Alert Newsletter

The most recent issue of the Alert Newsletter is available below. Looking for another article? Previous issues can be found by browsing our Newsletter Archives.

In this Issue

IAUA 2007 Conference News/Updates
"Report Share" Gains Momentum
Counter Intelligence: ROI Basics
In the News: Marquee Event Group's comments in Special Events Magazine
Ask Joanne: Back Office Basics from Client Care
Support Notes on LoneTar/Rescue Ranger Backups
"Don't Wait for IAUA" Sale! (Beat the Rush)

IAUA News: 2007 Conference

Registration Deadline has been Extended!

Early Bird Registration has been extended through September 15th! You have a few more days to take advantage of the guaranteed room rates and to receive the $119 credit toward your stay. Our block of rooms has run out for the last three years. Register now to make sure you get your free room night and to make sure you get a room at the conference hotel rate! Online hotel reservations can be made by visiting the Alert Conference webpage (the group rate will apply automatically).

About the Conference: R e-Inventing Rental: Innovate to Maximize Sales and Profits

Now in its 22nd year, the IAUA celebrates a proud history of collaboration, innovation, break-through profit ideas, and memorable experiences for rental business owners and managers.

Some of the things our clients look forward to most at IAUA each year:

Roundtable Discussions
Voting on Software Changes
Classes on New Features
Seminars on how to improve Profitability
Networking with peers from all over the U.S., Canada, Hawaii and Australasia
Excursions to Cripple Creek and Local Sights

If you have never been to an IAUA conference, or it has been years since you have participated, you can’t begin to imagine what an impact 3 days can make on your business (and your staff). As our increasing number of participants each year and their rave reviews indicate, many of our rental store partners agree that the ideas they get at this conference more than pay for the trip.

Have you gotten all your suggestions on this year’s IAUA Voting List? Fax us your suggestion to (719) 634-7823 or e-mail it to us at voting@alertms.com. It is not too late for your idea to be included in this year’s IAUA ballot. (Some restrictions apply.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your store registered on-line but DID NOT receive and e-mail confirmation, then please call Mary Crosslin at (800) 530-8050 ext. 7163 as soon as possible.

IAUA First: Calling All Fly-Fishermen!

We are taking a last-minute poll to see how many of you would be interested in wetting a line this year during your time in Colorado. As many of you are aware, Colorado is proudly home to thousands of miles of “gold medal” fishing, and there is open water all year round.

If you are interested in a half-day trip while you are here, please contact Mary Crosslin at ext 7163 or via email at mcrosslin@alertms.com by September 15th and she will see if there is enough interest in adding this to our IAUA itinerary!

In the News:

Special Events magazine’s August issue includes a quote by Damon Holditch and the Marquee Event Group about being satisfied and impressed with the products Alert provides. Marquee Event Group is an award-winning Alert client: Event Solutions Magazine Spotlight Award – 2004 Rental Company of the Year, Special Events Magazine Gala Award, ISES Austin Lifetime Achievement Award – Damon Holditch, ISES Esprit Award. Thanks for the great press!

“Report Share” Gains Momentum

A new FREE custom report-sharing service has been launched on the Alert Client Source Web Site. It unleashes the equivalent of thousands of dollars of free programming for you to download and share. Best of all, by supporting Report Share, this free-ware sharing service will become better and richer for all. If you haven’t tried it yet, take a look! To share reports on this forum, simply email the report text or the .eq to the Help Desk at support@alertms.com. We will do all the work!

Rep

Counter Intelligence
Smart Tips for Smart Rentals

Many owners and rental managers examine their ROI (Return on Investment) numbers as one of their most important gauges of success. The key to this value being accurate (and therefore significant) is the correct values for purchase price, maintenance costs, and earnings.

Purchase price is simple, as the system will look for a purchase record and if it doesn’t find one, it will use “replacement cost” in lieu of purchase cost. Maintenance costs are equally basic. If you use the Work Order module, you know that maintenance costs are recorded automatically against the fixed asset, including parts, which are factored in at cost rather than price. If you have not yet implemented the Work Order module, you need to manually enter repair and maintenance costs into the system through the fixed asset record.

The trick sometimes is ensuring that the earnings are correct. Two key aspects of this are: (1) always credit rental revenue via negative invoices – this ensures that your ROI remains accurate, as it will remove rental earnings from the fixed asset record. And, (2) you need to make sure that if you are fairly new to Alert that the correct YTD/LTD earnings came over into the system when you entered your fixed assets. To correct this after the fact, there is a tool on the Fixed Asset Search Screen under the Financial pull-down menu that will enable you to update YTD/LTD earnings.

If you have any questions about how to correct or change any of your data to ensure valid ROI numbers please contact us at the Help Desk at ext 5, we would be happy to step you through what needs to happen!

Team Alert – Walking for JDRF!

Our Colorado Springs office is fielding a team Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes through JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) on September 15th. The walk is held in over 200 cities with more than 500,000 people participating each year. We will be raising money to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. This is a cause close to our hearts, as it affects some of us personally, and we know that many of you have had this disease touch your lives as well. Visit the Colorado Springs JDRF website for more information on the walk or to donate. Look for an update and team photo in a future newsletter

Don’t Wait until IAUA, Sale!

Some of you have told us you are waiting for this year’s IAUA (November 7th-10th), so that you are assured of the lowest price. That’s why we are offering a “Don’t Wait until IAUA, Sale!” We need to spread out our work, since we are busiest during the winter. (November-December, after IAUA, is especially busy.)

Call now for your promotional price on any advanced module, including Integrated Credit Card Processing. If you agree to install and pay for it (or lease) before October 31st, we will guarantee your price to be at least 2% lower than any promotional pricing that will be offered at this year’s IAUA.

That’s right, take this deal and we’ll be writing YOU a rebate check in December. Another reason why it pays to attend IAUA—literally! (Caveats: You must attend IAUA. Discounts are only for the Alert EasyPro software component, not the associated third-party products such as keyboards, or TPI products, such as merchants. Imputed discounts will not be applied to any other products or services.)

Support Note:
Many of our customers who run on UNIX or Linux servers have recently received notices from Lone-Tar about an urgent, required update. Don't worry!

For those of you running Linux servers, we are already installing this upgrade and creating new Rescue Ranger Emergency Recovery CDs for you. If you did not receive this CD at the end of August, please contact the Help Desk at (800) 326-0079 ext 255.

For those of you running UNIX servers, your system uses "Air-Bag" instead of "Rescue Ranger" emergency recovery software so this announcement doesn't affect you. However, you should take this opportunity to create two new sets of Air-Bag diskettes (one to store on-site, one to store off-site). See the document "Creating New Airbag Diskettes" in the Client Source section of our web site for detailed instructions.

For those of you running your Alert system on Windows servers, this is a good opportunity to make sure that you are getting good backups of your Alert system. Check with your IT contractor to find out how to confirm the validity of your backups

Ask Joanne—Back Office Basics from Client Care

Joanne Mosher, Senior Alert Client Care Technician is back by popular demand for another issue as a featured member of the Alert Client Care Team. (The first installment of “Ask Joanne” was in the August edition of the Alert Newsletter.) She is a fount of helpful information on how to use Alert EasyPro to keep your back office accounting and reporting accurate, balanced and up-to-date at all times. She also provides practical advice on how to get the job done. Here are answers to a few questions that Joanne and other members of the Client Care staff have recently answered. Remember, if you have fallen down somewhere in the back-office and you can’t get up, just… Ask Joanne!

Question: What are some things that I can check if my AR is out of balance?

Joanne Answers: First, you need to narrow your search down to the day your AR went out of balance. If you can find the exact day it went out of balance, then finding the discrepancy becomes much easier. Run your reports day by day until you find the one that it is out of balance. (You can do this a week at a time to help speed the process. Once you discover which week is off, then you will need to run the reports for each day.) Second, you need to determine if the discrepancy is a charge or a payment issue. Do this by checking your New Invoices and New Payments against these amounts in your AR Balances for the Last 30 Days screen. If the debits on your manual control sheet do not match the New Invoices column then look for a problem with contracts, debit memos, finance charge postings. If the credits on your manual control sheet do not match the New Payments column, then you know that you have a problem with an AR Payment or Credit Memo. This is a starting point in finding the discrepancy. When all else fails, contact the Help Desk. We are happy to help!

Question: How do I pull a ticket out of the Stranded Ticket File if it has previously been saved? Is there another procedure if it is a new ticket that has not already been saved?

Joanne Answers: There are two procedures, depending on whether or not the ticket has been previously saved. Each procedure is described in detail below.

ONLY for a previously saved ticket:

From the Stranded Ticket File, highlight the ticket you wish to retrieve and press <enter>
Enter your operator initials <enter>
Once the ticket is displayed on your screen, click File and then Abandon.

(Note: saving a previously saved ticket at this point can cause serious problems, such as missing items, missing payments, allocation errors, etc. Please use extreme caution.)

Pull up the ticket again by clicking File, Search for Tickets, or F9Old and resume working on it.

If the ticket has never been saved:

From the Stranded Ticket File, highlight the ticket you wish to retrieve and press <enter>
You will receive a warning that states: “Warning: No saved version of this ticket exists, if you retrieve this ticket and then abandon changes, this ticket will be lost”
Click on “Yes” to continue
Enter your operator ID <enter>
Once the ticket is displayed on your screen, click File and then Save Only. You may then pull up the ticket using F9Old and resume working on it.

Stranded Ticket File
You can be certain a ticket has been saved if a contract or reservation number appears on this screen. After you select a ticket on this screen however, you will be prompted if the ticket has not already been saved.

G/L Interface – Helping Keep you in Balance!

Now that your Alert EasyPro A/R system is back in balance, how would you to have your General Ledger updated without having to re-enter data? We maintain G/L interfaces for a wide variety of accounting packages, such as Peachtree, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, MAS 90/200, and more. The price for this product is $750, which includes “standard” system integration. More advanced integrations are available for several products, including Microsoft Dynamics, MAS 90/200, and QuickBooks. Alert Management Systems is a certified Microsoft Business Partner for accounting integration and can provide a Microsoft-certified integrated solution. Contact Lisa Cooper, Upgrade Product Manager, for more information and to discuss your Advanced/Alert™ Options: (800) 530-8050, ext. 7173.