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It's Your Money - Do You Know Where it Is?: Logger’s Edge Software is Designed for Logging Businesses (May - July 2009 edition of the Southeastern Wood Producer Assocation's Out of the Woods Magazine) |
| Read some of the excepts: |
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Thanks to their investment in The Logger’s Edge, a software system
designed specifically to help loggers track their business data,
Glenda and Dewayne Shepard from Circle S Timber Harvesting, Inc.
watch their revenues and costs from one job to the next like a hawk.
Circle S is a one-crew contractor in South Georgia that works
primarily for one timber dealer. Often, small contractors like Circle S think they have no need to track their data with a computerized system because they can keep track of all of it in their heads or with rudimentary hand calcula.ons. But can they really? Now that Glenda has all her data in her computer system, she can pull up a tract report showing how many dollars she spent on fuel to harvest a particular job, and she can easily see what those dollar figures represent on a per ton basis because her tract tonnage is right there on the same report. Not only that, she can tell her husband exactly how much they have spent on parts and repairs on a particular machine over a given date range, or how much they have spent on fuel from one equipment unit or truck to the next. If she runs a report showing that a particular set of trucks are making the same trips from a given job to the same set of mills, yet one truck is consistently burning more fuel, they can begin to ask the right ques.ons to get to the bottom of the problem. Maybe one truck needs some addi.onal maintenance performed to improve its fuel efficiency, or maybe one driver needs to be coached about his driving habits to help improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. “The software has made my life so much easier,” says Glenda. “I handle my load tickets and my bills one time, and that’s it. Then I have all my information sitting in the computer and not in piles all over my office. I can select my date range and my equipment units or trucks or tracts, and pull up the data I want to see immediately.” |
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Calculated Gains: Logger’s Edge Software is designed with loggers in mind, as these three Canadian contractors can attest. (December 2007 edition of the Canadian Forest Industries) |
| Read some of the excepts: |
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According to Kelly King from West Pine Contractors in Quesnel, BC:
“A logger with a multi-phase operation would be crazy not to have
some method for tracking his production and costs in this day and
age, whether it is computerized or not. This just makes it so much
easier than when we tried to track the information through
spreadsheets.” Kelly relies on The Logger’s Edge to compare his phase-by-phase costs per cubic metre across all the blocks he has harvested in a season. He also uses the data from the software to compare how his overall costs per phase for the season compared to those same costs from a year ago. Nighthawk Timber of Timmins, Ontario, also finds that they are spending less time re-handling certain types of information. For example, they do a fair amount of hourly work, especially during the summer months. They used to enter their time sheets into one system, and then re-handle those same sheets to calculate the hourly charge-outs. Now, they simply enter the time sheets into The Logger’s Edge once, they set up their employee pay rates, as well as the equipment charge-out rates, and the software generates the corresponding reports needed for both payroll and invoicing automatically. The investment in Logger's Edge was well worth it for Jason Schuurman, of J.D. Schuurman Contracting in Alberta. He had originally intended to hire a part-time bookkeeper to help keep up with the office record keeping. Instead, he spent roughly $3,000 on the software, and kept up with the records himself. |
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Sharp Tool!: Logger’s Edge Software is Designed for Logging Businesses (January 2007 edition of the Southern Loggin' Times) |
| Read some of the excepts: |
| After adopting Caribou’s system, one logging company in Virginia was able to eliminate the costs of an outside bookkeeping firm by taking the employee and contractor payment process in house. He insists that he couldn’t do without Logger’s Edge. |
| “Load-by-load, mile-by-mile, ticket-by-ticket, the data are all there. Because they can see their performance week-to-week, I spend much less time answering questions on payday. Plus, I can generate my trucker settlements in about half the time it used to take.” |
| Dasher says using a system like LE is simply a smart business decision. “I used to review my numbers only every two weeks. Now, I review them every two or three days. If a crew’s tons are down, I see it right away and can investigate it immediately.” |
| "Caribou’s support is great,” contends Amy Coleman. “If I call with a question or an issue, I can share my desktop securely with them right over the internet, and they can see exactly what I’m looking at, and take control of my machine if they need to. There’s no need for them to come to us. They provide assistance instantly with their remote support tools.” |
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We are proud to announce that one of our customers --- Dick Walsh Forest Products from Park Rapids, Minnesota -- was awarded the Timber Harvesting's 2006 Logger of the Year Award. Follow the link below to read the full article, and see how the Logger's Edge has benefited the Walsh business.
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North Woods Standout: Dick Walsh Forest Products Named Timber Havesting's Logging Business of the Year: |
| Read some of the excepts: |
| Jodi [Walsh of Dick Walsh Forest Products] is very high on computer software used in the business. "One of the best changes we've made in a long time is buying Logger's Edge software," she says. "I called Boise and told them I needed a better way to track deliveries and they referred me to this Canadian company. |
| The program paid for itself in three months. |
| She uses the program, developed by Caribou Software, to track timber contracts, keep up with production by product categories, track deliveries and record actual trucking and equipment costs. |
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You can also read what some of our Canadian clients have to say about our software and support in an article published in the Winter 2006 edition of the Interior Logger and Trucker Magazine. |
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When Loggers Meet Computers: (Winter 2006 edition of the Interior Logger and Trucker Magazine) |
| Read some of the excepts: |
| “The biggest thing for us is that they will tailor the program to meet our needs,” she [Sue Hagarty of Roga Contracting in Kamloops, BC] said. Right now we are facing a lot of big issues, such as the bugs and the resulting light loads. They have helped us and our need to deal with that issue. As well, they understand the diversity within the industry – the Coast is different from the Interior, and the Interior is different from the North.” |
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“The fuel rebate reporting system is absolutely excellent,” she [Janice Himech of John Himech Logging of Houston, BC] said. “In fact, it is such a good system that the Victoria taxation branch actually complimented us on it!” "We can reconcile statements and it generates a very professional detailed pay statement that I can attach to my stubs,” Janice said. “I know the truckers really appreciate this.” Janice said the support received from Caribou staff has been “stellar”. |
| Says Theresa Phillips of Pitka Logging in Vandorhoof, BC: "Caribou is always there when I need a hand, either by phone, fax or internet. I often work in the evenings which makes it difficult when I have problems. I had a problem which I needed help with, but was playing phone tag. One of the ladies, (Jennifer), knew that I often work late and went way out of her way to post an extensive “self help” instruction page to You don’t often find support like that.” |
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