Working with Peripherals
Peripherals in Mouse Tracks are usually items such as printers, monitors, External USB Devices, etc... You can choose the type of peripherals you wish to track. If you are using Mouse Tracks to track a broad range of equipment, you most likely would want to track miscellaneous equipment as peripherals. For example, you could create the peripheral category 'Copier', 'Telephone', or even 'Furniture'.
To access peripheral records in Mouse Tracks a user must have Inventory Permissions
Defining Peripheral Types
From the Data Menu, choose Miscellaneous Tables -- Peripheral Types.
Allocated vs. Not Allocated
A peripheral is considered 'Allocated' when it is assigned to a computer. If the peripheral is 'Not Allocated', this means that it is not assigned to a computer. There are two advantages to allocating peripherals to computers. First it organizes the data and allows you to refer to the computer as not only the CPU, but as a workstation. The workstation might have a scanner, printer, and monitor allocated to it. If a new employee is hired, you can simply allocate the original computer to this employee and the peripherals would follow. The second advantage is that once you allocate a peripheral to a computer, you can more easily track Help Desk tickets to a peripheral since the Help Desk ticket detail form filters the peripheral list based on the peripherals to are assigned to the requester's computer.
Adding Peripherals
To add a peripheral to Mouse Tracks, click the Add command from the Peripheral List.
You can quickly duplicate a similar peripheral record by clicking the duplicate record command on the peripheral list. When you click this command, you will be prompted for a new peripheral tag number.
Disposing of Peripherals
To remove a peripheral from Mouse Tracks, select the peripheral from the list and then click the Dispose command. The Dispose Equipment form will then appear and you can type in any details.
Assigning Peripherals to Computers
You can assign a peripheral to a computer by selecting the Computer's Tag number in the Peripheral Detail form. You can also assign peripherals to computers through the Computer Detail form.
Attaching Files to Peripheral Records
Mouse Tracks 2007 introduced the powerful ability of file attachments. The following steps will teach you how to attach electronic manuals, warranty information, procedural related documents, or any other files associated with the peripheral record.
The file is now stored in the database with the associated peripheral record.
For more information on Attachments see Working with File Attachments.
Linking Shared Documents to Peripheral Records
In Mouse Tracks 2009 you can associate documentation records with any inventory item. To Add a shared document link to a peripheral switch to the Documents tab in the Peripheral Detail form
The documentation asset is then associated with the peripheral record.
For more information on Attachments see Working with Documentation.
Record History & Problem History
Any changes made to a peripheral record are stored in the record's history field. Viewing the history field is an easy way to see the changes made to the peripheral . The history tab in the peripheral detail form also contains a problem history list. If you are using the Help Desk feature within Mouse Tracks, tickets can be linked to computers, peripherals and/or software products. The history tracking features in Mouse Tracks makes it very simple to track the health of a peripheral from purchase through disposal.