Billable Support Policy
Last reviewed: 12/29/2008
Article ID: R10796
The information in this article applies to:
- All Tabs3 and PracticeMaster Products
SUMMARY
This article outlines Software Technology, Inc.'s policy regarding technical support and discusses what types
of calls to our Technical Support Department are considered billable (i.e., above and
beyond the optional annual maintenance agreement).
Technical Support
Firms with a Maintenance Agreement
Editing Tabs3 Client Ledger and Receipt
Allocation Information
Editing General Ledger Balances
Reconciling Bank Statements
Network, Hardware and Operating System
Troubleshooting
PracticeMaster Customization
Custom Reports and Document Coding
Data Repair by Software Technology, Inc. Programmers
Evaluation of Faxes by Technical Support
Representatives
Firms without a Maintenance Agreement
Network, Hardware and Operating System
Troubleshooting
Data Repair by Software Technology, Inc. Programmers
Evaluation of Faxes by Technical Support
Representatives
Tabs3 Update Statements Program
Interrupted
ODBC Support
COPYT3.EXE and SPLITT3.EXE Support
Conversions from Third Party Software
Billing Rates
We understand that customer support is an important part of customer satisfaction.
When you purchase a Tabs3 or PracticeMaster product, you have our assurance of quality
customer service and product support. Product support plays a key role in our customer
service philosophy. Our Customer Service staff is dedicated to helping you get the most
from your product by answering technical questions about the product and how it works.
With Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software, you get the best support in the business. During working hours you
can always get immediate assistance from qualified technicians who have been specifically
trained to answer your questions.
Software Technology, Inc. Technical Support
Phone: (402) 423-2210
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Central Time)
Monday through Friday
As a new user, technical support is available at no charge during the first 60 days
from the purchase date. After 60 days, if you have not signed up for a
Maintenance Plan, there is a charge for technical support.
Users not on maintenance are charged $25 per quarter hour or fraction thereof for
support and are asked for a Visa or MasterCard before support is provided.
Some restrictions apply to technical support as discussed in the following
information.
An annual maintenance agreement allows firms to call us for assistance with Tabs3 and PracticeMaster software at no additional charge. Maintenance covers questions regarding the use and functionality of the software. In addition to receiving telephone support at no additional charge, firms that have maintenance agreements for their software sublicenses receive other benefits. Examples of these other benefits include free program updates when new versions of the programs are released, and access to a monthly online newsletter. Complete details regarding the Software Technology, Inc. maintenance plan can be found in Knowledge Base article R10403,
"Maintenance Plan Benefits."
Maintenance does not cover data evaluations, data repairs, specific customization of the firm's data or technical support for the firm's network, hardware or operating system. Although we try to be consistent in these billing situations, the decision to bill for this type of support is at our discretion. We handle calls on an individual basis and firms are notified in advance if the support call will become billable. The following are examples of the type of support calls for which we bill maintenance clients. This list is not all inclusive and is subject to change.
Note: In the event that the support situation is classified as billable,
you will be asked to provide a Visa or MasterCard at the beginning of the call.
When a conclusion is reached, our Technical Support Representative will inform you how
the billing will be handled. If the reason for the call proves to be the direct result of
a program change, your credit card will not be charged.
Situation: The Tabs3 Client Ledger, Receipt Allocation and Accounts Receivable reports do not reflect the same totals. This is typically caused by data corruption, not restoring from a backup when a critical program does not complete properly (e.g., the update statement program, etc.) or by improper editing. If the Tabs3 Client Ledger, Receipt Allocation and Accounts Receivable reports do not reflect the same totals, editing the client ledger and/or receipt allocation is necessary in order to ensure the accuracy of the Tabs3 data and to ensure that future payments and write offs allocate properly.
- All editing assistance is considered a data repair and therefore is billable. If editing is required, you will be asked to provide a Visa or MasterCard at the beginning of the call and will be billed at the Standard Billable Rate for Support Calls.
- Situations requiring editing are handled on an individual basis. Sometimes we receive requests for assistance in editing the client ledger and/or receipt allocation files when editing is not necessary. We reserve the right to refuse to provide editing assistance.
Note: Editing is discouraged, except as a last resort.
Situation: General Ledger account balances have been edited incorrectly,
account types have been changed incorrectly, or the firm has had data corruption. Account
balances must be edited to correct the resulting discrepancies.
- We will assist you at no charge with editing up to three months' worth of account
balances for a few accounts to help you learn how to edit correctly. If you require
additional assistance beyond this, whether during the same call or another call on a
different day, it will be considered a data repair. You will be asked to provide a Visa or
MasterCard at the beginning of the call.
Situation: Warning messages appear during the Bank Account
Reconciliation, or transactions seem to be missing or modified.
- We will assist with the standard troubleshooting procedures for reconciling a TAS or GLS
Bank Reconciliation. Depending how in-depth this troubleshooting needs to go, support may become
billable. You will be notified before this level of support is reached.
Situation: You are experiencing ongoing problems involving data corruption
or recurring fatal errors using our software.
- Problems involving data corruption or recurring fatal errors using our software are
typically caused by environment-related issues such as hardware problems, network problems
or operating system problems. We will assist you in resolving the initial errors at no
charge. If it is determined that you are experiencing recurring problems with data
corruption or fatal errors, we have experience working with these types of situations and
we would be happy to assist you in troubleshooting the cause of the errors; however, the
time spent working on such situations is billable. If it is determined that the errors
have been caused by a problem with our software, you will not be charged. If the problem
was caused by an outside factor (e.g., a hardware or network problem), the time spent on
the situation will be tracked and billed to your firm every two weeks. Your firm will be
billed whether we have resolved the issue or not. (Click here for
evaluation charges.) In most cases, you will need to work with a third party network
or hardware consultant.
- It is critical that your firm address these issues immediately. If you are unable
or you refuse to take the necessary steps to resolve the causes of these types of issues,
we cannot assist you with resolving any additional fatal errors or data corruption
situations that result.
Situation: You need assistance customizing PracticeMaster data files using
File Maintenance or Form Designer.
- We will show you how to set this up at no charge. If the changes you want to make
require us to walk you through extensive customization of the data (e.g., editing several
file layouts using the same procedure repeatedly), you will be asked to provide a Visa or
MasterCard, which will be billed for the time we spend assisting you since it is
considered beyond what the maintenance agreement covers.
Situation: You want us to create or customize a PracticeMaster custom
report or document.
- We will assist you with an overview of how to use the built-in Report Writer and/or
HotDocs or Word Document Assembly programs at no charge. We will walk you through setting
up the basics for the requested report or document. Specific questions regarding
pre-written reports and documents will typically be answered at no charge. However, if a
report or document requires extensive programming that you want us to figure out (e.g.,
setting up complex user defined fields, etc.), you will be asked to provide a Visa or
MasterCard, which will be billed for the time we spend. Likewise, if you want us to walk
you through coding several reports or documents, we will need a credit card to be billed
for our time beyond the initial report or document.
Situation: The data for one of your Tabs3 or PracticeMaster systems has become corrupt beyond
repair by standard means, and you want to send the data to us to be repaired by
programmers.
- When restoring from a good backup is not an option, a Technical Support Representative
will advise you if we may be able to repair your data. Time spent by our programmers in
repairing your data is not covered by the maintenance agreement, and will be billed at the
standard rate for data repair by programmers.
If the data can be repaired, our Technical Support Representative will inform you how the
billing will be handled once the data repair is complete.
Situation: You want to fax reports, statements, or other information to
us for review by the Technical Support Department.
- We do not provide fax support. If you request that a Technical Support Representative
spend time reviewing items you have faxed while not on a support call, you will be asked
to provide a Visa or MasterCard, which will be billed at the standard rate
for data and fax evaluation by Technical Support Representatives for the time spent.
- If a Technical Support Representative specifically requests that you fax statements or
reports to us, there will be no additional charge for time spent reviewing the fax during
a support call.
Firms that do not have a maintenance agreement must provide a Visa or MasterCard
in order to receive technical support. The software registration card for your sublicense
must also be on file at Software Technology, Inc. before we can support you. The credit card will be billed for
the duration of each support call at the standard billable rate for
support calls.
Note: These same conditions also apply to our authorized resellers who call us for technical support on behalf of firms that do not have a maintenance agreement.
Situation: You do not have a maintenance agreement and you are
experiencing ongoing problems involving data corruption or recurring fatal errors using
Tabs3 or PracticeMaster software.
- Problems involving data corruption or recurring fatal errors using Tabs3 or PracticeMaster software are
typically caused by environment-related issues such as hardware problems, network problems
or operating system problems. Once you have provided a Visa or MasterCard to be billed for
the support, we will assist you in resolving the initial errors at the standard
billable rate for support calls. If it is determined that you are experiencing
recurring problems with data corruption or fatal errors caused by an outside factor (e.g.,
a hardware or network problem), it is critical that your firm address these issues
immediately. We will not assist you in resolving these issues. If you are unable
to take the necessary steps to resolve the causes of these types of issues, we cannot
assist you with resolving any additional fatal errors or data corruption situations that
result. We recommend that you work with a third party network or hardware consultant to
determine and resolve the causes of these problems.
Situation: You do not have a maintenance agreement and the data for one of
your Tabs3 and PracticeMaster systems has become corrupt beyond repair by standard means. You want to send the
data to us to be repaired by programmers.
- When restoring from a good backup is not an option, a Technical Support Representative
will advise you if our Programming Department may be able to repair your data. Time
spent by our programmers in repairing your data will be billed at the standard rate for data repair by programmers.
If the data can be repaired, our Technical Support Representative will inform you how
the billing will be handled once the data repair is complete.
Situation: You do not have a maintenance agreement and you want to fax
reports, statements, or other information to us for review by the Technical Support
Department.
Situation: The Tabs3 Update Statements, Undo Updated Statements,
Write-Off, or Reverse Write-Offs program was interrupted and you
can not restore from a backup that was made before the program
was started.
- Support for firms in this situation is billable. The above programs are
critical turning points in the status of the Tabs3 data files. If any of the
above programs are interrupted, it
is extremely difficult and time consuming to determine the status of the data files.
Problems may arise in the future as a result of the interrupted process. Assistance with
these problems is billable regardless of whether or not the firm has a maintenance
agreement. You will be asked to provide a Visa or MasterCard, which will be billed at the standard billable rate for support calls for any assistance we provide in troubleshooting this problem. Additional details regarding this problem can be found in KB Article R10064,
"Update Statements Program Was Interrupted."
Situation: You need help for using an ODBC driver to extract data directly
from Tabs3 or PracticeMaster data files.
- Support for using a FairCom ODBC driver to extract data directly from the data files is
considered beyond what the maintenance agreement covers. Regardless of whether or not you
have a maintenance agreement for the software, you will be billed at the standard billable rate for support calls related to using the ODBC
driver. Note: Although all ODBC support calls are billable, we
can only assist you with support calls dealing with setting up a data source
or determining what information is available in which data files. We cannot assist you with
creating reports in other programs to make use of the extracted data. Additional
information regarding ODBC can be found in KB Article R10017,
"Working with ODBC."
COPYT3.EXE and SPLITT3.EXE SUPPORT
Situation: You need support for using the COPYT3.EXE or SPLITT3.EXE
programs.
- Support for using these utility programs is billable regardless of whether the firm has
a maintenance agreement or not. You will be billed at the standard
billable rate for support calls related to these programs. Additional information
regarding these programs can be found in KB Article R10202,
"COPYT3.EXE - Copy Tabs3 Data Utility Program" and R10203,
"SPLITT3.EXE - Split Tabs3 Data Utility Program."
Situation: You want data from non-Tabs3 and PracticeMaster programs converted for use with Tabs3 and PracticeMaster
systems.
- Our Programming Department may be able to convert your data for use with our systems. Typically, the first step in the data conversion process is to send your data to us for a free evaluation. (Please contact us before sending in your data.) If the Programming Department determines that the data can be converted successfully, you will receive a quote indicating how much the conversion will cost, along with any other special considerations. The quote must be signed by a partner in the firm and returned to us before the conversion will proceed. The hourly rate used to establish the quote is the standard rate for conversions from third party software by programmers.
- If you are using the TSCONV conversion program, and want a Technical Support Representative to walk you through the whole conversion process, you will be asked to provide a Visa or MasterCard, which will be billed at the standard billable rate for support calls. If you want us to examine any data prior to, during, or after running the conversion program, you will be asked to provide a Visa or MasterCard, which will be billed at the standard billable rate for support calls. If the data needs to be evaluated by a member of the Programming Department, Quality Assurance
or a Specialist, you will billed at the standard billing rate for
data evaluation by Programmers, Quality Assurance or a Specialist.
Standard Billable Rate for Support Calls
|
$25 per quarter hour ($100/hour) |
Data Evaluation and Data Repairs by Programmers
|
Firms with or without a maintenance agreement |
$50 per quarter hour ($200/hour) |
Data Evaluation and Data Repairs by Quality Assurance or a Specialist
|
Firms with a maintenance agreement |
$30 per quarter hour ($120/hour) |
|
Firms without a maintenance agreement |
$37.50 per quarter hour ($150/hour) |
Data and Fax Evaluation by the Technical Support Department
|
Firms with a maintenance agreement |
$25 per quarter hour ($100/hour) |
|
Firms without a maintenance agreement |
$30 per quarter hour ($120/hour) |
Conversions from Third Party Software by Programmers
THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, INC.
KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. SOFTWARE
TECHNOLOGY, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, INC. OR ITS
SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN
IF SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, INC. OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE
FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.
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reserved. Terms of Use
The maker of Tabs3 and PracticeMaster
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