Giving you the Edge in Business
Canada: 780-448-2780 ext 1 US: 850-532-6206 ext 1
sales@caribousoftware.com
Media: 
Canada: 780-448-2780 ext 1 US: 850-532-6206 ext 1
sales@caribousoftware.com
Media:
The following pages will take you on a tour of the highlights of the Logger's Edge software. Alternatively, you may follow the links in the outline below to view those topics that are most of interest.
The tour is based on a company called Blue Ridge Timber. Blue Ridge works in multiple tracts at once, delivers to multiple mills, and pays loggers, landowners, and truckers for the wood delivered to those mills. We will show you how to enter load tickets, how to set up tracts and manage the revenue rates (rates you receive from the mill) and pay rates (rates you pay to loggers, landowners, etc), how to generate pay settlements, and how to reconcile mill statements. It will also show you some of the reporting capabilities available in the software.
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 (850) 532-6206, and ask for Teresa. The software has much more functionality than 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. You can double-click on a column to sort the tickets, and if you need to edit multiple tickets for the same mistake (e.g., you need to change the product from SAW to PULP 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:
The Logger's Edge uses a wizard window to lead you through the tract setup and/or edit process. In the screen shots below, we take you through the most important steps within the wizard so that you can see how easy it is to set up your tract information. As you'll see, the tract that we are reviewing is the Evans Tract.
Select the County to which the Tract belongs. County/State information is important for timber tax reporting.
This window is the rate setup grid for rates you receive for deliveries to your customers.
This window is the rate setup grid for rates you pay to loggers, truckers, landowners, etc.
This window allows you to set up conversion factors. Conversions can vary from one tract to the next. You can convert from weight into a variety of measures including MBF or Cords.
This window is used to set up your cruise information.
This window is used to record distances from the tract to each destination.
This is the window where you give the tract its name and record other pertinent information.
The nice thing is that once you have a tract set up, you can use the "Copy" feature to create a new tract quickly and easily.
At this point, you have given the software all the information it needs to generate your contractor and landowner pay statements. The Logger's Edge has a variety of statement formats, so you logger statements can be tailored to look differently than your landowner statements or your trucker statements. You can actually control the sorting and subtotaling, and you can control the columns that appear in the statement as well.
Here is a popular format for a trucker settlement sheet.
This format, which has a cover page followed by detail pages, is popular for use with landowners.
4. Mill Settlement Reconciliation
The Logger's Edge is a wonderful tool for allowing you to double-check that the mills are paying you for each and every load you deliver --- and furthermore, that they are paying you the proper rate.
When you receive your settlement from a mill, you can go into The Logger's Edge and call up all the tickets for the date range and destination(s) that correspond to the mill settlement. You can then click on the Load Revenue tab (see below) and record the amount you were paid for each and every ticket.
After recording your actual payment from the mill in the window above, you can run this Revenue Reconciliation report to identify those tickets for which you have not yet been paid and/or those tickets where you've been paid an incorrect rate. In the example below, you've not received payment at all for ticket # 54189. You've received payment for the other tickets, but at a rate of $24 (actual rate from the mill settlement) versus a rate of $28 (the rate set up for this tract in The Logger's Edge). The shortfall in payment is shown in the "Difference" column below.
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.
Tract Profit & Loss by Type of Product
Overall Tract Profit & Loss Report
Depletion Report for Tracts Purchased on a Lump Sum Basis
6. Tracking Equipment and Fuel Costs
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.
