Recommended logistics management planning routines

Summary

This article explains some of the "best practices" you can follow throughout using Platinum software to give the best results in your logistics system.

More Information

Within any business, there a number of routine daily, weekly and monthly tasks that need to be carried out in order for the business to operate smoothly and efficiently, and to enable any errors to be picked up at an early stage. The following article sets out the recommended routines for Logistics by going over the workflow of a Logistics Job from Start (Initial entry) to Finish (Invoicing).

This article is written with the Automatic Status change system in mind. If you do not have this feature, or have the feature and would like it to be disabled. Please Contact Support If you are unsure on any of the steps above, please contact your Platinum support team by registering on our Support Hub and logging a ticket, alternatively by emailing platinumsupport@catalyst-uk.com. or call on 0116 230 1500 if you need further assistance.

There are two options when processing a job, one without the POD scanning process and one with the POD scanning process. The procedures are very similar, so this article explains the procedure without the POD scanning in detail and then explains the differences when the POD scanning is involved.

If you do not have the POD Scanning and image storage feature but wish to have it please Contact your Platinum dealer or our sales team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website sales contact page for more information.

The Status colours outlined here are the standard colours, which can be altered if required.

Logistics Job Process without POD Scanning

When planning your jobs, you may have an agreed time of day when all the jobs for the next day have arrived. This is often late afternoon or early morning, all faxed\emailed jobs have arrived and any telephone order job requests for the next day have been taken. At this point you will have a complete picture of what needs to be planned.

Stage 1 - Job Creation

Jobs can be created with minimal information on them in the first instance to allow for quick and efficient entry of Jobs as there will usually (hopefully) be quite a few. Initially the only things that need to be entered are "Account code", "Remarks", "Collect", "Deliver". The "Job number" will be entered automatically by the system.

Once accepted the job will be created with a status of:

UNP - Unplanned

Stage 2 - Allocating Drivers and Vehicles

The next stage of the process will be to allocate Vehicles and Drivers to the jobs.

Once both the "Driver" and "Vehicle" are entered and accepted the jobs status will automatically change to:

PPR - Planned, Pricing Required

Both the "Driver" and "Vehicle" fields MUST be filled in for the status of the job to change from 'Unplanned' to 'Planned, Pricing required'.

Stage 3 - Pricing

The next stage of the process is to price your jobs. This is done by filling in the "Rate" and "Quantity" fields if you price your jobs by a rate or by filling in a "Nett" price if you want to use a job price.

Once the pricing has been entered and the changes accepted the status will automatically change to:

PAP - Planned & Priced

Stage 4 - Delivery Confirmation - No POD Scanning

Your drivers will probably get in contact once they have dropped a load at its destination. Once you receive this confirmation, highlight the job and use the [Delivered] button shown at the top of the Platinum screen to change the status to 'Delivered'.

If POD scanning is enabled, please skip to the Stage 4 section later in the document.

If the price has already been entered the status of this job will automatically change to:

RTI - Ready To Invoice

If the pricing has NOT been done, the job will change to:

DPI - Delivered, Pricing Required

Once the price has been entered the status will automatically change again to:

RTI - Ready To Invoice

Stage 5 - Invoicing - No POD Scanning

When you want to invoice all your completed Logistics Jobs, go to the " Logistics Management Invoice Production" option. See here for more help on this.

If POD scanning is enabled, please skip to the Stage 4 section later in the document.

Once all invoices have been produced and accepted the status on those Jobs will change to:

INC - Invoiced Completed

Once the Jobs have been invoiced, they will disappear from the ongoing list of jobs on the Planning screen.

Logistics Job Process with POD Scanning

This section only includes differences to the steps for Stages 4 and 5 in the section above.

With reference to the stages above, this part explains the differences when POD scanning is being used.

Stage 4 - Delivery Confirmation - POD Scanning Enabled

At this point the System will check if the POD has been scanned and will use the status relevant to the progress on that particular job

If the price had been entered but the POD had NOT been received yet the status will automatically change to:

DEL - Delivered, Awaiting POD

If the price has already been entered and the POD has been received the status of this job will automatically change to:

RTI - Ready To Invoice

Stage 5 - Invoicing - POD Scanning Enabled

If all invoices have been produced and accepted and POD's have NOT been received, the status on those Jobs will change to:

INP - Invoiced, Awaiting POD

Once all invoices have been produced and accepted and POD's have been received,the status on those Jobs will change to:

INC - Invoiced Completed

Regardless of whether the Jobs have had a POD allocated to them, once invoiced they will disappear from the ongoing list of jobs on the Planning screen.

Planning View Totals Section

At the lower part of the planning screen you will see a totals section that reads

Tagged: 0 Quantity: 0.00 Rate: 0.000 Work: 0.00 Extras: 0.00 Nett: 0.00 Weight: 0.00 Volume: 0.00

These totals will add up any jobs you tag on the Job Plannings screen to help you check your totals quickly.

Planning View Day Nudging Buttons

On the right hand side of the planning screen there are buttons for skipping the page by the following amounts.

• [<] and [>] - Forward or Backward 1 Day.
• [<<] and [>>] - Forward or Backward 1 Week.
• [<<<] and [>>>] - Forward or Backward 1 Month.
• [Equals Sign] - Go Back to Current Day.

See also

• How do I Add/Edit a Job Status?
• How do I create a logistics job?
• Viewing current logistics jobs
• Invoicing Logistics Jobs
• How do I Print a Ticket?
• How do I Setup Multiple Legs?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

processing, procedures, recommended, logistics, sequence, ticket, invoice, job, status