Creating Inbound/Outbound Stops

When orders have been generated and released they will automatically be displayed vertically on the left side next to the dispatch calendar. Orders appearing here are ready to be moved to the calendar and are filtered by inbound/outbound. When ‘Outbound’ is selected, sales orders, purchase return orders, and transfer orders are listed. When ‘Inbound’ is selected, purchase orders and sales return orders are listed. Use the drag/drop icon next to an order to drag and drop it on the calendar thus creating a load.

The “+” icon within a calendar block can also be used to start a load, then orders can be moved into it. This enables a user to establish a driver/truck and stop, then later add the appropriate orders.

Sample empty load created by clicking on the “+” icon, in this example truck 3 and sample driver 4 were selected.

When an order is dropped onto the calendar, a stop must be assigned to it (by selecting an existing stop or by creating a new stop for the truckload). A truckload can have multiple stops when it has multiple orders.

Creating a new stop.

After creating a new stop name it can then be selected.

When a stop already exists that stop can be selected (in this example Cincinnati) or a new stop can be created (in this example Columbus).

The truck and the driver can be selected using the icons that appear when the mouse is hovered over the load on the calendar.

Hovering the mouse over the load title bar brings up the edit load icons.

Clicking on the truck icon brings up the list of trucks to choose.

Clicking on the driver icon brings up the list of drivers to choose.

The ad hoc feature (which is located just on the left side just above the list of orders) enables the user to create an entry on the calendar that is not related to an order. Ad hoc can be used as a stop, a note, or a way to communicate that a truck/driver is engaged in another function, e.g. travel to service provider for maintenance.

Dragging and dropping the ad hoc feature onto the calendar.

The ad hoc stop has been placed onto the calendar and the stop name can be edited. In this example, a default ad hoc stop name “Satellite office” was added by the user in the ‘Shipping Dispatch Setup’ card.

The system automatically adds a shipment number to each load as orders are placed onto the calendar. It will also auto-calculate the outbound weight and inbound weight of a load. And at the top of the calendar you will see total weight calculated, the total number of loads, and the average load weight.

The Shipping Dispatch Board has color-coded indicators built in so the calendar can advise you of the following:

• Yellow Background = No truck has been assigned.

• White Background = A truck has been assigned but it is not yet full.

• Green background = The load is full (by weight).  

The system does not prevent you from adding additional sales orders, but this indicates that the load is full based on the max weight allowed for the truck trailer. The weight will display in red in the top left if the load is over the max weight. 

• Gray Background = The load has been shipped.

Note: Once the system identifies a load as being “posted/shipped” it can no longer be edited.

Example showing color-coded load backgrounds.

Sometimes it will be necessary to make changes to items that are already placed on the calendar. Hovering over the title line of a load or stop name will cause a menu bar to display. The menu bar contains ‘expand’/’collapse’, ‘edit’, ‘delete’, and ‘move’ icons:

The load menu bar contains the following icons/actions:

Expand/collapse – Click to alternate between showing and hiding the list of orders within the entire load.

Print – Click to print a report showing the orders. The report/print window opens with the Location Code, Lower & Upper dates, and load number fields completed for you.

Select Truck – Click to select a truck, or to change the truck.

Select Driver – Click to select a driver or to change the driver.

Edit- Click to reorder the stops or to create/add a new stop within the load.

Delete – Click to delete the entire load. This action will cause all orders to move back to the list on the left, they are not deleted from the system.

Drag – Click to the load to another coordinate on the calendar.

The stop menu bar contains the following icons/actions:

Expand/collapse – Click to alternate between showing and hiding the list of orders within the stop.

Edit- At the stop level, click to rename the stop, to add stop notes [which are then highlighted in blue on the load], to mark as a ‘red file’ [the file now shows as “red file” on the load], and to rearrange or delete the orders.

Delete – Click to delete the entire stop. This action will cause all orders from that stop to move back to the list on the left, they are not deleted from the system.

Add AdHoc Notes Line -

Drag – Click to move the stop to another load.

Hovering the mouse over the load to bring up the menu of icons.

Hovering the mouse over the stop to bring up the menu of icons.

Users may also choose to edit a shipment in order to send only part of it. Click on an order number and the Sales Order will open for editing. After manually editing the number of units, Shipping Dispatch will automatically recalculate the new weight.

Click directly on an order number to launch its Sales Order.