Fourth quarter is well under way and for many of us year-end employee reviews will be coming all too soon. For those agencies using a salary-based compensation with today’s retail travel environment, it may be yet another year with no raises for employees.

Like everything, planning and communication are key. Here are a few points some owners are making to their employees about the prospect of yet another year with no increase.

Getting a raise is a function of several factors not all of which are in the control of the employee and/or the owner. Included are:

Overall Economy: If the overall economy is growing, there is more opportunity for the business to grow and more opportunity for employees to get raises. There is also more competition for employees thus, pushing wages up. If the economy is bad, there are more qualified candidates looking for jobs creating a downward pressure on wages.

The economy, in general, has not been good and continues that trend. Projections are for a recovery in 2004 and the stock market seems to be anticipating such a recovery. “Cost of living” raises are something of the past right now as inflation is not an issue. Local grocery store employees are on strike – not for not getting a raise but against benefit reductions.

The travel industry continues to hurt badly. The "industry evolution” is not over. Agency locations are down 35% from a high of over 40,000 and continue to decrease in number. Many of the “old world” agencies continue to have challenges with the evolution. Other related companies continue to suffer the consequences, as Sabre announced yet another round of layoffs and one of the biggest tour operators – Far & Wide – was forced to shut their doors and layoff all their employees.

For many agencies the evolution is in place and the future looks bright. Internal management and CRM systems are establishing the agency as not only a viable, but successful business of the future. To ignore the current environment and the tough challenges retail agencies have faced the last few years is not being realistic.

Below you will find some of the most frequently asked questions the Support Desk receives. We trust you will find the answers helpful.

TRAMS Back Office

Question:
How do I get the current date to default on my reports?

Answer:
1. Open the Report and enter = in both the From and To date Fields.
2. Click the Default Button & select “per User” or Global” and save.
3. Run the Report.

Note: If you want it to default to yesterday’s date, enter =-1. To change a current default to a new default, you must first click the Default Button and select “Remove the Current Default Setting”. Close the report selection screen, reopen and make your new default selections as above.

Answer:
1. Run the reports for the prior month to be sure you are still in balance. If not, go back month-by-month until you find a month you are in balance.
2. Run the GL Reconciliation Report for the month that is out of balance and verify that all items are correct.
3. Run an account history for the account that is not in balance and look for any items that do not have EOP in the remarks. Generally, you wouldn’t have an item manually journalized to these accounts.
4. Run EOPs, week-by-week, then daily to narrow down the date you are out of balance.

Question:
I’m trying to run a report and the “select report box is empty.” What do I do?

Answer:
Browse for or type in the default path.
C:\program files\trams\tramswin\reports
To lock in the path, highlight a report and click on Select.

Answer:
Make sure the database path in TCR matches the Alias path in TRAMS.

ClientBase Plus

Question:
When doing a query, how do I get rid of a duplicate profile on the results screen? I’m on Version 2.8.

Answer:
If you find a duplicate profile on the results screen while in Level 1, 2, or 3 query, right-mouse click and run dupe check (or go to Dupe Check Results|Filter). This allows you to access the Dupe Check area and you can remove the duplicate profile.

Question:
I’m on ClientBase Plus, version 2.08 and would like to query all Res Cards where the Trip End Date is past and change the active status globally to Departed.

Answer:
Use the Level 2 Query in the Res Card Manager. Click Utilities|Global Modify and Set Value to Departed. Then click Globally Modify Now. You can also Globally Modify the Reservation Cycle by querying all Res Cards within a particular Res Card cycle in the Level 2 Res Card Query.

Question:
Does ClientBase Plus have reports in the TRAMS Crystal Reports?

Answer:
Yes. Go to www.trams.com, click Products, and TRAMS Crystal Reporting. Next, go to Review Our Library of Downloadable Reports and scroll down to the ClientBase section. Currently, we have 2 reports available for use: Group Passenger Cruise Manifest, and Live Connect Production (more are being added periodically). You do need to download the free TCR program file and follow directions for setup. Save the desired report from TRAMS Web site and put in your TCR directory, C:\Program Files\TRAMS\TCR. To run the report, go to Start | TRAMS For Windows | TCR put in parameters of report, and print.

Question:
I have a corporate client who wants to book leisure travel with us. Do I have to enter all the personal information again?

Answer:
You can copy much of his personal information from the corporate profile to the new leisure profile by going to the family/employee tab in the corporate profile, highlighting the traveler whose information you want to copy, and click Copy. Create a new leisure profile and go to Family/Employee tab, and click Paste.

Thank you for being a TRAMS customer. We appreciate your business and are here to help you.

Joan McLeod
Support Manager

We are excited to announce Kari has a new job. She has moved to London to run the TRAMS UK branch. Kari has been commuting back and forth for the past few months in preparation for her new job. She has been juggling her new duties and transitioning her sales clients to Stacey Buckner.

Kari is in London with her husband Nigel. The new position became effective October 20, 2003, and she is still available via e-mail, kari@trams.com - just remember the time difference!

Kari, your TRAMS family and friends are excited about your new position and look forward to hearing and seeing the progress you make. Send our best to the Queen!

Please join us for
Technology University 2004
April 20-22, 2004
Las Vegas



Exciting New Classes & Guest Speakers


More Details Coming Soon

Need a Way to Get Remote Users Connected to your ClientBase Database? ClientBase Browser is Here!

It's official! Our first TRAMS Browser product has gone to General Release. Our new ClientBase Browser program, Version 1.0, was released in September and provides an agency’s remote users with the ability to connect to the agency’s internal ClientBase Plus database with nothing more than a connection to the Internet and Explorer V5.0 or higher. To bring your agency’s database to an Internet Browser program, specific steps need to be taken to set up and maintain a Web Server.

ClientBase Browser, Version 1.0, Functionality

The following is a listing of the functionality currently included in the Browser version of ClientBase Plus. If the feature you are looking for is not included within the list below, check back soon for further development.

• Profile Manager: Level 1, Level 2 Query Abilities
• Profile Manager: Ability to Add and Modify Leisure, Corporate, Vendor, Agent and Other Profiles
• Profiles: Including General Info, Remarks, Marketing, Family/Employee, Activities, Cards and Travel History
• Activity Manager: Level 1, Level 2 Query Abilities
• Activity Manager: Ability to Add, Modify and Delete Notes, Reminders and Mailers

ClientBase Browser Future Enhancements

As with all TRAMS, Inc. products, the ClientBase Browser program continues to be enhanced with new features and functionality. The following enhancements are next on the list and should be available over the next several months:

• Res Card Feature added to Client Profiles, including Trip Level Info, Reservations Tab, Activities Tab, Client and Agent Remarks Tab.
• Res Card Manager: Level 1, Level 2 Query Abilities
• Merge to PNR
• Res Card Invoicing
• Res Card Live Connect Functionality

Requirements

In order to make your ClientBase database accessible via an Internet Browser program, you will need to setup and maintain a Web Server. Prior to setting up your Web Server for ClientBase Browser, you must already have ClientBase Plus version 2.07.xx or higher installed. The Windows version of ClientBase Plus should be used on an on-going basis for all SYSDBA type activities such as setting up all User Logins, backing up your database and for performing any desired functionality that does not currently exist in ClientBase Browser. For those planning on working within the Browser program, a User Login must be created for each, within the Windows version of ClientBase Plus, if one does not already exist.

Web Server Minimum Requirements:
- Windows 2000 Server
- Pentium III, 1 GHZ
- 512MB RAM

Pricing:

Access to the ClientBase Browser version requires a minimum licensing fee starting at 16 Users, which can be shared as desired between both the Windows version and the Browser version. For more information, contact your TRAMS Sales Rep or e-mail us at marketing@trams.com. You can also take a look at the new Browser program by logging onto a live sample version of the Browser program. Simply click here: http://cbb.trams.com/ and log in as “CUSTOMER”, using the password “customer”.

Let us know your thoughts and comments!

NEW VALUE ADDED FEATURES IN BACK OFFICE Fall 2003

You will notice that we now have a new way of listing our version numbers that we hope will make it a little clearer for you as to which version you are using at any time. The version number is now as it used to be - 2.02.00.

Instead of adding the “Build Number” to the end of the version number, which made for a long number that was harder to interpret, we now separate the “Build Number” from the version number with the word “Build” and the number of the Build “026”.

Any given “Version” may have one or more “Build Numbers” associated with it. Support will ask you for your version and build number when you call them so they are clear on exactly which download of the software you are using.

Here is a sampling of some new “value added” features for you since our last Newsletter.

• We added a "Global Modify" button to the Invoice Query screen. You can now change every occurrence of an existing agent in all bookings in an invoice, to another agent, with a single click of the mouse. If you need to modify an agent whose profile is marked "inactive", you must first make the profile active, make the changes and then make the profile "inactive" again.

• You now have a “Branch” field on the Payment screen. The "Branch" tie to payments would be used for query and sort purposes in Payment Query, Receipts/Disbursements and Payment Analysis Reports. You could assign a branch to a payment and still close invoices created in more than one branch. Only new payments created after implementation would have this branch tie and no previous payments in the system would be changed.
• When doing an NPC/Pegasus Reconciliation, we update "Depart/Return Dates", if the dates are present in the files from NPC/Pegasus. If both a Depart & Return Date is present in the NPC/Pegasus, file then the TBO Depart & Return Dates will be updated. If only a single date or no dates are present in the NPC/Pegasus file, then the TBO Depart & Return Dates WILL NOT be updated.
• There is an "Include Vendor Payables" Checkbox on the Payable Query Screen to include "All Vendor Payables" or only "Vendor Payables Where The Client-Side Is Closed". This will only pull vendor payables that the customer has already paid for, hence due to the Vendor, and checks can be issued for only those items.
We added a "Profile Name" column to the JE Query screen for Journal Entries that are linked to a Payment or a Payable. Now you have the ability to "sort" on this new column on the Journal Entry Query Screen, independent of the column sort on the "Remarks" column.
We also rearranged how the JE remarks default when creating a JE from a payment or a payable so that the payment/payable remarks appear first, followed by the profile name, enabling a clean sort on just the remarks.
The ability to interface a "Partial Payment" on Interface has been added. Only one partial payment is allowed per booking. The partial payment applies at the invoice level and not the booking level.

No CC transactions can have a partial payment - Only Cash/Check & CC Merchant payments.

The entry for your GDS will need to contain (amount), (form of payment), (Check Number) or (CC Number/expiration date for CC Merchant):

Cash - *PP100.00*Cash
Check - *PP100.00*Check*5432
CK - *PP100.00*CK
Cheque - *PP100.00*CHEQUE
CC Merchant - *PP100.00*4888602388226584/0504

A header/footer selection box is available on the invoice-printing screen so you can quickly assign a specific header/footer to the invoice before printing.
"Print Foreign Currency Values" Checkbox was added to Vendor Statements and Detailed Vendor Balances. The user can suppress printing of Foreign Currency amounts and codes for those items automatically populated through GDS interface, like foreign hotels booked through the GDS.
We revised the preview screen for client/vendor/agent statements so that when previewing multiple reports, the list of reports is shown on the left hand side. Navigation works like before, so you can go backward and forward. In addition, you can click on any report (by name) in the list, to view that report. Lastly, you can select multiple reports and email or print all selected items.
You are no longer limited to just a BMP file for you headers/footers. You may choose to insert .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and/or .wmf type files.
When printing checks, Invoice and Voucher Remarks are shown on the check stub. A new “Invoice Remarks” field has been added to the Check Writer Setup in Utilities.
"Ctrl-PgDn" & "Ctrl-PgUp" has been added as a shortcut for (<) previous or (>) next button functionality to all edit screens (Invoice, Payment, JE, etc) and on the Invoice Booking Screen. Now you can access those buttons to move back to "previous" or forward to "next" without using the mouse.