The locations table is used to enter all school-based locations and departments that will serve as a requester’s location (such as schools, transportation, or bus locations). This table indicates who approves trips for that location and who the contacts are for things like Child Nutrition notifications, bookkeepers, etc. It also shows the order of locations to use for assigning vehicles.
During implementation, your specialist will configure the initial locations. Use caution when adding additional locations.
Configuring Existing Locations
To edit existing locations, click in the top right-hand corner of your webpage, where you see the half-person icon. From the dropdown menu, select Setup Tables.
This will automatically load the Locations table. If you are already on another table in the Setup Tables pages, use the dropdown menu to select Locations.
To edit an existing location, click on the Location name and make your edits.
See below for an explanation of all settings.
Creating a New Location
To create a new location, click the + button at the top left of the screen.
General Section
The first section of the Location setup covers general information like the School Code, Name, and Abbreviation.
Location Code: Each location must have a unique location code that is a 3 to 6-character number or indicator for this location. The location code is used to prefix invoice summaries and match budget codes if you use the budget code setup table.
Location Name: The location name is the full name of the location.
Location Abbreviation: This is used on the trip calendar, so it should be filled in for every location – for example, for South Brunswick High School, it would probably be “SBHS.”
You can also set the location type to one or more of the following:
Active: This location is in use and will appear on the trip request form.
School: This is a school location and will show up on the trip request form unless marked as “inactive.”
Vehicle Location: This is only a location for storing vehicles and will not show on the trip request form.
Include in Common Destinations: This location should be included in the “Common Destinations” list on the trip request form.
Zone:
Optionally, you can select the Zone for this location. This setting is used if you want to have a Zone Supervisor who assigns drivers for this Zone. This location will not appear on the trip request but is typically used as the location to assign drivers.
Example: You have 20 schools, ten located in the East and 10 in the West zones. You have a supervisor that will assign buses in their Zone. You would use this setting and create a location called East Zone and West Zone, and then your buses would be located at either the East Zone or West Zone, and the vehicle owner would be the person at the Zone. Your school locations would then use the East Zone or West Zone in the routing options to determine where to pull buses from.
Vehicle Order of Assignment:
Only one vehicle location is required for the Vehicle Order of Assignment, but you can enter more.
The next section of the table is the default Vehicle Order of Assignment for trips originating at this location. All the locations must be set up before the locations can be selected here. If a location owns its vehicles, click the dropdown arrow and choose your location for Location 1. If your location does not own any cars, then Location 1 will be the first location that you would go to reserve a vehicle. If the cars at Location 1 are all in use, then Location 2 would be the next place you would check for a vehicle. If all vehicles at location 2 are in use, then Location 3 would be the next place you would check for a vehicle.
The last location should always be transportation so that they can deal with any situations where buses weren’t assigned in the first 3 locations. Some settings give flexibility if you would like for vehicle owners to be able to decide on the following location for assignment rather than using this default vehicle order.
Address:
Be sure to fill out the Address, City, State, and Zip Code. This requires a physical street address—no P.O. Boxes. Once you click “save,” the system will auto-populate the Longitude and Latitude fields. However, you can input your own.
Site Level Authority:
This section of the Locations table is for the approvers assigned to this school. All users need to be listed by their email address. This is the email that the user will register in TravelTracker-Trips to access the site.
Site Admins:
The site administrator is the person with the authority to do any approval for the first approver and visibility of the trips and finance information for that location. You can have up to four site administrators at each location. Individuals listed as Site Administrators have full access to their location.
Pays Invoices:
This is the bookkeeper responsible for paying invoices for their school. This person will have visibility into invoice information and exports for all trips at this location.
Schedules Vehicles (Owner):
This is the individual responsible for assigning the vehicle to trips when vehicles from this location are used. They have authority only over the vehicles assigned to their location.
Schedules Special Needs Vehicles:
For trips with a trip type of “Special Needs,” the person listed here is the vehicle owner and is responsible for scheduling vehicles for this trip.
The Special Needs trip type must be active in the setup table to use this option.
School Nurse:
Up to four individuals may receive email notifications for trips. School Nurses will have access to the Support Services Tab to see upcoming trips and/or trips with health concerns.
A setting in the Configuration Tab, Other Setup Decisions (Notifications), will determine if the school nurses get notifications for either All Trips or only trips with health concerns. Notifications will be sent only after trips are approved.
Child Nutrition Notification Lunch Trips
Up to four individuals may receive email notifications for trips where students are out over lunch. This is usually the school cafeteria manager and possibly the District Child Nutrition Director.
Notifications will be sent only after trips are approved and if the trip indicates that students will be out over lunch.
Site Level Approvers:
This section indicates the site-level approvers for trips originating at this site. The trip will have approvers listed in this order based on the settings for each level.
The X indicates the level isn’t applicable for
the trip type. A blank needs attention because an approver is needed for this
trip type. If no approver is designated, the level will auto-approve to move
past the level. Transportation admin will be notified when a level auto-approved.
To set up approvers, go to half-person and click users.
For each level, the Source indicates where the level is defined. The ones that indicate the Location Table indicate that each location table's settings define who the approvers are at these levels.
Once you’ve made all the necessary adjustments to your new or existing location, click “save.”
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