PCN Importing Process

The following article has been written to assist with using Fleetworks alongside the Wheels FMS.  It is aimed at a new user and contains basic background on Fleetworks functions. This process could be improved by altering the order or the columns in the Wheels export but obviously the guidance will need to be adjusted. 


Arranging the data and importing it will take approximately 5 minutes for up to 50 PCN's. More than 50 will depend on the quality of the data but will only take marginally longer. 


Users will then need to process each PCN. If you are simply notifying a client and marking a PCN as paid or starting a debt process you should expect 15 seconds work for each one. If you are carrying out reassignment then you should expect about 60 seconds work for each one. 


As always, in order to import PCNs you will need to ensure that the vehicles, customers and agreements are available in the Fleetworks system first. 


The process for importing PCN’s is split into stages to ensure that PCN’s are correctly assigned to the correct person. 


It is assumed that you will receive PCN details via one of two methods:


  • suppliers email you a notification about a PCN
  • originals that are received in the post.


This article assumes that when you receive a PCN via one of these methods they are all are added to Wheels either by you or an outsourced company. It is recommended that you always add a PCN to Wheels so you can be sure that at least one of your management systems has all PCN's added to it to minimise any missed PCNs. See bottom of this article for suggestions on how to remove Wheels from the process altogether*. 


If you work for a company operating multiple legal entities then when you are processing PCN’s you will need to ensure that you are logged in to the correct company system. Outgoing communications are tailored to the system you are logged into and you may cause delays or rejections is you send reassignments from the wrong company.


When processing PCNs using the Excel spreadsheet then you can however use the same spreadsheet because Fleetworks will just ignore errors i.e. a login for Company A with a branch called ‘London’ will not accept agreements with a location called ‘Bristol’. You simply need to upload the spreadsheet for each login.


This process assumes that exports will only contain PCN’s with an entry date prior to the day you are working on. This is important to avoid any new PCN's added that day. Fleetworks does not have a field called Entry Date so it is suggested that imports are scheduled for set days. 


Stage 1

Open your Wheels Traffic Violation export file and the Fleetworks Customer Template file which can be downloaded from the Import page in Fleetworks.


Open the file called NameTrimmingFormulas (supplied separately by Fleetworks Support) and then highlight and copy cells B2:D2. On the TrafficViolation import highlight the columns J, K & L then right click and select Insert Copied Cells. Highlight and delete column F (Paid Date), the newly named columns L to R and then M to X. 


You should be left with columns headed as follows:



This will tidy up the names in Wheels without altering them.  This is my advice but you must decide for yourself and whatever you decide you will need to carry out the same process every time otherwise you will create duplicate entries in Fleetworks and make things harder to manage. 




The new columns (in green) with be a first capitalised version of the name followed by the first name(s) from and then the last name. If the surname cell is blank/missing then you have spaces after the final words in column H and you need to delete them by editing column H. Similarly, if you have a one letter surname (from an entry error in Wheels) then I suggest you delete the letter from column H. If you always follow these rules you will keep things tidy.   Do not alter the names any more than this unless you are going to make Wheels match the layout here otherwise each time you export this clients details you will end up with a duplicate.



Now highlight and copy cells J2:L2 and all appropriate rows. In the Customer template file right click in cell B2 and choose Paste Special - Values. 



The customer file is now ready for uploading so save the file and upload in to Fleetworks.




When you have started the upload process you can continue to use Fleetworks for other purposes in the normal way-out you will not be able to access the records being uploaded yet. 


When you return to the Imports screen you will see the status of the import. When your import status is complete you will be able to access the upload report via the link. This will confirm what happened to each row of data in your import. 

 

When you do this import for the first time and you get the confirmation email go back to the Import screen and upload the exact same file for a second time so you can see an error message. 


Stage 2

Download and open the RentalAgreement template file from Fleetworks. 


From the Wheels export highlight and copy the range F2:N2 and all appropriate rows. Then right click in the RentalAgreement Template file in cell F2 and Paste Special - Values.


Now copy and paste the correct data into each column. You must ensure you copy column I, the first capitalised name version, into the Driver column.  Copy and paste the agreement number and drivers name to the correct columns. Ensure you use the correct drivers name which has had all names First Capitalised. Now select the location names using the drop-down list in column B. If you have a lot of entries, you can sort your data by agreement number to make identifying and adding the locations simpler.  You can also copy and paste the location names to process multiple lines at once. You do not need to delete the excess data that was copied.  



The file is now ready for uploading so save the file and upload in to Fleetworks.


When you do this import for the first time and you get the confirmation email go back to the Import screen and upload the exact same file for a second time so you can see an error message. 


Stage 3

The final stage is to add the PCN data.  A PCN cannot be assigned if the agreement, customer or vehicle does not exist first. 


Download and open the PCN template file from Fleetworks. From your Wheels export file, highlight and delete column E (Entry Date) then highlight and copy the range C2:F2 and the appropriate number of rows. Click in cell A2 of the PCN Template and Paste Special - Values. Then copy and paste the start date of the hire from the export to the Template. Now carefully select the ticket type and issuer from the drop-down lists in columns E and F.


Save and upload into Fleetworks.




When complete you will receive an email or if you refresh the page you will see the upload history change to something similar to the example below.  You can check for errors by clicking the Report link.


Clicking List Entities will display the screen below:


The process to this point should take about 4-5 minutes to complete.  If you were processing a lot of PCN's or data that needed a lot of corrections it might take longer. 


From here you can process the PCN's.  The options are straight forward:

  • Make representation (reassign the fine)
  • Notify client 
  • Confirm admin fee paid (confirm the client has paid their admin fee)
  • Confirm fine paid (confirm the client has paid their fine if you are recharging them)
  • Begin recovery (if the client owes you money for the above)
  • Rental agreement (upload, copy or download the relevant agreement)


Before you can carry out reassignment you will need to upload a copy of the agreement.  You can identify agreements with no RA already uploaded because the red, upload icon will show. Click this icon and you will be taken to a summary of the agreement. Upload the RA, click save and close the tab. 


Back on the List Entities screen press refresh. The red upload icon will change and become a red, 'copy' icon. If this client has acquired multiple PCN's that are in this upload then you will see the icon on all rows change.  In this video you will that for the client for RGW132801 there are three PCN's in this upload. We upload an agreement to one and press refresh and all three PCN's reflect this change. 




You next need to attach the agreement to this PCN by clicking the red, copy icon which will then turn into a blue, download icon.  The reason this is a two-stage process is that when you uploaded the document you were attaching it to the rental agreement that is in the background. Fleetworks then needs you to confirm that you want to attach the uploaded document to the PCN because where a client has a long term hire they might have multiple vehicles and possibly multiple rental agreement documents.


If an agreement has previously had a PCN processed then the icon will reflect that the document is already uploaded. In this next video we will add two new PCN's for this same client. When you visit the List Entities page you will see no agreement needs to be added. 




PCN's handled in Fleetworks must have a reference number that is unique. If you try and add a PCN reference number already used will be rejected.  The upload report will confirm if this has happened.


You can revisit the List Entities page at any time. It will show you how each PCN for that import has been processed. You could, for example, schedule a check every week at a set time to look at any fines not processed.


Our suggestion for the entire process is as follows:


  • Process the import ensuring you can identify the PCN's that you need to reassign
  • With the List Entities screen open alongside Wheels, work down the import list adding the agreement to Fleetworks (if needed) ensuring you press the red, copy icon after the upload 
  • Make representation to issuer
  • Notify client
  • Charge the clients card, invoice in Wheels and then mark as paid or begin recovery action in Fleetworks.

 

Then on an ongoing basis, when you get an original arrive then you check Fleetworks first - all PCN’s should be on Fleetworks. You can search Fleetworks using the reference number or reg number and then view the PCN. If it is the first PCN for a client then you will need to add a copy of the RA before you make representation.  If the original is not on FW then treat it as though it is an email from a supplier, add it to Wheels and keep it to one wide for the next input. When you next process the originals it should then be on Fleetworks for you to reassign.  


Suggestions

*Currently the process requires a user to add PCN's to Fleetworks and then return to Wheels to create an invoice when the card is charged. In January 2020 Fleetworks will add a feature that will enable consolidated invoicing. A user will be able to run a report (covering any given time frame) that will produce a report based on all PCN's marked as fine paid and admin fee paid with the client details, fee's charged (with VAT showing separately) and any payment reference number assigned to the payments by a user. This process could replace the Wheels invoice process to save users time. A single adjustment invoice could then be presented to your accounts team with a reconciliation report from your merchant provider. Accounts would only have one transaction to enter into your accounting package. 


If CLM process PCN's straight into Wheels and carry out reassignment on your behalf then for obvious reasons you will need to ensure that you are not accidentally trying to also reassign those fines. You will still need to charge and notify those clients and no doubt process recovery action for unpaid fee's.  It might be worth considering uploading the CLM additions separately and then processing all of the client notifications, charges and debt recovery elements in one batch. Then uploading the PCN's received directly by you in a different batch. CLM sometimes reassign to you rather than the client and when that happens you will just find the PCN on Fleetworks and then use the reassign function.