1. How to Use This Tutorial

Purpose of This Tutorial

This tutorial will help you understand the fundamentals of The Logger's Edge and become familiar with the screen layouts and grids. It is expected that you will complete this tutorial before receiving training on The Logger's Edge from your support representative. By completing the tutorial first, we can use your training time to focus on user-specific issues, such as configuring payment scenarios and understanding reports, rather than learning the interface.

By working through the tutorial, you will gain a basic understanding of the work flow involved in using the system. The examples that you work through may not necessarily match those that you face in your business, but should provide a good overall appreciation for The Logger's Edge functionality. In order to make the best use of your training time, we recommend that you work through the tutorial in its entirety when you first receive the software. Once you have a baseline familiarity with the software, you can then work through each menu item available through the interface and use the training information available in the Support section of our web site to learn more details about the system. This approach will allow us to use your one-on-one training time to set up your key business scenarios, rather than teaching you how to navigate through the software.

Completing This Tutorial

This tutorial will take approximately 4-6 hours to complete.

Starting Up

2. Starting Up

The first time you run The Logger's Edge you will be prompted to create a working database. This database stores all of your employees, equipment, time slips, loads, etc. - all of the data that you use in your business.

You must specify a new name for you company’s database and select the directory in which to store it. The directory defaults to the Database directory created when you install The Logger's Edge. Do not click on the HarvestBoss0_BC.mdb file.

When you specify the name of your database (i.e. Canada Tutorial) do not use the database name HarvestBoss0_BC.mdb. This database is a template or kernel database that is used as the starting point for all new databases.

Enter the database name 'Canada Tutorial' and click 'Save'. The Logger's Edge will create your new database and start up the program.

The status bar at the bottom of the main window identifies the database you are currently connected to.

This tutorial will walk you through the steps for setting up a stump to dump logging company. It is intended to teach you the basic functionality of the system and give you a feel for the basic data flow through the system.

The company has:

Five employees
Four pieces of equipment and one truck
One contracted truck owner-operator
Works in two cut blocks and delivers wood to only one mill.

The following is an outline of how you are going to pay workers throughout this tutorial:

Activity	Pay Basis
Felling	Hourly (Employee)
Loading	Load-by-load (Employee or Subcontractor)
Skidding	Day rate (Employee)
Delimbing	Hourly plus trees (Employee)
Trucking	Tonne basis (Employee or Subcontractor)

Basic Setup

3. Basic Setup

The first tasks that the tutorial covers are how to configure all of the basic setup items required before you can create Blocks, Revenue Contracts and Payment Contracts. The procedures that will be covered in this section are:

Setting Up Accounting including Pay Periods, Accounting Periods and Account Codes
Setting Up Pay Activities
Setting Up Vendors
Setting Up Equipment and Trucks
Setting Up Workers (Employees and Subcontracted Workers)
Setting Up a Customer
Setting Up a Destination

To better understand the types of information you will be setting up in this section of the tutorial see the following time slip. Navigate to Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips and click on 'Add'.

The time slip includes several fields: Employee, Equipment, Truck, Revenue Contract, Block, Activity, Date and Date for Pay, 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 the next few sections, you will set up the data required for entering a time slip.

Click 'Cancel' to close the Time Detail window. Click 'OK' to close the Time Detail grid.

Setting Up a Pay Period, Accounting Period and Account Codes

Pay periods are used throughout The Logger's Edge for running payment calculators and creating statements. Pay periods are date ranges you configure to match the payment cycles of your workers.

To setup a new pay period, you must first configure an Accounting Period. An accounting period must be as large as or larger than your pay period. Accounting periods are used for reporting and are generally configured as a log year or as quarters.

Accounting Periods

Navigate to Setup | Accounting | Accounting Periods.

The Logger's Edge comes with three preset accounting periods for 2005, 2006 and 2007. If you want to change the start or end dates for the periods, you can simply edit them in the grid. Otherwise, you can move on to the next step. If you want to add a new one, you can simply click the 'Add' button and enter a new row in the grid above.

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, so establish your naming convention accordingly.

Click on 'Save' to save the item. Saved items appear in the tree view on the left side. Click 'OK' to close the window. When you have finished entering the data into the grid, you do not have to hit both 'Save' and 'OK'. When you click 'OK', the system automatically saves your entry, but it will also close the grid. Saving manually allows you to save an item and leave the grid open while you move to another window in the system. Clicking on 'Add' will also save your current item before adding a new row.

Click 'OK' to close the Accounting Periods grid.

Pay Periods

Navigate to Setup | Accounting | Pay Periods.

Click on 'Add' to enter an empty row. Fill in the row with the following information:

Code	May06
Description	May 2006
Start Date	5/1/2006
End Date	5/31/2006
Accounting Period	2006

The Accounting Period was defined in the previous section. Choose the Accounting Period from the tree view on the left by double clinking on it.

Click 'OK' to close the Pay Periods grid.

Account Codes

Account Codes are used in The Logger's Edge to group together miscellaneous payments and deductions. You are able to enter in positive or negative amounts for contractors and employees under Data Entry | Expenses.

To configure an account code, navigate to Setup | Accounting | Account Codes. Click 'Add'.

Enter in four account codes using the following information:

A/C Code	This field auto fills based on the parts entered.	This field auto fills based on the parts entered.	This field auto fills based on the parts entered.	This field auto fills based on the parts entered.
Description	Part-Production Equipment	Fuel	Head Gasket	Service
Part 1	100	200	200	200
Part 2	1001	1001	1002	1003

In this tutorial, The Logger's Edge has been configured to use two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) for the accounting codes. When entering account codes, you only need to enter the part 1 and 2 for the code and The Logger's Edge will automatically generate the A/C Code. You can override this and enter the A/C Code directly as well. During your system configuration, you decide the number of parts you want to use to define your account codes. The Logger's Edge has the ability to use zero parts or up to nine parts for the account codes.

Once you have entered the account codes, click 'OK' to close the Account Codes grid.

Setting Up Pay Activities

You must configure pay activities in The Logger's Edge to match the activities for which you receive revenue and the activities for which you pay your employees and subcontractors.

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

Click on 'Add' and enter the following activities. Use the short cut key, Alt+a, to add the next empty row.

Code	Description	Pay Type	Production Indicator	Active?	Activity Group Code
FELLING	Felling	REG PROD	No	Yes	NONE
SKID	Skidding	REG PROD	No	Yes	NONE
DELIMB	Delimbing	REG PROD	Yes	Yes	NONE
LOGGING	Logging	REG PROD	No	Yes	NONE

For the DELIMB activity, click on the Production Indicator to add a check. All of the others should not have a check in the Production Activity column.

Trucking and Loading were already entered by default. You receive revenue from the mill for trucking and logging, and this is why you entered Logging.

Click 'OK' to close the Pay Activities grid when you are done.

What is the 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:

REG PROD	Production time, such as time spent logging, trucking, delimbing, etc.
EQ MAINT	Equipment maintenance
NON WORK	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

What does Production Indicator mean?

The Logger's Edge uses the 'Production Indicator' flag on the pay activities to calculate an estimated production for a given block, based on the tree count entered on time slips associated with the block. Each time slip has a pay activity associated with it. The Logger's Edge looks at the production indicator flag on the pay activity associated with the time slip to determine whether to use the tree count on the time slip to estimate production for the block. Usually, a pay activity such as “delimbing” is representative of production because each tree will only go through one delimber. If two pay activities are chosen for Production Indicator, then they must be mutually exclusive. For example, the Delimbing pay activity and a Processing pay activity could both be tagged as a production indicator because a single tree would either be handled by a delimber or by a processor. Two activities that will be performed on the same tree, such as cutting and delimbing, should NOT be both selected as production indicators because production based on tree count will then be double-counted.

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. 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.

Setting Up Vendors (Contractors)

Before setting up too many items in The Logger's Edge, it is best to configure the vendors or subcontracting companies that will be working for you.

To setup a vendor, navigate to Setup | Vendors.

Click 'Add' to enter the following four vendors:

Code	WHITE	LARRY LOAD	ESSO	SIMPSON
Description	White Knight Trucking	Larry's Loaders	Imperial Oil	Simpson Industrial Repairs
Contact	Mike White	Larry Lane	None	Jim Simpson
Active?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Address	#306, Highway 22	876 3rd Street	PO Box 3324	44 Main Street
City	Green Pond	Blue Pond	Mountain View	Yellow Lake
Province	BC	BC	BC	BC
Postal Code	V6V 5V6	V7V 7V4	V0J 1X0	V1V 7X4
Phone	(250) 555-1234	(250) 555-4321	(250) 555-4567	(250) 555-4400
Fax	(250) 555-1235	(250) 555-4322	(250) 555-7890	(250) 555-7899
E-mail	mike@whiteknighttrucking.com	loaders@larrysloaders.com	None	None
Tax ID	R12345678	R87654321	R12349875	R23234545
Statement Type Code	Standard Vendor	Standard Vendor	Standard Vendor	Standard Vendor

It is important to enter the Tax ID (if applicable) and the Address of the vendor as this information appears on the vendor statements.

Click 'OK' to close the Vendors grid.

Setting Up Equipment and Trucks

The next task is to set up your equipment and your subcontractors' equipment (feller bunchers, skidders, delimbers, etc.)

Equipment Types

In order to set up your equipment units you must first set up the types of equipment. Navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Types. Equipment Types are used in the Block Equipment Utilization Report.

Use the 'Add' button to add four types of equipment:

Code	Description	Active?
FELLER	Feller Buncher	Yes
LOADER	Loader	Yes
SKIDDER	Skidder	Yes
DELIMBER	Delimber	Yes

Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Type grid.

Equipment Units

After setting up your equipment types, you can set up your actual equipment units. Navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Equipment | Unit Numbers.

This selection opens the Equipment data entry grid. Use the 'Add' button to add five equipment units:

Code	Description	Equip Type	Owner	Active?
MY FELLER 05	My Feller Buncher 05	FELLER	MYCO	Yes
MY LOADER 09	My Loader 09	LOADER	MYCO	Yes
MY SKIDDER 10	My Skidder 10	SKIDDER	MYCO	Yes
MY DELIMBER 15	My Delimber 15	DELIMBER	MYCO	Yes
LL 99	Larry Loader 99	LOADER	LARRY LOAD	Yes

When entering Equipment Type and Owner you can simply click the item in the split window on the left. Do not add anything to the Serial # and permit fields, we will not use this information in the tutorial. Click 'OK' to close the Equipment grid.

Equipment Activities

This task involves matching Equipment Units to Pay Activities. By assigning activities to pieces of equipment, the system will auto-fill the activity entry box in the time ticket when an equipment unit is selected. It is required to assign activities to pieces of equipment if you are going to track pieces of equipment on the load slip.

An individual piece of equipment usually only has one activity, but in some cases, may have several activities. For example, a Cat Bulldozer might be used for a road building activity or a piling activity or a Loader might be used for piling or loading.

To associate work activities to equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Equipment | Unit Activities.

Using 'Add', enter the following items in the grid:

Code	Eligible Activity	Is Default?	Active?
MY FELLER 05	FELLING	Yes	Yes
MY LOADER 09	LOAD	Yes	Yes
MY SKIDDER 10	SKID	Yes	Yes
MY DELIMBER 15	DELIMB	Yes	Yes
LL 99	LOAD	Yes	Yes

When entering the Code and Eligible Activity, you can simply click the item in the split window on the left. Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Activities grid.

Truck Configurations

Setting up trucks is similar to configuring equipment. First, setup truck configurations. Navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Truck Configurations.

In certain regions, truck configurations are important because payment can vary by configuration. The system requires at least one configuration to be set up so if you do not track truck configuration you can set one up labeled 'NA' for Not Applicable.

Using 'Add', enter the following items in the grid:

Code	Description	Active?	Is Self Loading
BTRAIN	B Train	Yes	No
SUPERB	Super B	Yes	No

Click 'OK' to close the Truck Configurations grid.

To save time, click Alt+s at the same time to save a record. Click Alt+a to add a record. Many buttons in The Logger's Edge have hot keys and are indicated by an underline under the corresponding letter.

Setting Up Log Trucks

To set up the log trucks navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Unit Numbers.

Using 'Add', enter the following items in the grid:

Code	101	503
Owner	MYCO	WHITE
Configuration	BTRAIN	SUPERB
Description	My Truck #101	White Truck #503

Scroll to the right and notice the other optional columns that can be used to track additional detail about the truck such as, its license or permit number.

If your company owns log truck(s), you would specify ‘MYCO’ for the owner indicating your company is the owner.

Click 'OK' to close the Trucks grid.

Setting Up Routes

Routes are used to distinguish pay for each load ticket if truck pay differs based on route. For example, you might setup ‘Off Highway’ and ‘On Highway’ routes to identify loads that were delivered over highway or off-highway roads.

If you do not track routes in your business, The Logger's Edge can be configured to drop this item from your setup lists.

Setup Routes by navigating to Setup | Routes.

Use 'Add' to create two routes with the following information:

Code	Description
Y	On Highway
N	Off Highway

This feature can be used to track road and bridge amortization for company constructed roads and bridges.

Click 'OK' to close the Routes grid.

Setting Up Equipment and Truck Costing

The Logger's Edge has an equipment costing module that calculates how much you are spending running your equipment by hour. The Logger's Edge can use Standard Hourly Costing and Fully Founded Hourly costing for equipment.

Truck costing is done on a weight basis (e.g. Tonnes). Costing information can only be entered for company owned pieces of equipment.

Equipment Costing

To set up equipment costs, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing. Click 'Add' once you are in the grid.

In the entry form, select the piece of equipment (My Delimber 15); enter the effective date (5/1/2006), the Std Cost per hour ($120.00), the fully founded rate ($150.00), and the expected number of annual hours (2500). Click 'OK'.

The 'Standard Cost' is the cost you assign to each hour of operation for that piece of equipment. The hours of operation are based on hours entered on the time slips for employees. These costs include all operating expenses, such as maintenance, fluids, depreciation and interest. The standard cost specifically excludes operator pay and employee load costs.

The 'Fully Founded Rate' is a second measure of standard cost that represents an estimate of the all-inclusive costs of operating a unit of equipment. These costs include all operating expenses, such as maintenance, fluids, depreciation and interest, and operator pay and employee load costs. This cost is comparable to the market rate that you would have to pay in order to rent the same piece of equipment (operator included) from a third party. Certain reports can be generated using fully founded rates rather than employee standard costs and actual equipment costs.

Enter costing information for each piece of equipment as outlined below:

Code	Effective Date	Std Cost/Hour	Fully Founded Rate/Hour	Annual Hours
My Delimber 15	5/1/2006	$120.00	$150.00	2500
My Feller 05	5/1/2006	$150.00	$180.00	2500
My Loader 09	5/1/2006	$110.00	$150.00	2500
My Skidder 10	5/1/2006	$90.00	$120.00	2500

The Logger's Edge includes an optional equipment cost spreadsheet you can use to estimate the Standard Cost of a piece of equipment. Select a row in the grid and click the ‘Calc Cost’ button.

You can use this calculator to calculate your standard cost to get a more accurate number. To use this calculator, you fill in the numbers on the left side of the window along with the maintenance and operating expenses on the right side.

The effective date for the hourly cost is entered in the top left of the above window. This rate will be applied to hours on and after the effective date.

Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Cost Worksheet window.

Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Cost grid.

Setting Up Truck Costing

Follow the same directions above to configure truck costing. Navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Truck Costing and click 'Add'.

Enter truck-costing information as follows:

Code	Effective Date	Std Cost/Hour	Full Cost/Unit	Annual Production	Unit of Measure
101	5/2/2006	$2.00	$2.25	50,000	TONNE_HR

Click 'OK' to save the record.

Click 'OK' to close the Truck Cost grid.

Setting Up Workers (Employees and Subcontracted Workers)

Setting Up Workers

Next you need to set up your company employees and any subcontractors you are going to track on the load slip. Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Setup.

Click 'Add' to enter your employees and type directly in the grid.

Select an employer for each worker. In general, the employer will be ‘MYCO', meaning your company but if you want to identify and track other workers, for example contract workers, you set them up in the same grid, and identify their employer as another vendor.

As you scroll to the right, there are several other optional fields, such as the employee’s address, phone number, e-mail, date of hire, etc. You can use these columns to maintain employee information at your discretion. On the far right of the grid is the 'Active?' checkbox that can be used to deactivate an employee once he or she has left your company.

Enter in workers using the following information:

Code	First Name	Last Name	Full Name	Employer
FF	Felicity	Feller	Feller, Felicity	MYCO
SS	Sam	Skidder	Skidder, Sam	MYCO
LL	Lowell	Loader	Loader, Lowell	MYCO
DD	Doug	Delimber	Delimber, Doug	MYCO
TT	Tom	Trucker	Trucker, Tom	MYCO
WT	Whitney	Trucker	Trucker, Whitney	WHITE
LT	Laurence	Loader	Loader, Laurence	LARRY LOAD

Note that the Full Name is auto-filled with a combination of the First name and Last Name.

Click 'OK' to close the Workers grid once you have finished entering in the workers.

Setting Up Employee Pay Rates

The next step is to enter the Employee Pay Rates. Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Base Rates.

Click 'Add' to enter the rates for each employee. Typing directly in the grid enter the employee’s code, the pay rate effective date (i.e. 5/1/2006), the employee’s base pay rate, the employee loaded rate, and the Rate Type (i.e. HR = Hourly).

The effective date determines when a pay rate takes effect. For example, Doug Delimber's $20.00 per hour pay rate takes effect on May 1, 2006. If Doug receives a raise as of May 1^st, 2006 to $22.00 per hour, you need to 'Add' a new rate for him with the new rate and new effective date (5/1/2006). All time entered on or after May 1^st, 2006 would be paid at the new rate and time entries prior to May 1st, 2006 would be paid at the old rate.

A loaded rate is a payroll rate that has been adjusted to include a share of your company’s overhead costs. Overhead costs could include any administrative, maintenance, taxes or other costs that are not directly attributable to production. The 'Loaded Rate' is used for several costing reports that have the option of using loaded rates for time costing rather than straight payroll rates.

There are several pre-configured Rate Types that allow you to pay on different bases, for example by day rate or tree count.

Typing directly in the grid enter the employee rates as indicated below:

Employee Code	Effective Date	Rate	Loaded Rate	Charge Out Rate	Rate Type
DD	5/1/2006	0.25	0.25	0.00	TREES
DD	5/1/2006	20.00	20.00	0.00	HR
FF	5/1/2006	25.00	25.00	0.00	HR
SS	5/1/2006	350.00	350.00	0.00	DAY

In this scenario, DD will be paid an hourly rate plus a tree count rate.

You will create payment contracts to pay the subcontracted workers and also to pay the loader and truck driver employees.

Click 'OK' to exit the Worker Base Rates grid.

Equipment and Truck Assignments

This next setup item is another data entry convenience. It matches a default Equipment or Truck Unit with a worker.

In order to set up worker equipment assignments, navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Assignments | Equipment.

Click 'Add' to assign a default piece of equipment for each employee. Typing directly in the grid enter the employee’s code, the equipment code, and effective date.

Matching an employee to a default equipment unit is done to speed up data entry. If an employee operates another equipment unit, you must override the default unit to the actual unit by selecting the actual unit from the drop down list on the time slip.

Enter the following equipment assignments before moving to the next section:

Employee Code	Equipment Code	Effective Date	Default?	Active?
LT	LL 99	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes
DD	My Delimber 15	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes
FF	My Feller 05	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes
LL	My Loader 09	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes
SS	My Skidder 10	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes

Click 'OK' to exit the Equipment Assignments grid.

To configure the truck assignments, navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Assignments | Trucks.

Click 'Add' to assign a default truck for each employee.

Enter two truck assignments as follows:

Employee Code	Truck	Effective Date	Default?	Active?
TT	101	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes
WT	503	5/1/2006	Yes	Yes

Click 'OK' to close the Truck Assignments grid.

You should now have workers, equipment and trucks configured.

Setting Up a Customer

To setup a customer (company from whom you are receiving revenue) navigate to Setup | Customers.

Enter in a new customer with the following information:

Code	Description
BLUE	Blue Mill

Click 'OK' to close the Customers grid.

When setting up the Customers and Vendors in your own database, it is recommended to fill the address fields as they show up on the invoices and statements. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will not enter the optional fields.

Setting Up a Destination

A destination is a mill (or other location) to which your company delivers wood. Destinations are distinct from customers because a customer (like a Blue Mill) may have several mills. Destinations are very important in The Logger's Edge and are used with revenue contracts.

To enter a new destination, navigate to Setup | Destinations.

Add a new destination using the following information:

Code	Company
BLUE MILL 1	Blue Mill Destination 1

Click 'OK' to close the Destinations grid.

Block Setup

4. Setting Up a Block

Before you can set up a cut block, you will need to set up necessary user defined data. For this tutorial, you will need to set up a Customer (or owner of the timber rights), an Area, a Compartment, and at least one Species, Sort and Process.

The Area, Compartment, Species, Sort and Process 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.

Setting Up an Area

The Area is the largest of the geographic definition. In different regions, an Area might be otherwise referred to as a Working Circle, Zone or Forest, etc.

During your system configuration you can specify the terminology you would like to use or you can have this field disabled entirely.

To enter a new Area, navigate to Setup | Area.

Click 'Add' to enter an area:

Code	Area
AREA 01	Work Area 01

Click 'OK' to exit the Area grid.

Setting Up a Timbermark

To set up a new Timbermark, navigate to Setup | Timbermark.

The Timbermark data item is the second part of the geographic definition of a block.

Click 'Add' to set up a Timbermark with the following information:

Code	Timbermark
CLEAR	Clearwater

Click 'OK' to exit the Timbermark grid.

Setting Up Species and Stratum

You are now ready to set up the types of wood that will be harvested on your cut block.

In this tutorial, you will describe your wood based on the following two attributes:

Species	Stratum
Lodgepole Pine	Sawlogs
Spruce	Peelers
Aspen

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. When you configure your system, you can expand or reduce the number of categories or change the category names.

Setting Up Species

Set up three species using the information provided below. Navigate to Setup | Species.

Click 'Add' to enter the following:

Code	Species
LP	Lodgepole Pine
SP	Spruce
ASP	Aspen

Once you have set up the species, click 'OK' to close the Species grid.

Setting Up Stratum

Set up two stratum using the information provided below. Navigate to Setup | Stratum.

Use 'Add' to enter the following:

Code	Stratum
SAW	Sawlogs
PEEL	Peelers

Click 'OK' to close the Stratum grid.

Setting Up a Block

You are now ready to enter a cut block. It may seem like you have had to enter a lot of data just to set up one block. The good news is that the set up of the most basic lists such as customers, destinations, species, etc. is a one time set up.

On the Main Menu, navigate to Setup | Blocks | Setup and click on the 'Add' button. This will bring up the Block Wizard.

Step 1

The process of adding a cut block is managed through a wizard that takes you through the block setup step-by-step.

From the New Block screen, click on 'Next'.

Step 2

The wizard prompts you to select the company (customer) that controls the timber rights to the block.

Select 'Blue Mill' and click 'Next'.

Step 3

Select the Area in which the block is located.

Select 'Work Area 01' and click 'Next'.

Step 4

The wizard prompts you to select the Timbermark in which the block is located.

Select 'Clearwater' and click 'Next'.

Step 5

This is where you chose the revenue source or sources for this block. As you have not yet configured a Revenue Contract for Blue Mill, click 'Next' without selecting anything in this window.

Step 6

Select the unit of measure in which loads are delivered.

Generally, this measure will be in the units that the mill’s weigh scale measures weight. This measure is commonly kilograms but sometimes, mills only transmit data in tonnes or tons (or even cords) and so you would select one of those measures instead.

Select 'Kilograms' and click 'Next'.

Step 7

Select the unit of measure used to track production off the block.

Generally, this measure will be in the units that the mill uses to measure volume. This measure is commonly cubic metres, but could be board feet or cords as well. Sometimes, mills do not use a volume measure, but just use tonnes.

For this block, select 'Cubic Metres' and click 'Next'.

Step 8

This step is the most complicated because it involves specifying how the conversion between weight and volume will be performed.

The Conversion Rate Checkbox indicates that the conversion is expressed as weight to volume - in this example Kilograms to Cubic Metres (measures selected in Steps 5 and 6). Click the 'Use Block-Specific Conversions' radio button and click 'Next'.

Step 9

You now want to select the Attributes on which to base Conversions.

Select 'Stratum' then press 'Next'.

Step 10

Enter two conversion ratios, one for the Stratum Peel and one for the Stratum Saw.

To add a conversion ratio, click on the 'Add' button. A row is added to the grid and drop down lists are activated for each log attribute. Enter the following information:

Stratum	Conv Rate	Effective Date
Peel	0.001564	5/1/2006
Saw	0.001123	5/1/2006

You can copy-and-paste from an existing row to a row you have just added. Highlight the entire row you want to copy and use Ctrl+c to copy and then Ctrl+v to paste the new row.

If you do not enter anything for a specific item, The Logger's Edge will ignore that item when calculating the conversion rate. In this example you did not select any species or destination, so the conversions that you have just entered will apply across all species and destinations.

Once you have entered your two conversion rates, click 'Next'.

Step 11

In this step, you specify which activities you want to pay on a load-by-load basis. Users have adopted a variety of business practices around tracking and paying equipment (and/or operators) based on load slip information.

You are paying a loader on a load-by-load basis. There is both an employee loader and a loader who owns his loader. You are also paying an employee truck driver and a subcontracted truck driver.

For Trucking and Loading, check the boxes as indicated in the diagram then press 'Next'.

Step 12

We are not concerned with Applicable Pay Contracts right now, so click 'Next'.

Step 13

The wizard will ask you to enter On/Off highway distances by destination. For the purposes of this tutorial, you can leave these empty. Click 'Next'.

Step 14

In this example, name your block using the combined codes of the Area (01) and Compartment (CLEAR) and the user-assigned block number (1001). Enter the start date of the block to be 5/1/2006.

The 'Volume/Tree' number is used with tree-count data from time slips to estimate the volume produced by a worker/equipment combination.

Enter in the information as shown.

Click 'Next' to bring up the final screen.

Step 15

Click 'Finish' to save your new block.

Now that you have created one block, setting up a second block requires less data entry. Click the 'Copy' button and click on 'Next' though all of the screens until Step 14, the block naming screen.

Again, the block is named using the combined codes of the Area (01) and Compartment (CLEAR) and the user-assigned block number, 1002 in this example.

Click on 'Next' and then 'Finish'. You now have two blocks set up.

Click 'OK' to close the Block grid.

Block Setup

5. Setting Up a Revenue Contract

After setting up your blocks, the next step is to set up a revenue contract to cover those blocks. Revenue contracts are agreements you have with a given Mill on how you will be paid for the wood you deliver to the Mill.

In general, we recommend that users set up one revenue contract per customer to track production revenue (and costs) corresponding to all harvesting done for that customer. Users may also want to set up separate revenue contracts for road-building contracts that they might wish to track profitability upon separately from the general harvesting contract. Many users also set up “internal” revenue contracts (which do not actually have explicit revenue associated with them) to track maintenance time, or vacation time.

For this tutorial, we will set up a revenue contract for harvesting operations performed for Blue Mill.

To set up a Revenue Contract, select Contracts | Revenue Contracts | Contract Setup.

Click on the 'Add' button at the bottom of the grid and a wizard (similar to the block wizard) is used to set up a revenue contract.