Plant Items

Owned by Daniel Akers (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 02, 2024 by Bao TRINH
10 min read

Overview:

Plant Items is the location of your plant and equipment in Workbench.  A Plant Item is its own Job where you can put purchases and timesheets against, and they can be Issued (sold) to your other Jobs. Another optional cost that can be generated as part of the monthly processes to close a financial period is Plant Depreciation cost (a disbursement type of transaction), that will be calculated based on Depreciation details on each Plant Item.

The mixture of costs and sales form what we call Plant Recoveries. These recoveries can be measured to determine if your plant is being charged out at appropriate rates to your productive jobs.

Before entering items, other setup areas should be finalised first including:

Screen Guide:

Initial List

 

image-20240328-000145.png
Plant Items screen.

The Plant Items screen lists all plant items by default, and you can change the Filter to narrow down the results. For existing plant, you can reach the Plant Maintenance screen (see below) by clicking on the Plant Code field of the desired plant item. Using the blue ellipsis button you can reach the Plant Budget and Plant Enquiry screens.

Note: Administrators or individuals with appropriate permissions can toggle the visibility of columns by adjusting the settings in the Grid management screen.

Click the + New Plant Item button to start the New Plant Wizard.

New Plant Wizard

 

There are 3 methods of entering new Plant Items:

  • Duplicate of an existing plant which copies all of the setup details of an existing plant item, meaning you only need to change the fields that are different. You can choose the Plant Item to copy and give the new one a unique Code and appropriate Description before clicking Create.

  • Duplicate of an existing plant include all extension columns same as above together with all extension columns.

  • Manual Entry of all Required data leaves all fields blank for manual entry. This is usually used for setting up initial plant or for unique items.

Plant Maintenance

This window is where you can edit new and existing Plant Items and their details.

New Main tab screen

A. To enable the new layout, please go to ‘Control parameter’ screen and set the ‘BETA FEATURE - Plant Main Tab Redesign' as 'Yes’ first.

B. A ‘Vehicle Details’ section will always be visible displaying the standard plant attributes.

C. The assign Driver and Location popups are available as before.

D. An image carousel displays any images associated with the plant, such as photos for easy recognition or spec sheets for supplementary information.

E. When no images are available, a message navigates the user to [File Attachments].

F. Any image in the 'Plant Main Images' file group will display in the carousel in order of sequence in Detail.

G. On upload the carousel displays a maximum of 5 images per plant ordered by upload time or sequenced by Detail.

H. Click on the right or left sides of the carousel to view the next or previous images.

I. The carousel has three standard sizes:

  • Minimized: where the view is collapsed

  • To Fit: where the view fits in the vertical space and the image is scrollable

  • Maximized: where the view expands to fit the image and the tab is scrollable

J. Three standard extension column views are introduced to display operations-centric data.

K. The Dimension view displays attributes relevant to plant transportation.

L. The Service Information displays attributes related to service frequency.

M. Some service attributes derive from the Meter setup and Meter Readings.

N. Other service attributes derive from Plant Group.

O. The Plant Group now includes service intervals and reminders that are shared for the associated plant. These attributes will also sync with Upvise if it is used.

  • Service Interval Time: the maximum time interval between services

  • Service Interval Meter: the maximum meter interval between services

  • Service Reminder Days: the days before service due that reminder is displayed

  • Service Reminder Units: the meter units before service due that reminder is displayed

P. The latest plant Log is referenced for the Last Service attributes and used with the Plant Group service attributes to determine the Next Service.

Q. The Main tab can also be configured with extra Extension Views, visible by minimizing the views or scrolling down.

R. The display of extra Extension Views is configured using the Criteria feature to define the context and setting the Display attribute as Extension Tab Only, Main Tab Only, or Both.

S. Go To button accesses other related screens.

 

Old Main tab screen

 

The main tab contains the base information about a plant item.

  • Details section

    • Plant Code is determined on creation and must be unique. Once created, the code can only be modified through the Utility "wbUtilityChangeJobCode."

    • Name is the description of the plant item.

    • Make is the make of the plant item.

    • Model is the model of the plant item.

    • Registration is where the plant item's vehicle registration can go if applicable.

    • Plant Group provides a choice between existing Plant Groups to assign this plant item to.

    • Ownership Type switches between Leased and Owned.

    • Driver shows the current User who is assigned to the plant item while the button opens an interface to transfer assignment from one user to another, including the move date. The popup also shows a history of assignment and transfer dates. Noted that this is not the Plant Assignments.

    • Location/Assign Location shows the current Plant Location the plant item is assigned to, while the button opens the transfer window. You can specify a new location and move date while also seeing the history of locations and move dates.

    • Project is the name of the Job/project that the Plant is assigned to, together with the capacity to transfer to another project.

  • Dimension section
    Provides data on the plant's dimensions and essential technical information, including:

    • Carrying Capacity is available if it is a load-bearing vehicle.

    • Carrying Units is the unit of measurement for the previous field.

    •  

  • Service information section
    Contains service-related information of the Plant:

    • Meter type: type of the unit.

    • Meter Interval: tells when service is due based on usage.

    • Time Interval: Indicates when service is required at specific time intervals

    • Reminder Time days: Reminder days before the service

    • Due Time days is days before next service

    • Last meter reading: Last meter reading done

    • Reminder reading units: reminder units before service

    • Due reading units is number of reading units to next service

  • Last/next service section

    • Last service: Date of last service.

    • Last reading: the meter reading at last service

    • Next service: Date of next service

    • Next reading: the meter reading at next service

This tab should be populated with all potential Plant Rate Codes that this plant item can use. The Activity and Work Centre fields are used as defaults but can be changed when issuing plant. Tick the most common rate as the Default to use during Plant Issues keeping in mind that the rate can be changed if necessary. 

Job Work Centres are used when purchasing or entering timesheets against the plant item itself, not productive jobs. The Work Centres should represent useful areas of work for tracking costs against the plant item.

Cost Schedules use Docket Cost Schedules the same way productive Jobs do, allowing dockets to be entered against plant items.

Extension columns are manual additions to your Workbench database providing extra fields to store information. You can fill additional data in 4 groups:

  • Plant detail

  • Dimension

  • Service information: This section is read only. Its data are pulled from tab Meter or Plant Group or Maintenance.

  • Ablution block

  • Ag tractor

Some of them will be displayed on the Main tab of a Plant detail screen.

 

A Plant Meter records the usage of a Plant Item, serving as the foundation for various functions within the plant module, including tracking when servicing is needed. Optionally, a Plant Item can have multiple meters attached, such as a Kms-based meter and an Hours-based meter. Access this feature in System Setup under Plant > Plant Meters.

 

  • Meter section

    • Meter code: Where you define how the Plant usage will be measured by dates, hours or kilometers. Can have more than one.

    • Details: Any description that help people easy understand the meter code.

    • Reference: Any reference it might have

    • Clock value: The maximum value of the meter when it will be reset to zero.

    • Start date: This is the date when the Plant's usage commenced. This is a requirement.

    • End date: The date that stop measure the Plant’s usage.

    • Inactive: Mark this Meter code is enabled or not.

    • Default: A must have.

    • Cumulative: When a meter is first set up on a vehicle, there will be an initial meter reading. This needs to be entered as a meter reading for the Plant Item, and the total distance traveled or time run by the plant at the time of that reading needs to be manually entered into the Meter Cumulative Life to Date, e.g. a second hand vehicle has been purchased. The current meter reading is 20,000 Kms but you know it has traveled 220,000 Kms. The Cumulative value would be manually entered as 220,000 and the opening meter reading would be entered as 20,000.

 

  • Readings section

    • Meter code: Select a correspondence of defined Meter code.

    • Date: Date of the meter reading. Default to today. Future dates are not allowed and only one reading per date.

    • Reading: the value or meter reading.
      Important: You must create the very first reading (the opening reading) with the initial meter value ( 20,000 as in the example above)

    • Type:

      • Blank: For normal readings.

      • Change Out: Select this when having a replacing an existing meter with a new one, often due to wear and tear, malfunction, or the need for an upgrade. When a meter is "changed out," the reading value should be the value of the NEW meter.

      • Clocked: Select this option to indicate when the meter has reached its maximum reading and has been reset.

      • Exclude: Because you cannot delete a reading, any reading that you would like to be ignore, mark as 'Exclude'.

      • Service: Select this option to note down the usage in a service.

    • Assumed daily rate: The usage per date based on the reading value. Auto calculated.

    • Cumulative: The cumulative of the readings. Auto calculated.

    • Units: Follow the Meter Code ( day, hour or kilometer)

    • Note: Comments

 

 

Note: Plant Meter Readings can also be entered from Plant Meter Readings



Next Steps:

Once plant items are set up, they can be issued to jobs several ways:

After being issued to a job, the system handles journaling of GL codes between the plant jobs and productive jobs which can then be exported to your financials in Export Control.

Use Plant Enquiry to view plant transactions, invoices, and recoveries. Plant Reports is also available.



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