In order to run a successful logging operation, you need easy access to the answers for such questions as:
How much volume did we harvest from each block, and how does
that compare to what the mill cruised it at?
How many hours did we spend on each phase of operation in a
particular block?
Based on those actual hours and the actual volume harvested, how
many cubic meters (or tonnes) did we harvest per hour for each
phase, and how much did it cost us per cubic meter (or tonne) for
each phase?
How did our true cycle times compare to the cycle times upon
which the mill based our rates?
How did our actual piece size compare to the estimated piece
size for a given block?
How much did we spend in repairs and fuel for the season on each
piece of equipment?
As critical as it is to have such information at your fingertips,
it's a daunting task for the best of record keepers to get data organized in a manner that allows
efficient and accurate reporting about the business! That why The Logger's Edge is such a
valuable business tool for
loggers who care about understanding the economics of their business.
The following pages will take you on a tour of the highlights of the
Logger's Edge software. During this self-guided tour, you will see
how to enter load tickets, how to set up revenue rates (received
from the mill) and pay rates (paid to contractors or employees) associated with those loads, and how to
generate pay statements for your contractors and employees. You'll also see some of the rich reporting capabilities
that will be at your fingertips by tracking your load tickets through
The Logger's Edge.
Next, you will see how to enter time slips for your
operators/equipment, how to generate pay statements for your hourly
workers, and how to run reports showing productive versus non-productive
hours spent by block and by equipment unit.
Finally, you'll see how you can track machine costs (e.g., parts,
repair, fuel, etc) by machine. This kind of information is
critical in helping you ascertain whether the rates from the mill are
adequate relative to your true costs of operating each machine.
You are welcome to follow the full tour from start to finish.
Alternatively, you can follow the links in the outline below to jump to
those specific areas that are of most interest.
We hope you find this information informative! If you run into
any questions along the way, please call 780-833-9870, and ask for
Teresa. The software has much more functionality that what is
covered here, so if you don't see what you are looking for, call us and
ask!
Let's take a look at all our load tickets for a given date range.
The grid below shows a listing of all tickets entered for a given set of
dates.
This grid is great for reviewing and editing tickets.
If you need to
edit multiple tickets for the same mistake (e.g., you need to change the
stratum from "88" to "09" on multiple tickets), you can simply copy and
paste directly in the grid to make your correction, much like you can in
a Microsoft Excel worksheet.
Next, let's double-click on one of the rows above to take a look at
an individual load ticket up close. The window shown below is the
window you will use when adding new tickets. This window is quite
configurable, so if you need to collect information that is not shown on
this screen, we can add placeholders to this window to gather additional
information.
A few comments about ease of use are in order:
You can use your Tab or Enter key to move quickly from one cell to
the next.
When entering tickets, you can use the Save/Add button to speed
up ticket entry. This button will clear out the information on
the right portion of the load slip (ticket # and weights), but will
carry over the block, species, stratum, destination, date, etc. from
the prior ticket. This feature really speeds up the data entry
process.
The Logger's Edge uses a wizard window to lead you through the block
setup and/or edit process.
When you set up a block, you indicate things like the timbermark to
which the block belongs, your start date for working on the block, and
other basic information. We won't take you through all the steps,
but in the screen shots below, we show some of the most important steps
within the wizard so that you can see how easy it is to set up your
block information.
For many loggers, it's an arduous task to keep up with the conversion
factors from (weight to volume) for each block. The block setup
entry wizard helps you manage the rates easily. If you don't need to
convert from weight to cubic meters, you can skip this step. Also,
if you don't know your conversion factors, you can come back and enter
them later.
Indicate the different mills to which you deliver from this block,
and indicate the cycle times and on/off highway distances. (If you
don't have to manage the trucking end of the business, you can skip this
step.)
Many mills provide their contractors with budgeted productivity
targets for each block, along with phase-by-phase rates that together
sum to the overall logging rate. You can set that information up
in the block setup wizard so that you can compare actual performance to
your targets.
This final window is where you give the block its name and record other
pertinent information.
The nice thing is that once you have a block set up, you can use the
"Copy" feature to create a new block quickly and easily.
You manage both your revenue rates (rates you receive from the mill),
and your pay rates (rates you pay your contractors or employees who are
paid based on the load ticket information) in The Logger's Edge using
rate sheets. Below is an example of a revenue rate sheet for rates
received from Weyerhaeuser for a group of blocks:
In general, you will have one or more of these rate sheets for each
of your customers.
Pay rate sheets look very similar. to the revenue rate sheets.
In general, you'll have a pay rate sheet for each contractor (or
employee) whom you pay based on the load tickets.
Alternatively, if your contractors (or employees) share a similar set
of rates, you can use the "wildcarding" features in the system to set up
one global rate sheet to cover all of them. These global rate
sheets can save you a lot of time if all your contractors share the same
set of rates.
Here is an example of a global rate sheet for trucking contractors.
Once you've set up your detailed revenue rates, The Logger's Edge makes
it easy to pass on those rates (or a certain percentage of those rates)
to your contractors.
At this point, you have given the software all the information it
needs to generate your contractor and employee pay statements, where
payment is based on the load ticket.
The Logger's Edge has a variety of statement formats, so your trucker statements can be tailored to look differently than your
contract processor statements, for example. You can actually control
the sorting and subtotaling of data, and you can control the columns that appear
in the statement as well.
Here is an example of a popular statement format, which has a cover
page followed by detailed pages with each ticket itemized.
For an extra fee, we can provide you with your own custom statement
that has your company logo, and the data organized in a format that you
require.
The time slip window is similar to the load entry window in terms of
providing a grid review/edit window, and an actual time sheet form for
data entry.
This screen shot shows the grid listing for time cards for a
particular pay period, filtered to show just entries for the selected
employee.
To do the actual time sheet data entry, you'd use a window like the
one shown below. Note that the time sheets are highly
configurable, and this is just one example format. You may collect
different data items than those shown below. When we first get you
started with the software, we work with you to ensure the time sheet
window is tailored to meet your needs.
You can print nicely formatted pay statements for gross payroll
purposes showing the employee his hours worked and gross payroll.
You can also add on additional miscellaneous additions or deductions to
his statements, and can include calculations for daily charges such as
pick-up allowances or travel allowances.
The Logger's Edge has a variety of reports which provide information
that is critical for running your operations efficiently. We
present just a few of the key reports here, but there are many more
available in the system.
For users that are comfortable with computers, we offer a
user-defined reporting capability within the system that allows users to
build their own simple reports. Caribou is happy to build more
complex custom reports on a value-added basis for users who want to see
their information displayed in a very particular way.
This report is very valuable for showing you how many cubic meters
per hour you harvested for each phase, and your cost per cubic meter for
each phase, based upon a "full-found" hourly equipment rate.
This report provides an actual profit and loss report for each block.
It shows revenue earned on the block, as well as all costs recorded in
The Logger's Edge for that block. Costs include actual labor costs
(including an employee load factor to account for benefits), equipment
costs (based on standard "dry" hourly equipment costs (equipment costs
net of any labor assumptions), any day rates paid in connection with the
block (e.g., hand fallers paid by the day, daily travel allowances,
etc), contract trucker, processor, etc. costs, driver pay for your own
trucks plus standard costs for your own trucks, and any other
miscellaneous expenses you've assigned to the block.
This report shows average cycle times for all the trucks traveling from
block "BL10212" to the "GC" mill. For example: truck J432
made 6 trips for that block-destination combination where a cycle time
could be calculated. The average cycle time was 3.72 hours, and
the average time spent in the yard was just under 1/4 of an hour (.24
hrs). The revenue per hour of $86.18 per is calculated by taking
the total revenue associated with that truck for those trips, and
dividing that value by the cycle time of 3.72 hours.
This report is excellent for monitoring the performance of your own
trucks and drivers, and for comparing the performance of your own trucks
to that of contract truckers.
The Logger's Edge allows you to record expenses related to each piece
of equipment and/or truck that you own. For example, you can
record fuel expenses, as well as parts and repair costs for each unit.
In addition, you can record the routine maintenance and/or repair work
performed by your own mechanics/operators, along with the odometer
reading or hours meter reading. This information is important for
tracking the explicit costs incurred to keep each unit running. It
also aids in the decision about when to consider selling the unit.
This window is used to enter fuel or other parts/repair expenses for
each equipment unit.
This window is used to enter mechanic time spent performing routine
maintenance or other repair work on a piece of equipment.
This information is combined into a report showing the costs of work
performed by your own employees, plus the costs of any outside parts and
repair purchases for each equipment unit.
Alternatively, you can run an Expense report for each unit, by
category of expense. The report below shows all fuel purchases for
a particular truck within a given date range.
