TMWSuite overview

The System Administration application provides configuration, security, and housekeeping functions for TMWSuite. These functions include:

The File Maintenance application is used to define profiles for entities that are key to your business operation. A profile is a record that contains basic information relevant to your company’s relationship with that entity. A master file is a group of profiles of the same type. In TMWSuite, you can use the File Maintenance application to establish these major master files:

The Order Entry application is used to record a customer request for the movement of goods or materials. Such a request must be recorded before resources (i.e., driver(s), tractor/trailer/carrier) can be dispatched to move the load.

The primary information recorded for an order includes:

Other features include:

The Dispatch application is the "heart" of TMWSuite. The other applications in the system either feed data into Dispatch or process information from entries made in Dispatch.

Dispatch is used to plan and record the daily activities of drivers, tractors, trailers and carriers. This application is most effective when data is entered in real-time (i.e., when events are recorded as they occur). This enables you to look up the current location and availability of all resources. In addition, you can determine which resources are the best matches for trips not yet started.

The two core functions of the Dispatch application are:

Dispatch consists of two primary windows:

The Rate Schedules application (also called Tariffs or Automatic Rating) has two purposes. It is used to record:

A rate may consist of a single per-unit amount or a rate table (i.e., a matrix of amounts). For each rate, you can establish a set of restrictions that determines exactly when to apply the rate.

After rates are set up, you can use TMWSuite’s Compute function to have the system automatically rate a trip for billing purposes, or calculate driver payment.

When you activate the Compute function, the system does the following to apply the proper billing or pay rate to a trip:

The Invoicing application (also called the Billing Desk) supports the creation and printing of freight bills and stand-alone invoices.

Invoicing information is drawn from both the Order Entry and the Dispatch applications. Billing related information that is known at the time the order is prepared flows automatically from Order Entry or Dispatch to Invoicing. Information related to freight movement and entered in Dispatch also flows automatically to Invoicing. The billing clerk can manually enter additional information at the time the invoice is prepared.

When invoice preparation begins, the billing clerk usually reviews all orders ready to be invoiced. At that time, all or a selection of those invoices can be prepared manually, or they can be rated and completed automatically by the system. Automatic calculation of charges is based on billing rates, which have been recorded in the Rate Schedules application.

Most invoicing functions are performed on the Edit Invoice Folder, the primary work area of the Invoicing application. Invoice preparation generally involves these four steps:

The Settlements application is used to calculate pre-tax driver payment. Due to its integration with the Dispatch and Invoicing applications, pay-related information such as dispatch miles and shipment revenue flows automatically from them to Settlements.

The Settlement application contains two primary windows:

The TTS50.ini file is a configuration file that contains many settings or "switches". Some of these settings are used to turn off specific TMWSuite features. Others are used to tell the system how a particular feature is to operate. Changes to settings in the TTS50.ini file can be made with a text file editor.

Like the TTS50.ini file, the General Info Table is a global configuration file with many settings. These settings appear in a grid that you can access only in System Administration. The grid allows you to see or modify many system parameters at once. These parameters affect how various TMWSuite applications work, like the customization of features allowed by TTS50.ini settings.

Your company has its own "language". You use certain terms to categorize your loads, your equipment, and your drivers. You also have names for the types of data you record. To use your own terms and categories, TMWSuite allows you to define many fields yourself. Such user-defined fields are called labels. They are stored in a portion of the System Administration application called the label file.

The Order Scheduler feature allows you to automatically schedule trips that are standard business. Such trips have stops that always occur:

Use of the Order Scheduler feature eliminates the need to manually enter such "milk run" trips individually. Instead, you set up a template for a particular type of trip. Then you establish a trip schedule that is based on that template. When you process the schedule, the system automatically creates new trips by making copies of the template.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a common set of electronic document standards that allow for electronic commerce between trading partners. In the trucking industry, this electronic commerce is typically the transmission of common business documents between shippers and carriers. EDI versions of these documents have numeric designations like 204 load tenders, 990 order confirmations, 214 shipment status reports, and 210 invoices.

As an example, when shippers tender a load to a carrier, they first generate a document in their system. This document is then translated into an EDI transaction set and transmitted to the carrier, typically by a Value Added Network (VAN), but alternatively via the Internet or a direct connection between the shipper and carrier. This transaction set must be translated through a process called mapping into a "flat file" format document that can be imported into TMWSuite. Every document from each trading partner requires its own map for translation. The resulting document can then be imported with a SmartLink.

When invoicing a shipper, or sending a shipment status report, the process is reversed. The carrier first generates a document in TMWSuite. The SmartLink then exports this document in "flat file" format. The document is then translated by the mapping process (using document-and trading partner-specific maps) to an EDI transaction set. Finally, it is transmitted to the shipper by a VAN, over the Internet or through a direct connection.

ShopLink is a fleet equipment-maintenance system for vehicle management and cost analysis. A complete package for any fleet with rolling stock, ShopLink has the ability to customize hundreds of variables and screen display options. Reports and analysis output can assist you in five separate cost-reduction areas for ongoing budgets and productivity, and future purchases and planning.

Features include the following:

ReportLink allows you direct access to all your data. The Executive Reporting feature provides you with a set of ready-made Excel reports. Many built-in functions include Percent-per-Month, Revenue per Mile, and Total Miles by Revenue Class. ReportLink includes sample spreadsheets with graphs showing revenue and expense trends over time periods and key account analysis represented graphically.

Compare business segments and drill down into the data to find out where and why you were the most profitable. Automatically email customer reports to a selected client account.

TotalMail™ is an intelligent message center that processes and records information exchanged between trucks and dispatchers. Using a database server and an Omnitracs™ satellite link, trucking companies can more efficiently exchange information with their drivers, eliminating costly delays and errors.

For dispatchers, TotalMail provides a simple method to both communicate with drivers (and other dispatchers), and automatically update the TMWSuite database. Text messages and preset forms can be sent to drivers, using either the TotalMail viewer application or directly from the TMWSuite Dispatch program. By automatically updating the TMWSuite database, TotalMail allows dispatchers to concentrate on scheduling.

Combine mapping software with dispatch and your dispatchers can "see beyond the walls." This tool displays your trucks at their current or final destination. It can be used to plot customer locations.

The ETA Warning Agent notifies concerned parties when a tractor is likely to be late for a pickup or drop event. The program looks at upcoming stops and the assigned tractor’s position based on its latest TotalMail check calls. The program then directs the mileage interface to calculate the remaining travel time to the stop for an estimated time of arrival (ETA). If the arrival will be later than scheduled, the ETA Warning Agent sends a warning e-mail or TotalMail message to the specified parties. A warning will also be sent when resources have not been assigned and it appears the scheduled ETA will not be met.

Typically, the ETA Warning Agent checks loads automatically based on the parameters you set for it. You can also initiate the checks manually if desired. Either way, it gives a late notice to whomever you specify, e.g., dispatchers, dock managers, customers, etc.

The TMWSuite Accounting Interface provides the means of transferring your billing and settlements data to your accounting package. The interface exports the data from your invoices, vouchers (A/P records for third-party pay) and pay records (pay details and timecards) from TMWSuite to your accounting package. Whether the data is exported directly to your accounting package or is exported to a file your accounting package imports depends on the accounting software you are using.

The Advances/Fuel Purchases Import interface provides communication between TMWSuite and providers of electronic data.

The interface is designed to import two types of information:

TMWSuite’s FuelTax Export interface provides data for your third-party fuel tax service. The number and type of export files created is determined by the fuel tax service to which you are exporting.

The FuelTax Export interface uses SQL Server stored procedures to access fuel tax data from the legheader table. In addition, the FuelTax Export interface pulls data from the city table, the fuelpurchased table, and the checkcall table for users who also employ the TMWSuite Advances/Fuel Purchases Import interface.

The Imaging interface allows you to save your invoices and/or master bills as images for processing by a third-party imaging vendor. Images are produced as part of the normal invoice printing process when the invoice status is being updated from Ready to Print to Printed. Invoices and master bills may be printed or imaged at the same time.