Important Note: It is recommended to conduct training exercises in your test system, unless otherwise instructed by a system administrator or the FBO One Support team. Please refrain from creating test data in the Live System.

 

You can access the test system by selecting the test system link in the Live System menu.

Logging into the test system requires the same Username and Password as the Live system. If you have recently changed your password in the Live system, you may need to use the previous password in the test system.

Outgoing emails from the test system are not sent to actual recipients, but instead to the test email recipients displayed at the top of the screen:

Introduction:

In this exercise, you'll go through the first part of the front office process for the first handling order created in the creating orders exercise.

 

Prerequisites:

• Complete the Front Office Exercise - Creating orders

Goals of this exercise

1. To understand the concept of workflows for the order
2. To understand the concept of workflows for the services
3. To understand the sorting in the plan board
4. To know where to find the order status

Exercise overview

1. Add catering and crew transport departure to Order 2 created in the Front Office Exercise - Creating orders, then confirm the order with the client.
2. Set the order to 'arrived' and check the way the plan board changes.

Step by step

Most services will follow a service workflow that will be dependent on the processes put in place in your organization.

• A workflow changes states with a transition action that defines what; if anything;  has to happen to progress to the next state.
• For example, catering could go from: not started - ordered - confirmed - boarded
• A transition could be as simple as a user confirmation or involve creating and sending an email.
• Both the order grid and order details screen give an indication of the state of services. Red by default means the service is not completed.

   

 

Placing the Orders:

We start by adding the two services to the Order using the find service quick add.

Note: The services in your test system may have different start transitions, but they should be similar to the example described here. e.g The catering workflow may skip straight to the second step below when added.

 

Let's order the catering first.

• Click on the CATERING 'Place Order' link.
• This will open the service transition to place a 3rd party order.
• Check that the order relates to departure and set the date and time.
• If not automatically assigned, select the supplier so the system knows who to send the email to. 
  • Note. no emails are sent from the test system.
• Fill out the order details.
  • Note that ~labels~ are automatically populated from system data. These are called email variables.

• After you click OK the supply order will be sent out to the supplier automatically.
• After the supply order has been sent, the status of the service in the system changes, as will be shown in the order grid and order details screen:

• The catering is now 'Ordered' and the possible next steps have been changed as well.

Now you can order the limo in exactly the same way.

• Note that the Transport state currently indicates it is related to the arrival.
• This can be changed in the place order transition screen

 

Once filled out and confirmed, an email will go to the supplier and the service status will change.

 

 

This way, FBO One can keep track of the status of every individual service of any order. Of course, these steps will be recorded in the log as well so later on you can always see who ordered the catering or limo and when.

 

Confirming the Handling Order:

The next step would be to confirm the Handling Order to the client.

• FBO One can send an email confirming the order to the client automatically.
• As you can see below, the current status of the order is 'REQUESTED' and the next step would normally be to confirm the handling to the client.
• Once confirmed the status of the order will change to 'CONFIRMED' of course.

           

 

• A click on 'Confirm handling' will show the confirmation screen:

• The screen will automatically suggest the email addresses of the debtor (and if relevant also the operator and trip support provider) so you just have to check them.
• You can add additional email addresses and/or edit the external remarks that will be shown on the confirmation as well. The document that will be mailed to the debtor is the handling confirmation report which will be shown on screen as well.
• The template may contain a lot of variables making it hard to read but you can check the version that is sent by selecting 'PREVIEW EMAIL'.

 

Ok, now this order is confirmed let's have a look at the 1st Order we created.

• Interestingly, some services have already been added here automatically by FBO One.
• The system can add services automatically based on order type (like handling fees for handling orders) and debtor.

 

Let's add newspapers and ice cubes to this order:

• As you can see, the 'newspapers' and Ice Cubes do not have a 'place order' step, as these are normally an in-house service, and the newspapers are ordered separately on a daily basis.
• These services just have a 'completed' step to indicate they have been boarded.

Now all services have been ordered, so we can confirm this order too.

 

NOTE: The OTC order we created in the 'Creating Orders' exercise doesn't have a confirm step, as usually, OTC orders will be requested via telephone and 'confirmed' in the same conversation.

 

Aircraft Arrival:

Next will be the arrival of our first registered flight (ATEST). The order status is confirmed, so upon actual arrival, we can mark the order as arrived. In FBO One this is the moment when arrival (ATA) details are verified and a movement message is sent automatically.

 

 

After clicking on 'Aircraft has arrived' you'll see the arrival transition screen. Depending on configuration it may have different sections to verify and/or update.

 

The movement details:

The actual arrival time (ATA) has to be entered manually. Having an accurate time here is important for pricing and airport reporting.

 

The movement message:

When the arrival is confirmed, a movement message will be sent to the debtor, operator, trip support provider, and airport authorities if they are configured for receiving movement messages. Additional email addresses can be entered to receive the movement message.

 

Parking position:

If known, the initial parking position can be entered. The price of parking will change depending on the location and parking provider. 

 

Departure details:

Departure times can be corrected here if needed and a parking position can be set. 

 

 

In the planboard, the color of the bar will change from the 'confirmed' status:

to the 'arrived' status:

 

In this example there are only two orders, but if there were more it would be clear that the orders are sorted on arrival time.

If we are happy that all the arrival tasks have been performed, we can go directly to the next step, 'Arrival Completed'.

 

 

After you click on 'Arrival Comlpeted' the order status will change to indicate all arrival services are done. We still have some services remaining for the departure.

 

Finalizing the services

Let's have a look at our OTC order now. The GPU service there is 'not started'. The GPU has been connected, we can click 'in progress' so FBO One can record the start time of the service.

 

 

By default, the time will be the current time, but you can change this if needed. For the test, let's say the GPU was actually connected something like 40 minutes ago, so change the time accordingly.

 

On our arrived order for ATEST, the VIP have decided they are going to depart earlier, so this now becomes a quick turnaround. We need to look at the services again.

The catering can be boarded directly when it's delivered. The catering company will give you the price upon delivery, let's say EUR 89,-.

The limo driver will have confirmed the order by now so from our point of view this service is completed as well.

Go to the orders details screen, and click the 'board catering' for the catering and 'complete' for the limo.

 

The result should look like this:

• Notice the state of the services is shown in green now, indicating front office work is done.
• The Catering is no longer 'Awaiting price', as we entered the prince in the transition to 'boarded'. If you forgot this, it can easily be fixed by clicking the 'CATERING' link to open the service details screen and then editing the service.
• We will need to contact the Limo company for a price and 'edit' the service details.

FBO One is usually configured to calculate the airport fees automatically so we can show the complete pro-forma invoice to the captain. If they need to be entered or adjusted manually, select the child product(s) and 'edit service'. Check the box to override the price and update the quantity and/or unit price. Enter a reason for the change.

 

 

Now let's get back to the OTC order, as the GPU has now been disconnected.

• In FBO One that event can be easily recorded using the 'complete' step in the GPU workflow.
• This gives the transition where you can enter the end time (and correct the start time if needed):

• This will change the status of the GPU service to complete, in green, indicating it's finished.
• The price will be automatically calculated based on start and stop time, and the configured price for the GPU service.

• In this case, the price is per 30min, and 2 periods are charged as the quantity is always rounded up.
• Note: The GPU product could have been configured in a different way, for example, to charge per 15 minutes or even per minute.

 

Payment and departure

The ATEST order is completely handled now and ready to depart.

• When the captain and crew show up, we can print the pro-forma invoice (handling order) for him.
• Depending on the Debtor payment terms, the payment can be made prior to departure, or invoiced at a later date. In this case, the client has no credit, and red warning text is shown to indicate payment should be done in cash. 
• If the Debtor is not being invoiced after departure, before taking payment we should confirm a price for any remaining services with the service provider.

 

 

• You can access the payment screen by clicking the payment line and selecting the form of payment.
• If the FBO has a POS card machine, there will be an additional payment option. See Take a Card Payment

 

In the transition screen, we select the form of payment and confirm the amount received.

As the transition screen indicates, this actually just records the form of payment (cash or invoice) in FBO One, so in accounting it is clear whether or not to send an invoice, and if a payment has been accepted what kind.

 

In the payment confirmation screen, we can enter an address to send the receipt to and print a hard copy if the captain requests it.

 

We can now update the Order to show the crew are boarded.

 

 

Next, the actual departure can take place. To record that, just click the 'A/C has departed' link in the workflow state dropdown. Just like upon arrival, the transition screen allows you to enter the actual departure time and other departure details for the departure movement message. The color of the order and departure timing in the planboard will change.

And after departure:

 

Although the aircraft has departed now, it's still visible on the planboard, and some changes are still allowed. Normally there is only one thing left to do and that is move the order to the back office. To do this, just click the 'Move to back office' link in the workflow dropdown, and the order will disappear from the Planboard and Handling screens.

 

 

 

Confirm the transition

 

The flight is removed from the Planboard:

 

The Order is removed from the Handlings Screen

 

Extra Practise:

• Try adding some extra services to your other handling order and then complete the process through to the back office.
• Take a payment and complete the OTC order.