WB - Weigh Bridge Interface



WB and WBRIDGE are the ITAS components of an automated system for transferring delivery weights etc

What is WB

Weighbridge communication is handled by a dedicated service, the ITAS Weighbridge service. Its sole purpose is to poll a ftp site for files, and to pick them up and process them when they are placed in their location(s). The service is stopped and started using RPP in the same way as the Posting Process. It is available if the company Load Style is “Loading from Weighbridge” (S01/Stocks tab)

Intakes

A purchase order/call-off is sent to the Weighbridge or manual weighing as a fixing/order from PROTANK. When the incoming delivery has been processed through the Weighbridge software, the completion details are retrieved by ITAS/WB using S01 nominated values for each Terminal/depot with a company override for manual application of weighing. The following processing is then actioned:
·         A purchase WIP account is created if one doesn't exist and the company has been setup to create them when moving purchases into stock.(S01/Physicals)
·         A stock movement journal is created to move the stock from the purchase WIP account, to the stock unit. The document date is the loaded date.
·         The stock levels on the stock unit are updated.
·         The order/call-off is allocated to the stock unit.
·         If the quantity loaded is different to the ordered quantity, the difference is put onto the contract header (except for internals).
·         The loading record is updated with the Weighbridge ticket number.

If costs exist on the call-off, these are also included in the stock movement journal. They will also be processed through the FX account,  if they are a different currency to the Stock unit. The cost value is included in the postings to the stock unit, using the original cost expense code. The origin account is determined as being the nominal ledger account maintained with the cost type in

PHYSCODES

.

If no account is found it will post from the purchase WIP account (or the stock adjustment account if internal).

Deliveries Out

A Sales order/call-off is sent to the Weighbridge or manual weighing as a release (fixing) from PROTANKD. Additionally PROTANK would ensure that its mixing sheet is consistent with available tank unit tonnages. This data is needed by WB to complete its stock movements, when the delivered out tonnages are being processed; i.e. it will pro-rata the delivered weight across the respective stock units according to the original formula percentages. When the outgoing delivery has been processed through the Weighbridge software, the completion details are retrieved by ITAS/WB using S01 nominated values for each Terminal/depot with a company override for manual application of weighing. The following processing is then actioned:

The processing of a delivery is as follows:
·         All WIP accounts have their stock quantities and values adjusted to represent the movement of stock in or out.
·         A stock movement journal is generated. The document date is the loaded date.
·         A loaded (phys10) record is created for each of the stock units involved. The loaded record contains the quantity for each unit.
·         The order (phys09) record is updated with the date and time of the Mixing Sheet that is being used and the Weighbridge ticket number. The loaded quantity may also be updated with the quantity from the Weighbridge if the contract is to be invoiced using loaded weights.
·         If the contract is invoiced using loaded weights, the contract is marked as delivered, with the delivery date being the loaded date, and the final weights are updated as being the Weighbridge quantity, otherwise the call-off is updated as being routed i.e. on-the-road.
·         If the ordered weight has been adjusted, any adjustment is made to the Sale header contract, but no negative tonnage is maintained so is left as ZERO.
·         If the delivery is a third-party contract, third-party movement and balance records will be generated.
In some cases, if goods have been returned (see Returns below), they may be available for another delivery. In these situations, there will also be a loaded (phys10) record for the contract, relating to the returns transit account. If this is the case, these goods need to be included in the current delivery. For example, if we have a delivery for 20 MT, but we have a return for 5 MT, we use this 5 MT, and therefore only 15 MT of the current delivery.

Minibulks

A minibulk is a bulk delivery consisting of several fixings grouped together. The Weighbridge Service receives minibulks records and makes the following updates:
·         The minibulk is marked as processed.
·         The fixings that make up the minibulk are marked as being on the road.

Returns

Returns are generated when ordered goods are returned. They therefore also relate to sales contracts. The following processing takes place:
The Return is created in PROSCHED from an existing fixing. This causes the generation of a new loading record that is a copy of the original, but with zero values for loaded, pumped and delivered quantities. These details are then sent to the Weighbridge.
When processed by the Weighbridge, the difference between the 2 weights should be negative. The retrieved file may contain the detail of an existing stock unit into which the return was made. A Return would only normally specify a target unit if the goods were contaminated and they needed to be isolated. Usually there is no target unit specified in the file. In these situations, goods are put into a new, automatically generated transit account. The name comes from the transit account indicator plus the original fixing number (with a minimum of 3 characters). The extension is the first three characters of the terminal in use, for example T651.LIV. The fixing number is used for traceability. The transit account is set up with the appropriate terminal/location and product details, and a Trace ID matching the release number.
The value will be the returned proportion of the original total value. A stock movement journal is created to represent this movement, from the transit account, to the target stock unit, using the document date as loaded date.

Data Layouts for Load Files

There are UK and European file schemes (control in S01/Stocks).

UK style (as at 10Sep14)


FIXNO

12
fixing number
ORDERDATE

8

order date

REGNO

12

vehicle registration number

CONACC

12

contract type + number

ORIGIN

12
product (part 2)

CMYDESCR

30
product description

space

48

CLIDESCR

25
customer name (merchant)

RECNO

12
delivery client

RECDESCR

30
delivery client name

ADDRESS1

30
delivery client address 1

ADDRESS2

30
delivery client address 2

POSTCODE

10
delivery client postcode

TELNO

12
delivery client telephone number

space

104

CLREF

25

client reference

space

88

ORDERWT

8

ordered weight (kilos)

space

14

FAXNO

40

delivery client fax no (added 4Q12)

DELINSTRUCT

140

delivery client instructions (added 3Q14)


European style (as at 10Sep14)


CONTRACT

10

contract number

FIXNO

8

release number

ORDERDATE

8

order date (YYYYMMDD)

CONTYPE

1

contract type (P/S)

3RDPARTY

1

third party (Y/N)

CONTERMS

30

contract terms description

EXTANK

1

ex tank (Y/N)

SELLERPRFX

60

seller prefix

SELLERID

10

seller account

SELLERDESCR

60

seller name

SELLERADDR1

40

seller address 1

SELLERADDR1

40

seller address 2

SELLERPOSTCODE

20

seller postcode

SELLERCTRY

30

seller country

BUYERID

10

buyer account

BUYERDESCR

60

buyer name

BUYERADDR1

40

buyer address 1

BUYERADDR2

40

buyer address 2

BUYERPOSTCODE

20

buyer postcode

BUYERCTRY

30

buyer country

DELCLIID

10

delivery client account

DELCLIDESCR

60

delivery client name

DELCLIADDR1

40

delivery client address 1

DELCLIADDR2

40

delivery client address 2

DELCLIPOSTCODE

20

delivery client postcode

DELCLICTRY

30

delivery client country

DELCLIPHONE

40

delivery client phone

HAULID

10

haulier account

HAULDESCR

60

haulier name

HAULADDR1

40

haulier address 1

HAULADDR2

40

haulier address 2

HAULPOSTCODE

20

haulier postcode

HAULCTRY

30

haulier country

TERMADDR1

40

terminal address 1

TERMADDR2

40

terminal address 2

TERMPOSTCODE

20

terminal postcode

TERMCTRY

30

terminal country

TRUCKREG

15

vehicle registration

TRAILERREG

20

trailer registration

VEHCODE

4

vehicle code

QUALITY

8

quality code

CMYCODE1

3

commodity code

CMYCODE2

6

origin

CMYCODE3

6

grade

CMYDESCR

40

full commodity description

CMYDESCR1

40

commodity description (part 1 only)

PACKCODE

4

packing code

CLREF

40

client reference

PUMPMEMO

40

pump memo

ORDERWT

10

ordered weight (kilos)

space

62

MEMO

40

standard memo

DRIVERID

20

driver ID

VEHDRIVER

20

vehicle driver

space

10

TSAS

5

PQIS TSAS

DM

5

PQIS DM

CP

5

PQIS CP

EXPEDID

20

expeditor account

EXPEDDESCR

60

expeditor name

EXPEDADDR1

40

expeditor address 1

EXPEDADDR2

40

expeditor address 2

EXPEDPOSTCODE

20

expeditor postcode

EXPEDCTRY

30

expeditor country

CMYTEXT

50

full commodity text

CMYTEXT1

200

commodity text (part 1 only)

BUYERORDNO

40

buyer order no

BUYERSECREF

40

buyer sec ref

DELORDNO

40

delivery client order no

DELSECREF

40

delivery client sec ref

TRANSORDNO

40

transporter order no

EXPEDORDNO

40

expeditor order no

CMYPARTS

80

2/3 part commodity codes

space

320

FAXNO

40

delivery client fax no (added 4Q12)

DRIVERLIC

80

driver license (added 3Q14)

SEALNO

80

seal number (added 3Q14)



 

Technical Error Messages

The following messages are logged by the service:
3rd party stocks for vessel '[vessel]', arrival date [date] do not exist.
Location: Deliveries. A thibal record is not found for the third party.
Cannot process delivery as tank [WIP has currency [Ccy] whereas target has [Ccy]
Location: Deliveries. The tank currency and WIP currency are different.
Error - contract [contract] not found
Location: General. The specified contract does not exist.
Error - no 'loadreport' folder. Files cannot be downloaded from the weighbridge without this folder
Location: General. The ITAS LoadReport folder does not exist.
Error - Unable to find and update WIP account '[WIP]'
Location: General. The specified WIP account does not exist in ITAS.
Error: vld99 records already exists for account '[WIP]'
Location: General. The vld99 record already exists when creating a new WIP account.
Insufficient stock in [WIP] for movement. You will need to create the stock movement manually.
Location: Deliveries and Intakes. (This only applies to internals for Intakes). There needs to be enough stock in the tank for the movement.
Unable to change folder to [folder]
Location: General. This refers to changing folders on the ftp site. The folder comes from the ctrl51 table.
Unable to connect to remote host [ftp site]. Check your network settings
Location: General. Connection error.
Unable to find contract [contract] in order to calculate value
Location: General. The specified contract does not exist.
Unable to find loading record for [contract].
Location: General. This occurs if no phys09 record exists for the specified contract.
Unable to find loading record for [contract]. Delivery not processed.
Location: Deliveries. This occurs if no phys09 record exists for the specified contract.
Unable to find loading record for [contract]. Return not processed
Location: Returns. This occurs if no phys09 record exists for the returned contract.
Unable to find PQIS recipe details for terminal '[terminal]', quality [quality]'.
Location: Deliveries. No pqist records exist for the contract.
Unable to process contract [contract] with fixing number [fixno] as not found in ITAS.
Location: Intakes. No contract exists with matching contract number.
Warning - folder [folder] does not exist.
Location: General. This occurs if the specified LoadReport folders cannot be found.
WIP account '[WIP]' does not exist
Location: Intakes. This refers to the WIP account of the purchase contract, and is therefore the Origin tank for the movement.
 

Technical

The FTP site that the service communicates with is stored on the ctrl51 table as ctrl51_ftppc. The username and password are also stored on this table (ctrl51_ftpuser and ctrl51_ftppwd). Every 20 seconds the service logs onto the FTP site and checks for files, hopefully there are no locking issues with the Weighbridge software.
Every terminal/location that the company communicates with has a record (ctrl51) listing the remote folder where files are to be located (ctrl51_receivefullpath) and the file names to retrieve (ctrl51_receivefile). These folders are checked when the WB service logs onto the FTP site.
Once a file is found, it is moved to the standard ITAS loadreport folder for processing. A file may contain one or several loading details. The file is deleted from the remote folder. When the file has been processed, it is moved to the loadreport\old folder.

Set Up

To set up the Weighbridge Service, you need to perform the following steps:
1.     Create the LoadReport and LoadReport/Old folders.
2.     Use S01 to set the company up with Loading Style of “Loading from Weighbridge” (Stock Detail, Main tab)
3.     Set up all the FTP details on the Stock Detail page, Location tab. For each location you need to set up FTP site, username and password, and details of the send and receive folders and filenames. The folders need to be valid FTP locations. If they are left blank, the default FTP folder is used.
4.     Start the Weighbridge Service using RPP. The first time you run RPP, you will be asked if you want to create the service. You will need to manually assign a username and password to the service.

What is WBRIDGE

WBRIDGE simulates the Weighbridge software for situations where Weighbridge software is not available i.e. there is no automated Weighbridge OR communications with the Weighbridge software have been temporarily lost.
Prior to the WB or WBRIDGE processes, call-offs (both and Purchase) would have been transferred by PROSCHED to the Weighbridge ftp directory.
WBRIDGE is then activated by the user to retrieve the unfulfilled fixings for the relevant depot/site.  The user completes the grid details e.g. weights, trucking details and saves the revised grid.  Items that have been completed i.e. their weights have been entered will then be available for automated processing by the Weighbridge Service (WB) in the same manner as items completed by the automated Weighbridge software.
There is a CMP privileged feature that allows the user to view call-offs from the manual Weighbridge for explicit depot/site. This is needed where some deliveries have been made but the regular WB software failed to communicate back to ITAS and all data is now removed from the regular WB.  In this situation, the same privileged user would have reset the call-off to the manual Weighbridge ready for WBRIDGE to do its job.