TechTips

Avoiding A Common Mistake in FireApp for Units Cancelled Enroute

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Scenario: E702 and A702 have been dispatched on a call and E702 is cancelled enroute but A702 works the call. A702 takes the person to the hospital. The E702 officer returns to the station to work on his/her FireApp reports and marks both the unit and incident report as cancelled.

Might this sound familiar? Since A702 personnel still had a patient and a transport, FireApp is confused.

The MCFRS database administrator spends a lot of time clearing up such issues before he may send date to NFIRS.

If your unit was cancelled enroute, you absolutely want to identify that in the unit report. Please do not mark the entire incident as cancelled, though.

 

Stopping Your Network Account from Locking Up Constantly

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Scenario: You recently changed your network password, consistent with county policy. However, the account keeps locking up on you (as though you have keyed in the wrong password three times). Why does this keep happening?

Occasionally, we all set up e-mail accounts on various devices and forget about them. Have you recently used a different device? Your own? A friend’s/spouse’s/partner’s? In this scenario, you probably set it up at some point over the last three months and then didn’t use it again. You changed your password on the primary device you often use (computer/tablet/phone) and now the old device is trying to access mail with the wrong password. It tries three times and locks up the account.

What to do?

Delete the account setup on those old devices. Reset your password using the Reset Password link on ePortal (instead of signing in). Log in with the new password.

Running an Activity Report in MCtime

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Managers may need to check up on the MCtime activity of any employee in order to determine if (s)he has performed certain functions. Use the following directions to run a report instead of looking through various timecard audit trails.

  • Access the General menu and select Reports.
  • Expand the Detail Genie section and select Timecard Audit Trail.
  • Click the Set Options
  • Select Edits by Managers.
  • Choose the Edit by Select Managers radio button and ask students to search for each of their BCs and click the Add button to move each one to the right-hand column.
  • Click the Run Report
  • Note to students they may click the Refresh Status button if they are feeling impatient.
  • Click the View Report button when the report has completed processing. It will open as a PDF.

Note: If the report does not open, it is probably a pop-up blocker issue. You will need to disable the pop-up blocker for this site in order to view the reports.

Checking for Correct Holiday Move Dates

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

There are a fair number of holidays for which FRS personnel are paid. Likewise, some managers perform incorrect pay codes moves from HDP to CLH. An ideal approach to know when it happens without reviewing every timecard is:

  • Access the Check Overtime
  • Select your shift.
  • Select a range of the beginning of the pay period up until (but not including) the holiday (e.g., July 1-3 for the July 4 holiday if July 1 is the beginning of the pay period).
  • Double-click HDP and then CLH.
  • Look for any entries in the CLH column.
  • Repeat the process for a range of the day after the holiday through the end of the pay period.
  • Repeat the process for the day of the holiday. If there is a blank for HDP and CLH (both), something is in error. It could be the move went from HDP to CL3, for example.

    Note: This process will not catch an error of CLH to CLH.

Clearing a Saved Username and Password in Chrome

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag
  • Click the button of three horizontal lines (vertically stacked) that appears at the far right of your address bar.
  • Choose Settings.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link for Show Advanced Settings.
  • Scroll down to the Passwords and Forms section.
  • Click Manage Passwords.
  • Find the entry in the Saved Passwords list for the item to clear and click the X on the far right side of the box to delete the item.
  • Click the Done button at the bottom-right corner of the dialog box.
  • Close the settings tab.

Using Good Data in a Misunderstood FireApp Field

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Scenario: You are on the EMS crew of a box alarm. You go to the fire and set up shop but no patients ever need to come your way. Should you list BLS care (and/or ALS care) since those were the capabilities of the personnel on board?

The answer is no. As the field name implies, we’re talking about what level actions were taken. If you never saw a patient, you’re not going to list that you performed BLS care (and/or ALS care if a medic unit was involved).

So, what to use? Not that I’m a big fan of the Other (Misc) option, but it’s still an option. If you’re ever going to use something that ends in Other, please make sure you have carefully looked to see that no other options apply (such as Standby). We need to report good data, after all.

Setting Outlook to Launch a New Window for a New Message

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Do you want Outlook 365 to give you a new window for each new message you start? You have this ability but the default is to put new messages in the reading pane. Make the change now…

  • Click the gear symbol and choose Options.
  • Click Settings on the left side of the window in the vertical navigation.
  • Find Reading Pane settings on the right side of the screen.
  • Select Type in a New Window.
  • Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.

Note: To use this feature, you will need to turn your pop-up blocker off for this site if you haven’t already. If the new window is blocked when you click New Mail, simply click the blocker settings at that point and enable for this site.

Finding Mail in Your Folders on Your Phone

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Scenario: You set up your e-mail account on your phone, complete with several sub-folders. When you go into those folders on your phone, the folders are empty! (Feel free to insert dramatic background music here in your own mind.)

What happened?!

The phone is set up to sync only a certain date range of mail. The mail you’re hoping to see in folders is probably older than the sync range.

To change this:

  • Access your e-mail account settings on your phone.
  • Find Mail Days to Sync (iPhone) or Days of Mail to Sync (Android).
  • Change to something more fitting to your needs.

Recovering Deleted Items in Outlook 365

Posted on by Jeff Feiertag

Even if you have deleted something in Outlook (e.g., mail, contacts, calendar item…) and even if you have emptied your Deleted Items folder, you may still be able to recover something that would otherwise be gone.

  • Find and right-click the Deleted Items folder on the left side of the screen.
  • Choose Recover Deleted Items.
  • Click once on the item you would like to recover.
    • Use the search box at the top of the window to track down what you are trying to recover if you don’t see it immediately.
    • Click the check-box to the left of each item you would like to recover if there are multiple items to retrieve at once.
  • Click the Recover link at the bottom-right corner of the pop-up window.
  • Click the OK button on the new pop-up that explains where your item(s) will go.
  • Close the window.