Before Testing With Your PAT
Before you test with your PAT Tester, if you plan to use some of the extra features available in the SimplyPats software - please read the following carefully:
Please Note
Not all PAT Testers support the use of Comments Fields, please refer to your PAT Tester manual for further information.
It is a good idea to do some preliminary tests around your house or office and get used to using the SimplyPats software before testing on site.
Notes Fields
After you have tested an appliance, some PAT Tester give you the option of entering extra information, shown in blue below.
SimplyPats can then use this information in the program to help you calculate and invoice, retest dates and print more meaningful reports for your customer.
Example 1:
Notes 1
- KE
Notes 2 - 12
Notes 3 - P/B5/C
Notes 4 - INOPERATIVE - DISCARD
Example 2:
Repairing
Code - P/B5/C
Comments - INOPERATIVE
- DISCARD
Example 3:
User Code - KE
The examples above illustrate the extra notes fields used by some PAT Testers. On the Pat Settings Screen you can select what information you intend to store in each field prior to downloading from your PAT Tester.
Some PAT Testers do not have a forward slash / character on the keyboard so the charge and repair code must be separated by using the star character * as shown below:
Notes - P*B5*C
See - Using The Notes Fields
Appliance Name (Do not confuse this field with the "Appliance No" field)
When prompted by
your PAT for the Appliance name, type in a full description or an abbreviation
of the appliance you are testing, for instance you may have kettle to test,
you could type in Kettle, or if you want to make use of SimplyPats ability to
understand Abbreviations you could just type KE. Note: If you do decide
to use Abbreviations instead of full descriptions in the Appliance Name field,
you will need to check that any Abbreviations you will be using are listed in
the "Maintain Abbreviations Table". You can always add new Abbreviations
or change the ones that are already listed if you need to. See Maintain
Abbreviations
When you download your data to SimplyPats you will see the letters KE under
the appliance heading. If you now go to the "Tools" menu and choose
"replace abbreviations", SimplyPats will now have replaced the letters
KE with the word KETTLE. This will only need to be done if you have used Abbreviations.
SimplyPats does this by first looking in your abbreviation list (This can be
found by going to the "Tools" menu and choosing "Maintain Abbreviations").
If SimplyPats finds the abbreviation in the left hand column, it will replace
it with the word in the right hand column. You will also notice that you can
ADD your own abbreviations, or even change the existing ones.
You also have the option to print out a list of your abbreviations.
See Also - Maintain
Abbreviations and Replace Abbreviations
Retest Period
Retest Period in Months. If you enter a value such as 12 (for a 12 monthly period before the appliance should be retested) SimplyPats will assume all the next tests will also be 12 monthly, until you enter a different value in this field.
Repairing Code
Test Charge and Repair codes, this is a combination of codes allowing you to say, how much you want to charge for the test, and up to 3 repairs you carried out when testing the appliance, e.g. replacing the fuse with the correct value.
See Also - Test Price and Repair Codes
Comments/Notes
As discussed above the notes or comments fields can be used to enter extra infomation such as a detailed Fail Reason for instance. You can also use the notes fields to input important details that may not be stored by your PAT Tester such as Site, Location, User etc.
Please see Using The Notes Fields for a full list of the available notes options.
(This Topic Last updated 05/07/2011)