Adding and editing devices

The physical location of the device. This information assists technicians who might need to work with the device on-site. You will be able to report on this information using Autotask standard reports and LiveReports. Refer to Reports on products that are associated with customer organizations as devices.

A contact is a person at an organization who is associated with the entity you are creating or editing.

This field appears on many entities that display the Organization field. You must select an organization before you can select a contact. All active contacts associated with the organization plus the current contact, even if it is inactive, are available. If the organization is a sub-organization Previously: Subsidiary. Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Sub-Account, Sub-Business Unit, Sub-Client, Sub-Company, Sub-Customer, Sub-Site. of another organization, you can select a contact from the list of parent organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Headquarters, Parent Account, Parent Client, Parent Company, Parent Customer. contacts that appears below a dashed line.

On some entities, such as ticket and opportunity, you can click the plus icon to create a new contact. Refer to Adding and editing contacts.

In Add or Edit mode, start typing the name of a person or click the selector icon to choose a person from an alphabetic list.

All entities:

• Selecting a contract is optional. If no contract is selected, standard time and materials billing will apply.
• The Contract field is not active until an organization is selected.
• The field is unavailable if you do not have security permissions to modify the contract.
• If you selected a recurring service contract, you must also select a service or a service bundle.

Devices:

• If the item you are installing is a printer associated with the Xerox PageConnect/XPPS program, the Contract must be a recurring service contract and is required.

Tickets:

• The Contract field may already be populated if the customer (or, if it is a sub-organization, the parent organization) has set up a default Service Desk contract.
• If you select a device that is associated with a contract, the device's contract will prevail, unless you manually select another contract.

Projects:

• If you select a contract that has a start date after the project start date or an end date before the project end date, a warning message opens. To select the contract anyway, click OK. Make sure you edit the contract and extend the contract timeline, if appropriate.
• To create a contract to associate with the project, click the plus sign . You can select the contract type. The Organization Name defaults to the organization associated with the project. You can change the organization to an organization that is a parent organization to the project organization. Refer to Sub-Organizations.

The Description field appears on many Autotask entities. On entities like ticket, task, note, and to-do, the Description field is a core part of the data record. Wherever it is available, it tracks essential information about the record. This field is often prefaced with the entity name. For example, Quote Description.

Enter a detailed description of the entity instance, the issue with which the customer needs help, or the service that they requested.

This field supports Rich Text. For important information and compatibility details about the Rich Text feature, refer to The Rich Text editor.

IMPORTANT  Datto has changed the default term from Asset to Device, and the online help has made this change as well. If you would like to do the same in your Autotask instance, refer to Selecting a currency and local terms and symbols.

The device's category controls the fields that appear on the Device, the New Device, and the Edit Device pages. If you are creating devices using the Domain or SSL Certificate categories, additional components will appear. Refer to Creating and updating a Domain device and Creating an SSL Certificate device.

Select a Device Category from the drop-down list.

NOTE  If the product has a default device category specified, you will be asked if you want to use that device category when you select the product. If you do, you will also have the option of saving any changes you've already made or discarding those changes before adding the category. If the category has a default organization set, the Organization field is also automatically populated.

Device types allow you to classify and organize devices. For example, for workstations you may want to use Device Type to clarify if it is a laptop or a desktop, or if it is company property or personally owned. Device Type is also used by the IT Glue integration to determine what to sync and how to label devices in IT Glue.

Select an Device Type from the drop-down list.

NOTE  If the product has a default device type specified, it will automatically update to the default.

The installation date for the device. The value defaults to the current date.

The resource or organization contact who installed the device. When you manually create or edit a device, the Installed By field defaults to the current user.

A location is an individual business unit that is associated with an organization in Autotask. The business unit can be a separate physical location, like an affiliate or franchise. It can also be a division or agency operating in the same physical location as the organization, like a hospital emergency department, where the hospital is the Autotask organization. The organization handles all billing for the business unit. Refer to Adding and editing organization locations.

For this field, you can select a different local term. In your Autotask instance, it may be named Branch or Site. Refer to Selecting a currency and local terms and symbols.

Select the location with which the entity will be associated.

The organization location can be populated automatically, according to certain rules:

• If the selected organization has a primary location, that location autopopulates this field. If there is no primary location, only locations associated with that organization can be selected.
• If a form template is applied and populates the location but not the organization, the Organization field autopopulates with the location's organization.
• If a contact is selected and is associated with an active organization location, the contact's location populates the ticket location field only if no location is currently selected, or if the current location is the organization's primary location. If a ticket is created from the Contact page, the contact's location will be used.
• If a device is associated with the ticket, the device's active location will autopopulate the location field unless the location has been manually selected.

You can manually override the automatic selection. If location is required but is not selected, the primary organization location will be used.

This is the number of individuals who are using the device at the organization.

Organization or Organization Name refers to the organization associated with the entity. This field is always required.

• In View mode, the name will appear as a hyperlink for users with permission to view the organization, and as plain text for all others.

• In New mode, enter the name of the organization. As you type, Autotask will suggest possible matches. Click an organization name to select it and populate the field. Alternatively, you can click the selector icon to choose the organization from a list. On some entities, such as ticket and opportunity, you can click the plus icon to the right of the selector icon to quickly create a new organization. Refer to Adding an organization.

• In Edit mode, this field cannot be modified for some entities (for example, projects and devices).

For this field, you can select a different local term. In your Autotask instance, it may be labeled Account, Business Unit, Client, Company, Customer, Organization, or Site. Refer to Selecting a currency and local terms and symbols.

NOTE  To change which organization the device is associated with, use the Move Device function. For more information, refer to Moving a device.

A device can have a two-level dependency with another device, called a parent/child relationship. For example, a desktop computer might be a parent to a printer, scanner, and monitors. There are no billing implications for this relationship.

Select or modify the parent for the device.

IMPORTANT  A child of a device (or any children of children, etc.,) cannot become its parent and will not appear on the data selector.

Products are hardware, software, and materials your company sells or supports for customers.

Type the name of the product and select the item from the drop-down list that appears when you start typing, or click the product selector icon to select a product from your master product list.

Users with Inventory object permission to add products will see a plus icon next to the product field, and are able to add a new product to your Autotask instance.

NOTE  Products with a billing type of Per Contact/Device billing rules only will not appear on this page. Refer to Standard products and billing products.

If the device was created from a stocked item, the product cannot be changed.

NOTE  If the product has a default device category specified, you will be asked if you want to use that device category when you select the product. If you do, you will also have the option of saving any changes you've already made or discarding those changes before adding the category. If the category has a default organization set, the Organization field is also automatically populated.

This field allows you to view or add a name that you specify for the device. You can report on this field by using standard reports or LiveReports (refer to Reports on products that are associated with customer organizations as devices).

If you are using device discovery, this value is a read-only field reported by device discovery. The source for this information varies by monitoring service. For example, the service may use the Name or Computer Name values returned by device discovery. The monitoring service may not provide a default value. For some monitoring services, the Reference Name field displays duplicate information. For example, the content of the Reference Name field is identical to the content of the Device ID field. If there is no default, you can manually add a reference name.

Reference numbers work like serial numbers, but you can assign them by using your own system. Reference numbers are not required by product categories. You can report on this field by using standard reports or LiveReports (refer to Reports on products that are associated with customer organizations as devices).

This check box controls whether a device has been reviewed for an associated contract. If you don't want to assign a contract to this device, you can manually select the Reviewed for Contract box.

If a contract and (for recurring service contracts) a service or bundle are assigned to the device, the field is automatically selected and disabled.

New devices and devices created by Datto RMM, Datto BCDR, or VSA 10 have this check box cleared, so you can easily identify any devices where contract information is missing.

Refer to Contract review for devices.

The serial number identifies a particular stocked item in your inventory, or a device installed at an organization. This field appears only if the product associated with the device or stocked item has the Serialized check box selected. Serial numbers can be up to 100 characters long.

Enter the serial numbers of the items currently being added, separated by line breaks.

Devices:

• Serial numbers cannot be updated using an import.
• Serial numbers linked to a stocked item cannot be deleted, but if the serial number of the stocked item is modified, the serial number of the device is updated automatically.
• If you enter a duplicate serial number, you will see a warning indicating that a device with this product and serial number already exists. The import will fail for this row.
• If you enter a serial number for a non-serialized product, the import will fail for the row.
• If the item you are installing is a printer associated with the Xerox PageConnect/XPPS program, the Serial Number is required.

Inventory:

• The count of serial numbers you are adding in the list will equal the number of items added in the Items Added field, and will be equal to On Hand (New) - On Hand (Old).
• When adding a stocked item, you can type or paste the serial numbers into the field. Each number must be on a separate line or the serial numbers must be separated by a comma.
• You can use a keyboard wedge option with a bar code scanner to quickly enter serial numbers.
• When editing a stocked item, if a serial number is reserved or picked, the Ticket Number,Project Name, Contract Name, or Quote Name is hyperlinked on the row.

The point of an SLA is standardization. A service level is a performance standard that defines the time frame in which an issue will be resolved, based on its severity and impact. A service level agreement is a minimum set of service levels that your company defines to meet the service needs of one or more customers. For example, you promise your customers that critical tickets that impact multiple contacts will be resolved within 8 business hours 90% of the time. For more information on SLAs, refer to Introduction to service level management.

You should rarely have to manually select an SLA. If they are correctly set up, SLAs should be applied automatically.

If an entity is created from or associated with multiple entities that can default in a service level agreement, the more specific SLA is prioritized over a more general one:

1. Manual selection (or applying a form template, which counts as manual selection)
2. SLA on the device
3. SLA on the recurring contract service or service bundle
4. SLA on the contract

This applies also to tickets created in the Client Portal.

For more on this complex subject, refer to Applying service level agreements.

Services and service bundles allow you to charge for defined incidents on a recurring basis. This field is required when it is available. It can be modified if you have the required security permissions. Refer to Setting up service bundles.

Tickets:

If the device selected on the ticket specifies a recurring service contract and service or bundle, they will be defaulted on the ticket.

Ticket Time Entries and Task Time Entries:

Ticket and task time entries inherit the contract and service or bundle settings of the ticket or project.

Devices:

If you selected a recurring service contract in the Contract field and a service or bundle that will cover the support of the device, Autotask will check if the number of devices is higher than the number of units in the service or bundle that covers them on the Installed On date of the device. If it is, you are given the option of updating the number of units in the service or bundle to match, or you can continue without updating (not recommended).

• If you click OK, the number of units will be incremented, and a pro-rated billing item will be added and documented with a contract note. The default Effective Date will be the Installed On date of the device.
• If you click Cancel, the number of units will not be incremented, but the contract will be set Out of Compliance. It will be up to the contract manager to update the number of units.
  

If the Installed On date is earlier than the Contract Start Date, compliance is checked on the Start Date of the contract.

Note that the device will be associated with the contract either way.

The status indicates how far the entity has progressed in a particular process.

EXAMPLE  On a ticket, status examples are New, In Progress, Ready to Bill, Complete, Active, etc. On other entities, status names are different.

Most entities come with a default list of statuses that you can customize. The Status field is often required, since it is frequently used as a condition in workflow rules.

NOTE  Outsource status is separate from the standard ticket status.

Charges:

If an Estimated Arrival Date was added to the purchase order item, it is displayed in parentheses after the status.

• If Procurement is enabled, the status options are conditional based on the current status, and some statuses are set automatically. For details on charge status in the procurement process, refer to Introduction to Inventory.
• If Procurement is not enabled, you can manually select any status. For consistency, your company should set guidelines for charge status selection.
• If you set the status of a charge to Canceled, the Unit Cost and Unit Price fields are zeroed out and the charge is removed from Approve & Post.

User-defined fields (UDFs) are custom fields set up by your Autotask Administrator that capture information that is unique to your business. They can be one of the following field types:

• Text (Single Line, Multi Line, or Email)
• Date
• Numeric
• List (Single Select, Multi Select)

You are able to see and update this information based on your security permissions. If you do not have permission to view or update the data, it will be masked with asterisks. If you can view but not edit the data, editing will be disabled. Refer to Viewing protected data.

Also review Managing user-defined fields.

You must complete any required UDFs before you can save the entity.

A vendor is an organization whose primary business relationship with your company is to provide goods and services.

• Products can be associated with multiple vendors, one of which is designated as the default vendor.
• All other entities that reference a product vendor are associated with one specific vendor (the one from which the item was actually purchased). The field will default to the Product Default Vendor, but additional Product Vendors (associated with the product) and Other Vendors (not associated with the product) are available from the dropdown menu.
• Services can only have one vendor. If you change the vendor of a service, contracts that include the service will reference the new vendor as of the next billing period.