New Workstation?

If you have a computer that hasn’t used Smart Service yet, this guide provides step-by-step instructions on performing the install yourself. Not tech-savvy? That’s OK! Installing Smart Service is an easy and quick process.

That’s it! Once you complete this step, you should be able to log in with the username and password you were given for Smart Service. If you do not have a username and password yet, you can use “demo” as your login ID and password to get in and create your own profile. Check out our “Employees” article to learn more!

32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Installations

Version 117 or later of Smart Service can use either 32-Bit or 64-Bit Access Runtime. While the installer will identify what you have and make a choice for you, there are some combinations of Microsoft Office and QuickBooks Desktop that may need additional attention.

What Version of Microsoft Office Do You Have?

Not sure which version of office you have? You can check by opening Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or any other Microsoft office program and following these steps.

  1. Open Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or any other office program
  2. Click File
  3. Click Account
  4. Click About

Users who have a 64-Bit Office Suite and QuickBooks Desktop 2021 or older will encounter this prompt (shown left) when attempting to install Smart Service version 117 or later.

Having Trouble?

If you experience the above scenario, please reach out to your IT team to discuss either updating to a newer (and 64-Bit) version of QuickBooks Desktop or consider reinstalling Microsoft Office using the 32-Bit installer.

Terminal Servers

If you have a terminal server, you likely have someone or a company who manages that server for you. If you fit into that category, please seek assistance from your contact at that company when updating programs on that terminal. You can always have that company reach out to us to schedule a time to show them how to perform the updates or have them email us at [email protected].

Multiple Databases

Those of you with multiple Smart Service databases should reach out to our support team for assistance when updating your workstations. The video above only details the process for those with one single Smart Service database. Please reach out to our support team to schedule a time to update your workstations by emailing [email protected].

Check Your Current Version

You can check what version of Smart Service your workstation is running by clicking on “Help” at the top of your screen and going to the “About” option.

As you can see on the left, this workstation is on version 110 of Smart Service. 

In best practice, try to keep your workstations all on the same version to avoid issues with incompatible versions and missing features that are only available in the latest updates.

The GIF below (which you can click on to expand full screen) demonstrates how to check versions.

Update Best Practices

Whenever you update a workstation to the latest version, you should plan to get the other workstations using Smart Service updated. If you update to the new version and you have features that others do not, those options may cause errors and inconsistencies for the other users. For this reason, we recommend waiting to update until you can update your entire group. 

We also recommend that you check which version of Smart Service your office is currently using when calling to get a new workstation installed. The version you’re using isn’t information that we track, and we might accidentally install the latest version if you don’t recommend which version you’d like installed.

Custom Work Orders

If your company has a custom work order for the office (known as a CST) you might see this error when installing on a new workstation. This usually presents itself when you try to open the work order preview in Smart Service.

When you see this warning, it’s because that Custom.CST is a file specially made for your company and doesn’t come by default with the Smart Service installer. To fix this, you’ll need to access a computer that has a working copy of this custom CST, which is likely to be any other workstation in your office.

On one of the workstations which already has a working custom.CST, navigate to ‘C:\ProgramData\Smart Service’ which is where this your custom.CST is stored. From there, right-click the file, choose “Send to” and from there, choose to create a Compressed (zipped) folder.

It is advisable to zip the folder before moving it to your new workstation as this will help protect the file against corruption when migrating said file to a new workstation. You can see how to zip a folder in the GIF below.

After you have a zipped copy of your custom.cst, you can email this folder over to your workstation or add it to a USB drive and carry it over manually. Once there, move to the same location (C:\ProgramData\Smart Service) on the new workstation. Place the zipped copy of the custom.CST in that location, and right-click on it to extract the file. 

When you extract the file, make sure you have a file named Custom.CST in that same folder that we took it from on the other workstation. Before you can use your custom.cst, make sure you restart Smart Service before clicking the preview button again!