Softshare WebCATS Online Help

There are two ways to navigate this help file. You can browse the Frequently Asked Questions section to see if your particular question is a common one and is answered in detail here, or you can browse the table of contents to find more general information regarding WebCATS' interface and various features. Either way, you should find this help file easy to read and navigate.

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Table of Contents

In this help, the following main topics are discussed:

 Frequently Asked Questions

 System Requirements

 Accessing WebCATS

 Understanding Permissions

 Navigating WebCATS

 Viewing Records

 Filtering Records

 Subsets

 MyWebCATS

 Creating Records

 Understanding Fields and Features in Records

 Editing Records

 Deleting Records

 Reports

 DLA and SBA-Mandated Reports (Worksheets)

 Sending E-mail

 Bid Match Program

Note: The WebCATS component of your Softshare 'CATS solution is meant to be used in your daily client activity tracking and reporting activities. WebCATS is not responsible for the administration of Softshare 'CATS. All administrative setup for Softshare 'CATS is performed in WinCATS. This includes setting up user accounts and permissions, global configurations, center records, and WebCATS notices (both public and private). For information on performing these setup steps, see the Softshare 'CATS Database Administrator Guide, available for download from Softshare eService.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a burning question? Browse our FAQs to see if others have had the same question. You may just find that quick answer or those exact step-by-step instructions you're looking for. But even if you don't find the answer to your specific question here, remember that this help file covers all topics from a general overview standpoint and it's likely that you'll be able to find your answer or extrapolate the necessary steps from other areas of this help file.

FAQs are organized by the following topics:

 Reporting & Subsetting

General

• One of your reports comes close to the output I'm looking for, but not quite. How can I tweak it?
• My reports and mailing labels aren't being properly formatted during printing. How can I fix this?
• How do I generate parts I, II, and III of the SBA 641 Form?
• How can I keep Internet Explorer's header and footer from printing on forms such as the SBA 641?
• What's a Comparative Award Report?
• I'm trying to report on a grouping of records, but there is no Report button available. Why not?
• How do I delete a saved subset?
• How do I create a list of favorite reports?
• What is the "Network Favorites" tab?

Grouping Records Based on Criteria They Have in Common (via Reports & Subsetting)

• How do I find all clients that were active on the Bid Match program at some point during the year?
• How can I list out all conferences that were held during a certain period of time, along with the conferences' attendees?
• Can I find all the contacts from a particular county that attended training?
• How do I search for clients that don't have an e-mail address?
• How do I find all clients marked as "Start-up" who have now been in business more than one year?
• I've created a client subset. How do I find the number of counseling hours provided to this group of clients? Or the number of loans obtained by them?
• How do I find companies based on the products or services they provide?

Custom Reports

• What are "Softshare Sample" custom reports?
• When I export a custom report, the field order does not match the order I specified when designing the report. Why not?

EDMIS

• How do I calculate the following SBA milestones/goals: new businesses created, capital infusion, extended engagement, and long-term counseling clients?

 Sending E-Mail

 General Viewing, Creating, Editing, and Deleting of Records

 Client Records

 Contact Records

 Counseling Session Records

 Conference Records

 MyWebCATS

 EDMIS

 Bid Match Program

Search Profiles

• How do I search in a profile?
• How can I keep a client record's FSC, NAICS, and SIC codes from being automatically added to the client's profile?
• Why doesn't my newly created profile reflect the e-mail delivery method and address shown in the client record?
• I just inactivated or reactivated a client's search profile. Why doesn't the client record reflect this?
• How do the "and not" and "ignore" search statements differ?
• What is a Global file?
• What are unrestrict statements used for?
• What does the exclamation point (!) signify in a profile?
• What is the "small" database section?
• What is category 0 (zero)?
• Why is there a state abbreviation in my section restriction statement?
• What is the option transport statement for?

Bid Match Output and Delivery

• Is there a way to easily convert ALL of my bid match clients to the mybidmatch.com delivery format?
• How do I interpret the matching keywords that display at the bottom of every bid opportunity?
• How can I view the bid opportunities my clients receive?
• How do I change the e-mail address that bid match output is delivered to?
• Why doesn't my newly created profile reflect the e-mail delivery method and address shown in the client record?

General Bid Match Program Management

• How do I find all clients that are currently active on the Bid Match program?
• How do I find all clients that were active on the Bid Match program at some point during the year?
• Can I request that Softshare add a site to the USABID database?

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System Requirements

All that is needed to run WebCATS is a computer with access to the Internet and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher installed. Other browser types including Netscape, Firefox, and earlier versions of Internet Explorer are not supported.

Note: If you use pop-up blockers, Softshare recommends disabling it for your WebCATS URL as it may prohibit some of WebCATS' features from displaying.

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Logging into WebCATS

To log into WebCATS, open Internet Explorer and enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) used to access your center's WebCATS installation in the browser Address field. If you do not know what URL to use to access WebCATS, consult your system administrator.

When you initially access WebCATS, a log-in screen displays as shown below. This screen lists any public WebCATS notices enabled for your Softshare 'CATS installation and contains fields for entering your user ID and password.

When you log into WebCATS, you do so using a user account ID and password initially set up by a system administrator in WinCATS. You cannot view user account settings from WebCATS; however, you can request a Permissions report for your user account from your system administrator. For more information on permissions, see Understanding Permissions.

Enter your administrator-defined user ID and password in the fields provided in the log-in screen, then click Log in. The password field in the log-in screen is case sensitive but the user ID field is not.

Logging Out

When you are finished with your WebCATS session, it is important to log out for the following reasons:

• On shared or public computers, logging out of WebCATS prevents unauthorized users from viewing WebCATS data.
• The maximum number of users that can be logged in concurrently is determined by the number of licensed users for your installation of WebCATS. If you do not log out of WebCATS, the system considers you as logged in for up to one hour. This may prevent other users from logging in once the user limit is reached.

To log out of WebCATS, click the Log Out button in the upper title bar. This displays the WebCATS log-in screen. At this point, you cannot use your browser’s Back button to return to your WebCATS session. If you need to log back in, you must do so manually from the log-in screen.

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Understanding Permissions

A client account, also known as a user, consists of a user name and password and a set of permissions. When you log into WebCATS, it is your client account that determines your level of access to the database. To see the permissions assigned to your account, request a Permissions report from your system administrator. This report displays the following information for your user account:

• Home center
• Default counselor
• Default funding source
• Client ID lock
• MyWebCATS user lock
• Permission level for each database area and center

Home Center

The home center is the center you are most closely affiliated with. WebCATS assumes that you are most interested in the data of your home center and, for this reason, makes the home center the current active center when you initially log in. Assuming you have the appropriate view permissions, you can change the current active center to a center other than your home center, as discussed in Switching Between Centers.

Default Counselor

When you create new records, WebCATS automatically completes the records’ Counselor fields with the default counselor that is associated with your user account.

Default Funding Source

The default funding source is the funding source you most commonly work under. When you create new records, WebCATS automatically completes the records’ Funding Source fields with the default funding source that is associated with your user account. 

If your account has a funding source lock associated with it, it will display underneath the default funding source, as shown in the following illustration.

There are two types of funding source locks that can be placed on your user account:

• Funding Source Lock for Data Entry. If your account's funding source is locked for data entry, you will not be able to edit the Funding Source field in any records that you create or modify, regardless of the add or edit permissions assigned to your account.
• Funding Source Lock for Reporting. If your account's funding source is locked for reporting, you will not be able to view or generate reports for any client activity records or conference records that are funded by a source other than your account's default funding source. This applies to client activity and conference records only.

Client ID Lock

If the phrase "User is not permitted to edit client IDs" displays underneath your account's default funding source, you will not be able to edit client IDs in existing records or overwrite the system-defined client IDs automatically generated for new client records.

MyWebCATS User Lock

If your user account locks user selection for MyWebCATS, you will not be able to view recently edited records that were created by any user account other than yours from the MyWebCATS interface.

Permission Level for Each Database Area and Center

The Softshare 'CATS database is broken down into seven areas. For each database area, a set of permissions is listed. If you have a permission type for a particular database area at more than one center, the center IDs at which you have that permission are listed after the colon, as shown in the next graphic. If you have a permission for a particular database area at all centers, then there is no center ID listing, also shown in the next graphic.

For each database area listed, there are six total permissions that can be assigned to your account:

• View records. If your account has view permissions for a particular database area, you can view those record types for all centers listed.
• Report on records. If your account has report permissions for a particular database area, you can run reports and worksheets on those record types for all centers listed.
• Edit records. If your account has edit permissions for a particular database area, you can edit all aspects of those record types (except for center ownership) for all centers listed. Edit permissions are also necessary to save subsets consisting of those record types.
• Edit center ownership. If your account has center ownership edit permissions for a particular database area, you can also edit the Center fields for those record types for all centers listed. Please note, however, that in order for you to successfully edit a record’s center information (i.e. assign a record to a different center), you must also have add permissions in that database area for the center you are assigning the record to.
• Add records. If your account has add permissions for a particular database area, you can add new records for that database area for all centers listed.
• Delete records. If your account has delete permissions for a particular database area, you can delete records found in that database area for all centers listed.

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Navigating WebCATS

When you log into WebCATS, you're presented with a split-pane view. The left pane, called the navigation menu, displays the basic commands you can use in WebCATS. The right pane, called the view pane, displays the details of the record or feature you're currently working with.

The following sections review key navigation tools that display in each WebCATS screen:

• Navigation Menu
• Back Button
• Recent Visits List

Navigation Menu

The WebCATS navigation menu lists the activities or commands that you can perform in WebCATS, organized under six major categories: View, eCenter, Add, Tools, Other, and Help. Depending on the permissions settings configured for your user account as well as your center's general Softshare 'CATS configuration, you may not see some commands.

You can collapse or expand any of the menu categories by clicking the - or + button that displays to the left of each category. To execute a command, simply click it. 

The following table lists the commands available on the WebCATS navigation menu, briefly summarizing each command’s purpose. 

Back Button

Due to WebCATS' extensive use of frames and server-side scripting, you may not always be able to return to previously accessed WebCATS screens using Internet Explorer's Back button. Instead, you should use WebCATS' Back button, which appears in the title bar of each WebCATS screen, to return to a previously displayed record or view.

Recent Visits List

Also included in the title bar of each WebCATS screen is the Recent Visits drop-down list, a system-maintained listing of the records and views that you have accessed during the current WebCATS session (starting with the current view and ending with the least recent one).

Like the WebCATS Back button, the Recent Visits drop-down list can be used to navigate to previously displayed WebCATS views. To return to a particular view listed in the Recent Visits drop-down, simply select that view from the list, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: The Recent Visits list may not include some previously accessed WebCATS views, including record add and edit views. Also, views that were accessed more than once during the current session will not be listed multiple times.

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Viewing Records

To view a record in WebCATS, first open the category of records you would like to view. For example, if you would like to view counseling sessions, select View|Counseling Sessions from the left navigation menu. This displays a summary listing of counseling session records, as shown in the next graphic. You can sort this summary view using any of the columns by simply clicking the column title.

Note: Only records that belong to the current active center and match the default filter settings (see Filtering Records) initially display in a summary listing.

In the upper portion of each summary view, one or more buttons display. These buttons allow you to perform actions for the listed records such as reporting on them or e-mailing the contacts found within the records, to name a few of the available actions. There are four common action buttons found in summary views, each discussed in other areas of this help:

• For information on the Report button, see Reports.
• For information on the E-mail button, see Sending E-mail.
• For information on the Search button, see Performing Quick Searches for Clients, Companies, and Contacts.
• For information on the Comparative... button, see the What's a Comparative Award Report? FAQ.

To review additional details for one of the records shown in the summary list, click the corresponding record name (for client/company, counselor, contact, or conference records), date (for client activity, inquiry, or list records) or request number (for eCenter counseling or conference request records). This displays a view-only version of the record like the one shown in the next graphic.

The following sections cover some additional considerations that apply when viewing record data in WebCATS:

• Switching Between Centers
• Viewing Related Records
• Printing Records

Switching Between Centers

Although WebCATS initially displays only records associated with your home center upon login, you can review records associated with a different center (assuming you have the appropriate view permissions) by using the Tools|Select Center navigation menu command to switch between centers.

Clicking Tools|Select Center displays a list of centers configured for your Softshare 'CATS database, as shown in the next graphic. To begin viewing records for one of the centers in this list, simply click its name. You'll be taken to the client/company summary record listing and, from there, can navigate to other record types or tasks.

Note: Centers that have an inactive status do not display for selection in WebCATS.

The center for which you are currently viewing records in WebCATS is known as your active center. In WebCATS, only one center can be active at any given time. You cannot view summarized records associated with more than one center at a time except in special cases, as when viewing "All Centers" subset output (see Subsets); records associated with line items on a multiple-center worksheet (see Working with Worksheets); the activity history list for a client, contact, or counselor record (see Activity History List); the results of a quick search (see Quick Searches); the *Last Client View; or the results of a duplicate record check.

Note: You cannot edit center information from WebCATS, regardless of the permissions defined for your account. Center records can only be created, updated, or deleted from WinCATS.

Viewing Related Records

Because WebCATS is a Web application, it takes advantage of hyperlinks. These hyperlinks allow you to quickly jump to related records and information, as shown in the next graphic. Wherever you see blue text, there's a hyperlink waiting to be clicked.

Activity History List

In WebCATS, client/company, contact, and counselor records include a special feature called an activity history list. Activity history lists display in the lower pane of an open record, as shown in the next graphic.   

For a client record, this list summarizes the client's activity (counseling sessions, awards, investments, milestones, and survey responses). Please note that if a client participates in a counseling session that multiple counselors are assigned to, that counseling session will be listed multiple times in the client's activity history list.

For a contact record, this list summarizes all inquiries made by the contact, all lists the contact is a member of, and all surveys the contact has responded to for all centers.

For a counselor record, this list summarizes all activities (counseling sessions, awards, investments, milestones, and survey responses) as well as narratives and inquiries that the counselor participated in. Please note that if a counselor participates in a counseling session that multiple clients are assigned to, that counseling session will be listed multiple times in the counselor's activity history list.

Similar to all record summary views, you can filter the records displayed in the activity history list. The filter criteria available for these records are date range, Reportable? setting, and funding source(s), as shown in the next graphic. For more information on filtering record summary views, see Filtering Records.

Printing Records

Although it is generally most convenient to print record data in WebCATS robust reporting features, as discussed in Reports, you can also print records directly from the record view screens, if needed. However, because the WebCATS interface includes multiple frames, record data may not print as expected if you print using Internet Explorer’s default settings. Rather than using the Internet Explorer File|Print command, follow these steps to print a record from WebCATS:

1. Right-click in the frame containing the record that you want to print.
2. Select the Print option from the shortcut menu that displays.
3. In the Print window, select the appropriate printer device and click OK to print the record data in the selected frame.

Note: Leave the Print frames option set to Only the selected frame.

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Filtering Records

Each of the record types that you view in WebCATS has several filters that you can use to limit your display. For example, you can use filters to limit your client display to active clients only. Or your contact display to contacts whose last names begin with the letter "B." Or your counseling session display to initial counseling sessions that are funded by the SBA that took place on September 20, 2006. In other words, WebCATS' filtering features are incredibly flexible, allowing you to quickly drill down to the data you're looking for.

The following table lists the filter options offered for each record type. 

There are two filter types that can return records from centers other than the current active center:

• If you're viewing records returned by a subset that you have created on the fly (i.e. subsets that are not saved), records associated with other centers can be present if you selected "(All Centers)" in your subset criteria.
• If you're viewing records returned by a quick search, records associated with other centers can be present if you specified "All Centers" in your quick search criteria.
• If you're viewing the most recent client summary view filter type (available for counseling session, award, milestone, and investment records), all records related to the clients featured in the previous summary list are displayed, regardless of their associated centers.

See the following sections for details on each filter type:

• Alphanumeric Filters
• Record Status Filter Box
• Most Recent Client Summary View (*Last Client View)
• Quick Searches
• Subsets 

Alphanumeric Filters

Client and contact records can be filtered alphabetically by client or contact name, using the alphabetic and numeric filter links that display at the top of the record summary screen. Each time you access client or contact records in WebCATS, the records are initially limited to only those client or contact names that begin with A. (Select the "(All)" option from the alphanumeric filter options if you want to view all records.)

When filtering client records, an alphanumeric filter can be applied in combination with the four standard filter options (i.e. all clients and pre-clients, active clients only, pre-clients only, inactive clients only) as well as with saved subsets, as shown in the next graphic. This is only available for client records. Selecting an alphanumeric filter for contact records resets the display. For example, if you were viewing a subset consisting of service-disabled contacts and then clicked the "A" alphanumeric filter, WebCATS would display all contacts whose names began with the letter "A," regardless of their veteran statuses.

Record Status Filter Box

Record types other than client and contact records are initially filtered by a logical set of criteria that displays at the top of a record summary list, as shown in the next graphic.

The record status filter box criteria is automatically applied in combination with several other filter types. If you're viewing the most recent client summary view or the results of a previously-saved subset, the record status filter box's criteria will be applied to these filters' criteria to create the most restrictive possible filter settings. Displaying a limited group of records rather than all records helps minimize the amount of time and server resources required to switch from one record view to another in WebCATS.

WebCATS initially limits a record status filter box's criteria using the default filters listed in the next table. 

1. Display the filter criteria fields in your record summary view by clicking the + (plus sign) button to the left of the filter description, as shown in the previous graphic.
2. Specify new filter settings in the fields provided, keeping in mind that each criterion you select is applied in combination with the other filter criteria to create the most restrictive possible filter settings. For example, the session filter criteria shown in the next graphic would cause WebCATS to display only DLA-funded reportable counseling sessions that took place between 7/6/2006 and 10/4/2006 with Helga Brandt as counselor and with session types of either "Initial/New" or "Follow-up or Ongoing." 

Note: For tips for specifying date ranges, funding sources, and counseling-session-specific filter criteria such as "client hours," refer to the next three sections of this help.



3. Select the Save as Default? check box if you want your new filters to be applied each time the selected record type is accessed from the current workstation. Otherwise, leave this option deselected. If you save your filter settings as the default, they are consistently applied whenever the corresponding record type is selected for viewing from the current workstation, regardless of the current active center or user account. 
4. When you are finished defining your filter settings, click the Requery button in the filter criteria frame to apply your newly established filters to the records at the current active center. 

The following sections describe some special considerations that apply when specifying date ranges and funding source selections in your WebCATS filter criteria.

Filtering by Date Range

The following table outlines the various ways in which you can have WebCATS interpret your date ranges, and the appropriate way to configure your date range criteria fields in each case.

Some record types allow you to select differing fields for the date range filter, as shown in the next graphic.

Specifically, four record types support multiple date range filters:

• Conference records. When viewing conference records, you can choose to filter records using the conference start date (this is the default), end date, or approval date, as shown in the previous graphic.
• Milestone records. When viewing milestone records, you can choose to filter records using the milestone occurrence date (this is the default) or the initial date. As explained in Milestone Types, the Initial Date field is used to record your client's relevant business data before the milestone occurred for the purpose of comparison. 
• Investment records. When viewing investment records, you can choose to filter records using the investment submission date (this is the default) or the investment approved date.
• Conference request records. When viewing conference request records, you can choose to filter records using the request date (this is the default) or, you can filter records according to the start, end, or approval dates of their associated conferences.

Note: Be aware that conference records with blank dates of the type selected from the drop-down list will always be considered by your view filters. For example, if you select "Approval," then conferences with blank approval dates or conference requests for conferences with blank approval dates, as well as those whose approval dates fall within the specified range, will display in your filtered summary view. This is not a concern for milestone or investment records because the date fields considered in the filter criteria for these record types are always mandatory if present.

Filtering by Funding Source

Unlike other types of WebCATS filter criteria, the Funding Source(s) filter criterion available in the record status filter box for most record types can have more than one associated value. For example, you can create a filter that limits your display to records with a funding source of "DLA," "SBA," and "Other Federal."

To edit the funding source selections in your filter settings, click the + button that displays to the right of the Funding Source(s) caption. This displays a selection list of all available system- and user-defined funding sources, as shown in the next graphic. Make your selections by clicking the check box to the left of each funding source that you want your filter settings to consider. You can use the "(All)" and "(None)" options in the associated drop-down list to select or clear all check boxes.

Note: If the default funding source for your user account is locked for reporting, you cannot filter or view records based on any other funding sources. For more information on funding source locks, see Default Funding Source.

Counseling-Session-Specific Criteria

It's important to note that this is an indirect counseling session record filter. You are not filtering individual counseling sessions that fall within this hour range; you are identifying the clients or counselors whose total hours of counseling session time fall within this hour range and then only displaying counseling session records for those clients or counselors.

Another counseling-session-specific option is the ability to display results by client, counselor, or unique session. These display options are especially helpful if your center's counseling session records support the assignment of multiple clients and/or counselors, as discussed in Assigning Multiple Clients and Counselors to a Counseling Session Record.

Most Recent Client Summary View

The most recent client summary view, displayed as "*Last Client View" from the Views drop-down menu and available for client activity records (i.e. counseling session, award, milestone, and investment records), lets you restrict the summary display to only those records that are associated with the client records that were most recently displayed in the client summary view. For example, if you were to view inactive clients from the client summary view and then filter award records by "*Last Client View," only awards belonging to inactive clients would display, as shown in the next graphic.

In the previous graphic, notice how there are six inactive clients, but only counseling sessions for two of them. It's likely that all of these inactive clients have had at least one counseling session, but because the "*Last Client View" works in combination with the filter box criteria, only counseling sessions within a 3-month date range are displayed.

The "*Last Client View" drop-down option is available from the Views menu of a client activity summary view if the most recent client summary view represents client records that have been filtered by:

• The active clients, inactive clients, and pre-clients default views (available from the Views menu)
• A subset
• A quick search
• The active client base of the DLA 1806 Report (available by clicking line item 7a or 7b from the DLA 1806 Report worksheet) 

Unlike the other views available as drop-downs from the Views menus, the "*Last Client View" is not restricted to records from the current active center. It will display all records related to the previously displayed client records, regardless of the center they belong to.

Note: If the most recent client summary view was simply a listing of all client records without any filters applied, the "*Last Client View" option becomes redundant with the "All <Counseling Sessions>/<Awards>/<Milestones>/<Investments>" views and, therefore, is not provided as a view option.

Quick Searches

WebCATS provides a quick search filter for client and contact records. This filter lets you:

• Search for client records by ID, company name, company e-mail, or primary point of contact first and/or last name
• Search for contact records by point of contact first and/or last name or e-mail address 

The quick search feature is available from two locations in WebCATS. The most prominent location is at the top of the client or contact record summary screen. The other location is from the Views field's drop-down menu. both of these locations are highlighted in the following graphic.

Depending on the global configurations in place for your program, these two quick search features may not perform the same search. It's possible that the Quick Search field at the top of the screen may only return records from the current active center while the "[Quick Search]" option from the drop-down menu can return records from all centers. Other possible configurations are that both quick search features search across all centers or, conversely, both are restricted to the current active only. You'll be able to see which configuration is in place for your program based on the (1) the available center search criterion (when using the [Quick Search] picklist option under the Views field) and (2) how returned records are labeled in the Views field (when using the Quick Search field that is present from the client or contact record summary view).

To perform a Quick Search, enter the company name, e-mail address, first and/or last contact name, or ID you are searching for. You can use the question mark (?) wildcard character to substitute for any single character in your keyword string or the asterisk (*) wildcard character to substitute for any combination of characters. You can search for multiple keywords, but if you do, all keywords must be present in a record in order for it to be returned as a match.

Note: Searches are not case sensitive, nor are their results influenced by any other filters you may have in place at the time you perform a quick search.   

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Subsets

Subset filters let you narrow your record summary views down to a group of records that meet the same user-defined criteria. For example, you could create a subset of client records that consists of all companies that have a Web site. Or, you could create a subset of counseling session records that consists of all counseling sessions with a duration of one hour or more in contact time.

In this section, we'll discuss the following topics: 

• What are subsets and how are they different from reports?
• How to create subsets
• Saved subsets

What Are Subsets and How Do They Differ From Reports?

Subsets and reports are two very different features. And while their functionality sometimes overlaps, typically they are used in conjunction with one another. Subsets are used to organize a group of records based on criteria they have in common. Reports are used to format and display the data found within a grouping of records. For example, you could use a subset to isolate all woman-owned businesses and then generate a report that displays the addresses of those woman-owned businesses.

Creating Subsets

When creating a subset, you determine which records are returned by selecting the fields you would like to query for particular values. For example, a subset can be as simple as finding all counseling sessions ever provided under the counseling area of "eCommerce." Or, it can be as sophisticated as finding all companies that are located in the 18th district, have five or more employees, have a Web site, and have received counseling from your center within the last 30 days. 

Your subset can incorporate criteria from a limitless number of fields found in the record type you are subsetting on. The more fields you include, the more restrictive the criteria for your subset. Once you establish the fields you would like to query, the next step is to establish the values those fields must contain (or not contain) in order for a record to become part of the subset's results.

You can create subsets for all record types except mailing list records, bid match history records, and survey response records. The steps required to create subsets are summarized as follows:

1. From WebCATS' view menu, select the type of record you would like to create a subset for.
2. Next, you can either select the "[Subset]" option that is available from the Views drop-down menu or click the Subset button that displays at the top of the record summary screen.



3. In the field selection screen, shown in the next graphic, select the field or fields whose values determine the records that will be included in the subset. The fields available to you correspond with the fields found in the type of record you are creating the subset for. In addition, several record types have special calculated fields that are available for selection here. These fields are denoted with an asterisk and their values are determined by evaluating data from multiple fields or from other record types, as explained in more detail in Understanding Special Calculated Fields.



4. When you have finished making your selections, click the Specify Criteria button.
5. In the subset criteria screen, expand the Center(s) area to indicate which centers you want to return records from. You can place a checkmark next to each center you want to include or you can use the drop-down menu to quickly select all centers; deselect all centers; or select centers according to the region they belong to (assuming regions are established for your database).



6. Also in the subset criteria screen, indicate the values that records must (or must not) contain in order to be considered by your subset. Selected values are applied in combination so that all values must match in order for a record to be considered. As you can see in the next graphic, there are several types of fields and logic that you can use to build your criteria. All of these different field types are discussed in detail in Working With Subset Criteria Fields. 



7. If you are creating a subset of client or client activity records, you have the option to save the subset. To save a subset, select the Save Subset for future use? option and enter a descriptive name for it in the adjacent Name field, as shown in the next graphic. 

As discussed in Saved Subsets, your subset is saved for the current active center and, by default, is available whenever that center is designated as active.

Also discussed in Saved Subsets, it's important to note that center selection is not saved along with the subset. Instead, center selection remains dynamic for saved subsets. Saved subsets will return records from the current active center--and the current active center only, regardless of which centers you chose in step 5.



8. To optionally verify the effect that your subset will have before you actually apply it (or at any point during the criteria entry process), click the Check Criteria button at the bottom of the criteria screen. This displays a pop-up dialog box with the search statement that will be generated based on your subset criteria and an indication of the total number of records that will be returned.
9. When you are finished entering subset criteria, click the Finish button. WebCATS displays the subset results as a record summary view.

Narrowing the record summary view to an incredibly specific set of records is a very powerful capability in and of itself. However, you can make it even more powerful by performing any of the following actions on your subset:

• Generate a built-in or custom report based on only the records included in your subset.
• If it's a client or contact record subset, you can send a mass e-mail to the points of contact in your subset.
• If it's a client record subset, you can view activity records belonging to just those clients in your subset. 

Understanding Special Calculated Fields

When creating a subset for a particular record type, the subset criteria that is available to you corresponds directly with the fields found in that record type. For example, an award record consists of 20 data entry fields and, therefore, when creating a subset of award records, there are 20 fields you can choose from to make up your subset criteria, as shown in the next graphic.

Some record types also offer "special calculated" fields in their subset field selections. Special calculated fields are denoted with asterisks and they evaluate data from other record types or from multiple fields. For example, client subsets support a large number of special calculated fields that return records based on the existence of related client activity records, as shown in the next graphic.

Special calculated fields are available when creating client, contact, and counseling session record subsets. The following table lists the special calculated fields available for each of these subset types and how their values are determined when chosen as subset criterion.

Working With Subset Criteria Fields

After you have selected the fields that you would like to subset on, you must specify values for those fields. For example, if you decide to subset counseling session records based on the topic of counseling that was provided, you need to specify which counseling topic(s) you want to restrict to. Or, if you want to subset counseling session records based on a word or phrase entered into the session's notes, you need to specify the word or phrase you're searching for. Both of these are easy enough to do, but because counseling session topic is specified using a drop-down field in a counseling session record and notes are entered into a free-form text field, the values for these two subset criteria are designated very differently.

The following four sections highlight the various options you are presented with when configuring values for your chosen subset criteria.

• Check Box Selections
• Date Range Fields
• Free-Form Text Fields
• Yes/No Check Boxes

Check Box Selections

When fields with drop-down menus are included in your subset, WebCATS presents the various values as check box selections when establishing subset criteria. For example, when subsetting milestone records based on the Milestone Type field, all milestone types are presented as individual check boxes, as shown in the next graphic.

When you are presented with multiple check boxes for a field, you can select as many as you wish. Selecting multiple check boxes creates an "or" statement. For example, if you were to select "Business Expansion" and "Business Closed" for the previous graphic, WebCATS would return milestone records of either type.

Date Range Fields

When date fields are included in your subset, WebCATS presents a set of date range fields. You can use these fields to specify a fixed date range with a definitive start and end date, as shown in the next graphic. Or, you can specify an open-ended date range (i.e. consider all records in the system entered before or after a particular date) by clearing either the start or end date.

Date range fields are always accompanied by the Select non-matching records? option. When selected, this option indicates that the subset should return records that fall outside of the specified date range. In other words, this option excludes records that fall within the date range you provide.

Free-Form Text Fields

When free-form text fields such as city or ZIP code are included in your subset, you'll also use free-form text to establish subset criteria for those fields. You can use wildcards and "or" statements when entering text to match on, as discussed in the next two sections.

As with date range fields, free-form text fields are always accompanied by the Select non-matching records? option. When selected, this option indicates that the subset should return records that don't contain the keyword you're searching for.

Wildcards

WebCATS supports two wildcards: the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). The asterisk substitutes for an unlimited number of characters. For example, if you are searching for records with ZIP codes that begin with "93", you can enter "93*" into the ZIP code subset field. This would return contacts with ZIP codes of 93101, 93010, 93030, and so on.

The question mark substitutes for a single character. For example, if you are searching by a contact's first name, but can't remember if it's spelled "Lisa" or "Liza," you can enter "Li?a" into the subset field. This would return contacts with first names of Lisa or Liza.

Note: If you don't use wildcards at the beginning and end of your keyword, then the field must contain that keyword and that keyword ONLY to match. For example, if you search on "Santa" in a city name field, companies or contacts in Santa Barbara will not be returned. However, if you search on "Santa*", then companies or contacts in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Santa Cruz, and so on will be returned. When searching fields with paragraphs of text such as comment, note, or product/service description fields, it is especially important to keep this in mind because a word or phrase located in the middle of a sentence will not match unless you have surrounded your keyword search with asterisks.

"Or" Statements

You can place commas (,) between your keywords to create an "or" statement for that particular subset text field. For example, as shown in the next graphic, you could enter something like "*step*,*stair*" as the text field criteria. This would return all client records with either or both of these words in their Product/Service Description fields.

Yes/No Check Boxes

When yes/no check box fields such as a conference record's Is SBA888? or Sponsored by Center? field are included in your subset, you'll also use that same check box format to establish subset criteria for those fields, as shown in the next graphic.

Saved Subsets

If you are creating a subset that will be commonly used by yourself or others, you have the option to save that subset (as described in step 7 of the subset creation process). All subset criteria, with the exception of center selection, is saved. In other words, even though you may create and save a subset that designates that one, more, or all centers contribute to the output, this center selection is not saved along with the subset. Instead, center selection remains dynamic for saved subsets. Saved subsets will return records from the current active center--and the current active center only.

In addition, saved subsets are only available when the current active center is the same center that was active at the time the subset was originally created and saved. However, you can choose to share saved subsets with all centers, as described in Managing Saved Subsets. The saved subsets that are available for the current active center display for selection from the drop-down menu of the Counseling Session Views field, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: Not all subsets can be saved. Only client, counseling session, milestone, investment, and award record subsets can be saved.

Strategies for Creating and Using Saved Subsets

When you select a saved subset as the view for an activity record type, that subset's criteria is applied in combination with the criteria of the record status filter box, as shown in the next graphic. The biggest advantage to this is that you can easily generate commonly-used subsets for different date ranges, without having to recreate the subset each time.

However, this can pose conflicts if both filter methods share the same criteria. For example, let's assume for a moment that you have saved a counseling session subset that returns all counseling sessions that occurred in the first quarter of 2006. If you were to open this subset in 2007, it's likely that no records would display. Why? Because the record status filter box typically restricts records to the most recent three months. So even though we know that there are many counseling session records that should meet the saved subset criteria, none are displayed because the filter box's date range is being applied to a subset of records whose dates do not fall into the filter box's date range. The two date range criteria cancel each other out and you would need to alter the filter box date range to encompass the subset date range in order for any records to be returned.

Because of this potential conflict, Softshare recommends that you create saved subsets for client activity records with those record types' filter boxes in mind. In other words, think twice before using criteria in your saved subset that could be overridden by that record type's filter box criteria. Date range, funding source, and reportable status should generally be avoided as subset criteria. And then, depending on the activity record type that you are creating the saved subset for as well as your default filter criteria for each activity record type, there are probably other fields you will want to avoid as well. For example, if you save an award subset that restricts awards to sub-contract awards, but your award record filter box is set to restrict awards to prime contract awards, your two filters will be in conflict.

Managing Saved Subsets

A listing of saved subsets can be viewed from WebCATS' Subset Management interface. Available by selecting Tools|Manage Subsets, all saved subsets are displayed by record type category, as shown in the next graphic.

To view the details of any saved subset, click the subset title and WebCATS will display the criteria (in SQL query format) that the subset uses to query the database. Although the SQL query language is not very user-friendly, you should still be able to get a good feeling for the criteria that makes up the subset.

Users with edit/delete permissions for a particular form can also edit/delete saved subsets related to that form, or share those subsets with users from other centers. To edit, share, or delete a saved subset, click the Edit button that corresponds to the record type the subset is listed under. This displays an editable view of that record type's subsets' titles and SQL queries, as shown in the next graphic.

If you edit the subset SQL query, Softshare strongly recommends that you click the Check Criteria button before saving your changes. Clicking this button will tell you if you have any query language errors or are referencing incorrect database column names; or, if the query is accurate, you'll see the number of matching records in the database. 

Return to Table of Contents

MyWebCATS

MyWebCATS is a pop-up window that displays a listing of timely events affecting your user account. It's available by selecting View|MyWebCATS from the navigation menu or, depending on your settings, it may automatically open upon login to WebCATS. You can disable or enable automatic opening upon login by selecting or deselecting the Show this window upon login? option located at the bottom of the MyWebCATS window.

MyWebCATS features five types of events: 

• Client follow-ups that recently came due or will come due shortly
• Clients that haven't been counseled for a significant period of time 
• Conferences that are scheduled to begin shortly or that are currently in progress 
• Counseling requests, conference requests, and survey completions that were recently submitted through eCenter Direct, an optional component of Softshare 'CATS
• Records that were recently edited, added, or deleted

By default, MyWebCATS has system-defined filters in place for each event type to make them more relevant to your user account. For example, when viewing client follow-ups, you'll initially only see those clients whose primary counselor is the counselor that matches the default counselor associated with your user account. You can modify the default filter settings for each event type, either temporarily or permanently, in the same manner as you would modify the filter settings for a summary of client activity records.

Note: As with other record listings, you can click on any blue hyperlink that displays in the MyWebCATS window to open its related record or to generate an e-mail message. 

Return to Table of Contents

Creating Records

WebCATS closely tracks the interaction between your center and your center's clients. To accomplish this, it features 15 record types, each tailored to a specific aspect of client and client activity tracking. Some of these record types are created by administrators only (center records) and some are automatically created by WebCATS based on certain events (counseling and conference request records), but, for the most part, WebCATS users create the records that contain client and related client activity information.

Most WebCATS records are created using the same basic procedures. However, unique creation and behavioral considerations do apply to each record type. For information on these considerations, see the following sections:

• Creating Client Records
• Creating Contact Records
• Creating Inquiry Records
• Creating Counseling Session Records
• Creating Award Records
• Creating Milestone Records
• Creating Investment Records
• Creating Survey Response Records
• Creating Narrative Records
• Creating Conference Records
• Creating List Records
• Creating Counselor Records

Note: By default, new records that you create in WebCATS are automatically associated with the current active center rather than the home center established for your user account. For this reason, you cannot add new records while at a center that you do not have appropriate record add permissions configured; you must first switch to a center where you have the appropriate permissions established before creating your record.

Note: If some of the record types discussed in this chapter are not available for creation from WebCATS' left-hand menu, it's either because you do not have the necessary permissions to create those record types or because a database administrator has chosen to disable them for the entire program. 

Creating Client Records

Client records track information for companies that receive services from your center. If you want to attribute counseling sessions, awards, milestones, investments or survey responses to a client, then the client record must be present in the database.

Client records can also be used to track companies that are not yet clients. Called pre-clients, this type of client record represents companies that you have some type of relationship with, but who aren't receiving qualifying services from your center. As described in Client Status, a company can start out as a pre-client in your database and then easily be promoted to client status.

There are three ways to create a new client record:

• Using the Client Merlin
• Creating a new client record from a contact record
• Accepting a counseling request record from eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in client records? Visit Understanding Client Records.

Using the Client Merlin to Create a Client Record

The Client Merlin is used to create new client records. It prompts you for company and contact information for the new client (or pre-client). The company information that you provide makes up the resulting client record. The contact information that you provide makes up the client's associated primary contact record. 

Note: Your system administrator determines which fields are present in the Client Merlin and of those, which are mandatory and which are optional. In general, the Merlin is meant to be used as a quick, convenient method for creating associated client and contact records and not all fields are necessarily accounted for. You may want to open the resulting records to complete additional information that is important to your operations.

Perform the following steps to create a new client record using the Client Merlin.

1. Click the Add|Client/Company Merlin command from the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Center, Primary Counselor, and Client ID fields on the General Client Information screen default to the current active center, your user account's default counselor, and the current active center's auto-ID format respectively. Verify that these defaults are correct for the client record you are creating.
3. If the client is already doing business, complete the Date Company Established field and click the Next button. The date entered here (or not entered) determines the value of the Company Status field, which is not available for editing.

 

4. At the Contact Creation/Selection screen, you can choose to associate an existing contact record as the new client's primary contact or you can create a brand new contact record to be associated with the new client record, as shown in the next graphic.



Note: A contact record can only be associated with a single client record. For this reason, if you choose to associate an existing contact record with the new client record you are creating, WebCATS only presents contact records that are not currently associated with clients for selection.

5. If you selected an existing contact in step 4, skip to step 7. If you are creating a new contact record to associate with your new client record, proceed to step 6. 
6. In the following two screens, enter contact-specific information for the new client's primary contact, clicking the Next button after each screen. As with the previous screen, there are field defaults in place that you should verify. These field defaults are a result of custom global configuration settings in place for your database as well as "smart" features incorporated by the Client Merlin. The information entered into these two screens is automatically used by WebCATS to create the client record's associated primary contact record.

Note: After entering a name and e-mail address for the new contact, click the duplicate check icon located to the right of the Last Name field to ensure that a record for this contact doesn’t already exist in the database. (Depending on your database’s global configuration settings, WebCATS may automatically perform this duplicate search for you.) This duplicate search returns contact records belonging to any center that have last and first names similar to those you entered into the Merlin or identical e-mail addresses, as shown in the next graphic. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.



7. In the following several screens (the number of screens depends upon your program's Merlin settings and how many fields have been included in the Merlin), enter company information for the new client, clicking the Next button after each screen. As with the previous screens, there are field defaults in place that you should verify. These field defaults are a result of custom global configuration settings in place for your database as well as "smart" features incorporated by the Client Merlin.

Note: After entering a company name and phone number for the new company, click the duplicate check icon located to the right of the Company Name field to ensure that a record for this company doesn’t already exist in the database. (Depending on your database’s global configuration settings, WebCATS may automatically perform this duplicate search for you.) This duplicate search returns client records belonging to any center that have company names similar to those you entered into the Merlin or identical phone numbers. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.

8. In the final screen, select the action you would like to take upon saving and click Finish to save the new client (and possibly contact) record you just created.

Note: If eCenter Direct is a component of your 'CATS solution and you have created and entered an e-mail address for a brand new contact record, you will be prompted to send an e-mail to the contact that informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information. You can send this e-mail as-is, edit it before sending, or cancel it altogether. For more information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating a New Client Record from a Contact Record

If a contact is not currently associated with a client, you can create a new client record for association with that contact from the view-only mode of the contact record. However, please note that WebCATS only lets you initially create new pre-client client records from a contact record. If applicable, you'll need to take the extra step of converting the pre-client record to an active client record, as discussed in the next set of steps.

Perform the following steps to create a new client record from a contact record.

1. Open the contact record in view mode and click the Link New Company button located at the top of the record.
2. Enter a company name and phone number for the new client record.

Note: After entering the company name and phone number, you can use the duplicate check icon (located to the right of the Company Name field) to verify that a record for this client doesn't already exist in the database. (Depending on your database’s global configuration settings, WebCATS may automatically perform this duplicate search for you.) This feature returns client records belonging to any center that (1) have company names similar to the one you entered or (2) identical phone numbers. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.

3. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.

Note: Notice that the Status field is not available for editing. If you are intending to create an active client record, you must take the extra step of converting the record from pre-client to active client, as discussed in step 5.

4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the client record.
5. WebCATS displays the new pre-client client record; the contact record that you created the client record from is listed as the primary contact for this new client record.
6. If the new client record represents an active client record, click the Make Client button to convert the record from pre-client status to active client status. For more information on pre-client vs. active client status, see Client Status. 

Accepting a Counseling Request Record from eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution, potential clients can request counseling online. These online requests are submitted to Softshare 'CATS as counseling request records. When a request is accepted by a counselor, the information contained by that request is converted into a client record (along with an associated contact and, optionally, administrative counseling session record). 

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, visit the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Contact Records

Contact records track individual-specific information such as home phone, cell phone, gender, ethnicity, veteran status, and so on for the individuals that your center works with. Contact records are closely linked with the client records in your database so that you may track all the various individuals from a company that your center comes into contact with.

There are five ways to create a new contact record. If you're adding a contact record to the Softshare 'CATS database that will not be immediately associated with a brand new client or inquiry record, you'll want to create the new contact record by:

• Clicking the Add|Contact command

But if the contact record you're adding represents:

• The primary contact for a brand new client that you're about to add to the database, you'll want to create the new contact record, along with the new client record, via the Client Merlin, as described in Using the Client Merlin to Create a Client Record.
• A secondary contact for an existing client record, you'll want to create the new contact record from the client record, as described in Creating a New Contact Record from a Client Record
• The primary contact for a brand new inquiry record that you're about to add to the database, you'll want to create the new contact record, along with the new inquiry record, via the Inquiry Merlin, as described in Using the Inquiry Merlin to Create a Contact Record.
• Someone who has requested counseling or signed up for a conference at eCenter Direct, you'll want to create the new contact record by accepting the counseling or conference request, as described in Accepting a counseling or conference request record from eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in contact records? Visit Understanding Contact Records.

Clicking the Add|Contact Command to Create a Contact Record

If you're adding a contact record to the Softshare 'CATS database that will not be immediately associated with a brand new client or inquiry record, you'll want to create the new contact record by following the steps listed next. 

1. Click the Add|Contact command in the WebCATS navigation menu. 
2. Complete the name and e-mail address fields for your contact.

Note: After entering the contact's name and e-mail address, you can use the duplicate check icon (located to the right of the Last Name field) to verify that a record for this contact doesn't already exist in the database. (Depending on your database’s global configuration settings, WebCATS may automatically perform this duplicate search for you.) This feature returns contact records belonging to any center that (1) have last and first names similar to those you entered into the name fields or (2) identical e-mail addresses. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.

3. If the contact record you are entering into the database is associated with an existing client record, you can create a relationship between the two records by selecting a company from the Company field's drop-down menu. To further define the relationship, indicate the contact's position at the company using the Position field and, if applicable, the Owner? check box.

Note: Only companies belonging to the current active center are available for selection from the Company field.

4. Complete all other mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
5. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the contact record.

Note: If eCenter Direct is a component of your 'CATS solution and you have entered an e-mail address into your new contact record, you will be prompted to send an e-mail to the contact that informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information. You can send this e-mail as-is, edit it before sending, or cancel it altogether. For more information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Using the Client Merlin to Create a Contact Record

If you're adding a contact record to the Softshare 'CATS database that will become the primary contact for a brand new client of your center, the most efficient way to create the new contact record is via the Client Merlin. The Client Merlin lets you create a contact and client record simultaneously, as described in Using the Client Merlin to Create a Client Record.

Creating a New Contact Record from a Client Record

If you're adding a secondary contact to an existing client record, you can create the new contact record for association with that client from the view-only mode of the client record, as outlined in the following set of steps.

1. Open the client record in view mode and click the Link New Contact button located under the "Contacts" heading.
2. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You'll notice that several fields relating to company association have already been filled in for you based on information from the client record. You may overwrite these field defaults.

Note: After entering the contact's name and e-mail address, you can use the duplicate check icon (located to the right of the Last Name field) to verify that a record for this contact doesn't already exist in the database. (Depending on your database’s global configuration settings, WebCATS may automatically perform this duplicate search for you.) This feature returns contact records belonging to any center that (1) have last and first names similar to those you entered into the name fields or (2) identical e-mail addresses. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.

3. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the contact record.
4. WebCATS displays the new contact record; the client record that you selected in step 1 is listed as the associated company for this new contact record.

Note: If eCenter Direct is a component of your 'CATS solution and you have entered an e-mail address into your new contact record, you will be prompted to send an e-mail to the contact that informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information. You can send this e-mail as-is, edit it before sending, or cancel it altogether. For more information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Using the Inquiry Merlin to Create a Contact Record

If you're adding a contact record to the Softshare 'CATS database that represents the contact for a brand new inquiry that was just made, the most efficient way to create the new contact record is via the Inquiry Merlin. The Inquiry Merlin lets you create a contact and inquiry record simultaneously, as described in Using the Inquiry Merlin to Create an Inquiry Record.

Accepting a Counseling or Conference Request Record from eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution, potential clients can request counseling or register for training events online. These online requests are submitted to Softshare 'CATS as counseling request or conference request records. When a request is accepted by a counselor, the contact information contained by that request is converted into a contact record.

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Inquiry Records

Inquiry records track assistance efforts (e.g. information transfer contacts) that are not considered to be true counseling sessions by DLA or SBA because the assistance is being provided to a non-client. For example, you can use inquiry records to track information packets sent out to potential clients or visitors that use onsite resource materials. For this reason, inquiry records are typically assigned to contact records, not client records.

Note: SBA once required that information transfer data be submitted to EDMIS, but this requirement was dropped at the end of 2006. Softshare has decided that inquiry records may still be of value for your center's internal tracking purposes and so the ability to create these record types will remain in WebCATS indefinitely.

Note: WebCATS provides another way for you to track assistance efforts provided to non-clients. As discussed in Pre-Client Status, you can also create non-reportable counseling session records for client records with a "pre-client" status.

There are two ways to create a new inquiry record:

• Clicking the Add|Inquiry command
• Using the Inquiry Merlin

Clicking the Add|Inquiry Command to Create an Inquiry Record

If you're creating an inquiry record for a contact that already exists in the database, follow the steps below. If you're creating an inquiry record for a contact that does not yet exist in the database, consider using the Inquiry Merlin to efficiently create both the inquiry record and contact record at the same time.

1. Click the Add|Inquiry command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Contact field in the new contact record initially displays the name of the last contact record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change this default contact assignment, click the Select button to browse for a different contact by alphanumeric filter. The expanded browse screen displays contacts from all centers for which you have create inquiries permissions.



3. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the inquiry record.

Using the Inquiry Merlin to Create an Inquiry Record

If the contact that made the inquiry that you are adding to the Softshare 'CATS database does not yet exist in the database as a contact record, you can use the Inquiry Merlin to create the inquiry record—as well as its associated contact record. However, if the contact that made the inquiry already exists in the database as a contact record, you should not use the Inquiry Merlin. Instead, create an inquiry record using the Add|Inquiry command. 

Perform the following steps to create a new inquiry and contact record simultaneously.

1. Click the Add|Inquiry Merlin command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. In the first Merlin screen, enter information for the contact that made the inquiry and click the Next button. You may overwrite any field defaults that are in place as a result of your database's global configuration settings. The information entered into this screen is automatically used by WebCATS to create the inquiry record's associated contact record.

Note: After entering the contact's name and e-mail address, you can use the duplicate check icon (located to the right of the Last Name field) to verify that a record for this contact doesn't already exist in the database. This feature returns contact records belonging to any center that (1) have last and first names similar to those you entered into the Merlin or (2) identical e-mail addresses. For more information on the duplicate search feature, click here.

3. In the following screen, enter information for the inquiry that was made and click the Finish button. As with the previous screen, you may overwrite any field defaults that are in place. The information entered into this screen is used to create the new inquiry record.
4. WebCATS opens the contact record that you created the inquiry record for and, in the contact record's activity history list, your newly created inquiry record is listed. Because the Inquiry Merlin may not take into account all the contact and inquiry record fields that your center considers to be important or mandatory (per the global configuration settings of your database), we recommend that you open the newly created contact and inquiry records in turn and click their Edit buttons to complete all other applicable or required fields that were not provided by the Inquiry Merlin.

Note: If eCenter Direct is a component of your 'CATS solution and you have entered an e-mail address into your new contact record, you will be prompted to send an e-mail to the contact that informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information. You can send this e-mail as-is, edit it before sending, or cancel it altogether. For more information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Counseling Session Records

Counseling Sessions records track any business-related communications between a client and counselor. They also track the tasks, known as action items, that you may assign to clients.

There are three ways to create a new counseling session record:

• Clicking the Add|Counseling Session command
• Using the Session Merlin
• Accepting a counseling request record from eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in counseling session records? Visit Understanding Counseling Session Records.

Clicking the Add|Counseling Session Command to Create a Counseling Session Record

Perform the following steps to create a new counseling session record or a batch of identical counseling session records. If you have more than one activity record type to enter for the same client (e.g. a counseling session and award), you can save time by skipping these steps and, instead, using the Session Merlin to create the different client activity records simultaneously.

1. Click the Add|Counseling Session command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Client(s) field  in the new counseling session record initially displays the name of the client record, if any, you most recently viewed during the current WebCATS session. If no client record has yet been viewed, the field prompts you to select a client. If you need to select a client, change the default client selection, or add clients, click the Select Clients button located at the top of the form and proceed to step 3. If you don't need to change the default client assignment, skip to step 5.
3. WebCATS displays the Add Clients screen where you can browse for client(s) belonging to the current active center, perform a quick search to return clients from other centers, or create a batch of counseling session records for a subset of clients.



4. Click the Update button when you have finished assigning client(s) to the counseling session.
5. The Counselor Selections box in the new counseling session record initially displays the name of the default counselor assigned to your user account. If no default counselor is assigned to your user account, this box displays the name of the counselor associated with the last client record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you have not yet viewed a client record during the current WebCATS session, this box displays the name of the current active center's default counselor, as designated in WinCATS by a system administrator. If you need to change the default counselor assignment or add counselors (assuming this is permitted by your database configurations), click the Select Counselors button located at the top of the form and proceed to step 6. If you don't need to change the default client assignment, skip to step 8.
6. WebCATS displays the Add Counselors screen where you can browse for counselors from all centers or perform a quick search to quickly find a counselor.
7. Click the Update button when you have finished assigning counselor(s) to the counseling session.
8. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
9. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the counseling session record.

Note: If the Prompt for client follow-up sessions? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database and you created an initial or follow-up counseling session, you will be prompted to update the associated client record's Follow-up Date field and send e-mail reminders. For more information on this prompt, see Follow-up Date Prompt.

Using the Session Merlin to Create New Counseling Session, Award, Milestone, and Investment Records Simultaneously

Using WebCATS' Session Merlin feature, you can simultaneously create multiple activity records for a single client. For example, if you counsel a client in regards to an award the client just won, you can use this feature to create both a counseling session record and an award record.

Follow these steps to create multiple client activity records simultaneously.

1. Click the Add|Session Merlin command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Company field in the Merlin defaults to the name of the most recent client, if any, that you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change the default client assignment, click the Select button located to the right of this field. This expands the field to allow you to browse for a client belonging to the current active center or perform a quick search to select a client from another center.
3. Double-check general record information such as activity date, funding source, etc. to make sure the field defaults are accurate. This general information will apply to all of the client activity records you select in step 4.



4. Select the client activity records you would like to create for the client and click the Next button.
5. In the next Merlin screen, enter record notes and click the Next button. These notes will apply to all of the client activity records you selected in step 4.
6. Fill out all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields for each record type you are creating, clicking the Next button after you have completed each record type Merlin screen. You may overwrite any field defaults found on these Merlin screens.
7. Click the Finish button. WebCATS opens the client record that you created the client activity records for and, in the client record's activity history list, your newly created records are listed.

Note: If the Prompt for client follow-up sessions? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database and one of the records you created was an initial or follow-up counseling session, you will be prompted to update the associated client record's Follow-up Date field upon clicking the Finish button. For more information on this prompt, see Follow-up Date Prompt.

Note: Because the Session Merlin does not display all client activity record fields available (e.g. award records can contain job data that is not available for completion from the Merlin), Softshare recommends that you open and edit your newly created record activity records to complete any other applicable or required fields that were not provided by the Session Merlin. 

Accepting a Counseling Request Record from eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution, potential clients can request counseling online. These online requests are submitted to Softshare 'CATS as counseling request records. When a counseling request is approved by a counselor, WebCATS provides you the option of creating an administrative counseling session for the new client (along with a contact and client record). 

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Award Records

Award records track government contracts awarded to your clients. Award records can be created in three different ways:

• Clicking the Add|Award command
• Using the Session Merlin
• Automatically via eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in award records? Visit Understanding Award Records.

Clicking the Add|Award Command to Create an Award Record

Perform the following steps to create a new award record. 

Note: If you have more than one activity record type to enter for the same client (e.g. you counsel a client in regards to an award won), you can save time by creating them simultaneously through the Session Merlin.

1. Click the Add|Award command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Company field in the new award record initially displays the name of the most recent client record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change the default client assignment, click the Select button. This expands the field to allow you to browse for a client belonging to the current active center or perform a quick search to select a client from another center.
3. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the award record.

Automatically Via eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution and you have award questions posted as part of the online client survey, any award data provided by clients will automatically become award records in the Softshare 'CATS database. You will not be prompted to accept this award data; it will be automatically added to the database. 

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Milestone Records

Milestone records track any significant event in a client's business cycle. Milestone records can be created in four different ways:

• Clicking the Add|Milestone command
• Using the Session Merlin
• Clicking OK when presented with the milestone creation prompt
• Automatically via eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in milestone records? Visit Understanding Milestone Records.

Clicking the Add|Milestone Command to Create a Milestone Record

Perform the following steps to create a new milestone record. 

Note: If you have more than one activity record type to enter for the same client (e.g. you counsel a client in regards to a milestone they recently experienced), you can save time by creating them simultaneously through the Session Merlin.

1. Click the Add|Milestone command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Company field in the new milestone record initially displays the name of the most recent client record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change the default client assignment, click the Select button. This expands the field to allow you to browse for a client belonging to the current active center or perform a quick search to select a client from another center.
3. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the milestone record.

Clicking OK When Presented with the Milestone Creation Prompt

If the Prompt to synchronize clients and milestones? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database, certain edits to a client record such as editing the employee count or changing organization type will cause WebCATS to prompt you to create a new milestone record for that client. If you click OK at one of these milestone record creation prompts, WebCATS creates the milestone record for you.

Automatically Via eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution and you have client surveys posted online, a "Responded to Survey" milestone record will be automatically created for any client that completes the survey. You will not be prompted to approve the milestone record; it will be automatically added to the database.

Note: WebCATS also automatically creates "Responded to Survey" milestone records when you manually create a survey response record. 

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Investment Records

Investment records track client investments and loans. Investment records can be created in three different ways:

• Clicking the Add|Investment command
• Using the Session Merlin
• Automatically via eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in investment records? Visit Understanding Investment Records.

Clicking the Add|Investment Command to Create an Investment Record

Perform the following steps to create a new investment record. 

Note: If you have more than one activity record type to enter for the same client (e.g. you counsel a client in regards to a loan recently applied for), you can save time by creating them simultaneously through the Session Merlin.

1. Click the Add|Investment command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Company field in the new investment record initially displays the name of the most recent client record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change the default client assignment, click the Select button. This expands the field to allow you to browse for a client belonging to the current active center or perform a quick search to select a client from another center.
3. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the investment record.

Automatically Via eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution and you have investment questions posted as part of the online client survey, any investment data provided by clients will automatically become investment records in the Softshare 'CATS database. You will not be prompted to accept this investment data; it will be automatically added to the database. 

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Survey Response Records

Survey response records track the answers and comments clients supply when they complete a survey. Survey response records can be created in two different ways:

• Clicking the Add|Survey Response command
• Automatically via eCenter Direct

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in survey response records? Visit Understanding Survey Response Records.

Clicking the Add|Survey Response Record Command to Create a Survey Response Record

Perform the following steps to create a new survey response record. 

1. Click the Add|Survey Response command in the WebCATS navigation menu.
2. The Company field in the new survey response record initially displays the name of the most recent client record, if any, you viewed during the current WebCATS session. If you need to change the default client assignment, click the Select button. This expands the field to allow you to browse for a client belonging to the current active center or perform a quick search to select a client from another center. 
3. The Contact field defaults to the primary contact associated with the client chosen in step 2, but you can change this to any contact associated with the client from the field's drop-down menu.
4. The Survey Name field defaults to the survey that is currently active for the center you are working with, as configured in WinCATS' global configurations. You cannot change this default.

Note: If you need to enter survey results for another center's current active survey, you'll need to switch centers (Tools|Select Centers). If you need to enter survey results for an older survey that is no longer active, an administrator must go into WinCATS and temporarily designate that survey as active so that you may then enter the results into WebCATS. eCenter users beware of this practice! Whatever survey is designated as active is the survey a client will be presented with upon login to eCenter.

5. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. 
6. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the survey response record.

Note: The creation of a survey response record automatically triggers the creation of a "Responded to Survey" milestone record for the client.

Automatically Via eCenter Direct

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution and you have client surveys posted online, a survey response record will be automatically created for any client that completes the survey. You will not be prompted to approve the survey response record; it will be automatically added to the database.

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Creating Narrative Records

Narrative records can be used to track the center performance narratives required by SBA. 

Note: It should be noted that narrative records are not associated in any way with the narratives that counselors write for counseling sessions. Those are termed "Session Notes" by WebCATS and are part of counseling session records.

Follow these steps to create a narrative record.

1. Click the Add|Narrative command in the WebCATS navigation menu. 
2. From the Narrative Type field's drop-down menu, select a narrative type. The narrative types listed here, with the exception of any custom narrative types added by a system administrator, are based on SBA’s requirements.
3. Complete all other mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the narrative record.

Creating Conference Records

Conference records track the conferences that your center hosts or participates in, along with a wide variety of information pertaining to those conferences such as attendees, surveys, and collected fees.

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in conference records? Visit Understanding Conference Records.

Follow these steps to create a new conference record.

1. Click the Add|Conferences command in the WebCATS navigation menu. 
2. Complete all mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.

Note: You'll likely want to create the new conference record without completing the fields found in the "Attendee Classification," "Number of Attending Fee Payers," and "Income" areas of the conference record. As discussed in Understanding Conference Records, many of these fields can be auto-filled based on associated attendee list records and the built-in conference survey feature.

3. To verify survey questions that attendees will eventually use to rate the conference, click the Create Survey Response Data button found near the bottom of the new record form. This opens the default survey questions and rating scale configured in your program's global configurations. You can modify the questions and/or the rating scale on a per-conference basis. For more information on associating surveys with conferences, see Creating a Survey.
4. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the conference record.
5. Once you have one or more attendees slated to attend this new conference, Softshare strongly recommends that you create and link an attendee list to your conference record. By doing so, you allow  WebCATS to automatically classify conference attendees and calculate fee income on your behalf. See Managing Attendee Lists for instructions on how to link attendee lists with conference records.

Creating List Records

List records are groupings of contact records that make up a mailing list, conference attendee list, or any other type of list you wish to create. The steps required to create and update lists in WebCATS are covered in detail in the following sections.

• Creating List Records and Adding Members to List Records
• Editing List Records
• Merging List Records

Creating List Records and Adding Members to List Records 

Follow these steps to create a new list in WebCATS and add members to it as needed. When adding members to a list record, you can choose from all contact records in the database or you can create a contact subset prior to adding members to the list and use the subset to populate the list, as described in step 4 below. 

Note: If adding new members to an existing list, open the list record and skip directly to step 3 of this procedure. 

1. Click the Add|Mailing List command in the WebCATS navigation menu to create a new list or, if creating a conference attendee list, open the appropriate conference record in view-only mode, click Add Attendees, and skip to step 4.
2. Specify your list name and the owner center and click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form.



3. Click the Add Members button located at the top or bottom of the form.
4. Browse or search for specific contacts to add to your list. You can browse by alphanumeric links, search using the quick search feature, or, if you previously created a contact record subset during your WebCATS session, you can choose contacts from that subset to add to your list. 

Note: If you have the appropriate permissions, you'll see contacts from all centers available for selection here.



5. Highlight a name from the left pane and click the > button to add it to the member list. You can add all the names in the left pane at once by clicking the >> button.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are finished browsing/searching for and adding contacts to your list.
7. When you are finished making your selections, click the Update button located at the top or bottom of the form to add the selected contacts.
8. If you performed these steps as part of the process for linking a brand new attendee list to a conference record, proceed to step 3 in the Creating Attendee Lists section to complete the attendee list association.

Editing List Records

The Edit button that displays located at the top or bottom of a list record (and in conference attendee lists displayed from a conference record) lets you do the following:

• In the case of conference attendee lists, delete list members, modify the fee level paid, and/or modify attendance statuses
• In the case of all other list types, delete list members or edit the list details such as list name.

Note: To modify an existing list by adding new members to it, use the Add Members button rather than the Edit button, as described in the previous section. 

Because the function of the Edit button differs between the two available list types, the editable version of the lists form displays differently depending on whether you are editing a conference attendee list or a different type of list, as shown in the next graphic.

To remove a member from either type of list, select the list member's corresponding Remove? check box. When you are finished selecting contacts to delete from your list or, in the case of attendee lists, making fee level or attendance status updates, click the Update button located at the top or bottom of the form to save your modifications.

Merging List Records

Follow these steps to merge a list with another list:

1. Open the list record or conference record that you would like to enhance with the members from other list records.
2. Click the Merge button that displays at the top of the list record or, in the case of a conference record, click the Merge button that displays near the bottom of the conference record.
3. WebCATS opens a window that displays all lists at all centers that you have list view permissions for. To add the members of a list to the current list, select the list's corresponding check box, as shown in the next graphic.



4. Select the check box in the lower left corner of this window if you would like WebCATS to carry forward any fee and attendee information for the list members being merged. If a member belongs to more than one selected list, only the first occurrence of fee and attendee information is carried forward.
5. Click the Add Members button to complete the merge.
6. If you performed these steps as part of the process for linking an attendee list with a conference record, return to step 3 in the Creating Attendee Lists section to complete the attendee list association.

Creating Counselor Records

Counselor records store basic counselor data.

Follow these steps to create a counselor record.

1. Click the Add|Counselor command in the WebCATS navigation menu. 
2. Complete all other mandatory (as indicated by a red asterisk) and relevant fields. You may overwrite any field defaults.
3. Click the Add button located at the top or bottom of the form to save the counselor record.

Looking for specifics on some of the fields and features found in contact records? Visit Understanding Counselor Records

Return to Table of Contents

Understanding Fields and Features in Records

WebCATS’ sophisticated record system features up to 15 different record types. Each record is tailored to a specific activity such as basic client management, counseling sessions, conference tracking, and so on. This chapter highlights some of the unique fields and built-in processes that each record type has.

• Understanding Client Records
• Understanding Contact Records
• Understanding Inquiry Records
• Understanding Counseling Session Records
• Understanding Award Records
• Understanding Milestone Records
• Understanding Investment Records
• Understanding Survey Response Records
• Understanding Narrative Records
• Understanding Conference Records
• Understanding List Records
• Understanding Counselor Records
• Understanding Bid Match History Records
• Understanding Counseling and Conference Request Records

Note: If some of the record types discussed in this chapter are not available for viewing from WebCATS' left-hand menu, it's either because you do not have the necessary permissions to view those record types or because a database administrator has chosen to disable them for the entire program.

Understanding Client Records

Client records track information for companies that receive services from your center. If you want to attribute counseling sessions, awards, milestones, investments or survey responses to a client, then the client record must be present in the database.

While most fields in client records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Client Status
• Company E-mail
• Mass Mailings Check Boxes
• Associated Contacts
• Date Fields
• Company Gender
• Company Veteran
• Bid Match Options and Criteria
• Product Codes
• Success Story Fields
• Attached Documents
• Client Activity History

Looking for instructions on how to create client records? Visit Creating Client Records.

Client Status

At the very top of every client record is the Status field. It displays one of three possible client statuses:

• Pre-Client 
• Active
• Inactive

Pre-Client Status

This client status is assigned to companies that you have some type of relationship with, but who aren't receiving qualifying services from your center. You can associate client activity with pre-clients (counseling sessions, milestones, awards, investments), but WebCATS will designate those activities as non-reportable and you will not be able to change this designation for as long as the client record remains a pre-client.

Pre-clients can easily be promoted to active client status by clicking the Make Client button found at the top of pre-client records. WebCATS requires that all fields designated as mandatory for active clients be filled in before you convert a pre-client so you may receive a message similar to the following one upon clicking the Make Client button.

Active Status

This client status is assigned to all active clients and will likely be your default status.

Inactive Status

Clients who are no longer actively receiving services from your center can be designated as inactive. Inactive clients can be switched back to active clients at any time.

Company E-mail

The Company E-mail field can contain multiple e-mail addresses. In add or edit mode, simply enter in as many e-mail addresses as desirable, making sure that each address is separated by a semicolon. As described in Taking Advantage of E-mail Hyperlinks, each address becomes its own e-mail hyperlink and, when multiple addresses are present, so does the Company E-mail field which, when clicked, opens a new e-mail message that is addressed to all of the addresses.

Mass Mailings Check Boxes

In the address area of a client record, there are two check boxes related to mass mailings. One is for mass e-mailings and the other is for mass mailings (of the post office kind). If a client does not want to be included in any promotional e-mailings or mailings, you can deselect one or both of these options for the client. 

When sending mass e-mails to a grouping of clients, WebCATS will prompt you to exclude any that do not have the Include on mass e-mailings options selected. When generating reports, you can eliminate clients that don't want to receive mass mailings by first creating a subset of clients, using the Include on mass mailings options as criterion.

Associated Contacts

You can link an unlimited number of contact records with a single client record. This lets you track the many individuals at a company that your center may come in contact with. However, regardless of the number of contacts linked with a company, only one contact will be the client's primary contact. Primary contacts play an important role in client records. For example, if you were compiling a list of clients with American Indian ethnicity, WebCATS would look to the client record's primary contact to determine this. For this reason, we recommend making the company owner the primary contact whenever possible. The primary contact is always the first contact listed in the client record.

By default, the first contact that you associate with a client will become the client's primary contact, but you can edit this, along with other company relationship information, from the view-only mode of a client record, as shown in the next graphic. Any edits to the contact made here will also be carried over to the contact record.

From this view-only mode, you can also link a new or existing contact to the client record, or even unlink a currently linked contact (unlinking is done by clicking the arrow icon). Only secondary contacts can be unlinked; if you want to unlink a primary contact, you'll have to designate a new primary contact before you can unlink it).

Date Fields

In the "Dates" area of a client record, there are eight date fields. Each field tracks significant dates for the client such as client start date, most recent counseling session, and scheduled follow-up date.

Each date field is explained in the following sections.

Signature/Start Date Field

When you create a new client record, 'CATS automatically populates the Start Date field with the current date. You can override this default date if the record entry date differs from the actual client start date.

Follow-up Date/Time Field

This field carries the date, time, and contact name for the scheduled follow-up session. Softshare offers two easy ways for you to manage follow-ups: (1) you can generate the Clients with Follow-Up Dates built-in report from the client record summary view or (2) open the MyWebCATS window to quickly see the follow-ups that are scheduled.

Softshare also offers the ability for you to e-mail reminders to the contact and counselor that will be participating in the follow-up sessions. This reminder can easily be generated by clicking the Follow-up Date/Time field and includes a vCalendar attachment. vCalendar attachments (i.e. .vcs files) automatically import appointments into calendar applications like the one included in Microsoft Outlook. vCalendar files must be opened and saved from the recipient's e-mail application in order for appointments to be integrated into the application's calendar.

If the Prompt for client follow-up sessions? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database, you will be prompted to reschedule a client's follow-up after entering a counseling session record for the client. This prompt includes the ability to generate e-mail reminders with vCalendar attachments.

Most Recent Counseling/Award/Milestone/Loan Fields.  

These four fields display the dates, if any, of the client’s most recent initial or follow-up counseling session, award won, investment, and milestone. These dates are pulled directly from their respective client activity records and therefore, are not available for editing from the client record.

Last Survey Date Field

This field carries the date that the client most recently responded to a center survey. This field can be completed manually or, if a survey response record is created for the client, either manually or via eCenter, WebCATS will automatically update this field. In addition, if the Prompt to synchronize clients and milestones? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database, WebCATS will prompt you to update this field after entering a "Responded to Survey" milestone record for the client.

Expiration Date Field

This field carries the date, if any, when the client should expire as a center client. This field is generally only used by centers that charge an annual subscription fee.

Company Gender

The Company Gender field displays the gender of the company owner. Gender should be selected based on the person who owns 51% or more of the business. When compiling woman-owned businesses, it is this field that WebCATS looks to. The gender of the client's primary contact plays no role in determining whether a business is woman-owned.

Company Veteran

The Company Veteran field displays the veteran status of the company owner. Veteran status should be selected based on the person who owns 51% or more of the business. As with company gender, this is the field WebCATS looks to when compiling data for EDMIS; the veteran status of the primary contact plays no role here.

Bid Match Options and Criteria

If your center is running Softshare's Bid Match program, there are several client record fields and features that pertain to this program. For detailed information on managing Softshare's Bid Match program through WebCATS, download the Softshare 'CATS Bid Match Guide PDF.

Product Codes

The following four types of codes, collectively called product codes, can be updated while client records are in view-only, edit, or add mode. 

• Product Service Codes (PSCs)
• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes

In the view-only version of a client record, you can update product codes by clicking the edit icon that displays next to a product code field. This displays a selection screen containing a complete list of valid values for the selected code type. In this screen, select the codes that you want to appear on the company record by clicking their associated check boxes, then click the Update button to insert them into the record. (You can use the Internet Explorer's search feature (Edit|Find) to search for particular terms in the code selection screen.)

In addition to updating product codes from the view-only version of a company record, you can also update them while a company record is in add or edit mode by manually making entries in the PSCs, SICs, and NAICSs fields. WebCATS does not provide you with a list of valid codes in this case, but you can click any of the field names to open an external government Web site that addresses each of these product code types, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: If you create a search profile for a company with product codes, WebCATS, by default, transfers the product codes into the search profile--unless this option is turned off for your program's global configurations. For more information on product codes and how they are used in search profiles, download the Softshare 'CATS Bid Match Guide PDF.

Success Story Fields

In the Notes area of a client record, there are two success story fields: the Success Story and Success Story Dated fields. These two fields are not available for editing from the client record. Rather, these two fields reflect read-only copies of the most recent "Success Story" milestone record, if any, that was created for the client.

Attached Documents

By default, every 'CATS database is provided with 500MB of attached document storage capacity. This allows you to attach an unlimited number of supporting documents (limited only if the database reaches a total of 500MB) for a client from the view-only mode of a client record, as shown in the next graphic.

If you provide a description and keywords for the uploaded document, you'll be able to subset on them in the future, as well as the filename and upload date. As you can see in the previous graphic, there is a size limit on each individual attachment; this limit is set by your database administrator.

From the view-only mode, you can also view, edit, or even delete previously uploaded attachments. However, please note that if you edit an attachment opened by WebCATS, you will not be editing the version saved to WebCATS. You'll need to re-upload the attachment if you want WebCATS' version of it to reflect your recent edits.

Note: Database administrators can select Tools|Manage Documents in order to globally view or delete client record attachments. Also, from WinCATS' global configuration settings, administrators can modify maximum size limitations per document, as well as restrict the types of documents that can be uploaded. 

Client Activity History

The client record detail view includes a special feature called an activity history list that displays in the lower pane of the record detail screen. This list summarizes the client activity records (counseling sessions, awards, milestones, investments, and survey responses) recorded at all centers for the client record shown. Assuming you have the appropriate level of permissions, you can click a record in the history list to view its details as needed. For more information on this activity history list, see Activity History List.

Understanding Contact Records

Contact records track individual-specific information such as home phone, cell phone, gender, ethnicity, veteran status, and so on for the individuals that your center works with. Contact records are closely linked with the client records in your database so that you may track all the various individuals from a company that your center comes into contact with.

While most fields in contact records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Associated Company
• eCenter Password
• Contact E-mail
• Mass Mailings Check Boxes
• Contact Activity History

Looking for instructions on how to create contact records? Visit Creating Contact Records.

Associated Company

The Company field in a contact record displays the name of the client record that the contact is associated with. From the edit mode of a contact record, you can edit or remove an existing company association. The only exception to this is if the contact is listed as the company's primary contact in the client record. If this is the case, a different contact must be designated as primary contact (this is done from the client record, as described in Associated Contacts) before you can change or remove the company that the contact is associated with. 

If a contact is not currently associated with a company, you can create a new client record for association with that contact from the view-only mode of the contact record, as described in Creating a New Client Record from a Contact Record. 

eCenter Password

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution, your contact records will contain the eCenter Password field. As you enter new contact records into your database, they are automatically assigned eCenter passwords. The password entered here, along with the contact's e-mail address, make up the contact's login information for eCenter Direct.

Once you have added a new contact record into your database, assuming an e-mail address is present in the record, WebCATS automatically opens an e-mail message using its internal e-mail application. This e-mail is addressed to the new contact and informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information.

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

Contact E-mail

The E-mail field can contain multiple e-mail addresses. In add or edit mode, simply enter in as many e-mail addresses as desirable, making sure that each address is separated by a semicolon. As described in Taking Advantage of E-mail Hyperlinks, each address becomes its own e-mail hyperlink and, when multiple addresses are present, so does the E-mail field which, when clicked, opens a new e-mail message that is addressed to all of the addresses.

Mass Mailings Check Boxes

In the address area of a contact record, there are two check boxes related to mass mailings. One is for mass e-mailings and the other is for mass mailings (of the post office kind). If a contact does not want to be included in any promotional e-mailings or mailings, you can deselect one or both of these options for the contact. 

When sending mass e-mails to a grouping of contacts, WebCATS will prompt you to exclude any that do not have the Include on mass e-mailings options selected. When generating reports, you can eliminate contacts that don't want to receive mass mailings by first creating a subset of contact records, using the Include on mass mailings options as criterion.

Contact Activity History

The client record detail view includes a special feature called an activity history list that displays in the lower pane of the record detail screen. This list summarizes the contact activity records (list memberships, survey responses, and inquiries) recorded at all centers for the contact record shown. Assuming you have the appropriate level of permissions, you can click a record in the history list to view its details as needed. For more information on this activity history list, see Activity History List.

Understanding Inquiry Records

Inquiry records track assistance efforts (e.g. information transfer contacts) that are not considered to be true counseling sessions by DLA or SBA because the assistance is being provided to a non-client. For example, you can use inquiry records to track information packets sent out to potential clients or visitors that use onsite resource materials. For this reason, inquiry records are typically assigned to contact records, not client records.

Note: SBA once required that information transfer data be submitted to EDMIS, but this requirement was dropped at the end of 2006. Softshare has decided that inquiry records may still be of value for your center's internal tracking purposes and so the ability to create these record types will remain in WebCATS indefinitely.

Note: WebCATS provides another way for you to track assistance efforts provided to non-clients. As discussed in Pre-Client Status, you can also create non-reportable counseling session records for client records with a "pre-client" status.

Looking for instructions on how to create inquiry records? Visit Creating Inquiry Records.

Understanding Counseling Session Records

Counseling Sessions records track any business-related communications between a client and counselor. While most fields in counseling session records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Assigning Multiple Clients and Counselors to a Counseling Session Record
• Total Number of People Attending Counseling Session
• Preparation, Travel, and Contact Time
• Action Item
• Reportable? Check Box
• Follow-up Date Prompt

Looking for instructions on how to create counseling session records? Visit Creating Counseling Session Records.

Assigning Multiple Clients and Counselors to a Counseling Session Record

WebCATS supports the selection of multiple clients per counseling session record and/or multiple counselors, depending on the global configurations established for your Softshare 'CATS database. The ability to include multiple clients or counselors in a single counseling session is a configurable option set by a system administrator.

If you create a counseling session record with two clients, you will get credit on the DLA 1806 Report and/or in your EDMIS exports for two counseling sessions: one for each client. However, if you conduct a counseling session record with two counselors, but a single client, you will get credit for only one counseling session. In other words, the presence of multiple clients will increase your DLA and SBA reporting numbers, but not the presence of multiple counselors.

When you create a counseling session record with multiple clients and/or counselors, you are, in effect, creating multiple counseling session records. For example, a counseling session record with three clients and two counselors assigned to it will display in the counseling session record summary screen as follows:

• When displayed by client, it will display as two records—one for each client counseled
• When displayed by counselor, it will display as two records—one for each counselor involved
• When displayed by unique session, it will only display as a single record

Note: The three previously listed display options are set from the counseling session record status filter box.

Total Number of People Attending Counseling Session

Near the bottom of a counseling session record, there is a field titled Total # of people (excl. Counselors). This field is intended to represent the total number of people, excluding counselors, that attended the counseling session. 

For example, if three employees from the same company attended the counseling session, this field should have a value of "3," even though only one client is associated with the counseling session record. Or, if three employees from one company and two employees from another company attended the counseling session, this field should have a value of "5," even though only two clients are associated with the counseling session record. As the field title states, the counselors present should never be included in this field's total count.

Note: This field's value defaults to the number of client records associated with the counseling session record, but you can overwrite this if more than one contact is present from a single company.

Preparation, Travel, and Contact Time

When entering preparation, travel, and contact time into a counseling session record, be sure to express the time in hours, not minutes. For example, a contact time of 45 minutes should be entered into the counseling session record as ".75," not "45."

Action Item

The Action Item field displays the task, if any, that you have asked the client to perform. The accompanying Date to Complete and Date Completed fields allow you to enter an expected completion date at the time you assign the task and then enter the actual completion date when the task has been performed. To help you track action items that have yet to be completed, you can run the built-in Action Items (Outstanding) report from the counseling session record summary screen. 

Reportable? Check Box

The Reportable? check box plays an important role in counseling session records. When this option is selected, the counseling session will be considered by your DLA and SBA-mandated reports and exports. 

By default, WebCATS selects the Reportable? check box when you create an initial or follow-up counseling session record. In contrast, WebCATS disables the Reportable? check box when you create an administrative counseling session record, a close-out counseling session record, or a counseling session record for a pre-client to ensure that these sessions aren’t included in DLA and SBA reports and exports.

Note: Even though sessions with a deselected or disabled Reportable? check box will never be calculated when generating DLA- or SBA-mandated reports or exports, you can include these counseling session records when generating other built-in or custom reports. Just make sure that, before you run the report, the counseling session record summary display is set to include "Non-reportable Only" or "All Records" as part of the filter box criteria.

Follow-up Date Prompt

If the Prompt for client follow-up sessions? global configuration setting is active for your 'CATS database and you create an initial or follow-up counseling session, a pop-up window will display prompting you to update the associated client record's Follow-up Date field, as shown in the next graphic.

From this prompt, you can update the date in the client record's Follow-up Date field, select an alternate contact for the follow-up (if applicable), send an e-mail reminder to the client's counselor regarding the new follow-up date and time, and/or send an e-mail reminder to the selected contact regarding the new follow-up date and time. If you choose to e-mail reminders to the client or counselor, those e-mails automatically include vCalendar attachments. vCalendar attachments (i.e. .vcs files) automatically import appointments into calendar applications like the one included in Microsoft Outlook. vCalendar files must be opened and saved from the recipient's e-mail application in order for appointments to be integrated into the application's calendar.

Note: If you edit the e-mail address (or add an address) for the contact selected in the prompt's Follow Up With field, you also have the option of updating the contact record with the new e-mail information.

Understanding Award Records

Award records track government contracts awarded to your clients. While most fields in award records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Jobs Data
• Reportable? Check Box

Looking for instructions on how to create award records? Visit Creating Award Records.

Jobs Data

The Jobs Created and Jobs Retained fields found in an award record let you track the full-time and part-time jobs created or retained as a result of the award. This jobs data does not automatically affect the economic data recorded in milestone records; nor does it automatically affect the employee counts found in client records. If the job change data is worthy of a milestone record or does impact a client's employee count, you must manually record the award's impact in these two areas.

Reportable? Check Box

The Reportable? check box plays an important role in award records. When this option is selected, the award record will be included in the DLA 1806 Report. 

By default, WebCATS selects the Reportable? check box when you create an award record for a client. In contrast, WebCATS disables the Reportable? check box when you create an award record for a pre-client to ensure that pre-client activities aren’t included in DLA reports.

Note: Even though award records with a deselected Reportable? check box will never be calculated when generating the 1806, you can include these records when running generic award reports. Just make sure that, before you run the report, the award record summary display is set to include "Non-reportable Only" or "All Records" as part of the filter box criteria.

Understanding Milestone Records

Milestone records track any significant event in a client's business cycle. While most fields in milestone records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Milestone Types
• Milestone Amount/Value ($)/Jobs
• Reportable? Check Box

Looking for instructions on how to create milestone records? Visit Creating Milestone Records.

Milestone Types

There are four system-defined impact milestones: change in exports, change in profits, change in sales, and change in staff. In addition, Softshare WinCATS supports the configuration of custom impact milestones. If the milestone chosen from the Type field is an impact milestone, the two Initial fields become enabled so that you can record your client's relevant business data before the impact milestone occurred. By completing these two fields with the date of the previous analysis and the analysis itself (whether it is a value, amount, or job analysis), you are able to make before and after impact milestone occurrence comparisons using the built-in Impact Milestones report.

Note: If you create a "Success Story" milestone record type for a client, a read-only copy of the success story displays in the client record as well, as described in Success Story Fields.

Milestone Amount/Value ($)/Jobs

Depending on the milestone type selected from the Type field's drop-down menu, the field immediately below the Type field can be used to track either a generic amount, a dollar value, or a number of jobs. For example, if you select the milestone type of "Business Expansion," this field becomes the Value ($) field and can be used to track the cost of the expansion.

This field is always available as either the Amount, Value ($), or Jobs field. However, it is likely that you will find this field more relevant with certain milestone types than others and, assuming that the milestone is not an impact milestone in which case this field is mandatory, you can choose to use it or ignore it on a per-milestone record basis.

Reportable? Check Box

The Reportable? check box plays an important role in milestone records. When this option is selected, the milestone record will be included, when relevant, in your DLA- and SBA-mandated reports and exports. 

By default, WebCATS selects the Reportable? check box when you create a milestone record for a client. In contrast, WebCATS disables the Reportable? check box when you create a milestone record for a pre-client to ensure that pre-client activities aren’t included in DLA- and SBA-mandated reports and exports.

Note: Even though milestone records with a deselected Reportable? check box will never be calculated when generating DLA- or SBA-mandated reports or exports, you can include these records when running generic milestone reports. Just make sure that, before you run the report, the milestone record summary display is set to include "Non-reportable Only" or "All Records" as part of the filter box criteria.

Understanding Investment Records

Investment records track client investments and loans. While most fields in investment records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections:

• Investment Status
• Reportable? Check Box

Looking for instructions on how to create investment records? Visit Creating Investment Records.

Investment Status

The Status field displays the current status of the loan or investment. If the loan/investment has a status of "Approved," the Date Completed and Amount Approved fields become mandatory. If the loan/investment has a status of "Denied," only the Date Completed field is mandatory.

Reportable? Check Box

The Reportable? check box plays an important role in investment records. When this option is selected, the investment record will be included, when relevant, in your DLA- and SBA-mandated reports and exports. 

By default, WebCATS selects the Reportable? check box when you create an investment record for a client. In contrast, WebCATS disables the Reportable? check box when you create an investment record for a pre-client to ensure that pre-client activities aren’t included in DLA- and SBA-mandated reports and exports.

Note: Even though investment records with a deselected Reportable? check box will never be calculated when generating DLA- or SBA-mandated reports or exports, you can include these records when running generic investment reports. Just make sure that, before you run the report, the investment record summary display is set to include "Non-reportable Only" or "All Records" as part of the filter box criteria.

Understanding Survey Response Records

Survey response records track the answers and comments clients supply when they complete a survey. Survey response records can be created manually or they can be created automatically as a result of online surveys posted on eCenter.

The creation of a survey response record for a client, whether manually or automatically via eCenter, will always trigger the creation of an associated "Responded to Survey" milestone record.  And, when eCenter is involved, it may also trigger the creation of several other activity record types, as discussed in Softshare eCenter Direct Help. These associated records are displayed in survey response record's associated activity list, as shown in the next graphic.

Looking for instructions on how to create survey response records? Visit Creating Survey Response Records.

Understanding Narrative Records

Narrative records can be used to track the center performance narratives required by SBA. Once all centers have created narrative records for each of the SBA-required categories, the lead center can very easily compile these records for submittal to SBA by generating one of WebCATS' built-in narrative reports. 

Note: It should be noted that narrative records are not associated in any way with the narratives that counselors write for counseling sessions. Those are termed "Session Notes" by WebCATS and are entered into counseling session records.

Looking for instructions on how to create narrative records? Visit Creating Narrative Records.

Understanding Conference Records

Conference records track the conferences that your center hosts or participates in, along with a wide variety of information pertaining to those conferences such as attendees, surveys, and collected fees. While many fields in conference records are self-explanatory, there are a large number of fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections. 

• SBA888? Check Box
• Reportable? Check Box
• Date Approved Field
• Instructor Field
• Total Hours Field
• Number of Sessions Field
• Managing Attendee Count and Classification
• Managing Fees
• Managing Attendee Lists
• Managing Survey Data

Looking for instructions on how to create conference records? Visit Creating Conference Records.

SBA888? Check Box

If the conference is an SBA-funded conference, then the SBA888? check box must be selected in order for the conference to be included in your EDMIS exports. If anything other than "PTAC" is the selected center type for the current active center, WebCATS selects the SBA888? check box by default.

Reportable? Check Box

The Reportable? check box must be selected in order for the conference to be included in your DLA and SBA-mandated reports and exports. By default, WebCATS selects the Reportable? check box when you create a conference record. 

Note: Even though conference records with a deselected Reportable? check box will never be calculated when generating DLA- or SBA-mandated reports or exports, you can include these records when running generic conference reports. Just make sure that, before you run the report, the conference record summary display is set to include "Non-reportable Only" or "All Records" as part of the filter box criteria.

Date Approved Field

The Date Approved field plays an important role in DLA and SBA-mandated reports and exports. It determines which reporting period the conference is calculated under. For example, if you host a conference in February of 2006, but it doesn't get approved by the SBA until February of 2007, the conference will only appear in reporting periods for the year 2007—not 2006.

Instructor Field

The instructor field identifies the person teaching or hosting the conference. From this field's drop-down menu, only previously-created counselor records are available for selection. If the instructor is not a counselor, as discussed in Counselor Type, you can create special "Instructor" counselor records that will only show up for selection from this field.

Total Hours Field

The Total Hours field displays the conference duration, in hours. This field should always represent the entire conference duration, even if the conference record itself represents a conference with multiple sessions, as described in the next section.

Number of Sessions Field

If a single conference consists of multiple sessions (e.g. a six-week course), you can choose to create multiple conference records, one for each session, or you can create a single conference record and enter the number of sessions into the Number of Sessions field. However, please note that this field is not considered in any way when generating DLA- or SBA-mandated reports or exports. In other words, WebCATS will never multiply the number of hours or attendees by the number of sessions when generating a report.

Managing Attendee Count and Classification

In the Attendee Classification area of a conference record, you can track and classify a conference's attendees, as shown in the next graphic.

Attendee Classifications

When reporting on conferences, SBA requires that you classify your attendees (DLA does not require this). You can manually enter in your attendee classifications or you can let WebCATS classify them for you by linking an attendee list to your conference record. 

If you let WebCATS classify the attendees for you, which we strongly recommend, here are the calculations it uses:

Note: Because an attendee can be tallied under more than one classification—or no classification at all, it is unlikely that the classification total will equal the total number of attendees.

Total Number of Attendees and No Shows

Both the SBA and DLA require an attendee total for accurate conference reporting.

Like the attendee classifications, if you link an attendee list to your conference record, WebCATS can automatically populate the Total Attendees and Total "no shows" fields for you using the Attended? check box found on the linked attendee list record as a basis, as shown in the next graphic. The total attendee count is comprised of all attendees with the Attended? check box selected. The total no shows count is comprised of all attendees with a fee level other than "None" that do not have the Attended? check box selected.

If you prefer not link an attendee list to your conference record, you can enter these attendee totals in manually.

Managing Fees

Conference records track all fee information associated with the conference such as the conference's fee structure, the dollar amount of all collected fees, and the distribution of fees to other participating resources.

Fee Structure

In the Full Fee field, enter the full attendance fee charged for the conference. If the conference has a multiple fee structure, enter the remaining fees in the Discounted, Discounted #2, and Discounted #3 fields.

Number of Attending Fee Payers

Like the attendee classifications and totals, if you link an attendee list to your conference record, WebCATS will automatically populate the number of attendees that paid each fee using the Fee Level field found on the linked attendee list record as a basis, as shown in the next graphic. Only actual attendees are calculated here (i.e. contacts marked as attended on the linked attendee list). If a contact paid for a conference, but never showed in the end, that contact does not figure into this section's calculations.

If you prefer not link an attendee list to your conference record, you can enter these fee totals in manually.

Note: An attendee is only tallied in the No Fee Paid field when the associated list record shows for the attendee that (1) None or Complimentary is selected for the fee and (2) Attended? is selected.

Income

If you link an attendee list to your conference record, WebCATS will automatically calculate the Total "No Show" Fee Income field based on the attendee and fee level information found in the linked attendee list. The Total "No Show" Fee Income field represents any contact who paid a fee for the conference, but never actually attended it. For example, as shown in the previous graphic, Mouhammed Safi paid a discounted fee of  $30.00 for the conference, but did not attend. Therefore, the Total "No Show" Fee Income field has a value of $30.00.

The Other Income field is never completed automatically by WebCATS. It exists for you to manually enter in any income that you earned outside of conference attendance fees.

The Total Gross Income field displays the total amount of income earned for a conference. This total combines the values found in the Total "No Show" Fee Income field, the Other Income field, as well as the amount of income brought in by attending fee payers, which is automatically calculated behind the scenes by WebCATS. 

Distribution of Income

These fields identify how the collected fees are distributed among the various contributing resources, including your center. WebCATS cannot complete these fields for you—you must complete them manually.

Managing Attendee Lists

You can view, create, and edit attendee lists for conference records in WebCATS and have the system automatically calculate conference attendee, attendee classification, and income totals based on these associated attendee lists. You can even generate receipts for attendees from conference records with linked attendee lists. 

Creating Attendee Lists

Attendee lists are made up of contact records. You must create and save your conference record before you can create an attendee list for it. Follow these steps to create, and automatically link, an attendee list with a conference record:

1. Open the appropriate conference record in view-only mode.
2. Click the Add Members button that displays near the bottom of the record to create a brand new attendee list and follow steps 4-7 described in the Creating List Records section before proceeding to step 3 below. Click the Merge button if you would like to attach a previously created attendee list to the conference record and follow steps 3-5 described in the Merging List Records section before proceeding to step 3.
3. From the view-only version of the conference record, click the Edit button found at the top of the attendee list, which is located in the lower portion of the conference record. 
4. Complete attendee statuses and fee level classifications for each attendee as necessary and click the Update button located at the top or bottom of the form when you are finished making attendee edits.



5. WebCATS returns you to the conference record's view-only mode and prompts you to recalculate the conference record's attendee classifications and fee income information to ensure that any changes you just made to the attendee list are reflected in the conference record. 

Managing Survey Data

In each conference record, you can create survey questions and store attendees' subsequent survey responses, as discussed in the next two sections:

• Creating a Survey
• Recording Survey Responses

Creating a Survey

Follow these steps to create a conference survey.

1. Open a conference record in edit mode.
2. In the Survey Responses area of the conference record, WebCATS displays the default survey questions, rating scale, and caption/instructions that are currently configured in Softshare 'CATS global configuration settings, as shown in the next graphic. You can edit, add, or delete survey questions and caption/instructions on a per-conference basis.



3. Click the Update button located at the top or bottom of the conference record to save any edits you made to the survey.

Note: You can click the report icon from the view-only version of a conference record to print an attractive display of the survey (called the Conference Evaluation Form report) for distribution to conference attendees.

Recording Survey Responses

1. Open a conference record in edit mode.
2. If the survey hasn't yet been created, perform steps 2 in the previous section.
3. For each survey question, enter the numbers for each ranking that were received.
4. In the Survey Responses field, enter any free-form comments provided by attendees.
5. Click the Update button located at the top or bottom of the conference record to save the survey responses.

Note: You can click the report icon from the view-only version of a conference record to print a survey response report (called the Conference Evaluation Responses report).

Understanding List Records

List records are groupings of contact records that make up a mailing list, conference attendee list, or any other type of list you wish to create. As discussed in Managing Attendee Count and Classification and Managing Fees, list records prove incredibly valuable when they are associated with conference records in order to act as conference attendee lists.

Looking for instructions on how to create, edit, or merge list records? Visit Creating List Records.

Understanding Counselor Records

Counselor records store basic counselor data. Almost every other type of record in the 'CATS database is associated with a counselor record so it's important that your database accurately account for all counselors in the form of counselor records. 

While most fields in counselor records are self-explanatory, there are several fields and features that warrant additional explanation. These are discussed in the following sections. 

• Counselor Type
• E-mail
• Counselor Activity History

Looking for instructions on how to create contact records? Visit Creating Counselor Records.

Counselor Type

In the Type field, you can specify additional detail for the counselor and their relationship to your center. Are they an employee, consultant, contractor, or something else? With the exception of "Instructor," any type of counselor can be associated with any type of record. Counselors that are designated as instructors are only available from the Instructor fields found in conference records. And that is the sole purpose of the "Instructor" type. If you're creating a counselor record for someone who will be associated with clients, counseling sessions, and other client activities, do not select "Instructor" in the Type field.

E-mail

Whenever possible, Softshare recommends that you complete the E-mail field for a counselor--especially for counselors that will be working closely with clients. Many fields and features in 'CATS (and eCenter) such as counseling session follow-up prompts and counseling request notifications work best when a counselor e-mail address is present. When no counselor e-mail address is present, these features look to the e-mail address of the center that the counselor is associated with. 

Counselor Activity History

The counselor record detail view includes a special feature called an activity history list that displays in the lower pane of the record detail screen. This list summarizes all client activity records as well as narrative and inquiry records recorded at all centers for the counselor record shown. Assuming you have the appropriate level of permissions, you can click a record in the history list to view its details as needed. For more information on this activity history list, see Activity History List.

Understanding Bid Match History Records

Bid match history records are system-generated records that track those clients that are actively receiving bid matches from your center. Because DLA considers any client that is receiving bid matches from your center to be an active client, bid match history records exist solely to provide auditable verification that a client received bid matches within a particular time frame. A bid match history record is created for every active bid match client each time Softshare automatically updates your WebCATS client records with any recent search profile changes and bid match totals.

Unlike the other record types, bid match history records are not available for viewing from WebCATS' navigation menu. Instead, you can view bid match history records on a per-client basis by clicking the This month's Bid Match total field (available in the view-only version of a client record). This displays a summary listing of the bid match history records associated with that client, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: For complete information on Softshare's Bid Match program and how it interacts with WebCATS, download the Softshare 'CATS Bid Match Guide PDF.

Understanding Counseling and Conference Request Records

If eCenter Direct is a component of your Softshare 'CATS solution, your database will contain counseling request records and conference request records. These records are created automatically as a result of Web site visitors submitting requests for counseling and training event registrations from your center's eCenter Direct Web site.

When a counseling request record is "approved," the information contained by that record (which was originally provided by the requestor at the eCenter Direct Web site) is used to create a client record, contact record, and, optionally, an administrative counseling session record. Similarly, when a conference request record is "approved," the information contained by that record is used to create a contact and, optionally, a pre-client client record.   

Note: For detailed information on eCenter Direct and how it integrates with WebCATS, see the Softshare eCenter Direct Help.

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Editing Records

To make updates to an existing WebCATS record, assuming your account permissions allow it, open the record and click the Edit button that displays at the top or bottom of the record. This opens an editable version of the record. When you are finished making changes, click the Update button to exit the record and save your changes or Cancel to exit without saving.

Editing the Owning Center in Linked Records

Some record types are closely linked with one another. For these linked records, Softshare 'CATS requires that they have the same owning center.

For example, Softshare 'CATS requires that a client record and its associated contact records all have the same owning center. To enforce this, WebCATS behaves in the following ways:

• WebCATS will not allow you to edit the Center field of a client record unless you also agree to edit the Center fields on the client's associated contact records.
• When a contact record is linked to a client record, WebCATS will not allow you to update the contact record's Center field. Instead, you must update the client record's Center field and the change will be carried over to the contact record.

Softshare 'CATS also requires that a conference record and its associated attendee list record have the same owning center. To enforce this, WebCATS behaves in the following ways: 

• If you change the Center field of a conference record that has an associated attendee list record, WebCATS automatically carries over the center ownership change to the associated attendee list record.
• WebCATS does not allow you to update an attendee list record's Center field. Instead, you must update the associated conference record's Center field and the change will be automatically carried over to the attendee list record.

Return to Table of Contents

Deleting Records

To delete a WebCATS record, assuming your account permissions allow it, open the record from the appropriate summary view and click the Delete button that displays at the top of the record. This displays a pop-up message prompting you to confirm the record deletion. Click OK to delete the record or Cancel to cancel the deletion.

Softshare 'CATS' various record types are closely related. All record types, with the exception of the center record type, are owned by at least one other record type. For example, a counselor record will always have an owning center record. A client record will always have an owning counselor record and center record. And, to complete the chain, a client activity record will always have an owning client, counselor, and center record.

How Record Relationships Impact Record Deletion

Because of the relationships that exist between records, the deletion of a record that "owns" other records may either (1) not be allowed or (2) may cause the deletion of other records, as explained next.

Deleting Counselor Records

WebCATS will not let you delete counselor records that own other records such as client records or client activity records. Instead, WebCATS requires that you reassign the owned records to another counselor before you can delete the counselor record.

Note: As a recommended alternative to deleting counselor records, you can inactivate the counselor record instead. Achieved by selecting "Inactive" from a counselor record's Status field, this alternative lets you preserve historical counselor data.

Deleting Client Records

While WebCATS will not let you delete counselor records that own other records, it will let you delete client records that own client activity records. However, if you delete a client record, you must also agree to the deletion of the activity records it owns including counseling session records, award records, milestone records, and investment records.

Deleting Contact Records

Similar to deleting client records, if you delete a contact record that has inquiry records associated with it, you must agree to the deletion of those inquiry records as well. Deleted contact records will also be removed from any list records that they are members of. If a contact record is the primary contact for a client record, WebCATS will not let you delete it until you change the client record's primary contact to someone else.

Deleting Conference Records

The deletion of a conference record automatically deletes all related conference request records, a record type available to eCenter users. In addition, WebCATS will prompt you to delete the conference's associated conference attendee list. If you decide not to delete the associated attendee list, WebCATS will convert the list to a mailing list record and all attendee/fee information will be lost. 

If you would like to keep related conference request records and/or the conference attendee list intact, Softshare recommends that you cancel the conference instead of deleting it. This is done by selecting "Cancelled" for the conference record's Conference Status field. At this time, you should also set the conference as non-reportable to ensure that its numbers do not contribute to your DLA or SBA-mandated reports or exports.

Return to Table of Contents

Reports

You can paint a detailed portrait of your client database with WebCATS' robust reporting capabilities. Choose from WebCATS' extensive collection of built-in reports (including those mandated by DLA and SBA) or create your own. The topics of creating, generating, and working with WebCATS' various reports and report features are discussed in this chapter:

• Built-In Reports
• Custom Reports
• Compiling Lists of Favorite Reports
• Worksheets (DLA and SBA-Mandated Reports)

Built-In Reports

There are more than 100 built-in reports available in WebCATS. Using these system-defined reports, you can compile client address lists, counseling session activity reports, success story reports, comma-delimited export files, conference attendee reports, and even mailing labels, to name just a few.

Follow these steps to run a built-in report in WebCATS:

1. Access the record view that matches the type of report that you want to run. As described in detail in the following bullet points, you can run a report for a large grouping of records; a single record; or a group of activity records that belong to a single client, contact, or counselor record.
   • If running a report for a grouping of records such as client records or counseling session records, select the appropriate record summary view from the WebCATS navigation menu, filter your view as needed to determine which records should be included in the report, and click the Report button located at the top of the page. (Please note that while WebCATS does respect the various filters that may be in place such as subsets, quick searches, record status filter boxes, last client view, and so on when determining which records to include in the report, it does not respect the alphanumeric filters that may be limiting the display of client or contact records.)
   • If running a report for a single record, open that record, click the Report button that displays at the top of the record and skip to step 3.
   • If running a report for the activity history list found at the bottom of an open client, contact, or counselor record, click the Report button found at the top of the activity history list. 

Clicking the Report button displays a report selection/criteria pop-up window like the one shown in the next graphic. The selection options available in this window vary depending on the type of report you are generating.



Note: When running reports for activity records, your report output will be based on the filter criteria established previously in the record summary screen. You cannot modify these filters from the report criteria window (although a summary of your current filter settings does display for reference purposes in the Criteria field). For this reason, always ensure that your filter options are configured to include the specific records that you want to report on before you click the Report button.

2. In the report selection/criteria pop-up window, select the center(s) for which you want to run your report. The current active center displays by default, but you can click the + icon that displays to the left of the Selected Center(s) field to display a selection list of other centers where you have applicable record view/reporting permissions established. You can manually select additional centers from the list to include those centers' data in your report, or you can use the associated drop-down list to select centers by region code or to select or clear all check boxes in the list as needed.

Note: Even when you open up the report to additional centers, report output is still limited by the filter criteria established previously in the record summary view. For example, if you click the Report button in the client record summary screen while only active clients located within a particular county are displayed, then all centers included in your report will have their output limited to active clients located within that particular county.

3. Open the Report tab to select the built-in report you want to run. The reports available for selection vary depending on the type of record you are reporting on.
4. From the Sort Report By field's drop-down list, select a sort order to apply to your report output, if applicable. The sort order options available differ depending on the type of report you selected.
5. Enter a subtitle for the report in the Subtitle field. This field defaults to a description of the filter criteria previously established, but you can overwrite this default if desirable.
6. Under the Output heading in the report criteria, select the format in which you want your report output to display. The following two options are available for each report: 
   • Normal generates your report output in a viewer-friendly and printer-friendly HTML format.
   • Export Format generates your report output in a comma-delimited format.
7. If you are running a client activity (session, award, investment, or milestone) report or inquiry report, indicate whether to include activity comments and/or notes in your report output by selecting or deselecting the Include Comments? and/or Include Notes? check boxes. These options do not apply to some types of activity reports, such as the "Summary of..." reports.
8. To prefix each record ID in your report output with its associated center ID, select the Prepend Center IDs? check box. Leave this option deselected to display record IDs by themselves, with no prefixes, in the report output.
9. Select the Enable Record Links? option to create hyperlinks in the report output that allow you to easily open any client, company, contact, counselor, center, or activity record that is referenced in the output.
10. When you are finished entering report criteria, click the Generate Report button to generate your report output. The next graphic shows sample report output as it displays when the Normal output option is selected.



11. You can print your report output by selecting File|Print in Internet Explorer once it has been generated. Or, if you chose the "Export Format" option as your report output in step 6, you can save it as a .txt file for later use, such as to create mail merge documents in Microsoft Word.

Note: If your report or mailing labels are being improperly formatted during printing, try changing Internet Explorer's margin settings, as discussed here. If you'd like to eliminate the header and footer that Internet Explorer automatically adds to printed documents, you can do that as well, as discussed here. 

Custom Reports

WebCATS has more than 100 built-in reports. And even though they offer many options and do a great job of helping you organize your data, there may be times when you need to organize data in a way that WebCATS doesn't support. For example, you may love the built-in client address list report, but just wish that it was sorted a little bit differently, or included that one extra field—and then it would be exactly what you need.

That's where custom reports come in. Whether you want to make minor changes to an existing WebCATS report or create a brand new report that doesn’t resemble anything currently in WebCATS, you can do so using the custom report module, as discussed in the following sections.

• Designing Custom Reports
• Running Custom Reports
• Managing Custom Reports

Designing Custom Reports

When designing your custom report, you get to determine what data will be included in the report. You also get to determine every aspect of report layout including sort order, column header names, and even font formatting. Custom reports can be designed for the following record types:

• Client records
• Contact records
• Inquiry records
• Client activity records (counseling session, award, milestone, and investment records)
• Narrative records
• Conference records
• Attendee or mailing List records
• Counselor records

WebCATS' custom report module is very powerful, but there are some limitations, as outlined next:

• No custom calculations. You cannot apply custom calculations to column totals. For example, you cannot specify that WebCATS provide you with the average number of counseling hours for a grouping of records. Nor, for example, can you ask WebCATS to report how many of the those counseling sessions were held at the client's site and how many were held at the center's site. WebCATS, by default, does have intelligent totaling capabilities that it will apply (e.g. total hours of counseling contact time or total value of awards), but they vary from field to field and cannot be influenced by the person designing the custom report.
• Only one primary sort field per custom report. When establishing a primary sort criterion, you can only display one field of data for that sort criterion. For example, if you decide to sort a custom report by center name, only the center name can display for each new record grouping. You could not choose to display both the center name and center address, for example, or display the center name, primary phone, and primary counselor. For more information on this restriction and more information on establishing record sort order in general, visit Record Grouping and Sorting.
• No summary reporting. WebCATS has many built-in reports that allow you to summarize data at a high level. For example, you can run the Summary of Counseling by Center report to see the total number of sessions, contact hours, clients, etc. that were counseled per center, without having to view a complete listing for each counseling sessions. As of now, it is not possible to create a custom report that summarizes data. Counseling session data would have to be listed out in its entirety and sorted by center in order to get center totals.
• Primary contacts only. When creating a custom client or client activity report, you can only include information for the client's primary contact. Any other contacts listed for a client record cannot be included.
• No record restricting capabilities. Custom reports, like the majority of built-in reports, do not have the ability to narrow the group of records you are reporting on based upon a characteristic they have in common (e.g. all woman-owned businesses or counseling sessions that have at least 60 minutes of travel time). If you want to restrict a custom report's output in this way, you must first create a subset, and then run a built-in or custom report against that subset of records.

The process for designing a custom report is divided into three parts for documentation purposes. First, we'll discuss the selection and ordering of the fields that will appear in the custom report. Second, we'll discuss how to further design the visual layout of the report. Third, we'll discuss the naming and saving of the custom report. 

• Selecting and Ordering Fields
• Perfecting the Visual Layout of the Report
• Naming and Saving the Report

Designing a Custom Report (Part I): Selecting and Ordering Fields

Follow these steps to design a custom report in WebCATS:

1. Access the record summary view that matches the type of report that you want to design. For example, select View|Counseling Sessions if you want to design a custom counseling sessions report.
2. Click the Report button, and open the Custom Reports tab.
3. Double-click the "--Create/Edit Custom Report--" line item that displays at the top of the custom report listing, as shown in the next graphic. This opens the Custom Report Merlin.



4. From the first screen of the Custom Report Merlin, indicate whether you will be creating the report from scratch, basing it on a previously-created custom report, or basing it on a Softshare sample template.
5. If you're creating a custom report for counseling session records, you'll need to decide how you want to handle counseling sessions that are associated with clients and/or counselors. Choose one of the four organization options found under the "Split Counseling Sessions" heading.
6. Click the Next button.
7. At the next Merlin screen, select which fields you want included in your custom report and click the Next button. 

Note: If you based your report on an existing custom report in step 4, this screen is initially restricted to just those fields that are part of that report. To view and select other fields for inclusion in your new custom report, deselect the Show only selected fields? option.



8. At the next Merlin screen, the fields you selected are listed in the order that they appeared on the previous screen. To change order, highlight a field and click the up/down arrow icons to move it to its desired position in the report output, as shown in the next graphic. When the fields are ordered to your satisfaction, click the Next button.



9. That's it for selecting and ordering the fields in your custom report! If you want to establish additional record grouping and sorting options, rename column headers, or further refine the report layout, proceed to the next section. If you're content with the custom report as-is, skip directly to Naming and Saving the Report.

Designing a Custom Report (Part II): Perfecting the Visual Layout of the Report

Once you have chosen and ordered the fields for your custom report (steps 7-8 in the previous section), WebCATS displays the Report Layout screen, shown in the next graphic. If you designed the custom report from scratch, WebCATS, by default, initially formats the report in a very basic columnar format, with column headings listed across the "RH 1" row, which stands for report header 1 and the corresponding fields listed across the "D 1" row, which stands for detail 1. Each heading/field pair gets its own column.

Note: If you based your custom report on a Softshare sample template or a previously-created custom report, a more advanced layout could already be in place here.

It's entirely feasible that WebCATS' default layout is perfectly acceptable to you and you have no need to alter any aspect of your newly-created custom report (in which case you should skip directly to Naming and Saving the Report). However, if you want to specify record grouping and sorting, edit column names, or take advantage of a large number of other formatting options, you can do so from this  Report Layout screen, as described in the following sections:

• Record Grouping and Sorting
• Editing of WebCATS' Default Column Header Names
• Deleting Column Headers and Fields
• Moving Column Headers and Fields
• Inserting Horizontal Lines Between Rows

Note: Not every formatting option that is available to you is documented here. In addition to the formatting options discussed in the next five sections, you can also adjust font styles, field alignment, text wrapping, and many other aspects of your report's layout. We encourage you to experiment with all of these powerful features. A great way to do this is to review one of Softshare sample templates to see how more advanced formatting is accomplished.

Record Grouping and Sorting

WebCATS allows you to group records in ascending or descending order according to one of the fields that is included in your custom report. In addition to providing organization to the report, record grouping also lets you see summary totals per grouping as well as one grand total for the entire report. When you select a record grouping from the Group records by field's drop-down menu, several changes are automatically made to your custom report's layout, as shown in the next graphic.

In addition to grouping records, you can also set primary, secondary, and even tertiary sort orders for the records that display in your custom report output. These sort orders can be used regardless of whether a record grouping is established.

Editing of WebCATS' Default Column Header Names

Every field that you select for inclusion in your custom report has a default column header associated with it. You can leave these default column header names in place or you can edit one or more of them. To edit a column header, perform the following set of steps:

1. From the report layout, click the column header you would like to edit. This displays the Edit Header options, as shown in the next graphic.



2. Edit the value in the Column name field. If the value you are entering into the Column name field is lengthy and you don't want it to take up so much horizontal space, you can force a break in the header by adding a "\n" where the break should be, as shown in the next graphic.



3. Click the OK button when you have finished editing the header name.    

Deleting Column Headers and Fields

To delete a column header or field from your custom report, highlight it from the report layout. This displays your editing options for that column header or field. Then, simply click the Remove Field button. It's important to note that the deletion of a column header or field does not cause WebCATS to automatically delete its associated field or column header. For example, if you remove the "[Center ID]" field from the detail row of your custom report, the associated "Center" header will remain in place. If your goal is to delete the entire header/field pair, you'll have to delete each component individually. 

Moving Column Headers and Fields 

To change the position of a column header or field, perform the following set of steps:

1. From the report layout, click the column header or field you would like to move. This displays the Edit Header or Edit Field options.
2. In the Row and Column fields, enter the desired position for the header or field highlighted. You can only move headers and fields around within their current sections. For example, if you are moving a header that currently resides in the group header section, the row you specify in the Row field will correspond to a GH row, as illustrated in the next graphic. Note: You're not limited to specifying rows or columns that currently exist; you can create new rows or columns within the section, also shown in the next graphic.



3. Click the OK button.

It's important to note that changing the position of a column header or field does not cause WebCATS to automatically move its associated field or column header along with it. For example, as you can see in the previous illustration, moving the "Center" header did not cause the "[Center]" field to move. If your goal is to move the header/field pair, you'll have to move each one individually.

Inserting Horizontal Lines Between Rows

By default, WebCATS inserts gray horizontal lines into your report output after the header and before the footer, as shown in the next graphic.

Using the "Include Horizontal Lines" options found at the bottom of the Report Layout screen, you can remove these default gray lines or add more or of them. For example, you can insert lines between detail rows, as shown in the next graphic.

Designing a Custom Report (Part III): Naming and Saving the Report

When you're all design setting the design specifications of your custom report, assign it a name in the Report Title field that is found on the Report Layout screen and click the Next button. WebCATS takes you to the final Merlin screen where you need to click the Finish button in order to save it. Once saved, it's available to you for generation at any time, as discussed in the next section. In addition, you can choose to share your new custom report with others, as discussed in Managing Custom Reports.

Running Custom Reports

Once you have created a custom report or a custom report has been shared with you, you can access it at any time from the Custom Reports tab that displays when you go to run a report for a record or grouping of records, as shown in the next graphic. The steps for running a custom report are identical to those for running a built-in report, as outlined in Built-In Reports, with one exception. You cannot select a sort option at the time you run a custom report because record sorting is already designated for a custom report during the design phase, as described in Record Grouping and Sorting.

Managing Custom Reports

Custom reports can be viewed, shared, or deleted from WebCATS' Custom Report Management interface. Available by selecting Tools|Manage Custom Reports, custom reports are organized by report type category, as shown in the next graphic. Unless your user account is set up with full administrator privileges, you'll only be able to access those custom reports that you have created.

To edit a report title, delete a report, or share a report with other users, click the corresponding Edit button. This displays an editable view of report titles and sharing properties, as shown in the next graphic.

Compiling Lists of Favorite Reports

WebCATS lets users and administrators create listings of favorite reports. These listings can include built-in reports, custom reports, or both, and are designed to allow quick and easy access to those reports most commonly used. There are two types of lists of favorite reports:

• My Favorites
• Network Favorites

Compiling a "My Favorites" List of Reports

WebCATS offers more than 120 built-in reports and an unlimited number of custom reports, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever run all of the reports available to you—or even most of them. What is likely, however, is that you run a small number of reports on a regular basis. For quick and easy access to those reports that you do run regularly, you can create a list of favorite reports for each record type as well as for the activity history lists that display for an open client, counselor, or contact record. For example, one list could consist of all favorite client reports while another list consists of all favorite counseling session reports.

These lists of favorites are tied to your Softshare ‘CATS user account so, regardless of the computer that you log into WebCATS from, your favorites are always shown. 

To create a list of favorite reports:

1. Select View|<desired record type> and from the summary record listing, click the Report button. Or, if you’re creating a list of favorite reports for a client, counselor, or contact record activity history list, open the appropriate record and from the top of the record’s activity history list, click the Report button.
2. Open the “My Favorites” tab and double-click the “-- Favorite Reports --" listing, as shown in the next graphic.
   
   
   
   
3. WebCATS opens the Select Favorite Reports window, where all reports (built-in and custom alike) for that record type (or activity history list type) are displayed and available for selection as a favorite report, as shown in the next graphic. Either double-click a report to designate it as a favorite or highlight it and click the right arrow. You can highlight multiple reports at once by holding down the ALT key on your keyboard.
   
   
   
   
4. After moving all favorite reports to the box on the right, click the Update button to save these reports under the “My Favorites” tab.

Note: In the future, you can edit any favorite report list by double-clicking the ever-present “-- Favorite Reports --" listing, as described in step 2 above.

Compiling a "Network Favorites" List of Reports

As a user, you can create your own personal lists of favorite reports. Similarly, system administrators can create lists of favorite reports that apply to the WebCATS community as a whole. Stored under the “Network Favorites” tab, these lists are available to and, generally speaking, useful to, all WebCATS users within your program. An administrator can create a list of favorite network reports for each record type as well as for the activity history lists that display for an open client or counselor record. For example, one list could consist of all favorite client reports while another list consists of all favorite counseling session reports.

The list of reports that display under the “Network Favorites” tab is configured in Softshare WinCATS’ global configuration settings, accessible by system administrators only. If an administrator hasn’t configured a list of favorite network reports for a particular record type (or activity history list type), then the “Network Favorites” tab does not display when you go to run reports for that record type.

To create a list of network-favorite-reports in WinCATS only, perform the following steps:

1. In WinCATS, select File|Global Configuration and open the “Report Favorites” tab.
2. From the Form field’s drop-down menu, choose the record type that you are customizing the list of favorite reports for. 

Note: The “mixed client/counselor activity” option available under this drop-down applies to the reports available for the activity history lists that display when individual client or counselor records are open.

3. Click the Customize button to view all reports (built-in and custom alike) for that record type (or activity history list type) that are available for selection, as shown in the next graphic. Simply select or deselect the check box to the right of the report to add or remove it from the list of favorite network reports.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Close button and save changes to post the new or edited list of favorite network reports to WebCATS.
   
   
   

Return to Table of Contents

DLA and SBA-Mandated Reports (Worksheets)

DLA and SBA have strict reporting requirements and procedures. WebCATS is designed with these requirements and procedures in mind, letting you generate the following mandated funding agency reports (assuming your user account has the appropriate reporting permissions assigned), also known as worksheets:

• DLA 1806 Report (2007)
• SBA Economic Impact Report

Note: Looking for EDMIS exports? Those can only be performed in WinCATS by a database administrator. WebCATS does not have an interface for performing EDMIS exports.

WebCATS also features several worksheets that are no longer (or never were) mandated by funding agencies:

• DLA 1806 Reports (2003 and 2005 versions). These are older versions of the DLA 1806 Report that Softshare maintains for historical purposes only.
• SBA Case Report (quarterly and annual versions). The SBA Quarterly Case Report was once required by SBA, but it was replaced by the EDMIS system in the fall of 2005. Softshare continues to maintain these reports for historical purposes only.
• SBA Training Report. The SBA Training Report was once required by SBA, but it was replaced by the EDMIS system in the fall of 2005. Softshare continues to maintain this report for historical purposes only.
• Information Transfers/Inquiries Report. The Information Transfers/Inquiries Report was created by Softshare to provide a general overview of information transfer activity and is intended for your center's internal use only.
• Expanded Economic Impact Report (current and initial status versions). The Expanded Economic Impact Report is a Softshare variation of the SBA Economic Impact Report. It was created to provide additional economic data for your center's internal purposes only.
• Unofficial Center Overview Report. The Unofficial Center Overview Report is a Softshare variation of the DLA 1806 Report. It was created to provide a more global overview of counseling and award activity and is intended for your center's internal use only.

This section of the help is divided into the following sections:

• Generating Worksheets
• Working with Worksheets
• How WebCATS Calculates Worksheets

Generating Worksheets

This section covers the generation of the DLA 1806 Report and the SBA Economic Impact Report worksheets only. These are the two worksheets/reports mandated by the DLA and SBA respectively.

• Generating the DLA 1806 Report Worksheet
• Generating the SBA Economic Impact Report Worksheet

Note: Although we don't provide detailed instructions for generating any other worksheets available in WebCATS, the steps are very similar and you can use either of the following two subsections as general guidelines. In addition, you can learn more about these worksheet reports by visiting their individual help files.

Generating the DLA 1806 Report Worksheet

On a semi-annual basis, DLA requires all federally funded PTACs to submit a report called the "Cooperative Agreement Performance Report," also known as the DLA 1806 Report. The DLA 1806 Report tracks various center and client activity such as counseling sessions, government contract awards, and conferences. 

Follow these steps to generate the DLA 1806 Report worksheet in WebCATS:

1. Click the Tools|Worksheets command in the WebCATS navigation menu. This displays the worksheet selection/criteria window shown in the next graphic.



2. Under the Select a Worksheet heading, indicate whether you want to create a new DLA 1806 Report worksheet or open an existing one. If you select the Existing option, you are opening a saved worksheet to recalculate it using an updated database, new report parameters, or both. Be aware that only worksheets that were saved either in WebCATS at the current active center or in WinCATS by users whose home center is the current active center display in the selection list.
3. From the worksheet drop-down list, select the DLA 1806 (new or existing) that you would like to generate.

Note: The 2005 worksheet uses the government's latest reporting requirements. If you are looking to generate the DLA 1806 Report for client activity in 2004 or earlier, select the 2003 version.

4. In the Cumulative Period Start field, enter the starting date of your current fiscal year. In the Current Start and End fields, enter the start and end date of the period you are reporting on.
5. From the Counselor field's drop-down list, you can restrict the report's output to a single counselor's activity. When you restrict this report's output to a single counselor, only activity records that are assigned to the counselor or conference records that designate that counselor as the instructor are considered.
6. To include records from additional funding sources or centers, assuming your account permissions allow it, click the + icons to the right of the Funding Source(s) and Center(s) fields in order to display selection lists for updating these criteria.
7. Open the DLA tab to display and update the budget totals and other settings used to populate headings 1-6 and 21 in the report output. These settings cannot be accessed after the worksheet is generated.



8. To save your worksheet criteria for future use in WebCATS or WinCATS or to enter goals into the generated worksheet, select the Save worksheet parameters for future use? check box. The worksheet is saved under the worksheet title that currently displays in the Title field. Your worksheet is saved only at the current active center and will not be accessible from the worksheet criteria when a different center is designated as active.
9. If you are logged into WebCATS under an administrative account, an Include audit information? check box displays in the lower portion of the worksheet criteria window. Selecting this option generates worksheet output that includes an audit trail of all records that contribute to each DLA 1806 Report worksheet line item.

Note: Keep in mind that you can click any worksheet line item in the generated worksheet (see Working with Worksheets) to see all records included in that line item's total. This feature often eliminates the need for generating worksheet audit data.

10. When you are finished entering your worksheet parameters and other settings in the criteria window, click the Generate Worksheet button to begin calculating your worksheet. The amount of time required to generate each worksheet varies depending on the amount of data being considered and the resources available on the server.
11. Once the DLA 1806 Report worksheet is generated, you can enter goals (assuming you chose to save your worksheet in step 8), review the records that contributed to each line item, recalculate the worksheet, and/or print the DLA 1806 Report. For more information on these worksheet features, see Working with Worksheets. 

Generating the SBA Economic Impact Report Worksheet

On a semi-annual basis, the SBA requires all SBDCs to submit a report called the SBA Economic Impact Report. This report calculates (through milestone and investment information) the economic impact your center's assistance has had on its clients.

You will notice that there are two types of economic impact reports listed here. The SBA Economic Impact Report by Approval Date uses the loan approval date, as displayed in the Date Completed field of an investment record, to determine whether or not investment records fall into the current reporting period. The SBA Economic Impact Report by Submitted Date uses the loan submittal date, as displayed in the Date Submitted field of an investment record, to determine whether or not investment records fall into the current reporting period.

While the SBA Economic Impact Report by Approval Date is more accurate for reporting purposes, WebCATS still lets you create the report based on the submittal date since that is how the report was previously calculated in WinCATS 2.1 and we want to ensure that you can generate consistent numbers from one version of Softshare 'CATS to the next.

Follow these steps to generate the SBA Economic Impact Report worksheet in WebCATS:

1. Click the Tools|Worksheets command in the WebCATS navigation menu. This displays the worksheet selection/criteria window shown in the next graphic.



2. Under the Select a Worksheet heading, indicate whether you want to create a new SBA Economic Impact Report worksheet or open an existing one. If you select the Existing option, you are opening a saved worksheet to view it or recalculate it using an updated database, new report parameters, or both. Be aware that only worksheets that were saved either in WebCATS at the current active center or in WinCATS by users whose home center is the current active center display in the selection list.
3. From the worksheet drop-down list, select the SBA Economic Impact Report that you would like to generate.
4. In the Cumulative Period Start field, enter the starting date of your current fiscal year. In the Current Start and End fields, enter the start and end date of the period you are reporting on.
5. From the Counselor field's drop-down list, you can restrict the report's output to a single counselor's activity. When you restrict this report's output to a single counselor, only investment and milestone records that are assigned to the counselor are considered.
6. To include records from additional funding sources or centers, assuming your account permissions allow it, click the + icons to the right of the Funding Source(s) and Center(s) fields in order to display selection lists for updating these criteria.
7. To save your worksheet criteria for future use in WebCATS or WinCATS, select the Save worksheet parameters for future use? check box. The worksheet is saved under the worksheet title that currently displays in the Title field. Your worksheet is saved only at the current active center and will not be accessible from the criteria window when a different center is designated as active.
8. If you are logged into WebCATS under an administrative account, an Include audit information? check box displays in the lower portion of the worksheet criteria window. Selecting this option generates worksheet output that includes an audit trail of all records that contribute to each worksheet line item.

Note: Keep in mind that you can click any worksheet line item in the generated worksheet (see Working with Worksheets) to see all records included in that line item's total. This feature often eliminates the need for generating worksheet audit data.

9. When you are finished entering your worksheet parameters and other settings in the criteria window, click the Generate Worksheet button to begin calculating your worksheet. The amount of time required to generate each worksheet varies depending on the amount of data being considered and the resources available on the server.
10. Once the SBA Economic Impact Report worksheet is generated, you can review the records that contributed to each line item, recalculate the worksheet, and/or print the report. For more information on these worksheet features, see Working with Worksheets.

Working with Worksheets

From a generated worksheet, you can review the records that contribute to the worksheet, recalculate the report numbers (after making record edits), and/or print the report. If you generated the DLA 1806 Report worksheet, you can also use this interface to enter goals.

This section of the help is divided into the following sections:

• Reviewing, Recalculating, and Printing Worksheets
• Entering Goals into the DLA 1806 Report Worksheet

Reviewing, Recalculating, and Printing Worksheets

You can click any line item total in the worksheet output screen to display a summarized view of all records whose values contributed to that total. If needed, you can edit these records as described in Editing Records and then click the Recalculate button to recalculate your totals so that your corrections are reflected in the worksheet output. 

When you are satisfied with your worksheet output, you can display it in a format suitable for printing by clicking the Printable Version button that displays at the top of the report output window. Then, use Internet Explorer's File|Print option to print your output to a local or network printer. To return to the default worksheet output view from the printable worksheet view, simply click the worksheet title that displays near the top of the output window.

Entering Goals into the DLA 1806 Report Worksheet

If you selected the Save worksheet parameters for future use? check box when generating your DLA 1806 Report worksheet, you are able to manually enter your goals for annual DLA funding into the generated worksheet. WebCATS will automatically divide your cumulative to date figures by your goal figures to provide you with the percentage of your goal reached thus far in the % Goal Reached column, as shown in the next graphic.

How WebCATS Calculates Worksheets

For detailed descriptions of how WebCATS calculates line items for each worksheet type (i.e. which records and fields in the database are queried), see the following help files:

• Understanding the DLA 1806 Report
• Understanding the SBA Economic Impact Report
• Understanding the SBA Case Report
• Understanding the SBA Training Report
• Understanding the Information Transfers/Inquiries Report
• Understanding the Expanded Economic Impact Report
• Understanding the Unofficial Center Overview Report

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Sending E-mail

WebCATS provides a number of flexible features for e-mailing clients and contacts, as discussed in the following sections.

Taking Advantage of E-mail Hyperlinks

When an e-mail address displays in WebCATS, it typically displays as a blue e-mail hyperlink. When you click an e-mail address hyperlink, WebCATS automatically generates a new e-mail for that address, using your default e-mail application, as shown in the next graphic.

If multiple e-mail addresses display for a single e-mail field, click the field name hyperlink to automatically generate a new, blank e-mail message that is addressed to all of the addresses listed for the field, as shown in the next graphic.

Sending E-mails to Groups of Records or List Members

In addition to e-mail hyperlinks, which let you generate an e-mail message for the address(es) that display in a single field, WebCATS features a mass e-mail generation feature. This feature lets you send an e-mail to a grouping of client or contact records or to the members of a mailing or conference attendee list record.

WebCATS relies on an internal, text-only e-mail application to perform this function. This means that:

• You will not be able to apply any special formatting such as bullet points, unique fonts or font sizing, colors, and so on to your mass e-mail messages.
• You will not be able to import objects, including files or graphics, into your mass e-mail messages.

Note: If you require that your mass e-mail messages contain special formatting or imported objects, consider copying the e-mail addresses from the Bcc field (after performing step 2 below) and pasting them into your default e-mail application.

Follow these steps to address, create, and deliver an e-mail message for a group of clients or contacts or the members of a list in WebCATS:

1. Access the client or contact record summary view or open the mailing/attendee list record that you want to deliver your e-mail message to. If you're creating a mass e-mail from the client or contact record summary view, you can filter your view as needed to determine which records' e-mail addresses should be placed in the e-mail.
2. Click the E-mail button.
3. As discussed in Mass Mailings Check Boxes, WebCATS will prompt you to exclude any client or contact e-mail addresses that belong to records with the Include on mass e-mailings? option deselected.
4. In the WebCATS e-mail screen, compose your e-mail message and enter or modify addressing information for it as needed. 

Note: Although you cannot modify the "From" address for your WebCATS-generated e-mails, you can change their reply-to and display addresses, if needed. The reply-to address is used as the send-to (recipient) address when any of your recipients creates a reply to your e-mail message. For example, when the sample message shown in the next graphic is sent, it will be delivered from "Ventura Procurement Center" at "ptac@venturaptac.org." However, if one of the e-mail recipients creates a reply to the message, that reply will be addressed to "johnv@venturaptac.org," since this is the address referenced in the Reply To field. 

Note: The From field address defaults to the current active center's e-mail address, based on the e-mail address entered in the center record in WinCATS, if present. If an e-mail address is not present for the center record, the From field defaults to the center's Softshare mail account, based on the Softshare Account value entered in the center record.



5. When you are finished composing and addressing your e-mail, click the Send button. 
6. WebCATS displays a confirmation message in the e-mail screen indicating that your message has been sent. Click the Close button to return to the main WebCATS interface.

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Bid Match Program

Generally used by DLA-funded PTACs, Softshare's Bid Match program provides everything you need to keep your clients alerted of relevant government bid opportunities. WebCATS fully supports this program, letting you:

• Manage the search profiles that determine the bid opportunities your clients see
• Manage bid match delivery
• Track bid match totals and other statistics

For everything you ever wanted to know about running the Bid Match program in conjunction with Softshare 'CATS, see the Softshare 'CATS Bid Match Guide, available in a user-friendly PDF format.

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