Viewing Route Information

Carriers, district managers, and others will often ask for information about a route. Much of this information is contained in the tabs in the lower part of the Route Service window, which are listed and discussed individually below.

Accounts

The Accounts tab lists the accounts that distribute the route, including the account name and ID, address and phone number, account type, and the days on which the papers are distributed.

Circulation allows multiple accounts to deliver a single route, so more than one account may be listed here. The district, district manager, and number of households on the route are also listed, as well as any messages that apply to the route. If you double-click on an account, you will be taken to the Account Inquiry window for that account.

Note: Carriers other than the regular carrier, such as substitutes and agents, are shown on a separate tab.

If an account delivers more than one route, arrows will appear at the bottom of the window. Click the arrows to show the other routes. If more than one account is listed for a route, you will need to highlight the specific account before you can use the arrows to select another route.

Draws

The Draws tab shows draws for the route. First, you will need to specify some parameters for displaying draw.

Field	Type	What to enter
START DATE, END DATE	date	Enter the date range for which draw information should be displayed. You may leave END DATE blank to display draw for all dates on or after the START DATE.
DRAW TYPE	predefined	Indicate what type of draw figures should be displayed—actual, pending, or advance.
SHOW GROSS DRAW	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a row that shows Gross Draw for each week.
SHOW NET DRAW	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a row that shows Net Draw for each week.
SUPPRESS ZERO ROWS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to hide rows that have zero draw.
UPDATE PENDING	yes/no	Indicate whether pending draw should be updated automatically based on future activity.
SHOW DRAW BY DELIVERY SCHEDULE	yes/no	If this is a home delivery route, indicate whether draws should be broken out by delivery schedule. This pertains only to home delivery routes.
SHOW DRAW BY BILLING METHOD	yes/no	If this is a home delivery route, indicate whether you want to break out draws by billing method instead of delivery schedule. This pertains only to home delivery routes.
SHOW DRAW BY RATE CODE	yes/no	Home delivery route draw can be stored by subscriber rate code (a Business Rules option). Indicate whether draws for each week should be broken out by rate code. This pertains only to home delivery routes.
SHOW ADJUSTMENTS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to display draw adjustments for each week. If you import sold and shrink copies, they will display in separate rows.
SHOW RETURNS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a row that shows returns for each week (home delivery routes only).
SHOW AUTHORIZED RETURNS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a row that shows authorized returns (single copy routes only).
SHOW UNAUTHORIZED RETURNS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a row that shows unauthorized returns (single copy routes only).
SHOW DRAW CLASS	yes/no	Indicate whether you want to include a column that shows the draw class for each draw entry (single copy routes only).

Draws are displayed differently depending upon whether the route is single copy or home delivery. For home delivery routes, draw figures are broken out by AAM delivery method:

• Office Pay—Subscribers who pay the newspaper, which then applies the payment to the carrier’s account.

• Carrier Collect—Subscribers who pay the carrier directly.

• Unpaid Complimentary—Subscribers who do not pay for the subscription at all—it is free of charge. This billing method is most commonly used with “friends of the newspaper” individuals, such as advertisers.

• Paid Complimentary—This is the same as unpaid complimentary, but it is reported separately on AAM reports. This category is used for employees of the newspaper.

• Sample—Copies given to the carrier to hand out to non-subscribers.

• Service—Extra copies given to the carrier in case there is a shortage or some papers are damaged.

• Third Party—Free copies delivered to non-subscribers that are sponsored by a business.

For single copy routes, draw figures are displayed by date, with returns, draw adjustments, and net draw (the original draw plus or minus returns and draw adjustments). All draw classes are included in the draw figures.

Draw Calculation Methods

Draw figures are displayed differently depending on how draw is calculated (known as draw type). The draw types used by Circulation are:

Actual draw

For dates that have been published, this is the draw as it was calculated by Circulation (not counting returns and draw adjustments), or gross draw. For dates that have not been published, the actual draw is the gross draw for the last published date of the same day of the week, plus or minus any processed transactions. So, if a route had a draw of 45 last Wednesday, and there have been 2 starts and 1 stop processed for the route, the actual draw for this Wednesday will be 46. This is also known as projected draw.

Pending draw

Pending draw is calculated in the same way as actual draw, but unprocessed transactions are also taken into consideration. So, in the example above, if there were 2 more starts for the route that have not yet been processed, the pending draw would be 48. Pending draw is calculated with an option called Update Pending Draw (it can also be calculated during End Publ Run, depending on Business Rules). Pending draw will exist only for future (unpublished) dates.

Advance draw

Advance draw is used only with advance publishing runs. This is the pending draw at the time the advance run was started. While pending draw can be recalculated over and over again, advance draw is calculated only once.

Account Draw

The Account Draw tab displays the draw for all routes assigned to an account. After specifying a start date, optional end date, and product(s), click OK to display the account’s gross draw. If multiple accounts are assigned to the route, you can toggle among them using the arrows to see the gross draw for each account.

Note: This tab will unavailable if the current route does not have an account assigned to it.

Rates

The Rates tab lists the account rates for a route. To view rates for home delivery routes, first enter the account, delivery schedule, and subscriber rate code for which to show rates (enter “*” for all). Then click OK. For single copy routes, enter the account ID or enter “*” for all (if there is only one account, the rates will simply be displayed).

The rate information displayed includes the account, delivery schedule, AAM zone, draw type, days of the week, draw rate and credit rate. Note that a route can have several different rates. For example, office pay draw might have a different rate than carrier collect draw.

AAM %

The AAM% tab shows the percentage of the route that lies within an AAM zone and Town of 25. AAM zones and Towns of 25 are areas used in Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) reports. The percentages are entered in Route Setup.

Truck Sequences

The Truck Sequences tab shows the truck sequences associated with the route, and the truck assigned to the route within each sequence. A truck sequence is a pattern that determines which routes will be dropped by which trucks and in what order. A publishing date will use a particular truck sequence, and this determines what truck will drop bundles for the route.

Inserts

The Inserts tab shows the inserts delivered by this route, starting with the publishing date. You can view inserts delivered by the route for a different date range or product by changing these values in the fields clicking OK. You must have InsertPlus to use this feature.

Demographics

Note: The Demographics tab is active only for single copy routes.

The Demographics tab shows single copy demographic questions and answers. You can enter and modify answers. Demographics can be used as criteria in making group draw changes.

To enter or modify a demographic answer:

1. Highlight the question you wish to answer.

2. Click Modify.

3. Enter the answer to this question in the Answer field. Most questions have only certain valid answers—press F2 for a lookup.

4. Click OK.

Transactions

The Transactions tab is where you view detail about route transactions, such as draw changes. You can also modify and delete transactions on this tab, as long as the transaction has not yet been processed by Transaction Processing.

Note: Unprocessed transactions appear in blue text in the Transactions tab in the upper-right portion of the window; processed transactions appear in gray text.

To view a transaction, select it from the Transactions tab in the upper-right portion of the window.

Messages

The Messages tab is where you work with messages for a route. See Messages for documentation.

Deadlines

Delivery deadlines can be defined for home delivery routes as part of Route Setup. The standard delivery time indicates the time of day by which the route should be delivered, while the dispatch cutoff time indicates the time of day by which all papers must be dispatched for redelivery. Notice the Override and Remarks columns. Overrides to delivery deadlines can be entered using the Deadline Override option.

Tasks

Tasks can be generated or manually entered for routes and accounts, as well as customers. Route tasks are displayed in the Tasks tab in the upper-right corner of the window. Double-click on a task to display details in the lower part of the window.

The Tasks tab provides several options for managing tasks, including owning, reassigning, and completing a task. You can also add a manual task (described below).

Click the My Tasks button () to switch to the My Tasks window. The Task window, Task tab, and My Tasks button can also be accessed from Account Inquiry, although the tasks will pertain to the account rather than the route.

Adding a Manual Task

Manual tasks are added via the Tasks tab. “Stand-alone” tasks (i.e., tasks that are not tied to an entity, such as personal reminders) can also be entered by leaving the Include Route checkbox unselected. Only tasks for task types set up with a “manual entry” event in Task setup may be added.

To add a task:

• Find the route for which you are adding this manual task.

• On the Task tab, click Add. Manual task entry fields will appear.

  
• Complete the following fields and click OK. Once the task is created, it can be reassigned, escalated, completed, etc., in the same way as an automatically generated task.

  Field	Type	What to enter
  GROUP	setup	This field will display the name of the group by which the task is being created.
  TASK TYPE	setup	Select the task type that identifies this task. Task types are set up in advance. Only task types set up for manual entry in Tasks setup will be available.
  INCLUDE ROUTE?	yes/no	Select this checkbox if the task should be entered for the current route. Leave it unselected if you want the task to be a “stand alone” task not connected with a route.
  ASSIGN TYPE	display	The assign type for the task (individual user or a group) will be displayed here. This is defaulted from Task setup.
  ASSIGN TO	setup	This field will display the individual or group assigned to the task. If the assign type is “individual” and the assign to was set up as <group member> or <supervisor>, you will be able to select any group members or supervisors within the task group.
  DUE DATE	date	Enter the due date for this task. This will default based on the current date, along with the days to complete and deferred start days specified in Task setup.
  PRIORITY	integer (3)	Specify a priority for the task. This will default from Task setup.
  INSTRUCTIONS	open (unlimited)	Enter any explanations or instructions pertinent to the task here.