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TIP: Trac Plus

Using the Planning Section of Farm Trac Plus

Farm Trac Plus gives you the ability to enter Planned Jobs for upcoming planting, tillage, spraying, spreading and other farming operations. These Planned Jobs can be used for Planned Summary Reports that include the expected amount of product usage (seed, chemicals, fertilizer, etc) along with planned equipment and personnel usage. These reports are ideal for resource allocation, product ordering, prepaying and budgeting. Additionally you can edit or complete planned jobs so actual farming actions do not have to be re-entered.
Planned operations are very easy to enter as they follow the same user interface that is used when entering actual farming actions. Trac Plus has a Planning menu at the top of the screen that is used for working with planned operations.

Creating Planned Jobs

Planned Jobs will be entered into Trac Plus in the same manner as normal farming actions. This will involve selecting people, equipment and supplies from the tabs on the left and then selecting fields on the map. The following are the steps you will follow:

1. Select Create Planned Jobs from the Planning menu to go into Planning Mode.
2. Go to the Equipment tab on the left and select the people and equipment that you wish to use for the planned operation. It is not necessary to use any people and equipment in planned jobs. However, you should select any items that you wish to include in your planning reports. You will select the items that you want and move them to the Working Group below. To select and move an icon to the Working Group, do one of the following:

• Double click on the equipment or person.
• Right-click on the equipment or person item and select Add to Working Group.
• Click on the item and then click on the button in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.

3. Go to the Supplies tab on the left and select the chemicals, seed, fertilizer or other supplies that you wish to use for the planned operation. It is not necessary to use any supplies in planned jobs. However, you should select any items that you wish to include in your planning reports. You will select the items that you want and move them to the Working Group below. To select and move a supply to the Working Group, do one of the following:
   • Double click on the supply item.
   • Right-click on the supply and select Add to Working Group.
   • Click on the supply and then click on the button in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
     
4. Select the fields that you wish to apply the plan to. This can be done by either:
   • Clicking on the button. After this button is selected your cursor will change to a Tractor and you can click on the fields that you wish to enter planned jobs for. After you have selected all fields you can click on the Stop Planning button.
         OR by
   • Holding down the <Shift> key on your keyboard and left clicking on each field that you want to enter planned data for. This will select the field and give it a gray cross-hatch pattern. Once all of the desired fields have been selected, right-click and select Apply Working Group.
5. After the Stop Planning button is selected (or Apply Working Group is selected from the right-click menu), the Planned Farming box will appear. This box will list each of the selected fields in a column along with a Total column. The rows of this box will be the information that you will enter for your plan. Information entered in the Total column will either be split between the fields based on the size of each field (for numeric data such as quantities) or will be copied to each field (for text such as crops). The following is a summary of the data that will be entered:
   • Area Farmed Enter the number of acres for the planned job for each field.
   • Date & Time Enter the date and the start and stop time when you plan to perform the job.
   • Crop Enterprise Enter the crop that you plan to have in the field. Trac Plus will default to this crop for future planned operations.
   • Note/Instruction Enter any notes that you wish to include with this plan. Notes can include descriptions of where certain supplies should be applied. An example would be Plant P3388 in the west half of the field.
   • Charge Units Enter the planned number of charge units (hours, tach hours, acres, etc,) for any people and equipment to be used in the planned job.
   • Supplies Enter the planned number of acres and the planned application rate or total quantity to be used for each supply. A cost may also be assigned to each supply. The cost will default to the cost that was assigned to the supply when it was last used (if the supply has never been used it will default to the cost that was entered when it was set up).
6. When you are finished with a planned job, items can be removed from the Working group by doing one of the following:
   • Double click on the equipment or person in the Working Group.
   • Click on the person or equipment in the Working Group then click on the button.
   • Click on the button and all items will be removed from the Working Group.
7. Select Create Planned Jobs from the Planning menu to exit Planning Mode.
   

Importing Planned Jobs

Trac Plus gives you the ability to import Planned Jobs that are in an FODM format (with an .fsf file extension). These can include plans made by seed reps and crop consultants. Once imported, these plans will give you the same planned reports as would be created if you entered planned data using the above steps. Planned Jobs can be imported by selecting Import Planned Jobs from the Planning menu.

Editing and Executing Plans

Once a plan has been completed, you can use Trac Plus to document what actually occurred as a farming action. Farming Actions will be used for creating field histories, notations, chemical reports and more. To complete a planned job:

1. Select Editing & Executing Plans from the Planning menu.
2. Use the area to the left to restrict the planned operations to a certain Date Range, Commodity, Field, or Landlord. Once you have made the desired selection, click on the Update List button so only the appropriate plans will be displayed.
3. Select the planned operation(s) on the right by clicking on the operations. Alternately the Select All button can be used to select all displayed operations.
4. Select the Delete button to remove the selected operations.
5. Select the Complete button to complete the selected operations. After this is done the Farming box will come up with the planned information displayed. Make any changes that are needed to reflect what was actually done. Completed Farming Actions will be included in Notations, Chemical, Fertilizer, Seed and other reports.
   

Printing Planned Summary Reports

Select Summary Reports from the Planning menu to display planned reports. Planned reports can be used for resource allocation, budgeting, planning, product ordering, prepaying and other functions.

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