Highlights of the General Release, PTF 615

We are pleased to announce the release of Enrich PTF 615. Highlights of the release are listed below. We are also offering a series of 30-minute webinars to introduce some of the new functionality.

Fuel Tax

Add Unit Selection Trip/Distance Reports. There is a new option to select the unit number for the trip/distance report(s). It can be blank. Each report has been changed to show the unit number selected. The unit number is printed at the top of the page on the same line as the selected facility. (Log 17365)

Equipment Maintenance & Materials

SRTs on Miscellaneous Unit Work Orders. When a VMRS/task is placed onto a work order, enrich will default standard job time into the estimated labor hours field. Those standard job times can be defined by equipment group, manufacturer, or equipment type. Previously, this only applied to non-miscellaneous unit work orders. Now work orders for miscellaneous units will also attempt to default standard job times, but only when there are standard job times defined at the equipment type level and that equipment type is entered on the miscellaneous unit. (Log 17154)

Unit/Customer/Schedule A Comments. The options for the ‘Show Comments on WO Add and/or Edit’ maintenance business parameter have been changed. The options are now:

•   N - No, don’t show comments
•   A - Show comments on WO add
•   E - Show comments on add/edit
•   1 - WO Add-Eq,Cust
•   2 - WO Add-Eq,Cust,SchedA
•   3 - WO Add/Edt-Eq,Cust
•   4 - WO Add/Edt-Eq,Cust,SchedA

The first 3 options are the pre-existing values. Options 1 through 4 are new. You can now show equipment and customer or equipment, customer, and schedule A comments on a WO add or a WO add/edit or not at all. (Log 17261)

Display Contract on Display/Edit Equipment. On the Edit Equipment change screen, a display of the current active contract has been added underneath ‘Equipment Pool’. The agreement header type (e.g. LC), agreement number, contract type, and contract type description will be shown. There will be a “+” to the right if there happens to be more than 1 active contract. (Log 17306)

Add Item Subset Option for Locations. An option to select “Track Multiple Locations” has been added to the item master subsetting. This will allow the user to subset to all parts where location tracking has been set up. In addition, subset selections are now being carried across all views. (Log 16446)

Work Order View of Sublets Without Invoices. Work order subsetting has a new option called “Remove WO’s Waiting on Invoices”. When selected, work orders will be removed from the view if they are open, contain a sublet, and all lines except for the sublet lines are closed. In other words, it will remove any work orders that are complete other than waiting for sublet invoices to arrive and be applied.

There is a new alternate work order view called “WOs - Open Sublets”. When you select this view, the work orders shown will only be those that have open sublet lines and non-sublet lines. (Log 17331)

Credit Limit Warnings on Work Orders. A flag has been added to the customer master that allows all work order credit checking to be overridden for a customer.

Lower and upper credit limit percentage values have been added to the customer master; they can be used to determine if a warning or hard error should be presented to the user when creating a work order.

A new credit check business parameter asks if integrated credit checking should be performed for work order and rentals. Saying Yes to integrate means enrich will use both the work order credit check rules and the rental credit check rules to determine the available credit on rentals and work orders.

Another new credit check business parameter is called ‘Include Invoiced WOs’ not passed to Financials’. If set to Yes, enrich will add the invoice amount of work orders that have not yet been sent over to Financials into the total receivable amount. (Log 17342)

Equipment Feature Subset: Contains. The equipment subset panel allowed for up to 3 features/values to be entered. We have added a “contains” beside each of the values. The “contains” will default to Yes which means equipment will be selected if the feature value contains the value selected. If set to No, it has to be an exact match. (Log 17358)

Warranty Claim Required Fields. When editing a claim from the Warranty Claims menu option, the requirement for warranty code, cost, and vendor have been removed. This means you can enter some pieces of data (i.e. the parts disposition) without having to fill in those required fields. The fields are still required before posting the claim. (Log 17359)

Trigger PM Based on Another PM Completion. Using new PM rules, you can now trigger a PM based on the completion of another PM.

• Rule 008-Trigger PM x On Compl. This rule will allow you to indicate a PM code. enrich will look for this rule whenever a PM is marked as complete. If the rule has a PM code specified, that PM will be triggered for the unit.
• Rule 009-Turn Off Auto Trigger. This rule will allow you to turn off the automatic enrich triggering. In other words, this PM will never trigger on its own. The only way it would get to the roster is by being forced by the user or by being the PM associated with rule 008.  (Log 17378)

Meter Reading on Display of Equipment. Previously, the display of equipment only showed the current meter reading. The LTD has been added. (Log 17281)

ETK

Drill-down From Employee Time/Shift Details. The ability to display a work order from shift details has been added to 3 screens. The option will go to a display version of the work order.  (Log 8374)

1. Shift Time Detail display
2. Gangsheet Approval Details display
3. Employee Shift Details display

Change to ETK Business Parameter. The ETK business parameter ‘Allow date/time Override’ has a new option for “Except start/stop/unpaid”. This option allows the date/time to be overridden except on the start or stop of a shift or when clocking onto an unpaid indirect labor code (like lunch) or coming from an unpaid indirect labor code. When set to the new value, for the indirect labor codes within a shift, if clocking onto “lunch” (unpaid code), the user would not be able to modify the start time. If clocking onto a work order or a paid indirect code, the system will check if coming from an unpaid and, if so, not allow the start time to change. However, if clocking onto a work order coming from a paid indirect code, the start time can be changed. (Log 17324)

Asset Management

Add ‘As Of Date’ to Insurance Expiry Report. The Expiring Insurance Policies report prompt has been changed to allow entry of a date for filtering out old expiring insurance policies. When you select the option to print expired policies, you can enter a date in the new ONLY PRINT POLICIES EXPIRED AFTER date field. This is useful if you do not go back and review old expired insurance policies. (Log 17031)

Increase Description on P&L Screen. The Unit P&L display has been changed to ensure that source document numbers are not truncated. The screen format was changed to 132 x 27 so that the transaction description and source document information can be fully displayed. There was also an issue with the negative sign being suppressed on the last subfile record on the screen; the “+” (more) sign overlapped the negative sign of the last amount. This has also been resolved by changing the screen format to 132 x 27. (Log 16306)

Debt Note Support Requests. The Display Posting Detail screen for debt notes will now show the year and period to which the accounting transaction was posted in Financials. It also has an option to view the accounting transaction, which will take you to the Display AP Transaction screen. (Log 17384)

Lease Rental

Billing Forecast/Calendar Processing. A new method of initiating and managing lease billing jobs has been added to enrich that may be used as a replacement to the current Billing Control function. This new method could be viewed as a layer over the current functionality or may be used in conjunction with it. Note that it does not handle rentals. This new approach will use a Billing Calendar to forecast and process lease billing. Rather than the user filling in a set of billing parameters to initiate the billing run, this method will use the contract detail records to forecast the billings date and then lead the user through the initiation of one or more billing runs to perform the billing. The values that determine the billing cycle will be defined in the contract itself and the billing control function will then use those values to determine when the billing jobs should be run. The user’s interaction with the new billing engine is to review the billing calendar’s forecasted billings and select the ones to be billed by grouping them to form a billing control group. The billing engine then looks back to the billing control to determine what is to be billed in the group. It still references the contract details but only to determine the value of the charges. (Log 17164) ** Please note that Billing Forecast should NOT be turned on without consultation, as it requires a significant set-up and training effort to use. **

Pooled Mileage. Pooled mileage functionality to consolidate and calculate mileage across units and issue a single invoice has been added. You must be using the billing calendar. Given the number of methods of calculating pooled mileage, and the possibility of additional calculations being added in the future, the approach taken here is to allow vehicles in non-standard pools to be flagged as pooled but with an additional identifier that shows that enrich does not have to carry out any pooling calculations. enrich will produce a simple report that captures all of the key pooling information for the non-standard pools. The report may then be downloaded and used by the billing team to calculate the pooled mileage bill for each customer. Contract sections added to non-standard pools will be ignored by the billing calendar and billing engine. enrich will exclude them from all billing calculations. (Log 17149)

Allow Discounting of Insurance Rates. You can now enter discounts and surcharges on insurance requirements sections. (Log 17245)

Check Target Date for Reading Collection. The Billing Reading Collection option has been changed to take the Target Date into account. Previously, the program created a list of all units for a customer. Now, if you enter a zero for the target billing date, you will get that same list. If you enter a date, a unit will only show on the report if it has an active bill forecast record that has a date before the target billing date. (Log 17273)

Restrict Billing Prompt Condition on Bill Forecasting. A new business parameter, BILLING FORECAST ACTIVE, has been added to the Lease Rental business parameters. It allows you to restrict the submission of the old billing process depending on the contract types being processed by the new billing forecast. (Log 17411)

Add Last Billed Date to Pool Display. The Last Billed Date has been added to the Usage Pool display screen. An edit preventing a unit being added to the pool with a date prior to the pool’s Last Billed Date has also been added. (Log 17428)

Webinars for the General Release, PTF 615

We are pleased to offer 30-minute webinars for the following topics. If you are interested in taking any of these webinars, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Business Owner Access - Administrator Review: Managing Users, Menus, and Report Updates

• Managing user IDs and user groups
• Installing new and updating reports
• Adding/changing reports on menus
• Report requests
• Q & A

Business Owner Access – End-User Review:  Running Reports

• Available reports, what they are and how they might be used
• How to filter/select data
• Downloading reports to Excel/PDF
• Changing user passwords
• Q & A

Accounts Payable: Payment Processing and Short Cuts

• Using the payment upload to process payments to national vendors (Fleetcharge, etc)
• Mass update of 1099 tax code and bank codes on vendors/vouchers
• Ability to have a zero payment – why this may be helpful and when you want to use it
• Using a vendor assignee for the ‘pay to’ vendor
• Setting default inquiry values for the bank code, payment type, and transaction type 

Permits: New Amortization, Renewal, and Billback Options

• New options for amortizing permits
• New options for calculating permit billback amounts
• Transferring permits
• New options for renewing permits for rental units
• New safeguards for preventing pre-paid balancing problems

General Ledger: Managing Month-End Processing

• New options for sub-system closing – ability to keep sub-system GL open for month-end amortizations, depreciation, overheads, and accruals
• Managing interface transactions/errors
• New Accrued Liability Reconciliation Report – it’s not just for accrued liabilities!
• Audit history for AP, GL, and AR
• Changing an invoice date on a posted transaction
• Changing a period on a posted transaction 

Enhanced Debt Note Reconciliation

• New look, more flexibility
• Ability to pay by note
• Enhanced reconciliation reports
• Ability to pay multiple payments at one time
• Ability to de-select by note

Parts and Equipment Changes

• Flag parts as no warranty
• Display contract on Display/Edit Equipment
• Add item subset option for locations

Work Order Changes

• Option for showing warranty instructions
• SRTs on miscellaneous unit work orders
• Unit/customer/schedule A comments
• ETK Drilldown from Employee Time/Shift Details

Having used Roadcall for six months, The Tandet Group of Companies has shared the following with us about their experience.

Roadcall is a critical part of our roadmap to continually improve our services and is an essential element in our goals of retention and growth.

There is no doubt that this has allowed us to provide a higher quality response to our clients. It is very difficult to not provide a consistent service when using Roadcall.

Speeds Up Accident Response Times

One manager stated that the automatic e-mail capabilities of Roadcall saves time in sensitive situations such as accidents. She also went on to say that the search functionality is helpful when management is required to give timelines to customers on breakdowns.

Can’t Forget Active Service Calls

One call centre manager had this to say, “Notifications [referring to Queue notifications] to the managers have helped take care of the calls during busier times a lot quicker as agents are unable to forget active service calls.” She went on to say, “This program has also helped us manage our phone queues, as we are aware when an agent is on a breakdown call.”

Procedures and Training

As an ISO company, Roadcall allowed us to literally put into action our defined procedures. When any procedure is changed or updated, it can be implemented with a script change and is universally available to all CSR’s immediately after publishing. This has virtually eliminated the need for specific communications and training for procedural updates.

It is easier to train a less experienced person. It has improved the consistency of understanding from one individual to the next. It definitely makes customer-based exceptions easier to facilitate and communicate.

One supervisor responded, “Roadcall reduces the system learning curve and training times; the system is easy to use.”

Different Procedures for Different Clients

The ability to customize a roadcall event based on the unit/driver that is reporting the breakdown caused our Cambridge manager to say, “Being able to design individual scripts for each customer is a huge selling point for the sales staff and has allowed us to service each customer’s separate preferences more efficiently.” It is also important to note that we still utilize only one script plan for our entire client base. The script responds dynamically to the requirements of the situation and the specific client based on responses that are being supplied by the CSR. As a result, a CSR does not need to be told, in advance, of a special procedure for a particular client nor do they have to launch different scripts based on who is calling. One script, potentially different procedures call to call.

Mapping

Our Ottawa supervisor had this to say when referring to the additional information available to the CSR, “A particular benefit has been the ability to pinpoint the exact location where the breakdown is situated by having a map directly in front of you while discussing the surrounding area with the driver.”

Locating the Right Vendor

Roadcall, especially as our vendor database has matured, has made finding the right vendor far more efficient and accurate. Finding the best vendor is not just a question of locating a vendor in the area, but may also involve ensuring that we choose the vendor of choice for any specific client. Again, we are able to accomplish both of these tasks with Roadcall. One manager stated, “Roadcall has increased our ability to choose the closest qualified vendor greatly; this will have saved us a huge amount of money in distance fees, discounts & rework.” A supervisor provided the following comment: “It gives us a greater range of vendors available in the breakdown area which then cuts down on the time to get the unit repaired or towed.”

Our General Manager specifically commented on the vendor search abilities within Roadcall. It was his opinion that we are now at the stage where Roadcall, combined with our maturing database, allows us to find an appropriate vendor better than well known third-party breakdown vendor search tools…

Our Ottawa supervisor commented, “By locating the correct & closest Vendor it certainly increases customer satisfaction and retention.”

Reduces Service Times

We believe that average total service times have been reduced, but this data was not available to us before, therefore we cannot provide independent proof of this statistically. If one assumes our best case scenario in the past (CSR was familiar with the truck/company/driver and the breakdown location, was familiar with all procedures that were specific to the client that was calling and was familiar with approved vendors in the area) then the answer is it may be a wash. This also assumes that the vendor did the work as promised, when promised. If all of our scenarios had been thus in the past, we likely would not have needed Roadcall. In virtually all
other scenarios, we believe it has improved our response effectiveness.

Corey Cox
Director, Information Management Systems
The Tandet Group of Companies