Setup: Pay Contract for Contractor - Load Attributes

In order to set up rates to pay a contractor for load-based attributes you need to set up a 'Pay Contract' for the contractor.  Select Contracts | Payment Contracts | Contract Setup from the Main Menu.  This link explains how to use the 'Pay Contract Wizard' in order to set up a pay contract.

The key steps involved in setting up a contractor contract in the wizard are Steps 2 and 6, as explained below.

Step 2:  Select the Contractor for the Pay Contract

In this step you select the contractor you want to pay.  To do so,  you must click on the 'Type' Contractor (circled above) which fills the list on the left with your contractors.  You then select the contractor (you can only select one at a time) you want to pay.

The pay contract operates differently depending on your selection you made during blocksetup about whether you are tracking activities, employees/ equipment on your block:

Case I:  Track Activities, Employees, Equipment on Load Slips.

When you track equipment on a load-by-load basis, The Logger's Edge will look at the equipment owner on the load slip to determine who should be paid.  For example, let's assume that Bill Swift Contracting has been selected as the contractor to pay for the skidding activity on a given block.  The Logger's Edge will look at the skidder equipment entered on the load slip and check to see who is the owner of the piece of equipment.  If the owner matches Bill Swift Contracting, then Bill Swift Contracting will be paid.  Likewise, if the owner is a different contractor, say Arrow Contracting, then Arrow Contracting will be paid (assuming a contract is set up for Arrow Contracting).

There is an entry called "OWNER" in the contractor list shown above in the pay contract wizard.  The 'OWNER' entry is very powerful in that it acts like a wild card for equipment owners.  If you select OWNER you can pay whichever contractor owns the equipment that is entered on the load slip with a single contract.  Thus, if you want to pay all contractors based on identical terms, you can setup just one pay contract using the OWNER wild card and it will cover all contractors.  Moreover, if you use an OWNER contract, but want to pay one contractor an exception rate, you can set up a specific contract for that contractor.  The Logger's Edge is smart enough to choose the specific contractor's contract when an OWNER contract might otherwise apply.

Example.  I have five logging contractors that work for me that get paid $18.00/Tonne, with the exception of Jeff Kent Contracting who gets $18.50 for his equipment.  I set up one contract that pays "OWNER" to cover all logging contractors.  I then setup another contract to pay Jeff Kent Contracting specifically.  This specific contract will trump the "OWNER" contract so that Jeff Kent Contracting will only be paid only once, at his specific rate.

Case 2:  Do Not Track Activities, Employees, Equipment on Load Slips.

When you do not track equipment on a load slip basis, The Logger's Edge will pay the selected contractor whose pay contract covers that block  for all loads for the block that match the pay rate criteria (see below) in his contract.  In other words, The Logger's Edge makes the key assumption that the equipment units on the load slips from the block all belong to a single contractor; thus there is no need to enter them on a load-by-load basis.

The 'OWNER' entry must not be used for a non-trucking contract where option (2) 'Do Not Track Activities, Employees, Equipment on Load Slips' has been selected for the block.

Step 6.    Enter Pay Rate

This is the step where you enter the rate you want to pay the contractor.  A detailed explanation is available in the link: Setting up a Pay Rates: Calculate Pay based on Load Attributes.  The screen below shows an example of the rate screen.

The two requirements for a contractor to be paid according to a particular pay contract are:

(1)  that the block on the pay contract must match the block of the load (or the block entry must be blank), and

(2)  that the activity on the pay contract must match the activity for the contractor entered on the load slip.

In this screen you can set up the rate breaks you want to use to pay the contractor.  In row 1 (in the example above), I have entered a blank for the block, indicating I want a rate of $2.00/Ton to apply to skidding for ALL blocks.  In row 2, I have entered an 'exception' rate that indicates that if the skidding is performed in block '03-RAINBOW-2991', I want to pay $2.10/Ton.  The rate in row 3, is the same as in row 2, except that it has an effective date of 6/1/2004 -- meaning the rate of $2.25/Ton will apply for loads delivered on or after 6/1/2004.  For loads delivered between 1/1/2004 and 5/31/2004, on block 03-RAINBOW-2991, the rate of $2.10 is operative.