LOAD TRACKER SOFTWARE

Office Equipment Company has developed a log accounting system for use in the Forest Products Industry with installations covering Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Alaska, Montana, Minnesota and Michigan that allows them to gather, report and account for information in an efficient way as possible. It has been our aim to reduce the amount of paperwork shuffling that must go on to track the volume and value from different sources of logs. With this effort we are able to gather the information, convert it into understandable files, generate reports that meet a variety of management needs, and flow directly into our interactive accounting system.

GATHERING/SETUP

In the implementation process you will be instructed on how to create the maintenance files that govern how the logs are valued and tracked. The initial set up of the Jobs (sources of the logs), Destinations (mills or dumps), Contractors, Log grades & species defined becomes your contract book. Contract rates are then assigned to the Landowner of the sale, Logger, Cutter and Trucker. Each payee can be paid up to a combination of three different ways: weight, gross scale, net scale, flat rate, cords, cunits, mule-train, payload, or adjusted gross.

CONVERSION

Depending on the size of the operation and the volume of logs tracked, information is captured several ways. In a smaller operation, you would hand input the scale tickets. The load’s header, or overall information will be entered to indicate the ticket numbers, date, trucker, truck number, source, destination, weight, and any other load-based information. Then the gross and defect dimensions of each log segment are entered.
In Bureau-scaled loads we can download the information using either disk transfer or telephone modem transmission over voice-grade phone lines. Currently we work with Pacific Northwest: Columbia, Southern Oregon, Yamhill, Puget Sound, Northern California, Gray’s Harbor, Timberline and Northwest.
Each bureau has different ways of presenting the information. Most will make it available in the form that is most advantageous to their subscribers. Once the system is set up, operators need only contact the bureau when a download is needed, and monitor the progress of the transmission. Whether the information is needed daily in a segment-by-segment form, or only as certificate totals at the end of the period, we use whichever fits the clients needs. This transmission file is stored with the date as part of the file name. Once the file has been transferred, the conversion process begins. The conversion process places the information in a format so the end user can look at each ticket on screen much like a bureau ticket, or by printing reports.
If a scaling bureau is not used, but the end user has its own check scalers scaling each log with hand held computers this information can still be downloaded to the main system.

REPORTS

Daily detailed reports of log receipts by Job, Destination, Species, and Grade are available with summaries by length and diameter. Reports are selected by the following: Date, Job, Trucker and Mill/Destination ranges. Loggers, Truckers, and Cutters statements are produced for payment by date ranges. At the end of these reports you will be asked whether the tickets appearing should be marked paid, therefore alleviating the possibility for double payment.

THE ACCOUNTING INTERFACE

Once the contract rates are established we can enter a vendor from accounts payable that will be paid for each of these services, or a customer who will be invoiced. Summary reports of activity for each sale, individual statements showing dates, ticket numbers, log counts, bases for payment, rates, and extensions for all logs received will be shown. The totals and summaries are shown, and upon approval are posted as invoices to the accounts payable. The vendor has specific expense and liability accounts set up in the file, so an invoice is created. These ‘automatic’ invoices are included in the payable file and posted to the general ledger showing footage as well as dollars. Payment selection can be requested on demand and computer checks will be cut. The purchase and disbursement journals will be kept, and monthly check reports will show activity from the logging, automatically. Year-to-date, purchases and payments are kept both fiscal and calendar making 1099 printing and tax year closings much easier.