Joan McLeod
Manager Business Operations & Planning
Our Support Staff has the opportunity
to assist you with a wide variety of questions related to using our software
which makes them uniquely qualified to see recurring themes in the questions
posed to them. We asked each of our knowledgeable technicians to submit
a "Helpful Hint" that may be useful to you in the use of our programs.
I'm confident you will find many helpful hints in the following suggestions.
TRAMS BACK OFFICE HINTS
Helpful Hint from Alice
No need to get frustrated when trying to find the bank deposit linked
to the payment you want to void. From the Payment Query Screen, right-click
on the payment entry and click Query Bank Deposit.
Helpful Hint from Andre
Here's how to enter a cash payment from a customer when the agency is
paying with an agency credit card. Create your invoice as normal and close
the invoice with the agency credit card payment. When the payment is received
from the client, select Payment|Received. Enter the amount
of the client's payment with a Pay Method of cash or check. The Profile
Type is Other and the name is the name of the client you will be receiving
the money from. Note in the remarks field the invoice number that the
client is paying. TRAMS prompts, Create a journal entry? Press
Y for yes. Your journal entry will be:
Cash in Bank........................ Debit
Agency Credit Card Wash....Credit
When recording the monthly payment to your credit card agency company,
select Payments|Made. Enter the amount you are paying
the credit card company with a Pay Method of Check. The Profile Type is
Other and the name is the name of the company you are paying the credit
card bill. When prompted for a journal entry Press Y
for yes. Create the journal entry as normal, offsetting the Agency Credit
Card Wash account, as well as all the other expense accounts for the various
items purchased on the card.
Cash in Bank............................Credit
Agency CC Wash....................Debit
Expense Account.....................Debit
Expense Account.....................Debit
Helpful Hint from Cindy
Go to Interface|Download and make a note of what is in
the PNR filepath field. This way you will always know where your records
are going in case you need to re-install or the field is blank.
Helpful Hint from Dana
Interface every hour. on the hour or at the same time every day. Do this
by automating the Download and processing via the Windows Scheduler. Find
the set up instructions in the TRAMS Help screen. Select Help|TRAMS
Help|Interface Overview Download and Processing|Automatic
Interface Download and Processing Set up with Windows Task Scheduler.
Helpful Hint from Dhel
If you get the error while backing up, Application Execution Failed, make
sure you log in as SYSDBA.
Helpful Hint from Ebony
Double-click in any date field (queries or reports) to get a calendar.
Helpful Hint from Tracy
Automatic download option only works on Res Systems that produce multiple
interface files.
This option does not work on Res Systems that produced single interface
files.
Helpful Hint from Emmanuelle
Do you ever find yourself forgetting which eight reports are summarized
on the End of Period Report? Or which Descriptor Code to enter into the
accounting line? Why spend so much time constantly searching through the
help files for the same information - make a cheat sheet! After clicking
on Help|Trams Help (or pressing F1 on the keyboard) and
finding the information you were searching for, don't waste paper printing
it each time, save it! In the upper left corner, select the tab entitled
Favorites and left-click on it. Then move down to the bottom and left-click
on Add. As you find more things to add, your list will grow, and trust
me, it will grow pretty fast.
Helpful Hint from Frank
Create a Run Book of all the reports you created or modified in the Report
Generator. The run book is useful to your agents to run reports that were
created by you. They are to see a sample of the report and the selection
criteria needed to run the report correctly. In case of a disaster, you
will have the information necessary to reconstruct reports that were lost.
The Run Book may consist of the following items:
1 -Name of Report
(01_CL_Department.RPT - Customer List by Department)
2 -Print Report Definition Screen
Reports|Report Generator|Build Report
Click File and select Open
Select the report and click OK
Click the Print Report Definition button and print the report
3 -Run report and print Selection Criteria page.
When you run the report you can enter a check in the box titled, Print
Selection Criteria.
4 -Print first and last page of report.
(If the report is larger than one page.
5 -Place all of the above information in a binder and place the Run Book
in a common area for easy access.
Helpful Hint from Karen
Remember to use the Help Files. All you need to do is use the Index field,
type in a key word and view the topic.
Helpful Hint from Kris
When setting up the PNR file path for the first time, log in as SYSDBA
and add the path. This will ensure that other users will not lose the
path every time they try to interface.
Helpful Hint from Ramona
When backing up to a flash drive or USB device, create a back-up folder
for an accurate back-up. Due to a change in the Backup utility the agency
must create a folder or directory (example: E:\backup) on the USB device
before they do a backup. This is actually to protect any data the agency
might have on the USB device, as TRAMS deletes files when we replace the
existing backup. Also, if the create the folder prior to the backup, it
assures us that the backup media is formatted correctly.
Helpful Hint from Roberta
Adding a -NG to the options field in the interface download screen.
Note: Automated hotels where the CC is used to guarantee
the reservation, capture the Comm Track CC number in the Client Remarks
field of the booking, with a message that says: Guaranteed to: VI ending
in 5874. This is what shows for the Comm Track Booking when included on
the Printed Invoice. If you do not want to capture the Comm Track CC Number,
with the Guaranteed to: message in Client Remarks, add an -NG to the Options
field on the TRAMS Download Screen. Adding -NG ignores the C/C Guarantee
information on automated hotel bookings (Guaranteed To VI ending in 5874).
The Comm Track Hotel CC number, with the Guaranteed to: message, will
not appear on printed invoices, and the Comm Track CC Number will continue
to be captured in the Comm Track CC No field on the Expanded Fare Tab
of the Booking.
Helpful Hint from Sandy
If the check register does not agree with the trial balance figure and
the GL reconciliation is not showing any errors, run a Receipts report
and compare it to total deposits. You will likely find that a receipt
has been attached to a deposit in a different period. The GL Reconciliation
report will not show the difference between receipts and deposits that
may have occurred, since the total of the receipts does agree with the
total deposit, just not in the same period.
Helpful Hint from Shirley
ARC Settlement - We added the ability to click on IAR Reconciliation while
you are in the ARC Settlement. This allows you to browse for the IAR file
and if you have tickets where Net Remit Do Not Match, Ticket Is Voided
in IAR but Not in TRAMS, or Missing IAR Ticket, click Find Ticket and
your cursor lands on the appropriate ticket on the ARC Settlement screen
so you can Edit the Invoice. If you have any tickets that are Voided In
TRAMS but Not In IAR, click Find Ticket to go to the booking containing
that voided ticket in TBO, then you can Un-void it, allowing the ticket
to now show correctly on the ARC Settlement Screen. For any exceptions
that are Missing Trams Ticket, click off the IAR Reconciliation screen
and manually add the missing tickets.
ClientBase HINTS
Helpful Hint from Jeremiah
It's important to understand the way quantity is affected when pulling
from the different categories of Inventory. When pulling Tour, Cruise
and Hotel Inventory, they will all give you a fare based upon the pricing
structure designed and the number of passengers on the reservation. In
other words, it will only take 1 away from the quantity of available inventory.
When pulling Air, Rail, or Miscellaneous, you will decrease the quantity
by the number of passengers you have in your reservation.
Helpful Hint from Rebecca
If you've ever created a reservation for a client and found their credit
card has expired, you know what a hassle it can be to call the client
and ask for updated information. Avoid this situation by running a query
that provides profiles with expired credit cards. You can narrow your
list to include only profiles with recent travel history. Here is an example
of what you could use:
*** Profile Level 3 Filter Number 1 _____________________
(Profile Type [Leisure,Corporate])
AND (Profile Status Is Equal to Active)
AND (Cards Filter Type: Does Have Card Records with the following criteria)
(Card Type Is Equal to Any Credit Card)
AND (Card Expire Date Is From to "=" [5/16/2007] (today's date)
AND (Travel History Filter Type: Does Have Travel History Records with
the following criteria)
(Invoice Issue Date Is From "4/15/2007" to "5/15/2007")
This query will be especially helpful to update Corporate accounts that
make frequent bookings.
Helpful Hint from Robert
Have all your agents use a reminder system (such as ClientBase Reminders
or MS Outlook's Calendar (if you don't have ClientBase) that includes
the important activities and appointments they have scheduled each week
or month. This should include recurring activities like reports that need
to be run on a certain day, and project due dates. When the agent is out
of the office, the office manager should be able to access this data and
make sure the key items are assigned to someone.
Helpful Hint from Susan
Are your agents entering new clients without adding an interface ID? Are
they using the same Interface ID for multiple clients? You can ensure
that each new client has the unique interface ID of their phone number.
Simply go to Global Defaults|Default Field Values for New Profiles.
Click on the Interface ID tab. Choose from the drop-down, and
check Require Unique, Non Blank I/F On New Profiles. When a new
profile is entered manually, the phone number is automatically entered
into the Interface ID field, and duplicate Interface IDs are not allowed.
Contact Support
TRAMS Back Office 310 641-8726 Press 1
ClientBase 310 641-8726 Press 2
support@trams.com
Interface@trams.com
hardware@trams.com
accounting@trams.com
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