Kinetic help continues to be unusable - yet another example

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

I know I am always complaining about this but the situation is completely untenable. I HAVE TO be able to find information on various screens and fields in Epicor to be able to do my job and Kinetic makes this completely impossible

Here is the latest example. User has a question about the run out flag. Ok great, I have a vague recollection of how it works but I want to go double check and verify my understanding, and also make sure nothing has changed in a recent release. First stop, field help!

Well, that didn’t help. Maybe the technical details?

A little better but still not enough details.

Let me try the question mark. Oh great, a long list of things that are all completely irrelevant:

What if I click a random article just to get into the actual help site and search there?

Nope, still nothing relevant. Ok I know, I will go to the Part Entry page directly and search on that page:

Nope, still absolutely nothing.

Ok well let’s try the knowledge agent. AI solves all our problems, right?

Nope, still not a full explanation of the flag, only one knowledge base article that tell you how to turn it off. Great.

To contrast with how easy my life USED to be before the dumpster fire of zendesk, lets compare to classic help.
Oh look, it took 1 second to find the EXACT result I was looking for. Imagine that.

Epicor, when are you going to address this? What will it take for you to understand that this situation is 100% unacceptable?

[Randy (Randy Stulce)]

It’s really annoying to have to make a case over every field in Epicor when we run into this.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

The issue is so much bigger than just the missing field help.

[jkane (John Kane)]

Don’t want to start a , but I agree, this is a major failing by Epicor. Hopefully it is on their list, but who knows.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

Its not on their list. The last time I complained about it, I was told to enter an individual support case for each instance of missing field help. Epicor does not think this is a problem and has no plans to address it. If anybody considers this a problem they should speak up.

[carlosqt (Carlos Quintanilla)]

You can also look for table fields in the Database Schema CHM files that Haso @hkeric.wci shared with us.

Latest version is for 2023.1:

[ Download ] Epicor 10.2 & Kinetic .CHM Schema

[2023.1 Schema] Download Reminder Remember that on Windows 10 you must right click on the properties of the file and Unblock it and for Windows 7 you must uncheck the Ask Me security checkbox on the Run Dialog. Also don’t run it from an UNC Path - WinHelp Bugs - or you will get Blank Content. Lastly, this is for educational purposes only. Use it as your sidekick to easily lookup column names and their purpose.

Search for “runout”

[Randy (Randy Stulce)]

@jkane

Don’t want to start a , but I agree, this is a major failing by Epicor. Hopefully it is on their list, but who knows.

Agreed I don’t want to start a either. I hope they are taking this issue seriously but it feels like a brush off to have to make individual cases every time we run into Kinetic help being sub-par.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

Epicor doesn’t seem to respond to anything but dumpster fires so I don’t mind starting one.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

I mean sure, I can, but that isn’t an acceptable solution. I shouldn’t have to do that.

[JMPCONJ (John Magee)]

No one should have to hunt for help…tech people, basic users and everyone in-between.

Business description and technical details should be filled in on every field. Period. If a form’s field is calculated, just put that in the helptext…heck, copy the formula in so there’s no question how “Quantity Available” (or whatever value) was derived.

[leonardpothier]

@JMPCONJ

If a form’s field is calculated, just put that in the helptext…heck, copy the formula in so there’s no question how “Quantity Available” (or whatever value) was derived.

100,000% THIS, most questions I get regarding fields/values relate to ‘how is this calculated’ or ‘where is this coming from’ because it is not always immediately obvious, even in E9/E10 with Classic.

[hackaphreaka (Garret Travers)]

@aosemwengie1

Let me try the question mark. Oh great, a long list of things that are all completely irrelevant:

This got a laugh out of me but it is also true. I find it decidedly more difficult to answer my own questions using the help features in Kinetic vs Classic.

[JMPCONJ (John Magee)]

Do that for all base-level fields…and if a Kinetic customer or 3p makes changes, make it easy for them to document too.

Not trying to bash the software here…just make it a little more “self-service”. Epicor’s time investment would likely be offset by a reduction in EpicCare tickets asking the same questions.

[timshuwy (Tim Shoemaker)]

I am sorry I did not see this question/comment earlier.
I have stated publically at insights, and probably here on this forum that our field help does have a challenge in the browser, and we are still working on that fact. One of the reasons for the parity gap between the Smart Client and the Browser is that with the smart client, the field help was embedded into the smart client itself. This means that you can have differing help experience on a field depending on which screen you were on. It was never our intent, nor is it our continued plan to have this gap.

One thing I am wondering… in all the examples above, I dont see any mention of trying the “CHAT” button in the help. When you press this button, you should be able to ask it a question such as “what is the run out checkbox in the Part screen, and how do you use it?”

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

Look at my screenshots again. I did actually post the result from chat.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

And I see that the idea I entered about resolving this gap is still locked on Epicor ideas, a week later. So nobody can still see or vote for it.

[timshuwy (Tim Shoemaker)]

ALSO.. in answer to the actual question… What is the run out checkbox for… it will cause the system to “run out” of the inventory you have on hand. It is “similar” to the inactive flag, because once you mark it as run-out, the system will no longer suggest any purchases or manufacuring of the item.
ALSO… not seen in any of the help above, is the fact that if you click run-out, you should/could also populate the “substitute” part on the Alternates screen. By doing this, once the system runs out of the quantity of the old part, it will start suggesting the new part.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

@timshuwy

the system will no longer suggest any purchases or manufacuring of the item.

I just tested this and I did in fact still get suggestions on a part marked runout which is what spurred my fruitless search for any documentation whatsoever.

[klincecum (Kevin Lincecum)]

@timshuwy

above, I dont see any mention of trying the “CHAT” button in the help

Because “chat” is a supplement to the help.

[aosemwengie1 (Alisa Osemwengie)]

But I did try the chat . . .it did not answer the question. Look at the original post.