I Cannot Pull a Form Number

Overview

If a form will not pull a number when tabbing past the fine field (citations) or after pressing Validate (crashes, warnings, citations) there are several reasons that this may be occurring.

Some issues may be resolved via officer action, and some will need an agency administrator and/or TraCS Support.

The officer has not filled out the Agency Information section at the top of the form.

The officer has not entered a court location.

The agency has run out of form numbers.

The officer's profile is set up incorrectly as a data entry account.

TraCS is offline.

The officer is in an area with no or poor connectivity.

The form already has a number pulled and that number did not save to the database.

Cannot Pull a Number When Tabbing Past the Fine Field

In order to pull a number when tabbing past the fine field, the Type, County of Citation, and Place or City of Citation fields must be completed in the Agency Information section, and the Court Name field must be filled in.

Once this information has been added, tab past the fine field again and the citation will pull a number.

If your agency has disabled the fine field (it will be grayed out), you cannot pull a number by tabbing past the fine field; you must press Validate.

Cannot Pull a Number When Pressing Validate

If you get a "no available numbers" pop up or you get validation errors when pressing Validate, the issue is one of those listed below.

The Agency Has Run Out of Numbers

Run the Available Form Numbers analysis report.   If your available count for a form is 0, the agency administrator should request additional numbers from FLHSMV.

The User Profile Set Up Incorrectly

If RecordsDataEntry has been added to the officer's profile, they will not be able to pull numbers.   Remove it and add Reporter.

Offline or No/Poor Connectivity

If there are red bars in the upper right corner of the forms manager, TraCS is offline (no connection).   Try logging out and back in.

If you use a use a VPN, make sure you are signed in and it's connected.

You may be in an area with no or poor connectivity.   Try moving to a different location.

If the connectivity issue is affecting multiple users, first contact your IT department and ask them to check for any issues with the network or changes to antivirus or firewall settings that would prevent connection to TraCS Web Services.

If all of the above have been checked and users still cannot connect, IT or the agency admin should contact TraCS Support.

The Form Already Has a Number Pulled

As of Version 15.0.12, there is logic in place to prevent pulling a new number on a crash, citation, or warning form if a number has been pulled previously.

If an officer gets the validation errors below and the issues above have been ruled out, this means the form already has a number.

Why It Happens

This situation occurs when TraCS and/or the computer is shut down with the form open.   The number cannot save to the form and write to the database and gets blown off of it.   The Form Number field will be blank.

When this happened on forms created prior to Version 15.0.12, officers would notice the open unnumbered citation minutes, hours, or days later.   They would go in and revalidate, and it would pull a brand new number.   The citation with the new number - that was not issued to the violator - would then transmit to the clerk.   The clerk would process citation ABBBBZE, but the violator doesn't pay it because they were issued ABBBBBE.   If the agency or officer didn't realize the error and contact the clerk, the violator's license would get suspended for not paying ABBBBZE, a citation they were not issued and know nothing about.   When they go to pay ABBBBBE, it's not in the clerk's system.

The new logic will not allow a new number to be pulled so that the scenario above is avoided.

How To Prevent It From Happening

How can this situation be prevented?   The answer is simple.   NEVER close out of TraCS or shut down a machine while forms are open.   ALWAYS close out of forms when finished with them or when they won't be worked on for a time (dispatched to a call, meal break, end of shift, etc.).   This ensures that the number and other info saves to the form and writes to the database.   When exiting TraCS, if you are prompted to upload forms, always answer Yes.   If you answer No, your forms will sit on your machine and will not be available to other users.

How To Fix the Form

Hosted Agencies

Contact TraCS Support for assistance with adding the correct number to the form.   We will need the officer's name, the date and time of the citation, and the crash or citation number if available.

Non-Hosted Agencies

You will need will need the officer's name, the date and time of the citation, and the citation number.