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1. How to Use this Tutorial
Purpose of this Tutorial
This tutorial will help you understand the fundamentals of
The Logger's Edge
Software and become familiar with the screen layouts and grids. In it,
you will work through the Software, starting with entering very basic setup
data and finishing with calculating vendor payments and viewing management
reports. There is also a section explaining how to enter time slips
and process hourly pay, and a section covering entry and tracking of
miscellaneous expenditures such as parts and repair for equipment.
By working through the tutorial you will get a basic
understanding of how the system operates and the work flow involved.
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 best use of your training time, we
recommend that you work through the tutorial in order to learn the basics of
the program and generally how it works. This approach will allow you to maximize your
training time by concentrating on where to enter key information, how to configure payment scenarios, and
how to interpret reports. 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.
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_SEUS.mdb file. The Harvestboss0_SEUS.mdb file is normally a hidden
file in the Database directory. (If your computer is set not to show hidden files, you may not see this file
-- there
is no problem with not seeing the file; it still remains in the background.)
In the File Name entry box, type 'US_Tutorial' and click
'Save'.
The Logger's Edge
will then create your new Database
called US_Tutorial and start up the program.
When you specify the name of your database (i.e. US_Tutorial),
do not use the database name HarvestBoss0_SEUS.mdb.
HarvestBoss0_SEUS.mdb is a
template or kernel database that is used as the starting point for all new
databases.
The status bar at the bottom of the main window identifies the database
to which you are currently connected.
This tutorial will walk you through the steps for setting
up a "Pay as Cut" scenario and a "Timber Deed" scenario. The "Pay as
Cut" tract shows a scenario where you have a tract and pay stumpage to the
landowner as the wood is cut; the "Timber Deed"
tract shows a scenario where you have a tract and pay the landowner up front for the rights to log their
land.
Once you have finished the tutorial, you can then create a
database for your company. You will use your company-specific database
as the "master database" for all of your actual work, once you have completed the tutorial. The
tutorial database is really just a "test" database for you to use while
learning the program.
The following are some other details relating to management of load slips that will be covered throughout this
tutorial:
-
tracking weighed loads in pounds, but establishing tons as a common
"unit of measure" for reporting (regardless of whether payment rates or
revenue rates for the loads are based on tons, mbf, cords, or some other
unit of measure);
-
setting up standard conversions from pounds to some other measure
(such as mbf or cords) for use in calculating payments and/or revenue,
and for comparing actual deliveries to cruise volumes;
-
paying logging payments to contract loggers (and potentially other
activities like stumpage, trucking, or severance taxes); and
-
generating revenue receipts from the mills to which you deliver.
This tutorial is intended to teach you the basic functionality
of the system relating to management of loads and to give you a feel for the basic data flow through the
system.
3. Basic Setup
The first tasks that 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 tract
and specify your revenue rates and pay rates associated with deliveries from
this tract. The procedures that will be covered in this section
are:
-
Setting Up Accounting information, including Pay Periods and Accounting Periods
-
Setting Up Pay Activities
-
Setting Up Vendors
-
Setting Up Trucks
-
Setting Up Customers
-
Setting Up Destinations
Before setting up these items, let's first take a look at the load slip
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 use the Load Slip Icon
located on the toolbar.
Click on 'Add' to see the following load slip form.
The load slip includes several fields: Tract, Species, Product,
Destination, Truck No, Driver, Truck Type, Route and the Dates, 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.
You will notice in the above screenshot that there are yellow and white text fields
-- the yellow fields are required entries; the white fields are optional
entries. There are times you may not have valid data for a
required entry. In this case a selection of 'NONE' serves as a valid
entry.
In the next few sections you will set up the lists required for entering
load slips.
Click 'Cancel' to close the New Load Slip window.
Click 'OK' to close the Load Slip grid.
Setting Up Accounting and Pay Periods
Pay periods are used throughout
The Logger's Edge
for running payment
calculators and creating statements. A pay period is a date range you
configure to match a payment cycle for your vendors. For example, if
you pay your vendors for deliveries for the 1st through the 15th of 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.
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.
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. 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 time 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 following
information:
|
Code |
W/E 8/18/06 |
|
Description |
Week End 8/18/06 |
|
Start Date |
8/12/2006 |
|
End Date |
8/18/2006 |
|
Accounting Period |
2006 |
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 setup pay activities, navigate to Setup | Pay Activities.
Several Activities are already listed by default.
All of the activities
you will enter now should be set up with 'REG PROD' as the
Pay Type. (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.)
Click on 'Add' or use the short cut key, Alt+a and enter the following activities.
These pay activities are common for users that are paying loggers and
perhaps hauling companies to harvest and deliver the wood, and are receiving
revenue from a mill for the delivered wood.
|
Code |
Description |
Pay Type |
Production Indicator |
Active? |
|
LOG DELIVERY |
Log Deliveries for Rev |
REG PROD |
No |
Yes |
|
CUT-HAUL |
Cutting and Hauling |
REG PROD |
No |
Yes |
|
CUTTING |
Cutting |
REG PROD |
No |
Yes |
In the tutorial, we will
work through two scenarios:
-
You have a
tract where you pay stumpage to a land-owner as you cut the wood and
deliver it to the mill. You will also pay a logging contractor one
combined price for both cutting
(logging) & hauling the wood.
-
You own a
tract where you purchase a timber deed and want to deplete the initial
purchase price as loads are delivered to the mills. You will pay a
logging contractor for all phases except for hauling and a separate trucking contractor
for the hauling.
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, landowners to whom you pay stumpage, any
foresters who receive commission payments, and perhaps even lawyers who receive legal
fees. If you own equipment and pay for parts and repairs, you would
also list all of your mechanics, parts suppliers, and repair shops in this
list.
To setup a vendor, navigate to Setup | Vendors.
Click 'Add' to enter the following three vendors:
|
Code |
JL |
SS |
M&H |
|
Description |
JL Logging |
Stanley Stump |
M & H Trucking |
|
Contact |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
|
Active? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Address |
P.O. Box 871 |
P.O. Box 456 |
P.O. Box 3221 |
|
City |
Lewiston |
Castle Rock |
Augusta |
|
State |
Maine |
Maine |
Maine |
|
Zip Code |
54122 |
53432 |
52456 |
|
Phone |
|
|
|
|
Fax |
|
|
|
|
E-mail |
|
|
|
|
Tax ID |
|
|
|
|
Statement Type Code |
Standard Vendor |
Standard Vendor |
Standard Vendor |
It is important to enter the Address of
the vendor as this information appears on the header of vendor statements.
Click 'OK' to close the Vendor grid.
Setting Up Trucks
In
The Logger's Edge,
you set up trucks and their owners in order to pay for trucking separate
from other phases or activities. If you do not pay for trucking
separately or do not care to track the specific trucks that deliver each
load, you do not need to setup specific trucks. In this tutorial, we
will be paying trucking as a separate phase, so you will need to setup contractor-owned trucks.
Setting Up Log Trucks
In order 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.
|
Code |
Owner |
Configuration |
Description |
|
TT-100 |
M&H |
NONE |
TT-100 |
|
TT-101 |
M&H |
NONE |
TT-101 |
|
JL-1 |
JL |
NONE |
JL-1 |
|
JL-2 |
JL |
NONE |
JL-2 |
The entry for the Owner is used to identify which vendor (contractor) to
pay for each load entered in the system. Scroll to the right and notice the other optional columns that can be
used to track additional detail about the truck, such as its serial or
permit number.
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.
If
your own company owns log trucks, you would specify ‘MYCO’ for the owner,
indicating your company is the owner. (You can always change the
code for your company from MYCO to whatever acronym you would like. If you want, you can navigate to Setup
| Company Information to change the name and code for your company.)
Click 'OK' to close the 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:
|
Code |
Description |
|
Y |
On Highway |
|
N |
Off Highway |
Click 'OK' to close the grid.
Setting Up Customers
To setup a customer (the company -- mill owner -- from which you are receiving revenue),
navigate to Setup | Customers.
Use 'Add' to enter new customers with the following information:
|
Code |
Description |
|
BBR |
Big Berland River Inc. |
|
IP |
International Paper |
Click 'OK' to close the 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 International Paper) 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 one destination for each customer, on the assumption
that we only deliver to one Berland mill, one IP mill, etc. Add the
following new destinations:
|
Code |
Description |
|
BBM |
Big Berland Mill |
|
ANDRO |
IP - Androscoggin |
Click 'OK' to close the grid.
Setting Up Species and Products
The County, Species and Products are user-defined data fields that are configured in the system.
During your initial system configuration, these fields can be renamed,
reordered, and fields may be added or removed, depending on your needs.
For example, you might want to use terms such as State, Subdivision or
Grade.
In general, different mills use different attributes and terms to
describe the wood that they purchase. In recognition of the wide diversity
in industry practice, The Logger's Edge allows you to tailor your terminology to
fit your business. When we configure your system, we can expand or reduce
the number of categories or change the category names. Talk to a
Caribou representative if you would like the terminology in your system
modified.
Setting Up Species
In order to setup each of your species, navigate to
Setup | Species and click 'Add'. You will then see the following form where you
will enter the species data.
Use the information below to setup each of your two species.
|
Code |
Species |
|
PI |
Pine |
|
SF |
Spruce, Fir |
Once you have setup the species, click 'OK' to close the form and click
'OK'
to close the grid.
Setting Up Products
In order to setup each of your products, navigate to
Setup | Product and click 'Add'. Setup two products using the information provided below.
|
Code |
Products |
|
PULP |
Pulpwood |
|
SAW |
Sawlogs |
Click 'OK' to close the Products grid.
4. Setting Up a "Pay as Cut" Tract
The following screen captures show the setup steps for a tract called "PC-Williams." (PC
is a naming convention we use in this example to indicate "pay-as-cut"
because this tract is owned by a land-owner to whom we pay stumpage as the
wood is cut.) This tract setup shows a common setup for users that are:
-
tracking weighed loads in pounds, but establishing tons as a common
"unit of measure" for reporting (regardless of whether payment rate or
revenue rates for the loads are based on tons, MBF, cords, or some other
unit of measure);
-
setting up standard conversions from pounds to some other measure
(such as MBF or cords) for use in calculating payments and/or revenue;
-
tracking cruise volumes for the tract;
-
paying logging payments to contract loggers; and
-
paying stumpage payments to land-owners.
Tracts are set up under the menu item Setup | Tracts |
Setup.
You should see one tract called 'Internal Cost'. This tract 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 tract or job.
Step 1
Click the 'Add' button to initiate the wizard if you are setting up a new
tract. (Note that double-clicking on an existing row in the grid will
allow you to edit an existing tract.)
Click 'Next'.
Step 2
Enter the county for the tract. This field is for informational and
reporting purposes. If you want to be able to indicate a larger
geographic area to which your tract belongs, you can do so in this window.
(The County label is configurable and can be changed to Township or Parish,
for example.)
When you first enter this window there will be no counties (other than
the 'NONE' county). Click 'New County' to add a county, as shown here:
Click 'OK' to save your new county. Then click 'Next' in the wizard
window to move to Step 3.
Step 3
Enter the unit of measure for deliveries. Most
users receive their deliveries in LBS, although some users prefer to just
enter tons. Note that if you deliver to
multiple mills from a given tract, and some mills provide the load slips in
tons and others in pounds, you should pick a single measure that you will
enter all of your weights in. (This list of measures is configurable, so we can work with you to
populate it with measures that make sense for your business.) For this
exercise, select LBS and click 'Next'.
Step 4
Select a standard volume measure for reporting production
(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.
Most users choose Tons here, so that the system's standard reports will
display tons in any columns labeled "volume".
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
tons here, you can still pay loggers or receive payments in MBF or cords,
for example.
Select 'TON' and click 'Next'.
Step 5
The next step involves setting up the start and end dates for the tract.
The start date is generally the date you start logging. The end date
is when the tract is complete. The dates also set the boundaries for
when loads identified with the tract will be paid. A load with a date
outside the start and end date will be flagged as an error when you run the
calculators in the system.
Enter the date range 1/1/2006 to 12/31/2006 and click 'Next'.
Step 6
This step involves setting the rates that the Mills will pay you for log
deliveries.
Use the following information to enter 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.
|
Customer |
Destination |
Activity |
Species |
Product |
Rate |
Basis |
Effective Date |
|
BBR |
BBM |
LOG DELIVERY |
PI |
SAW |
$245.00 |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
|
BBR |
BBM |
LOG DELIVERY |
SF |
SAW |
$255.00 |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
|
IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
|
PULP |
$65.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
|
IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
PI |
PULP |
$67.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
|
IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
SF |
SAW |
$260.00 |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
In the above screen shot, you will notice that
Truck Type and Route are left empty. This "blank" translates to ANY, So
row 1 reads as "We get paid $245.00 per MBF for harvesting when the Species is PI, the
Product is SAW and the Destination is BBM, and have
ANY Truck Type and use ANY Route. Row 3 says that we are paid $65.00
per TON for all pulpwood delivered to ANDRO, regardless of species.
Click 'Next'.
Step 7
Use this screen to specify the rates you pay your
contractors and landowners for deliveries from this tract. To add
rates, click 'Add', and then begin filling in the proper
information in the newly inserted row in the grid.
In this tract, the rates for STUMPAGE and CUT-HAUL differ by Product.
You may use any of the pull down menus in each column to create the different pay rates
based on different load attributes.
Enter the following information into the grid:
|
Contractor |
Activity |
Product |
Rate |
Basis |
Effective Date |
|
JL |
CUT-HAUL |
PULP |
$16.50 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
|
JL |
CUT-HAUL |
SAW |
$100.00 |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
|
SS |
STUMPAGE |
PULP |
$5.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
|
SS |
STUMPAGE |
SAW |
$105.00 |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
The above entries show that a landowner named Stanley Stump will get paid $5.00/TON for
Stumpage for Pulpwood delivered to ANY Destination and $105.00/MBF for Sawlogs delivered to ANY
Destination. JL
Logging will be paid $16.50/TON for harvesting and delivering Pulpwood
and $100.00/MBF
for Sawlogs (again, to any destination).
Click 'Next'.
Step 8
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are skipping Step
8. Click 'Next' to move onto Step 9.
Step 9
Specify how you want conversions (if any) to be performed.
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 make this selection, you will bypass the next two
screens we show in this tutorial.)
If all your pay rates, revenue rates, and reporting are all on a per ton
basis for this tract, then you can choose the middle selection this screen:
Use Generic Conversion. Again, if you make this selection, you will bypass
the next two screens.
If you need the system to use standard conversions to convert pounds to
MBF, cords, or some other measure, you should use the last radio button:
Use Tract-Specific Conversions, as
shown here.
Step 10
Use this screen to indicate the attribute or attributes that govern your
conversions. Select 'Product' and click 'Next'.
Step
11
Use this grid to enter the conversion factors that you will need for
purposes of generating payment or receiving revenues on this tract.
The columns that appear here are dictated by the selection you made in the
prior step. That is, there is one column for 'Product' here
based on the selection in Step 10. If you had also selected destination
in Step 10, you would also see a destination column in the grid.
The 'From:' measure is dictated by your selection in Step 3 (delivery
measure). Enter the Conversion Rates as shown.
The conversion rates are interpreted as follows:
|
Product |
Conv Rate |
From |
To |
Effective Date |
|
Pulp |
13000 |
LBS |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
|
Saw |
12000 |
LBS |
MBF |
1/1/2006 |
Click 'Next' to
continue.
Step 12
Enter Cruise Volumes. Use this window to enter the cruise for your
tract (if you have cruise information). The cruise lets you track your actual
deliveries against what you expect from the tract. This screen is not
required and is used solely for reporting on actual versus budgeted volumes.
(When setting up your own tracts, if you do not track cruise volumes, you
can simply click 'Next' here.)
Enter
the cruise volumes below:
|
Product |
Cruise Volume |
Vol Measure |
|
Pulp |
6200 |
TON |
|
Saw |
820 |
MBF |
Click 'Next' to continue.
Step 13
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are skipping Step
13. Click 'Next' to move onto Step 14.
Step 14
Use this window to assign a name to the tract. Use the
'Code' field
for a short name (which will appear on settlements, for example). Use
the 'Name' field for a longer, more descriptive name (or simply set the name
and the code to be the same). The 'Description' field might be useful
for a legal land location. The other fields are configurable (or can
be disabled completely). Enter the information
as shown below and click 'Next'.
The above screen can be configured
to track additional pieces of information. For further details contact your
Caribou Support representative.
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 tract and all of the corresponding information to the database.
If you choose 'Cancel' here, NONE of your information for this tract will be
saved.
When you click 'Finish' you will see the grid with your new tract.
Click 'OK' to close the grid.
5. Setting Up a "Timber Deed" Tract
We now want to set up a second tract though the tract setup wizard.
This time, however, we will assume that the tract is a "Timber Deed" tract -- i.e.
it is a tract for which you have purchased the timber rights (in a lump sum).
The primary difference between this tract and the earlier tract is that instead
of paying a landowner for stumpage, we will want to charge ourselves an internal
depletion amount (based on the lump sum payment for the tract), which basically allocates the
original purchase price across loads as they are delivered to a mill(s).
When setting up this second tract, we are assuming that deliveries from this
tract will go to the same two mills as before: Big Berland and IP.
Now, navigate to Setup | Tracts | Setup.
Often, when you set up a new tract,
you already have an existing one that is similar. In that case, you
can highlight an existing tract and click on 'Copy' in order to use an existing tract as the starting point
for a new tract. We will not do that here, but you should be aware that
is often easier (less typing) to start with an existing tract than to start
from scratch.
Click on 'Add' to begin the tract setup wizard.
Step 1
Click 'Next'.
Step 2
Enter the County. Again, this field is for informational and
reporting purposes. If you want to be able to indicate a larger
geographic area to which your tract belongs, you can do so in this window.
(The County label is configurable and can be changed to Township, for
example.) Select 'Androscoggin' and click 'Next'.
Step 3
Enter the unit of measure for deliveries. Most
users receive their deliveries in LBS, although some users prefer to just
enter tons. Note that if you deliver to
multiple mills from a given tract, and some mills provide the load slips in
tons and others in pounds, you should pick a single measure that you will
enter all of your weights in. (This list of measures is configurable, so we can work with you to
populate it with measures that make sense for your business.) Select LBS and click
'Next'.
Step 4
Select a volume measure for reporting to track production. The measure you
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.
Most users choose Tons here, so that the system's standard reports will
display tons in any columns labeled "volume".
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
tons here, you can still pay loggers or receive payments in MBF or
cords.
Select 'TON' and click 'Next'.
Step 5
The next step involves setting up the start and end dates for the tract.
The start date is generally the date you start logging. The end date
is when the tract is complete. The dates also set the boundaries for
when loads identified with the tract will be paid. A load with a date
outside the start and end date will be flagged as an error.
Enter the date range 1/1/2006 to 12/31/2006 and click 'Next'.
Step 6
This step involves setting the rates that the Mills will pay you for log
deliveries.
Use the following information to enter in five rates:
| Customer |
Destination |
Activity |
Species |
Product |
Rate |
Basis |
Effective Date |
| BBR |
BBM |
LOG DELIVERY |
PI |
SAW |
$80.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| BBR |
BBM |
LOG DELIVERY |
SF |
SAW |
$75.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
|
PULP |
$65.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
PI |
SAW |
$67.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| IP |
ANDRO |
LOG DELIVERY |
SF |
SAW |
$75.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
In the above screen shot you will notice that
'Truck Type' and 'Route' are left empty. This translates to ANY,
so
row 1 reads as "We get paid $80.00/TON for harvesting when the
Species is PI and the Product is SAW, and we deliver to BBM, using
ANY Truck Type and using ANY Route.
If the mill breaks the price they pay
you into multiple rates -- say one rate for the trucking component of the
work, and another rate for the harvesting, you can handle that
scenario as well. You would enter two distinct rates in this grid,
using the 'Activity' drop-down selection box to distinguish the rates
between Trucking and Harvesting, for example. In this scenario, we
made a simplifying assumption that the mill pays you one bundled price for
log deliveries.
Click 'Next'.
Step 7Use this window to specify the rates for your contract.
To add rates, click the 'Add' button. The system will insert a blank
row in the grid for you to use.
In this tract, we have rates for three phases, or activities, that we
are paying: CUTTING,
TRUCKING and DEPLETION. (The Depletion phase is really an accrual
of an internal cost, rather than an explicit payment.)
Enter the following information into the grid:
| Contractor |
Destination |
Activity |
Species |
Product |
Rate |
Basis |
Effective Date |
| JL |
|
CUTTING |
|
PULP |
$5.50 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| JL |
|
CUTTING |
PI |
SAW |
$18.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| JL |
|
CUTTING |
SF |
SAW |
$19.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| M&H |
BBM |
TRUCKING |
|
|
$8.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| M&H |
ANDRO |
TRUCKING |
|
|
$10.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
| MYCO |
|
DEPLETION |
|
|
$30.00 |
TON |
1/1/2006 |
The above entries mean that JL Logging will be
paid $5.50/TON for Pulpwood, $18.00/TON for harvesting of Pine Sawlogs
and $19.00/TON
for Spruce/Fir Sawlogs. M&H will be paid $8.00/TON to haul logs to BBM
and $10.00/TON to haul logs to ANDRO.
The DEPLETION rate is set up at $30.00/TON and the contractor is set to 'MYCO'
- meaning my company. This rate will generate an internal entry of
$30.00/TON which will not be actually 'paid' to any vendor. It will,
however, appear on tract costing reports as a cost for each load coming from
that tract. The effect of this depletion rate is to "spread" the
lump-sum purchase price for the tract of land across the deliveries as they
are harvested, so that while the tract is being harvested, you can look at
costs associated with the volumes harvested to date.
Click 'Next' to continue.
Step 8
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are skipping Step
8. Click 'Next' to move onto Step 9.
Step 9
Specify how you want conversions (if any) to be performed.
This time we will select Use Generic Conversion. We can use the
generic LBS/Ton conversion because all of our revenue is received in tons, our
payments are issued in tons, and our cruise volumes are recorded as tons.
Click 'Next' to continue.
Step 10 and 11
In Step 9 we selected Generic Conversion and not Tract-Specific
Conversions, so we do not need to setup any conversions. Therefore, the
system bypasses Steps 10 and 11.
Step 12
Enter Cruise Volumes. Use this window to enter the cruise for your
tract (if you have one). The cruise lets you track your actual
deliveries against what you expect from the tract. This screen is not
required and is used solely for reporting on actual versus budgeted volumes.
Enter
the cruise volumes as follows:
| Species |
Product |
Cruise Volume |
Vol Measure |
| |
Pulp |
3400 |
TON |
| PI |
Saw |
2100 |
TON |
| SF |
Saw |
300 |
TON |
Click 'Next' to continue.
Step 13
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are skipping Step
13. Click 'Next' to move onto Step 14.
Step 14
Enter a name and description for the tract.
Step 15
Click
'Finish' to save the information to the database.
Click 'OK' to close the Tract grid.
6. Entering Load Slips
Now that you have your basic setup data complete and your two tracts
set up, 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 W/E 8/18/06. This will auto fill the Start and End
date. You are not, however, 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, Product, Destination, etc.
Enter the following data into 5 new loads:
|
Tract |
PC-Williams |
PC-Williams |
PC-Williams |
TD Mitchell |
TD Mitchell |
|
Species |
SF |
SF |
SF |
SF |
PI |
|
Product |
SAW |
PULP |
SAW |
PULP |
SAW |
|
Distance |
100 |
115 |
100 |
125 |
125 |
|
Destination |
BBM |
ANDRO |
BBM |
ANDRO |
ANDRO |
|
Truck No |
JL-1 |
JL-2 |
JL-1 |
TT-100 |
TT-101 |
|
Driver |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
|
Truck Type |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
|
Route |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Ticket No |
T101 |
T102 |
T103 |
T104 |
T105 |
|
Load No |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
Date In |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
|
Date Out |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
|
Date for Pay |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
8/15/2006 |
|
Gross Weight |
59900 |
56500 |
61000 |
51000 |
55500 |
|
Tare Weight |
19900 |
21000 |
22000 |
18500 |
18550 |
After entering each ticket, click 'Save/Add'. 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, the load slip grid should
look similar to the following:
Click 'OK' to close the Load Slip grid.
7. Processing Vendor Pay
Now that you have your tracts and load
slips entered, it is time to see how pay works.
Run Vendor Pay
Select Calculators | Vendors - Full to process pay for your vendors (sub
contractors). You are prompted to select the pay period:
Select the ‘W/E 8/18/06’ 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 will be prompted to select the pay period:
Select the ‘W/E 8/18/06’ pay period and click 'OK'.
The vendor
statement is designed to accompany your check for pay to your
subcontractors.
The vendor statement grid above shows the detailed payments to JL
Logging. In order to scroll through each vendor's statement,
click on the dropdown list box in the top left.
Note that when you click on 'My Company', you get a listing of the
depletion amounts charged to your timber deed tract.
You can also use
The Logger's Edge
to generate formatted vendor statements. Click on the 'View
Statements' button.
Select 'JL Logging' and click 'OK'. (If you want to review multiple
statements at once, highlight them and click 'OK'. Alternatively, you
can click 'Select All' and then click 'OK' to generate all statements at
once for all vendors.)
The Logger's Edge
will create a formatted statement for each of the selected vendors.
The first page is a summary page for the statement. Use the page
arrows at the top of the window to view the detail pages for the current
statement.
Take a minute to review the Vendor
Statements. You may configure the statements to include the columns and
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 Statement window and click 'OK'
again to exit the Vendor Statements grid.
8. Processing Revenue
The Logger's Edge
also processes revenue in order to calculate the amounts you should expect to receive
from each mill based on the loads delivered and the rates
you have entered for each tract.
To process invoices, select Calculators | Invoices - Full. You will be prompted
to select the pay period:
Select the 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and 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. 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:
Click 'OK'. If there are errors, you will be notified with an Errors screen and you
will need to correct the errors before proceeding.
The invoices generated by the calculator can be viewed by navigating to
Reports | Invoices | View: By Pay Period. You will be prompted to
select the pay period:
Select the 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and click 'OK'.
In the grid, you will see the first customer's
tickets and
the amounts owed to your company for the loads you have delivered. Use
the 'Select Vendor' list to move from the statement for one customer to the
next.
Generally, mills do not pay you based on an invoice you submit to
them, but instead 'self-invoice' -- they generate an invoice and then send
you payment for what they owe you. In this case, you can think of the
above invoice as a 'Pro Forma' invoice in that it represents the amounts due
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
When you do actually receive settlements from the mill, you will likely want
to verify the amounts you expect to receive from the mill for each ticket
with the amount they actually pay you. This reconciliation process
allows you to ensure that you receive payment on all the loads you have entered in
The Logger's Edge
and that the payment you receive is consistent with the amount you expect to receive.
Verifying Mill Settlements is a three-step process in
The Logger's Edge.
The first step involves running the invoices calculator (above) in order to
compute your Pro Forma revenue. (We have already completed this step.)
The second step involves entering the actual revenue (as reported to you on
your mill settlements) for each load you receive from the mills to which you
deliver. The third step involves running the Mill Settlements
reconciliation Report, which compares the amounts calculated by The Logger's Edge using the Invoices Calculator above, with those amounts you enter from your
settlements.
To enter your actual revenue, navigate to Data Entry | Load Slips | Load Revenue and
choose the pay period 'W/E 8/18/06'. The grid will fill with all of
the tickets in your
date range that have been successfully processed through the invoice calculator.
You will not see any information in the grid if the invoice calculator has not
been run for the selected pay period.
You should now see a screen similar to the one below. This screen is used to
enter the actual revenues from mill settlements.
You will notice that initially all of the values are $0.00 in the
amount column,
indicating that no revenue has yet been entered into the system from the
actual mill settlements. When working in this grid, you can either key in the amount of revenue from the mill
directly, or you can
re-key the values in either the Pay Weight column or the Rate Column.
(Those pay weights and rates are generated by the system when you run the
Invoice Calculator.) When you re-key either of these values and move to the next
row in the grid, the
system will automatically fill in the amount column based on the pay rate
multiplied by the pay weight.
For the purposes of this tutorial, let's assume you have received a check (settlement) from Berland, but not IP. Furthermore,
let's assume that you have been paid a slightly different amount for one Berland ticket than the amount you expected to be paid (perhaps because the mill recorded an incorrect species on the ticket). We have made these assumptions to highlight the value of the Mill
Reconciliation report in identifying revenue issues to be addressed with the mill.
Please enter the following information into the grid.
|
Ticket No |
Revenue Contract |
Rate |
|
T101 |
RV: PC-Williams - BBR |
$240.00 |
|
T103 |
RV: PC-Williams - BBR |
$255.00 |
|
T102 |
RV: PC-Williams - IP |
$0.00 |
|
T104 |
RV: TD-Mitchell - IP |
$0.00 |
|
T105 |
RV: TD-Mitchell - IP |
$0.00 |
On the left side of the screen, you can choose the relevant revenue contract
(e.g., Berland or IP). That selection will filter the ticket list down to
only those tickets associated with that revenue contract.
Once you have entered the amounts shown above, click 'OK' to exit the grid.
If you were now to re-open the load revenue window and choose the
'W/E 8/18/06' pay period, you will see only three load tickets in the grid. This
result is expected because the
Show Unpaid Only checkbox at the top of this window is checked. If you want to see all
of the loads, you
can uncheck this box and you will see all of the load slips (both those you
have
marked as paid by entering the pay amounts, and those that remain unpaid).
When you have finished entering your information, 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, Reconciliation
report. Choose the pay period as 'W/E 8/18/06', select both the 'PC-Williams' and
'TD-Mitchell' tracts, and sort by 'Destination'. Click 'OK' to run the
report. You will now want to check
the 'Difference' column on the far right of the report to verify that all differences
are zero. When you open the Mill Settlements report, you will notice the tickets
that have not yet been paid are marked as 'Not paid' in red. You will
also notice that there is a discrepancy between what the mill has paid you on
ticket T101 and what you expected to be paid. In this case, the reason for
the difference is that the mill used a rate of $240.00/MBF, but the rate you have
set up in the system that matches this load is
$255.00/MBF.
Click on the large 'X' to exit the report.
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. There are a variety of standard business reports available
in the 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 the 'Favorites' folder.
There are several useful features available when you run any of the grid
reports from the Reporter:
You can print the report using the print button
You can export the report to Excel using the Excel button
You can export the data to a “tab-delimited” text file with the tab button
You can cut-and-paste a set of data from the window to another MS Windows
application, such as Excel or Word.
You should review the following reports to see how the load slips,
payments, and revenue you have entered into
The Logger's Edge
so far appears on reports.
The reports can be grouped into two
general types of reports:
-
Analytical reports, which are useful for showing key business
information, such as profitability on a tract, 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
-
Tract Reports - Economics | Summary P&L
-
Tract Reports - Economics | Revenue, By Destination, Summary
-
Tract Reports - Economics | Revenue, By Destination, Detailed
-
Tract Reports - Economics | Activity Costs, Summary, By Actual Volume
-
Tract Reports - Production | Deliveries, By Destination
-
Tract Reports - Production | Cruise Summary
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 Tract, By Ticket
Running the auditing reports that are asterisked above should be a part of your routine process 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 and do not take into consideration the date for
pay. (The Employee and Contractor Statements under the Statements menu
item do, however, rely on date for pay.)
We describe a subset of the reports listed above in the text that
follows.
Tract P&L Report
Once you have processed employee pay (which has not yet been covered in
the tutorial to this point), vendor pay, and invoices, you can
assess the profitability of your tract operations.
Open
The Logger's Edge
Reporter (Reports | Business Reports) and then
select Tract Reports - Economics | Summary P&L.
Select the 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and select the 'PC-Williams'
tract. Click 'OK' to run the report.
The total cost is the sum of employee pay, equipment costs and
contractor payments. The tract profit is revenue less total costs.
The revenue for the tract is based on the revenue you have keyed into the
system upon receipt of the mill settlements, not your pro forma revenue
based on the invoices calculator.
The bottom set of rows on the report (shown below) summarizes the tract
status.
The actual production (delivered volume) is based on load slips, and the
estimated production is based on tree counts multiplied by the volume/tree
factor. (The tree counts can be entered when you record time slips in
the system, if you track them. If you do not track them, the
statistics (other than actual volume) at the bottom of this report will not
be meaningful.)
In a tract under harvest, the actual (delivered) volume should exceed the
estimated volume due to the inventory of logs harvested, but not yet
delivered. These logs may be on a landing or remote deck.
The last two rows compare the actual vol/tree based on the actual volume
delivered and actual tree counts, with the estimated vol/tree. When a
tract
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 tract 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 Tract 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 Tract Reports - Economics | Revenue,
By
Destination, Summary.
Run the report for the 'W/E 8/18/06' 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 Tract Reports - Production | Deliveries,
By
Destination.
Run the report for the 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and select all
destinations and all tracts. Click 'OK' to run the report.
The report shows a listing of all your loads from each tract, ordered by the
destination to which they were delivered.
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 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and select all tracts.
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 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 tract, 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.
Cruise Summary Report
In
The Logger's Edge
Reporter, select Tract Reports - Production | Cruise Summary.
Run the report for the 'W/E 8/18/06' pay period and select all tracts.
Click 'OK' to run the report.
This report compares your cruise amounts entered on each tract with the
associated volumes actually delivered from each tract.
Click the small 'x' to exit out of the Cruise Summary report. You are
now back to the main menu of
The Logger's Edge
Reporter.
Employee Setup
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, you will cover tracking of
maintenance costs for company-owned equipment.
The first steps that you need to perform in
The Logger's Edge
are to set up your employees and equipment. In this section you will
cover:
-
Setting Up Employees
-
Setting Up Equipment Types
-
Setting Up Equipment Units
-
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 or use the Time Slip
icon as outlined in the screen below.
Click on 'Add' to see the following time slip form:
The time slip includes several fields: Date, Employee, Equipment, Truck, Tract,
and Activity which are entered through drop-down lists. The purpose of preset lists is to ensure that only valid entries can be selected for these fields.
In your prior exercises with load slips, you have already set up many of
these items (Trucks, Tracts, Activities), but you have not yet set up
employees or equipment. These are your next tasks.
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
time slips.
Click 'Cancel' to close the New Time Slip window.
Click 'OK' to close the Time Slip grid.
Setting Up Employees
Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Setup.
In this grid, you will enter two employees:
|
Code |
BF |
JM |
|
First Name |
Bob |
Joe |
|
Last Name |
Feller |
McKanic |
|
Full Name |
Feller, Bob |
McKanic, Joe |
|
Employer |
MYCO |
MYCO |
|
SSN |
|
|
|
Address |
231 Pineview Ave |
1003 East Muskeg Dr. |
|
City |
Lewiston |
Castle Rock |
|
State |
Maine |
Maine |
|
Zip Code |
54122 |
53432 |
|
Phone |
|
|
|
Fax |
|
|
|
E-mail |
|
|
|
Hire Date |
3/15/2001 |
11/1/2000 |
|
Active ? |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Statement Type Code |
Standard Employee |
Standard Employee |
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 workers, who are identified by an employer other that MYCO.
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 employee Jack Straw is no longer a current employee, you can uncheck
the 'Active?' checkbox so that the employee will no longer appear in drop down lists.
All of Jack's prior information is, however, still retained in the database.
Of course, Jack can be reactivated again in the
future with no loss of historic data.
When you see a 'Show Active Only' check box, you can uncheck the box to see all
items (in this case employees), whether they are active or not.
Employee Pay Rates
In the worker window, you will note there are three tabs: (1) Workers (the
current tab); (2) Worker (Employee) Base Rates; and (3) Equipment Assignments.
Click on the Worker (Employee) Base Rates tab.
Use the data below to enter each employee's pay rate.
|
Employee Code |
Effective Date |
Rate |
Loaded Rate |
Rate Type |
Active |
|
BF |
1/1/2006 |
20.00 |
23.00 |
HR |
Yes |
|
JM |
1/1/2006 |
24.00 |
27.60 |
HR |
Yes |
The column 'Rate' is for the employee's hourly rate. The 'Rate
Type' must be set to 'HR' in order to pay hourly employees.
The 'Loaded
Rate' column is for you to specify your full cost of the employee,
inclusive of payroll taxes and other employer-paid benefits. The system will
automatically make a default entry based on your base rate, multiplied by a
percentage uplift specified in the software (15 percent). The system's
default uplift percentage can be changed for you by a Caribou
representative. In addition, you can over-ride the calculated loaded
rate in this grid with a specific loaded hourly rate for each employee.
Many reports in the system can be run using employee base rates, or employee
loaded rates, depending on your selection at the time you run the report.
Click 'OK' to exit the Workers grid.
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 fill out the
selection list of equipment types.
Click on 'Add' to enter an empty row. Fill in the row with the following
information:
|
Code |
Description |
Active? |
|
FB |
Feller Buncher |
Yes |
|
LD |
Loader |
Yes |
These are two equipment types you will use next when you set up equipment
units.
Click 'OK' to close the grid. The information that you have entered
will save automatically when you click 'OK'.
Setting Up Equipment Units
To setup equipment units, navigate to Setup | Equipment / Trucks |
Equipment | Unit Numbers.
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.
|
Code |
Description |
Equipment Type |
Owner |
Serial Number |
Permit Number |
Active |
|
FB101 |
Deere 653G #101 |
FB |
MYCO |
|
|
Yes |
|
LD203 |
Timberjack 330B #203 |
LD |
MYCO |
|
|
Yes |
You will note at the top of the grid there are two tabs --
'Equipment' and
'Equipment Activities'. You are currently on the 'Equipment' tab.
Click on the 'Equipment Activities' tab and you will move to a grid where you
can assign default activities to pieces of equipment.
In the grid, you should enter the activity for each piece of equipment.
|
Unit Code |
Eligible Activity |
Is Default |
Active |
|
FB101 |
CUTTING |
Yes |
Yes |
|
LD203 |
LOAD |
Yes |
Yes |
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 Up Equipment Cost
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 tract. 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.
This form allows you to directly enter your equipment costs. If you
have another system to calculate your costs or you use a reference guide or
"Blue-Book" to estimate your rates, you can just enter them here.
The entry form shows two rates:
-
Std Cost Per Hour: This cost is the cost of operating your machine, NOT
including the cost of the operator. In reports that rely on this cost
measure, the actual cost of the operator is added to the Std Cost to
calculate the full cost of operation.
-
Fully Founded Rate: 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.
|
Unit Code |
Effective Date |
Std Cost Per Hour |
Fully Founded Rare |
Annual Hours |
|
FB101 |
1/1/2006 |
150.00 |
180.00 |
2,200 |
|
LD203 |
1/1/2006 |
120.00 |
150.00 |
2,000 |
Click 'OK' to exit the Equipment Cost grid.
Employee Equipment Assignments
In
The Logger's Edge,
employees can be assigned to individual equipment units. Recall that when we looked at the time slip above, there were entries for
the piece of equipment. You can set up an employee to have a default
piece of equipment so that when you click on the employee,
The Logger's Edge
will auto-fill the equipment unit on the time slip. This feature can
save you significant data entry time when an employee operates the same
equipment unit over a number of consecutive days.
Navigate to Setup | Workers | Worker Assignments | Equipment.
In the grid, click on 'Add' and select 'Bob Feller' as your Worker and 'FB101'
as the Equipment Code. Make the effective date '1/1/2006'. These
entries tell
The Logger's Edge
that Bob Feller is assigned to the equipment FB101 as of 1/1/2006 so that
when you are entering time slips for him, his equipment is automatically
filled in with the FB101 equipment unit.
You do not need to set up an equipment assignment for your other employee
-- Joe McKanic. In this tutorial, we are assuming that Joe is a
mechanic and could possibly 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 exit 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:
|
A/C Code |
Description |
Part 1 |
Part 2 |
Active |
|
200-01 |
General Parts |
200 |
01 |
Yes |
|
200-02 |
Fuel |
200 |
02 |
Yes |
|
200-03 |
Regular Service |
200 |
03 |
Yes |
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 '-'.
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.
Entering Time Slips
11. Entering Time Slips
You are now ready to enter time slips for your two employees.
Navigate to
Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips or use the Time Slip
icon as shown in the screen below.
Click 'Add' to enter your first slip.
Enter the Slip Number (an optional entry), and then select Bob Feller
('BF') as the Employee. This selection should auto-fill the Equipment
unit 'FB101' (his equipment assignment) and the Activity 'CUTTING' (the
default activity for the equipment).
You should leave the Truck 'NONE' and enter the hours as 7.5 (7 1/2
hours). You are then done with the slip.
Now, let's assume Bob also had a 1/2 hour of down time (time he is paid
for, but the unit is not working).
Click 'Save/Add'. This command will save your first entry and leave
the form open with all of the items carried over except the Hours.
Just enter 0.5 for hours and change the Activity to 'DOWN'.
Now, let's also assume Bob also had a 1/2 hour of maintenance time at the
end of his shift.
Again, click 'Save/Add'. This command will save your first slip and
leave the form open with all of the items carried over except the Hours. Enter 0.5 for hours and change the Activity to 'MAINT'. Also,
change the Tract to 'INTERNAL COST', because you do not want to
charge this maintenance time to the tract, but want to track it as part of
your internal maintenance costs.
Click 'OK'. Your time entry grid should look as such:
Let's now enter a week's worth of time (see below) for Bob Feller (you have already
entered the rows dated 8/12/2006 so you can ignore them):
|
Slip Number |
Date |
Employee |
Equipment |
Truck |
Hours |
Tract |
Activity |
Date for Pay |
Order |
|
1001 |
8/12/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
0.50 |
INTERNAL COST |
MAINT |
8/12/2006 |
2 |
|
1001 |
8/12/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
0.50 |
PC-Williams |
DOWN |
8/12/2006 |
1 |
|
1001 |
8/12/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
7.50 |
PC-Williams |
CUTTING |
8/12/2006 |
0 |
|
1002 |
8/13/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
8.00 |
PC-Williams |
CUTTING |
8/13/2006 |
0 |
|
1003 |
8/14/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
0.50 |
INTERNAL COST |
MAINT |
8/14/2006 |
1 |
|
1003 |
8/14/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
8.00 |
PC-Williams |
CUTTING |
8/14/2006 |
0 |
|
1004 |
8/15/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
1.00 |
PC-Williams |
DOWN |
8/15/2006 |
1 |
|
1004 |
8/15/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
7.00 |
PC-Williams |
CUTTING |
8/15/2006 |
0 |
|
1005 |
8/16/2006 |
BF |
FB101 |
NONE |
8.00 |
PC-Williams |
CUTTING |
8/16/2006 |
0 |
When you're 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.
Now that you have finished with Bob Feller, let's enter a couple of slips
for Joe McKanic. Click on the 'Time Detail' tab and then click 'Add'
to enter the data as shown.
In this example, we are assuming Joe is our mechanic and he spends 1 3/4
hours fixing a track on the FB101 feller buncher. The Activity is
maintenance and the tract is 'INTERNAL COST'.
Click 'Save/Add' to add another slip:
In this slip, Joe is performing regular service on the feller buncher
FB101.
The two entries for Joe are:
|
Slip Number |
Date |
Employee |
Equipment |
Truck |
Hours |
Tract |
Activity |
Date for Pay |
Order |
|
1006 |
8/17/2006 |
JM |
FB101 |
NONE |
1.75 |
INTERNAL COST |
MAINT |
8/12/2006 |
0 |
|
1006 |
8/17/2006 |
JM |
FB101 |
NONE |
3.00 |
INTERNAL COST |
MAINT |
8/12/2006 |
1 |
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 tract 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.
