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 errors similar to the ones below after pressing Validate, and the issues above have been ruled out, this means the form already has a number.

Why It Happens

This is not a bug in the software.

This occurs because after the citation was validated initially, TraCS and/or the computer was shut down with the form open.   The number cannot save to the field and write to the database, and it gets blown off of the form.   When this happens, the Form Number field will be blank the next time the form is opened.

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, and 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 form number if available.

Once we have that information, a TraCS Team member will number the form so that the officer can validate.

Non-Hosted Agencies

First, you will need a Records Data Entry (RDE) account set up in TraCS.   This will allow you to put the number onto the form.   If you don't have one, create one.   If you need help creating it, contact TraCS Support.

Next, you will need the officer's name, the date and time of the citation, and the form number.

If the officer cannot provide the form number, you will need to do some research to figure it out.

If the officer has provided the form number, you need to confirm it via the TraCS Form Log or the Form Number Manager.   If you make a mistake and add an incorrect number, it will cause a multitude of issues.

1. Log into TraCS on a machine in Office mode using your Records Data Entry (RDE) account.

2. Search for the form by using the officer's User ID or name and the date that the form was created.

2. Highlight the form and go to the View tab and then press TraCS Form Log

3. Check the Form Number column.

4. If the form number is there, open a blank Notepad file or Excel sheet.

5. Select All (Ctrl-A) on the Form Log, Copy (Ctrl-C), and Paste (Ctrl-V) to Notepad/Excel then skip to Step 13.

6. If the form number is not in the form log, close out of it.

7. Go to the Tools tab and open the Form Number Manager.

8. Search by entering the Form Type (Citation, Warning, HSMV90010S, etc.), Status (Used) and Assigned To (User ID) the fields at the top.

9. Reverse sort the date column and then locate the form number by matching the date and time to what is on the form in TraCS.

If the officer completed multiple forms that day, you will have to figure out which number is correct.

This may take some time and more research, but it is crucial that you get it right.   Again, if you make a mistake and add an incorrect number, it will cause a multitude of issues.

10. Once you determine the correct number, keep the Form Number Manager open.

11. Type the number next to Contains in the Form Number field.

Does the result that comes up match what you found in Step 9?

Confirm this by comparing the date, time, and User ID.

If it doesn't match, you typed it incorrectly.   Consolas font uses both the letter O and the number 0.   Try again until you are sure you have the right number.

12. Once you are absolutely sure that it matches, copy the number that you typed next to Contains to Notepad or Excel.

13. Open the citation and press Edit.

14. COPY AND PASTE the form number from your Notepad/Excel sheet to the Form Number field and then tab out of it. DO NOT FREE TYPE THE NUMBER!!! You do not want to risk making a mistake.

15. Close the citation and tell the officer to validate it.

If you need assistance, contact TraCS Support.