TMS Pickup / Delivery Process – Cleantie

Pickup/Delivery Business Opportunity

Over the past decade, shifting consumer trends toward casual clothing reduced the need for dry cleaning services that are typically only used for formal and office wear. Moreover, the convenience of dry cleaning alternatives and advanced at-home laundering machines buoyed demand for industry services. The proliferation of casual office attire continues to reduce demand for dry cleaning services. Therefore, dry cleaning is a price-premium service, and consumers typically only dry clean formal attire that cannot be laundered at home

The Dry-Cleaning Pickup and Delivery service has traditionally been very fragmented, with a large number of small operators, both for clients and service providers. There are few companies that offer online Dry Cleaning, Laundry, Clothing Alterations, & Shoe repair Pickup service at the local market and as such, there are no major players in this industry; no companies with a dominant market share in this industry.

The demand for online pickup/delivery business is expected to increase over the next five years. This year it is estimated that millennials in the U.S. alone will spend $200 billion mostly through online services.

Almost everything is run through an app and this trend has a promising future. Scheduling, delivery, customer information, and many other resources will be funneled through an app, and the best dry cleaners are fully prepared to ride this wave.

The current pickup/delivery features of TMS is not suitable for today's pickup/delivery challenges. Customers have become increasingly sophisticated and seek the latest technology to operate the business more effectively.

CSI has been working hard in the background to deliver a state of the art Web-based version of TMS software called Cleantie re-designed and re-built from the ground up. Cleantie is modernizing today’s business systems offering a wide range of business advantages over CSI traditional desktop Application.

New Cleantie platform was deigned to give users the power to make on-demand pickup/delivery. If you are looking to expand your business into this new era of pickup/delivery business, Cleantie App is the solution. Automate your pickup/delivery business with our state of the art technology. ETA Summer 2019.

For additional information on Cleantie Pickup/Delivery feature click here.

TMS Pickup/Delivery Process

In this article, I will walk you through step by step process on how to setup your Pickup/delivery system in TMS desktop application.

1. Setup Your Delivery Runs

Runs are designed to group a set of delivery customers for certain routes. You need to figure out how to group your routes before setting up your runs. Stops are place holder for customers within a selected run. Stops are designed to set priority and assign best possible delivery path for your customers within a run. For exmaple Stop#1 is your 1^st stop within a selected run, etc.

Now that you are ready to setup your run, follow the steps below:

Select Management -> Management -> Delivery Settings -> Run
Enter Run Name, Run Description, Check Mark the days that this run will be running on (e.g Monday & Wednesday)
Select Add to add the new run.
If you are making changes to an existing run Select desired run, make changes and press update.
If you are deleting an existing run Select the run, and press delete

Don’t add any stops at this time until you have assigned run# to your customers.

After successful addition of your runs, you are now ready to setup price list and assign a run# to your delivery customers.

2. Setup Delivery Price List Schedule

It is recommended to have a separate price list schedule for Delivery Customers. Having a separate price list allows you to setup different settings or prices for your delivery customers. Please see TMS Price list process for additional information.

3. Setup Customer for Delivery

Use the following process to setup your delivery customers:

Select customer from checkin screen, select view/modify
Select Proper Price list schedule (ie Valet Price List)
Select Proper Payment method, most delivery customers are set for house charge, Select charge option. If customer is a COD customer select Cash.
If customer pays by credit card upon delivery, enter the credit card info, Check Mark COF Option (Credit Card On File). If customer pays by credit card at the end of the month, Check Mark COF, and enable Monthly Charge option.
If your system is equipped with our integrated Credit Card Processing, the card on file will be charged automatically. To get additional information on this, please read the section on Payment Processing.
Check mark Delivery, Select proper run# that was added in above Run Setup. Enter 1 for stop#. For additional information on how to set up stop#, Please read Setup Customer Stop#.
Check Mark Regular or Call Customer Option. There are two types of delivery customers, Regular or Call Customer. Regular customers are those customers that are on your regualr route schedule. Call customers are referred to pickup/delivery customers that would call in by phone or request pickup through your custom build website. If a Call customer calls for pickup, simply check mark the flag beside Call Customer field. This Flag is turned off when manifest is created. Call customers appear on manifest when they call-in or have items to be delivered.
Enter Delivery address
Select More, and enter pickup locations, instructions etc.
Check mark email options, and enter customers email address if customer wishes to receive email when order is ready for delivery.

Follow the steps below to setup your stop#:

Select Management -> Management -> Delivery Settings -> Run/stop
Select Run from the list
All customers that were setup as delivery customers for the run, will be listed.
Assign stop# manually. To do this, select the customer from the list, select up/down, etc to move the customer to desire stop, or simply drag and drop.
After you are all satisfied with your customers stop#, press update to save changes.
You may Click on the fields to sort the names base on the selected option. For example if you click on Last-Name, all customers will be sorted by Last name.
Repeat above step for each run.

4. Creating Invoice For Delivery Customers

Now you are all set to create invoices for your route customers.

Checkin Customer as usual. Note the customer’s run#, is shown at the bottom of the invoice on the right hand side of the screen.
Press Done
When Delivery Date Calendar shows up, select proper delivery date. The due date is calculated form Run schedule.
If delivery customer is picking up the order, simply remove Delivery Option on the delivery date menu.

5. Setup and Create Manifest

TMS has a very sophisticated manifest process and could get complicated if not used properly. Please read the following section and get yourself familiar with this process.

Manifest is a report that is used by your driver as a guideline and checklist. Manifest contains a list of delivery items/invoices, and a list of regular or call customers who have requested pickup. Sorted based on the stop# that was assigned by you. It also lists any out standing balances for your COD customers or balance of your charge customers for possible collection.

Manifest process can also help you to prevent mistakes of miss shipping orders that belong to different customer. It is highly recommended to scan invoices before manifest is created for verification purpose.

Follow steps below to configure your system for manifest.

Select Management -> System -> System Options.
Enable/Disable ‘Print Invoice Detail On Manifest’ , -- that’s if you like detailed items to be printed on manifest or summary of invoice (i.e how may items)
Enable/Disable ‘Set Invoices to Out when Printing Manifest’ – That’s system will checkout all invoices that are scanned in Manifest process. Save you extra step of checking out manually.
Enable/Disable ‘Include customers Without delivery on manifest’ –That’s not to list your regular/call customers who does not have any items for delivery.

Follow steps below to create your manifest.

Select Ready function from main Menu, Select Manifest
By Default Scan Delivery Invoices option is on. When this option is active, you must scan invoices to be added to manifest.
If you don’t wish to scan invoices, and would like to skip this process Disable Scan option. Select Retrieve Due Invoices option, Select the Run or All the runs.
Select Delivery date.
All delivery invoices for selected runs that match the search criteria and delivery date will show up on the top windows (Invoice List) including any invoices that had not been delivered on the previous scheduled date.
At this point if you have selected ‘Scan Delivery Invoices’ you may start scanning the invoices that are ready on your delivery line. As invoice is scanned, it appears on the Manifest Screen. It is recommended to create manifest for one run at a time to prevent mistakes, otherwise you may scan all invoices for all runs at the same time. If your system is equipped with Scanpal, you may select Read From File option to retrieve the scanned invoices. If you have no scanner, and wish to enter invoices# manually, check mark No Scanner Option.
Once you are done with scanning, Select finish to create manifest. This step might take few minutes if you have selected Direction option.
The system will then display the created Manifest(s) on the screen. You may click on Missing Invoices to view invoices that were promised for the selected date, but not scanned.
If you wish to print shipping labels, click on Labels, and all customer in the list will have their shipping labels printed. Shipping labels are Avery 5160 Labels that are used by drivers to identify the bags from the customer.
If you would like to redo the manifest, select Modify. If you are satisfied with the report, select Save to save the manifest for future review. A unique manifest## is assigned by the system when is Saved.
If you wish to delete a Saved manifest, go to Management -> System ->tools, Delete Manifest.
If you wish to review/reprint a pre-printed manifest, check mark Reprint Manifest option from manifest screen, Click on the Manifest# drop-down menu, select desire manifest, and click on Reprint Manifest.
If multiple runs were selected, you may press Next Run or Previous run to review the desire run. Select Print or Print All to print the manifest on your default wide printer. You may press Export on the top to save the Manifest in PDF or other formats for any purpose.
Press Exit if you are done. If you have ‘Set Invoices to Out when Printing Manifest’ option on you will be prompted to checkout invoices automatically.
If for what ever reason any of the orders are not delivered, you may use Invoice Utilities, Restock option to restock them back into inventory for the next run. Any invoices that are not out will be shown up on your next Manifest report.

Please note if you don’t wish to checkout orders at the point of creating manifest, you may use quick check out to checkout invoices when driver is returned. Simply select checkout, Quick checkout and scan each invoice. If your system is equipped with Scanpal, your driver may scan invoices at the point of delivery. Upon his return, select Checkout, Quick checkout, Select Read from file.

6. Processing Payments for COF/Monthly Charge customers

Most delivery customers are set as charge customers, with credit card on file. New payware Connect levels the playing field and brings inexpensive, interactive retail terminals to our customers of all sizes. It is a simple, versatile and non-invasive payment solution that requires little to no work to implement. Payware is most robust system in the market that can be configured in few minutes. Payware helps reduce fraud losses, saves the merchant time and money, and provides powerful features and performance at the point-of-sale.

For additional information, please visit CSI website.

Use our Batch processing option with payware to save hours for your valuable time for your Credit On File (COF) customers. Sign up today with CSI for the free version of our online credit card Processing and save thousands of $dollars.

If you are set with Payware Connect, simply select reports, more, Statement. Checkmark COF, Select statement date, Select create, check mark customer or All customers.

Review statements and once ready, select Visa Icon (Batch Processing) to charge all credit card on file customers for the outstanding balance as per statement. Please note, this process should be done at the end of the day when payware is not used much at the front stations. This process might take a while depending on the number of transactions etc. Upon successful transaction, you get notification for total passed or failed transactions.

If the Batch processing icon does not show on your screen, it means you are not set for Batch Processing. Please contact your local sales rep or CSI tech support.

If you wish to view the charges, select Reports, Transactions report, Credit Card Transactions Report, check mark batch processing. Review the report, and make sure there are no failures. If a card did not go through, the corresponding error message will be shown on the screen. Fix the problem with the card, and resubmit the batch processing.

If your charge customers pay only for checked out invoices, simply enable ‘Statement based on checkout date’ option in system options.

If you wish to email the Statement to your customer, click on Email Me button. To learn how to setup your email notification program, click here.

If your charge customer is paying by check, or you like to charge COF customer from tender screen, follow steps below to apply payment:

From Main Menu, select Invoice Utilities, Select customer, Select Unpaid Invoices.
All unpaid invoices that are checked out will show up.
Select All or invoice that you are applying. If you don’t know what invoices customer is paying, simply Select All, and system will apply payment from the top to wherever payment is reached. The last invoice might be a partial payment depending on the amount that was made.
Click on Account Payment
Select Date of Payment (this is an option that be set in System Options)
When Tender Screen shows up, select payment method and amount. Then press OK.
If customer has credit card on file, and you are equipped with Payware Connect, the card# will be shown on the tender screen. Press OK, OK to process the credit card.
If customer has outstanding credit note, you get prompted.

Processing Payments for COF/Daily Charge Customers

If your charge customer has credit card on file and set as COF, daily (i.e not Monthly), that is being charged at the end of the day, then follow the steps below to apply payment:

From Main Menu, Select Reports -> End Of Day Report
Select Visa Icon (batch Processing) to process all COF, daily customers for any out standing balance.

If the batch Processing icon does not show on your screen, it means you are not set for Batch Processing. Please contact your local sales rep or CSI tech support.

Cleantie App

CSI is in the process of releasing the new Pickup/Delivery App based on latest technology using Google map based on Firebase platform.

If you are looking to expand your business into this new era of drycleaning business this is a must have tool. Automate your pickup/delivery business with our state of the art technology. ETA Summer 2019.

For additional information visit Cleantie website.