Sometimes it isn’t enough to just know what different options and menus do in a program. You need to know where you’re going and why. Companies have all kinds of different work flows and processes to track containers, dispatch drivers, and charge customers; this document will show some of the more common ways companies use Trash Flow.

Temporary Containers

Below is a typical workflow for a temporary container rental—a residential customer or small business who’s renting a box for a little while for a construction job, garage cleanout, etc.

1. Create the customer account. If they’re already an existing customer in your system, this part’s already done! Even if you might never do a job for this customer again go ahead and create an account for them. Electrons are cheap and you’ll be prepared if they have more business in the future. Note that if the only service you’re providing them is this box rental you won’t need to set up a recurring rate on the account.
2. Go to the Boxes tab on the customer account and create a container placement. Double-click the placement to open it and set the site location, container size and type, rates, and terms. Remember, you’re not charging the customer anything or assigning a box here quite yet—you’re telling the program what kind of box to bring them, how much to charge, and where it’s supposed to go.
3. The next step will often be recording the customer’s payment. Temporary container rentals are often prepaid—the customer pays for the job before the truck rolls. This means that the first entry in their history will be a payment, giving them a credit balance. That’s OK! It reflects what’s really happening, i.e. the customer pays for service, then you create a work order to deliver them a box, then that work order is completed to charge the customer.
4. Create a work order to deliver the box; this can be done either from the customer’s account or from the Dispatch window.
5. Get the work order to the driver. If you know who the driver will be when creating the work order you can assign it then. Other haulers will leave the next day’s work orders in a box in the office for the drivers to divvy up the next morning. Still others use the dispatch window to drag the work orders to drivers’ schedules in the order they want the jobs done, then print the day’s Dispatch List.
6. If you’re keeping track of where the drivers are throughout the day and your drivers do not use TeleRoute, click the Start WO button in the Dispatch window when they arrive at the yard or the customer’s location; click the End WO button when they’re done. If you’re not bothering to track the drivers’ time you can ignore this step entirely.
7. Complete the work order once the container is delivered; this will let you charge the customer the delivery fee, note which box you brought them, and start counting their number of free rental days (if applicable).
8. When the customer contacts you to empty the box, create a new work order—it’s a new task, so it’s tracked with a separate work order. Follow the same steps to create and dispatch the work order as above.
9. When you complete this work order your options will be slightly different. There’ll be a box to enter the ticket number and weight from the landfill; that way if the customer goes over any weight limit you’ve set Trash Flow will charge them for the extra tonnage. If you’re bringing them another box to replace the one you’re emptying there will still be a box to enter that new container number.
10. Oftentimes this will be it—you’re done! If the customer got charge for any rental days or extra weight you can print a bill for them. If they got another box you’d just repeat the process of creating a work order to empty the box at that location until they’re done with it.

Permanent Containers

Below is a typical workflow for a permanent customer, usually a commercial account, who always has a roll-off box. Which box they have might change from day to day or week to week, but

1. Create the customer account. If they’re already an existing customer in your system, this part’s already done! You’ll probably want to put them in a bill group called something like roll-off, On Call, Invoice Daily, etc.
2. Go to the Boxes tab on the customer account and create a container placement. If they have more than one box create a separate placement for each one. Note that you should do this even if all the boxes are at a single address—if the customer has three boxes sitting side by side on a construction site you will create three separate container placements.
3. Double-click the placement to open it and set the site location, container size and type, rates, and terms. Remember, you’re not charging the customer anything or assigning a box here quite yet—you’re telling the program what kind of box to bring them, how much to charge, and where it’s supposed to go.
4. If the customer already has a box here enter it in the Serial # field on the placement. (You can also right-click the placment on the Boxes tab and click Add Container.) If they don’t have a box yet create a work order when it’s time to deliver it; this can be done either from the customer’s account or from the Dispatch window.
5. Get the work order to the driver. If you know who the driver will be when creating the work order you can assign it then. Other haulers will leave the next day’s work orders in a box in the office for the drivers to divvy up the next morning. Still others use the dispatch window to drag the work orders to drivers’ schedules in the order they want the jobs done, then print the day’s Dispatch List.
6. If you’re keeping track of where the drivers are throughout the day, click the Start WO button in the Dispatch window when they arrive at the yard or the customer’s location; click the End WO button when they’re done. If you’re not bothering to track the drivers’ time you can ignore this step entirely.
7. Complete the work order once the work is done. Financially completing the work order will charge the customer based on which work order action you chose.
8. If you’re delivering a box there will be a field to enter which container you’re delivering. If you’re emptying a box there will also be a field to enter the ticket number and weight from the landfill; that way if the customer goes over any weight limit you’ve set Trash Flow will charge them for the extra tonnage. The main thing to remember is this: the fields that show up here depend on which work order action you chose, and the rates Trash Flow wants to charge the customer depend on what bill codes you entered earlier on the container placement.
9. Once the charges are in the customer’s history you can invoice them. Some users prefer to do this immediately after completing the work order by clicking Print > Bill in the customer account. Other users like to invoice the entire bill group at the end of the day, week, or month.