Overview

The goal for this section is to introduce the user to Group Maintenance and the Scheduling functionality. Group Maintenance is to be shown as a tool for increasing reporting options. Scheduling will focus on one-time route changes and load balancing.

Group Maintenance

VendMAX makes use of a number of reports, each one utilizing an array of filters. One way to optimize the information provided in reports is to combine similar records together in ‘Groups’ that can then be filtered on. Examples might include similar Customer types (All public schools) or Product made by a specific manufacturer but purchased from a different Vendor (VSA)

The following data fields are maintained at the top of the screen in the header area during the display of all Group Maintenance Tab information. The fields are described in detail below.

Group Name

Descriptive name of the Group. This name will not be used on any formal documents.

TIP: Since a Group is a static element, which contains the members, which were available at the time that the group was created, it is good practice to include the current date of creation as part of the Group Name. This will prevent other users from selecting outdated Groups when running reports. As an example, if you create a list of all North Carolina customers, and then you obtain three new accounts in North Carolina, the NC Customers Group will need to be updated to include the new accounts.

This button is the key to creating, viewing and editing the list of members, which belong to the selected Group. After selecting this button, the grid view of Master File members displayed in the screen area below will become split. See Group – Update list for more information.

Shared Between Sites

This setting will have no effect in a single site installation. In a multi-site operation, there may be operations in several states. Under these circumstances, the Groups that are created may not be of any interest or useful to operations at other sites. When this check box is turned off, the group belongs only to the Site, which created it. This will prevent other sites from using this group, or even simply seeing it in their groups list when they are operating the VendMAX client software.

Show out of service records

When checked, this setting will show all records included in the group.  When unchecked, out-of-service records will not be included in either list.  Out-of-service records are displayed in RED.

 Add additional fields to the list view.

Every Form View detail tab of Group Maintenance data maintains the header information shown below. For more information on the data fields contained in this header area, see Groups – Header.

Currently In This Group

This screen area will contain a list of the Master File Records, which are currently members of this Group.

Available

This screen area will contain a list of Master File Records, which are not currently members of this Group, but are available to become members if you choose. This list could become very large if you are operating in a very large Site, or have access to many sites. The only Master File records that will appear in this list are those that the current user has access to view.

Filtered….

In order to provide a search tool for finding specific records, which you may want to add the check box, can be selected. If you choose this option, the Filters Dialog box will appear with many options.

Select Records

The following buttons are available on the bar separating the two list areas of this split screen.

> This button will move a single selected “currently in this area” record over to the “available” list.

>>This button will move ALL records listed in the “currently in this area” list to the “available” list.<This button will move a single selected “available” record over to the “currently in this area” list.

<<This button will move ALL records listed in the “available” list to the “currently in this area” list.

Scheduling

It is important to balance the load of individual routes and have the ability to make sweeping changes from a single screen. The Scheduling function in VendMAX is used to fill this function.

The Scheduling screen in VendMAX is used for Schedule Balancing and One Time Schedule Changes.  This screen shows all scheduled POS, static and dynamic.  If a POS is on a static schedule and scheduled for a date, it will be shown here.  If a POS is on dynamic schedule and is scheduled for a date, it will be shown here.  If the POS is on a dynamic schedule and the DS scheduler has not been run for the date, the POS will not show for the selected date.

The screen is broken down into three key areas:

Schedule Viewer

Initially, the schedule view will be empty. To activate the schedule, you must choose a Route, or collection of Routes, for which you would like to view the schedules. This can be done using the Schedule selection screen as shown below:

The Show out of Service Routes check box will prevent routes, which are marked out of service from being listed.

You can choose a single route by clicking on it, or multiple routes by holding the CTRL Key down while selecting Routes.  When you choose a Route from this list, the schedule will appear in the Schedule Viewer as shown below:

The dates in the calendar view will default to the current week, and the next 5 weeks. If you would like to view the schedule for a different period, you can skip forward or back 1 week at a time by using the << >> buttons.

In the center of each box is a number of POS services, which are scheduled, regardless of the service type scheduled for each POS. Each calendar box also contains a schedule strength indicator bar. This bar provides a relative indication of the overall schedule for that day. The total height of the bar indicates the relative number of services.

At least one day in the calendar will always have a full size bar. This indicates that it is the most scheduled day. A calendar box with half as many services scheduled as the strongest day would have a half height box.

The schedule strength indicator bar will usually display in several colors, indicating the service types, which are scheduled. The colors are taken from the color coded Service Legend as shown below:

Legend

If you hover the mouse over any one of the calendar boxes in the schedule viewer, VendMAX will display the actual number of each service type scheduled for that day in the Legend area of the screen as follows:

In this case, VendMAX is indicating that the currently selected Route is scheduled for 25 Collect Services on 6/12/20.

Details Area

If you click on one of the boxes in the schedule viewer, VendMAX will display the Schedule Details for that date in the Details Area at the bottom of the screen. That data looks like the following:

This is not simply static data. The Scheduling screen provides a convenient way to make one-time modifications to the existing schedule. For example, if the Customer contact for “Silky’s Scraps” calls and says that they will be closed on 6/17/08, I might decide to move all of their POS collections to 6/18/08 instead. I can accomplish this by Multi-Selecting all of the “Amanda’s Market POS’s, and clicking the right mouse button. This will open up a list of operation options for the selected POS set. The list and explanations are as follows:

+/- x Days

Choosing this option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, moving the currently scheduled service forward or back by the indicated number of days. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule

Change Day

This option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, moving the currently scheduled service to the date selected from the calendar subsequently displayed. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule.

Change Route

This option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, moving the currently scheduled service to another Route. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule. This option is particularly helpful in working around a sick driver.

Skip

This option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, deleting the currently schedule service. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule.

Make Service / Collect

This option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, changing the service type as indicated. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule.

Add / Remove Inventory

This option will make a One-Time schedule change for the selected POS’s, adding or removing an Inventory to the current service as indicated. This will have no effect on the permanent, recurring POS schedule.

Show Point of Sale Schedule

This option will open the Points of Sale – Scheduling data screen in a dialog box. With this display, you may make changes to the Permanent, recurring POS schedule.

Show PlanOgram

This option will open the Points of Sale – PlanOgram data screen in a dialog box.

Columns:

A Red “X” signifies that there is a one-time schedule change for the POS.

Category

This is the Category for the POS.

Type

‘V’ vending, ‘D’ for delivery and ‘F’ for Food

Sequence

If the route has been sequenced, numbers will show up to indicate the order in which the POS’s should be serviced. When a Location has more than one POS and that location is sequenced, all POS is under that location will have the same sequence number. Sequence numbers may not always be in the exact sequence (1,2,3,4,5,6 etc…), and may be missing numbers (1,3,6, etc…). The order is what is important, not what number a POS may hold.

Order Number (Delivery Only)

The order number field is always empty for Non-Delivery POS (Vending, Cold Food, and Vending Non-Revenue.)

If POS has a scheduled order, then the Invoice # will appear in the Order Number column. When you right-click on this row, an additional menu item appears called “Show Order”. Selecting this option will display the delivery order.

If the POS does not have a scheduled order, then the Order Number column is empty, and the additional Menu Item will be “Add Order”. When you create an order from the Scheduling Screen, the order will be created with the selected POS, Route and Date.

After the Order is created, if the scheduled service was Presell or Tele-sale it will be changed to Delivery.

SO Status

SO Status – shows the status of the service order used when prekitting.

O – Open Service Order

L – Locked Service Order

N – No Service Order

E – No Service

M – Service order vend visit is missing

F – Fulfilled

V – Visit only (no service order)

The SO Status will also show on the POS scheduling

TIP: This screen can also be used for balancing the load in the Money Room. It may be important to see how many collections are planned for an entire day, on all routes. This can be done by simply multi-selecting all Routes, and then looking at the total number of Collections as indicated in the Legend Area of the screen for each day.