Helpful Hints and Tips

  • Attend an RTA New System Basic Training Course (one FREE training certificate is included with the software purchase). This course explains all of the main features and helps you implement your system quickly. The numerous hands-on workshops enforce and help you to retain what you learn. Call to register for a class soon!
  • A help line is available at the bottom of most screens. If you are unsure of what to do or what to enter, look for the help line.
  • Lookup lists are available throughout the system. When you are prompted for a record number and don't know the exact number, press F1 or choose List (when available) to access a lookup list.
  • When running reports that prompt for a data range, many times you can press F2 in the ending number field to use the same number as the starting number. This eliminates having to reenter the number when you only want data for a specific data record and not for a range of data.

  • Use the Quick Help (Ctrl+Q) feature to view data records from anywhere in the RTA system. If you're in the middle of entering a purchase order and need to check details for a part or vendor record, Quick Help comes in handy because you can look up that record without having to exit the purchase order.

  • Be consistent in naming conventions to make sure your groupings come as you intend. For example, for vehicle make, FORD, FRD, and Ford would be three different makes. If you ran a report for FORD, vehicles with makes of FRD and Ford would be excluded.
  • Throughout this manual, you'll see descriptions for data fields stating something similar to this, "This field is provided for your benefit and is not used by the RTA system." Entering data in these fields is optional. Although this data is not required, you may wish to add it for your own reference. Most data fields of these types are available for query in the Report Writer add-on option. For example, the vehicle record contains many data fields of this type such as mechanical information. The vehicle engine make and model aren't required but inputting this data enables you to query data for vehicles of certain engine makes or models.
  • Templates are available throughout the RTA system; use them whenever possible to save time entering data.
  • Use shortcut keys whenever you can to reduce having to jump back and forth from keyboard to mouse. Shortcut keys are accessed by holding down the alt key while pressing the shortcut letter indicated (e.g., press alt+o to choose OK).
  • Use tab or enter to move forward from field to field.
  • Use shift+tab to return to the previous field.
  • In drop down lists, click to view all the available choices, use the up and down arrows to scroll through the choices, or press the first letter to skip to a specific choice. For example, in the vehicle fuel type drop down list, press D to immediately select DIESEL as the fuel type; press U to select UNLEADED.
  • Entries made in RTA are case-sensitive—ABC123, abc123, and Abc123 are not the same and are treated as
  • When in doubt, check the manual or call for technical support for assistance. The RTA User's Manual can be accessed by selecting System > RTA Information > Manual from the RTA main menu.

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