Following are answers to some frequently asked questions about ESP 5.
The questions are grouped by category for easier reference. You can also search for a topic using the Edit | Find command in your browser or by pressing Ctrl + F.
If you don't find your question below or the answer does not solve your issue, contact us by e-mail or phone. NOTE: if sending the question by e-mail, please include your name, phone number, store name and number.
Frequently asked questions
Editing
- How do I enter a multi-station shift?
- How do I get back to the correct schedule week - I've begun a new schedule by accident?
General
Printing reports
- My schedule has violations so I can't print it, what can I do?
- The date on my printed schedule does not display the day of the week. How can I change it to display the day also?
- My reports aren't displayed correctly on the screen or when printed, why?
Registering your ESP license
Setup data and file management
- How do I backup my data files?
- How do I add a department (secondary) location?
- How do I setup my data to schedule a single day holiday?
Making backups
Backing up your valuable scheduling data is the most important step in producing your schedule each week. Without a backup of your data, you will have to re-enter all of your information, a time-consuming task; with a backup your data is restored in a matter of moments.
Automatic backups to hard drive
ESP makes a backup every time you exit from the program. By default the program saves a backup of the last five times you exited from the program. When you exit the program the sixth time, the oldest of the five backups is overwritten. You may increase/decrease the number of backups using the program's menu option TOOLS, OPTIONS then choosing the OPERATION tab.
Each backup is the same size as your data file so you can change this to allow any number of backups between 3 and 10, depending on the disk space available on your hard drive. The automatic backups are saved on your hard drive so it is important to also backup a copy onto a removable disk.
Backing up to a removable source
The automatic backups are saved on your hard drive so it is important to also backup a copy onto a removable disk. You can do this each week after the schedule is completed or at least once a month. The more often you back up your data the less information you lose if your computer crashes.
To begin, make sure you are on the HOME form of the data that you want to backup.
Select TOOLS then BACKUP/RESTORE... and a new window will open, choose Backup your ESP data then NEXT.
Select the drive you want to save the backup to and then choose NEXT.
After choosing next above, the file will backup to the drive you have chosen. When the backup is completed store the thumb(key) drive or CD in a safe place.
Due to the size of the ESP file you must choose either a thumb key drive or network drive. You cannot
write the file to a CD using the program's backup feature. To write the ESP file to a CD you must use Windows
explorer and ensure you have a writable CD drive installed.
How do I register my ESP license?
Select the pdf document below (available in English and Español) and follow the instructions to send the information we need to register your license by e-mail:
- Registering your ESP license (English)
- Registrando tu Licencia ESP (Español)
Alternatively, you may contact us by phone to register your license. To speed up the phone process make sure that the program is open with the Licensing screen displayed. To open the Licensing screen, open the HOME form and select TOOLS, OPTIONS and then the LICENSING tab.
Related questions:
My license expired, why?
My license expired, why?
If you are not able to generate a schedule and receive the Scheduling option cancelled message, it is because the program does not recognize your license. There are a variety of reasons why this may happen:
- if you reinstalled the program after a computer crash
- because the trial period has expired, or
- if your version has a time issue during which the license would expire.
To solve this problem, you need to register your license, the instructions for registering your license are available in English and Espanola:
- Registering your ESP license (English)
- Registrando tu Licencia ESP (Español)
Adding a secondary department to your data
The number of departments you schedule is part of your license so you must contact ThoughtWorks to add a secondary department.
Entering one shift to include two or more stations
Before generating the schedule, this can be entered on the Fixed shifts form or on the Availability screen of the employee who will be working the shift. You will follow the same steps regardless of the form you are entering this on.
Enter the shift information as normal to include one of the Stations that the shift will include and then press Enter or select the Post button to add the shift.
Once the shift is posted, move to it and select the Station field, which will activate the [...] button. Select this button to open the Shift segment window, where you can modify the entries to include all the stations that the shift will include.
After generating the schedule this can be done on the schedule form or either of the forms noted above.
Delete the current schedule
You will only use this option if you have an error that can only be corrected by removing the current schedule or if you have used the wrong date for the current schedule.
- Go to the HOME form
- Select TOOLS on the menu bar
- Select UTILITIES
- Select DELETE CURRENT SCHEDULE
- Type YES in the box and click on the OK button.
The schedule will be deleted and you are ready to begin the schedule again.
If you are beginning the schedule and the date is not correct select START A NEW SCHEDULE... from the tool bar of the HOME form.
If you had advanced too far, when you get to the correct schedule week begin following the task list.
Holiday scheduling
One of ESP's nicest features is the ease that it allows you to schedule holidays. There are two types of holidays that you may encounter: Holidays that only affect a single day, such as Thanksgiving or Easter; and holidays that affect a complete week, such as Christmas.
Single day holidays
For schedule weeks that include only one Holiday day you must tell ESP which day is the holiday by going to the Hours of Operation form and checking the HOL box beside the one day that is a holiday.
You also must ensure three areas of your data are setup correctly to allow ESP to generate shifts for that holiday day:
- Shift length charts must be active on HOL so that ESP can generate the correct shift lengths. Generally, make sure that any shift length chart that has Saturday on it includes HOL for the same hours as Saturday.
- Positioning guides must be active on HOL so that ESP knows what stations are required to be scheduled on HOL. As above, make sure that any positioning guide that is active on Saturday includes HOL for the same hours.
- Employees' availability screen should include HOL for all employees who can work on a HOL day. When generating shifts for employees available on the HOL, ESP will replace the employee's usual availability for the day with the employee's HOL availability.
My schedule has errors so I can't print it, what can I do?
In order to print you must first correct the violations. To correct the violations, return to the Schedule form and change to view the schedule by Errors. This will list all shifts that have an error/violation associated with them.
The status box on the places panel can will help you determine the cause of the error, which will help you correct it. You have two options for correcting any error/violation:
- If the employee should be allowed to work the shift: update the employee's information to remove the cause of the error. For example if the error was because the person is not qualified to work the station then add the station to the employee's information form under the Stations tab. That will remove the error right away.
- If the employee should NOT be allowed to work the shift: change the person assigned to the shift to someone who is allowed to work the station at that time.
Changing ESP to display your preferred date format
ESP uses the date format from your computer settings. So, to change the display in ESP you must change the setting on the computer's Control panel.
To do that, select the Start button in the bottom left corner of the computer and find the Control panel option.
On the control panel choose the option that includes Region or Regional options
NExt, choose the Regional and langauge options
On the next window you will see how different options are displayed including long and short dates. Select the box displaying the current format; the box showing the language and country.
For example, English (Canada) displays the Long date as Month Date Year (December 25, 2010) whereas English (United States) displays the Long date as Day Month Date Year (Saturday, December 25, 2010)
Find the option that displays your preferred date, press OK, and then close the Control panel.
The next time you open ESP your date preference will be applied.
Where is the user's manual?
The reference manual for ESP is stored on your computer as part of ESP's installation package. You can quickly access the manual by choosing the computer's START button (in the bottom left of your screen) and then navigate from START to ALL PROGRAMS | THOUGHTWORKS | ESP FOR WINDOWS.
Alternatively, you can download a pdf copy of the reference manual.
My reports aren't displayed properly on the screen or when printed, why?
The most common cause is that the print settings have been changed. In earlier versions of ESP an update overwrote custom settings, this has been corrected in later releases of ESP.
To correct the screen and print display, open the reports and choose the toolbar option FILE then PRINT SETUP and select the following:
- Orientation: select the opposite, if it says Landscape choose Portrait, or vice versa.
- Paper: ensure the paper size is set to Letter.
Choose OK to save the change and the report should appear correct. If not close the program and reopen it, if the report is still not displayed correctly then contact ThoughtWorks.
