Pay: Contractors, by Load Attributes -- Multiple Contractors (full rate)

The circumstance posed when you have multiple contractors performing the same activity in the same block presents a certain amount of additional complexity in The Logger's Edge.  For example, you might have two subcontractors working as loaders in a given block.  In order to distinguish which contractor should be paid for which loads, you must track the contractor on a load-by-load basis.  The Logger's Edge provides the capability to track contractors on a load slip basis and pay them according to distinct sets of pay rules (if required). 

Note:  If you only have single contractors performing an activity in a block, check Load Slips - Other Than Equipment - Single Contractor per Activity on a Block for a simplified way to handle this scenario.

In your block setup (see below),  you must select 'Track Activities, Employees, Equipment on Load Slips' in order to pay multiple contractors on a block for a given activity.

There are three basic 'Pay' columns in the grid: 'Pay Contractor Equipment,'  'Pay Contractor Operator,'  and 'Pay Own Operator.'

In the simple case, where your contractors always use their own operators to run their equipment, you will only need to check  'Pay Contractor Equipment' and then set your pay rate to embody both the use of the equipment and the operator.  This case is shown for Delimbing in the screen above. 

You only need to invoke the use of the 'Pay Contractor Operator' or 'Pay Own Operator' columns in the window above in the event that your subcontractor(s) own their own equipment, but use some other contractor's (or your own employee) operators.  In this case you will have to split the payment rate between the contractor owner (for use of the equipment) and the operator (for operator services).  This case is shown for Loading in the screen above.  If the equipment owner and operator are with the same contractor, you can use a combined rate and just specify that you want to pay the equipment owner.

This document covers the case where you are paying a contractor a single rate for the use of the equipment/operator combined (as shown for delimbing in the above window).

See Pay: Contractors, by Load Attributes -- Multiple Contractors (split rate) for the case where you need to split the rate between the equipment owner and operator (the loading example above).

Equipment Owner Pay Rules:

The key to pay a given activity is the 'Equipment No' for that activity on the Load Slip.  The 'Equipment No' identifies the specific equipment that performed that specific activity.  In order to pay a contractor for a specific activity you must enter the equipment unit for that activity on the load slip -- an entry of 'NONE' will not work.  There are three basic cases that are handled by The Logger's Edge.

  1. The Pay Contract Specifies a Specific Contractor.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is owned by the same contractor as on the pay contract, the load will be paid by that contract.  Otherwise, if the Equipment on the Load Slip is (1) owned by a different contractor, or (2) is owned by your company, or (3) entered as 'NONE', it will not be paid.
  2. The Pay Contract Specifies the 'OWNER' wild card.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is owned by a contractor, that contractor, whoever it is, will be paid.  For example, if you have 20 loads with six different equipment owners, each of the six will be paid (the same rate) for their own loads under the same 'OWNER' contract.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is (1) owned by your company, or (2) entered as 'NONE', it will not be paid.
  3. There are two otherwise identical Pay Contracts: one that Pay Contract Specifies a Specific Contractor, and a second that Specifies the 'OWNER' wild card.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is owned by the same contractor as on the specific pay contract, the specific contractor will be paid.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is owned by a different contractor, that contractor, whoever it is, will be paid under the 'OWNER' contract. The specific contractor will not be paid under the 'OWNER' contract if he is paid under the Specific Contract.  If the Equipment on the Load Slip is (1) owned by your company, or (2) entered as 'NONE', it will not be paid.

Contractors can be paid according to the weight or volume of the loads that your company delivers to a mill.  For example, you might pay a harvesting contractor $25.00/Tonne or $80.00/MBF on the loads that you handle.  You can also pay a contractor a percentage of the revenue you receive from a mill.  For example, if you are paid by the mill $50 for harvesting, you could set up a contract to pay a contractor 75 percent of that amount.  This type of contract may be useful when you have a large number of rate breaks on your revenue contract and merely want to pay your contractors a percentage of what you get paid.  If you had to set up contractor pay rates for each revenue rate break, there could be a substantial time wasted in maintaining both the pay rate schedule and the revenue rate schedule.  The alternative of setting up just one rate (say 75 percent) can be much easier to maintain as it automatically takes into account any revenue rate breaks or changes over time.

Once you have setup your block, you need to setup your pay contract for each contractor, specifying their payment terms.  As noted above there are two basic ways to pay contractors on a load-by-load basis: (1) pay by load attributes (weight, volume, etc), or (2) pay as a percentage of load revenue.

These two cases are explained below.

Case I.  You pay based on load attributes (weight, volume).  

Steps:

  1. Set up the Contractor.  Select Setup | Vendors from the Main Menu
  2. Set up Activity to be Paid on the Block.  Select Setup | Blocks | Setup from the Main Menu.  On the block you must identify the activities for which a contractor will be paid.  See the discussion above.  This task must be performed for each block that has loads for which multiple equipment owners need to be paid.
  3. Set up the Equipment.  Set up each Equipment Unit.  The Logger's Edge will use the owner you specify for the equipment to determine who gets paid.
  4. Set up Pay Contract.  Select Contracts | Payment Contracts | Contract Setup from the Main Menu.
  5. Enter Load Slips.  Select Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Data.   You must enter the Equipment Number on the Load Slip (under the Load Activities Tab). The Logger's Edge will pay the owner of the equipment.  If you are paying the equipment owner the full rate (inclusive of the operator), you do not need to enter the worker/employee on the load slip and vice versa.  On the other hand, if you are splitting the pay rate between the equipment owner and the operator (or his employer), you must enter both the equipment unit and the operator.
  6. Run Vendor (i.e., Contractor) Calculator.  Select Calculators | Vendors - Full. 
  7. Review Vendor (i.e., Contractor) Statement. Select Reports Vendor Statements.
  8. Review the Loads Unpaid report for the pay period you are processing as a precautionary measure to ensure that your setup has not inadvertently resulted in any loads remaining unpaid.  This report is found in The Logger's Edge reporting tool under the "Load Slips | Loads Paid, Only Unpaid" menu item.   The goal is for this report to return no loads.

Case II.  You pay based on percentage of load revenue.

Steps:

This type of contract is special in that its 'rate' is really expressed as a percent of the revenue you earn on a load-by-load basis.  Thus, in order to use this type of contract, you must perform the additional step of entering or calculating the revenue for each load (step 7 below).

  1. Set up the Contractor.**  Select Setup | Vendors from the Main Menu
  2. Set up Activity to be Paid on the Block.  Select Setup | Blocks | Setup from the Main Menu.  On the block you must identify the activities for which a contractor will be paid.  See the discussion above.  This task must be performed for each block that has loads for which multiple equipment owners need to be paid.
  3. Set up the Equipment.**  Set up each Equipment.  The Logger's Edge will use the owner you specify for the equipment to determine who gets paid.
  4. Set up Pay Contract.  Select Contracts | Payment Contracts | Contract Setup from the Main Menu.
  5. Enter Load Slips.**  Select Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Data.  You must enter the Equipment Number on the Load Slip (under the Load Activities Tab).  The Logger's Edge will pay the owner of the equipment.  If you are paying the equipment owner the full rate (inclusive of the operator), you do not need to enter the worker/employee on the load slip and vice versa.  On the other hand, if you are splitting the pay rate between the equipment owner and the operator (or his employer), you must enter both the equipment unit and the operator.
  6. Enter Revenue on Load Slip or Use The Logger's Edge to Automatically Calculate Revenue.  In order for the 'percent of load revenue' pay contract to work, you must have revenue entered for each load.
  7. Run Vendor (Contractor) Calculator.**  Select Calculators | Contractors - Full. 
  8. Review Vendor (Contractor) Statement.  Select Reports Contractor Statements.
  9. Review the Loads Unpaid report for the pay period you are processing as a precautionary measure to ensure that your setup has not inadvertently resulted in any loads remaining unpaid.  This report is found in The Logger's Edge reporting tool under the "Load Slips | Loads Paid, Only Unpaid" menu item. The goal is for this report to return no loads.

** Step is the same as in Case I.

Troubleshooting Common Errors:

1.    Error: PAY_CONTRACT_RATE not Set up For...

When running the vendor calculator, one of the most common errors is when a contract rate is not found for a certain activity for a given load.  There are two examples show below. 

The following example shows a pay error that occurs when The Logger's Edge is trying to pay the equipment owner.  The activity is indicated as DELIMB.  The third line 'Equipment: DL621-WP; Contract Employee: No' is what distinguishes the error message  --  it tells you that the equipment is unit number DL621-WP and that the Contract Employee is 'No.'  This unit number is the equipment unit that The Logger's Edge is trying to pay.  The 'Contract Employee: No' part of the message tells you that The Logger's Edge is not trying to pay a contract operator.  This type of message occurs when you have told the system that you want to pay 'Contractor Equipment' for this activity in the block setup.

"Error: PAY_CONTRACT_RATE not Set up For: TICKET_NO = WF-10001 DATE_OUT = [12/16/2004 7:33:00 AM] and Activity = DELIMB
Equipment: DL621-WP; Contract Employee: No
Ticket: WF-10001 Detail:
Tract: 02-CLEAR-8001
Destination: IP-AUGUSTA
Species: PINE
Grade: #2 Saw
Truck No: HL6005
Truck Type: 7A
Route: ON"
 

This message can be interpreted as:

"The is no pay rate for ticket WF-10001 (date out of 12/16/2004 7:33:00 AM) for the activity DELIMB."

In other words, you have told The Logger's Edge that you want to pay a contract equipment owner for the activity DELIMB for all loads on the block, yet there is no valid pay contract for the load ticket 'WF-10001.'

Things to check when this occurs:

2.    "Error: No Conversion Set Up For LBS to CORD For Block 01-GREEN-1001
Ticket: 6948 Detail:
Block: 01-GREEN-1001
Destination: IP-AUGUSTA
Species: PINE
Grade: NONE
Truck No: T'10001
Truck Type: 7A
Route: ON"

The fragment 'Ticket: 6948' refers to the ticket number.  In this example, the error occurs because a conversion factor is not found to convert 'LBS' into 'CORD' and the matching pay contract rate for this load has a pay basis of cords.  Anytime, The Logger's Edge cannot convert the weight measure on the block to the pay basis on the matching pay contract, you will receive this message.  For example, if you have set kilograms up on the block as your weight measure and want to pay a contractor in cubic meters (M3) and you fail to set up a conversion factor, you will receive a message such as 'No Conversion Set Up For KGS to M3'.

The fragment 'For Block 01-GREEN-1001'  tells you the block that has the problem.  There are 2 conditions that give rise to this error.

1.    There is no conversion set up on the  block to convert the weight on the tickets to your pay basis on your matching pay contract.  (For example, your loads may be entered in kilograms, but you want to pay in cubic meters 'M3'.) 

2.    There is no 'Generic Conversion' available.  Generic conversions are those that never change under any circumstance, such as KGs to Tonnes and Lbs to Tons.  (If you think that the system is missing a generic conversion, contact a support representative to assist you.)

If there is no conversion set up, as indicated in (1.) above, you must select option 'C' in the conversion setup window in the block setup wizard (see below) and then manually enter your conversion factors.        

Things to check when you get a conversion error are:

3.    "Error: Missing Load Revenue for Load= 7531 and Activity= DELIMB"

 The fragment 'Load= 7531' refers to the ticket number.  Things to check when this error occurs:

4.    The wrong rate is applied.

Things to check when this problem occurs:

5.    An Activity Should be Paid, but NO Pay is Generated and there is no Error Message

Things to check when this problem occurs:

6.    Multi-Pay Errors.  The Logger's Edge allows you to split the payment for the same activity between two different vendors.  As a consequence, there are occasions where the same activity (for a given ticket) will be paid twice (or more) correctly.  For most users, however, such multiple payments for the same activity on the same load will be in error.  When The Logger's Edge finishes a pay calculator it checks to see if there are any multiple payments for an activity.  If there are, The Logger's Edge reports a 'Multi-Pay Error'.

Example:

--------------------------MULTI PAY ERROR ---------------------------------------------
ERROR: MULTIPLE PAY FOR TICKET:7019, ACTIVITY: TRUCKING
Pay Date: 8/9/2004; Tract: 02-CLEAR-2102, DESTINATION IP-AUGUSTA
1) Pay Contract: 2BR - TRUCKING Paid to: 2BR; Amount: $165.78; Pay Period: [Aug 1 04 V]
2) Pay Contract: ARROW - TRUCKING Paid to: ARROW; Amount: $182.36; Pay Period: [Aug 1 04 V]

The above error message says that the ticket '7019' has been paid twice for the activity 'TRUCKING'.  The two lines -- numbered 1) and 2) -- show each pay contract that has been applied and the corresponding pay period with which the payment is associated ('Aug 1 04 V' in this case).  Presumably, one is the correct contract and the other is incorrect.  If both payments are correct, you don't need to do anything.  In this case, the error message serves as a harmless warning.

If you don't want to pay both contracts, you should check:

 

 


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