Getting Started - Tools

Quick Start Guide

Welcome to TrackAbout! This Quick Start Guide will provide you with information and tools to lead you through your implementation.

The Quick Start Guide is divided into three segments:

1. Getting Started - This page leads you through setting up your TrackAbout environment.
2. Capturing Data - Tools - Now that your environment is ready to go, it's time to start collecting data.
3. Reviewing Data - Tools - Finally, now that you have data, this page will instruct you on how to use it.

Your OnTrack Implementation Specialist will be available to answer any questions you may have. If you have not yet been assigned an OnTrack Implementation Specialist please contact support@trackabout.com

Logging in

Your TrackAbout representative will create your first system administrator user for the site. You will receive an email from TrackAbout with a link for you to set a password and then log into the site. You can log into TrackAbout in a few ways:

• Go to https://www.trackabout.com/public/login.aspx
• Go to trackabout.com and click the "Login" link in the upper right corner of this page.

Check out the page on Navigation for info about how to get around the website.

System Requirements

There are certain Software and Hardware requirements for using the TrackAbout website and mobile applications. Please see these pages for information about those requirements:

• See TrackAbout System Requirements for information about minimum software/hardware requirements for utilizing TrackAbout applications
• See Basic Hardware Requirements for Handheld Computers for information about device minimum requirements for using TrackAbout mobile applications
• See Smartphone App Requirements for minimum smartphone requirements for running TrackAbout iOS/Android applications

Setting up Basic Information

Your environment has been configured to work with basic tool company requirements. These next steps will help you set up your business specific data into the system. If you need assistance with any of these steps, please feel free to contact TrackAbout Support.

Locations

Managing Locations

TrackAbout "Locations" refer to any place where an asset can be located - except for job sites (job site locations are managed separately). Every asset is either in a Location or at a Job site.

Setup your locations from the List Locations page, found under the TrackAbout Config menu on the site.

Refer to the Locations page or watch the video for more detailed information about TrackAbout Locations and how to create them.

Owners

Managing Ownerships

In TrackAbout, ownership refers to who owns a particular asset. This is used to keep track of vendor, supplier, and customer owned assets, as well as of company owned assets.

• Owners are created and managed via the Ownerships page on your TrackAbout website.

Refer to the Ownership page for more detailed instructions about how to manage Owners.

Mobile Roles

Managing Mobile Roles

Mobile Roles are used to limit the actions of the handheld to just those actions that a given kind of user needs to have access to. They are necessary whether you are using TAM6 or iOS/Android. You already have two roles available to you:

• General - provides all available Tool Tracking actions
• Drivers - provides the Deliver / Return action

You will be able to assign users to mobile roles when setting up your internal user accounts. If you need additional roles, you can set them up and manage them through the List Mobile Roles page. For more information about how they work and how to set them up, refer to the Mobile Roles wiki page.

Internal Users

Managing Internal Users

Setup accounts for your TrackAbout users from this TrackAbout webpage: Internal Users

This page is in the TrackAbout Config section of the site. For detailed instructions on managing users, go to Internal Users

Each user will be assigned to website and mobile roles. These determine what permissions users have within the system. System Administrator Role and Requirements

You will be defining the mobile roles for your users and already have two roles available to you:

• General - provides all available Tool Tracking actions
• Drivers - provides the Drop Off / Pick Up action

Mobile Users

A mobile user is any user that will be using TrackAbout from a mobile device. This includes truck drivers, plant workers and anyone else who will use the handheld computers.

You will need to setup all of your mobile workers from this Internal Users page.

Important: You will need to decide if your mobile workers will be required to use a password to log into the mobile units. The password is used by most TrackAbout customers to ensure that the person logged into the handheld is authenticated. This is a configuration that TrackAbout support can turn on or off for your entire site. Either you will always require passwords for logging into your mobile units or never require these passwords. This is not an option for the smartphone app.

Once you have your mobile users set up, you will be able to set and/or limit their actions via mobile roles

Website users

You will also setup website users from the Internal Users page.

The website users must all use passwords to log into the website.

It is recommended that you send your website users a 'Welcome email' from the TrackAbout site that will allow them to setup their own password. In this way nobody knows the user's password except for the user.

If any users do not have an email address, you can set them up with a username instead and manually set their initial password. Once logged in these users can change their password, but they are not forced to change their password.

Having trouble receiving emails from TrackAbout? See this page for information about how our emails are sent out.

Asset Classifications

Product Codes

• In TrackAbout a Product Code is the code used to indicate a specific kind of asset. It is also normally called your part number, item number, stock number, model number, product number or sku. It is the code used by your business system to track your inventory and sell things to customers.

• These codes are stored in a 4 level hierarchy inside of TrackAbout called your Asset Classification. This will consist of a Category, Group, and Type - Your product codes will be structured within this hierarchy.

Your new TrackAbout environment will already contain Asset Classifications/Product Codes for you to use. These can be viewed and created on the Product Code Mappings page.

Refer to the wiki page Adding Asset Classifications and Product Codes for more information about Asset Classifications and for instructions on how to manually create additional Classifications and Product Codes.

• See here for Product Code Tracking_Status
• See here for Mapping New Product Codes

Customers

Do you want to track tools to and from customer/job sites? If not, you can skip this section.

• Customers/ Job sites are able to be managed and added through the Customer List page
  • For detailed information on how to add a new customer /job site, please see the Customer page.

Bulk Load Customers

If you have a large customer base, you can upload your customers in bulk. To do this:

1. Download this template and add your customer information: LoadCustomersTemplate.xlsx
2. Save this as a tab-delimited text file
3. On the website, use the menu bar and go to Integration > Import Customer Info
4. Follow the instructions on the page
   

Note: If you need a specific import format other than the one provided here, please contact your support specialist.

Setting up Mobile Units (Handheld Computers)

Next, you'll need to download the necessary TrackAbout software

For rugged devices

• The software will be available for download here: Software Download

• You should find instructions on how to setup your handhelds from the page Installing TAMobile
• You will need a desktop or laptop computer running Microsoft Windows to complete this setup.

For iOS/Android Smartphones and Tablets

• You'll download the app from the respective App Store. See our Smartphone page for assistance.

NEXT: Capturing Data

Congratulations! You have now set up your TrackAbout website and are ready to begin your business processes.

Let's start scanning.

Please click below to go to our Capturing Data page to learn about Business Processes and how to navigate these processes on the Smartphone App.

Continue to Capturing Data for Tools →