Multi-Office Job Costing within a Shipment

There are many shipment workflows that are carried out by more than country or office. In such a case, each office has it's own job costing and profitability statement for the same shipment. TrakIT supports multi-office accounting within the same shipment. However, approval of the estimates and closing of the job was done at the shipment level.

In the upcoming update, each office involved in the shipment will be able to separately request, approve estimates and close the job for their own office only. And as currently, users cannot view accounts from offices they are not assigned to.

The above will be accomplished in a few steps:

1. Remove Office field from Master Accounts
2. Add 'Multi-Office Finance' flag on the workflow
3. Add Office field at Workflow Account definitions
4. Add Office field at Shipment Accounts

The above changes will make the job accounting system more flexible and allow the same account to be used in multiple offices. We will also be providing multi-office access for users that belong to shared teams and offices.

These changes will be implemented and released in the upcoming weeks. For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Seasons Greeting and a Happy New Year

All of us at Bitmetric would like to wish you all good health, comfort and prosperity this holiday season...

Finalisation of Invoices and Bills

With the latest update of TrakIT another step has been added in Invoices and Bills: Finalise

Previously, it was possible to "Un-Approve" or "Un-Validate" an invoice or bill respectively. This has, in some cases, lead to duplication of invoice/bill syncing. To prevent such cases, we have added a "Finalise" step.

Once an invoice or bill is finalised, it cannot be reverted back to another state and is locked permanently. Syncing with Finance systems will happen only after the invoice or bill is finalised.

For any questions of concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Workflow Comparison

With the latest update, you can now compare workflows for matching events, data fields, accounts & other information.

On the Workflow Definitions page, click the 'Compare Workflows' button to open the comparison page.

Select Workflow A and Workflow B to compare and select the tab to compare. A result of both workflows is displayed side by side.

The Match column indicates the following:

Yes - Both the name and code is present in the other workflow

No - No matches found in the other workflow
Partial - Either the Code or Name is present in the other workflow

You can also see the matching codes or name highlighted when hovering the pointer over the particular fields.


For any questions or assistance, please contact TrakIT Support.

Geo-tag your documents

With the latest update of the TrakIT Android App, all documents that are uploaded on work orders will now have the location information attached (Latitude / Longitude).

The following document types will get the location attached:

• Camera captures
• Gallery photos
• Documents from the file manager
• Signatures

  

Once the document is uploaded, it will appear with a location icon  as shown below on the Work Order Documents tab.

Clicking the location icon will display the document location in a popup.

For any questions or assistance, please contact TrakIT Support.

Get your own Dashboards

Even though TrakIT is a highly customizable and configurable system, it was always a challenge to create dashboards that would fulfill the requirements of all our clients. Not anymore - TrakIT now has the capability of having customized dashboards and/or pages specific for each of our clients.

Over a month ago, we released a new feature in TrakIT that made many of our customers happy - Dynamic Pages. This allows us to create and present pages, dashboards and other screens specific for your requirements.

You let us know what you need to see in your dashboard or page and we'll create it for you. The dashboard or customized page can contain any information at all, based on any filters applicable. It can be customized per user, per role, per location as so on. It can be made visible to specific users or roles as required. The dashboard(s) or page(s) we create will be used only by your company. 

Here are a few examples of customized dashboards to see the status of Trucks across their journey:

Depending on the complexity of the dashboard, it might take a few days to a few weeks to implement it. But once ready, you can use it as much as you like and further customize it based on requirements and feedback. And the best part - customized dashboards and pages are available free of cost!

What are you waiting for? Get your Dashboard now. Contact TrakIT Support and let them know what you need.

Introducing Geofence Notifications

With an increasing number of our clients using multi-vendor GPS integration, TrakIT has excelled at tracking locations of assets such as trucks and users. Until now, TrakIT could only collect and display location information about GPS enabled assets.

With the latest update, we have enabled Geofence Notifications - which basically means that TrakIT can generate a notification when an asset or a user enters, exits or overstays at a particular location.

To enable such notifications, you first need to create a Geofence around a depot or location. In the example shown below, a geofence of 500 meters has been set around the Keppel Harbour in Singapore.

You can set up any number of Geofences. Once they are set, TrakIT start monitoring the locations of all GPS enabled assets or users and detects when they enter or exit a geofence area. Or, you can get an alert if an asset or user stays beyond a pre-defined limit within a geofence area.

After your geofences are created, you can create Geofence Triggers to get notifications. Go to System > Depot List > Geofence Triggers and click 'Add Trigger'. The following window opens:

You can specify the type of trigger and also set the type of notifications sent as well as the recipients of the notifications.

The "Geofence Log" tab will display all geofence events, irrespective of whether a notification trigger was created for it.

In the next update of TrakIT, geofence triggers will have the capability to update Events and Data fields of work orders where the asset is attached. This will automate most 'Arrival' and 'Departure' events in TrakIT.

For any questions, clarifications or issues, please contact TrakIT Support.

Role Access for Workflow Events & Data

TrakIT allows you to set which roles can access each event or data field in a work order. This can be set by going into the detail page of an event or data fields and setting the permissions as shown on the below screenshot:

However, if there are a large number of events or data fields that need to be set, then it can be quite cumbersome to go through all events and data fields and set the permissions on each one.

To enable users to set role permissions for all events and data fields in one go, we have released a new page under Admin > Role Management.

Once you select a workflow and a role, you can set the permissions for all events and data fields in one go.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Introducing Multi-Location Deliveries

TrakIT now supports multi-location delivery of shipments. You can now add depots not just as Origin or Destination, but any number of depots.

A new option called 'Depot List' has been added to Side Menu in work orders. This opens a window where you can add multiple depots. If the locations of the depots have been defined, TrakIT will use Google Distance Matrix to calculate the time and distance for all depots.

You can also re-order / add / delete the depots and TrakIT will automatically re-calculate the distance and time.

The Origin Depot and Destination Depot sill work in the same way - however, there are linked to the first and last Depot respectively in the Depot list.

Please contact TrakIT Support for any queries or clarifications.

Introducing Validation Expressions

With the increasingly complex requirements coming from business rules and logic, we have implemented an extremely flexible way to validate Events and Data fields being entered in TrakIT.

A new field called 'Validation Expression' has been added to Events and Data fields in workflows. 

This field allows you to write a custom expression to determine whether the value entered for the Event or Data field is valid. An example could be:

$ABC$=='' || $XYZ$==''?'Both ABC and XYZ are required':''

The above expression requires the fields ABC and XYZ to be populated before this field can be set. You can also use $VALUE$ to refer to the value being entered by the user (or @Value if the expression is SQL based)

As custom expressions can be very complex, we suggest you contact TrakIT Support to supply you with the relevant expression for the validation you need.

The Validation Expression field can accept both Javascript syntax expressions and full SQL query validation as well. The expression must return an empty value if the validation is passed or an appropriate error message if the validation fails.

Please contact TrakIT Support for any questions of queries.

Integrate with GPS Providers for your Asset Locations

We're proud to announce that TrakIT now supports GPS integration with multiple GPS Tracking providers. Whether you're just using a single provider or multiple providers, we can connect to the provider's API and get location information about your assets and display them on a single map.

When location tracking is enabled, the Last Location column is displayed in the Asset List along with a 'View Map' link. The Assets can be trucks, trailers or even portable GPS devices directly as shown in the example below.

The Last Location column displays the time when the last location update was received from the GPS provider. A green light indicates that the location was received less than an hour ago. An orange light means the location was received more than an hour ago but less than 12 hours ago. A location older than 12 hours is displayed as red.

Click the 'View Map' button to view the location of all selected/filtered Assets on a map.

If you wish to push asset locations to TrakIT via an API or web-hook, we support that too.

Please contact TrakIT Support if you need to integrate with your GPS provider.

Departments to merge into Roles

With the introduction of the new Role Management module, there is an overlap in the functionality of the Department functions in TrakIT.

Currently users can be assigned to Departments and Events/Data fields can also be assigned to departments. Events/Data fields that have been assigned to departments can only be updated by users belonging to that department.

Going forward, Workflow Events & Data will no longer be assigned to departments but rather to Roles. By default, each Event and Data item will be accessible to all roles. It will be possible for users to restrict Events and Data fields to specific Roles - whether completely hidden, read-only or update-able.

These changes will be released on individual installations, while porting the existing "Departments" into User Roles. If you face any issues with access to Events or Data fields, please let us know immediately.

Eventually, "Departments" will be deprecated from TrakIT completely.

Thank you for your cooperation. Please contact TrakIT Support for any questions or concerns.

New User Role Management (for Admins)

This article is a 'must read' for TrakIT Administrators for major upcoming changes in TrakIT.

Over the past many years, we've received many requests for enabling or disabling some features or sections in TrakIT for specific users or groups. Until now, TrakIT had a few fixed operations roles that the users could have - namely: Read-Only, Operations, PowerUser, Admin and SysAdmin. These roles had fixed accessibility and permissions across the application. In addition, we had several finance roles for various actions in the finance module.

As TrakIT keeps evolving, newer requirements and newer modules are added to the system. Maintaining the same amount of flexibility with fixed roles has been increasingly more challenging with clients having very specific requirements about users roles and the actions they are permitted to make.

We have been working very hard over the last few weeks on a completely new User Role Management module that will give you unlimited flexibility over how you can control what users see and can do in TrakIT. Over the next week or two, we will releasing the new Role Management Module.

The previous roles (with the exception of the SysAdmin), will be deprecated from TrakIT. The SysAdmin, as before will have complete and unrestricted access to all sections of TrakIT. Therefore, it is imperative and there are only one or two SysAdmins for TrakIT in your organization.

Roles will not be fixed any more and they can be created and modified by the SysAdmin. Additionally, each action for a role can be defined in a comprehensive list of actions available for the whole application.

User Role Management

The Admin > Role Management page is accessible only by SysAdmins. The page has three sections:

• User Role Assignment
• Role Customisation
• Role Masters

Assigning User Roles

When creating a new user, you can specify an initial Role for the users, subsequently, you may assign more roles. A user can now have multiple roles.

To assign a role to a user, simply select the user on the left table, click the 'Add Role' button, select the role and click 'Add'.

To remove a role, click the remove icon next to the role. The changes are immediately applied to the user's profile even if he is logged on. The user does not need to logout and login again for the role changes to have effect.

Role Customisation

To customise the actions that a role may make, you first need to select the Role you want to customise form the drop-down list.

Every action that can be taken in the TrakIT is listed in various Sections, which are then grouped together. There are currently five major groups, listed alphabetically.

1. Admin
2. Finance
3. Operations
4. Reports
5. System

Each Group has multiple sections listed. Clicking on a Group expands the Group and displays all the sections within the Group. Clicking on a Section expands it and displays all the actions within that section.

Shown below is an example where the SysAdmin is customising the 'Basic Access' role. The action for uploading a file for bulk update has been granted. The Upload action belongs to the Bulk Updates section that belongs to the Operations Group.

Once you assign/remove actions for the role, you must click on the 'Update' button to save changes.


Role Masters

The Role Masters tab allows SysAdmins to create new roles or remove roles as required. The previous roles in TrakIT will now be visible as "Fixed" roles that cannot be renamed. Eventually, these will be unlocked as well.

Summary

The new User Role Management module will provide unlimited flexibility in how you can control what users do. Every action in TrakIT can now be controlled and can mimic your company policies on what users can or cannot do. This will greatly increase the security of your data as well as prevent un-authorised or accidental updates or changes in TrakIT.

If you face any issues with user permissions or if you have any questions, please contact TrakIT Support.

Getting the distance between Depots

TrakIT can use the Google Maps API to calculate the driving distance between two depots. To enable this feature, make sure you have set the locations of the depots in Admin > Geography & Access. Only Administrators have access to do this.

On the Work Order where you need to calculate the distance, make sure the Origin and Destination depots are set in the Header. Then, click 'Depot Distance' from the WO Menu.

This opens a popup displaying the Origin and Destination Depot locations as well as the addresses (if found).

It displays the kilometer distance as well as the driving time between the two locations. The driving time is based on current traffic conditions. Click the Open Routing in Google Maps link below the map to open another window in which you can see the full details of the route and also plan alternate routing.

If any of the depots is missing from the work order or doesn't have its location set, the distance cannot be calculated.

For any questions or information, please contact TrakIT Support.

Entity Data Fields

With the latest update, we have added Data Fields for Entities. This option has been added for all the entities under Entity management and is to be used for storing any extra data about entities that isn't present in the header fields.

For example: Contract Expiry, Account Manager, Secondary Address, Etc. You  can create any number for data fields for each Entity Type.

To create Entity Data Fields, go to Admin > Master Tables and select "Data Field Definitions". Select "Entity Fields" and then the Entity type from the drop downs. Click the create button to add new Fields each with a unique name and code. 

All these data fields will be shown under Entity Data tab on the Entity Detail page for specific entities.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Search a Number Range in Data

With the latest update, you can now search for a number range in  the Data fields of work orders. This option has been added to the Ops page Data filter that can be added using the customize filter option.

Select the Data Field you want to search for and select the 'Search Mode' as  Number Range.

The following options will be available:

• Equal To - The data value should be exactly equal to the specified value [ = ]
• Not Equal To - The data value can be any value except the specified value [ <> ]
• More Than - The data value should be more than the value specified  [ > ]
• Not Less Than - The data value should not be less than the value specified [ >= ]
• Less Than - The data value should be less than the value specified [ < ]
• Not More Than - The data value should not be more than the value specified [ <= ]
• In Range - The data value should be in between Min and Max values (inclusive)
• Outside Range - The data value should not be between Min and Max (inclusive)

Enter the number in the box provided and click Search. In the case of "In Range" and "Outside Range", enter the Min and Max values. Only work orders that have the relevant search conditions met will be displayed. Please note that this search criteria will only work for numeric fields and computed fields that have numbers in them.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Know Whats Happening When

With the latest update of TrakIT, we've added a new page to help view events on a Calendar. What you see is a simple calendar (starting with the current month) with each date showing the number of events happening on that date.

A sample calendar displaying the number of "Container Cleared" on each date is show below.

Clicking the date displays the complete list of events for that day, including the links to the work order and the workflow it belongs to.

The calendar also includes "Info Only" events and Data fields that store dates. You can filter the figures by the Workflow or the Master Event.

As this is a new feature, please do let us know your suggestions or feedback for improvement. If you are facing any issues, please contact TrakIT Support.

Multi-select Data Fields & More

Among the many updates and features released in TrakIT over the last month, a few useful ones are described below.

Multi-select Data Fields

As you're aware the Data field for a workflow could hold a list of items from which one could be selected. With the latest update, you can allow the Data field to hold multiple items.

When defining a list, just specify the Multi-Select field with the maximum number of items that can be selected or select 'Unlimited' for no limit.

Once this is done, you will be able to select multiple items for the Data field. Each item selected is displayed on a separate line. The selection of items is high-lighted on the drop-down list and clicking on the item in the list toggles the selection of the item.

Shown below is an example where a user has selected 4 out of the many documents available on the list.

Please note that manual entry is not possible in a multi-select list. If manual entry is required, set it as a single item list and select the option "Non-list Items Allowed" when defining the Data field in the workflow.

Floating Save Button

With the number Events and Data fields growing, it became cumbersome to keep scrolling up to save changes made to events or data fields. This is now solved by a floating 'Save' button that pops up when the original Save button scrolls out of view.

The floating Save button is only visible when on then Events or Data tab.

Commodity Auto-complete

The commodity field is a free-text field present in work orders. When making the same entries again is different work orders, it is easy to make spelling mistakes or write the commodity is a different way. With the new auto-complete feature, you can pick from the previously entered commodities to save time and maintain consistency in data.

If a new commodity needs to be entered, simple ignore the list and enter the commodity as usual.

RegEx Validation

Data fields can now be validated using Regular Expressions. A Regular Expression is a sequence of characters that defines a pattern against which the user input can be validated against.

Regular Expressions can help validate user input against a variety of cases such as phone numbers, email addresses, special numbers, codes, numeric expressions, and many other cases. 

This can get a bit technical so TrakIT Support will assist you in setting up any validation expressions your require. A full explanation of Regular Expressions is beyond the scope of this blog. For guidance on what RegEx is, see Regular Expressions.There are hundreds of tutorials on the subject.

Close or Cancel Work Orders 

Event / Data actions can now close or cancel work orders based on conditions and schedules. For more details on setting up Actions for Events and Data fields, see Automation With Event/Data Actions. In addition to sending, emails or messages, you can now choose the action to close or cancel the work order.

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There are many other changes, features, fixes that we keep developing and releasing. If you have a cool feature that you'd like TrakIT to have, please don't hesitate to contact us and we'll do our best to implement it.

And as always, please contact TrakIT Support for any assistance required.