did not get a satisfactory earth bond and had to retest it.

Differing Appliance Descriptions

If the Next Most recent Description column is highlighted in yellow then it shows this Description is different from the Newest Occurrence of the appliance, handy to spot if the appliance is really a completely different one and you have just accidentally used the wrong id.

Selecting Appliances To Delete

You can select which appliances to delete by simply clicking the tick box next to the appliance.



Selecting Ranges Of Duplicates

You can use the CTRL and SHIFT keys to select ranges of duplicates that you wish to add ticks to.



When you then use the Newest and Oldest buttons described below, only those records you have highlighted will be ticked.

Close

Closes the Find Duplicates screen.

Newest

Ticks all, or all the selected Newest Occurrences of the Appliance. If you have not selected a range of records then you will be prompted if you want to Tick all the newest occurrences of the appliances. If you have selected a range of duplicates then just those highlighted records will be ticked.

Oldest

Marks all, or all the selected Oldest Occurrences of the Appliance. If you have not selected a range of records (see Selecting Records) then you will be prompted if you want to Tick all the next newest occurrences of the appliances. If you have selected a range of duplicates then just those highlighted records will be ticked.

Clear

Clears all the ticks from the list so that you can re-start making your selection.

Delete

Clicking on the Delete button will delete all those appliances that you have assigned a tick.

Sorting and Grouping Data

Sorting

If you click on any of the headings, shown in the grey area accross the top of the screen, the records will be sorted in ascending or descending order on that columns data, click a second time to reverse the order. An indented arrow will appear on the column header showing which column is sorted and in which direction. For example below by Appliance Description ascending.



Column Widths

You can also resize your columns by dragging in between the column headings.


Reordering The Columns
You can also move the order of the columns by clicking on a column header and dragging it to the position you want it to be. The Red arrows show where it will be placed.


Grouping

If you drag a column header into the area titles "Drag a column header here to group by that column" then the test results are organised into groups of the same value.



For example, the image below shows the data grouped by retest period.



Simplypats will remember all the above column order and sort settings as well as the screen size so that they are setup the same the next time you use the Program.

Deleting A Range

You can delete multiple records (Appliances) by highlighting them and pressing delete, there are various ways of highlighting records.

Highlighting a Range

To select a range click on the first item, hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard and point and click on the last item you want. All the items will be highlighted.



Highlighting Non Continuous Items

Click on the first item you want highlighted. Press and hold the CTRL key on the keyboard and then click on any other records you want highlighted.



Bulk Replace

The Bulk Replace option allows you to replace various items of data without editing each individual record. For example, you can replace a retest period of 12 months with a period of 24 months.  This will however replace all instances of 12 months with 24 months in the current file.

You can replace selected records by using the Bulk Replace Selection feature (See Below)



In the example below every appliance description containing only the word COMPUTER will be replaced with the words COMPUTER MONITOR.



If you leave a replace field blank. For example completing the With User field with an entry but leaving the Replace User field blank, it will find every blank entry and replace it with what you have typed in.

Bulk Replace Selection

Pressing the Bulk Replace icon while having a range of appliances selected, gives you the option to replace certain data on the selected appliances only, without effecting the non-selected appliances.

This can be very powerful, when used with the Sort and Group features.

In the example below, we have grouped the tests by Location and selected all appliances in Location ROOM 1C



If we now click on Bulk Replace, we can easily replace all instances of ROOM 1C with ROOM 1, as shown below.



You can also use this feature to populate empty fields with information.  Say you have some appliances without any information in the location column (See image below), but want to add the Location ROOM 2.



Group all appliances by Location, now select all records without a Location and press the Bulk Replace Icon.  You can now enter ROOM 2 in the Location Field.



When you click Ok, all selected records will now show ROOM 2 in the Location field.



Printed Reports and File Export



SimplyPats comes with a selection of standard Reports which should cover most users requirements, these include;

• Appliance Register
• Appliance Register by Site
• Passes and Fails
• Passes
• Fails
• Current Appliance
• One Appliance Per Page
• Retests Grouped by Date
• Certificate of Testing

• MS Word
• MS Excel
• HTML
• Adobe PDF
• Text
• Tiff

The Report feature also contains filtering options, these include Site, Location From Retest Date, To Retest Date and Sort Order.

All Reports can include your Company Logo and Contact Details

Custom Reports and Export Options

Some users may have different requirements when is comes to Printed Reports, you may want a completely different layout, minor alterations made to one of the supplied standard Reports or test data exported in CSV format, containing information specific to your preferred format.

In this case, we may be able to offer a Custom Report solution.  Custom Reports are designed and developed to your exact requirements, however there is a cost involved, please contact us if you require further information.

Invoicing

SimplyPats can automatically generate an invoice using the Test and Repair Codes downloaded from the PAT Tester (If Supported).  These are explained in more detail below.

On the Invoice screen, you also have the option to add extra charges e.g. Travel to Site, Extra Charges are also user maintainable.  You can also choose from a number of User Definable Pricing Schemes for both Test and Repair Prices.

The invoice address may be different to the site where the testing was carried out, if this is the case, you have the option to add a separate invoice address.

You may want to charge a fixed price for the complete job or offer a discount, this can be done also.

Previewing your invoice gives you the option to print or export the invoice it in MS Word, MS Excel, HTML, Adobe PDF, Text or Tiff image formats.

Create Invoice Screen



Invoice Preview Screen



Maintain Test and Repair Prices

Test and Repair Codes are a powerful feature in SimplyPats, they are used to automatically generate an invoice.

The invoice is generated by reading the Charge and Repair Codes sent down by your PAT Tester, these Codes need to be entered into one of the notes fields on the PAT after performing each test.

Each Test and Repair Code has a price associated to it, these are user definable along with Price and Repair schemes.

Price and Repair Schemes are basically different pricing structures, this allows you to charge customers different rates if needed.

Maintenance screens allow you to add and manage your Pricing Schemes, you have the option to edit the Description and Price for each Code as well as add values for Fuse Rating or flex length for example.

You can print out a list of Test and Repair Prices for easy reference while testing in the field.

Maintain Test Prices Screen



Maintain Repair Prices Screen



Using Appliance Abbreviations, Test and Repair Codes

You should already have an idea of what Test and Repair Codes are, however we will try to give an example of how they are entered into the PAT, along with another very useful feature called Appliance Abbreviations.

 After you have tested an appliance, some PAT Testers give you the option to enter further information into what we call Comments Lines, some PAT Testers have four of these lines.

In the example below we have four lines available to us after the test;

Comments Line 1 - KE
Comments Line 2 - 12
Comments Line 3 - P/B5/C
Comments Line 4- INOPERATIVE – DISCARD

Comments Line 1 is for the Appliance Description, you could of course type the long description of the appliance in here, however we have just typed KE.

Comments Line 2 is the Retest Period in months.
Comments Line 3 is for the Test and Repair Codes
And Comments Line 4 is for Fail Reason

If we downloaded this test to SimplyPats, it would look like this;



On the File Menu in SimplyPats click Tools and Choose Replace Abbreviations.



You will now see that SimplyPats has replaced KE with KETTLE.



It knows that KE is KETTLE, because it takes the information from Maintain Abbreviations (on the File Menu Click Maintenance and Choose Maintain Abbreviations).



You can edit the default Abbreviations or add Abbreviations of your own, you can also print a list of all Abbreviations currently used and use this as a reference while in the field testing.

As you can see, SimplyPats also added the information from Comments Lines 2, 3 and 4 into the relevant fields on the main screen

As we discussed earlier, the Test and Repair Codes are used to automatically generate an invoice, however we will explain exactly what the ones in the example mean.

We entered P/B5/C into Comments Line 3 on our PAT.  We wanted to set the price charged for carrying out this test as a Portable Appliance, so we first entered P, as you can see P in Maintain Test Prices is Portable Appliance and is charges at £1.50



Next, we Supplied and Fitted a Correctly Rated Fuse, in this case it was a 5 amp fuse, so we entered B5.  As you can see B in the Maintain Repair Prices is Supply and Fit Correctly Rated Fuses, while 5 is the fuse rating.  This is charged at 45p.

We then rewired the existing plug, so we entered C.  C in the Maintain Repair Prices is Rewire Existing Plug and is charged at £1.05.



We separate all entries using / so the whole entry looks like P/B5/C.

If we create an invoice using this example, it would look like this;



Managing Retests

SimplyPats has a few features allowing for easy management of your Retests.

Review Customers

The Review Customers screen shows all unique Retest Periods and Dates in each Customer File, or just the first Retest Date. This option also applies when a date range is selected to show all the Retest Dates due within a given period. The Retest Period is also displayed in the list.



Retests Calendar
The Retests Calendar displays All the Unique Retest Dates from All the files in your Data folder. The date marked in yellow is today’s date, or the date you have selected. The Dates highlighted in Green are the Retest Dates.

In year view it is possible to get a feeling for the distribution of days but not exactly what each customer is. You can use the year control at the top of the calendar to change the year displayed.

In addition to the print function which prints the current view of the calendar, you can also print a list of the retest dates by using the Review Customers Screen

Displaying Contact Information

If you double click any date on which there are retests (those highlighted in green) then the Retests Information screen is displayed showing the contact information for all of the customers whose retests fall on that particular day. The Company Name, Contact Name, Phone number and Email address is displayed. See Retests Information below for further information.

Yearly View



Monthly View

Changing the View to Monthly displays the month you have selected (shown by the yellow highlight box). In this view you can see a whole month, as the number of entries shown is smaller, the amount of information including the Customer Address, Retest Period and the count of appliances of that period is shown.

You can of course use the month control at the top of the calendar to change the month displayed.



Weekly View

Changing the View to weekly, displays the week you have selected (shown by the yellow highlight box). In this view, you can see a whole month, but only a week at a time. You can use the scroll bar at the base of the screen to display the next or previous days in the month.



The Print function will print out a “Screen Grab” of the current calendar view.

Retests Information

After double clicking a date on the calendar that has retests, the Retests Information screen is displayed.



Listed are all the jobs on that day with contact information, phone number, email address, retest period, total number of tests in file and file name.



If you wish to automatically email a customer, click on the customer listed and then click on the Email button, of course you must have entered the customers email address in the SimplyPats Data file of that customer.

You can also automatically create a word document or open the SimplyPats data file. Note that in the last case the calendar screens will be closed and SimplyPats will load the data into the Main Screen.

If more than 3 customers are tested on a particular day, use the scroll bar at the bottom of the list to display the next 3 customers.

Email Customer

Automatically creates an email for the customer you have selected from the list and allows you to edit the email before sending it.

Create Word Document

Automatically creates as word document for the customer you have selected from the list and allows you to edit the document. You can also insert a preformatted Word document, if this is the case, you will have the option of opening a previously saved Word Document saved on your computer.

Open

Automatically opens the SimplyPats data file for the customer you have selected from the list.

Retest Dates Report

You also have the option to Print or Export a Report showing Retests Grouped By Date. This allows you to print a list of Appliances Grouped according to their retest date.  This is available on the Print Results Screen, and only refers to tests in the file currently open.

A date range can also be selected to show all the Retest Dates due within a given period.



Add Retest Information as Appointment in MS Outlook

Users using Microsoft Outlook can send retest information in the current file as an Appointment to Microsoft Outlook.  Start Time, End Time and number of Days Reminder can also be set.  This can of course be edited in Outlook at a later date.

Appointment in Outlook



All Active Appointments in Outlook



Email Data

You can email the currently loaded data file to your customer, the email address is picked up from contact information entered into the customer details screen.  This can of course be edited manually in the message screen from your Email Client.

The file attached to the email is a standard SimplyPats Data File (.pat), your customer will need a copy of Simplypats installed to read the file, however this only need be the Demo Version of Simplypats, which is available from our web site.

This can also be used as a quick way to send Test Data back to your Head Ofiice for processing when you are out in the field testing for a number of days.

Email Customer or Invoicee

You can also insert the contents of a pre-written Word Document into the body of an email to send it to your customer.  This can also be done for the Invoicee, if one is attached to the Customer from the Invoicee Details Screen.
This feature only works with Microsoft Outlook Express Version 5.0 or above or Microsoft Outlook.

Setting up and Downloading from your PAT

Downloading data from your PAT tester is a fairly straightforward process after the initial setup.
Both Simplypats and your PAT Tester must be configured to talk to each other before download is possible.  In the System Settings screen of Simplypats you must select your PAT Tester, Baud Rate and COM Port to use.

 

Other settings and features can also be set on this screen, such as whether or not to download the data in the comments fields stored on your PAT.

The Baud rate must be set the same on your PAT and in Simplypats, this is the speed at which they communicate.
As mentioned, your PAT will also need to set correctly to download to SimplyPats, however you generally only need to set the Baud rate and Download Format, this will vary depending on manufacturer.

SimplyPats supports the use of Serial to USB converters, these must first be installed and configured before use and is a simple process if the correct drivers were supplied with the hardware.

It may be worth noting that not all Serial to USB converters are built to the same standards, please check with your PAT manufacturer or us before purchasing.

Manually Entering Appliances and Test Data

SimplyPats allows you to manually enter appliances and Test Data.  You can add a new appliance to an existing file or start a completely new file.

Using the Manual Entry feature you can enter the following appliance information; Appliance ID, Date and Time of Test, Site, Location, Retest Period and Appliance Description.

You can then enter the Test Data by typing the Results into the fields provided.  The limits for each individual test can be set using a pull down menu.  You can then set the test status in the same way by choosing Skip, Pass or Fail.

Simply click New to add the test to the current file.  SimplyPats will then ask you if you want to clear the current settings, clicking yes will clear all the fields, while clicking no will add the test to the current file, but keep the settings intact, ready for you to enter another appliance.

The Appliance ID will auto increment while any Sites or Locations previously entered will remain as choices from the pull down menus.



Further information

Further information as well as evaluation software can be found on the SimplyPats web site.

Our Forum is also a good place to keep up-to-date with the latest developments concerning SimplyPats.  Signing up to the Forum is quick and easy and only requires a Username, password and email address to gain full access.  Your email address is needed to activate your account and is not shown on the forums as default, unless you choose this option.

Please feel free to look around the Forum and ask any questions that you may have concerning SimplyPats, we will of course be more than happy to answer any queries over the phone.

Forum: www.simplypats.net or direct link http://simplypats.net/phpbb2/

Telephone: 0845 4300 789 (Charged at UK Local Rate)