Using Ardex Premier you can link procedures to one another in order to create follow-on procedures. For example, after vaccinating a newly arrived horse against flu you may want to schedule a follow-up vaccination for a month’s time.

For some procedures you may find that you nearly always need to schedule a follow-up procedure. For example, administering a flu vaccination 30 days after a horse arrives on your property. In this case you would want to create predefined or template linked procedure so that whenever an arrival procedure is recorded in Ardex, the system prompts you to schedule a flu vaccination procedure for 30 days time.

To create a pre-defined linked procedure:

1. In Ardex Premier, select Settings at the bottom left, and then select Options.

2. On the Options and Settings window, select Procedures at the left.

3. Click the View Links button on the right.

4. By default the Linked Procedure Setup window shows procedures linked to the procedure selected in the procedures list when you clicked the View Links button. Use the Procedures linked to drop down list to select the procedure for which you wish to create follow-up procedures.

5. After selecting a procedure from the Procedures linked to list, Ardex Premier refreshes the grid to show all procedures that currently link to the selected procedure.

6. Click the Add button to right of the grid to add a new predefined linked procedure.

7. On the Add Linked Procedure window, select the procedure that you want to link.

8. In the Applies to area, use the All horses and Horses of type options to specify whether the predefined linked procedure applies to all horses or horses of a specific type.

9. Under Occurs, select when the linked procedure should occur.

There are two options for specifying how Ardex Premier should schedule linked procedures:

After – use this to specify that the predefined linked procedure should be scheduled for a set amount of time after to which it is linked has been completed . Durations can be specified in days, weeks, fortnights, months or years.

On – use this to specify that the linked procedure should occur on a specific day and month. The year component will be determined from the date that the procedure to which the predefined linked procedure relates is completed. For example, if the procedure is completed on the 25th January 2021, and the linked procedure is specified to occur on the 1st March, then it will be scheduled for the 1st March 2021. If the procedure was completed after the 1st March 2021, the linked procedure would be scheduled for 1st March 2022.

10. Use the Comment field at the bottom of the Add Linked Procedure window to add an optional comment. This comment will be copied to all linked procedures based on predefined linked procedure.

11. Click the Add button to add the linked procedure.

12. After adding the linked procedure, Ardex Premier will display it in the grid on the Linked Procedure Setup window.

13. To add another linked procedure, click the Add button.

14. To edit a linked procedure, select it in the grid and click the Edit button.

15. To delete a linked procedure, select it in the grid and click the Delete button. To delete multiple linked procedures at once, select the linked procedures you want to delete from the grid and click the Delete button.

16. To view all linked procedures for all procedures select the Show all linked procedures option.

When the Show all linked procedures option is selected, you can edit and delete linked procedures. You cannot add linked procedures as the system would not know to which procedure to link the linked procedures. You need to select the Procedures linked to option, and select a procedure to add linked procedures.

17. Once you have finished creating predefined linked procedures, click the X at the top right of the Linked Procedures Setup window to close it.

This section describes how to use predefined linked procedures once they have been setup.

1. On the main Ardex Premier window select Procedures at the bottom left, followed by Procedures at the top left.

2. Then on the Procedures window, select a horse and then select a procedure that has predefined linked procedure(s).

3. Click the L button at the right of the drop down list of Procedures to preview the predefined linked procedures associated with the procedure.

5. Click Close to close the Preview Linked Procedures window.

6. Back on Procedures window, click the Add button to add the the procedure.

7. Once the system has added the procedure, it will automatically show the Linked Procedures window.

8. Use the Include column to specify which linked procedures you wish to create. By default all predefined linked procedures are included. To exclude a predefined linked procedure either click the Include column to remove the check mark or highlight it in the grid and click the Remove button.

You can remove multiple rows at once by highlighting them in the grid and then clicking the Remove button.

9. Use the Edit button to make changes to the predefined linked procedures before creating them. The Edit Linked Procedures window allows you to change when the linked procedure occurs and the comment associated with it.

If you want to change the procedure to a different procedure, you will need to use the Delete button to delete the linked procedure and the Add button to create a new linked procedure.

Ardex applies any modifications that users make to predefined linked procedures to only the current situation. The predefined linked procedures on which they are based are not modified. The base predefined linked procedures can only be modified when accessing linked procedures via Settings and Options.

10. Once you are ready to create your linked procedures, click the Create button at the bottom right on the Linked Procedures window.

11. Ardex Premier will create the linked procedures, showing progress as it does.

12. Once the linked procedures have been created, Ardex Premier will show a Close button at the bottom right on the Linked Procedures window.

13. Click the Close button to close the Linked Procedures window.

Ardex Premier creates linked procedures as pending procedures, and these are visible in the procedure diary.

As the name implies, ad-hoc linked procedures are linked procedures that you create as and when needed. For example, scheduling a follow-up procedure after a vet visit.

Ad-hoc linked procedures are specified at the time you create the procedure to which they relate.

1. On the main Ardex Premier window select Procedures at the bottom left, followed by Procedures at the top left.

2. On the Procedures window, select a horse and then select a procedure.

3. Click the L button at the right of the Procedures drop down list to display the Preview Linked Procedures window.

4. Click the Add button to view the Add Linked Procedure window.

5. Use the Procedure drop down to select the procedure to link.

6. Under Occurs, select when the linked procedure should occur.

There are two options for specifying how Ardex Premier should schedule linked procedures:

After – use this to specify that the predefined linked procedure should be scheduled for a set amount of time after to which it is linked has been completed . Durations can be specified in days, weeks, fortnights, months or years.

On – use this to specify that the linked procedure should occur on a specific day and month. The year component will be determined from the date that the procedure to which the predefined linked procedure relates is completed. For example, if the procedure is completed on the 25th January 2021, and the linked procedure is specified to occur on the 1st March, then it will be scheduled for the 1st March 2021. If the procedure was completed after the 1st March 2021, the linked procedure would be scheduled for 1st March 2022.

10. Use the Comment field at the bottom of the Add Linked Procedure window to add an optional comment.

11. Click the Add button to add the linked procedure.

12. After adding the linked procedure, Ardex Premier will display it in the grid on the Linked Procedure Setup window.

13. To add another linked procedure, click the Add button.

14. Click the Edit button to edit the linked procedure, if you want to make changes.

15. Click Close to close the Preview Linked Procedures window. The ad-hoc linked procedures you have added will be kept in memory, ready to be created after you have add the procedure.

16. Back on Procedures window, click the Add button to add the the procedure.

17. Once the system has added the procedure, it will automatically show the Linked Procedures window containing your ad-hoc linked procedures.

18. If needed, you can add additional linked procedures using the Add button, edit your existing ad-hoc linked procedures using the Edit button, or remove them by either unchecking the checkbox in the the Include column or using the Remove button.

19. To create the ad-hoc linked procedures, click the Create button at the bottom right on the Linked Procedures window.

12. Once Ardex Premier has created the linked procedures it will show a Close button at the bottom right on the Linked Procedures window.

13. Click the Close button to close the Linked Procedures window.

Ardex creates each linked procedure as a pending procedure, and these can be viewed in the procedure diary.

Once created, linked procedures are viewed from the Procedures Diary in Ardex Premier.

1. On the main Ardex Premier window click Procedures and then Diary.

2. On the Diary window, select (Unassigned Only) from the Person drop down list.

3. Use the Date field to choose the date on which the linked procedure was scheduled.

4. Linked procedures appear at the top of the day column as no start time is specified when they are created.

5. To edit the linked procedure, double click on it or right-click and select Edit.

6. You can edit the linked procedure from the Edit Appointment window. For example, you can specify start and end times, add a worksheet message, or add a comment.

7. From the Procedures Diary you can also create schedule follow-up procedures in the same way as you can from the Procedures window. The difference being, that in the Procedures Diary you mark a procedure as completed in order to access the linked procedures functionality. There are two ways to mark a procedure as completed:

8. When you right-click on a procedure and select Mark Completed, Ardex Premier will display a message asking you if you wish to create linked procedures. Answer Yes if you would like to create linked procedures.

9. When you double-click to edit a procedure, Ardex Premier displays the Edit Appointment window. In order to create linked procedures, you must change the Status of the procedure to Completed. Ardex Premier will then display a button labelled L to the right of the Status field.

10. Click the L button to add, edit and remove linked procedures.

11. Click the Save and Close button on the Edit Appointment window to have Ardex Premier save your changes and create the linked procedures.

If you change the Status of a procedure from Completed to Scheduled or Cancelled, or if you delete it, all uncompleted linked procedures will also be deleted. Ardex Premier will warn you prior to deleting the procedure and linked procedures and give you the option to continue or cancel deleting.

When deleting a procedure from the Procedures window, Ardex Premier will warn you if there are uncompleted linked procedures and give you the option to continue or cancel deleting.

Linked procedures works when multiple horses are selected when adding a procedure as shown in the following screenshot.

When creating linked procedures for multiple horses, you can use the Add button to add ad-hoc linked procedures for all horses, particular types of horse or an individual horse. The Add Linked Procedure window includes options to facilitate this.

Whenever you add a procedure for a mare that has a foal at foot, or a procedure for a foal-at-foot, Ardex Premier will include the mare and foal when checking for linked procedures.

In the screenshot below , a Mare Foaled procedure has been added for Ardex Horse 1, and the system has found two predefined linked procedures, one relating to the mare, and one relating to its foal, Ardex Horse 1 / Ardex Stallion.

As with creating predefined and ad-hoc linked procedures, you can use the Edit button to edit the linked procedures relating to the mare and foal, use Add button to create linked procedures that relate to the mare, the foal or both, or use the Remove button to remove linked procedures for the mare or foal that you don’t want created.

When deleting a procedure from the Procedures window or from the Procedure Diary window, Ardex Premier will warn you if the procedure has related uncompleted (i.e. scheduled) linked procedures and give you the option to continue or cancel deleting. If you opt to continue the system will delete all uncompleted linked procedures. It will not delete completed linked procedures.

When changing status of a procedure from Completed to Scheduled or Cancelled in the Procedure Diary, Ardex Premier will warn you if the procedure has related uncompleted (i.e. scheduled) linked procedures and give you the option to continue or cancel deleting. If you opt to continue the system will delete all uncompleted linked procedures. It will not delete completed linked procedures.