Remote Physical Inventory Update

There are four different programs that can be used to collect data for a Physical Inventory check. The following table summaries these four programs:

SYNONYM	PROGRAM NAME	DESCRIPTION	TO COMPLETE AN INVENTORY CHECK
PHYINV	Physical Inventory	Data is collected manually, and then later by the use of this program, entered into CARS+	The program Physical Inventory Update must be run against the records entered here.
PHYUPD2	Remote Physical Inventory Update	Data is collected via a handheld device that is NOT connected to your CARS+ system. This data is later downloaded into CARS+ by the use of this program.	The program Physical Inventory Update must be run against the records entered here.
PHYINV1	One Step Physical Inventory	Data is collected via a handheld device or tablet that IS connected to your CARS+ system.	No other program needs to be run
PHYINV4	Vehicle Transponder Physical Inventory	This program relies on transponders which are installed in vehicles to report all units that are at the location being checked. Refer to the chapter: Overview - Vehicle Transponder Interface.	The program Physical Inventory Update must be run against the records entered here.

Use this program to record physical inventory information using a non-radio equipped handheld device.

NOTE: This program only corrects location errors. It does not correct status errors.

Some operations have parking lots that are not within the range of a radio-equipped handheld device. In order to do a physical inventory, a device can be used that stores vehicle numbers by scanning the bar code on each vehicle. After this done, the data is later downloaded to the CARS+ Physical Inventory file using this program.

To access the program, type PHYUPD2 (RET) at any menu "OPTION:"field or the appropriate number on the Physical Inventory Sub-menu of the Fleet Menu. The screen will then display:

OPTION: PHYSICAL INVENTORY UPDATE

1 Location TUS
2 Date
3 Time
c4 Vehicle#

1RET 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

Enter data as follows:

1. LOCATION	This field defaults to the user’s current location. A different location code may be entered. Once set, the location value will remain until the user exits and re-enters the program and enters a different location code. Enter up to 6 alphanumeric characters representing a single location, or press (RET) to accept the default location. EXAMPLE: Press (RET)
2. DATE	Using your selected date format, enter the date when the inventory was taken. EXAMPLE: Type 180708 (RET)
3. TIME	Enter the time when the inventory was taken. EXAMPLE: Type 1600 (RET)
4. VEHICLE# 4. LICENSE#	NOTE: If the system is configured to access vehicles by the License number (Edit Main Control Record, page 1, field 37), the literal of this field will be "License#" and this field will expect the license numbers to be entered instead of vehicle numbers. Enter each vehicle number to be inventoried and press Enter. The field will clear and the next vehicle number can be entered. Repeat this process until all vehicles are entered. After the last vehicle number has been entered, press Enter to return to the OPTION: field and press F1 to save. User tip: See "Entering Data Into This Program" below for information on how to load the data from the scanner.

Entering Data Into This Program

The scanner or other device must have a "keyboard interface". In other words, when connected to the local PC (either directly or via a docking station, typically with a USB cable), it must be seen by the PC as a keyboard type device. The device must output the data as plain ASCII text, one vehicle or license number per line. One way to test this is to open a text editing application such as Notepad and load the data from the scanner into that program. The result should look similar to this:

001800
001816
001822
001826
001854
001855
002000
002168
002169
003002
741741

Note that there is only one vehicle number per line in the example above.

To load the data into the program, place the cursor in field 4, then upload the data from the scanner.

User tip: if the scanner is not capable of directly uploading the scanned data, there are other methods that can be used to get the data into this program. For example, the scanned data might be emailed from the portable device and the email opened on the PC running CARS+. The scanned data (in the format above) can be copied from the email and then pasted into field 4 of this program.