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Setting up a Block
In Caribou's Logger's Edge Software, the basic unit for financial analysis reporting is the geographic work area. In the case of logging, this area is usually referred to a "block" or "tract" of land -- the software can be configured to use the terminology that you are familiar with. We could just as easily refer to a compartment, subdivision, section, project or job site.
Blocks form the base unit of analysis, meaning we measure costs, revenues and profit on a block-by-block basis. In the Logger's Edge you:
- Enter and track employee or subcontractor time by block;
- Calculate payroll cost by block;
- Enter production (loadslips) by block;
- Track employee and contractor production payments;
- Calculate standardized costs per unit of activity;
- Calculate revenue by block; and
- Calculate profit and profit/unit of output by block
When you set up a Block in the system, you tell the system a number of key facts about that Block. Some of these key facts include:
- the unit of measure that you will use for entering weights on your load slips from this Block (e.g., kilograms, pounds, tons);
- any standard conversion factors that will need to be applied to the weights in order to convert these weights into another unit of measure. It is common for payment to subcontractors and/or revenue from mills to be expressed in units of measure (e.g., m3, mbf, cords) that differ from the unit of measure entered on the load slip;
- the pay activities/phases that will be paid in connection with the load slips entered on the Block. If you are a logging contractor, you might pay for bunching, loading, trucking, and skidding based on the weight or volume on the load slip. If you are a log broker, the pay activities you pay on the weight/volume of the load might be logging and stumpage.
- the revenue contracts and pay contracts that contain the rates you'll pay for activity performed on this Block.
- the cruise volumes associated with this Block (optional).
As you can tell, the geographic work area forms the core of The Logger's Edge Software.
So how do I set up a block?
The main steps are listed below. You can click on any of the blue links for detailed instructions on how to perform each main step in the Logger's Edge Software.
- From the Main Menu, select Setup | Blocks | Block
- This selection brings up a listing of active blocks. In order to add a block, click on the Add button at the bottom of the window.
- The Add button starts the BlockSetup Wizard that takes you through all the steps necessary to add a block.
