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Introduction

Overview

The Logger's Edge is a powerful, easy-to-use desktop software application designed to meet the particular business needs of log harvesting operations. It has been designed with two primary objectives in mind:

Streamlining Payroll …

Use The Logger's Edge to streamline the laborious exercise of calculating pay and generating statements for contractors and employees.

The The Logger's Edge allows you to pay employees, subcontractors, and equipment owners based on a wide variety of payment methods, including:

• Payment based on hours worked, taking into account the complicated overtime rules that vary from province to province and state to state;
• Payment based on tree count or imputed tree volume (which relies on a tree count in combination with a volume-per-tree ratio that can vary from block to block);
• Payment based on percent of load revenue received from the mill;
• Payment based on the weight or volume of loads harvested;
• Payment based on some other measure of production activity, such as days worked or miles traveled; and
• Payment (or deductions) for miscellaneous items such as fuel costs or spare equipment parts

Business Reporting…

Use The Logger's Edge to provide powerful data management and reporting capabilities to help harvesting operations run more efficiently.

The Logger's Edge takes the time slip and load slip data that you already have to track pay for your workers and contractors and uses that data to provide powerful business reports.

The Logger's Edge helps you answer questions such as:

• What were my overall costs per volume harvested on a block-by-block and phase-by-phase basis?
• How do my costs per volume or per weight delivered compare to the rates I receive from my customers?
• How much money am I paying in overtime hours, and would I be better off hiring another employee?
• Is it cheaper for me to contract out certain activities to other equipment owner/operators, or to buy another piece of equipment and hire an operator?
• What was my utilization on each piece of equipment operated in a given date range? How much of the equipment’s down time was spent on maintenance versus travel versus other non-productive activities?

Broad Functionality

In addition to these core functions, The Logger's Edge also provides functionality to help automate your processes and improve the efficiency of your operations. Some of these secondary benefits are noted below.

Invoicing Capabilities

The Logger's Edge allows you to track charges and generates invoices to send to customers for services rendered. Most mills go through a self-invoicing process for deliveries received at their facility, but you may still want to generate invoices for miscellaneous items such as camp fees or picker truck hours. In addition, you may want to enter hours worked and charge-out rates for equipment used on a road-building job, and have The Logger's Edge generate an invoice for you to send to your customer.

Load Reconciliation

The Logger's Edge allows you to indicate the revenue received on a load-by-load and phase-by-phase basis, as indicated on your contractor settlements. You can then reconcile this information with load slips you have entered in The Logger's Edge to identify any discrepancies between deliveries, or payment due between the mill’s records and your own. In fact, The Logger's Edge allows you to set up the rates and pay basis (e.g., cubic meters or tones) that your customers will pay you for each phase of operation and will use that information to calculate the revenue you should receive for each load so that you can double-check the mill’s calculations.

Truck Information Tracking

Some harvesting operations – particularly those that own their own trucks and employ their own drivers - want to track cycle times and overloads on a truck-by-truck (or block-by-block) basis. For overload tracking, The Logger's Edge allows users to set up maximum weights that vary by season for each truck. It then uses this information in conjunction with actual deliveries to generate reporting of overloads. For cycle time tracking, The Logger's Edge provides powerful reports that show the time it takes for a truck to drop off one load from a given block, return to the block, re-load, and drop off the next load from that block to the mill.

Equipment Costing Tools

The Logger's Edge includes powerful tools to help you estimate the standard cost of your equipment based on:

• Estimated productive hours in a given year,
• Useful life remaining of the equipment,
• Estimated maintenance and operating costs,
• Depreciation,
• And interest.

These cost estimates can be revised throughout the year as you accumulate more data on equipment operating costs and machine hours worked. As a result, equipment cost reporting is as up-to-date as possible.

Equipment Utilization Tracking

The Logger's Edge provides powerful information on the type of work performed by each of your pieces of equipment. Each time entry that is made is assigned an activity (e.g., loading, cutting, maintenance, travel). These activities, in turn, are classified as production activities, maintenance activities, other chargeable or non-chargeable time for use in generating reports that provide a breakdown of equipment hours for a given date by type of activity.

Many users are quite happy to use a subset of The Logger's Edge’s functionality and find that the system more than pays for itself in terms of time-savings associated with time slip and load slip data management and processing. And when used to its full business potential, The Logger's Edge can help you eliminate inefficiencies from your business operations and increase your overall take-home profits.

Read on to learn how to make The Logger's Edge work for you! This documentation begins with a general overview of the program to introduce you to the terminology and structure of The Logger's Edge, followed by notes on how to most efficiently use the program. After the introduction, the document describes how overtime is configured, then works through the The Logger's Edge menu structure, and explains how to use each window and how they are related.

Key Concepts and Typical Workflow

The Logger's Edge offers a wide range of methods for paying employees and equipment owner-operators. This chapter summarizes the workflow corresponding to a typical scenario where:

• Employees are paid on an hourly basis; and

• Trucking is subcontracted to a trucking company that is paid on the basis of weight (or volume) associated with its deliveries to the customer’s mill.

While this scenario does not encompass the full capabilities of The Logger's Edge, it covers the components of The Logger's Edge that are most commonly used, and provides a good foundation for exploring the rest of the system.

Overview of Work Flow

This chapter uses flow charts to outline the steps involved in handling this “typical” scenario in The Logger's Edge. The chart entitled “Overview of Work Flow” provides a one-sheet view of all the steps from start to finish. These steps are grouped into parts, as described below:

Part 1.    Initial Data Setup.  This setup involves the setup of basic company data, such as vendor and customer lists, accounting, employees, equipment, trucks, load and block attributes (destinations, routes, species, etc), blocks, revenue contracts, and pay contracts. Much of this setup is a one-time process but will need to be maintained.

Part 2.    Core Data Entry.   This step involves the entry of your operational activities, such as time slips, load slips, and expenses. This data entry will generally take place on a daily or weekly basis.

Part 3.    Running Employee, Vendor and Invoice Calculators. These calculators take the time slip, load slip, and reimbursable expense information, and perform the calculations of payment due the relevant employees and vendors in a given pay period. These calculators also use standard cost data for equipment on a block-by-block basis to calculate overhead that is incurred to run the operation, but which is not explicitly paid out to an employee or vendor. The Logger's Edge may also calculate the expected revenue on a load-by-load basis using rates defined in the revenue contracts.

Part 4.    Reviewing the Statements.  When the pay calculators are run, The Logger's Edge performs all the calculations necessary to create employee and third-party statements. These vendor statements must be generated and reviewed and may be printed to accompany the cheques you will issue to these employees and third-party vendors.

Part 5.    Reporting.  Aside from the statements generated in Part 4, The Logger's Edge has a rich set of other business reports that will help you run a more efficient and more profitable business. These reports can be reviewed once the calculators have been run (Part 3 above). It is during the calculation process that all employee rates, pay contracts, and standard costs are matched with time slips, load slips, corresponding revenues and costs on a block-by-block basis.

 Flow charts will lead you through the steps required to use the core functionality of the system outlined in these steps. They make reference to key concepts within The Logger's Edge, such as pay periods, blocks, pay contracts, and revenue contracts. Because these concepts are critical to understanding the system, we define each of them in the remainder of this chapter.

Remember - the goal of this chapter is not to provide full details on the purpose and functionality of each screen in the system; rather, the goal is to provide a bird’s eye view of the steps involved in making use of the system’s basic functionality.

Subsequent chapters of the documentation provide more detail and explanation on the topics that are highlighted in this chapter. In addition, they explain how to pay more complicated scenarios, such as payment of contractors that work in the same block as your own employees, where both employees and contractors are paid on the basis of load slip data.

Important Definitions

•    Vendor

A vendor is any non-employee that receives payment from you.  Examples include subcontractors, equipment owner-operators, contracted workers that are not actual employees, and any other supplier of services (such as a repair shop) to whom you owe money that you track through The Logger's Edge.

•   Customer

A customer is anyone from whom you receive payment. Customers may be:

• Mills

• Fixed fee contract customers

• Time and materials based contract customers

•   Pay Periods

All employee payroll statements and vendor statements are generated on a pre-defined “pay period” basis. A pay period is a date range that you set up in the system and assign a reference name. For example, if you pay your employees and other vendors once a week, you would define the start and end dates for each of these weekly “pay periods.” You also assign a descriptive name, such as “January 03 – Week1.” When you run the pay calculators or review your statements in The Logger's Edge, you reference this descriptive name, and The Logger's Edge knows to include all the transactions that took place in that date range.

•   Pay Activity

A pay activity is a “phase” of operation that you track individually for payment and reporting, or a category of time that you track. Common pay activities are cutting (or logging), delimbing, loading, hauling (or trucking), travel, maintenance, sick leave, and vacation. When you first install The Logger's Edge, several pre-defined activities are included in your database. You can edit, delete, or add as appropriate to reflect your business operations.

Trucking, Down, Paid Holiday, Maintenance, Sick, Travel, and Vacation should not be edited or removed from the database. These activities have special rules and functionality within The Logger's Edge that will be lost if you delete or edit them.

•   Pay Activity Type

Each pay activity that you set up in The Logger's Edge must be assigned a pay activity type. These activity types are used for classifying time into categories such as “regular production,” “maintenance,” and other non-chargeable time (for example, down time). The following activity “types” are included in The Logger's Edge:

PROD	Production time, such as time spent logging, trucking, delimbing, etc.
EQ_MAINT	Equipment maintenance
NONWORK	Non-work paid time, such as holiday, vacation, or paid sick time
NON-PROD CHARGE	Other non-production chargeable time, such as road-building
OTHER	Other non-chargeable time, such as staff parties and down time
TRAVEL	Travel time

 The Logger's Edge can be configured to indicate whether time incurred in a particular pay activity type is eligible for:

• Overtime

• A night-shift pay differential factor

• A Saturday, Sunday, or Holiday pay differential factor

Each activity type can also be counted as Production Time or Maintenance Time for reporting purposes. The basic settings for each pay activity type are shown below. Talk to your Caribou representative if you need to change these settings.

Type Code	Short identification of the item that appears in the navigation tree and drop down menus throughout The Logger's Edge.
Description	Enter a longer description. Used to clarify the code.
Production Time	Check this box if the pay activity type is a production activity. This is used to calculate production time on reports.
Maintenance Time	Check this box if the pay activity type is to be used to track equipment maintenance.  This is used in reports such as Reports | Trucks | Operating Costs and Reports | Equipment | Operating Costs.
Apply to Overtime	Should worker time against this pay activity type be counted as eligible for overtime? Worker time is entered against a pay activity and each pay activity is associated with a pay activity type.
Night Shift Factor	Does this pay activity type have a night shift pay differential factor? Night shifts can be specified on the employee time slips. Enter the night shift factor here.
Holiday Factor	Does this pay activity type have a holiday pay differential factor? If so, enter the factor here.
Saturday Factor	Does this pay activity type have a Saturday pay differential factor? If so, enter the factor here. The Logger's Edge looks at the computer calendar to determine which days are Saturdays.
Sunday Factor	Does this pay activity type have a Sunday pay differential factor? If so, enter the factor here. The Logger's Edge looks at the computer calendar to determine which days are Sundays.
Active?	Should this item appear in the navigation tree and drop down menus throughout The Logger's Edge?

When calculating any of the factors configured on the pay activity types, The Logger's Edge will multiply the worker’s pay for the day by the factor indicated. Therefore, if a Saturday Factor of 1.5 is indicated, the worker will receive his normal pay rate and normal overtime rate (if configured) multiplied by 1.5.

•   Blocks

A block is a geographic parcel of land to be harvested. All time entries are associated with the block where the activity was performed. If the time entry is for something like “travel” that has no single “block,” you can select “NONE” for the block on that time entry. Likewise, all load slip entries indicate the specific block where the load originated. Revenue contracts generally relate to one or multiple blocks where you are being paid by the mill for your harvesting services. By assigning all activity (time-based or load-based) and all revenues to blocks, users can run reports showing profitability on a block-by-block basis.

On a load in a given block, you may track individual activities, operators and equipment. You may pay these workers on load attributes (e.g. load weight or load revenue) or track them for reporting purposes.

The Logger's Edge’s database has two attributes to further define a block. These attributes are larger geographic parcels of land: Area and Compartment. Often, mills will define their blocks as belonging to larger compartments, and compartments may belong to an overall area. These fields are optional in The Logger's Edge and one or the other may be hidden from view. Using Areas and Compartments may become useful in reporting.

Conversion factors are set up on a block-by-block basis. When you set up a new block, the setup wizard will allow you to set up one or more conversion factors to convert weight to volume for deliveries from that block. These conversion factors will be used to calculate volume for a load using the weight of that load. If you do not want to set up and maintain conversion factors on a block-by-block basis, or if you would like to manually enter the volume on each load, you may choose to turn off conversions on that block. In that case, The Logger's Edge will rely on the user to enter both weight and volume for each load slip. A volume of 0 is also acceptable if you do not track load volume.

See the Block Setup Wizard flow chart in the Setup Section under Blocks.

•   Revenue Contracts

All time slip entries, load slip entries and miscellaneous expenses are “charged” against a revenue contract in The Logger's Edge. Revenue contracts can be set up for external mills or for internal accounts. External contracts mimic the payment rates you receive from a mill for a given set of activities performed on a given set of blocks. You will have to setup at least one revenue contract per customer (or mill).

Internal contracts are generally set up for sick leave, vacation, general maintenance and for any other activities that workers would need to charge their time against. These internal contracts do not have any revenue rate associated with them; they are categories to use for tracking time that does not have a corresponding revenue stream or is considered overhead costs.

Purpose of revenue contracts:

• To calculate the appropriate employee/subcontractor rates if paying on a percent of load revenue basis

• To track revenue and costs for jobs that are not related to a block. These jobs can be internal jobs such as administration or external jobs such as a road building contracts

• To reconcile actual revenue from the mill with expected revenue from the mill

• To be able to track revenue versus cost to generate profit and loss statements

See the Revenue Contract Wizard flow chart in the appendix of this document.

•   Payments Contracts

The Logger's Edge relies on payment contracts to calculate payment for certain types of transactions. These transactions include:

• Payment due a third-party vendor for hourly services (as reflected on the time slip entries for sub-contractors);

• Payment due a third-party vendor for production-based activity that is not associated with a load slip. Examples include: payment based on number of days worked, count of loads delivered, or tree count.

• Payments based on load slips, whether that payment is to employees or to third-party vendors. These payments may be based on a percentage of revenue received for the load, or based on the weight or volume of the load.

See the Payment Contract Setup Wizard flow chart in the appendix of this document.

•   Employee 'Loaded' Cost

When allocating and tracking employee costs, the actual cost to employee a worker is greater than his or her wages earned by the employer's share of taxes, insurance or benefits.  The Logger's Edge allows you to enter the true cost of employing a worker by entering an additional piece of information, the “loaded cost.”

•   Standard Cost

The standard cost of a piece of equipment or truck includes all operating expenses except the operator, sometimes referred to as the "dry" rate

•   Fully Founded Cost

The fully founded cost is the standard published rate of operating a piece of equipment or truck including the operator.

•   Time Slips

Time slips are entered for each worker (employee or subcontractor) and for each piece of equipment (if there is no equipment operator) for each day of work.

• Employee time slips are entered under: Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips

• Subcontractor time slips are entered under: Data Entry | Time Slips | Sub Contractors

• Equipment time slips are entered under: Data Entry | Time Slips | Equipment.

If the worker performs multiple activities in a day, then multiple slips are entered for that worker for that day.  Each slip indicates the activity performed for the corresponding hours. For example, if a worker spent 8 hours logging, and 2 hours traveling, he would have 2 time slips for that day (one for logging and one for travel).  Remember to set the Time Slip order to record the order in which the work was performed.  This is how The Logger's Edge calculated overtime and what rate to apply for overtime if the worker is paid different rates for different activities.

The equipment used by the worker is indicated on each time slip, so there is no need to enter time slips for the equipment separately.

Time slips can be entered for equipment separately if the equipment has no operator associated with it. For example, if you have a trailer on site for a given harvesting job for 16 hours, you can enter a time slip for that piece of equipment (under Data Entry | Time Slips | Equipment), and the equipment’s standard cost will be imputed and applied against the block and revenue contract associated with the time slip.

See the Time Slip flow chart in the appendix of this document.

•   Load Slips

Load slips are entered for each delivery to a customer’s mill. See the Time Slip flow chart in the appendix of this document. If you receive an electronic file containing all of your loads, The Logger's Edge may import the file reducing the amount of data entry required. Please contact your Caribou representative for a price list on import configuration.

Hints and Tips

The symbol indicates a note to pay particular attention to what is explained. Time saving tricks or advice are marked with the .

Grids and Windows

Data entry in The Logger's Edge may take two different forms in different areas of the program.  Data may be entered through a form or through a grid.

Example Data Entry Window: Form

Example Data Entry Window: Grid

When adding a record, either a new line in the grid will appear or window will open. If data is entered into a window, a new record will be saved in the grid so that a user may view the existing records.

To edit a record, either double click on the cell or use F2 after selecting the cell. To navigate to the appropriate cell, use the tab key, the enter key or the mouse.
At the bottom of most grids, the following standard buttons are found:

• Print: Used to print all contents in the grid.

• Export: Used to create a flat export (tab delimited file) containing all information in the grid. Tab delimited files may be imported into programs such as Microsoft Excel or other applications.

• Delete: First, select the row or record to be deleted by clicking on the row number. Then, click Delete to erase the record.

• Copy: First, select the row to copy by placing the cursor in the row. Click copy and a new identical record will be added either to the grid or a new window will open.

• Add: Click on Add to enter a new record. Either a new line in the grid will appear or a window will open.

• Save: Click on Save to save all changes made in the grid. A record is also saved when the cursor selects a separate record. For example, if you edit record 3, then click into record 2, record 3 will be saved.

• Close: Use Close to close the current grid. More than one grid may be open at the same time.
   

To navigate through a grid or a window, use the Tab key or the Enter key on the keyboard.
To close a grid and not save any changes, use the Close button in the top right corner. Any changes will not be saved when the is used.
To copy and paste a row, use Ctrl+C to copy the currently selected row and Ctrl+V to paste the copied row.
 

Save and Add

In windows, a Save/Add button exists to minimize the amount of required data entry. If entering several Time Slips, use the Save/Add button to save the existing record and add a new one. The new record will contain a copy of most of the fields entered from the previous record, with the exception of hours.  This makes multiple entries for a single employee quick, as you will not have to re-enter much of the same information.  For example, if you are entering a batch of slips for an employee who basically performs the same duties each day, your data entry may be limited to changing the slip number, the date and the hours.
 

Colors

• Yellow is a required field.

• White is a non-required field.

• Grey a non-editable field.

• Light blue columns are directly editable in grids that do not have a split view.

• Blue fields appear in windows where you may either type in the code or use the drop down box to select the code. In the time slip window below, the cursor is in the Employee box.

Navigation Bar

On the left of most grids, there is a navigation bar. The bar can have two tabs: Navigation and often a Code tab. The Code tab will appear when the cursor is in the grid on the right and the possible entries for the field are limited. For example, if the cursor is in the employee code field in the grid, the Employee Code on the left will show a list of all Active employees in the system. Double click on the employee on the left navigation bar and the grid will fill with your selection.

The navigation tab is used to sort and find records. In the screen captures below, to view only entries for Don Jenkins, you would click on Don Jenkins on the left and the entries will filter to show only Don Jenkins on the right. To sort by another field than Employee Code, use the Group By drop down menu to see other options. There is often more than one way to sort and filter the entries in the grid.

Split Bar

The blue line that separates the grid from the navigation bar on the left is moveable. Select and drag the splitter to the left or right to increase or decrease the size of the grid displayed.

Active?

Many records in The Logger's Edge have an Active? checkbox. The Active? checkbox is used to manage setup data that is currently in use versus setup data that has been used in the past or will be used in the future. For example, customer xyz is no longer a customer but was at one point. Uncheck the active box so that the customer no longer appears in drop down lists. The customer can be reactivated again in the future and no historical data is lost.

When you see a “Show Active Only” check box, uncheck the box to see all records whether they are active or not.
 

Filter Windows

Filter Windows are found throughout The Logger's Edge.  For example, this filter window is used to run many reports.  The filter window allows you to specify the date range and other criteria for a report.

Pay Periods appear in the drop down menu. When a pay period is chosen, the start and end dates for the pay period auto fill.  A pay period does not have to be chosen. You may enter any start and end date in the start and end date fields.  Even if you select a pay period you can still edit the start and end dates.

By default all blocks are chosen. To select specific blocks, uncheck the select all box and then choose the blocks you would like to filter the load slips by.

Depending on the report, the list may have other items, such as destinations, truck numbers or activities.

The Show Active Only box indicates whether or not to show all blocks in The Logger's Edge or only those blocks that have been marked as Active. Each block has an Active? checkbox.

The Sort By can have different choices depending on the type of data you are filtering. Below, the data may be sorted by Date and Time or by Block.

Default Entries

When configuring an entry that has a Default checkbox, it is not necessary to enter more than the default entry.  Defaults allow The Logger's Edge to auto fill fields based on defaults to reduce data entry.

Required Records

The The Logger's Edge database has several required records that are included in any new database distributed with The Logger's Edge. The following records must not be deleted:

• ALL

• NONE

• MYCO

• OWNER

• DRIVER

The purpose of these records is explained later in the document.

System Configuration

The Logger's Edge has been designed so that certain labels and fields can be modified or disabled through a change to the database configuration. In addition, certain business rules (such as overtime rules) can be modified through configuration settings. Caribou representatives have access to the utilities to complete this configuration. If you would like to modify certain configuration settings, contact your Caribou representative. The following list covers the main areas that can be configured.

Basic Setup	Basic Setup information such as overtime rules and display of conversion factors, as defined in the “Basic Setup” section of Chapter 4.
Units of Measure	It is possible to add additional units of measure to those already configured in The Logger's Edge. The functionality of additional units of measure may be limited.
Pay Basis	Currently the system allows payment based on days, hours, kilograms, cubic meters, tonnes, load, tree count, tree volume (estimated from tree count using a ratio assigned on each block), percent of load revenue, distance, and lump sum amounts. It may be possible to add other pay bases. Talk to an Caribou representative if you want to pay based on some other basis than those listed here.
Attributes of the block	Block attributes such as Area and Compartment can be modified, or omitted.
Attributes on the time slips	Time slip fields, such as odometer readings, can be omitted. It is also possible to add additional information fields to the time slip for use in custom reporting.
Attributes of the load	Certain load attributes such as species or sort, can be omitted. It may be possible to enable additional attributes as well, depending on how they will be used.

Basic Setup - Load Slips

The first tasks that you need to perform in The Logger's Edge are to set up all the basic data you need in order to enter load slips and time slips.  Because most of the data on load slips and time slips are verified against validation lists, you need to set up those lists before you can actually enter any loads or time slips.

This section deals with the basic validation lists that need to be setup prior to entering load slips.  Chapter 4 addresses the lists that need to be setup before time slips can be entered.  In some cases, of course, there is some overlap and a list might be used for both loads and time slips.

The functions that are covered in this section are:

• Setting up Accounting information, including Pay Periods and Accounting Periods

• Setting up Pay Activities

• Setting up Vendors

• Setting up  Trucks

• Setting up Customers

• Setting up Destinations

Before setting up these items, let's first take a look at the load slip window so that you can get a better understanding of the types of information that needs to be set up.

Navigate to Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Data.

Click on Add (at the bottom of the screen) to see the following load slip form.

 

The load slip includes several fields: , Timbermark, Species, Stratum that are user-configurable.  With the assistance of a Caribou support represetnative you can add, modify or remove these fields from your load ticket.  There are 3 configuable attributes for s and 10 for the load ticket proper.  In the above example, Area and Timbermark are attributes; Species, Stratum are load ticket attributes.

Destination, Truck No, Driver, Truck Type, and Route, are additional load attibutes whose data are entered through drop-down lists.  (Driver, Truck Type and Route can be removed from the load ticket if you do not need them.)  The purpose of preset lists is to ensure that only valid entries can be selected for these fields.  You will see how to create these preset lists in the remainder of this section of the manual.

You will notice in the above screenshot that there are yellow and white text fields -- the yellow fields are required entries; the white fields are optional entries.   There are times you may not have valid data for a required entry.  In this case a selection of 'NONE' serves as a valid entry.

You click Cancel  to close the Load Slip window without saving.  You click on OK to save and exit the load slip form.

Setting Up Accounting and Pay Periods

Pay periods are used throughout The Logger’s Edge for running payment calculators and creating statements.  A Pay period is a date range you configure to match a payment cycle for your vendors.  For example, if you pay your vendors for deliveries for the 1st through the 15th of May, and then pay them separately for deliveries from the 16 to the 31st of May,  you would set up a pay period from May 1st to May 15th, and a second period from the 16th to the 31st.

Accounting Periods

In order to setup a new pay period, you must first configure the Accounting Period to which it pertains.  An accounting period must be as large as, or larger than, your pay period.  Accounting periods can be used for custom reporting and are generally configured as a log year or as fiscal quarters.

In The Logger's Edge, setup items are generally assigned a 'Code' and a 'Description'.  The Code for an item is its short form, such as an abbreviation or mnemonic.  The Description is a longer form of the same item.  You should be able to identify the item by either its code or its description.

If you were to need more detailed Accounting Periods, you could create them, and the saved items would appear in the tree view on the left side. 

As with all of the following set-up fields, you can try adding a new entry by clicking on Add.  We encourage you to try adding some new entries into the set up lists so you can experience just how easy the program is to use.  You can always use the Delete button to remove any dummy entries. 

Another convenient feature is the Copy button, which allows you to highlight and copy an entry you have already made, and then make any changes required to make it a unique entry, without having to re-enter all of the information.  Finally, the Export button allows you to export the tables to Excel if you need to use them for other purposes outside the software. 

Pay Periods

You set up pay periods by navigating to Setup | Accounting | Pay Periods.

All employee payroll statements and vendor statements are generated on a pre-defined “pay period” basis.  A pay period is a date range that you set up in the system and assign a reference name.  For example, if you pay your employees and other vendors once a week, you would define the start and end dates for each of these weekly “pay periods.” You also assign a descriptive name, such as “January 03 – Week1.”  When you run the pay calculators or review your statements in Harvest Boss, you reference this descriptive name, and The Logger's Edge knows to include all the transactions that took place in that date range.

Setting Up Pay Activities

This item is used to enter the specific work activities by which you want to track your revenue and costs.  They can be as general or specific as required by your business reporting.  In addition, if you pay workers or vendors based on different activities, you will need to set up each distinct activity.

To setup pay activities, navigate to Setup | Pay Activities.

Several Activities are automatically listed by default, but you can add any activities that are specific to their operations.  Two important attributes of a given pay activity is the pay type and the production indicator.  The pay type determines the activity class to which an activity belongs.  There are certain reports that group time by production (REG PROD) verus maintenance (EQ_MAINT) versus non-work or down time.  The production indicator is also used to determine which activity(ies) are to be used in determing the overall production volume of a block.  For example, if you have a feller and a delimber working in a block, and you keep tree counts for both, there would be a duplication of volume if you added their estimated volumes together in determing the production volume on a block.  The production indicator indicates the activity that would be used to determine the volume of the block.  Thus, if you feller reported a tree count of 600 for a volume of 180 M3, and your delimber reported a volume of 500 for a volume of 150 M3 for the same block, the The Logger's Edge would use the delimber's count overall for the block if the Delimbing activity had its production indicator checked (as in the screen above).

You can also assign activities to Activity Groups.  An Activity Group is a group of activities that will be combined in several of The Logger's Edge reports.  For example, you might have the detailed activities of forwarding, skidding and yarding that you want to combine for reporting into a class called 'SKIDDING'.  You can accomplish this, by setting up a group (see below) called 'SKIDDING' and then assign each of the three activities to the SKIDDING activity group.  See the example above.  If an activity is left without a group (i.e. group = 'NONE'), it will be considered a group by itself.

Setting Up Activity Groups

As noted above, pay activities can be assigned to higher level Activity Groups.

This item is used to enter activity groups that can be used to aggregate cost data for specific work activities.  Activity groups can be as general or specific as required by your business reporting.  Activity groups are not used for pay, but are solely used in business reports.

As noted under Setup | Pay Activities,  a pay activity can be assigned to higher level Activity Groups.  An Activity Group is a group of similar activities whose cost data are rolled-up for reporting in several The Logger's Edge business reports.

To setup pay activities, navigate to Setup | Activity Groups.

 

Setting Up Vendors (Contractors)

Vendors (or subcontractors -- we use the term interchangeably) are companies that work for you or are any other company or person that receives payment from you for goods or services rendered.  A typical vendor list would include all the logging and hauling contractors whom you pay, private landowners to whom you might pay stumpage, any foresters who receive commission payments, and perhaps even lawyers who receive legal fees.  If you own equipment and pay for parts and repairs, you would also list all your mechanics, parts suppliers, and repair shops in this list.  In addition, owner-operators who are self-employed would also be included in this list.

In order to set up vendors, navigate to Setup | Vendors.

As with the previous examples, you could click Add to enter new vendors.

It is important to enter the Address of the vendor as this information appears on the header of vendor statements.

Setting Up Trucks

In The Logger's Edge, you set up trucks and their owners in order to pay for trucking separate from other phases or activities.  If you do not pay for trucking separately or do not care to track the specific trucks that deliver each load, you do not need to setup specific trucks.  If you pay trucking subcontractors or drivers as a separate phase you will need to setup contractor-owned and/or company-owned trucks. 

Setting Up Log Trucks

In order to view the log truck setup, navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Unit Numbers.

The entry for the Owner is used to identify which vendor (contractor) to pay for each load entered in the system.  Scroll to the right and notice the other optional columns that can be used to track additional detail about the truck, such as its serial or permit number.

If your own company owns log trucks, you would specify the code for  for the owner, indicating your company is the owner.  (You  can always change the code for your company from MYCO to whatever acronym you'd like.

Setting Up Truck Weights

On the Truck Weights tab, ‘Summer Max Weight’ and ‘Winter Max Weight’ are maximum weights used to calculate overloads.  If you want to track overloads in the system, you must enter the values for each truck. 

Note that in the grid, the entries for route and configuration are to 'NONE', thereby telling The Logger's Edge to ignore these factors in calculating maximum allowable weights.  If either factor was set to a specific value -- for example 'Off' for off-highway -- The Logger's Edge would match on that factor when calculating maximum allowable weights.

Further information on how to manage overloads is located here.

Setting Up Routes

The setup item 'Route' is used to distinguish pay for each load ticket if trucks are based on their route.  For example, you might setup ‘Off Highway’ and ‘On Highway’ routes to identify loads that were delivered over highway or off-highway roads.

View routes setup by navigating to Setup | Routes.

Setting Up Customers

To view the setup for a customer (the company -- mill owner -- from which you are receiving revenue), navigate to Setup | Customers.

Again, you could click on 'Add' to enter as many new customers as needed.

Setting Up Destinations

A destination is a mill (or other location, such as a wood yard) to which your company delivers wood.  Destinations are distinct from customers because a customer (like Canfor) may have several mills.  Destinations are very important in the system because they are required on each load slip and are used to determine which customer will pay you for the loads and which revenue and pay rates to apply to each load. 

To view the destination setup window, navigate to Setup | Destinations.

Click OK to close the grid.

Setting Up Species and Strata

The Timbermark, Species and Strata entries are user-defined data fields that are configured in the system.  During your initial system configuration, these fields can be renamed, reordered, and fields may be added or removed, depending on your needs.  For example, you might want to use terms such as Process, Area or Grade.

In general, different mills use different attributes and terms to describe the wood that they purchase.  In recognition of the wide diversity in industry practice,  The Logger's Edge allows you to tailor your terminology to fit your business.  Generally, these load attributes are configured by a Caribou support representative when you initially set up your system.  You should be aware that there are up to ten (10) data items that can be configured to rely on validation lists (like species, sort, grade, process, contractor, etc.).  There are also eight (8) data items that can be configured to allow for free form data entry on your load ticket.

Setting Up Species

In order to view setup of species,  navigate to Setup | Species.

In the screen above, there are two species, but, as with all of the set up examples, you can enter as many as are needed for your operations.

Setting up Strata

In order to view setup of your strata,  navigate to Setup | Stratum.

Often times, your conversion rates will be based on the population and/or strata of the load.  In this grid you can enter each strata and then set up your conversion rates when you set up a -- this will be the topic of the next section.  Click OK to close the Stratum grid.

Setting up a Block

In Caribou's Logger's Edge Software, the basic unit for financial analysis reporting is the geographic work area.  In the case of logging, this area is usually referred to a "block" or "tract" of land -- the software can be configured to use the terminology that you are familiar with.  We could just as easily refer to a compartment, subdivision, section, project or job site.

Blocks form the base unit of analysis, meaning we measure costs, revenues and profit on a block-by-block basis.  In the Logger's Edge you:

• Enter and track employee or subcontractor time by block;

• Calculate payroll cost by block;

• Enter production (loadslips) by block;

• Track employee and contractor production payments;

• Calculate standardized costs per unit of activity;

• Calculate revenue by block; and

• Calculate profit and profit/unit of output by block

When you set up a Block in the system, you tell the system a number of key facts about that Block.  Some of these key facts include:

• the unit of measure that you will use for entering weights on your load slips from this Block (e.g., kilograms, pounds, tons);

• any standard conversion factors that will need to be applied to the weights in order to convert these weights into another unit of measure.  It is common for payment to subcontractors and/or revenue from mills to be expressed in units of measure (e.g., m3, mbf, cords) that differ from the unit of measure entered on the load slip;

• the pay activities/phases that will be paid in connection with the load slips entered on the Block.  If you are a logging contractor, you might pay for bunching, loading, trucking, and skidding based on the weight or volume on the load slip.  If you are a log broker, the pay activities you pay on the weight/volume of the load might be logging and stumpage.

• the revenue contracts and pay contracts that contain the rates you'll pay for activity performed on this Block.

• the cruise volumes associated with this Block (optional).

As you can tell, the geographic work area forms the core of The Logger's Edge Software.

So how do I set up a block?

In The Logger's Edge Software there are two (2) alternative wizards for setting up blocks.

Type I.    The One-Stop Block Setup.  This wizard combines the setting up of blocks, contractor pay rates and customer revenue rates into one consolidated setup wizard.  The primary virtue of the one-stop wizard is that all pay and revenue rates are setup in one place.  In addition, pay and revenue rates are set up to cover one and only one blocks, thus making it easier to track down the rate that should apply to a specific load, activity or contractor.  On the downside, the one-stop wizard creates more pay and revenue contracts because a contract can only cover one block.  One further drawback is that the one-stop wizard can only be used if you do NOT track equipment and activities on a load-by-load basis.

Type II.    The Standard Block Setup.  This wizard is limited to the setting up of blocks; contractor pay rates and customer revenue rates are then set up in their own respective wizards.  The primary virtue of the standard wizard is that it allows you more flexibility in setting up pay and revenue rates.  Pay and revenue rates can be set up to cover multiple blocks, thus allowing you to apply one rate or set of rates to numerous blocks at once.  This wizard also has the benefit of reducing the number edits you have make if you have to update rates for a large number of blocks.  The standard wizard must be used if you track equipment and activities on a load-by-load basis.

The main steps are listed below.  You can click on any of the blue links for detailed instructions on how to perform each main step in the Logger's Edge Software.

1. From the Main Menu, select Setup | Blocks | Block. [Type I] [Type II]

2. This selection brings up a listing of active blocks. In order to add a block, click on the Add [Type I] [Type II] button at the bottom of the window.

3. The Add button starts the BlockSetup Wizard [Type I] [Type II] that takes you through all the steps necessary to add a block.

Setting up a Revenue Contract

In Caribou's Logger's Edge Software, "Revenue Contracts" are used to determine the terms that you will receive payment from your customers.  Most of the time, these customers will be sawmills or pulp mills.  A Revenue Contract specifies the effective date, the rates and rate breaks, the basis of payment, and any other factors that are used to determine the revenue due to your company from the performance of your work.

It is important to understand the distinction between a "Revenue Contract" and a "Pay Contract."  A Revenue contract defines the terms by which you will be paid (from the mill or other customer) for the work your company performs.  Conversely, a Pay contract defines the terms by which you pay your subcontractors or employees for work to be performed.  (Pay contracts are setup under Main Menu | Contracts | Payment Contracts | Setup.)  The easiest way to remember this distinction, is that a 'Revenue' contract is the source revenue; a 'Pay' contract gives rise to you making payments to vendors (or employees).

A revenue contract is quite flexible in terms.  These terms include:

• The start date and end date;
• The Blocks to which the contract will apply;
• The activities (trucking, felling, loading, etc.) for which you will receive revenue;
• The rates and their effective dates that apply;
• The basis of payment (hours, loads, weight or volume, etc.); and
• Any specific rate breaks for destinations, species, sorts, grades, routes, etc.

As you can tell, revenue contracts are at the very heart of The Logger's Edge revenue system.  A Block Profit & Loss statement begins with how much you earned (revenue) from the Block.  Revenue contracts determine those dollars.  Pay contract perform the opposite task:  they determine to cost side of the P&L equation.

When entering time slips (or production slips), you not only specify the Block associated with the time entry; you also specify the revenue contract.  This distinction allows you to track costs against specific revenue streams.  For example, if you perform road-building as well as harvesting in a particular Block for a mill,  you can distinguish between the time (and thus the costs) associated with your harvesting revenue stream, separately from the road-building revenue stream. 

The system includes some standard reports that are organized around revenue contracts (rather than Blocks).  These reports are found under the "Contract" menu item in the Logger's Edge Reporter.  They are useful if you harvest many Blocks for a single mill and want to look at your profitability for all work done for that mill.  Likewise, they are useful for reporting on the profitability of specific work orders that you have set up as separate revenue contracts.

You will notice that load slips are not explicitly assigned to a specific harvesting revenue contract when  you enter the slip.  Rather, the loads are matched up to the correct revenue contract based on the Block and destination entered on the load slip during the invoice calculation process.  (When you set up a revenue contract, you are prompted to associated the contract with one or more Blocks and one or more destinations.)

So how do you set up a revenue contract?

I've listed the steps below -- You can click on a link to see the steps in the Logger's Edge Software.

1. From the Main Menu, select Setup |  Contracts | Revenue Contracts | Contract Setup
2. This selection brings up a listing of active revenue contracts. In order to add a pay contract, click on the Add button at the bottom of the window.
3. The Add button starts the Revenue Contract Setup Wizard that takes you through all the steps necessary to add a pay contract.

Setting up a Pay Contract

In Caribou's Logger's Edge Software, subcontractors are paid based the terms specified in their "Pay Contract".  A subcontractor's pay contract determines the rate of pay and the basis upon which a contractor will be paid.  Employees who are paid according to the load (count, weight, volume, percent of load revenue), are also paid according to a pay contract.  (Note that employees paid on an hourly basis, daily basis, etc. do not require payment contracts; their rates are set up under the menu item Setup | Workers | Employee Pay Rates menu item.)

It is important to understand the distinction between a "Pay Contract" and a "Revenue Contract."  A Pay contract defines the terms that you pay for work to be performed.  A Revenue contract defines the terms that you will be paid (from the mill or other customer) for the work your company performs.  (Revenue contracts are setup under Main Menu | Contracts | Revenue Contracts | Setup.

A pay contract is quite flexible in its terms of payment.  The terms include:

• The start date and end date;
• The Blocks to which the contract will apply;
• The activities (trucking, felling, loading, etc.) that are covered;
• The rates and their effective dates that apply;
• The basis of payment, hours, loads, weight or volume, etc.; and
• Any specific rate breaks for destinations, species, sorts, grades, routes, etc.

As you can tell, pay contracts are at the very heart of The Logger's Edge payment system for contractors.

The main steps to set up a payment contract are listed below.  You can click on any of the blue links for detailed instructions on how to perform each main step in the Logger's Edge Software.

1. From the Main Menu, select Setup | Pay Contracts | Pay Contract
2. This selection brings up a listing of active pay contracts. In order to add a pay contract, click on the Add button at the bottom of the window.
3. The Add button starts the Pay ContractSetup Wizard that takes you through all the steps necessary to add a pay contract.

Creating Load Slips

Now that we have our basic setup data complete and our two blocks are set up, we are ready to look at load slips.

To add, view or edit load slips, navigate to Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Data (or use the icon shown below) and you will get the following filter window:

Select the Pay Period Mar 2 05.  This selection will auto-fill the Start and End date and return all the existing loads between those two dates. 

Highlight the entire row for ticket T100001 in the grid (by clicking on the row number in the far left column).  Then double-click on the row to bring up the ticket in Edit mode. 

This window is where you indicate the specific attributes of your load slip.  Notice that this load is a weigh scale ticket, but if you had hand-scaled volume data (in M3 or cords, for example), you would enter it in the "Scale Volume" field.  As a weigh-scale ticket, the volume will be calculated based on your conversions if you have set them up on the block.

The Save/Add button helps speed up data entry because it will clear out the ticket number and weights, but will leave the information on the left side of the screen with the same entries that you had on the prior ticket, for ease of data entry. 

Many users keep detailed records of the equipment and/or operators on a ticket-by-ticket basis.  These records can be used to pay workers or they can be used to develop production statistics.  If you click on the Load Activities tab, you can see where these entries are recorded.

Click Cancel to close the Load Ticket Window without saving any of your edits.  When you have entered load slips into the system, the Load Slip window would display them as a grid, as you saw before you selected the above load slip.

Click OK to close the Load Slip grid.

Processing Revenue

The Logger's Edge processes revenue in order to calculate the amounts you should expect to receive from each mill based on the loads delivered and the rates you have entered for each block.  Recall from above that we will pay the trucking phase as a percentage of the revenue we earn on trucking loads from the block.  Thus, we must calculate revenue before we process pay so that we have the basis upon which to pay our trucking contractors.

Running the Invoice Calculator

To process invoices, select Calculators | Invoices - Full.

You will be prompted for the pay period.  Select 'JUL 1 05'.

The Logger's Edge will now process our invoices.  This process will match up loads with revenue contracts and apply the rates that the mills pay you.  Since most mills self invoice their logging contractors, you will most likely not send out the physical invoices that Logger’s Edge creates, but you can use the reports to cross-check against the settlements that the mill provides to you. 

You will receive the following message if the invoice processing is successful.

If there are errors, you will be notified with an Errors screen.  You will only receive errors if you have inadvertently added or edited information along the way.  (If you do receive errors, simply click OK and continue through the guided tour, ignoring the errors.)

The invoices generated by the calculator can be viewed by navigating to Reports | Invoices (you will have to select your Pay period).  In the grid, you will see the first customer's tickets and the amounts owed to your company for the loads you have delivered.  Use the "Select Vendor" list to move from the statement for one customer to the next.  You can see in the grid that The Logger's Edge creates a revenue record for each load and phase in the pay paeriod.

Generally,  mills do not pay you based on an invoice you submit to them, but instead 'self-invoice' -- they generate an invoice and then send you payment for what they owe you.  In this case, you can think of the above invoice as a 'Pro Forma' invoice in that it represents the amounts due you based on the loads you have delivered and the rates you have set up.  These Pro Forma calculations allow you to track your tentative (or accrued) revenue in The Logger's Edge before you receive any statement from the mill.

Click OK to close this window.

Verifying Mill Settlements

When you do actually receive settlements from the mill, you will likely want to verify the amounts you expect to receive from the mill for each ticket with the amount they actually pay you.  This reconciliation process allows you to ensure that you receive payment on all loads you've entered in The Logger's Edge and that the payment you receive is consistent with the amount you expect to receive.

Verifying Mill Settlements is a three-step process in The Logger's Edge.  The first step involves running the invoices calculator (above) in order to compute your Pro Forma revenue. (We have already completed this step.)  The second step involves entering the actual revenue (as reported to you on your mill settlements) for each load you receive from the mills to which you deliver.  The third step involves running the Mill Settlements reconciliation Report, which compares the amounts calculated by The Logger's Edge  using the Invoices Calculator above, with those amounts you enter from your settlements.

Processing Vendor Pay

Now that we have our blocks and load slips entered, it's time to see how pay works.

Run Vendor Pay

Select Calculators | Vendors - Full to process pay for your vendors (sub contractors).  You are prompted to select the pay period:

Select the ‘JUL 1 05’ pay period and click OK,  The Logger's Edge will process your vendor pay.  Assuming you have not inadvertently entered any new information or edited any entries along the way, you should receive the following message:

Click OK.  If there are pay errors, you will be notified with a Pay Errors screen.  You will only get errors if you have edited or added information along the way.  (If you do receive error messages, just click OK, and ignore the messages.  You can proceed through the rest of the guide without addressing the errors.)

Review Vendor Statements under Reports | Vendor Statements.  The vendor statement is designed to accompany your check for pay to your subcontractors.

Again, choose the Pay Period, and click OK.  You will see a blank grid.  Under 'Select Vendor', choose J L Logging to see the screen below. 

The vendor statement grid above shows the detailed payments to J L Logging.  In order to scroll through each vendor's statement, click on the dropdown list box in the top left.

You can also use The Logger's Edge to generate formatted vendor statements.  Click on the 'View Statements' button.

Select J L Logging and click 'OK.'  (If you want to review multiple statements at once, highlight them and click OK.  Alternatively, you can click "Select All" and then click "OK" to generate all statements at once for all vendors.)

The Logger's Edge will create a formatted statement for each of the selected vendors.  The first page is a summary page for the statement.  Use the page arrows at the top of the window to view the detail pages for the current statement.

Take a minute to review the Vendor Statements.  You may configure the statements to include the columns and grouping that you would like by using the File | Configure Statements and Invoices utility.   (Please do not make changes to the configuration until you have completed the tutorial.) 

Click OK to close the statement, and OK to close the grid.

Business Reports - Loads

To view all reports (and statements) in Logger’s Edge, navigate to Reports | Business Reports.  The Logger’s Edge Reporter, a separate application, will open.  There are a variety of standard business reports available in the Reporter.

Go to:

 

or Click on:

To open the Logger’s Edge Reporter application.

 

You can add reports that you use most frequently to the "Favorites" folder on the left side of the window.  Simply click on a report name that you find under any of the other folders, and drag the report upward (as you continue to hold your mouse button down) out of the original folder.  Drop it into the Favorites folder.

There are several useful features available when you run any of the grid reports from the Reporter:

• You can print the report using the print button

• You can export the report to Excel using the Excel button

• You can export the data to a “tab-delimited” text file with the tab button

• You can cut-and-paste a set of data from the window to another MS Windows application, such as Excel or Word.

You should review the following reports to see how the load slips, payments, and revenue we have entered into Logger’s Edge so far appears on reports. 

 The reports can be grouped into two general types of reports: 

• Analytical reports, which are useful for showing key business information, such as profitability on  a block, revenues earned by destination, etc.  

• Audit reports, which are helpful for ensuring all loads are entered into the system properly and payment has been calculated properly.

Analytical Reports

• Blocks | Economics | Summary P&L

• Blocks | Economics | Revenue by Destination, Summary

• Blocks | Economics | Revenue by Destination, Detailed

• Blocks | Economics | Activity Costs, Summary, By Actual Volume

• Blocks | Production | Deliveries, By Destination

• Blocks | Production | Cruise Summary

Audit Reports

• Load Slips | Loads Paid, All Loads

• Load Slips | Loads Paid, Only Unpaid *

• Load Slips | Loads, Multi-Pay  *

• Trucks | Deliveries

• Trucks | Truck Cost

• Load Slips | Daily, By Block by Ticket

(*) Running the auditing reports that are asterisked above should be a part of your routine process to ensure no load are left unpaid, and no loads have been paid twice for the same activity. 

All reports can also be run for Date Ranges, not just pay periods.  All grid reports use the Date Hauled (Date Out) on load slips and do not take into consideration the date for pay.  (The Employee and Contractor Statements under the Statements menu item do, however, rely on date for pay.  The date for pay allows you to pay for load tickets that are handed in after you've already issued pay for the pay period in which the ticket was actually delivered.)

We describe a subset of the reports listed above in the text that follows.

Block P&L Report

Once you have processed employee pay (which has not yet been covered in the tour to this point), vendor pay, and invoices, you can assess the profitability of your block operations.

Open the Logger’s Edge Reporter (Reports | Business Reports) and then select Blocks | Economics | Summary P&L.

Run the report for the JUL 01 05 pay period and select the EJ575-3212 block.  (Your version of the report will include hourly costs which will cover the hourly costs later in this Guided Tour.)

The total cost is the sum of  employee pay, equipment costs and contractor payments.  The block profit is revenue less total costs.  In the case of a partially completed block (as in this example), costs will usually run ahead of revenue until deliveries catch up with production.

The bottom set of rows on the report (shown above) summarizes the block status.

The actual production (delivered volume) is based on load slips, and the estimated production is based on tree counts multiplied by the volume/tree factor.  (The tree counts can be entered when you record time slips in the system, if you track them.  If you do not track them, the statistics (other than actual volume) at the bottom of this report will not be meaningful.)

In a block under harvest, the actual (delivered) volume should exceed the estimated volume due to the inventory of logs harvested, but not yet delivered.  These logs may be on a landing or remote deck.

The last two rows compare the actual vol/tree based on the actual volume delivered and actual tree counts, with the estimated vol/tree.  When a block is finished the two ratios should be fairly close, assuming your estimated vol/tree ratios were reasonably accurate.  If they differ, you can replace the estimated value with the actual value on the block and recalculate your production values based on your tree counts so that they are based on the true actual result.

Click on the smaller, grey in the top right corner of the window to close this specific report, but leave the Reporter tool open.

Revenue By Destination (Summary) Report

In Logger’s Edge Reporter, select Blocks | Economic | Revenue by Destination, Summary.

Run the report for the JUL 01 05 pay period and select all destinations.

This report summarizes the load counts, volumes, and revenues received on a destination basis.  If you break your revenue rates down by phase, the report also shows detailed earnings by phase.

Again, close the report using the smaller 'x' in the top right part of the window.

Deliveries By Destination Report

In Logger’s Edge Reporter select Blocks | Production | Deliveries by Destination.

Run the report for the JUL 01 05 pay period and select all destinations and all blocks.

The report shows a detailed listing of all your loads from each block, ordered by the destination to which they were delivered.  The report can be used to cross check your vendor statements from each mill against your record of the loads you have delivered.

Close this report.

Loads Paid (All Loads) Report

In the Logger’s Edge Reporter, select Load Slips | Loads Paid, All Loads.

Run the report for the JUL 01 05 pay period and select all blocks.

This report provides a detailed listing of each load and each vendor paid (and amounts paid) in connection with each load.  It is useful as a final check before issuing your settlements to your vendors to ensure that each load is paid for all the phases you expect to pay.  If a phase (activity) has not been paid, but a rate has been set up for that phase on the block, the phase will be flagged in red as "Not Paid."

Close this report.

Truck Cycle Report

In the Logger’s Edge Reporter, select Trucks | Cycle Time, By Block.

Run the report for the JUL 2 05 pay period and select all blocks.

 

This report will calculate the cycle times for your trucks between a block and each destination.

The cycle time is the time difference between deliveries and includes both the travel time and the yard time.  In order to effectively use this report, you must keep track of your arrival and exit time on a load-by-load basis.

Close this report.

Fuel Rebate Report

Before moving on, Let's take a look at the fuel rebate report.  This report may be of interest to users that want to track their on and off-highway mileage for their trucks so that they can apply for a fuel tax rebate based on their off-highway travel.  Select Trucks | BC Fuel Rebate.

Run the report for the JUL 02 05 pay period and select all blocks.

The report shows the load count, the count of loads by self-loading truck, and the round trip distances to and from each block-destination combination.

This finishes the section on loads, we will now switch over and turn our focus to time tracking in The Logger's Edge.

Close this report and close the Reporter tool .

Tracking Time - Basic Setup

Let's now switch gears and explore how The Logger's Edge handles employee time.  The following sections of the tour are focused on showing you how to handle hourly employees and equipment, as well as creating hourly payroll statements for employees.  In addition, you will cover tracking of maintenance costs for company-owned equipment.

The first steps that you need to perform in The Logger's Edge are to set up your employees and equipment.  In this section we will cover:

• Setting up Employees

• Setting up Equipment Types

• Setting up Equipment Units

• Setting up Default Equipment/Worker Assignments

• Setting up Expense Accounts

Before looking at these items, let's first take a look at the time slip so that you can get a better understanding of the types of information you will need to set up.

Navigate to Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips.

Click on Add to see the following time slip form.

 

The time slip includes several fields: Employee, Equipment, Truck, Block, and Activity which are entered through drop-down lists.  The purpose of preset lists is to ensure that only valid entries can be selected for these fields.  In your prior exercises with load slips, you have already seen many of these items (Trucks, Blocks, Activities), but we have not yet set up employees or equipment.  

You will notice in the above screenshot that there are yellow and white text fields -- the yellow fields are required entries; the white fields are optional entries.   There are times you may not have valid data for a required entry.  In this case a selection of 'NONE' serves as a valid entry.

In the next few sections you will see the set up required for entering time slips.

Setting up Employees

Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Setup.

As you can see, we have set up four employees: Larry Loader, Sam Skidder, Joe Evans and Joe McKanic

In The Logger's Edge, employees are assigned a 'Code' and a 'Full Name'.  The Code for an item is its short form, such as the employee's initials or employee number.  The Full Name is the employee's full name.  The Logger's Edge uses the 'Code' in most pick lists, so you should use codes that make employees readily identifiable.  For the employer, you should select 'MVL' -- meaning a worker is employed by your own company (MVL is the code assigned to your company for this demonstration).  This grid is also used to enter contract workers, who are identified by an employer other that MVL - Bob Feller, Doug DeLimber, and Mack Schultz in this instance. 

If you have a self-employed truck driver that works for you and drives one of your company-owned trucks, but is not actually an employee, you would set the person up as a vendor first.  Then you would set him up as a worker, and select the vendor entry you just made for this worker as this worker's Employer.

Again, note there are yellow (required) and white (optional) entries in the grid.  You should enter each employee's address (though it is not required), because it appears on his or her employee pay statement.

What is Active?

Many records in The Logger’s Edge have an 'Active?' checkbox.  The 'Active?' checkbox is used to manage setup data that is currently in use, versus setup data that has been used in the past or will be used in the future, but is not currently needed.  For example, if employee Jack Straw is no longer a current employee, you can uncheck the 'Active?' checkbox so that the employee will no longer appear in drop down lists.  All of Jack's prior information is, however, still retained in the database.  Of course, Jack can be reactivated again in the future with no loss of historic data.

When you see a “Show Active Only” check box, you can uncheck the box to see all items (in this case employees), whether they are active or not.

Employee Pay Rates

In the worker window, you will note there are three tabs: (1) Workers (the current tab); (2) Worker (Employee) Base Rates; and (3) Equipment Assignments.

Click on the Worker (Employee) Base Rates tab.

You can see we have entered rates for our three employees.  In this demonstration, our other employee -- Joe Evans is assumed to be a truck driver who gets paid by the load rather than on an hourly basis and, therefore, does not need to have hourly rates set up.

The column 'Rate' is for the employee's hourly rate.  The 'Rate Type' must be set to 'HR' in order to pay hourly employees.

The 'Loaded Rate' column is for you to specify your full cost of the employee, inclusive of payroll taxes and other employer-paid benefits. The system will automatically make a default entry based on your base rate, multiplied by a percentage uplift specified in the software (15 percent).  The system's default uplift percentage can be changed for you by a Caribou representative.  In addition, you can over-ride the calculated loaded rate in this grid with a specific loaded hourly rate for each employee.  Many reports in the system can be run using employee base rates, or employee loaded rates, depending on your selection at the time you run the report. 

Setting Up Equipment Types

Now let's look at setting up equipment.

Navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Types.  In The Logger's Edge, each specific equipment unit is assigned an equipment type, such as loader, delimber, forwarder, feller buncher, etc.  Thus, before you could actually set up a specific piece of equipment, you would need to fill out the selection list of equipment types.

We have entered several equipment types you will use next when you set up equipment units.

You can click OK to close the grid. 

Setting Up Equipment Units

To look at setting up equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Unit Numbers.

You will note at the top of the grid there are two tabs -- Equipment and Equipment Activities.  You are currently on the Equipment tab.  Click on the Equipment Activities tab and you will move to a grid where you can assign default activities to pieces of equipment. 

Recall that when we looked at the time slip above, there were entries for the piece of equipment and activity.  The default activities that are set up here will be used to auto-fill the activity on the time slip when you click on the piece of equipment, thereby reducing your data entry burden.  (The default entries on the time slips can, of course, be over-ridden as you enter time slips if, for example, a loader does "piling" on a time slip instead of "loading.")

You can click OK to close the Equipment Setup Window.

Setting Up Equipment Cost

When you own your own equipment units, you can set up an internal hourly charge (an internal cost) for the use of your equipment.  This internal charge allows you to account for the capital costs (operating expenses, depreciation, interest, etc) associated with using the piece of equipment to harvest a certain block/job site.  In order to see the setup for equipment cost for each of our equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing.

The grid shows two rates:

1. Std Cost / Hour.  This cost is the cost of operating your machine, NOT including the cost of the operator.  In reports that rely on this cost measure, the actual cost of the operator is added to the Std Cost to calculate the full cost of operation.
2. Full Rate/Hour:  This is the cost of operating your machine, including the cost of the operator.

There are two ways to enter your costs:  (1) direct entry and; (2) the cost build-up method.

Direct Entry of Equipment Cost

Select Add from the window.

This form allows you to directly enter your equipment costs.  If you have another system to calculate your costs or you use a reference guide or "Blue-Book" to estimate your rates, you can just enter them here.

Cost Build-up Method

The cost build-up method provides a standard worksheet that allows you to build up to your equipment costs based on the individual cost components, such as depreciation, fuel, maintenance costs, etc.

First select a machine and then click on Calc Cost to bring up the equipment cost worksheet:

This form allows you to build up the cost of your equipment based on your own experience.

The yellow cells in the worksheet are data entry cells when you provide the necessary data.  The white cells contain calculated values.  (The white cells are also locked and are not editable)

The worksheet is split into 5 panels:

A.    Assumptions

1. Annual Operating Hours:  Expected hours for the equipment unit for year
2. Interest Rate on Borrowed Capital:  Interest Rate on Debt
3. Expected Life (Hours):  Expected life (in hours) for the equipment unit.  (Used to determine the expected life of the equipment in years for use in calculating depreciation.)
4. Salvage Value:  Estimated salvage value for the unit.  You enter the percent; the worksheet applies the percentage to the Purchase Price to determine the salvage dollar amount.
5. Average Investment:  The average investment is the acquisition cost plus the salvage amount divided by two [ (R14 + R4) / 2].  This is you average capital you have tied up in the equipment unit over its useful life.  In the example above the equipment unit costs $250,000 and has a salvage value of $62,500 (25%), which yields an average investment of $156,250.
6. Purchase Price:  The purchase price of the equipment.  You can also add additional miscellaneous costs to build up to a total acquisition cost.
7. Fuel Consumption (Volume / Hour):  Rate of fuel consumed per hour of operation
8. Fuel Price Per Unit of Volume:  The price per unit of fuel consumed.  (Note: if fuel consumption is in litres, you would enter the liter price; if fuel consumption is in gallons, you would enter the gallon price.)
9. Machine Years:  Machine life equals the lifetime hours divided by annual hours.
10. Operating Wage:  Assumed base wage rate for your operator plus your payroll load (your additional company payroll costs) cost.  In the example above, the base wage is set to $25.00/Hour and the payroll load is set at 35% to yield an effective payroll cost of $33.75/Hr.
11. Insurance (Percent of average investment):  This is the cost of insurance for the equipment unit, expressed as a percentage of you average annual investment.

B.    Ownership Cost

1. Depreciation:  The depreciation amount per hour equals the depreciation basis (purchase price - salvage value) divided by the lifetime hours.  This calculation assumes a straight-line depreciation method.  [ R25 = (R14 - R4) / R8 ]
2. Interest on Investment:  This is the annual interest amount divided by annual operating hours.  [R26 = R10 x R7 / R6 ]
3. Insurance:  This is the insurance percentage multiplied by the average investment divided by annual operating hours: [R27 = R10 x R21 / R6 ]

    The total hourly ownership cost equals the sum of depreciation, interest and insurance.  [R29 = R25 + R26 + R27]

C.    Operating Cost

1. Operating Wages:  You build up your total hours as the number of days multiplied by the average hourly work day.  This total should match the total annual estimated hours in row 6.  The total hours is then split between straight time and overtime hours.  The overtime factor is assumed to be time and one-half.  This in the example above, the wage rate is $25.00 for straight-time and $37.50 for overtime.  The hourly rates are multiplied by the hours to calculate the annual direct payroll cost.  The loading factor is applied to the direct payroll cost to calculate the total loaded payroll cost for the year.  This total is then divided by the annual hours to calculate the operator cost per hour.  In the above example, the direct payroll cost is $62,500.  The payroll load is $21,875 (35% of $62,500), yielding a total payroll cost of $84,375.00.  The hourly cost for the operator is $35.15/Hr ($84,375.00 / 2400).  This value is subtracted from the full founded to cost to compute the "Dry" or standard cost for the equipment without operator.
2. Fuel Costs per Hour:  This is the product of fuel consumption per hour and fuel price per unit of consumption [R49 = R15 x R16]
3. Oil and Lube, Including Filters per Hour:  You input a percentage of your fuel costs to estimate this value.  In the example, the value of 20% is entered, which when multiplied by the fuel cost per hour, yields a value of $1.80/Hr.  You can adjust this percentage to match you actual experience.
4. Repairs & Maintenance:  There are three rows provided that allow you to enter your estimated annual repairs and maintenance for the equipment unit.  The total for Repairs & Maintenance (R62 = R58 + R59 + R60) in row 62 is then divided by annual hours to calculate the average hourly repairs and maintenance cost. [R64 = R64 / R6]
5. Operating Supplies:  An annual entry for miscellaneous costs for operating the unit.  The annual amount is divided by the annual operating hours to determine the hourly cost in row 68.

    The total operating costs per hour are the sum of operating wages, fuel, oil & lube, repairs and maintenance, and operating supplies.  [R70 = R47 + R49 + R54 + R64 + R68]

D.    Profit & Risk

    The worksheet also includes an allowance for profit and risk.  The allowance equals a user-input percentage applied to the hourly ownership costs in row 29.  In the example above a 5 percent entry is applied to an ownership cost of $24.93 for a profit/risk allowance of $1.25/hr.

E.    Summary.

    The total hourly operating costs are summarized in the last section of the spreadsheet.  The total hourly costs (Full Founded Rate) are the sum of the ownership costs (row 29), the operating costs (row 70), and profit & risk (row 75). [R83 = R29 + R70 + R75].  In the above example, the total is $91.72/Hr.  This is the Full Rate / Hr and is used for those business reports that rely on the 'Full Founded Rate' to measure equipment costs.

    The Standard Cost/Hr is also calculated by the worksheet.  This cost is the cost of operating your machine, NOT including the cost of the operator.  Mathematically, it is calculated as the total in row 83 less the operator's cost in row 47.  In the example, the cost is $91.72 less $35.16, or 56.56.  In reports that rely on this cost measure, the actual cost of your operator is added to the Std Cost to calculate the full cost of operating the equipment unit.

Setting Up Employee Equipment Assignments

In The Logger's Edge, employees can be assigned to individual equipment units.  Recall that when we looked at the time slip above, there were entries for the piece of equipment.  You can set up an employee to have a default piece of equipment so that when you click on the employee, The Logger's Edge will auto-fill the equipment unit on the time slip.  This feature can save you significant data entry time when an employee operates the same equipment unit over a number of consecutive days.

Navigate to Setup | Workers |  Worker Assignments | Equipment.

In the grid, you can see that we selected Larry Loader as our 'Worker' and 'LD105' as the equipment code.  These entries tell The Logger's Edge  that Larry Loader  is assigned to the equipment LD105 as of 1/1/2005 so that when you are entering time slips for him for dates on or after February 1st, his equipment is automatically filled in with the LD105 equipment unit.

We do not need to set up an equipment assignment for our other employee mechanic -- Joe McKanic.  In this tour, we are assuming that Joe is a mechanic and could work on any number of equipment units in a given day.  Thus, it makes no sense to set up a default equipment unit when you would most likely have to change it when you filled out his time slip.

You can click OK to close the grid.

Setting Up Expense Accounts

In order to enter expenses (non-payroll), such as maintenance or fuel charges for equipment, you first need to set up account codes for each class of expense.

To view the setup window for expense accounts, navigate to Setup | Accounting | Account Codes.

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We have entered three account codes, but you can, of course, enter as many as you would need.

Once you've had a look at the account codes, you are finished with your basic setup items.  You can now look at entering time slips.

You can click OK to close the grid.

 

Entering Time Slips

You're now ready to look at entering time slips for employees.

Navigate to Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips.

You click Add to look at a time detail slip.

If you were entering an actual time slip, you would enter the Slip Number (an optional entry), and then select an employee from the drop down list.  If there is a piece of equipment assigned to that employee, it should auto-fill his equipment assignment and the Activity.

If your employee performed more than one task on a given day (for instance he had 1/2 hour of down time), you could click 'Save/Add'.  This command would save your first entry and leave the form open with all items carried over except the Hours.  You would then just enter 0.5 for hours and change the Activity to 'DOWN'.

You could enter as many jobs as needed on any given day.

You click on Cancel to close the Time Detail Window without saving your changes.

If you select the pay period of your time slips, the grid will refresh with the time details for the date range of the pay period.

You can double-click on any row to bring it up in "edit mode." Simply put your cursor onto the row number you want to edit in the far left of the grid, and then double-click on the row.  You can also edit directly in the grid.  For this Guided Tour, however, you should not make changes to the existing rows.

Note the tabs at the top of the grid 'Time Detail' and 'Time Summary'.  You are already on the 'Time Detail' tab.  Click on the 'Time Summary' tab.  This tab will provide a daily summary of each employee's time.

You can click OK to close the grid.

Once you have looked at these entries, you are ready to move on to processing payroll. Note that many of our users use The Logger's Edge  for payroll purposes to calculate the gross amounts due to each employee and to generate statements to accompany the employee's check.  Other users do not use The Logger's Edge  for actual payroll purposes, but do enter the worker time slips into the system for job cost reporting and equipment maintenance tracking.  If you choose not to use the Logger's Edge for payroll, you can always enter time for your workers by aggregating all work done on a certain piece of equipment by a certain employee in a certain block for the entire week, or even the entire month.  If you opt to enter time this way, a Caribou representative can disable the automatic overtime calculations in the system for you.

 

Processing Payroll

Now that we have our time slips entered, it's time to see how payroll works.

Select Calculators | Employees - Full to process pay for our employees.  You are prompted to select the pay period:

Select the ‘JUL 1 05’ pay period and click OK,  The Logger's Edge will process our employee pay.  You should receive the following message:

Click OK.  If there are pay errors, you will be notified with a Pay Errors screen.  You will only receive errors if you have inadvertently added entries or edited existing entries.  (If you encounter errors, simply click "OK" and continue through the Guided Tour, ignoring the errors.)

Review Vendor Statements under Reports | Hourly | Employees.  The hourly employee statement is designed to accompany your check for pay to each employee.  Select the pay period, and all employees, and click OK.

The employee statement grid above shows the detailed payments to Larry Loader.  In order to scroll through each employee's statement, click on the dropdown list box in the top left.

The columns that appear in the grid are determined by the checkboxes at the bottom of the form.  For example, if you wanted the block or activity to appear on the employee's statement, you could check each of those checkboxes and then click the Refresh (!) button.

From this window, you can print your statements one at a time or print them all at once.

Click OK to close this window.

Equipment Expenses

The Logger's Edge allows you to track your equipment actual operating costs.  In the prior section, you saw how time charges for repairs and maintenance could be charged against an individual piece of equipment.  In this section you will see how expenses (out-of-pocket) can be charged against your company-owned equipment units.

These out-of-pocket expenses, in conjunction with your company payroll for maintenance and repair time spent by your employees, should be used to develop your 'Standard Operating Cost' for each equipment unit.  You can use this actual cost information used to cost out your machinery against a block or job.  As you build a history of equipment costing information in your system, you can use this information to update the equipment standard hourly costs you set up in the system earlier.

This section of the tour shows how you can use The Logger's Edge  to track equipment repair, maintenance, and other operating expenses such as fuel charges.

Enter Additional Vendors

Let's first look at the set up for a couple of additional vendors that provide repair services, spare parts, and fuel to us.

To view these vendors, navigate to Setup | Vendors.

As you can see, we have entered six vendors.

It is important to enter the Address of the vendor if you intend to generate vendor statements for these vendors through The Logger's Edge.

Click OK to close the Vendor grid.

Enter Expenses

Once you've got your vendors set up, you can enter equipment expenses.  Navigate to Data Entry | Expenses | Contractor Miscellaneous to see how this entry is done.

Select the pay period from the drop-list.