As mentioned in prior articles, placing accounts on test is hugely important. In fact, as we showed you in our Beginning Stages post as well as 5 Times to Test, something as simple as placing an account on test is where Activating an account begins and it can save you and your customer from having to pay fines.
Although we have Videos to guide you through the process of placing accounts on test, not everyone has figured it out. Some people just need a reference to go back to.
This post? It’s for those people.
To put an account on test, you need to select the appropriate account, then look for the little wrench and hammer icon you see above in the black square. That’s the TEST icon. Push that button.
The above picture is the screen that will pop up after you select the TEST icon. As shown above, you’re given 3 options. Test ALL, Test List, and Test Except. The two most commonly used are the Test ALL (which refers to placing the entire account on test) and Test LIST (which allows you to place specific zones on test). Test EXCEPT is what allows you to place the entire account EXCEPT specific zones/areas. Easy Peasy and fairly common sensical, right?
To place your entire account on test, you’re simply going to select the ALL button in purple, then either select the pre-set time buttons which are pretty self explanatory, or if the time you need isn’t one of the pre-made buttons, you’re going to push the CUSTOM button as highlighted above.
From there you scroll downward until you see the part where it says Category (also squared out above), and click the drop down. You’ll see all kinds of options there. And if those options are not to your liking, you simply manually type the time into the effective dates and times–in military time. This is also how you can pre-set a TEST for a customer.
The final step? Hitting that Check Mark at the bottom of the screen to accept your entry, of course!
And if you need to place specific zones on test? Simple!
First you press the LIST button in green, then scroll down to the bottom. You see that plus sign? Click it and it will turn white and add the last line you can see at the bottom of this screen shot.
Add the signal ID and zone in the appropriate boxes. Then enter the Event Code. That will be the Descriptions–like FIR (for Fire), BUR (Burglary), SUP (Supervisory), LOW (Low Battery), etc. When those three spots are filled out, click the little floppy disk looking icon next to the X icon. That’s your save button. Click it.
From there, add the appropriate preset or custom times in the big box on top, then Click the Check Mark to complete.
Yes, it’s really that simple! And if you’re still wondering how to Activate or Cancel accounts? Go back up to the top of this post and click the hyperlink that says Beginning Stages. The details are all there.