Tromis Help

Textile Restoration Order Management Information System

Getting Started

Download our Excel article list blank, or our CSV article list blank. Fill in the article table and email us the document. We can collaborate in an ad-hoc manner from there on the remaining considerations outlined below.

Most of the work involved in getting started with Tromis is done from the Administration and Maintenance menus. The list below attempts to direct you, in sequence, to the steps you need to take to begin using Tromis. Watch for the help button on the top right of the page for page-specific help.

Administration

Companies - allows you to set your company values, such as name, address, fiscal year,etc.
Roles - will have a set of roles provided. If you are the main user of the system, you will probably be in the Admin role, which allows you to work on all pages. When you start using the system, it may be worth some time to review what roles are provided, and what page authorities they have been granted. Use the page access button to see what pages a given role can access, and what they can do on the page.
Users - allows you to set up the users of the system within your company.
Set Password - allows you to set the new users' initial passwords, or in the case of someone forgetting their password at a later date, allows you to change it to a known value.
Tax Codes / Tax Groups - allow you to set tax control values for billing and estimating.

Maintenance

Categories - allows you to specify the top level of article classification. A category has 0 or more sub-categories. See Pricing Model below for conceptual considerations.
Sub-Categories - allows you to the specify the middle level of article classification. A sub-category has 0 or more articles. A sub-category belongs to a category. See Pricing Model below for conceptual considerations.
Articles - allows you to specify cleanable articles. An article belongs to a sub-category. See Pricing Model below for conceptual considerations.
Customers - you can enter your customer records in advance, or wait until you receive an order from them, and add the customer record from the new order page.
Regions - you will need at least one region record, because a customer record belongs to a region. If you have regional offices, you may also optionally use the address from the region record on order documents instead of the company address. This feature is controlled on the company detail page.
Warehouses - you will need at least one warehouse record if you are planning to track the location of articles. A warehouse has 0 or more locations. See Location Tracking below for conceptual considerations.
Locations - creating location records will allow you to track where packages of cleaned articles are stored. A location belongs to a warehouse. Location Labels can be printed using the button. Note that labels may be printed selectively using the checkboxes in the "Label" column of the list, and also that the checkbox in the header itself will toggle all other checkboxes on the page. The labels generated will fit on 8.5 x 11 inch Avery 5160/8160 label sheets. See Location Tracking below for conceptual considerations.

Pre-populated Tables

Claim Types - each order must specify a claim type. The set provided is the aggregate of those used by Tromis customers thus far.
Colors - if you do not want to track the color of individual articles, let Independent Reach know and we will make all the colors unavailable at intake time, and create a color record called "n/a" that all articles will be assigned to at intake time.
Patterns - if you do not want to track the pattern of individual articles, let Independent Reach know and we will replace all the pattern records with one called "n/a" that all articles will be assigned to at intake time.
Tag Types - the set provided corresponds to the Liberty Pittsburgh Consecutive tag sets available from Regal Sales. Each order must be assigned a tag type. The system will enforce the rule that only one open order can be assigned to a particular tag type. The rationale for the rule is that all of the articles going through the cleaning processes with the same tag type should belong to the same order.
Day Tags - the set provided corresponds to that available from Regal Sales Company. In Tromis, day tags are used to denote the room for which the order article belongs. At order creation time, you can create a list of rooms and assign day tags for them.
Package Types - describe the kinds of packages cleanable articles are placed in after cleaning. The set provided is the aggregate of those used by Tromis customers thus far. See Package Control below for conceptual considerations.
Reject Reasons - the set provided is the aggregate of those used by Tromis customers thus far.
Removal Types - are used to specify for the packout crew from which rooms or parts of the house they should take the cleanable articles. The set provided is the aggregate of those used by Tromis customers thus far.

Pricing Model

Before proceeding to input categories, sub-categories, and articles, you may need to consider how best to structure your cleanable article hierarchy. Tromis supports two pricing models: individual article, and upcharge. In individual article pricing, all articles have a price and can be placed on orders independently of other articles. In the upcharge pricing model, a sub-category must be marked as an "upcharge" sub-category, and then one of the articles within it must be marked as the base. Only the base article in an upcharge sub-category can be placed alone on an order, all others must be added to a base article as upcharges. A partial example of a category structure using the individual article pricing model might be:

Category: Dry Cleaning
- Sub-Category: Skirts
  - Articles: "Skirt Unlined","Skirt Lined","Skirt Pleated","Skirt Silk"

A partial example of a category structure using the upcharge pricing model might be:

Category: Dry Cleaning
- Sub-Category: Skirt
  - Base Article: "Skirt Base"
    - Upcharges: "Lined","Pleated","Silk"

The upcharge model may reduce the number of articles required, while the individual article model will probably make input faster. Note that upcharges can have negative prices, thus making them "downcharges", as might be required for a very short skirt. Note, best of all, that you can mix models in your price list. Use the "Upcharge" checkbox on Maintenance > Sub-Categories > Detail to designate which model the Sub-Category should use.

Package Control

When you have set up all the packaging rules for your articles and all articles on a restoration order have been either cleaned or rejected, the order may then be assembled. Assembly refers to the process of placing articles in packages, such as garment bags, laundry boxes, or reject boxes. First, you must create "order package" records into which the articles will be placed for storage and/or delivery. The Packages page is reached by clicking the box button

for the order. From the Packages page, new order package records can be added using the button. This is a somewhat heuristic step, in that you can generate a ballpark number of packages of each type required, (for each room, if applicable), and then either add more packages or delete unused ones as needed, later in the process. In order to help you get in the right ballpark, the system tells you how many articles from the order remaining to be packaged are allowed to go into each package type. Package Labels can be printed using the button. Note that labels may be printed selectively using the checkboxes in the "Label" column of the package list, and also that the checkbox in the header itself will toggle all other checkboxes on the page. The labels generated will fit on 8.5 x 11 inch Avery 5163/8163 label sheets. Having generated the necessary package records, articles can then be placed in packages using the items button

for the particular package row, from the Packages page. On the ... > Packages > Articles page, if an article has a quantity of only 1, clicking on the checkbox in the "Packed" column is all that's required to place that article in the package. If the article has a quantity > 1, you are required to enter a quantity packed for the article. Note that not all articles on the order will be available to be placed into any given package. The rules for when an article is "packable" are as follows: i) the article is not already fully packed in some other package or packages, ii) the article is packable in the package type, as configured in Maintenance > Articles > Packages, and iii) if the package is assigned to a room, the article must be from that room. When the package is full, you should click on the "Package is Complete" checkbox on the Packages > Articles page.
When all items have been packed, you may then use the button to get rid of extra order package records, and the button to set the date done on the order record, (thus changing the order's status). Note that the header information on the packages page includes advice as to how many tags have been packed. See Processing Orders below for more information about processing orders.

Location Tracking

Once the order has been fully assembled, it may need to be stored. This process consists of designating the packages created in the Assembly step for placement in a storage location. Three facilities are provided in support of the Storage process.

the button from the Packages page allows you to move all packages of a given type on the order, stored at a given location (or no location), from their current location to a new one. Note that not all locations are allowed for a given package type, the package types allowed at a given location are configured at Maintenance > Locations > Packages.
the button from the Packages page provides similar functionality to the move button, but takes as input only individual package numbers and location numbers, in order to be usable with bar code scanners to read package labels and location labels.
settings for each package may be changed on the package detail page, reached by clicking on the "Package Type - Row" value for the individual package.

See Processing Orders below for more information about processing orders.

List Navigation

On pages where there is a list of rows, at the bottom left of the list is position text, such as "1 - 8/367", which tells you that you are viewing rows 1 to 8 of 367 rows which meet the selection criteria. To navigate through the records in the current selection, use the first page button , the previous page button , the next page button , and the last page button , all of which are located at the bottom right of the list.

Selection Criteria
In order to quickly find the record(s) you wish to work on, it is most efficient to use the selection criteria to filter and/or sort the list above:

Order Status will restrict the list to records which have the stated status or statuses
Customer will restrict the list to only those records belonging to the selected customer
Insured Starts With will restrict the list by the insured's name
Work Order Starts With will restrict the list by work order
Sort allows you specify how the records meeting the filtering criteria will be presented.

After you have made your sort and filter selections, click the refresh button to reload the list. Note that the list does not automatically return to the top of the new selection, rather, it will stay at whatever page you were previously viewing.

Page Navigation

Use the back button to return to the previously visited page.

At the top of the page there is a location bar with a gray background, which shows your current location in the application's structure. You can use the underlined words in the location bar to navigate to pages previously visited.

At the bottom of the page is a list of the links from you home menu. These, too, are provided for you to navigate from page to page however you wish.

Processing Orders

Action	Page Access	Notes
Initiation	Orders,Intake,Delivery	Click on any of the named pages, and provide the required information. At this step, the operator can enter information about the insured, including directions to the site, as well as the planned pick-up time, if applicable. "Intake Complete" flag will be false; Date Received will be automatically set; Discount and other values will default from Customer record; Date Done and Date Shipped will be empty; Order is on hold with a hold note of "Authorization". Also at this time, the operator may specify from which rooms the textiles should be removed, using the removals button from the Order or Delivery page. The pickup team may then be given the "Packout" document for the order, generated from the order documents page, which is designed to provide them all the information they need to do the packout.
Intake	Intake >	The intake operator first sets the starting tag number, then adds articles by choosing category, sub-category, article type, color and pattern. If the articles were packed-out by room, the rooms would have been set up using the room button from the initiation step, and the intake operator may optionally attach the article to a room, as well. In the interest of maximum efficiency for the majority of articles, quantity and some other settings are not available on the intake touch screen page. When the operator needs to change other information about an article, or correct an input mistake, he/she must use the button, or the button on the touch screen page and pick the item to enhance from there.
Intake Completion	Intake > Detail	The intake order header detail is reached by clicking on the work order from the intake page. On this page, when the operator clicks on Intake Complete and updates the record, the order is now on hold. In response to this event, the system will send an "Order Made Active" email to the system administrator, who can then begin the processs of getting authorization to proceed with cleaning.
Authorization	Orders	The administrator would now generate documents about the order from the order page using the order document button , and deliver them to the customer in order to gain authorization to proceed with cleaning, if applicable. The order documents page will allow either printing of documents, or attachment of them to an email.
Assembly	Orders > Packages, Assembly > Packages, Delivery > Packages	See Package Control above.
Storage	Orders > Packages, Assembly > Packages, Delivery > Packages	See Location Tracking above.
Delivery	Orders,Delivery	When the insured is ready to take delivery of an order, the "Delivery Information" section of the order detail may be used to plan the delivery. All the information required to locate and load the packages, and then to delivery is provided on the Delivery order document. The order Delivery document provides a blank "Loaded" column, and a blank "Shipped" column, so that it may be used as a checklist as these steps are performed on the packages making up the order. When delivery has occurred, the operator then may mark the order packages as loaded, and delivered and/or mark the entire order as shipped, using the "mark shipped" button .