Adding: A new client

Chapter Contents

{Classic}

{New Style}

Premvet 5 will now ask you a series of questions about the client and their animal. Until you are familiar with the kind of information you may store, you will want to complete the questions with reference to the previous section. It describes the questions you will encounter and the kind of information Premvet 5 is looking for. Once the record has been added, the 'Management prompt' will appear, and it is from this prompt that all client related functions take place.

What if I make a mistake?
Don't worry if you make a mistake while entering information about your new client. If you press the <ESC> key the system will jump you back a question at a time so you can re-enter your answer. Alternatively you can wait until all the questions are complete, at which point Premvet 5 will display the Management Prompt. From this prompt you can choose the Edit option and change any information stored on the record card.

But I'm on the wrong screen!
If you selected the option to add a new client by mistake, simply press the <ESC> key, or enter "END" as the client's name, and you will be returned to the main menu.

My client is already on the system, but I need to add a new animal.
If the animal you want to add belongs to a client that already exists on the system there is a different way of entering it called the "Tree View". You will learn about this and how Premvet 5 handles clients with in multiple animals shortly.

Client names

For the system to find clients easily, the client's surname should be entered first, then a comma and then the rest of the name, like this:

To make it easier, you can switch on Client Name Help, this will 'pop-up' a box prompting you for the appropriate information and format it correctly for you.

For compatibility with earlier versions of the software you can enter the name in reverse order e.g.

'MELVIN TOM MR' - Mr Tom Melvin

with the asterisk being used as a dummy character e.g.

'JONES*&*SON JIM MR' - Mr Jim Jones & Sons

Sometimes the first part of the client name is used for searching on instead of being reversed first. For example, you would want Edinburgh District Council to appear following a search for "Edinburgh". In order for this sort of client name to be printed correctly and easy to access, enter it in the normal order with a full stop/period (.) as the final character. Because of this feature a full stop should NOT be added as punctuation after the title e.g. 'Mr.'.

Management Record: Prompt line

Once you have completed entering information about a new client the Management Record prompt line is displayed. Premvet 5 displays a list of options detailing the range of functions you may now perform.

Correcting, adding or updating information

You may find that the questions you were asked while adding a new record do not cover a specific requirement or you need to correct errors made while adding the record. This section also applies to updating the record with changes to the address, or telephone number etc.

To add or change information on the screen you use the management option Edit.

Editing can be done in two ways:

• Moving a highlight bar around the screen with the arrow keys

• Classic Style - entering a '2 letter code'
  You will be prompted for:
  Two letter field code, ? for help or <RETURN> to end ..

  Here, Premvet 5 is asking you which piece of information you would like to edit. For most individual pieces of information on a record card, or fields (e.g. Client name, Address line 1 are both fields), there is a two letter abbreviation (the field code).These abbreviations are all two characters long and can be displayed by entering a question mark (?) at the above prompt. You will find that these abbreviations are very easy to remember and you should not need to use the help after a while. e.g.

  CN	Client Name
  A1	Address Line
  AN	Animal Name
  PO	Postcode

These methods are set on a per-user basis via access permission 113
(the default will be classic style).

To speed up the editing :

If you make changes to the 'Master' record you will be prompted to update all related records as well. This option is covered under Multiple Animals.

Changing the Status Field

If you are making changes to the status code for related animals you may find the 'invisible' Tree View option 'G'lobal of help. This will apply changes to the status code across all the related animals.

Un-Editable Fields Note: Some of the fields on the screen cannot be edited. This is because the value of the field is automatically calculated by Premvet 5 in response to information you've already entered. For example, Premvet 5 works out the number of days since the animal was last seen using the last consultation date.

Editing Balance Due
You may notice that the Balance due, Fees, Drugs, VAT and Payments fields do not have 'Classic edit codes' displayed. The Balance due is made up from the other four fields and the edit codes for these are:

These codes are only to be used in certain unusual circumstances. For example: for some reason - perhaps due to a hardware problem while adding a transaction - the clinical record is correct but the management record was not updated with the revised financial amounts. Therefore these codes are given here only so that they are available if needed.

Deleting record cards

Each record card on your computer takes up a certain amount of disk space. In order to save space on your computer, and ensure that searches complete at maximum speed, Premvet 5 can be configured to perform a short "housekeeping" task whenever you add a new client. Before creating a brand new record card, the system will first perform a search for any existing record cards which are no longer needed. If it finds such a card, any existing data is removed and your new client data is saved in its place.

If you have record cards which are obsolete, change the client name to 'DELETED'. Premvet 5 will now be able to recognise that the card is no longer in use, and will replace it with new client data at the first appropriate opportunity.

Note: To use this facility correctly, it is important to understand how Premvet 5 searches for obsolete cards. The system will begin by searching through your records in order, looking for the first occurrence of a client name that starts "DELE". If it finds such a card, it then checks that the rest of the client name matches the word "DELETED". If this is NOT the case, Premvet 5 will save time by automatically generating a new record card without searching the remainder of your data. So, if you had three record cards (1, 2, 3) where 2 and 3 were obsolete, Premvet 5 would stop to examine card number 2. If number 2's client name did not match "DELETED" {i.e. it reads "DELE" or "DELETE"} the system would automatically create card number 4 for your new client, without even checking card number 3. For this reason it is important to check that every obsolete card is correctly named "DELETED". It is worth checking every few months for clients called DELE and checking that they are correct and therefore re-used.