Status Screen

The minimum required fields are:

1.Entity

2.Responsible Company

3.Repair Type - (Owners, Rule-95, Program, Pool)

4.Car Initial

5.Car Number

6.Notified Date

7.Notifying Person

8.Car Type - (Per Rule 83 descriptions. See Below)

Rule 83 Cartypes:

B-Box

F-Flat

G-Gondola

H-Open Hopper

L-Covered Hopper

R-Refrigerator

T-Tank

M-Misc

P-Passenger

Once you enter or change any item, the system is aware of it. After you have made a change and you try to do anything that would move you from the record, the system will state how many changes you have made and then ask if you wish to try and save the changes. If you select "NO", then all changes are cancelled. If you select "Yes", then the system will validate every field to make sure that it is entered logically. If there are any errors, the system will notify you of the first error it encounters and stop there. You are then notified that an error was found and a description of the error. You must correct all errors before the system will save the record.

The Responsible Company is a pull down list of all companies in your rolodex file that are flagged for AAR Billing. Once you select the initials of that company, the company name, contact name and telephone number will appear at the top of the screen. If there is currently an active record in the status file based on the repair type, the system will inform you that the record already exist and blank out the car initial and car number. If there is past history on this car, the system will inform you of the date the car was last in the status system.

The VCR type push buttons on the left of the screen will allow you to move to the top of the file, up one record, down one record or to the bottom of the file. The records displayed are based on the selected sort, which is displayed at the top left of the screen in red.

When you invoice a car and send the repairs to history, the system will look for the car in the status file. If it can be found, the system will stamp the invoice number and invoice date to the record.

SORT VIEWING SCREEN:

When viewing the shopping file, you will have a wide selection to choose from. The main indexes for the viewing order are:

Main Index is:

1.ActiveBy Cars

2.ActiveBy Company

3.AllBy Cars

4.All By Company

The sub-selection indexes are:

1.All Cars 

2.Owners Only

3.D/C Only

4.Programs Only

5.Pool Only

When you first get into the Status program, the system is ready to create a record. If you want to view, edit or delete a record, the press the "Display" push button and the first record based on your sort will appear on the screen.

ADDITIONALS:

Once a repair has been approved and later it is discovered that additional items need to be added, and then press the "Additionals" push button.A screen will appear where you can enter the date additionals have been sent, approved, the persons name approving the additionals and any notes up to 254 characters pertaining to the additionals.

RETRIEVE REPAIR DATA:

Once you press the "Retrieve Repair Data" push button the system will search for the car initial and number you entered in the Pre-Billing file and the Quote/Estimate File. If the system can not find the car, then you will be informed. If the system does find the car, then a screen will appear showing you what you have in the Status System and what you have in the billing file that matches the status system. Some of the items in the billing file are only guess for the status screen. Those items are flagged with a red asterisk! An example would be repair date for arrival date, notified date and so on. If you want to copy the information from the repair record to the status report, check the box next to the information and then press the "Retrieve" push button. The items checked are now copied to the status system. Remember, once all information has been changed, it must be saved in order to retain the information.

If the system can not find any records in the pre-billing file or the quote estimate file, it will look in the Status file. If a previous record was created, then the system will automatically copy over the Responsible Company, Car Type and Car Owner. If any of those three fields are not correct, then you will need to change them. The system will inform you that it is going to copy what is in the status file to your current record.

SEARCH:

The "Find" push button will allow you to search your status file based on the sort that you have selected. If it is a car sort, then you will enter a car initial and car number. If the sort is based on a company, then you will enter the initials of the company. The displayed record will always start with the top most record.

REPORTS:

There are four reports to choose from:

1. Status Summary - Number of Cars, ALL, In Transit, At Shop, Being Worked, Waiting to be Worked and Average Number of Shop Days. Under each Category is the number of cars by Repair Type.

2. Summary of Repaired Cars - By road showing number of cars along with average days to create estimate, get approval, release car etc. In order to run the report, you must select a year from the spin box on the right. The year will be set at the current year with a minimum value of the current year - 5.

3. Detail By Company - Detail shopping record of all cars in shop, then In Transit, then Released in the last 30 days with a page break by company. Company name appears at the top of each page.

4. Graph of Turn Around Time by Month – Shows a Bar Graph of turn around times by year/month. The graph is already designed to show the last two years, 730 days, based on the released date. All turn around times are calculated by taking the number of days between the release date and the date the estimate was approved. It will then divide that number by the number of cars to come up with the average number of days that a car is in shop. These calculation are by year and month of release date.

Once you have selected the report you what and any filtering that may go along with it, the press the "Run" push button. The system will validate your entries and run the report. A screen will appear where you can select "View", "Print" or "Export”. If you wish to print, it is best to select "View”! This is because, while viewing a report, you may print the page you are viewing or the entire report. The exporting will allow you to export the file to another format, Text, DBF, RTF, WKS and so on. If sending out a status report to a customer, I would recommend, Rich Text Format RTF. This is a MS Word format that retains all the fonts.

Special Options:

If you want to see the Filter or Query at the bottom of the report, then check box of displaying the filter. If you want to display the shopping notes and/or the

additional notes, then check the box marked Display Notes.

Filtering a Report:

In order to filter a report, you must check the check box that states; "Where the below items are true”. In order to create a report on one specific company, select

the company initials using the pull-down list. You may also select a Repair Type; Owners, Rule-95, Program, Pool, to run a report on and/or select a Car Type.

Report Title:

At the bottom of the report screen are two entry fields, which will allow you to enter a title to appear at the top of the report.