Car fleet activities: Genesis
Fleet View
Extension for Oracle Inventory
module: Fleet fuel consumption
management in ERP
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
2
Table of contents
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS .................................................................... 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 4
NO CUSTOMIZATIONS ....................................................................................................... 4
FIRST INSIGHTS .................................................................................................................. 5
DESCRIPTION ..................................................................................................................... 6
Why the need to develop Genesis Fleet View .............................................................. 7
SPECIFIC FEATURES ........................................................................................................... 8
Configuration of means of transportation ................................................................... 8
Recording data from Vehicle Log Books ...................................................................... 8
Fuel inventory movement transaction ......................................................................... 9
Reconciling fuel supplies with invoices received from fuel suppliers ............................. 9
Launching Daily Activity Log report ............................................................................ 9
HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED .......................................................................... 10
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
3
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The fleet cars and equipment that consume fuels require special
attention from managers. The vehicles in the fleet provide services in
transport activities. On the other hand, the management of the fuel
used for deliver of transport services has the following features: gas
station fuel supply is an inventory receipt (tank entry), and the fuel is
used (tank exit) only at the end of the transport activity.
The control of resources necessary for transport activity fulfillment is
recorded in the Daily Activity Log associated with each vehicle. Most
ERP product supplier considers the transportation order based fuel
consumption a „detail” insignificant to be treated separately.
Genesis Software Consulting has developed Genesis Fleet View product
(Fleet View), perfectly integrated into Oracle E-Business Suite, to meet
the request coming from various customers. Fleet View offers the fleet
management the „Daily Activity Log” report, which collects data from
the Vehicle Log Books: mileage, operating
hours, fuel supplies, name of drivers and their
timesheets. After processing these data, Fleet
View calculates the fuel consumption and the
fuel remaining in the tank. Furthermore, the
activity log provides a series of brief
information as alerts: preventive maintenance
schedule, oil changes, tire changes and tax
payments.
Genesis Software Consulting recommends that
Fleet View product to be implemented when
the fleet operational cost control is a topic of
interest to the organization. Fleet View is perfectly integrated with
Oracle Inventory so that the fuel inventory management can be tracked
while maintaining the standard Oracle features. Fleet View is perfectly
suited for 11i and R12 implementations.
NO CUSTOMIZATIONS
We believe customizations, changes made in the standard Oracle
Applications ERP, that are not supported by the vendor are something
we do not recommend. Why customizations are not good? Regression –
one minor customization could dramatically affect a standard set of
functionalities; Standard support cannot be offered even for standard
functionalities if were affected by customizations; Upgrade – new
versions upgrade can become a more costly experience if
customizations are in place; Know how – for standard applications you
have vendor support and general documentation, while for
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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customizations the support depends on only a few developers. These
are just a few of many pitfalls of customizing the ERP software.
This is why we don’t recommend and don’t support customizations of
Oracle ERP. We developed our products as distinct tools over the
standard functionalities of Oracle without interfere with or change
these functionalities. They just channel the existing power of Oracle
ERP to more efficiently solve the business problems of your company.
The standard functionalities remain unaffected by our products and you
can still use them, if you choose, independently of our product.
FIRST INSIGHTS
Managers operate the fleet around transport activity. The transport
activity is a process consisting of delivery of services specific to a
particular type of vehicle requiring resources: fuel, drivers, salary, etc.
The costs of these services are settled with the requesting customers,
internal or external. Therefore, the management of the required
resources for the delivery of a transportation service represents a part of
this process, which must be integrated with the other components:
order entry and its delivery.
The management wants to have control over fuel consumption
calculation based on the data recorded in the Vehicle Log Books.
Transportation activity, as a main process, must generate a series of
secondary processes: vehicle fuel supply ends with an invoice received
from the fuel supplier; fuel movements are inventory inflows and
outflows, which must be recorded in accounting. In default of an
integrated system, these secondary processes are errors generation and
propagation sources, because different departments involvement.
Genesis Fleet View is the solution for car fleet fuel consumption
management.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
6
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DESCRIPTION
Genesis Fleet View is an innovation in the fields of ERP and was
developed to manage the resource requirements involved in the
performance of the transportation activity. Fleet View collects the data
from the Vehicle Log Books in an electronic form, automatically
calculates the fuel consumption associated with the transportation
activity, calculates the fuel remaining in the tank and identifies actions
to be taken within a month in terms of preventive maintenance
schedule, tire changes, tax payments. At the end of the month the
management receives, under the form of a printed report, the Daily
Activity Log (Vehicle Log Books journal) where the Vehicle Log Books
are associated with the transportation orders received from customers.
Fuel supplies and consumptions are registered in accounting as inflows
and outflows of the fuel stock, each vehicle tank being considered a
warehouse locator. All fuel supplies operated in Fleet View, based on the
sales receipt, are reconciled with the fuel invoice received from
suppliers.
Fig1. Traffic parameters management leads to managerial reporting
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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Fleet View is designed and developed to work in addition to Oracle
Inventory module for tracking fuel inventory movement. Fleet View
does not invalidate in any way standard Oracle features and does not
affect Oracle support for standard applications.
Why the need to develop Genesis Fleet View
In our days, customers all over the world are increasingly demanding.
They want to have now what the developers promise to achieve in the
future. Developers of IT products, especially ERP product developers,
provide “drills” when customers only want “holes”. Customers are less
interested in the technological process incorporated in the new versions
of ERP applications and more interested in the practical solutions for
their business problems.
After years of Oracle Applications implementation, Genesis team was
able to capitalize the experience gained into a developed product suite,
which also includes Genesis Fleet View.
Successful use of Fleet View product has enabled Genesis to extend ERP
implementation in the difficult area of operational transactions. Now,
management can control consumption of resources required for the
transportation activity, related to transportation orders.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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SPECIFIC FEATURES
Genesis Fleet View adds new features to Oracle Inventory, which allow
controlling the consumption of resources required for the delivery of the
transportation through the Daily Activity Log. The Daily Activity Log
represents a report sent to the management on a monthly basis and
contains the Vehicle Log Books for transportation activities in that
month. The Daily Activity Log also contains the number of
transportation orders received from customers, mileage, operating
hours, fuel consumption (expressed in liters) and fuel remaining in the
tank. At the same time, the management receives recommendations
for preventive maintenance schedule, change of tires and tax payments.
Configuration of means of
transportation
With reference to the fuel consumption
vehicles and equipment, Fleet View allows
the recording of their main characteristics,
with the central goal – fuel consumption
calculation. Each vehicle will be uniquely
identified in the system (fixed asset number,
for example, and also the vehicle registration
number, etc.).
From the perspective of implementing a
solution of Cost Accounting – Genesis Cost
Accounting, vehicles shall be defined as
objectives (cost centre) in management
accounting. Fleet View takes over the
reporting dimensions from the management
accounting.
Fig2. Means of transportation configuration
screen
Fleet View allows the configuration of vehicle
general characteristics, of interest to
management: average fuel consumption,
vehicle series, vehicle color, tank capacity,
mileage for a set of tires or between two
inspections, tonnage, number of axles, and
others.
After configuring the means of
transportation in Fleet View, the
management has available the data on fleet
car characteristics.
Recording data from Vehicle Log
Books
Vehicle Log Book represents the legal
document recording the performance of a
transportation activity, for an internal or
external customer, for a vehicle.
In order to obtain information on the
customer in Daily Activity Log report, Fleet
View integrates with Oracle Order
Management module. An automated
workflow process generates in Fleet View the
recording of transportation order to be
associated with the Vehicle Log Book
number. Users operate in Fleet View the data
from Vehicle Log Books, mileage, operating
hours, degree of difficulty of the road and
drivers’ timesheet.
Fleet View automatically calculates, using
vehicle configuration data, fuel consumption
and fuel remaining in the tank.
The vehicle dispatcher uses Fleet View to
record the Vehicle Log Books and to
automatically calculate the fuel remaining in
the tank.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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Fig3. Vehicle Log Book data entry
Fuel inventory movement
transaction
Genesis Fleet View is integrated with Oracle
Inventory by the feature of allowing the
recording of fuel supplies and consumptions
as inventory transactions.
After recording the data from the Vehicle Log
Book, the dispatcher uses Fleet View to track
fuel movements. A major asset of the
solution is that inventory transactions are
automatically recorded in Oracle Inventory
based on workflow mechanisms.
Reconciling fuel supplies with
invoices received from fuel
suppliers
In the transaction auditing process, it is
important that the sales receipt issued to
drivers, when supplying from the fuel pump,
matches the invoice from the supplier in
terms of quality and value.
To that effect, Fleet View integrates with
Oracle Payables, through the screen for
reconciling supplies and invoices. The
operator finds in Fleet View all the supplies
recorded from the Vehicle Log Books and
associates them with the invoice lines
received from the fuel supplier. After
reconciliation, Fleet View automatically
generates the suppliers’ invoices in Oracle
Payables.
Accountants responsible for recording fuel
invoices use Fleet View to reconcile supplies
operated by dispatchers with the suppliers
invoice lines. The link between the suppliers
account and the inventory account is
performed through this mechanism.
Launching Daily Activity Log
report
Fleet View registers and processes all data
regarding the consumption of resources
required for the transportation activity. At
the end of the month, operators recording
the Vehicle Log Books launch the Daily
Activity Log report.
Vehicle dispatchers use the Daily Activity Log
report from Fleet View to track the
transportation activity recorded in one
month. The Daily Activity Log report offers
them messages regarding the actions to be
taken in the following month, such as: vehicle
preventive maintenance, tire changes, car tax
payments.
Fig4. Daily Activity Log report
The management uses the Daily Activity Log
report from Fleet View to control the
performance of the transportation activity –
number of orders, average fuel consumption,
peak demands etc.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
10
HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED
Genesis Fleet View was developed progressively, covering the business
requirements raised by different customers in implementation projects.
It is “encapsulated” in an easy to customize and control product,
containing all objects, being similar to any standard Oracle product.
Fleet View refers to all the technical elements characterizing an Oracle
product: it has its own schema of the database objects, specific
configuration elements and an operating form. The process of issuing
transportation orders from Oracle Order Management automatically
generates records in Fleet View. The operating form of the Vehicle Log
Book automatically calculates the amount of fuel consumed for carrying
out the transportation activity, as well as the fuel remaining in the
vehicle tank.
Fleet View automatically generates the fuel inventory movement
transactions in Oracle Inventory.
Fleet View integrates with Oracle Payables for the automatic recording
of invoices reconciled.
White paper
(Informative document)
January 2013
Author: Dorian Balmuș
Genesis Software Consulting
Address: 65 Samuil Vulcan St., sector 5,
Bucharest, Romania
Contact person: George Faur
phone: +40 741-084-009
e-mail: [email protected]
www.genesissoftware.eu
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