In the traffic module you manage your commercial airtime inventory, contracts, schedules, logs, copy, makegoods, and so on. {Press the Traffic button on the main module to open the traffic system. You may wish to minimize the main module for now.}.

Common Data Entry

Since Summit uses a real time relational database, common information such as advertisers, agencies, industries, account execs, etc. is entered only one time and is then referenced from other parts of the system.

For example, take a look at industry data entry.  {Select Industry from the Data Entry menu}. Industries are used for separation on logs and for categorizing information on reports. The system comes with a set of predefined industries to which you add your own definitions as desired. These industries are then referenced in many other parts of the system (advertiser definitions, contracts, sales reports, etc.) without any reentry of data required.

While we're here, it's probably a good idea to look at navigation. This shows you how to find an existing record (previously entered information) in a given table. {Press the Next, Last, Prior and First buttons to access those records. Press the Search by Description dropdown and click on a description to select that record. Press the Locate button, enter "store" in the "find value" field, then press First. This will take you to the first record with store in the description. Press Locate again, then Next and you'll see the next one. Experiment with these if you like. Click the navigation link for more details.}.

Next, let's look at working with database records. This shows you how to add new records to the database, remove records, etc. {Let's add a new industry. Press the Add button or select Edit/Add from the menu. Type "my industry" in the Description field, click on "default" in the Separation field, and enter "I" in the Type field. That's all there is to it. Your new industry will show up in the appropriate place in the navigation functions and will now be available in all other parts of the system.}

In addition to the data entry itself, the common data entry modules also have quick-ref reports (simple alphabetical listings) and some have data entry forms for defaults and customization information as you can see.  {Select File/Print/Quick-Ref by Description and File/Defaults for examples.}

You should visit the Common Data Entry page for information on other modules used by the system. Close the industry data entry page, and open advertiser data entry. Here you'll see a more complex form and how other tables, such as the industries we looked at above, are referenced. {Close Industry Data entry. Select Advertiser from the Data Entry menu. Click the Industry dropdown.}. Please notice how all the forms use a common look and layout to minimize the number of different things you'll need to learn in the system.

Scheduling Rules

Not everyone wants the system to schedule the same way, nor does every user necessarily want the system to schedule the same way on every channel they have. In scheduling rules you tell the system your preferences. {Select Scheduling Rules from the Schedules menu.}.

Contract Data Entry

Use Contract Data Entry to enter scheduling criteria for spots, enter miscellaneous billing information and to bill the account. Contract changes, additions and cancellations are made here as well.  {Select Contracts from the Data Entry menu.}.

Copy Data Entry

Use this Copy Data Entry  to schedule and rotate copy when an advertiser provides more than one piece of copy for an order. The form has different fields visible depending on how you select Rotation Type. {Select Copy from the Data Entry menu.}.

Reschedule Makegoods

If a (non-filler) spot cannot be scheduled according to it's criteria, it will become a makegood.  You can use reschedule makegoods  to automatically reschedule a set of makegoods instead of doing each one by hand. Canceled or "dead"  makegoods are ignored by this function. {Select Reschedule Makegoods from the main module.}.

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Last modified: Thursday July 22, 2004.