Category Archives: EnGraph

Automatic invoicing and projected client balances in ParaPlan paratransit management solution

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We are pleased to announce that we are releasing two, very handy new features scheduled for the next update.

  1. Automatic generation of invoices when saving to history.
  2. Current and projected Client balance displayed on Client screen.

ParaPlan, a turnkey paratransit management solution, has a highly robust, highly detailed invoicing system. Users can invoice directly to Clients, to Programs or to a 3rd party. Costs are calculated from the executed (or no show) trips and additional charges for items such as O2 transport or after-hours trips can be applied to the invoice.

Automatic invoicing

For some users, this highly granular control is more than they need and they want a simpler way to use all the other benefits of our invoicing system. For these users we offer the ability to automatically generate invoices when saving a work date to history. 

Screen Shot 2013 02 18 at 9 31 49 AM

When Generate Invoices when saving to history is checked, the system will generate invoices for Clients and Programs for trips that meet the following criteria:

  • Trips that were completed or no shows.
  • Trips that have a dollar amount in Client Billed or Program Billed.
  • Trips that have not already been invoiced for.

When those conditions have been meet, an invoice will be generated with the default billing information for that Client or Program. The Client/Program balance will be updated and a PDF will be available for printing (it will not be printed automatically).

This use case is specifically targeted at users that want to collect pre-payments from Clients and be able to see how much money a Client has left in their account.

Projected Client Balances

To make it easier to understand how much money a Client has left in their account, we have added a new expander panel to the client screen. When initially viewed, it will display the dollar amount a client is projected to have at the end of the day. When expanded, it will display the projected amount for the end of the week, the end of the month and the next 30 days. 

Screen Shot 2013 02 15 at 10 59 20 AM

This allows users to quickly determine if a Client is financially eligible to schedule a new ride. To calculate the balances, we look at:

  • Total balance of unpaid Invoices and collected Payments from our Billing system.
  • The cost of the trips the Client has taken that have not had an Invoice generated for.
    • The system assumes all trips saved to history have been invoiced.
  • The cost of scheduled one-time reservations.
  • The cost of scheduled recurring reservations.

The addition of these two new features really helps make ParaPlan a viable replacement for any existing payment collection and reconciliation system. Please call Kyle at 913-735-6651 to enable Billing on your ParaPlan system.

How to view route assignment and cancellation history in ParaPlan

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A recently released feature in ParaPlan is the ability to see the history of a trip and when it was assigned to a route, cancelled or no showed. It also shows the user that performed the action. The time and date of the action is also recorded.

To view this history, right-click a trip and select “Show Scheduling History.” A window will open up showing the actions in the reverse order that they occured.

Schedule history

Hey, where did my keys go?

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Keys

The “Keys” icon has long been a staple of ParaPlan. The history behind the decision to use that specific icon is brief. When development of ParaPlan 4.0 began in 2006, we needed an icon. I had a set of several hundred and picked the one that most represented transportation. It was meant more to be a placeholder rather than a permanent selection, but as these things sometimes happen, it became the default.

Today, we replace those keys and the history of coming to that decision is a bit more verbose. First of all, I have been making an effort to spend more time and energy on design. With that in mind, I have been working on an icon for our pending iOS app. That process was quite intense and with a lot of help from my wife, we have something that we really like. Icons on iOS do not always scale to the desktop, so we made a few changes while keeping to the general theme. The P represented is obviously for ParaPlan, but it also represents a path that a vehicle has taken. More specifically, the “turn right, save gas” theory that UPS uses to be more environmentally friendly. In the same way, our software saves gas for our clients by grouping trips and optimizing their routes.

So here are the new icons that will be gracing your desktop today, and in the near future, your iPhone and iPads.

CenteredfatterP   WindowsIcon4

ParaPlan now leaves no show trips on Routes

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Today’s release of ParaPlan contains an exciting new feature. When a trip is marked as no show by a dispatcher, or no showed by a driver from their MDT, that trip will stay with the route on the Scheduling Canvas. It will be marked in orange as normal, but it will stay on the route as such:

Route view 2

 

The no showed trip will also show in Cancel bin (as it always has), also colored in orange. We realize this might be a bit confusing at first and may lead the dispatcher to think the trip was duplicated, but it is in fact just the one trip. We feel this adjustment in workflow will pay off once dispatcher get used to it.

Cancel bin

 

Why leave no shows on the route?

In the majority of no shows, the driver goes to the client’s house, waits for a period, then considers it a no show. Leaving that trip associated with the route is a more accurate representation of the driver’s workday. A manager taking a quick glance at a route may see a large gap between executed trips. This could potentially bring up a host of questions that could reflect poorly on the driver or the scheduler. Seeing the no show trips in orange is going to remove any of those doubts.

Many of our clients have to report trips that were no showed by the client. Leaving the trips with the route allows timestamps and odometer readings to be recorded much more easily on those trips. This change will help our clients submit their reporting numbers. It also helps explain mileage gaps when performing routine vehicle maintenance.

Why does it show up twice? Is it in the system twice?

It is still just one trip recorded in the database. We felt that it needed to be shown with the route AND in the Cancel bin to most accurately reflect the workday. This can be affirmed by changing the pick up time of the trip and see it change on the route and in the Cancel bin. We felt this was an important enough change that it needed to become the default behavior. Currently this is not overridable. 

How will it look on the driver’s MDT?

This behavior will remain the same. If the driver marks it as no show, the trip will be marked in orange on the dispatcher’s Scheduling Canvas and it will be removed from the MDT. If the no show was initiated from the dispatcher, the trip will be removed from the driver’s MDT and the driver will be notified.

How are roundtrips handled?

When the outgoing trip of a roundtrip (or callback/will-call trip) is marked as no show, the return leg is untouched and remains scheduled. This is always how ParaPlan has handled this situation. This is because even though the client may not have ridden on the vehicle as scheduled, they may still have made it to their appointment through other means and will still need a ride home as previously scheduled. To remove all associated legs of a trip, a dispatcher should cancel the trip and check the “Cancel associated trips” checkbox on the Cancel Reason window.

Will the Actuals screen change?

Yes it will. Just like the route view, the trip will remain on the digital manifest and be colored in orange. This will allow users to populate timestamps and odometer recordings (pick up only, obviously) for trips that were marked as no show. Note that we also changed the color of the route border as it clashed horribly with the no show orange.

Actuals view 2

Will this change any reports?

Yes. Many reports that listed or aggregated executed trips now have the option of including no shows. Depending on the use case, clients may wish to include no shows, or continue to leave them out. The default option is to NOT include no shows, which is consistent with previous reporting behavior.

What about any custom queries?

We will have to look at this on a case-by-case basis to see how a custom query needs to be modified to remain accurate to the query’s intent. Contact Brett and he will look at them individually.

This is very exciting! When will it be released?

We are pushing this out to our beta users today. Based on feedback, we will release this to all clients on Wednesday or Thursday. Please contact us if your agency would like to be a beta user and have quicker access to new features.

How to update ParaPlan Server to a new version

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ParaPlan Server is a Windows Service that runs in the background of a computer on our client’s network. Usually we place the service on the same server that hosts the SQL database, but technically it can go on any machine that has access to the database. ParaPlan Server currently performs tasks associated with communicating with our various MDT and GPS vendors. In the future, we will use the service to perform background database management and monitoring.

As we improve the software and add new integration partners, we will release updates. Services are difficult to automatically update, so we have a process to perform a manual update. This article will outline that process. If ParaPlan Server is not already installed, see this tutorial on installing ParaPlan Server.

  1. Unblock and unzip the archive from EnGraph containing ParaPlan Server. This should be placed on the Desktop.
  2. Delete the ParaPlanServer.exe.config file (if exists)
  3. Verify the existing installation is at C:\ParaPlanServer
  4. Create a new text file on the desktop and call it installserver.txt
  5. Open the new file and copy the following text into the text file:
    net stop ParaPlanServer

    C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe /u “C:\ParaPlanServer\ParaPlanServer.exe”
    pause
    C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe “C:\ParaPlanServer\ParaPlanServer.exe”
    net start ParaPlanServer
    pause 
  6. Save and close the text file
  7. Right click the text file and select Rename
  8. Change the extension from .txt to .bat. Follow these instructions if the file extension is not visible.
  9. Open two Windows Explorer windows. Position and resize them so they are side by side to make dragging and dropping easier.
  10. In the left window, browse to the folder on the desktop that contains the ParaPlan Server update.
  11. In the right window, browse to the folder containing the existing ParaPlan Server installation. Should be C:\ParaPlanServer
  12. Double click the installserver.bat file (Right click and Run as Administrator on UAC machines)
  13. A command window will open up. It will stop the service, then uninstall it.
  14. Wait until the command windows says Press any key to continue . . .
  15. Select all the files in the left window (Ctrl – A) and drag them into the right window.
  16. When prompted, select Yes to All when asking if the destination files should be replaced.
  17. Once the files have been replaced, go back to the command window and press a key to continue the script.
  18. The new version of the service is now being installed and started. When it is complete it will say Press any key to continue. . .
  19. Press any key to close the window
  20. Run the following text into a command window – it will open the Services console
    services.msc
  21. Find ParaPlanServer in the list. Double click to open properties and verify the following:
    General
  22. Click the Recover tab and set the following:
    Ppserver recover 
  23. Click OK to save.

ParaPlan Server is now updated.

How to install ParaPlan Server

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ParaPlan Server is a Windows Service that runs in the background of a computer on our client’s network. Usually we place the service on the same server that hosts the SQL database, but technically it can go on any machine that has access to the database. ParaPlan Server currently performs tasks associated with communicating with our various MDT and GPS vendors. In the future, we will use the service to perform background database management and monitoring.

This article will show how to install a new instance of ParaPlan Server on a machine. If ParaPlan Server is already installed, see this article on how to update ParaPlan Server.

  1. Unblock and unzip the archive from EnGraph containing ParaPlan Server. This should be placed on the Desktop.
  2. Locate and open ParaPlanServer.exe.config.
  3. Change the config file per instructions from EnGraph. Save and close config file.
  4. Create a new folder at C:\ParaPlanServer.
  5. Move the contents from the folder on desktop to C:\ParaPlanServer
  6. Run the following text into a command window – it will install the service
      C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe “C:\ParaPlanServer\ParaPlanServer.exe”
  7. After the service installs, run the following text into a command window – it will start the service
      net start ParaPlanServer
  8. Once the service starts, run the following text into a command window – it will open the Services console
      services.msc
  9. Find ParaPlanServer in the list. Double click to open properties and verify the following:
    General
  10. Click the Recover tab and set the following:
    Ppserver recover

  11. Click OK to save.

 

ParaPlan Server is now installed and should be communicating with the services specified in the config file.