COATS Visual is the latest release in the COATS family of staffing software. The new release provides users with a customizable experience while improving the overall speed and ease of use for the daily user.
COATS Visual is borne out of a desire to bring our users a new graphical user interface (GUI). While COATS SQL used Microsoft SQL for data crunching, it used Visual Fox Pro for the GUI and we felt there was room for improvement.
We wanted the best of both worlds: powerful data crunching and a fresh, updated style. Therefore, we kept Microsoft SQL to handle the data but chose Microsoft Visual Studio to have the most updated presentation.
“By using Microsoft Visual Studio and its associated tools, we were able to develop COATS Visual in a much more robust programming environment and offer new, exciting features for our staffing software,” said Tom Sarach, Jr., founder and president of COATS. “Visual brings different ways to sort and search data, as well as a fresh updated look.”
Things were moving along quite nicely with initial product development when the looming challenge of properly reporting healthcare to the federal government per the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) came about.
To better serve our clients, we focused our energy on programming a solution within existing COATS products that not only handled the management of the ACA, but also the required governmental 1095c forms and 1094 XML files for reporting. We added these functions to COATS software and offered them to our clients at no extra charge.
Although the healthcare debate is still unsettled on Capitol Hill, COATS has everything you need in all its products, including COATS Visual, to manage ACA reporting.
And, now, with healthcare reporting integrated into the system, we have been able to refocus our energy on preparing and releasing COATS Visual.
Here are just a few ways the new COATS Visual brings added value to the user:
- Dashboards for visual data review
- Grids for quick search, print, and export
- User themes
- Modification of font and window sizing
- Ability to use multiple monitors to simultaneously view multiple screens
- Drag/drop documents that become part of the database
- Enhanced ACA features
- Faster payroll processing
- Enhanced PDF Emailing Invoice capabilities
- Enhanced Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Bank and General Ledger functions
- Enhanced reporting capabilities
The ease of use is incredible and data is collected in a more timely manner, allowing our clients to stay ahead of their competitors. Additionally, we now offer electronic on-boarding to those clients interested.
But don’t just take our word for it. Here are some rave reviews from clients thrilled with the latest enhancements and functionality:
- “It is great to see all the orders at one time so I don’t have to scroll until I find the order I want to reopen.”
- “Loving the new ‘Drag and Drop’ enhancements used with the new resume functions!”
- “It is very helpful to sort the orders by job title, date, etc.”
- “The resume search is wonderful! Type in the positions or skills you want to search and narrow down the search by adding additional parameters as desired.”
- “The top ten client and top ten AR dashboards automatically generated in the COATS home screen gives us information as to which clients have the highest sales, how diverse our client base is, and which clients are paying in a timely manner.”
With any new platform, there have been challenges. But we are confident that COATS Visual has been thoroughly tested and that we have addressed those concerns. That said, our hands-on, family-centric approach to customer service ensures that any questions a client has are answered in a timely, clear, and friendly manner.
“Not only were we able to address the big issue of ACA reporting, but we built a highly-customizable and thoroughly comprehensive program to meet the needs of the staffing professional,” said Sarach. “We also offer a sensational package of extensions from our partners that only further enhances the power of the program.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of this product and the team that built it.”