Feature List

The following are some of the many features of the Facil system...

People

Track Contact info

• Address, Phones, Email address

• Send Email or print envelope directly from Facil

Assign Person to any number of Mailing Lists

Assign Person to any number of Organizational Affiliations

Track Person Status, Join/Renewal dates

Optional demographic data, including Date of Birth and Social Security Number. 

Define your own demographic questions and unlimited answers.

Demographic statistics can be reported for all Persons, or for any selected Person Types or Person Statuses.

Unlimited Length Notes

Store a digital photo of each Person; print a customizable "ID" card with person photo.

Up to 3 user defined data fields can be added to the Person data form

Special Notices can be entered for any Person and will appear automatically when that Person makes reservation, registers for a class, etc.

View all Projects, Reservations, or Classes for any selected Person

Track Resource Usage and Allocation for every Person

Track and automatically Update membership expiration date and status using Type, Status, Joined Date, Expiration Date, most recent Reservation and most recent Class Registration as criteria.

Print all information about a Person in a single summary report.

Volunteering

Track Volunteer Availability by the type of volunteer work, program subjects, and production type they will volunteer for.

Track Volunteer Service date, hours, and project

Volunteer Availability Viewer finds volunteers according to the work areas they have volunteered for, the program subjects and production types they will work on, and their training Certifications.  The selected Volunteers can be reported or a mailing list generated for use with the Facil mailing system.

Volunteer Service Viewer finds volunteers based on the hours of volunteering they have done, within a specified date range, in a selected volunteer area, or by a minimum number of service hours.  Generate a report or do a mailing to the selected volunteers.

Organizations

Track Contact Information

Track Affiliated People

Track Projects by Organization

Track Resource Usage by Organization

Mail or Email to Organization Contacts or to Persons affiliated with an Organization

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Mailing / Email Mass Communication

Facil has its own internal email engine, no other email program is required.

Include any number and type of file attachments.

Send HTML (Web Page) formatted email, including graphics.

Use any saved text file as a template to start an email message.

Specify any Reply and From address for each email.

Uses Blind Carbon Copy to send mass emails quickly, without revealing other email addresses to recipients.

Email reservation receipts or class registration receipts, automatically generated with full details.

Email automatically generated Play Date lists for Projects or individual Programs.

Generate form letters using word processing “mail merge”, mailing labels, envelopes, or mass email.

Combine email with other mailings (labels, envelopes, form letters) to reduce postage and printing.

Select Persons for communications based on Type, Status, Mailing Lists, training Certifications, or membership in Organizations.

Select Organizational contacts for communications by Organization Type or Status.

Use “instant” mailing lists of persons, automatically generated by other Facil tools. Communicate with persons registered for a selected class, persons holding selected reservations, producers of selected projects, producers of selected programs in the channel playback schedule, persons with reservation or class activity during specified date ranges – all selections based on flexible multiple criteria.

Create mailing reports (to accompany labels, envelopes, or email) with names and contact info for follow-up or response tracking. Includes Zip Code counts for bulk mailings.

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Classes

Track Class Schedule – past, present, and future

• Class Subjects, Meeting schedule

• Capacity, Fee, Instructor

Class Registrations

• Collect Fees, Deposits

• Variable fee amounts, partial payments, partial refunds

• Print Receipts/Reminders

• Enforce Prerequisite classes

• Track class completion (Certification)

Mail or Email to all registrants in any Class

Print class Rosters

Mail merge class rosters for completion certificates

Exports of the Class Schedule are available for use with two "bulletin board" display systems, Capital Networks Audience.tv and Scala Infochannel. Visit the Capital Networks  web site or the Scala web site for more information on these systems.

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Financial Transaction System

Unlimited User Defined Categories and Items

• Fees, Sales, Donations

Detailed Sales Receipts

Refunds, partial refunds

Track Cash, Check, Credit Card transactions

Financial Reports

• Categories and item sales totals

Transaction analysis

• Dates, payment methods, refunds, etc.

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Equipment / Facílity Reservations

Reserve any number, combination, or quantity of items

• Instantly verifies availability

• Reserves both equipment and Facílities

• Reserve for any date, any time, and any length of time, to the minute

Reservation tracks Person, Project, and unlimited notes

Value of use of equipment and Facílities is automatically calculated for every reservation, based on reservation length and your defined value of use for each equipment item.

Printed Reservation receipt includes full reservation details…

• equipment reserved

• value of use of reserved items

• replacement value of equipment

• can include your required “user agreement” and signatures

  Automatic Notices when making Reservations…

• Any Special Notices set for the Person

• If Person has not completed the required classes to reserve the equipment

• If Person Status is other than Active

• If Person is “under age” as defined by your organization

• If total number of Active reservations for this Person exceeds a limit you have defined.

• Any Special Notices set for the Project

• If Project Status is other than Active or Project is past expected completion date

• If any component in a Facílity or equipment package is not available, such as one camera out of service when reserving the Studio

• If reservation begins or ends outside of the user defined organizational operating hours.

Kits - Automatically reserves each item in a user defined “kit” of any number of items

Reserve items by their Tag Number for quick additions to the Reservation.  Works with bar code scanning.

Quick reservation duplication to multiple dates

“Off Time” items - reserve individual items within a reservation for a different time than the rest

• Ideal for checkout appointments, studio setup/cleanup, makeup/green room, etc.

Check Out / Check In processes for equipment. Automatically records Equipment Item “Tag” numbers to indicate check out and/or return of items. Can use barcode (video demo) to record items.

Up to 3 user defined data fields can be added to the Reservation data form

Duplicate any reservation to any other date or series of dates, in any repeating date pattern.

"Today's Reservations" report - a simple report of reservations, suitable for public posting.  The included equipment and the grouping is user defined.

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Reservations: Data Analysis

Select and view Reservations by Status, Dates, Person, Project, Equipment Reserved, Date Made, and Facílitator

Instant report of selected Reservations, including total value of equipment and Facílity use.

Instant mailing list to all People holding selected Reservations

Equipment/Facílities Inventory and Maintenance

Track Status of Facílities and individual Equipment items

Track Equipment Unit records including Status, location, Serial #, property tag, purchase info, vendor info, and replacement cost.

Track individual equipment item Maintenance / Repair records, dates, costs, and notes

Track maintenance interval and next maintenance due date for each piece of equipment.  Generate a report of maintenance due in any time period.

Resource Value Tracking

Set a resource "cost" for each reservable equipment or Facílity as an hourly or daily rate, or per use

Facil automatically calculates the Resource Value of each Reservation, based on the items reserved and length of the reservation

Report total Resource expenditures by Person, Project, and Organization

Equipment Usage report shows count, hours, and value of equipment / Facílity use for any combination of Date Range, Person, Project, selected Equipment Groups, or specific Equipment Types.

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Appointment Book

Easy to read calendar of reservations in hour, half hour, or quarter hour intervals

Quickly view open/filled dates and times

Link instantly to full reservation details by clicking Appointment Book display for any reservation

Create new reservations by selecting Equipment and Date/Time in Appointment Book

Define Appointment Book pages with your own groupings of Equipment and Facílities

Public Appointment Book

User friendly and secure Reservation Calendar allows anyone to find their own dates/times for the Equipment and Facílities they need

• Saves Staff time

• Improves service

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Projects

Track Project Status, Producer, Start/Planned End dates, associated Organization, Origin, Production Type, Subject, unlimited Notes, Special Notices

Track individual Programs, Due Dates, and Completion Status

Automatically create sequenced program entries for series programming using flexible due date patterns

Track Project Resource consumption vs. budget

Flag Adult Content and "Filler" Projects

Instantly view all Reservations, Program list, and Programming schedule for a Project

Up to 3 user defined data fields can be added to the Project data form

Print all information about a Project in a single summary report.

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Projects: Data Analysis

Select and view Projects by Title, Status, Subject, Length, Production Type, Origin, Owner, Producer, Organization, Start Date, Number of Scheduled Program Plays, First and Last Scheduled Play Date

• Instant mailing list to Producers of selected Projects

• Instant report of selected Projects

Programs

Track Single programs or series episodes

Tape inventory location, length, format

Record details of other Signal Sources, i.e. satellite, live remote, digital playback, etc.

Specify Earliest / latest air dates

Flag Adult Content, Variable Length, and “Filler” Programs

Instantly view Programming schedule for any Program

Print Tape labels in VHS and DV/DVC format, either batch or single labels

Up to 3 user defined data fields can be added to the Program data form

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Programs: Data Analysis

Select and view Programs by Project, Title, Status, Subject, Length, Production Type, Origin, Owner, Producer, Date Received, Number of Scheduled Program Plays, First and Last Scheduled Play Date

• Instant mailing list to Producers of selected programs

• Instant report of selected programs

Channel Scheduling

Manage your channel schedule for any number of channels…

• 24 hours a day, any length program, seconds to hours

• Variable length Programs, i.e. graphics, crawls, etc. can fill any length space

• Select Projects or Programs for scheduling by Status, Subject, Length, number of plays, and many other criteria

Move or copy blocks of Scheduled Events across times, dates, and channels

Delete multiple events selected by time/date range, Project, or Program.

Pre-schedule Projects before receiving Programs

Fill all open spaces in a selected time period with one program - filling odd gaps with station ID, bulletin board, etc. in a single step.

Publish program schedule in multiple formats, with a variety of options.  Output your schedule in Word or HTML format for inclusion in your newsletter or web site.

Playback log and media "pull list" reports support master control operations.

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Channel Scheduling Automation

Automatically schedule a repeating program sequence of any number of programming events

• Repeat a series or any other selected set of programs

• Control start date and number of repetitions

• Flexible Day of Week, Weekly, or Monthly sequences

Channel Playback Control

Interface to automated playback control systems; transfers Program Library and/or Program Schedule data to the playback control software, reducing duplicate data entry.  Facil has both generic data export for Program Library and Program Schedule data and custom exports and interface features for some specific playback systems.  The following playback control systems work with Facil data - contact the manufacturer or Becker Software for more details.

The Princeton Server Group  (now part of the TelVue corporation) includes Facil data import in their software.  TelVue Princeton broadcast servers support Facil schedule import natively. Simply export your Facil schedule as a CSV, and then import the CSV in the TelVue Princeton web-based broadcast scheduling and automation application. Digital file playback events as well as switch events are supported.

Tightrope Media Systems, manufacturers of the Cablecast playback control system offer a Facil data import into their database.

The Sundance playback control system is now a product of the Avid company.  The Sundance data export in Facil produces a schedule data file formatted specifically for import into a Sundance Fastbreak playback automation system.  Sundance Timeliner is supported by a free Facil "extension" program which reads the Program Schedule directly from the main Facil data file and writes a set of files in the Timeliner "event list" format.  The Facil extension program assigns tape decks and other playback devices automatically, minimizing operator intervention.  If you are a Facil Tech Support subscriber and would like a copy of the free Sundance Timeliner interface program, just contact Becker Software.

The Capital Networks Audience.tv system (formerly Matrox InfoNet) has the ability to import Facil program schedule data for playback control.

The Digicaster digital playback control system from D.Co now accepts exported Facil program schedule data through their ShowMaker scheduling software.

The Matco playback control system can be used with Facil Program Schedule data.  A free Facil "extension" program is available which reads the Program Schedule directly from the main Facil data file and writes a set of files in the Matco "event list" format, ready to use with the Matco controller.  The Facil extension program assigns tape decks and other playback devices automatically, minimizing operator intervention.  If you are a Facil Tech Support subscriber and would like a copy of the free Matco interface program, just contact Becker Software.

The 360 Systems playback server will accept an event list from Facil.  A specific report to produce a 360 Systems can be found in the Facil Reports, Export group.

Becker Software is pleased to provide technical information and cooperation to all playback control vendors who wish to import the Facil program schedule or other Facil data.

If you are using a playback system other than those listed, you may still be able to interface it to the Facil data.  Facil includes a generic export of the program schedule data into several common data file formats; this allows developing interfaces to most devices.  The exact requirements for data format and method for data transfer is different for each kind of control system.  Please contact Becker Software if you have specific needs or questions about interfaces.

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"Bulletin Board" Interface

The Capital Networks Audience.tv system (formerly Matrox InfoNet) accepts specific Facil exports of the Program Guide and the Class Schedule for use with their character generator "bulletin board" function.

Facil also has a specific export of the Program Guide and the Class Schedule in a format to be used with the Scala bulletin board authoring language.

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Program Schedule Analysis

Analyze scheduled programming with a highly customizable report.  The report summarizes the Program Schedule data, detailing the nature of your programming over any selected range of dates. Programming is counted by plays and by hours, and broken down into First Run and Repeat. Optional sub-reports break down the schedule by Program Origin, Program Subject, Sponsoring Organization and Organization Type, Project Funding, Program Owner, Production Type, Signal Source, Individual Project or Program, Producer, Adult Content, and Filler.

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Reports

Many reports have multiple user selectable options which give a large number of possible variations from the one report.  If you don't see the report you need, please contact Becker Software.  Some reports may appear in more than one Report Group, making them easier to locate...

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Help System

On line, context sensitive help for each program function.

Users can add any number of new Help topics to document their local policies and procedures.

Any or all help topics can be printed.

Permission System

Allows specifying the desired level of access to each part of Facil for each user. Access levels are Full, Read-Only and None. Permissions can be set for the overall data area, such as the Person form, or for individual form pages and command buttons. Defined user groups allow easy management of complex permission schemes for large numbers of users.

Facil automatically records which logged-in user last revised data in the Person, Reservation, Project, or Program areas, along with the date/time of the change.

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Data Export

Data can be exported to an external file in a variety of standard data file formats. The data that can be exported includes:

• Person data - export the data for persons selected using the Person Mailing form, or persons selected in any of the "instant" mailing lists including the Reservation Viewer, Project Viewer, Program Viewer, Volunteer Viewer, Class Schedule, or the Mailing List form.

• Organization data, selected in the Organization Mailing form.

• Project data, selected in the Project Viewer

• Program data, selected in the Program Viewer

• Program Schedule, selected in the Program Schedule form

• Equipment Inventory, using a new "Equipment Inventory Export" report

Choices of output format are:

• XML

• Comma Delimited (text file)

• Tab Delimited (text file)

• Excel spreadsheet (XLS)

• Microsoft Access (MDB)

• DBase IV (DBF)

• Word Merge (MS Word document, DOC)

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