Contents
- Index
Services, Field Definition
1. Start Date and Time, and End Date and Time: these fields denote the time the service is to be performed. You can double click in end date and ViaTour will copy Service Start date to end date field. These fields are optional, but are useful in Service Detail Reports where you can look at services by date. A good practice is to at least default to tour dates.
2. Vendor: This is the party performing the services. Note that you may wish to enter your own company as a vendor to manage costs associated with your staff or for creating a service before you have selected a vendor to perform the service. For example, you haven't decided on a bus company but you are costing in an estimate for a bus.
3. Service is the item you are buying or contracting with the vendor. The list is user-defined and you can add new ones "on the fly." New services are added to the Lookup table. As an in-house rule, it is handy to limit terms so the reporting can be more effective. You can add escort costs in as one record (summing all the costs up and noting them in service note) or you can break them out separately with different services, Escort Hotel, Escort Air, Escort meals, etc.
4. Cost and Cost Type and Count and Multiplier (see below) are interrelated. Cost is what you are paying for a service. Note for room double you enter full cost of the room. ViaTour divides the Room Double Cost in half to get the p.p.d.o (per person double occupancy) cost, which is used in the estimator. The p.p.d.o. cost is then added into the estimator as a pp (per person) cost. By default, Single rooms are NOT included in the cost estimator, but can be tracked so you can anticipate what is owed to a vendor.
5. Currency, Exchange Rate, and Date of Exchange Rate: Set your default currency on System Maintenance, Company Set Up, Company Preferences Tab. If all your costs are done in your default currency, you need do nothing more.Currency will come in as your default, the rate will be 1. If you are costing in other currency, enter the 3 letter code, the exchange rate and a date of exchange.
6. Enter # (count) and the "X" (multiplier) fields.
a. Count (#) is for tracking the number of tickets, seats, rooms, etc. This number will change as you get closer to a tour's departure. As you change this number, you may want to note it in the status note field. For example, "Reduced rooms from 10 to 8, confirmed by email on March 1." Count field (#) is not included in profit estimator, but multiplier (X) is.
b. Multiplier(X) field is for tracking the number of buses, room nights, etc. For hotel nights, use count for number of rooms and multiplier for number of nights. More nights = greater PP cost. Likewise, you may use 5 buses. Do not put this in count or the cost estimator will be incorrect.
7. Enter Cost Type, noting that:
a. PP = per person
b. Flat = global (reduces with global participation)
c. Rmdbl = room double (enter full cost of the room)
d. Rmsgl = Room single (not included in cost estimator, but may need to track for room booking
8. The Sum symbol (å) is for including or excluding a cost in the Tour Cost Estimator. If you want the service included, the Sum field (å) should be checked as true. If you want these costs omitted from the projections, uncheck the box.
9. The Service Terms field is used for summarizing terms of the services such as deadlines for cancellation, attrition, allotment, penalties, etc.
10. The Service note is a description of the service (menu at a restaurant, the pick-up time and location for transportation, hotel room type, title of a lecturer's talk, etc.)
11. Enter Payment Due or use Date Calculator
a. To open date calculator click on Red asterisk (*) next to Payment Due field.
b. The Date Calculator Form Opens
c. Fill out the fields.
d. When you click calculate, the date is calculated based on the number of days before or after a specified date field, and if you ask for weekdays only, it gives the Friday date if the calculated date falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
e. Click OK to close the form and the calculated date "drops" into Payment Due Date field.
12. Specify the Vendor contact handling the service. This is the contact person employed by the vendor you are working with.
13. Enter the status of the service, the status date and status note if necessary. Note that the Status fields will change over the life cycle of a tour, beginning with planned or requested, ultimately ending with confirmed or occasionally canceled. You can report on services by status.
14. Include a Destination for the service, if appropriate. (These destinations are those assigned for the tour).
?Note: For reporting, required fields are a Vendor and Service (or the record will not appear on reports).
Related Topics:
Service Form, Record and Grid Views
How Cost Estimator Calculates
Services For A Tour