Procedures

yellowbox

General Tasks

How do I Create and Edit Customer and Vendor Records?

The Customer & Vendor Profiles program is used to create and edit customer and vendor records. This program keeps track of customer and vendor addresses, contact numbers, notes, vendor types, customer rating, billing, and credit information, accounts payable configuration, and miscellaneous information. Customer and vendor profiles are used throughout the TruckMate system, particularly in the Billing, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable modules.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open either the Customer or Vendor Tab by selecting their respective icon on the toolbar or menu bar.
Use the '+' button on the navigational bar to add a new record.
Enter all general information (such as the company name, address, etc.) on the left side of the screen. Select the tabs on the right side of the screen to enter or view information regarding Billing, Notes, Accounts Payable postings, etc.

How do I Organize Customers into Groups?

To make it easier for users to handle customer profiles and records and provide better visibility of customer profiles in reporting and also allow users to handle raring based on groups rather than indivisual customers TruckMate provides the ability to organize customers into different groups. Each customer can belong to one group where as many customers can belong to the same group.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open the Customer tab by selecting the icon on the toolbar or menu bar then use the navigation bar to select the customer you wish to add to a group.
Go to the groupings tab, in the 'Grouping Code' pick edit field select the group you want to add the customer to (once selected, all customers belonging to the selected group will appear in the 'Groupings' grid) or you can create a new group by entering the name in text format in the 'Grouping Code' field.
Save the changes, when you do the current customer will appear in the 'Groupings' grid as part of the current group.
To add another customer to the same group you can simply select the 'Add' button from the navigation bar at the bottom of the grid, a window with a list of customers that are not already assigned to any group will popup, pick a customer and it will be added to the current group and will show as well in the 'Groupings' grid.
You can also extend the grouping to Sub-Groups, simply enter a subgroup description in the 'Sub-Group Description' field at the top of the groupings grid, this will add the current customer to the new sub group. If you save; the subgroup description will also appear by the current customer in the 'Groupings' grid. Alternatively you can select any customer from the grid itself (remember that you can sort the grid content by any column on the grid simply by clicking that column’s title ) , select the edit button from the navigation bar at the bottom of the grid and enter the desired 'Sub-Grouping Description' in the proper field.

Sub-Grouping can be used to add additional organizing to already grouped customers. For example suppose you have a group called 'Wal-Mart' with 100+ customers. It may be helpful to categorize the clients within the group by region (Pacific NW, SE, etc) or some other free-form description.

How do I Attach a Rate Sheet to a Customer?

Rate Sheets are created in TruckMate in the Rates Maintenance program. They are used to define a rate within a rating scenario which can be used in the automatic rating process when services are provided to a customer. However, it’s not enough to create a rate sheet and save it in TruckMate, a rate sheet must be attached to a customer for it to be used in the automatic rating process. This section will provide you with the steps to attach a rate sheet to a customer.

The following steps are to attach a rate sheet to a customer from the Customer and Vendor Profiles program. You can perform the same action from Rates Maintenance program. The process would be to select the rate sheet first and then attach it to a customer by selecting that customer from a list. for more information Click Here.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open the Customer tab by selecting the icon on the toolbar or menu bar then use the navigation bar to select the customer you wish to attach a rate sheet to.
Go to Rating > Rate Sheets.
AT this point you have an option of attaching a rate sheet from the 'Confirmations' Sub-Tab or the 'Proposals' Sub-Tab. The steps are the same for both options. The difference would be in the status of the attached rate sheet after wards. The 'Confirmations' Sub-Tab lists all approved Rate Sheets for the selected customer. And thus, a rate sheet attached from the confirmations sub-tab would be already approved. On the other hand, the 'Proposals' sub-tab lists all rate sheets that are attached to the selected customer but not approved yet. and thus, a rate sheet assigned to the customer from the proposals sub-tab would be 'Proposed' (not approved yet and will not show in the Confirmations sub-tab). Select the tab where you wish to perform the attachment from.
From the main navigation bar (at the top of the screen) select the 'Edit' button with the triangle icon. This will put the selected customer record in 'Edit' mode (you cant attach a rate sheet to a customer without editing the customer record).
From the navigation bar in the confirmations sub-tab select the 'Add' icon. This will bring up the 'Select Rate Sheet' window with a list of available rate sheets. Note that only rate sheets that are NOT already assigned to the selected customer will be available in the selection list. Rate sheets that are already assigned to the customer can’t be reassigned, regardless of the rate sheet’s status.
Use the up and down arrows to select the desired rate sheet and then click the 'OK' button. If the list of rate sheets displayed is a long list, use the filtering option provided in the 'Select Rate Sheet' window to pin point your preferred rate sheet.
Select the save button with the check mark icon from the navigation bar in the Confirmations/Proposals sub-tab.
Select the save button with the check mark icon from the main navigation bar at the top of the screen. This will save the changes to the selected customer’s profile record and concludes the Rate Sheet attachment process.

How do I Enable Auditing and Vetting Features on Changes to Customer Profiles?

For increased security and traceability TruckMate provides auditing and vetting capabilities on changes to client profiles, it also provides a tracking mechanism for all changes to client profiles. The process is simple, the setup is done through a number of config items and security setup steps. The basic idea is to have TruckMate keep track of all the changes of the customer profile and enforce an additional layer of review and approval for those changes before they can actually put in effect.

Set the 'Audit / Vet Client Changes' configuration option for the 'PROFILE.EXE' program to either 'Audit Only' or 'Both Auditing and Vetting' based on your business needs.
Set any or all of the following configuration options for the 'PROFILE.EXE' program to 'True' depending on what details of the customer profile you want the Audit / vet feature to be extended to.
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Acc.Code Subst' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Accessorial Code Substitutions).
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Detentions' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Detentions').
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Discounts / Minimums' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Discounts / Minimums').
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Rate Sheets' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Rate Sheets').
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Routing' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Routing').
- 'Audit / Vet Client Changes - Tariff Classes' (to allow audit / vet features on 'Tariff Classes').
  
  Note: For information on how to edit a configuration option go to Application Configurator documentation.
Set security options for the users or groups you want to allow to use this feature, open the Security Setup program (SECSETUP.EXE), click Start > Programs > TruckMate > Utilities > Security Setup.
Go to the 'Security Tab', from business events on the left hand side select Misc (miscellaneous).
Select the user or group you want to set options for from the 'User' drop down list.
Go to 'Customer Profile' tab, select the radio buttons that represent the options you want the user to have, for more information refer to the documentation on Security Setup program.
Select either the 'Apply to User' or the 'Apply to Group' button.

How do I Edit A Client Profile When the Auditing and Vetting Features are Enabled?

When the Auditing and vetting features are disabled ('Audit / Vet Client Changes' configuration item is set to 'Neither') any change to client profile becomes effective as soon is it’s saved, in addition, the Change Requests tab is not visible in Customer Profile and the security setup options to control the Auditing and Vetting features are not there in Security Setup program, on the other hand when the Auditing and Vetting Features are enabled, TruckMate handles the changes made to customer profiles in varied special ways. The way a change is handled is dependant on multiple configuration options and their different values in addition to user security options set in Security Setup program. In this section we will describe how can a user edit customer profiles and the different scenarios in which TruckMate handles changes to client profiles.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open the Customer Tab by selecting the customer profile icon on the tool bar or menu bar.
Use the navigation controls or enter a valid Customer Code to select the customer profile you wish to edit.
Select 'Actual Live Clients' from the drop down list located on the tool bar (only actual live records can be edited).
Select the tab you want to edit and then use the tool bar to select the action you want to make (Add, Edit, Delete).

Note: User’s ability to perform an action is dependant on the security setup for that user, if for example a user’s security setup option for the 'Allow Customer Changes' group on the 'Adds' option was set to 'NO' this user cant add any new records. Once an authorised action is selected (Add, Edit, Delete) TruckMate will generate a new identical record and flag it as a change request which can be accessed by changing the value of the filter drop down list.
Enter the desired values and then select the save icon from the tool bar.
If the user’s rights for the action taken (Add, Edit or Delete) is flagged as 'Yes' in Security Setup program then the user will be prompted with 'Skip vetting?', if 'Yes' is selected then the new change request will be assigned a status of 'DIRECT' and the change will be applied immediately. On the other hand and for specific purposes the user might wish for the request to go through the vetting process regardless of his rights, in this case the user can select 'No' to this option and the request will go through the vetting process as described in the following points.
If the user’s rights for the action taken is flagged as 'Vet' or just decided to have the change request go through the vetting process selectively (as described in the previous point) then the change request status will be set to either 'Entry' or 'Pending' based on the 'Auto Submit Client Add / Edit Change Request' configuration option for PROFILE.EXE, if the value is set at 'True' then the change request will be assigned the status 'Pending' and the user can no longer make any changes to the change request and the status will stay 'Pending' until an authorised user reviews the request and either approves it or rejects it. If the 'Auto Submit Client Add / Edit Change Request' is set to 'False' then the request’s status is set to 'Entry' and the user can edit the change request as much and as many times as he/she desires to and he/she can also delete the change request and cancel the change. Once the user is happy with the change request the user can change the status via the Status Change Button in the Change Requests Tab to become 'Pending' and then the request will need an approver to review it and make a decision.
Select the approver from the drop down menu in the popup window invoked when the save icon was clicked, this final step is only applicable if the 'Client Vetting Approver Type' configuration option for PROFILE.EXE is set to any value other than 'Non'. If set to 'Non' this step will not take place all together.

The possible values of the 'Client Vetting Approver Type' configuration option are (Job Title, None, User Group and user). If set to 'User' this means the request submitter has to indicate a specific user to review and either approve or reject the request, which is in other words a workflow and approvers will be nagged if they try to close 'PROFILE.EXE' with any 'Pending' change requests assigned to them.

How do I Approve or Reject Change Requests of Customer Profiles?

When the auditing and vetting features are enabled; changes that are made by users with security setup on changes to customer profile set to 'Vet' require an additional review and an approval by a different user with 'Allow Approval of (Adds, Edits or Deletes)' security setup checked (set to true) in the Security Setup program. This section explains how to approve other users change requests when you are authorised to do so.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open the Customer Tab by selecting the customer profile icon on the tool bar or menu bar.
Use the navigation controls or enter a valid Customer Code to select the customer profile you wish to edit.
Select 'pending' from the drop down list located on the tool bar (change requests with a 'Pending' status are the ones that need review and approval by another user).
Select the Change Requests (Auditing / Vetting) tab then select the Tracer Sub-Tab, this sub-tab allows you to run complex filters, you can choose to run a SQL filter and define your own criteria by checking the 'SQL Filter' checkbox and selecting the 'Setup' button or decide to use any combination of the ready filters by checking the desired fields to include in your filter.

Note: You can only choose to use the 'SQL Filter' option or the rest of ready functions, once you select the 'SQL Filter' all other filters become disabled.
Once you are satisfied with your filter selection you can select the 'Run Trace' button to run the trace, the results will show in the 'Trace Results' detail grid.
Locate the change request you want to review in the results grid then right-mouse-click or double-click the row to be taken right to that change request (so you can view the status change history on the sibling tab and/or view CLIENT fields grouped logically on the main tabs).
As an Optional way of reviewing and auditing change requests (steps 5 to 7) you can right-mouse-click from anywhere on the background of any form (i.e. from anywhere other than a grid or editbox) and select 'Show Before / After Differences' and you will have two options:
1. 'Show Before / After Edit Differences > List' will pop-up a form with a grid listing every single field that was changed in the change request (showing before and after values) from any of the 7 audited tables.
2. 'Show Before / After Edit Differences > Highlight' will turn the background on grid cells (and background on CLIENT edit-boxes and text on CLIENT check-boxes) to red. It will also set the background on all cells in the "Change Type" column to red for rows that have been changed (no longer set to 'None (Live)'). Choosing the option again (or changing to a different client or change request) will turn off the highlighting.
Both methods can be useful: the highlight option is more visual, but the list option allows you to see all changes at once, without having to flip between the various tabs.

Note: If the currently viewed record is a "Before Edit" or "After Edit" change request record, then the comparison will be done to its matching change request, alternatively, if the currently viewed record is a pending 'Edit' change request record, then the comparison will be done to the live record.
If your decision is made on whether to approve or reject the change request then go to the Change Requests (Auditing / Vetting) tab then select the Status Sub-Tab it should display basic information about the change request and some historical data about the status changes.
Make sure that you are on the correct change request then go to the 'Current Status' field and change the status to either approved or rejected.
Select the save icon from the tool bar to save your changes.

Notes:
1. By default the approver is not allowed to make changes to a change request, however, if the 'Allow Approvers to Edit Other Users Client Change Requests' configuration item is set to 'True', the approver then can actually make changes to the change request before approving and saving.
2. There cannot be two different unresolved (ENTRY or PENDING) change requests for a given client at the same time. If a user tries to edit a customer profile which already has a change request record submitted by another user with a status flag as 'Entry' or 'Pending' an error will be generated stating that another user has a pending change request for this customer’s Profile.
3. By default, only the creator of a change request may submit it for approval (when they are ready). However, in some cases you may find that some users leave their requests open (in entry status) when they go home. This can lead to a problem in that no other change requests for that given client may be created until the original is resolved. So, to resolve this, a carrier may set the app config "Allow Approvers to Change Status on Other Users' Entry Type Client Change Requests" to True. If True, then any user who has "Allow Approval of Edits" (or Adds or Deletes, depending on the type of entry status request) checked in Security Setup program, may update the status by submitting it or canceling it.

How do I Create a Customer Statement?

In this task, you’ll use the Customer Profile program and AR Inquiry program.

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate2013 > Profiles Customer & Vendor Profiles.

Go to the Customer Profile - Billing Tab. Locate the 'Statement Frequency' area and select a radio button to indicate how often summary statements should be generated for this Customer.
In the AR Inquiry program, you can generate statements for Customers based on the Statement Frequency assigned here. Open the AR Inquiry program (ARRA.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate2013 > Accounting & Finance > Accounts Receivable > A/R Inquiry.

The top part of the screen displays a grid of Customer summary information that has been entered in the Customer & Vendor Profiles program. The grid at the bottom of the screen displays invoices for the Customer selected in the grid at the top. Both grids have right mouse menus.
Use the filter to locate the client you are seeking information about. For example, if I’m looking for a client information about TMW, I would simply enter an 'T' into the filter and all TMW information would appear in the top grid area.
Highlight the Client ID, and then use your right mouse menu and select 'Assign Statements'. By selecting this option you can assign statement numbers and statement dates to outstanding invoices. Statement numbers and dates will only be assigned to those outstanding invoices that have not been put on Statement Hold. (Statement Hold is applied using the Toggle Statement Hold menu option in the Invoice grid). The Assign Statements option will update the Statement Number and Statement Date fields in the Invoice grid.
Familiarize yourself with the Starting and Ending Customer definitions as found below, as well as how the Statement Frequency and Statement Date options function in the Customer and Vendor Profiles program.
- Starting Customer: the Customer who was selected when the menu option was invoked will default as the Starting and Ending Customer. To assign statements to a range of Customer accounts, enter the code of the first Customer in the range in this field.
- Ending Customer: the Customer who was selected when the menu option was invoked will default as the Starting and Ending Customer. To assign statements to a range of Customer accounts, enter the code of the last Customer in the range in this field.
- Statement Frequency: in the Customer & Vendor Profiles program, on the Billing tab, you can assign a Statement Frequency to a Customer. To generate statements only for Customers with a specific Statement Frequency, select the frequency from the radio buttons.
- Statement Date: enter the date that should be assigned to the statement. Click on the down arrow for a calendar selection form.

To view a Summary Statement Report, highlight the invoice details found in the bottom grid of the AR Inquiry program (you can only view one invoice at a time), and use your context menu to select 'Reporting' and then 'Summary Statement'. (Note: you must have used the 'Assign Statement' function first, before being able to view 'Summary Statement' as an option in the AR Inquiry program). When you select the Summary Statement report, you will be prompted to enter the statement date, which is the date that you wish to generate statements on. This corresponds to the date assigned to invoices using the Assign Statements option. Click on the down arrow for a calendar selection form or leave the pre-selected choice at today’s date. Select the Crystal Report template supplied with the TruckMate system called 'BILLSTMT.RPT'.

Remember that before generating summary statements, you must use the 'Assign Statements' menu option to assign a statement date and a statement number to outstanding invoices.

How do I Setup a Vendor for Direct Deposit Payments?

Open the Customer & Vendor Profiles program (PROFILES.EXE), click: Start > Programs > TruckMate2013 > Profiles > Customer & Vendor Profiles.
Open the Vendor Tab by selecting the 'Vendor' icon from the Toolbar or Menu Bar, and find the Vendor you wish to add Direct Deposit payment information to using the TruckMate Navigation bar, or by searching.
Once you have located the Vendor record you wish to edit, select the Direct Deposit Tab.
Check the 'Direct Deposit' flag, and fill out all of the fields on this Tab. For more information on what each field corresponds to, click the link in the previous step. Once this has been completed, proceed to the 'How do I Pay a Vendor using Direct Deposits?' topic.

How do I Print a detailed Phone List of all of my customers and vendors?

See the How Do I? page for the Contacts and Phone application.

Mobile Communications Setup

Stop Profiles

Stop profiles are used during automatic arrivals and departures. They are available for systems using:

PACOS
AA-AD
OnRoute
Geologic
D2Link

To create a Stop Profile:

In Customer & Vendor Profiles, select the Customer tab if it is not already selected.
Create a new customer profile or select an existing customer profile.
Go to Tools > Stop Profiles.
The Assign Stop Profiles window opens. It lists all available stop profiles in the system as well as those profiles that are assigned to the customer.

How do I assign an existing stop profile to a customer?

Drag a stop profile from the Available stop profiles grid to the Profiles assigned grid.
In the window that appears, select the way in which the profile will be used.
Click OK. The profile you chose appears in the Profiles assigned grid.
Click OK on the Assign Stop Profiles window.

How do I remove a stop profile for a customer?

In the Profiles assigned grid, do one of the following:
- Double-click on the profile.
- Right-click on the profile and select Remove to remove a single profile or Remove All to remove all profiles.
Click OK.

How do I create a new stop profile?

In the Available stop profiles grid, right-click and select New.
In the window that opens, select your mobile account.
A profile wizard opens that is specific to your account.
Follow the instructions in the wizard.

How do I create/load default profile assignments for all my customers?

In the Profiles assigned grid, right-click and do one of the following:

Select Save as Default for all clients. All profiles contained in the grid become a default set that is applied to all clients.
Select Load current client Default. If there is a default set of profiles, it displays in the grid.

How do I assign profiles to/load profiles for waypoints?

In the Profiles assigned grid, right-click and do one of the following:

Select Save as Default for all Waypoints.

Waypoints are typically zone codes, not client codes. Currently, you cannot assign a set of profiles to a waypoint. However, selecting Save as Default for all Waypoints saves the set of profiles to a system-created WAYPOINT client.

If there is no default set of profiles for all waypoints, the system uses the default set created via Save as Default for all Clients. If there is no default set of profiles for all clients, the system uses a communications-specific default.
Select Load current waypoint Default. If there is a default set of profiles, it displays in the grid.

How do I embed macros within a PACOS stop profile?

In the Available stop profiles grid, right-click and select New.
In the window that opens, select your mobile account.
A profile wizard opens that is specific to your account.
Follow the instructions in the wizard. When you get to the Arrived set of options, select the Popup Form checkbox.
Select any other options in this window and click Next.
On the window that opens, select Embed Return Form and use the search button to select the macro you want to use.
Complete the wizard.