Table of Contents

1. How to Use this Tutorial

• Purpose of this Tutorial

2. Starting Up

3. Basic Setup

• Setting Up Company Information
• Setting Up Accounting Periods & Pay Periods
• Setting Up Pay Activities
• Setting Up Vendors (Contractors)
• Setting Up Employees
• Setting Up Trucks
• Setting Up Routes
• Setting Up Customers
• Setting Up Destinations
• Setting Up Species and Strata

4. Setting Up a Block

5. Entering Load Slips

6. Processing Revenue

7. Processing Employee Pay

8. Processing Vendor Pay

9. Business Reports - Loads

10. Tracking Time - Basic Setup

• Setting Up Employees & Employee Pay Rates
• Setting Up Equipment Types
• Setting Up Equipment Units
• Setting Up Equipment Costs
• Setting Up Default Employee/Equipment Assignments
• Setting Up Expense Accounts

11. Entering Time Slips

12. Processing Payroll

13. Equipment Expenses

14. Business Reports - Time and Expense

1. How to Use this Tutorial

Purpose of this Tutorial

The goal of this tutorial is to help you understand the fundamentals of The Logger's Edge Software and to become familiar with the screen layouts and grids.  In this tutorial, we will work through the system, starting with entering very basic setup data and finishing with calculating revenue and payments for employees and contractors, and viewing management reports.  There is also a section covering entry and tracking of miscellaneous expenditures such as parts and repair for equipment.

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. 

In this tutorial, we will work through the following scenario:

1. You deliver to one mill (Canfor - Vernon mill) and break the revenue rate you receive from the mill into the following phases:  Felling, Delimbing, Skidding, Loading, and Trucking.
2. You are harvesting out of one block.  You have a contractor in this block who does the delimbing and falling.  You pay him based on the volume (m3) harvested out of that block.
3. You pay contract truckers to deliver wood from this block to the mill.  Specifically, you pay them 95% of the revenue you receive from Canfor.
4. You have your own trucks delivering out of this block as well, and you pay your own drivers 25% of the load revenue you receive from Canfor.
5. You have your own skidders and loaders in this block, and you pay them hourly to operate your equipment.

The Logger's Edge can, of course, handle much more complicated scenarios than this one. When we do your individual training, we can work with you to ensure you know how to handle your specific business scenarios.

Completing this Tutorial

This tutorial will take approximately 3-4 hours to complete.

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. 

The directory defaults to the Database directory created when you install The Logger's Edge.  Do not click on the HarvestBoss0_BC.mdb file (if you see it in your list).  Rather, in the File Name entry box, type 'CAN_Tutorial' and click 'Save'.  The Logger's Edge will then create your new Database called CAN_Tutorial and will start up the program.

When you have successfully created your new database, you will see the main window of the software program:

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

3. Basic Setup

The first tasks you need to perform in The Logger's Edge are to set up all of the basic data you need in order to create your own blocks and specify your revenue rates and pay rates associated with deliveries from this block.  The procedures that will be covered in this section are:

• Setting Up Company Information (your company name and contact information)
• Setting Up Accounting information, including Pay Periods and Accounting Periods
• Setting Up Pay Activities
• Setting Up Vendors (Contractors)
• Setting Up Employees
• Setting Up Trucks
• Setting Up Routes
• Setting Up Customers
• Setting Up Destinations
• Setting Up Species and Strata

These setup steps will allow us to enter load slips and process them.  (There are a few additional setup items that we will complete when we turn to the entry of time slips, and miscellaneous expenditures.) 

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

Navigate to Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Data (or click the icon circled in the picture below):

Click on 'Add' to see the following load slip form:

The load slip includes several fields that are entered through drop-down lists: Block (which has defaulted to an INTERNAL_COST block because that is the only block that is currently set up in the system), Species, Stratum, Destination, Truck No, Driver, Truck Type (i.e., Truck Configuration), Route and the Dates.  The purpose of preset lists is to ensure that only valid entries can be selected for these fields.

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 when 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 set up the lists required for entering load slips.

Click 'Cancel'  to close the Load Slip window.  Click 'OK' to close the Load Slip grid.

Setting Up Company Information

Our first step is to set up your company's name and address in the company information menu item.  This information will be displayed at the top of the vendor statements, employee statements, and invoices you create through the software.  Navigate to Setup | Company Information.  Enter your Company Name and your address.  (Phone, fax, email, and tax number are optional.)

Click 'OK'.

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 and employees.  For example, if you pay your vendors and employees for deliveries for the 1st through the 15th of August, and then pay them separately for deliveries from the 16 to the 31st of August,  you would set up a pay period from August 1st to August 15th, and a second period from the 16th to the 31st.

In order to setup a new pay period, however, 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.

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.

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 customer xyz is no longer a current customer, you can uncheck the 'Active?' checkbox so that the customer will no longer appear in drop down lists.  All of the customer's prior information (such as load slips, pay statements, etc.) is, however, still retained in the database.  The customer can be reactivated again in the future with no loss of historic data.

When you see a 'Show Active Only' check box on a window, you can uncheck the box to see all records, whether they are active or not.

Pay Periods

Navigate to Setup | Accounting | Pay Periods.

Click on 'Add' to enter an empty row.  Fill in the row with the information shown in the window above.  When you have finished the first row, click 'Add' again to open a second row in the window.  (When you click 'Add', the software moves your cursor from the 1st row to the 2nd row.  It saves the information entered in the first row before moving your cursor to the second row.)

The Accounting Period was setup in the previous section.  In order to enter the accounting period, you can either type it into the grid or select the 2006 accounting period from the list on the left by double-clicking on it.

Click 'OK' to close the grid.  The information that you have entered will save automatically when you click 'OK'.

Some users have different pay period cycles for contractors versus employees, or for loads-based payment versus hourly payment. Furthermore, some users only issue payments for loads once they have received payment from the mill, and the mills may not follow a commonly defined pay period.  If you need to define multiple types of pay periods, discuss your requirements with a Caribou support representative, as the system can be configured with more flexibility than the simple case used in this tutorial.

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 set up pay activities, navigate to Setup | Pay Activities.

Several Activities are already listed by default.  We will add three more:  Delimbing, Felling, and Skidding.

All three new activities you are setting up (Delimbing, Felling, and Skidding) should be set up with 'REG PROD' as the Pay Type.  The Pay Type allows the system to distinguish between activities that count as production time versus non-production time for equipment utilization reporting.  (The Pay Type and Production Indicator flag are used when tracking detailed time slips and tree count information through the system.  If you are interested in learning more about these capabilities, please refer to the documentation relating to time slips on our web site.) 

The Activity Group Codes are very useful if you have specific activities (e.g., Mechanical Falling versus Hand Falling) that actually belong to a higher-level harvesting phase/activity (e.g., FELL).  You can set the specific pay activities up as separate rows, and use the Activity Group Code to tell the system to treat them both as belonging to the phase called 'FELL' for cost and production reporting.  For the tutorial, we will let the Activity Group Code default to 'NONE', since the harvesting activities we use here are so simple.

Click on 'Add' or use the short cut key, "Alt+a", to enter the following activities that will be required to complete this tutorial.   

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

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 of the logging and hauling contractors whom you pay, any harvesting contractors that work for you, landowners to whom you pay stumpage, and even any foresters who receive commission payments.  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. 

To set up a vendor, navigate to Setup | Vendors.

Click 'Add' to enter the following six vendors.  It is important to enter the Address of the vendor as this information appears on the header of vendor statements.

Once you have entered one vendor, you can use the 'Copy' button if there is information (such as City, Province, Zip Code) that are common from one vendor to the next.  When you click 'Copy', the system will save the row you just entered, and add a new row with the same information as the entry you just made.  You can then just edit the information that is different for your new vendor.

The Statement Type Code allows you to set up different statement formats for different vendors.  This feature is particularly useful if you want to show different columns of information on your vendor statements for different types of contractors (e.g., truckers versus harvesters).  Ask a Caribou support representative if you would like to learn more about this feature.

Click 'OK' to close the Vendor grid.

Setting Up Employees

We will set up one employee truck driver in the Employees list.  We will return to this employee list when we reach the time slip part of the tutorial, but for now we will just set up an employee driver, whom we will ultimately pay based on a percentage of the load revenue that the mill pays us. 

To setup an employee, navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Setup. 

Add the following entry into your grid using the 'Add' button.  (You should complete the employee's address information so that it will appear on the top of his pay statement.)

Click 'OK' to exit the Workers grid.

Setting Up Trucks

Setting Up Log Trucks

To set up the log trucks, navigate to Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Unit Numbers and click 'Add'.

Type directly in the grid to enter the following trucks:

The entry for the Owner is used to identify which vendor (contractor) to pay for each load entered in the system.  Notice that you must set your own trucks with 'MYCO' as the owner.  (You can change the 'MYCO' acronym under Setup | Company Information if you would like.)

The entry for configuration is used to set a default configuration for the truck.  (We do not set up any defaults in this tutorial, so we have entered 'NONE' in this column.)  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.

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.  This tutorial will not cover overloads, so you can skip these entries.

Click 'OK' to close the Trucks grid.

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.

Setup Routes by navigating to Setup | Routes.

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

Click 'OK' to close the Routes grid.

Setting Up Customers

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

Enter two new customers with the following information:

Click 'OK' to close the Customers grid.

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 enter a new destination, navigate to Setup | Destinations.

We will set up just two destinations, which happen to both be CANFOR destinations.  Click 'Add' to enter the following two destinations:

Click 'OK' to close the Destinations grid.

Setting Up Species and Strata

The Species and Stratum Fields are user-defined data fields that appear on your load slip and in your pay rate grids.  These fields 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.  Talk to a Caribou representative if you would like the terminology in your system modified, or if you need additional data fields on your load slips.

Setting Up Species

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

Click 'Add' to enter the following species data:

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

Setting Up Strata

In order to setup each of your products,  navigate to Setup | Stratum.

Click 'Add' to enter the following strata:

Click 'OK' to close the Stratum grid.

4. Setting Up a Block

The term "block" is commonly used by logging contractors to refer to the geographic area being harvested.  Other commonly used terms are "Job" or "Job Site".  The two terms mean the same thing, and the system can be easily configured to match your terminology.  Throughout the remainder of this manual, we will use the term "block".

• tracking weighed loads in kilograms, but establishing cubic meters (M3) as a common "unit of measure" for reporting (regardless of whether payment rate or revenue rates for the loads are based on tonnes, M3, cords, or some other unit of measure); 
• setting up standard conversions from kilograms to some other measure (such as M3 or cords) for use in calculating payments and/or revenue;
• setting up revenue rates that the customer pays you for deliveries to two different mills owned by that customer;
• paying a self-employed equipment owner-operator for delimbing and falling;
• paying contract truckers based on a percentage of the revenue you receive for trucking from the mill; and
• paying employee drivers who operate company-owned trucks, also based on a percentage of load revenue.

Blocks are set up under the menu item Setup | Blocks | Setup.  When you first open the block setup window, you should see one block called 'Internal Cost'.  This block should not be edited.  It is available for use when entering time slips where the time relates to mechanic time or any other time that is not directly attributable to a specific block or job.

Step 1

Click the 'Add' button to initiate the wizard if you are setting up a new block.  (Note that double-clicking on an existing row in the grid will allow you to edit an existing block.) 

Click 'Next'.

Step 2

Enter the geographic Area to which this block belongs.  This field is for informational and reporting purposes.  If you want to be able to indicate a larger geographic area to which your block belongs, you can do so in this window.  (Otherwise, you can select 'NONE' in this window.) 

When you first enter this window there will be no Areas (other than the 'NONE' Area).  Click 'New Area' to add an area, as shown here:

Click 'OK' to save your new Area and return to Step 2 of the wizard.  'Area 02' should now be highlighted in that window.  Then click 'Next' in the wizard window to move to Step 3.

Step 3

Enter the Timbermark to which this block belongs.  Again, this field is for informational and reporting purposes.  (Note that both the Area and Timbermark labels are configurable.  Some provinces do not refer to a Timbermark, but instead refer to a Forest or Compartment.)

When you first enter this window there will be no Timbermarks (other than the 'NONE' Timbermark).  Click 'New Timbermark' to add a Timbermark, as shown here:

Click 'OK' to save your new Timbermark and return to Step 3 of the wizard.  Your new Timbermark should now be highlighted in that window.  Then click 'Next' in the wizard window to move to Step 4.

Step 4

Enter the unit of measure for deliveries.  Most users receive their deliveries in KGS, which is the default.  Simply click 'Next' to accept the default.

Step 5

Select a standard volume measure for reporting production volumes (deliveries).  The measure that you select in this screen is used SOLELY for reporting in the system's standard reports, as many of the reports will show costs per "volume" and need to have a single "common denominator" to be meaningful.  Some Canadian users choose M3 here, but others choose Tonnes. 

Your selection in this window does not limit you in terms of how you can receive payment for deliveries, or issue payments; if you choose cubic meters here, you can still pay loggers or receive payments in KGs or cords, for example.

For this tutorial, select M3, and click 'Next'.

Step 6

The next step involves setting up the start and end dates for the block.  The start date is generally the date you start logging.  The end date is when the block is complete.  The dates also set the boundaries for when loads identified with the block will be paid.  A load with a date outside the start and end date will be flagged as an error (that is, it will be flagged as having no valid pay rate) when you run the calculators in the system. 

Enter the date range January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006.  Also, check the 'Apply GST' box if you have subcontractors working on this block whom you will need to pay GST.  (The system will auto-calculate the GST at 6 percent.)  For this tutorial, we have subcontractors on the block, so check the box.

The Logger's Edge will use the date format settings of the computer you are using.  The above screen shot is based on a Month/Day/Year setting.  If you click on the drop-down box circled above, you can pick the dates from the calendar, and the system will auto-fill the dates in the box for you.  (Alternatively, you can type directly into the date field itself.)

Click 'Next' to move onto Step 7.

Step 7

This step involves setting the rates that the Mills will pay you for log deliveries. 

Enter the following information into the rates window.  You need to click the 'Add' button to put a blank row into this window.  Once you have the blank row, you can type in the information shown here.  After you have completed one row,  you can click 'Copy' to create another row, and then just edit the fields that need to be edited.  If you add a row by mistake, simply highlight the row, and click the 'Delete' button.

In the above screen shot, you will notice that Species, Stratum, Truck Type and Route are left empty.  This "blank" translates to ANY. So row 1 reads as: "We get paid $4.75/Tonne for delimbing when we deliver to Little Fort, have ANY Species, ANY Stratum, ANY Truck Type and use ANY Route.  Row 2 says that we are paid $4.75/Tonne for delimbing when deliveries are made to Vernon.  Note that the system does not allow the use of a blank entry for Destination when setting up revenue rates.  Therefore, you must have a row in this grid for each destination to which you deliver, and for each activity that you are using to track revenues.

Note in lines 3 and 4, we will be paid based on M3 instead of Tonnes for felling.  The Logger's Edge will let you set up any pay basis you want and mix and match on any given block.  If you are paid on a M3 basis, you will either have to enter M3 directly on each load slip or setup a conversion rate to translate KGs into M3s.  (In this tutorial, we will set up conversion factors.)

You can scroll left and right to see all of the fields that are used in this grid. 

Use the 'Full Screen' button for easy viewing in the wizard window if your list of rates is long.

Click 'Next' to move onto Step 8.

Use this screen to specify the rates you pay your contractors for deliveries from this block.  You only set up rates for load-based pay for contractors here -- if contractors are paid hourly or daily, those rates are set up elsewhere.  (If you pay no contractors based on load slip information, you would simply click 'Next' in this window without making any entries.)

Enter the following information into the grid.  (Notice that you can leave the destination blank for pay rates if the rates do not vary by destination.  The requirement to have a specific destination on each rate is only applicable for revenue rates.)

In this block, the rates for felling and delimbing differ by Species and are based on M3.  The Trucking rate is special - it is interpreted to say:  Pay the Owner of the Truck on the load slip at 95 percent of the revenue you receive from the customer.  Thus, if Canfor pays you $100 for hauling a load, you would pay the trucking contractor 95% ($95) and keep $5 (perhaps to cover the administrative costs of paying trucking).  The Logger's Edge will calculate the revenue you receive for trucking based on the revenue rates you set up for trucking in Step 7 of the wizard.

The contractor called 'OWNER' is a special wild-card contractor entry that comes with the software.  This wildcard is a big time-saver when all trucking contractors share the same set of rates for trucking because you can set up the rate once, rather than setting up an individual row for each specific truck contractor that works for you.

You may use any of the pull-down menus in each column to create the different pay rates based on different load attributes.  Again, you can scroll to the right to see all of the fields, or you can choose 'Full Screen' to see the entire window.  Click 'OK' to close the Full Screen view.

Once you have completed your entries so that they are consistent with the window above, click 'Next'.

Step 9

Use this screen to specify the rates you pay your employees (or self-employed operators who operate your company's equipment/trucks) for deliveries from this block.  You only set up rates for load-based pay for employees (or contract workers) here -- if they are paid hourly or daily, those rates are set up elsewhere.  (If you pay no employees/contractor workers based on load slip information, you would simply click 'Next' in this window without making any entries.)

If all truck drivers operating your company's equipment are paid the same percentage, you can use the 'DRIVER' wildcard worker.  The 'DRIVER' wildcard is analogous to the 'OWNER' wildcard, but it works for the driver on the load slip, rather than the owner of the truck on the load slip.  If all drivers were paid the same percentage for driving a truck of the same configuration, but the percentages paid to the drivers depended on the different configurations of trucks, you could set up two 'DRIVER' wildcard rates, and set the truck types on those rates in accordance with your rate structure.

Add a row in the grid that looks like the following entry where we are paying every DRIVER on the load slip at 20% of  the load revenue we receive from Canfor.

Click 'Next' to move onto Step 10.

Step 10

If all of the volume you deliver is hand-scaled and you receive the volumes from the mills directly, you can choose the top radio button: Use No Conversions. (If you were to make this selection, you would bypass the next two screens we show in this tutorial.)

If your pay rates, revenue rates, and reporting are all on a per tonne basis for this block and you want to report only in tonnes, then you can choose the middle radio button: Use Generic Conversion.  (Again, if you were to make this selection, you would bypass the next two screens.)

If you need the system to use standard conversions to convert KGS to M3, cords, or some other measure, you should use the last radio button: Use Block-Specific Conversions, as shown here. 

Click 'Next' to move onto step 11.

Step 11

Use this screen to indicate the attribute or attributes that govern your conversions.  Select 'Stratum' and click 'Next'.

Step 12

Use this grid to enter the conversion factors that you will need for  purposes of generating payment or receiving revenues (or simply reporting on volumes) on this block.  The columns that appear here are dictated by the selection you made in the prior step.  That is, there is one column  for 'Stratum' here based on the selection in Step11.  If you had also selected 'Destination' in Step 11  you would see a 'Destination' column in the grid as well.  The 'From:' measure is dictated by your selection in Step 3 (delivery measure).  You get to select the 'To' measure.  Enter the Conversion Rates as shown.

The conversion rates are interpreted as follows:  for stratum 23, convert KGs into cubic meters based on a ratio of 0.00125 M3 per KG (or 1.25 M3 per Tonne) for all loads delivered on or after January 1, 2006.  For stratum 31, use a 0.0012 M3 to KG ratio for the same dates, and for stratum 50, use a 0.001275 ratio.

Some users prefer to express their conversions as KG per M3.  For example, they think of a conversion factor of 800, rather than 0.00125.  There is a configuration setting that allows you to set this preference. Check with a Caribou support representative if you would like your setting changed.

If your conversion factors change part-way through the life of the block and new conversion factors are used for deliveries on/after a particular date, you can add new rows with new effective dates.  If the conversion rates apply retroactively, you should edit the existing conversion factor entries (rather than adding new rates with new effective dates), and re-run the 'Recalc Load Volume' calculator.  If your payments and revenue change based on the conversion factor changes, you will need to run all of the relevant invoice and pay calculators as well.

Click 'Next' to continue.

Step 13

The 'Avg Trip Time' is used to specify the average trip time that it takes a truck to travel from the block to each destination.  The Logger's Edge can compute the number of tonne-hours a truck operated in a given block by multiplying this average trip time with the tonnes on the loads delivered.  The system can use these tonne-hours in conjunction with the actual truck costs you set up in the system to estimate the tonne-hour cost of operating your trucks on each block.

The 'Max Trip Time' entry can also be enabled.  It is used in the truck cycle-time report.  This report tracks the time period between loads delivered from the same block to the same destination.  The 'Max  Trip Time' is used to exclude those cycle periods that are considered too long (perhaps the driver was not on shift or was taking an extended break) and therefore should not be included in the report. Call your Caribous Software representative if you would like that feature enabled.

Make the following entries in your grid:

If you have purchased the Fuel Rebate module, a Caribou Support Representative will enable two additional columns in this grid:  the one-way on-highway distance from the block to each destination and the one-way off-highway distance.  These distances will be used in conjunction with the loads you have entered to generate a Fuel Rebate report.

When you have finished making the above entries, click 'Next'.

Step 14

The above screen can be configured to track additional pieces of information such as additional date fields. If you have additional fields you would like to track for informational purposes, contact a Caribou support representative.

Click 'Next' to continue.

Step 15

Up to this step, all of your selections have been stored in memory.  You can use the back button to review or edit your information.  You must click 'Finish' to save the block and all of the corresponding information to the database.  If you choose 'Cancel' here, NONE of your information for this block will be saved.

When you click 'Finish' you will see the grid with your new block:

You can use the 'Copy' button to speed up the setup of a new block.  Simply highlight the entire row for the block that you want to copy in the grid above.  Then click the 'Copy' button.  This action will launch the block setup wizard with a copy of the original block.  You can then work your way through the wizard screens, making the necessary changes along the way.  When you get to Step 14, give the block a new name.  When you click 'Finish', you will see your new block as a new row in the above grid.

Click 'OK' to close the Block grid.

5. Entering Load Slips

Now that you have your basic setup data and your block set up completed, you are ready to enter 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 'AUG 1 06' in the Pay Period drop-down list.  This selection will auto fill the Start and End date.  (Note that you are not required to choose a pay period in this window.  You can select any start and end date to view loads.)

Click 'Add' to bring up an empty load ticket: 

This first tab, 'Contract Detail' (located at bottom of ticket), is where you enter the attributes of the load such as Species, Stratum, Destination, etc.  (Depending on your configuration settings, you may not see the 'Load Activities' tab.  This tab is available if you need to track equipment and/or operators other than truckers on your load slip.  We will not use this tab in this tutorial.)

Enter the following data into 5 new loads:

Notice that as you enter the 'Block', 'Stratum', 'Gross Weight' and 'Tare Weight' fields, the 'Volume' field will auto-calculate based on the conversion factors that you set up when you created the block.

After entering each ticket, click 'Save/Add' (or use the ALT-S key).  This action 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.  Once you have finished entering all load slips click 'OK'.   After you have entered the five tickets listed above, and you have clicked 'OK', the load slip grid should look similar to the following:

The 'Load Count' field on the load slip defaults to a value of '1' when you enter a new ticket, meaning that this ticket will be treated as a full load on the vendor statement load counts.  If you have a truck with two bunks, and each bunk is weighed separately, you can enter 0.5 into the 'Load Count' field so that the total load count appearing on the vendor statements and employee statements for this "split" load would equal 1.

Click 'OK' to close the Load Slips grid.

6. Processing Revenue

The Logger's Edge calculates the amounts you should receive from each mill based on the loads delivered and the rates you have entered for each block.  The system uses the customer revenue rates you entered when you set up the block, in conjunction with the attributes on each load slip, to calculate a revenue amount for each load slip.  If you pay employees or contractors based on a percentage of the revenue you receive from the mill, you must first have calculated the revenue amounts.  This calculation occurs within the 'Invoice Calculator' in The Logger's Edge.

To process invoices, select Calculators | Invoices - Full.

You will be prompted for the pay period.  Select 'AUG 1 06'.  Then click 'OK'.

The Logger's Edge will now process your invoices.  This process will match up loads with revenue contracts and apply the rates that the mills pay you.  We call it an invoice calculator because the software will create a pro forma invoice for each mill to which you deliver, so that you can compare what you expect to receive from the mill with the payments you actually receive.  Since most mills self invoice their logging contractors, you will most likely not send out the physical invoices that The 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 and you will need to correct the errors before proceeding.

Click 'OK'.

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:  it represents the amounts due to 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 exit the Customer Invoices grid.

Verifying Mill Settlements

Verifying Mill Settlements is a two-step process in The Logger's Edge.  The first step involves running the invoices calculator (as explained above) in order to compute your Pro Forma revenue. (We have already completed this step.) 

The second step involves running the 'Mill Settlements, All Loads'  report under the Load Reports menu item in the Reporter and comparing that report to the mill settlements you actually receive from your mill.  Select the menu item Reports | Business Reports (or use the icon on the far right of the toolbar) to launch The Logger's Edge  Reporter.

From the reporter, navigate to Load Reports | Mill Settlements, All Loads report.  If you deliver to multiple mills who follow different pay cycles, you can run this report for a date range that is consistent with the physical settlement you receive from the mill, and you can select the blocks and destination(s) covered on that physical settlement.  We suggest that you run the report in Summary View first to determine if the mill's calculations match yours.   

For this tutorial, imagine that Canfor's statement covers the date range of our AUG 1 06 period and cover deliveries to both Vernon and Little Fort.  To reconcile our results with their physical statement, we will choose the 'AUG 1 06' Period, select All Blocks and All Destinations, and check the 'Summary Data Only' checkbox.

Your resulting report should look like the one below.  You can now confirm with Canfor's settlement that the revenue amounts match what The Logger's Edge has calculated.  If there is a discrepancy, you would want to rerun this report without clicking the 'Summary Data Only' checkbox to get a load-by-load listing of payments.

Click the large 'X' to exit out of The Logger's Edge reporter.

7. Processing Employee Pay

Now that you have your block and load slips entered, and you have run the Invoice Calculator, it is time to see how pay works.  This section will focus on calculating the Employee Payments (employee truck drivers, in this case).  The next section, which is nearly identical to this one, will focus on Vendor (i.e., Contractor) Payments.

Run Employee Pay

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

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period, and click 'OK'.  The Logger's Edge will process your employee pay.  Assuming you have followed the tutorial directions correctly, you should receive the following message:

Click 'OK'.  You will see the following pay errors: 

The error reports can be daunting when you are first learning to interpret them, but as you work with them, they will become much easier to understand.  The listing above tells us that we have a load dated 8/7/06 with a company-owned truck (truck code = 0023), and we have failed to set up a truck 'Cost Per Unit' rate and a truck 'Full Founded' rate.  Likewise, we have a load date on 8/6/06 with the same problem.

At this point in our process, we have set up pay rates for your employee truck drivers (pay at 20% of load revenue, as we specified when we set up the block), but we have not yet accounted for the capital and operating costs associated with owning your own trucks. The Logger's Edge has a variety of methods that can be used to assign costs to company-owned trucks, including costing by distance traveled, by hours worked, or by tonne-hours (the tonnage hauled by the truck for each load multiplied by the average trip time for the truck to haul between the block-destination combination of the load). 

In this tutorial, we will set up costing on a tonne-hour basis.  We will make assumptions about these costs for this exercise, but be aware that the The Logger's Edge has cost build-up tools that allow users to build up to accurate costing rates based on the purchase price of each truck, the operating expenses associated with the truck, fuel prices, insurance costs, etc.

Click 'OK'.

Set Up Truck Costs

To set up tonne-hour trucking rates, go to the menu item Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Trucks | Truck Costing.  When you first open this window, you will see a blank grid.  Click the 'Add' button, and enter the following information for the company-owned truck (#0023) that delivered the loads with the above errors. 

The Std Cost/Unit is a cost per unit (where the unit = TONNE_HR) that excludes an operator component.  The Full Cost/Unit is a cost per unit that includes industry assumptions about both the cost of equipment ownership/operation, and the costs of an operator.  The software allows the user to enter both values so that reporting can be run either with actual operator costs (based on your specific payments to truck drivers) coupled with standard equipment costs, or with full-found costs, which are comparable to the "blue book" rates that are commonly used in the industry.  In this case, we have said that the trucks themselves will be costed at $2.02 per tonne-hour in reports that show equipment costs coupled with the actual truck operator costs.  That same truck will be costed at $2.42 in reports that make use of only the full-found rate rather than showing the company's actual operator costs separate from equipment costs.

Click 'OK' to close the above window.  Click 'OK' again to leave the Truck Cost grid and return to the main software desktop.

Documentation is available for using the cost build-up tools that allow you to account for your own operating and maintenance costs, fuel costs, etc. in order to build up to the tonne-hour costs for each truck.  Ask a Caribou support representative to direct you to the documentation on our web site.

Re-Run Employee Calculator

Now that we have corrected our truck costing set-up "error", we are ready to re-run the employee calculator.  Choose Calculators - Employees | Full again, select the 'AUG 1 06' pay period, and click 'OK'.  When the calculator has completed its processing, you should get a message like this:

Click 'OK' to leave this window.

You are now ready to review the employee statement for your own employee truck driver.  Select Reports | Employee Statements | By Pay Period. 

Select the 'AUG 1 06'  Pay Period and click 'OK'.

The employee statement grid above shows the detailed payments to Joe Evans.  This grid view is handy for internal use as a quick validation that you are seeing the information you expect to see.  If we had more than one employee being paid, we could scroll through each employee's statement by clicking on the dropdown list box in the top left. 

To generate a nicely formatted employee statement to accompany your cheque to each employee, click the 'View Statements' button.  Select the employee 'Joe Evans', and click 'OK'.  You should get a report that looks like the following:

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, which provides a load-by-load listing of payments.

Take a minute to review the Employee Statements.  You may configure the statements to include the columns and groupings that you would like by using the File | Configure Statements and Invoices utility.  If needed, a Caribou Software representative can help you with this configuration.

Click 'OK' to exit the Statements window and click 'OK' to exit the Employee Pay Statements grid.

8. Processing Vendor Pay

Now we are ready to generate pay statements for our vendors (subcontractors). 

Run Vendor Pay

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

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period and click 'OK'.  The Logger's Edge will process your vendor pay.  Assuming you have followed the tutorial directions correctly, you should receive the following message:

Click 'OK'.  If there are pay errors, you will be notified with a Pay Errors screen, and you will have to fix the errors before you can proceed.

Review Vendor Statements under Reports | Vendor Statements | By Pay Period.  You are prompted to select the pay period:

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period and click 'OK'.

The vendor statement grid above shows the detailed payments to Jenkins Trucking.  You can navigate through these statements in the same way that you navigated through the employee statements, as explained above.  For example, 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.  The formatted vendor statement is designed to accompany your cheque for pay to your subcontractors.

Select 'Jenkins Trucking' and click 'OK'.  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 groupings that you would like by using the File | Configure Statements and Invoices utility.  If needed, a Caribou Software representative can help you with this configuration.

Click 'OK' to exit the Statements window and click 'OK' to exit the Vendor Statements grid.

9. Business Reports - Loads

To view all reports and statements in The Logger's Edge, navigate to Reports | Business Reports.  The Logger's Edge Reporter, a separate application, will open.  You will see the following main window of the Reporter:

  There are a variety of standard business reports available in The Logger's Edge Reporter. 

You can also open The Logger's Edge Reporter from the main Logger's Edge software window by using the icon on the far right of the toolbar:

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 on the left side of the screen, 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 Logger's Edge 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 should review the following reports to see how the load slips, payments, and revenue you have entered/generated in The Logger's Edge  appear 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 important to run as part of your overall payment process to ensure that all loads have been entered and paid as expected.

Analytical Reports

• Block Reports - Economics | Summary P&L
• Block Reports - Economics | Block, Profit by Activity
• Block Reports - Economics | Revenue, By Destination, Summary
• Block Reports - Economics | Revenue, By Destination, Detailed
• Block Reports - Economics | Activity Costs, Summary, By Actual Volume
• Block Reports - Production | Deliveries, By Destination

Audit Reports

• Load Reports | Loads Paid, All Loads
• Load Reports | Loads Paid, Only Unpaid *
• Load Reports | Loads, Multi-Pay  *
• Truck Reports | Deliveries
• Truck Reports | Truck Cost
• Load Reports | Daily, By Block, By Ticket

Running the auditing reports that are asterisked above should be a part of your routine process after you have run your calculators, and before you issue your final pay statements to ensure no loads 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 rather than the date for pay.  (The Employee and Contractor Statements under the Statements menu item do, however, rely on date for pay, since the purpose of the date for pay field is to allow for payment of late load slips.)

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

Block P&L Report

Once you have processed employee pay (only loads have been covered in the tutorial to this point). vendor pay, and invoices, you can assess the profitability of your block operations.

In The Logger's Edge Reporter (Reports | Business Reports) select Block Reports - Economics | Summary P&L.

Run the report for the 'AUG 1 06' pay period and select block  'EJ575-3212'.  Click 'OK' to run the report.

The total cost is the sum of  employee pay, equipment costs and contractor payments. (When you run this report, it will contain less information than the picture above.  Specifically, you will not see any employee hourly pay yet, as that will be covered later in the tutorial.)  The block profit is revenue less total costs.  The revenue for the block is based on the revenue calculated by the software when you ran the Invoices calculator.  (At this point, we have only generated payments for vendors, so those are the only costs we see on the block.)

The bottom set of rows on the report 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.  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. If you do not track tree counts, the estimated production statistic will not be informative.

The last two rows compare the actual vol/tree based on the actual volume delivered and actual tree counts, with the estimated vol/tree.  (If your system is enabled to track tree counts, you indicate the estimated volume/tree when you set up the block.) 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 the small 'x' to exit out of the Block P&L report.  You are now back to the main menu of The Logger's Edge Reporter.

Revenue, By Destination, Summary Report

In The Logger's Edge Reporter, select Block Reports - Economics | Revenue, By Destination, Summary.

Run the report for the 'AUG 1 06'  pay period and select all destinations.  Click 'OK' to run the report.

This report summarizes the load counts, volumes, and revenues received on a destination basis.

Click the small 'x' to exit out of the Revenue, By Destination, Summary report.  You are now back to the main menu of The Logger's Edge Reporter.

Deliveries, By Destination Report

In The Logger's Edge Reporter select Block Reports - Production | Deliveries, By Destination.

Run the report for the 'AUG 1 06' pay period.  Select all destinations, all blocks, leave the 'Sort By' radio button set to 'Block', and check the 'Summary Data Only' box.  Click 'OK' to run to the report.  Your report should look like the following:

The report shows a summary of all your loads from each block, ordered by the destination to which they were delivered (within each block).  If you want to see the underlying loads summarized in this report, you can re-run the report without checking the 'Summary Data Only' box.

Click the small 'x' to exit out of the Deliveries, By Destination report.  You are now back to the main menu of The Logger's Edge Reporter.

Loads Paid, All Loads Report

In The Logger's Edge Reporter, select Load Reports | Loads Paid, All Loads.

Run the report for the 'AUG 1 06' pay period and select block 'EJ575-3212'.  Click 'OK' to run the report.

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 of 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 (perhaps a rate that does not match the attributes on your load), the phase will be flagged in red as 'Not Paid'.

Click the small 'x' to exit out of the Loads Paid, All Loads report.  You are now back to the main menu of The Logger's Edge Reporter.

Truck Cost Report

In The Logger's Edge Reporter, select Truck Reports | Truck Cost.

Run the report for the 'AUG 1 06' pay period and select block 'EJ575-3212'.  Click 'OK' to run the report.

This report shows both company-owned trucks (and drivers) and contractor trucks.

Notice the 'Own Truck Cost' column.  The cost in this column is based on the tonne-hour rate set up for this truck, multiplied by the tonnage on the load, and finally multiplied by the average trip time indicated in the Block Setup wizard for the block/destination combination associated with the load.  For example, Ticket T101 has a total tonnage of 40, a tonne-hour truck cost of $2.02, and an average trip time of 5 hours (associated with Block EJ575-3212 and Destination Little Fort).  The product of those three values (40 * 5 *2.02) = $404.00.

Click the small 'x' to exit out of the Truck Cost report.  You are now back to the main menu of The Logger's Edge Reporter.

10. Tracking Time - Basic Setup

Let's now switch gears and explore how The Logger's Edge handles employee time.  The following sections of this tutorial are focused on showing you how to handle hourly employees and equipment, as well as creating hourly payroll statements for employees.  In addition, we 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 & Employee Pay Rates
• Setting Up Equipment Types
• Setting Up Equipment Units
• Setting Up Equipment Costs
• Setting Up Default Equipment/Worker Assignments
• Setting Up Expense Accounts

Before setting up 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: Date, Employee, Equipment, Truck, Activity, Block, and Revenue Contract, 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 set up many of these items (Trucks, Blocks, Activities), and you have set up one employee.  (Because he is the only employee in the system, he appears as the default selection on the time slip window.)  Our next tasks will be to add more employees and to add 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 when you may not have valid data for a required entry.  In this case, a selection of 'NONE' serves as a valid entry.

There are actually two alternative configurations available for your time slip.  The first option is the one shown in the picture above, which is a single line-entry window.  If an employee performs two different activities or works on two different machines, you will enter two slips using this window.  The second option is a multi-line time sheet for a given day.  The section option may be easier if your employees perform many different activities throughout the day.  Ask a Caribou support representative if you want your time slip window modified from its current setting. 

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

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

Setting Up Employees

Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Setup.  You will see the employee driver we set up earlier in the tutorial.

In this grid, you will enter three more employees:

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 'MYCO' -- meaning a worker is employed by your own company.   

This grid is also used to enter contract labourers, whose employer is himself or another company other than MYCO.  For example, 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 (though you are not required) enter each employee's address, because it appears on his or her employee pay statement.

Click on 'Save' to save the item.  Saved items appear in the tree view on the left side. 

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 an employee 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 his prior information is, however, still retained in the database.  So, the employee 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. When you first open this tab, there will be no rows in the grid.  Use the 'Add' button to enter the first of the three rows shown below.  Use the 'Copy' button, and edit as needed, to enter the next two rows.

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

Click 'OK' to exit the Workers grid.

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).  You can over-ride the calculated loaded rate in this grid with a specific loaded hourly rate for each employee.  Alternatively, you can change the system's default uplift percentage using the menu item File | System Configuration.  Click on the 'Payment' Tab, and make the necessary change.  (You will have to stop and restart the program for the change to take effect.  The new rate will be used for all new employee rates that you set up in the system.)

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 turn to 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 can actually set up a specific piece of equipment, you need to create a list of equipment types.

When you first open this window, there will be no rows.  Click the 'Add' button and make each of the following entries:

Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Type grid.  The information that you have entered will save automatically when you click 'OK'.

Setting Up Equipment Units

To set up equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Unit Numbers.  When you first enter this window, the Equipment grid will be blank.

Click on 'Add' or use the short cut key, 'Alt+a' and enter the following two equipment units.  The 'Owner' column is used to identify which 'Vendor' owns the equipment.  For company-owned equipment, you would use your company's 'Code' -- 'MYCO' in this case. 

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 'Save' to save the second row you just created in the grid.  (Remember, entries in the system are saved automatically by moving off the row you just created/edited.  Since we have not moved off the row you just created, you need to click the 'Save' button before leaving this window.)  Then click on the 'Equipment Activities' tab and you will move to a grid where you can assign default activities to pieces of equipment. 

In the grid, you should enter the following default activities for the two pieces of equipment you just entered. 

Recall that when we looked at the time slip above, there were entries for the piece of equipment and activity.  The default activities that you have 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.")

Click 'OK' to exit the Equipment grid.

Setting U p Equipment Costs

When you own your own equipment units, you can set up an internal 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 completing a certain job or block.  In order to set up the equipment cost for each of your equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing.

Click on 'Add' to enter the cost for each of your units.  You will see the following window:

This form allows you to 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.

The entry form 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 your 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.  Certain reports in the system make use of this full rate per hour, rather than relying on payroll costs for operators.  If you are not using The Logger's Edge to track payroll costs, you may find that reports based on this fully founded rate are better suited for your needs.

Enter the following costs for your equipment units.  Use the 'Save/Add' button between the first and second entry.  Use the 'OK' button to leave the window (and save your information) after entering your second entry.

You should now see the two entries you just made in grid view:

Click 'OK' to leave this window.

The Logger's Edge has extensive cost build-up tools that you can use if you do not have a current system in place for developing your standard hourly equipment costs.  Contact a Caribou representative if you would like to learn more about these tools. 

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.  When you first navigate to this grid, it will be blank.  Use the 'Add' button to add two entries, as shown below.  (You can ignore the 'Code' field on the far right of this window.)  When you save each row (by moving to the next row, or by explicitly clicking the 'Save' button), the system will auto-fill the code value (for internal use by the software).

We do not need to set up an equipment assignment for our other employee mechanic -- Joe McKanic.  In this tutorial, 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.

Click 'OK' to close the Equipment Assignments 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 setup your expense accounts, navigate to Setup | Accounting | Account Codes.

Click 'Add' to enter the following three expense accounts:

When entering account codes, you can save some time by entering the 'Description' first, followed by the 'Part Numbers' that make up your account code.  When you enter the individual parts, the system will auto-fill the A/C Code column with the two separate parts, separated by a '-'.  If you do not use numeric account codes with different account part numbers, you might prefer to use A/C Codes like "Fuel" and "Parts".  If you use this type of naming convention, you can always enter a "-" in the 'Part 1' and 'Part 2' fields, and then enter the A/C Code value last, overwriting the "---" code that will be created by the auto-naming convention.  Just overwrite the "---" with the word "Fuel", for example.

Once you have finished with the account codes, you are finished with your basic setup items.  You can now turn to entering time slips.

Click 'OK' to exit the Account Codes grid.

11. Entering Time Slips

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

Choose the 'AUG 1 06' pay period.   Then click 'Add' to view the actual time slip entry form: 

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

'

Click 'OK' to save this second entry.  Your time entry grid should look like this:

Let's now enter the remainder of the week's worth of time (see below) for Larry Loader:

Next, let's enter the following slips for Sam Skidder for the week:

When you are done, your time entry grid should look as such:

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:

Once you have made these entries, you are ready to move on to processing your 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 that aggregate 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. 

Click 'OK' to exit the Time Detail grid.

12. Processing Payroll

Now that you have your time slips entered, it is time to see how payroll works.

Run Employee Pay

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

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period and click 'OK',  The Logger's Edge will process your employee pay.  Assuming you have followed the tutorial directions correctly, you should receive the following message:

Click 'OK'.  If there are pay errors, you will be notified with a Pay Errors screen and you will have to fix the errors before you can proceed.

Review Employee Statements under Reports | Hourly | Employees.  Choose the 'AUG 1 06' pay period and click 'OK'.

The hourly employee statement is designed to accompany your cheque for pay to each employee.  This report format is nice for hourly employees.  Note that we did not use this format earlier for our employee drivers because this format does not include load slip payment.

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 exit the window.

13. Equipment Expenses

The Logger's Edge allows you to enter your actual equipment and truck operating costs.  In the prior section, you saw how time charges for repairs and maintenance could be charged against an individual piece of equipment (or truck).  In this section you will see how expenses (out-of-pocket) can be charged against your company-owned equipment/truck 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.  As you build a history of equipment costing information in your system, you can use this information to update the equipment standard hourly costs for each piece of equipment you set up in the system earlier.

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

Set Up Vendors

Click 'OK' to close the Vendors grid.

Enter Expenses

Select the 'AUG 1 06' pay period, and enter the following four expense items four your equipment.  (If there is a column in your data entry grid such as 'Revenue Contract' or 'Activity', which is not in the table below, just leave it set to 'NONE'.)

Note that the system calculates GST automatically, based on the entry you made in the 'Amount' column.  If you need to edit the auto-calculated GST amount for any reason, you can do so directly in the grid.  When you tab off that cell, the 'Total' column (not shown in the table above) will adjust accordingly.

Click 'OK' to leave the Miscellaneous Expenses window when you have finished your entries.

If you receive an invoice that covers multiple pieces of equipment, you can split the invoice into multiple rows and assign each piece of equipment its own identifiable cost.  See the two entries from ESSO above, which have the same invoice number.

Run Vendor Pay

Note:  If you are working with version 4.4 or later, you do NOT need to run Vendor Pay in order for your amounts to appear on statements and in reports.  You can skip the remainder of this section and move on to the Business Reports section.

Once you have entered your miscellaneous expenses, you need to create a vendor statement in order to pay each vendor. (Even if you do not plan to issue a statement to these repair/maintenance vendors through the system, you need to process the vendor calculator in order to get the miscellaneous expenses to appear in the equipment operating cost report shown below if you are using versions prior to 4.4.)  In order to process vendor pay, you proceed as you did when you paid your loads.

First, select Calculators | Vendors - Full to process pay for your vendors (subcontractors).  You are prompted to select the pay period:

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period and click 'OK'.  The Logger's Edge will process your vendor pay.  Assuming you have followed the tutorial directions correctly, you should receive the following message:

Click 'OK'.  If there are pay errors, you will be notified with a Pay Errors screen and you will have to fix the errors before you can proceed.

Review Vendor Statements under Reports | Vendor Statements | By Pay Period.  You are prompted to select the pay period:

Select the ‘AUG 1 06’ pay period and click 'OK'.  The vendor statement is designed to accompany your check for pay to each vendor. 

The vendor statement grid above shows the detailed payments to Imperial Oil.  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, just as you did for the other vendors.

Click 'OK' to exit the Vendor Statements grid.

14. Business Reports - Time and Expense

Let's now take a look at some of the management reports for time and expenses in The Logger's Edge.  To view time reports and statements in The 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 Logger's Edge Reporter. 

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 t