Invoice Header Translations

Previously, the invoice table header was not being translated to the local language of the invoices. This has been implemented with the new TrakIT update.

If a non-English template is being used for generating the invoice, TrakIT will also translate the table header of the invoice to the foreign language as per a new setting defined in the Form definitions.

The following fields are available in the Invoice Form templates:

Language

The language selection affects the Invoice Table that is displayed within the template. This includes the column headers, and elements like Sub-Total, Grand Total, amount in words, etc.

The language selection does not affect the rest of the template - which can be in any language or a mix of languages.

If Data fields are present in the Invoice table, the column headers are also translated. But the data values are not.

Table Display

This option allows you to select whether to display both English and foreign names together or one at a time. The default is "Both Names"

The option affects both the table header and the account names. Please note that account names are not translated. You must specify the local name for the account in the Admin > Finance Masters section.

Important: This change may affect the output of your current invoices that are not in English. Please double-check the invoice before sending them.

Adjusting Translations

TrakIT uses the Google Translation services to obtain translations. After getting the translation, TrakIT saves it in a Translation Cache table.

It may be possible that the translation does not match the correct term in the local language.

In order to fix incorrect translations, SysAdmins can go the Admin > SysAdmin Tools > Translations. TrakIT will display a list of translations saved in the cache. These can be updated with the correct translations.

For any issues or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Back-dating Invoices

In certain situations, it may be required to back-date an invoice that is generated by TrakIT. This is now possible with certain settings on the company and user permissions.

To allow a user to back-date an invoice, the following must be set up:

1) Company Settings

Under Admin > Companies, edit the company information and set these two fields:

Back-dating: Set how many days an invoice can be back-dated.

Back-date Month Closing: Set the day of the month after which an invoice cannot be back-dated to the previous month.

2) User Permissions

Go to Admin > Role Management > Role Customization. Select the relevant role, expand the Finance section and then the Invoice section.

Switch on the permission for 'Allow Back-dating'

Only users with this permission (and SysAdmins) will be able to back-date invoices.

Back-dating the Invoice

At the time of approval of the invoice, you will be able to change the date of the invoice up to the limits specified in the settings.

Please note that back-dating invoices may result in non-sequential or mismatched order of invoice numbers.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Tax Related Changes

With the ever increasing requirements of businesses, we have made some changes to the way taxes are handled in TrakIT. It is now possible to define multiple taxes with different codes under the same tax master in a specific country. Here is how to set up taxes in TrakIT so they work without any user intervention.

Country Taxes

Each country has its own set of taxes. TrakIT allows you to create these taxes along with rates and codes for each country. Go to Admin > Finance Masters > Country Taxes and select a country.

You can add multiple taxes here that are applicable for the country. The Finance Code must be unique for each tax added. If the Finance Code is not specified, it defaults to the Tax Code.

Default Taxes for Accounts

When adding Accounts to the workflow definition, you can specify the default taxes that will be applicable for the account. Multiple taxes can also be selected, provided they belong to different tax codes.

Once the default taxes have been added, they will be applied automatically to the specific account.

Adding Taxes Manually

If default taxes have not been set, it is possible to add a tax manually on any account, provided it is defined under the Country's taxes. Previously, it was possible to set the rate manually. This is not possible anymore and the tax rate will be automatically picked from the Country Tax definition.

Tax Exemptions

Customers and entities that are exempt from paying specific taxes can be defined in Entity Management. Select an Entity and select the tab 'Per Company'. Click the company for which you want to define the exemptions. Select the exempted taxes and click Save.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Requesting Documents from Customers/Others

With the latest update of TrakIT, you can now send a document request email directly to concerned parties and also allow them to upload the documents into TrakIT without having to log in.

Requesting a Document

If the Document Checklist is defined in the Workflow, you will be able to select one or more checklist items and request the document for the selected items to be uploaded or emailed to you.

Select one or more checklist items and then click 'Request Documents'

In the pop-up, you can specify your own Subject and Message if you like. Select the recipient to whom the email should go.

Based on the option selected by the user an email will be sent with the link to upload the document or with the user's email address requesting the document(s). The email will look similar to the below example:

When the recipient clicks on the 'Upload Link', they will be redirected to a Document Upload page where they will be able to select and upload a file. The document upload link is only valid for 8 hours.





The document uploaded through the document link will be linked with the requested shipment as well as the checklist item and will be displayed in the “Documents Uploaded” tab.

The status of the checklist item is set to “Requires Validation” and an email is sent to the requestor.


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

Link Documents to Document Checklist

With the latest update of TrakIT, you can now link and update the document checklist while uploading or updating documents. 

Uploading Documents

If a Document Checklist is defined in the Workflow, you will be able to select a checklist item and also set the status of the item when you are uploading a document. If you select a checklist item, then only one document can be uploaded at a time.

Linking a Document to the Checklist

If a document has already been uploaded, it can be linked to a checklist by selecting the modify option on the document.

Upon selecting the checklist item and status, the previous status will be over-written.

The checklist item linked with the document is displayed with the document.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Update On Event Calendar

With the latest update of TrakIT, the calendar popup for populating events has been changed to allow faster one-click entries of the event with a 'Quick Select' section.

It is very important that events in TrakIT are updated as soon as possible after the real event happening. This will reduce the event update delay and also trigger corresponding actions in a timely manner.

The correct way to use this calendar is as follows:

Immediate Event Update

If you are updating an event immediately after it happens (which is the preferred way), you can simply click "Current Date/Time" to populate the current time into the event box. In almost all cases, this is the default selection that should be used.

Delayed Event Update

If the event is being updated after a significant delay (for example, the event happened yesterday), then you must first set the time of the event on the right side and then click the date on which it happened. If the time is not set, the default time of 12:00 will be used.

Future Time/Date

For Info-Only events like ETA, ETD, etc., simply click the future date on the calendar. It will be entered with the default time of 12:00. If a different time is required, it can be set prior to the selection of the date. Future dates are enabled only for Info-Only events.

Not Applicable / To Be Advised

If an event is not applicable for the work order, simply select "Not Applicable". If the event time is not yet known, simply select "To Be Advised".

Clearing the field

Use the 'Clear' link to clear any existing data in the text box.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Separation of Accounts by Company

With the latest update of TrakIT, all workflows now have multi-company finance capability - without having the set the 'Multi-Company' option in the workflow definition.

However, this also means that users can now access accounts only of their own assigned companies. The selected company is displayed at the top left of the finance page. If the users has access to only one company, the drop-down will be disabled for the user.

If you are unable to see or access accounts on the finance page, please check the company you are assigned to and correct the selection.

Users can also be assigned to multiple companies via the User Management page > Access Roles tab.

Please contact TrakIT Support for any assistance.

Menu Redesign

The main menu is the portal through which you can quickly access different modules and area of TrakIT.

In the latest update of TrakIT, the main menu has been redesigned to support dynamic menus which will be introduced soon.

Old Menu

New Menu

The new menu is lighter and faster to respond. A few items on the Admin menu have been re-organized. 

We have been working on re-designing the main menu to make it dynamically controlled. This means that, in the future, we will be able to control visibility of the menu items based on the user's role, company or location.

If you notice any issues with the new menu, please let us know immediately.

Changes to Advanced Report Filters

Advanced Reports are powerful reports that can be used to set up any number of reports based on any requirements. These reports can be scheduled to be sent out automatically as and when needed.

A single advanced report consists of the report definition, a list of fields or columns contained in the report and a list of subscriptions for that report. The subscriptions in turn, have a selection of filters that apply to the subscription only.

Over the years, we've found that most subscriptions within a report largely use the same set of filters - with just one or two filters that are actually specific to the subscriptions. Adding a new filter for a report required the filter to be added to all subscriptions one by one.

With the latest update, we've create a new section for filters that will be applicable to all subscriptions. These filters will be available in a new tab called 'Filters' present on the advanced report detail page.

Filters added on this tab will be applied on all subscriptions. These filters are also shown when subscription filters are being modified, but they cannot be modified from within a subscription.

Filters defined on subscriptions can also be transferred to report level filters. TrakIT will remove all matching filters on all subscriptions so that a common filter can be used.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Changes in Entity Management

The Entity Management section is the master data for all entities that are involved in the shipment. TrakIT has several types of entities available. Some of these are linked to the work orders, but some not.

Based on business requirements, the following changes have been implemented in Entity Management:

Multi-Type Entities

Previously, an entity could only be one type. A customer could only be a customer and not a transporter. This lead to the creation of some duplicate entities where the same entity was acting in multiple capacities.

Now, a new tab 'Multi-Type' has been added that can allow you to assign multiple types to any entity. The entity will still have it's primary original type. But it can now have additional types as well.

Customer, Shipper & Receiver

Previously, the Shipper & Receiver fields in the shipment would pick directly from the Customer entities. Now, the Shipper and Receiver have been created as independent entity types that can be separate from customers. 'Contractual Customer' has been renamed to simply 'Customer'.

The original Customers have been assigned the additional types of Shipper & Receiver so as not to make any breaking changes.

You can now create entities that are Shippers or Receivers or both - as and when required.

Local Name

A new field called 'Local Name' has been added. This field can be use to populate the name of the entity in the country's local language or script. The local name can then be used for Invoices and other forms where it may be legally required.

For any clarifications or questions, please contact TrakIT Support.

Colour Your Reports!

TrakIT can generate large reports of numbers and text. Sometime, looking for specific values or conditions is crucial. With the latest update of TrakIT, you can specify an expression to change the colour of a field based on the value of the field in an Advanced or Query Report.

The colour expression is a simple JavaScript expression that can be used to evaluate the colour based on the value of the field. The value if the field is specified as $VALUE$ (in caps). The colour can be any common HTML colour names (available here) or a hexadecimal colour code. You can look up hexadecimal colour codes here.

In the above example, we have a simple rule. If the weight of the container exceeds 10,000kg, it will appear as red. If not, it will appear blue.

Expressions can also match text values. For example:

$VALUE$=='Fail'?'red':'green'

If you need precise colours, you can use hexadecimal codes as follows:

$VALUE$==0?'#ffccaf':'#aabcef'

If you would like to change the background colour instead of the text colour just specify the prefix bg-

$VALUE$=='Confirmed'?'bg-green':'bg-#ffcccc'

You can specify multiple condition using brackets:

$VALUE$=='Stop'?'red':($VALUE$=='Look'?'yellow':'green')

The colour specified work only on Excel and HTML based reports. PDF support is coming soon. For any questions or clarifications, please write to TrakIT Support.

Server Migration Testing (Maersk Only)

This article is for users of Maersk TrakIT only

Dear TrakIT Users,

As you may know, TrakIT will be migrated to a new server this coming Sunday (22nd). In preparation for the transition, we would like to request you to test the new TrakIT server and functionality as relevant to you. If you would like to take part in this test, please follow the procedure below and use the test instance of TrakIT as you normally would.

1. Go to http://scrbtktdk009097/ (On Maersk Intranet Only). This is a new TEST version of TrakIT with data a few days old. If you get a 'SSO Authentication Failed' message, or any 'Authorization Fail' message, please stop and inform us (see below)
2. Please use TrakIT as you normally would. You can cover/test below features. Any changes made on this TrakIT will be overwritten by production data on the 22nd.
• Creating and working with Work Orders
• Generating Reports (Workflow and Advanced)
• Generating Forms / PDF 
• Adding files/attachments
• General usage/performance of system

The deadline for this test is Wednesday COB. Please revert with all your findings or success before then.

Region Administrators: Please ensure that there are at least 2 users from each country who can test.

If you encounter any issues, please report these immediately to TrakIT Support, along with screenshots, relevant details and exact steps to reproduce the issue.

Otherwise, please report a "success" confirmation.

Please note that this TEST TrakIT version CANNOT send emails. Email functionality will be tested by the application team.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Best Regards,

TrakIT Support Team

Redesigned Geography & Access

Previously, the Geography & Access page was based on a Tree structure that was a bit challenging to navigate. Furthermore, there was no clear structure of the geographical hierarchy.

To alleviate these issues, we have redesigned the Geography & Access page to make it a lot easier to navigate and also create hierarchical levels based on pre-defined levels.

Level	Name	Description	Example
0	Global	The whole world. This cannot be modified or removed.	NA
1	Region	Continents or global regions.	North America, Asia, Europe, Africa
2	Cluster	Groups of Countries (optional)	East Africa Cluster, Indian-Subcontinent, South-East Asia
3	Country	Individual Countries	India, Kenya, USA, Argentina
4	State	State within a country (optional)	Rajasthan, Nevada, California
5	Area	Areas within a State (optional)	Any area with a state - but larger than a city, containing one or more cities
6	City	Cities or towns	New York, London, Nairobi, Cape Town
7	Location (Depot)	Specific locations / coordinates	Any port, factory, ICD, depot, warehouse, customer address with a well-defined location

Based on the above table, your organisation's hierarchy can be defined in a more structured manner. Workflows can be assigned to any two geographic entities (except Locations).

The new Geography & Access page can be seen above - along with the actions that can be taken on the page, provided the user has the permission.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

TrakIT Data Retention Policy

In order to keep TrakIT performing efficiently and fast, we need to periodically reduce the load on the database by purging and deleting old data from the database. In this respect, we are introducing the TrakIT Data Retention Policy in the next update.

This policy will define when TrakIT will start purging old data from the database. The settings for this policy can be found at Admin > TrakIT Management > Data Retention Policy. The default settings are displayed below:

Most importantly - the default period for Work Orders is 7 years (84 months). If you would like to increase this (to a maximum of 10 years), please contact TrakIT Support.

If you would like to change any of the above default settings, please write to TrakIT Support at the earliest.

Extending Workflow Groups

Workflow Groups have been a little used feature in TrakIT. These basically help you organize workflows into logical groups. Every workflow created in TrakIT belongs to a group (by default, there a group called 'General').

With the latest update, we're expanding Workflow Groups to play a larger role in organization and display of workflows. The Workflow Groups now has it's own page where these can be defined - this page is only accessible by System Administrators.

Menu Organisation

Workflow Groups is now available under the Admin menu for System Administrators only.

The 'Operations' menu has now been renamed to 'Workflows' and the workflow groups now appear as sub-menus under it. This means that each workflow group has it's own page. The columns displayed on the table on each workflow group can be customized as required.

The Finance > Shipments sub-menu is now renamed to "Workflows" and it displays all the relevant workflow groups as tabs in the page. It is possible to disable tabs for specific workflow groups that don't need to be in the Finance module.

In upcoming updates, workflow groups will be linked to roles so that users only see workflow groups relevant to their roles.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Increase Automation, Productivity & Efficiency

Over the last many years, we have constantly been adding new features in TrakIT. Automation, Computed Fields, Query Reports & Asset Management to name a few. New features are usually accompanied with blog articles or news about them. Despite this, the information sometimes does not reach some clients and not everyone may not be aware of the new features.

We've decided to put together a list of productivity enhancing and time-saving features in TrakIT. Please go through these and feel free to start using them in TrakIT. If you need assistance, contact TrakIT Support and we'll be glad to help.

Asset Management

Did you know you can create and manage any kind of asset in TrakIT? Trucks, Trailers, Drivers, Office Equipment, Machinery, Contracts, or anything else that you can think of. Assets need not necessarily belong to you - they can belong to any Entity as well. And assets can be attached to work orders just as easily.

You can create any number of assets. You can also link assets to each other. For example - you could link a trailer and driver to a truck. This way, when a truck is attached to a work order, the linked assets are also automatically attached to the work order.

Assets can also be GPS enabled. For example, if your trucks have GPS enabled, you can update their locations manually or have TrakIT pull their locations from your GPS vendor automatically every x minutes. If you have portable GPS units, we can create an Asset Type for GPS Devices and these can be linked to the trucks where they are placed. See the present locations of all your assets on one map.

What's more, you can define any number of data fields to hold information about an asset - just like you do for a workflow. And when you attach an asset to a work order, any data fields in the asset that have the same code as data fields in the work order, get copied automatically. This is a really huge time saving feature when you need to enter the same information from an asset in many work orders.

Computed Fields

All TrakIT users are well aware of Events and Data. Events simply hold the dates for actions that happen (or future events). Data can hold a variety of information as numbers, text, lists, locations, hyperlinks and so on. Did you know that TrakIT can also have computed Data fields. These fields calculate their values based on formulas and can be derived from other Events or Data fields (even computed ones). 

Similar to how you can write formulas in Excel, you can write formulas for Computed fields. A simple example for a data field that calculates a discount is shown below:

$PRICE$ - ($PRICE$ * $DIS$ / 100)

PRICE and DIS refer to the codes of the data fields that hold the Price and Discount Percentage respectively - they just need to be surrounded by $ symbols. You can add expressions of any complexity and logic. TrakIT uses JavaScript to parse expressions. TrakIT can also use SQL queries for computed expressions. This means you can use any data anywhere in TrakIT to compute your data.

Computed fields can also use other computed fields as their source. The order of processing of computed fields happens in the serial order of the Data fields. The example below calculates the total amount for truck haulage depending on the rate type:

If this looks too complicated, just contact TrakIT Support, tell us what you need, and we will create the necessary computed data fields you need.

Automation with Event/Data Actions

Automation can drastically improve efficiency of any organisation. Automation can reduce delays, process orders faster, reduce employee or manual work dependency and even reduce head-count of employees. Like machines, TrakIT doesn't need to rest and can continuously monitor your shipments and take action based on parameters you set. 

All Events & Data fields defined in any workflow are capable of taking action based on specific conditions that can be set. We can trigger action when the event or data field changes (any change or specific values). For events, the trigger can happen in advance of any date or after a defined delay.

Once you've defined the action trigger, you can setup any of the following actions to happen:

Actions can update send emails, generate documents, send messages, notify people, update other data, events or event execute customized queries. For full details on actions, see the full Documentation.

Custom Dashboards

Because of the wide variety of the kinds of workflows that TrakIT manages, users sometimes need custom dashboard to get a clear picture on what is happening within the workflow(s). TrakIT supports the use of customized dashboard pages for your organisation based on the workflows, or roles of users. 

Any kind of dashboard can be created. If the information is present in TrakIT, we can create a dashboard out of it. These dashboards cannot be provided out-of-the-box as the requirement for each scenario is different and these have to be constructed for each requirement.

A couple of examples are shown below:

Please let us know your requirements and we'll be glad to create a dashboard for you.

API Connectivity & Interfaces

TrakIT's customisable architecture lends it to being versatile to connect with other systems. TrakIT exposes it's own extensive REST-based JSON API to connect with other systems. You can use TrakIT as an intelligent database for your own front-end system or other applications.

We can build interfaces with other systems - such as GPS Vendors, Port Authorities, Shipping lines, etc. We also support standard EDI-Fact interfaces and have in-built API and FTP exports.

Integration with Finance systems such as Quickbooks, Xero, Jurnal, Sage & Thalia are already available. New ones are being added all the time.

If you'd like to connect with an external system, just let us know and we'll get it done.

Conclusion

There are many, many more features in TrakIT, but writing about all would need a small book. If you have any challenges you would like to solve, please let us know and we'll do our best to solve it. None of the features in TrakIT cost anything extra.

Thanks for reading. Please reach out to TrakIT Support for any questions or guidance.

Redesigned Form Definitions

Form Definitions in TrakIT are used to create HTML based forms and templates for generating a variety of documents for work orders, reports, invoices and many other uses. Previously, the form definitions page was within the Master Tables page and the editor layout was not optimal.

The Form Definitions page has now been re-designed as a separate page under the Admin menu. Forms have been divided as per the group they belong to.

Clicking on the form displays a preview/details of the form.

The Form preview displays an approximate layout of the form along with codes of fields that will be substituted with real data. The 'Workflows' tab displays a list of the workflow that the form is available in (applicable only for Work Order and Shipment forms). Global forms are automatically available in all workflows.

Clicking the 'Open Editor' button displays the Form Editor in a side-by-side format so you can preview the form on the right as you type in the HTML editor on the left.

Forms support dynamic and complex calculations as well (using Javascript coding). Please contact TrakIT Support if you need assistance in designing or creating forms for your organisation or workflow.

Your Top Customers and Other Entities

We have updated the Top Entities report to include a trend-line for all entities displayed.

The trend line displays the number of work orders created each month for the entity over the last 24 months.

The peak values, lowest values and latest values are indicated with an orange dot.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.