Thieves abound and they will try everything to trick you. We even have seen emails supposedly coming from MasterLink Software containing phony invoices. Please note the following:

1). The ONLY time you will receive an email from MasterLink Software will be to answer your specific request on a technical matter. If it looks at all suspicious, call to be sure we sent it.

2). All invoices are mailed to you using the same format that you’ve seen for years. We bill DPP subscription fees on the 15th of the month prior to the start of a new quarter. You will NOT be billed for any other fees and the amount has not changed.

3). Our mailing address is PO Box 740, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92678. Any other correspondence is not from us and may be an effort to defraud you.

We have not found a need to issue warnings like this in the past, but these are times when criminals thrive using online and mail solicitations. If you have any suspicion, then reach out to us directly by phone.

Your system has received a new update. Thanks to some valuable user input we have added many new features in this version, with more to come throughout the summer of 2021. Here are some of the highlights.

Search Capabilities:
In a previous version we eliminated the confusing empty bar at the top of various lists. At the same time we expanded to more search fields. Simply click on the header title for the column you wish to search and start typing. Double click on that same title and the ordered reversed.

 

You can still do this, but some people missed seeing what they typed. So now just above the list we added a line where you see Find, and then a box which will display what you are typing. Next to it you see In and a box with the column you are currently searching. That is a drop down box, and you can use the down arrow to select a different column. Now both methods are supported, and they do work together.

Finally, on the main workorder screen, we also allow searching by your favorite column. With this in play, the search button now says “Open Workorders” and “All Workorders”. You will see multiple search options either way. This should make lookups of past work much easier.

Parts Tax Flag
Sometimes someone forgets to check the tax flax on workorders, and parts are either taxed, or not, when the opposite should be happening. By double clicking on a part tax box it will change the status ( right on the list ), but if you have a lot of items listed, that might take a few minutes. There is a new Tools button on the Parts tab of the workorder, and you will see the first item is Tax Flag. Use this to flag ALL parts on the list as either taxable, or non-taxable.

CARFAX VIN lookup online
We did put out an update to the CARFAX VIN file that is on your computer, but the most recent results are always done online. If you have a vehicle in your system and you have a valid VIN, but need the data updated, or if you use some other identifier instead of a state license plate, you can now highlight the vehicle in the editor list, and click on that license plate button. It will ask if you want to just use the VIN ( and not do a license lookup ). Say Yes and it will give you the remainder of the current vehicle data associated with that VIN.

Labor report by workorder number
Technician labor reports were recently updated to permit running the report on just one employee. However the report was showing entries in date order. It now prompts for the option to group all entries by workorder number within the date range specified. It’s just another way to look at your data.

AR When Closing
Some people found the prompt often appearing saying that there was no AR account when closing a workorder, even though it did exist. We changed the timing of when it gets that data to hopefully reflect the AR status appropriately.

World Pac Interface
We have had a DIAL interface for World Pac in place for many years. However, we recently wanted to be sure it was fully working with their current version. To be sure, we need a “test account” reactivated, but are not getting a timely response on this. Once we have the testing completed, we will turn the DIAL interface once again so it can be directly called from within ASW.

 

When working through all of these things we found other items and handled them. We hope you find these updates helpful. If you run into any issues, the first step is to go to Tools, Index, and Reindex all files. If that doesn’t help, get in touch and we’ll move to fix any problems immediately.

One other important sidenote: Sometimes we get calls about problems occuring on someone’s computer that no one else reported, and we cannot duplicate them here. That means the problem is likely local to your system. All software runs through the Windows Operating System and calls the actual parts of Windows to display, and process, everything. Often problems are the result of other software that may be running, and which may even have modified Windows. It can also be a virus, or possibly a hardware glitch. If we indicate the problem is local, we want to try and help find it, and we are NOT suggesting you need new hardware or software. However, if your system has a company that handles the IT services, we want to work with them because we don’t want to interfere with what they have setup for you. Also, the biggest single culprit is when people install other anti-virus software rather than the default protection built into Windows itself ( which is free and updated daily ). Perhaps 90% of the time those programs create problems. The security built into Windows works very well and does protect your system efficiently.