Tech Support vs. Consulting
We often get questions about the difference between Technical Support and Consulting. People wonder, "Where's the line?" or "How do I know when I've crossed it?" Given that Technical Support is covered by your CCP membership and Consulting is billed by the hour, these are important questions!
What is Technical Support?
Technical Support helps you to understand how the software works or reproduce an error condition so we can put it on our list to be fixed.
Technical support is available on a first come, first served basis and you can expect to receive a response within one business day. You can email or call with your question and we'll put it in the queue for response. Whenever possible, we try to respond in less than a day.
Technical support covers:
- Questions about how the software operates
- Issues with standard (non-scripted) features
- Reporting and/or reproducing bugs
Examples of Technical Support Questions
- How can I change the font and logo on my printed Purchase Order?
- How do I make the system stop copying the order quantity to the ship column on sales orders?
- I got an error during posting. What should I do?
What is Consulting?
Consulting covers anything that is not technical support -- e.g. creating reports, anything related to custom scripts, helping you learn how to use the software (i.e training), or helping you figure out how to best utilize the software in your business, among many other things.
Consulting covers:
- Auditing a transaction to assist with correcting data entry errors
- Writing reports or scripts.
- Helping you figure out how to best use the software given how your business operates.
- Changing the priority of a Class II bug (see About Bug Reporting.)
- Special features/programming.
- Data and/or import file manipulation.
- Installing an update or upgrade for you.
- Step-by-step review of normal data entry.
- Doing data file maintenance for you.
Examples of Technical Support vs. Consulting Questions
Can you help me figure out how to manage my returns using credit memos?
- Talking about how credit memos work is technical support, but helping you design a process that uses our credit memo feature as part of it is consulting.
I'm new to AcctVantage, can you teach me how to do Payables?
- Talking about an issue with A/P is technical support, but training is consulting.
Do you have a feature that...?
- Information about what the software can do is technical support.
I need a new feature or report that does _______ ...
- New functionality or reports are is always consulting.
My import failed, can you look at my import files and fix what ever is is wrong with them?
- Talking about how an import file should be formatted or what fields can be imported is technical support, but modifying your import file for you is consulting.
I'm having trouble installing this upgrade.
- Providing the documentation that tells you how to install the upgrade and helping you understand what that documentation is saying is technical support, but connecting to your site to install the software is consulting.