Table of Contents
Join Brian Hatch and Dane Whitcomb as they demonstrate the Menu Design process and various controls you have over the options in the RecTrac Main Menu.
Menu Design Part 1
Summary
In part 1, Brian introduces the RecTrac Main Menu and explains how you can navigate through it to access the programs you need.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll give an overview of Menus and navigation in RecTrac. All programs in RecTrac are access to the Menus. The menu is one key component of permissions in your database. To access the menu, you can Click on the bank of dots in the top left in the menu will pop out from the sidebar. The menu by default is broken up into several different Tabs or areas. So by default, we have a home area that's going to be expanded and showing your favorites underneath that the different menu items are grouped together by function. So here we have our processing items management, inquiry and reporting. You can drill into any of these areas by clicking on them, and then they're going to be grouped together based off of the different modules. If I Click on activity and management, for example, I can see all my activity management related menu items underneath that, to navigate back to the higher level of the menu, you can just Click on the Go Back Button at the top.
Brian Hatch 0:58
In addition, you have the ability to search through the filter option at the top. So if I know I'm looking for Section management, I can just Type in the word section. And I can see all the related menu items with that keyword and activity section management is listed there as well. In addition to have the ability to star our favorite items in the menu, so if I wanted to turn on global sales as a favorite, I can hover over that item and Click on the star. And you'll notice that it's going to display on your favorites area so maybe giving you quicker access to that. And for the first five items that you star, they'll also be related be listed on the left for quick access as well. These Favorites can be rearranged by clicking on the little pencil editor next to favorites and also be removed from this area as well. The other items listed under the main menu are going to be opening the application in new Tabs. So if you wanted to open up multiple global sales are multiple household management's. By default, we're going to open up one and when you Click on the item again from the menu is going to revert back to the one that you already have open.
Brian Hatch 1:58
So for example, if I Click on global sales and Click on global sales, again, it's going to see that already have it open and just assume you want to go back to your global sales tab. If you truly wanted to open up to global sales, you just need to turn on the open application in new tab, and then launch it the menu item that you're looking for. So now I can actually have two options or panels open for any given menu item. And that can apply to any menu item in the database. And in addition to that, we have the option to disable Screen cache. So if you ever feel like you're fighting something in a given Screen, that should be changing based on some edits you've made, you can always turn on the disabled Screen cache and launch a menu item to force the Screen to update based off all the current parameters and that can sometimes help with troubleshooting different issues that you run into. To round out the menu, we have the notifications area on the bottom left. So notifications is going to show you all receipts and report that you've previewed in your session along with any other notifications for processes that have run and completed.
Brian Hatch 2:56
Underneath that we have our support options. So this is going to show us our educational support related items along with the RecTrac version that we're currently running. Underneath that we have our user details. So this is going to show us obviously the user we're logged in as but all the other corresponding information for our session. So the user group, we've selected the workstation that we're processing on, along with the Cashore that's associated with it. In the top right of that area, you have your change password function as well. And the last menu item is the ability to log out and your session once you're complete in RecTrac and that rounds out the topic of Menus in RecTrac
Menu Design Part 2
Summary
In part 2, Brian reviews the simple menu permissions option available for customizing your Menus in RecTrac.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll review the options available for customizing your Menus in RecTrac. All programs and RecTrac are accessed through the menu. So the menu is one key component of permissions in your database. There are two ways to customize and or restrict access in RecTrac. And both methods use your menu design Profile. So I'm going to open up Profile assignments in my database. And I already have my menu design profiles expanded on the left hand side. So your menu design profiles are typically going to mimic your user group setup in your database. So you can see on the right hand side, my user groups expanded. And I have a typical In most databases, you have a lower level group and a higher level group. So an example would be the front desk level group, which is typically going to be more restricted on the management side, you're going to be handling most processing. And then you have a manager group, which is going to be a little bit more open is going to have more access than the lower level group. And you can see I have those two areas, or those two groups kind of mimicked over here on the Profile side.
Brian Hatch 1:03
So that's typically what we'd see in our Profile Build out. If I hit update on our front desk group, you can see that the Profile itself breaks down into two different areas. So our simple menu permissions are listed at the bottom. So this is one option for customizing your Menus. When this option is selected, you can see that there's four different Pick list available. And they're broken down by function, management, processing, Inquiry and Reports. And you can see if a module list for each one, so it's very easy to go through each function and decide which modules you want to have the user have access to. So for example, I'm in my front desk Profile right now, I'd probably in most cases restrict down most different management options. For a front desk level group. This is a great an easy option to initially get set up with Menus, but it is very rigid. So for example, if I wanted to give a user my front desk user access to maybe to one individual activity management program, but not another one, you can see this is kind of module based. So it's kind of an all or nothing with simple menu permissions.
Brian Hatch 2:03
Another example would be System Administration under management, right, you typically would want to restrict that down for a lower level group in a database. But then you realize that household management is actually a system admin labeled menu items, you're actually restricting down that so very rigid when it comes to these. So it's a great way to initially get set up. But ultimately, we turn this off in many cases, just because we need that higher level of customization. And that's where the top part of the Profile comes in. The menu designs are going to be listed that are available in your database. And the one that you want linked to the corresponding Profile is going to be linked on their selected side. So what this does is it's going to look to the menu management area in your database to see what custom menu you built specifically for the front desk in this example, and this gives you a higher level of customization so you can individually select the programs that you want this group to actually work with and not have to rely on individual module settings. And we'll cover that menu management built out in a separate video.
Menu Design Part 3
Summary
In part 3, Brian offers another method available for greater customization of your Menus in RecTrac through Menu Management.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll walk through the setup components you'll need in order to customize your Menus in using menu management in RecTrac, there are three components that you'll need to set up in order to use custom Menus. And we'll walk through each component and make a few customizations in our example, the first component being system code management, and I have that open already at the top. And actually, I already have narrowed down to menu design Type. So you can see my database, I have an administrator, front desk and a manager system code listed here. System codes are very straightforward, all you need to do is set a code and the corresponding description which can be the same value, and they just need to be flagged as a menu design Type. So you can Build out the different structure, menu items that you'll need using System codes as your first step, your next step is going to be building the corresponding profiles. So under Profile Management, again, I already have this narrowed down to my menu design profiles. You can see this mimics what I did in my system code setup.
Brian Hatch 0:59
So if I wanted to open up my administrator Profile for manager design, you can see at the bottom, I have my simple menu permissions turned off. So I actually don't want to be using Simple Menu permissions, I'm going to be relying on the design above there. So in my example, anybody who is going to be linked to the administrator group, for example, and Profile is going to be pulling from the administrator menu design. So that's what I've moved over here on the mini design Window. Now that that's set on this Profile, I can just hit save. And the final step of the Profile is going to be linking it in Profile assignments. So if I switch over to Profile assignments, I have my menu design profiles already expanded. And typically there's going to be linked at the user group level. So if I expand my user groups, a lot of times the user groups are going to mimic again, the structure you're doing with your menu. So for example, under my administrator group, you can see that I've clicked and dragged in my administrator Profile, and applied it to my administrator group. So anybody log in will be pulling in that menu record.
Brian Hatch 2:01
Now that I got that infrastructure set up, I can actually create my custom Menus as my final step. So if I switch over to menu management, you can see in my database, I actually don't have any custom Menus currently built. So that just means when I log in, I'm pulling the default RecTrac menu. So if I want to make any customizations at this point, I'm just going to hit Add, the base Screen is going to be your RecTrac menu defaults. So that's going to always be your starting point for creating one from scratch. And then you just get to decide, okay, I'm taking my menu defaults. And I want to apply that to what design so administrator would be the first level and the highest level of my database. So that's why I'll show you an example, I would want to introduce doing this from scratch, you want to start with the highest level and kind of work down from there. So I'm just going to hit Continue, and it's going to copy over those defaults to my administrator record. The Screen itself is going to break down into a couple different areas on the left hand side, you're going to have your available fields that you can kind of Click and drag components into your menu record from the left hand side. So these are available fields, the fields on Screen are going to be what your current menu record is pulling from. And if you highlight any individual menu components, you'll have they'll feel parameters on the right hand side.
Brian Hatch 3:11
So you'll see by default, right now I've got home processing, management inquiry reporting, and that should mimic what my current menu is home processing, management, inquiry and reporting. So at this point, I can do several different customizations. By just expand one of my groups here, I can see that I have my current menu values, again, that are going to match up with what I'm seeing right now under Favorites, you can highlight any menu item and you can actually adjust a label if you feel like it helps explain what in a menu item is going to be used for by adjusting a Field label. You can reorder items by clicking and dragging any items within a given group. Or even if you want to move and consolidate groups or times, you can move items from other areas and just Click and drag them up to come to get the order in the structure that you're looking for. In addition, you can actually remove components that you're not losing altogether. So for example, if I go under inquiry, you can see that all the modules are going to be listed here by default. And I can actually Click and drag off entire groups. For items I know that I'm not going to be using in my database. So it's an easy way to kind of get a better starting point for just including the menu items in the structure that you're going to want for not only for the administrator group, but likely for all the other Menus in your database.
Brian Hatch 4:23
Once you've made those edits, you can Click done and your first menu record is now built and will apply to administrators. From here if you're building out additional levels, I would recommend cloning that group that you just started with. So hopefully that's the best starting point for the next level down as far as access goes. So in my database, if I wanted to now Build out the manager group, I can choose that design, copy over the administrative level that I've already adjusted. And if I hit refresh, you can see that I now have a manager design as well that should be an exact copy of my administrator group. And I can make my edits there to kind of remove the restrictions and the items again that I'm manager might not need that administrator would. And you can kind of continue that path down to Build out all the different levels that you're going to be needed in your database. Once you've built these records, you can test them out by having a user log out and log back in and RecTrac. If you're logged in the the trick is to log out because the menu record is actually pulled when you log into the system. So having them log out log back in should reflect the changes that you've made in menu management. And another note, if you're using the Z Z Z user, that user is set to pull the full menu by default. So if you're trying to test a menu, you want to make sure you're not logged in as ZZZ as in your log in his actual user in your database, and that is a walkthrough of menu management in RecTrac.
Menu Design Part 4
Summary
In part 4, Dane reviews how to set up specific programs to auto-open from the menu upon initial login. This feature is great for those programs specific user groups may need to access daily.
Video
Transcript
Dane Whitcomb 0:05
In this video, we're going to be going over the menu auto open feature with this is going to allow you to do is when you log into RecTrac Initially, and it's a new session get started, it's going to auto open some programs that you might commonly use just to speed up the process. And maybe allow everything to kind of work the same for a group of front end users who might just use one or two programs throughout their shift. So to do this, we're gonna go to menu management. And the first step is just knowing what menu are the users that I want to have this auto open option setup for what menu are they a part of. So as you can see down here, I'm logged into my user in the admin user group. So the best way to kind of determine what Menu Group I want to change is going to Profile assignments.
Dane Whitcomb 1:00
Looking at my user, so I can see here, under my user, I've got no menu design Profile links, so we know nothing's at the user level for me. And then if I go to the admin user group, which we saw, that was what I was next to part of, so it goes user name, user, group, workstation, etc. So now I could look at the admin user group, and I can see I have an admin menu design linked to me. So that would be the one I want to change if I wanted to affect my user. So this might be custom to you, as far as what menu design Profile, you actually want to change. So you'd go into the one or add the one if it doesn't already exist. And actually, I think I clicked into manager, so I want to be an admin, I'm going to close out of this. So we're gonna Click change. The menu designs identified right in that kind of middle column there.
Dane Whitcomb 1:58
And in here is all the different Menus that you can currently see through the menu, as long as they're not flagged as hidden. If you Click on one, as long as it says updatable, not hidden, that'd be something that you can get through through the menu. So basically, whatever program in here we want to auto open, we could Click on it, so it's a Touch POS is one of them. So if I Click on the factory, we can do it even right from the Inline Edit, you can either Click into advanced Field parameters and find it or just select the auto open and if you Toggle it on, that's just going to flag that when I log in anybody linked to this menu group, Touch POS is going to auto open. So we'll do one more. Let's say we also want to look under processing. Say we also want pass visit processing, sometimes that's a common one to auto open. So we're just gonna turn on the auto open for those two. And that's really all there is to it. It's just making sure you're doing it for the right menu design.
Dane Whitcomb 3:02
And in order for the changes through effect to auto open, obviously you would need to log out and log back in. So that would just be the final test here. see two Tabs open and we do so we've got our touchscreen and our visit processing just allows for some more menu customization hopefully allows kind of all your front end clerks to kind of log in and not really have to find any programs. It's just already up for them.