Getting Started: How can I use Traction Enterprise in Harvest?

Overview

Harvesting with Traction Enterprise Business means that you have your yield, inventory, and contract delivery information collected, reconciled, reported, and ready for analysis faster and more easily than ever. This article walks you through how to navigate the Traction Enterprise main harvest-related functions.

Requirements

To effectively record your harvest in Traction Enterprise, you will first need to:

• Read the Traction Enterprise Harvest Checklist.
• Create Crop Plans containing Harvest Tasks.
• Assign those plans to your field.
• Create contracts for all of your planned deliveries.
• Ensure that your crop units are set appropriately.

Process

Setup

To ensure that everything runs smoothly once you're in the field, start by making sure that all of the following items are set-up in the Configure section of the web app:

• Setup>Crops: Update shrink settings.
• Setup>Equipment: Input all of your harvest equipment (combines, tractors, trucks) here.
• Setup>Inventory Locations: Create locations to reflect where you store and deliver crops. (During location setup, if you indicate there are no truck scales at a location, Traction Enterprise Business will use transfers recorded from the field to track delivered quantities at this location).
• Storage: Create storage containers at Self Storage and Customer Locations to track deliveries.
• Setup>Land Agreements: Enter your land agreements and assign them to Field Boundaries.
• Harvest Tasks: Check that you've created Harvest Tasks for the Field Boundaries you want to Harvest. If you need to create these Tasks, you can do this per Field Boundary on the Field Plans page, or in bulk via the Task Manager page. 

Send Harvest Work Orders

When creating your Work Orders, you have a few options to provide greater oversight of the harvesting process:

1. Assigning Work Orders: For any Harvest Task, you're able to assign Work Orders to your Operators so they know which fields to go to and can log their Equipment Loads.

2. Allowing Operators to use the Mobile App: If you activate this option, your Operators will be able to log when Harvest Tasks have started and completed. They can also log the Loads that they drop off.

If you elect to have your Harvester/Combine operators record the field totals they read off the monitor, they'll receive a Work Order allowing them to record Equipment Totals, as shown here:

     

If you want your Tractor/Grain Cart/Truck operators to record what they transfer to a bin or truck, they'll receive a Work Order and record Loads, like this:

 

Operators will also see a list of the Loads they recorded and can make any necessary edits:

Reconcile Harvest Tasks and Yield in Real Time

Use the Crops>Inventory>Reconciliation page to Add Harvest Equipment Loads that were not recorded by Operators. Harvest Tasks with recent activity will bubble up to the top of the page so you can follow along with activity in the field and reconcile Harvester Equipment Totals, Machine Totals, and Tractor and/or Truck Loads with your Total Inventory Transfers (what made it to Storage or a Customer). This helps to ensure that the Yield tracked in Traction Enterprise Business is always accurate.

If there appear to be Loads coming from Field Equipment that never made it to Storage or a Customer for a Completed Task (because it was in transit or a Load was not recorded), Traction Enterprise flags this information for you with a warning icon, allowing for review further. 

When a task is reconciled, mark it as Reviewed by clicking the box in the top right corner of each Harvest Task. You can also use the Filter field to display only those tasks that are still Not Reviewed.

Monitor Your Business and Generate Reports

See your Crop Balances, Contract Manager Status, Yield Reports, Revenue Forecast, and Financial Plans immediately updated. Your reconciled Harvest Task information flows through to the following reports and is immediately available to you, saving you hours of time entering and processing harvest data:

• Crops>Inventory>Balances and Crops>Inventory>Ownership - Your current inventory balances, at all locations, for all entities
• Crops>Contract Manager - Your deliveries and settled quantities for each contract
• Financials>Revenue Forecast - Your Production Quantities update daily as you reconcile yields
• Crops>Yield>Summary - Your yield by Harvest Task for analysis purposes
• Reports>Landowner Yield - A formatted report to submit to your Landowners
• Reports>Yield by Field - A formatted report to submit to your Crop Insurance Agent
• Financials>Profit Analyzer - Reflects updated contract status and production actuals 

For example, here's a copy of a Landowner Yield Report showing bushels allocated to landowner and lessee:

Glossary

Inventory Transfers are the quantity of crop that was moved to Storage or delivered to a Customer, impacting your inventory balance

Equipment Totals represent a total harvested amount that is recorded but does not track inventory movement. For example, you can record a total reported by the monitor in the combine for reconciliation purposes but which does not update inventory at any particular location.

Transfers represent the movement of inventory between pieces of equipment or locations. There are several different types, broken down below:

• Equipment Transfers (Harvest Equipment Transfer or Load)
• Equipment to Equipment: movement of Crop from one piece of Equipment to another (i.e., from grain cart to truck)
• Field Equipment to Storage: movement of Crop from Harvest Equipment to a physical Storage Location (crop moving from the field to farm storage via a truck)
• Field Equipment to Customer: movement of Crop from Harvest Equipment to a Customer Location (from the field to a local elevator, via a truck)

• Inventory Transfers
  • Storage to Storage Loads: movement of Crop between Storage Locations
  • Storage to Customer Loads: movement of Crop from Storage Locations to Customer Locations
• Hauling Inventory Load
• Third Party Inbound Inventory Loads: tracks when a third party drops Crop Inventory into one of your Storage Locations
• Adjustments: addition or subtraction of Crop from a Location to or from a virtual Adjustment account
• Split allows a Load to be split into multiple transfers (if a single Load came from more than one Field or should be allocated to more than one Contract).
• Ownership Transfers (movement of Inventory from one entity's account to another). There are several types: 
• Land Agreement Ownership Transfers: these are automatically generated by Equipment Transfers based on relevant Land Agreement terms; moving Crop from Field to Entity accounts
• Contract Ownership Transfers: these are automatically generated when a contract is assigned to an inventory transfer; moving Crop from Seller to Buyer accounts
• Adjustments: addition or subtraction of Crop from an Entity to or from a virtual Adjustment account

 

Related Articles
Traction Enterprise Harvest Checklist 
Getting Started: How do I use Harvest Reconciliation?