What is Tracing?

Tracing matches 'on' movements to 'off' movements. It provides tighter control and reduces the risk of losses. Being able to identify untraced 'on' movements ensures that every pallet received is ultimately sent to someone else.

Who uses it?

Tracing is commonly used by carriers. It works at the consignment or 'con note' level. For example, a 20-pallet pickup may traced to delivery movements of 12, 6 and 2 pallets. Tracing can also be used in some warehousing applications.

When is it used?

Tracing is commonly used by carriers whenever there is straight loading, i.e. whenever loaded pallets are not broken down into more pallets or consolidated into fewer pallets (although this is not a rigid restriction - see the reply below). Movements in and out of a warehouse are also suitable for tracing when discreet batches of pallets coming in can be identifed as they leave.

How does it work?

1. Activate tracing

From the Movements form, open the Customise form and select the Tracing tab. Tick the checkbox to 'Use con note tracing'. There are other customisable options, the most important of which are related to automating the process. For minimum effort and maximum speed, ensure the option for automatically setting the Action to "Pickup" or "Delivery" and the option to automatically trace to opposite movements are both ticked.

On the Fields tab, unhide the following fields: Con Note, Action, Trace Qty, Untraced Qty.

2. Key & scan movements

With tracing activated, when keying an 'on' movement and both Con Note and Action are specified, the Trace Qty is set to a positive number. 'On' movements are Issue, Transfer On and Exchange 'on' (3rd party to location) transactions.

Keying a Dehire, Transfer Off or Exchange 'off' with the same Con Note and opposite Action will set the Trace Qty to a negative number and this movement will be automatically traced to the first movement. The link is displayed in the Traced Movements tab in the lower half of the form.

Fully traced movements have nothing in the Untraced Qty field.

Scanning a movement from a two-dimensional docket barcode enables tracing as if the movement was keyed manually.

If Sent and Received are specified, they are used instead of the net Quantity to set the Trace Qty field, i.e. Received is used for 'on' (pickup) movements and Sent is used for 'off' (delivery) movements.

In the 2nd Filter box in the top-right corner there are options to display 'untraced' movements only.

3. Import movements

With tracing activated, the Action and Trace Qty fields of imported records are set the same as they would be for keyed movements, i.e. as long as the imported record has a Con Note, it will be traced. Automatic tracing to opposite movements also happens (in bulk) when saving records in the Import Data form.

Tracing is applied to records from a 'slave' file sent straight to the Movements form as well as all types of records (slave, supplier & 3rd party) sent to the Imported Movements form.

In the Imported Movements form, records are automatically traced as they are accepted or rejected.

4. Bulk tracing

If con note information has been recorded in past movements but tracing has not been activated, these movements may be traced in bulk.

From the Movements form, click the Tracing button at the bottom to open the Bulk Tracing form. Nominate a date range to set the Action and Trace Qty of all movements in the range, and automatically trace them to opposite movements.

Movements can be 'untraced' in bulk using this form as well.

5. Reporting

In the Movements form, select a traced movement and click the Trace Rpt button at the bottom to open a report of all opposite movements traced to the current record.

From the Main form, open the Movement Reports form and select the Untraced Movements tab. These reports may be filtered by action (pickups and/or deliveries), the other trading partner, the equipment and a date range. Untraced pickups are most commonly reported on because these are the movements that need to be investigated.

6. General tips

• Multiple pickups may be traced to a single delivery and vice versa. Many pickups may even be traced to many deliveries, as long as the Con Note is the same for all movements. Several numbers may be combined into the Con Note field because it holds up to 30 characters, but an alternative system to enter only one number with "+" at the end. Then record other con note numbers in the Notes field, and remember to search both fields when looking up a con note. Pickups and deliveries are typically keyed together (from the same batch of paperwork) so getting the con note field consistent for all related movements is straightforward.
• If Sent and Received are being used and a delivery has more empty return pallets (Received) than delivered pallets (Sent), the Action will be incorrectly set to "Pickup". Manually override it to "Delivery".
• If the quantities of corresponding pickup and delivery movements are genuinely different, manually adjust the Trace Qty to clear the Untraced Qty field.
• Rejection & Correction movements may be traced as well as Normal movements - there is a setting in the Movements Customise form for tracing these automatically. However, some manual intervention is usually required whenever rejections & corrections are involved, e.g. both the original movement and corresponding rejection may need to be cleared of tracing, or the correction and not the original movement may need to be traced for the quantities to match up.
• If you are operating a master-slave system, tracing can be done in the master or in the slave or in both data files. Actual traced movements are not passed from the slave(s) to the master when importing a slave movements text file, but automated tracing in the master should trace the records the same as they are traced in the slave. One difference with tracing in a slave data file is the need to trace 'internal' movements, i.e. movements from one location to another. In a master data file, location-to-location movements are neither 'on' nor 'off', and do not need to be traced. But slave data files are typically associated with a particular location, so all movements to/from that location should be traced. This is handled and tracing automated by nominating the 'Location TP' associated with the slave data file - do this in the Main Customise form, Data File Settings tab.
• Tracing is especially helpful for CPC (Canadian Pallet Council) movements because the bills of lading (dockets) represent a complete trip, i.e. pickup and delivery movements are on the same BoL. The option in the Movements Customise form to automatically set the Con Note to the Docket Number was provided with CPC movements in mind - the Con Note field always needs to be specified to trace movements but selecting this option avoids having to key the docket number separately into both fields. This won't happen for CHEP movements in the same data file because 'Trip Dockets' also needs to be ticked for the supplier trading partner - this setting is in the Trading Partners form, Supplier Details tab.
• "Pickup" and "Delivery" may be customised to suit your operation, e.g. "Receival" and "Despatch" are more meaningful for a warehouse.
• If pallets have been lost by a carrier but con notes have been recorded, then bulk tracing might be a useful tool for identifying untraced pickups.
• Con Note tracing is similar to redeeming in that different movements are linked together, but redeeming tracks movements to/from the same exchange trading partner rather than pickups & deliveries on a con note.
• Tracing does in batches of equipment what RFID tags would do with individual equipment items.

Control+n shortcut for splitting multi-con note movements

When tracing, entering separate movements for each con note is the preferred method compared with recording multiple numbers in the Con Note field, as explained in the first 'general tip' above. This allows the Con Note field to be consistent and contain only one number.

However, this extra data entry is a major deterrent for transport companies with many multi-con note pickups, linehauls (manifests) and deliveries.

Control+n has been introduced to make it easier to split multi-con note movements.

After entering the first con note on a movement, press Control+n to automatically create a new movement with identical details except Con Note, Quantity and Docket Number. These fields are left empty for manual completion.

Continue pressing Control+n for each con note.

In many cases the increased speed of data entry is the difference between tracing being justified and not justified.

Thanks to Belinda Collins @ DHL for this suggestion.

Multi-con note movements that are transfers

If the multi-con note movement is a transfer there are two options:

1. Make one of the con note mvoements a transfer and the others exchanges. The full transfer quantity is recorded for the one con note and its Trace Quantity is manually adjusted to the actual con note quantity. The exchange movements have zero Quantity but similarly have their Trace Quantity adjusted to the corresponding con note quantity.
2. Make all con notes exchanges with their true quanties (and trace quantities). Create a separate 'customer-to-customer' transfer and redeem it against the exchanges.

Option 2 takes a little more time for data entry and introduces redeeming, but provides a consistent system with all con notes on the same transfer being entered the same.

Option 2 also reduces the risk of 'losing' the trace quantity if the records are edited at later date because changing some fields triggers the Trace Quantity to be recalculated from the Sent/Received and Quantity fields.

Tracing when freight is broken down onto more pallets or consolidated onto fewer pallets

Consider this scenario. A customer pickup of one pallet is for two con notes. In the depot, the freight for each con note is separated onto one pallet each, and shipped to the respective receivers.

When keying movements the Trace Quantity can be manually overridden – it does not have to be the same as the Quantity.

The scenario is recorded in 2ic Pallets as follows:

1. Enter the first con note pickup as an exchange or transfer on. Set the Quantity = 1 and Trace Quantity = 1. Make a note that it covers multiple con notes.
2. Press Control+n to create the second con note pickup as an exchange. Set the Quantity = 0 and Trace Quantity = 1. It should be known that the pallet was split into two in the depot. Using the same docket number as the first con note is ok, you will just receive a duplicate warning.
3. Enter both delivery movements and trace to the corresponding pickups.

The 'consolidated delivery' scenario is similar. Each con note in a delivery needs to be recorded as a separate movement, and one or more of these deliveries may need the Trace Quantity adjusted to trace exactly against their corresponding pickup movements.

Note that increasing empty pallets in the depot from regular consolidation of deliveries would be dehired, and these dehire movements would not be traced so there are no loose ends. Similarly pallet issues to feed regular splitting of pickups would not be traced.