track a beast manual

8/2/2019 Track a Beast Manual

1/21

User's Manual

Trackabeast Contact Information:

Please feel free to contact the Trackabeast developers in California at anytime with questions.Carrie Gerendasy: 510-292-7783, [email protected]

Table of Contents

Overview - Terms and Tips1.

Logging In2.

Getting Started3.

Navigating the System4.

The Top Banner1.

The Secondary Banners2.

Adding an Animal5.Entering Vital Information - the stub1.

Describing Profile Data2.

Recording the Initial Medical Condition3.

Using the Check List: Critical Medical Events4.

Placing an Animal5.

Adding Medical Events6.

Adding a Person6.

Entering Vital Information - the stub1.


Adding Volunteer Description3.Adding Foster Description4.

Placements From a Persons point of view5.

Adding a Volunteer Activities and Donations6.

Adding an Organization7.

Entering Vital Information - the stub1.


Placements From an Organizations point of view3.

Adding a Donation4.

Top Level Animal Browser8.

Statistics1. Printer Friendly Buttons2.

Top Level Person Browser9.

Mailing Labels/Merging1.

Top Level Organization Browser10.

Top Level Placement Browser11.

Statistics1.

Top Level Volunteer History (Activities) Browser12.

Top Level Donation History Browser13.

Reminders14.

abeast http://www.trackabeast.com/ma

1 5/7/2012


2/21

Automatic Reminders1.

Adding Your Own Reminders2.

Updating and Deleting Reminders3.

A Sample List of Reports You Might want and how to get them15.

Reporting Bugs16.

Formats: Date and Telephone Number Formats17.

Available Soon: Appendix: Instructions for Each Screen18.

Hyperlinks to each of about 30 screens (including stubs);1.

Back to top

Overview - Terms and Tips

Terms:

Browser: Trackabeast is made up of a combination of tables and forms. The tables are lists of

things, either animals, people, placements, volunteer activities, donation history, medical

history, or reminders. We refer to these tables as browsers because you can use them to browse

through your entire collection of those things. Do not confuse our use of the word browserwith an internet browser application such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. There are top level

browsers and secondary level browsers. Top level browsers are arrived at by clicking on the one

of the links at the bottom of the start page (first page after login), or from the tabs at the top of

your screen from any page within the application.

Filter: A filter is a search condition. You use a filter to filter out only the information you wish

to get in your browser. An example would be show cats. With this box checked in the animal

browser and none of the others checked below it, you will see a list of only cats. Filters limit the

information in the browser according to conditions you set. Another example would be to filter

animals shown in the browser according to their date of entry or their place of origin (a specific

shelter for example).

Sorting: A sort changes the order in which information is presented in your browser. It does not

change the number of entries displayed, it simply orders them by whatever criteria you choose

from the sort dropdown box on the left side, directly above the browser information. If you

choose sort by name in the animal browser, you will get an alphabetical listing of animals by

name. Sort by type will give you an alphabetical listing by species (cat, dog, kitten, puppy). Sorts

are alphanumeric or by date, depending on the data you are sorting. If you sort by name, the

sort will be alphabetical. A sort by charge will sort numerically, and a sort by date-in or

date-out (or both), will be chronological.

Tips:

Single click on all buttons in Trackabeast. Our popups are designed to disappear if you click

outside of the popup window. Therefore, if you double-click on the button that opens the popup,

the first click will open the popup and the second click will close it. Bummer.

The backbutton is disabled in Trackabeast . This could be frustrating if youre in the habit of

using the backbutton, but almost all pages in Trackabeast can be reached with a single click and

will appear as you left them, so no extra clicks are needed.


1 5/7/2012


3/21

Popup windows: Trackabeast uses popup windows in a variety of places. Minimizing these

windows, or clicking outside of them will cause them to disappear with the information unsaved.

Be sure to fill them out and submit them before doing anything else. If a popup window does not

pop when you expect it to, check minimized browsers at the bottom of your screen. Your popup

window may be in one of those. Trackabeast offers the least surprises when no other browser

windows are open.

If you have a popup-blocker installed on your browser, Trackabeast may not run correctly. You

can usually turn popup-blockers on and off at will, so be sure to have it turned offwhile using

Trackabeast.

Placements must be entered chronologically with earliest placement first and current

placement last. So, when entering backlog, add the placements from oldest to newest. It is

natural to want to enter the current placement first and add previous ones later (if there are any),

but this will cause an error. This is because there is some calendar math going on in the

background. We did not have backlog in mind when we designed this feature and we may try to

loosen this restriction in the future.

Add people first! When you do a placement for an animal, the person or organization withwhom you are placing the animal must already be in the database. If you add the animal and

attempt to do a placement before adding the person, your flow will be interrupted, and you will

have to leave the animal area and come back to it after adding the person. We are working on it!

AOL Browser: Trackabeast does not work properly in the AOL browser. If you use AOL, open

a second browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox to use Trackabeast.

Dropdown lists offosters, boarding facilities, system users, veterinrians, and animal

clinics/hospitals are created by checking any of these specific attributes when you add a person

or organization. They appear in the stubs so you can do this quickly, but you can always come

back and check the boxes later.

Back to top

Logging In

To login to Trackabeast as a customer, go to the URL http://www.trackabeast.com. Click the login button.

You will have been given a user name and password by a Trackabeast administrator. Note this is a different

URL from our demo site.

To login into the demo site, click on the demo button. User name and login are pre-loaded, just click enter.

Getting Started

When you are first signed up with Trackabeast, you will have exactly one person in your person table who is

an administrative user. This user has permission to enter the admin page and add other users as well as

customize dropdowns. Start by customizing your dropdowns. There are 12 drop-down menus throughout the

Trackabeast application that you can populate yourself according to how you do business. These are marked

with a small paw print. Below is a list of what each one is and where you can find it in the application.

From the Trackabeast Startpage (the page you arrive at directly after logging in), click on the admin link at


1 5/7/2012


4/21

the top of the page. This will bring you to the admin page where you can add users and customize

dropdowns.

Customizing dropdowns : Look through each of the dropdowns and you will see there are some entries in

each of them. These are only there as a guide as to what those dropdowns are used for. We have attempted to

make reasonable suggestions and you may want to use all or some of what is already there. You can remove

entries and add your own. (Please see full description of each customizable dropdown below.)

To delete an item from a dropdown : click on the arrow of the dropdown next to the delete

button of the table you are customizing. Highlight the entry you wish to delete, and then click

delete. You will get a message saying the item has been deleted.

To add an item to a dropdown : type the item in the text box next to the add button of the

table you are customizing, then click add. You will get a message saying the item has been

added. Pull down the dropdown again to see that it is there.

Note: If you have accidentally put an item in twice and try to delete one of them, both items will

be deleted. Simply add the item again once.

Adding Users: on the admin page, you will see a dropdown of all people in your database. You can choose

any of these people to add as users. If you want to add someone who is not already in your database, you

must first add them as a person through the Person screens (see Adding a Person below). You can choose

admin or general permission for the new user. admin users can add other users and edit dropdowns. A

popup window will appear with the users name in it. You must supply and user name and password, then

click submit.

Note: If you are using Netscape and you find that adding a new user does not work, go through the following

steps:

Go to Netscape Menu Bar and click edit1.Choose 'Preferences'2.

Click on 'Privacy and Security'. If the options for 'Privacy and Security' do not expand below it when

you click it, double click 'Privacy and Security'.

3.

Click on Passwords.4.

Click on button 'Manage Stored Passwords'.5.

Find Trackabeast under the list of sites. Highlight the entry and click 'remove', then click 'ok'.6.

Close your Netscape browser and reopen it.7.

Login to Trackabeast - now Netscape may open a popup window asking you if you want it to

remember your 'user name' and 'password'. If it does, chose 'Never for this Site'.

8.

Phew - now it should work!

Viewing and Deleting Users: You can view login information about a user by expanding the dropdown next

to View User. Highlight the user you want to look at, and click the View User button. A popup window

will appear which includes the first name, last name, username, password and permission level of this user.

You can delete the user from this popup window. Deleting a user does not delete the person from the

database, it merely takes away their login permission. The view-user popup cannot be edited, so, if you want

to change a user name or password, delete the user and add them again with the new name or password. You

cannot, however, delete yourself. If you want to change your own user-name or password, make a new admin


1 5/7/2012


5/21

user and have, login as that person and change yourself.

Description of dropdowns:

Donation References - This dropdown describes why a donation was given, as in, was it in response to

a particular event, campaign, mailing or just a general donation. It appears in a donation screen which

you get to by clicking Donation History, a subfolder of Person. Click Add a Donation. You get a

dropdown listing possible reasons to donate. This allows you to couple donations with a particular

fundraising drives. You can then enter the reference as a search condition in the donation table and find

out how much was donated for a particular drive and by whom. When you plan a fundraising drive, add

it to your Donation References dropdown.

1.

Origins - This dropdown describes where the animal came from and is seen on the animal profile page.

Have this list include shelters you rescue from and other sources of animals into your system. This

allows you to collect statistics on animals with different origins.

2.

Breed - This dropdown appears in the animal profile page for dogs only. It allows you to gather

statistics on dogs by breed. You need only enter the breeds you wish to keep track of and choose

other for the rest, or put in every type you rescue. You can also keep this information in the

description/comments section.

3.

Placement Status (formerly Rescue Status) - Every animal has to be somewhere. Placement Statusanswers the question: Whats it doing there? Is it being fostered? Boarded? Adopted? This appears on

the Add New Location screen which is a subfolder of animal. Click on Placement, then click Add

a Placement. Placement Status is the second field in that form. You can search on this criteria from

the upper level animal table or placement table and find out how many fosters you have, how many

boarders and so on at any given time.

4.

Rescue Type - This describes how you rescued the animal - did you bring it into your system, get it

accepted into another no-kill organization, adopt it out directly from the shelter, or did you save it some

other way? This dropdown appears on Animal Profile. It allows you to keep track of rescues you may

have assisted with in some manner besides your usual operation. This can be helpful to keep track of

for grants and donations.

5.

Cat Treatments, Cat Diagnoses, Dog Treatment and Dog Diagnoses are dropdowns in the medical

screen which you arrive at by clicking Add New Medical Entry from the Medical subfolder of

Animal. They also appear in Initial Medical Conditions, a subfolder of Animal seen when an animal

is first added. Any information you put in this screen will be accessible through medical history

thereafter.

6.

Cat Vaccs, Dog Vaccs and Feline Leuk test are dropdowns on the Check List page which is a

subfolder of Animal. Note on vaccinations: this dropdown currently only shows up in the checklist

form for first, second and third vaccinations. If you want to record vaccinations besides the suggested 3

initials, add them to the Treatmentdropdown and record them as a regular medical record rather than as

a vaccination. Otherwise, you will not have the space to record the 3 initial vacs.

7.

Back to top

Navigating the System:

The Top Navigation:

The top level navigation consists of file-folder tabs which you will see on every page except the login, start

page and admin pages. These are the seven main areas of the Trackabeast application: Animals, People,

Organizations, Placements, Activities, Donations, Reminders. Clicking on any of the top level navigation tabs


1 5/7/2012


6/21

brings you to a table of information where you can browse through all entries in the database in that category,

or all entries matching your selected search criteria for that category. You can toggle between top level

categories without losing your search criteria for any one table.

Search Criteria (filters):

All top browsers have search criteria, known as filters, and sorting options that you can choose

from. The filters are in a box with a border around it at the top of the table. The filters are

cumulative, so if you choose show all puppies, from date entered: 4/27/04, and origin is

Berkeley Shelter, you will get a list of puppies who entered your system since 4/27/04 and came

from the Berkeley Shelter. If you then check Show Cats, you will get puppies and cats who

entered the system since 4/27/04 and came from the Berkeley Shelter. The number of items in

the list is printed directly above the table as is the number of pages in the current search, and

which page you are looking at.

Trackabeast is always a work in progress, according to customer feedback. Columns in tables

may change and filters may be added or subtracted. You will be notified of any changes before

they are made.

Search Again and Start Again Buttons:When you have chosen your filters and sorting criteria, click Search Again to perform the

search. Click Start Again if you wish to go back to the original or default search/sort criteria.

Sorting:

You can sort information by a variety of fields. Sorting does not limit your search results, it

merely orders them in a different way. A sort dropdown list is directly above each table.

Paging through Data:

On the upper right side of each table are arrows that look like this:

< > >.

< means go back to first page and > means go to last page. > mean go back or ahead a single

page. If you know the name of the animal or person you are looking for, the fastest way to find

them is to put part of their last name in the text box Last Names Begins With, or some part of

their first or last name in the text box Name or Comments contain. These boxes are in the

bordered box at the top of most tables.

Adding/Editing entries:

You can add new entries or edit existing entries from this top level forAnimals, People,

Organizations and Reminders. Adding is described in detail below. To edit, find the animal,

person or organization that you wish to edit in the top level table (there are many ways to dothis), and click the edit button on the left side of the row. You can only add placement,

activities and donations from the secondary level, however. The top level Placements table gives

you a list of all placements for all animals in the system. Activities refers to a history of all

Volunteer Activities from all people in the system, andDonations gives you a history of all

donations from all people in the system. Placements, Activities and Donations are also listed in

the secondary navigation where they apply to individual animals and people. You can add or edit

individual placements, volunteer activities or donations on the secondary level.

Secondary Navigation:


1 5/7/2012


7/21

When you edit or add an individual entry into one of the top level tables, you will see a list of categories

underneath the top file-folder tabs. This is called the secondary navigation banner and it applies to the

individual you are working on. Animals, People and Organizations all have different secondary navigation

banners which will be described below. What is important to know about these banners is that each must be

submitted individually. You can toggle between them without loss of information, however, as soon as you

click something from the top banner, you will lose anything you havent submitted from the secondary group

of forms. The secondary navigation section consists of forms and tables that apply to individual things

(depending on which category you are in).

Forms:

Fill out as much or as little information as you want to in whichever forms you think will be

useful for your organization. Many of these fields are searchable in the upper level tables. For

instance, in the Foster Description form under Person, if you have checked foster of

bottle-feed kittens, you can find them in a search which includes foster and bottle feeds in

the top level person table. They will not come up in a search if you have not put anything in the

Foster Description for the individual. You can familiarize yourself with searchable fields by

looking through the bordered box of search criteria at the top of each table. (Yikes, should we list

all searchable fields?)

Submitting and Deleting Forms:

Information added to forms will only go into the database if you click the Submit button, or the

enter key while on that page. Be sure to submit all forms in the secondary navigation before

clicking on any of the buttons on the top level of navigation. Each form must be submitted

separately.

Individual entries can be deleted by clicking the Delete button in the form itself. Deleted

animals, people and organizations will not show up in the top level tables, however, you may still

come across them in other contexts. For People, Animals and Organizations, you also

have the option of de-activating the entry. This is a safer option then deleting if you think youmight change your mind.

Editing Existing Forms:

Any entry into the database can be edited. From the top level navigation banner, choose the

category of whatever you wish to edit (Animal, People, Organizations). You will see a table with

a list of things. Each thing has an edit button next to it. Use this to view or edit. Edit will

bring up the forms associated with that thing. (is this too redundant with editing under top level

navigation, or should all edit stuff go below as in the TOC above?)

Navigating long dropdown lists:

Some of your dropdowns will get very long. You can speed your search of the correct item bysimply typing the first letter of the thing you are looking for. After that, you will have to scroll

using the arrow button next to the dropdown.

Secondary level Tables:

The secondary navigation in most categories contains some elements that are tables, or areas

where you browse through multiple listings. These apply only to the individual you are looking

at, but they work very much like the upper level tables in terms of search and sort criteria and

paging. You can add entries from this level. Clicking on add in a secondary navigation table

causes a form to appear in a popup window. (Please read about popup windows above.)


1 5/7/2012


8/21

Back to top

Adding an Animal:

Adding Required Information:

From the start page (the page you arrive at after logging in), click on Animals from the bottom group of

links, or, from within the application, click on Animals from the top group of file-folder tabs. Chose one of

the 3 buttons at the top of the main animal table: Add Dog, Add Cat, Add Other. A small window willopen asking you for a few pieces of required information about the animal:

Name: whatever you would like to call the animal (can be changed later).

Date in: This refers to the date the animal was either brought into your system, or the date it was

rescued by your group in some other way. It could simply be the day the animal was brought to

your attention.

Age: Enter your best guess for the animals age using years, months, weeks and/or days. Note:

Animals listed as under a year old will appear in the animal table as puppies or kittens;

animals over a year appear as dogs or cats. Trackabeast will age the animal appropriately so

you should not need to change this field, unless you feel you made a mistake the first time.

Enter the required information and submit the form. You will then be brought to the animal profile page

which allows you to add much more information about the animal.

The profile page is part of a secondary group of categories which apply to the individual animal you are

working on. This is the secondary navigation bar described above. The categories are Initial Medical

Conditions, Check List, Placements, Medical History. You can enter information in any of these categories,

clicking between them without losing information, however,you must submit each form separately before

clicking on anything in the top level file-folder tabs or you will lose the information you added.

Back to top

Profile Data:

Impound Number: The shelter number in case you need it.

Rescue Group Animal Id: If you have your own numbering scheme for the animals in your

system, enter it here. Trackabeast also provides unique animal ids numbers which you can use,

however, you may wish to chose ids that impart some information like species, year-in, etc.

Date in: This should be filled in already from the stub, however you can change it in this

screen.

Where did the Animal Come from: Rescue groups often need to keep track of the number of

animals they rescue from particular shelters or from a particular type of situation like

found/stray. This is a customizable dropdown list. You can list all the possible origins for

animals your group deals with.

Initial Rescue Activity: You may have more than one way that you rescue animals and would

like to keep track of all rescues even if the animal does not come into your system. You may


1 5/7/2012


9/21

trade animals with other groups like breed rescues, transfer animals to no-kill shelters, or council

to adopt from the shelter, to name a few examples. This is a customizable dropdown. If you wish

to keep track of those activities, put the activities you most commonly participate in in this

dropdown. You will then be able to generate statistics on, not only how many animals went

through your system, but how many you saved in various other ways.

Sex: Choose male, female or let this field default to unknown.

Age: Enter age in years, months, weeks and/or days (however youd like). Trackabeast will then

keep track of the animals age for you.

Breed: There is a customizable breed dropdown list for dogs but not for cats. Enter names of all

breeds you expect to rescue in that dropdown, or enter breeds as you get them.

Size: Enter small, medium or large, or let it default to unknown.

Upload Photo: Trackabeast allows you to upload photos from your system onto the server. Click

the browse button and navigate to the photo you want for this animal. Click on the picture file

when you find it and wait while the picture gets uploaded to the server. Only one picture will be

in the system for an animal at any time, however, you can overwrite it with different pictures as

often as you want.

Weight: Enter animals weight.

Adoption Ready: Is the animal ready to be adopted?

If not when? Put a date in when you think the animal will be ready for adoption.

Special Needs/Behavior Issues: Check this box if you want this animal to be part of any

statistics you may gather concerning special needs animal.

Explain Special Needs: If you checked Special Needs/Behavior Issues above, describe them

here.

Description/Temperament/Comments: Write a description of the animal here and use this box

for any comments. It is also a good place to put any aliases the animal might have because this

field is searchable in the animal table.

Biography: Write a bio for the animal that can be put on a web page.

Active/Inactive: Inactive animals, by default, do not show up in the animal table. You can

change that by clicking show inactive, however you may not want to look at all animals thathave ever been in the system all the time. De-activating animals allows you to keep just a list of

current animals visible at all times. Check inactive whenever it makes sense for your

organization to de-activate an animal. Some might de-activate an animal when it is adopted, and

others may want to wait until a follow-visit has been made.

Name of person surrendering animal: While Trackabeast does not provide a dedicated area for

entering this information, there are a few ways you can go about it. You can put a placement for

the animal into your system and put "surrendered" or "previous owner" in the Type of Placement

dropdown. You would want to put a placement date sometime prior to its intake date with your


1 5/7/2012


10/21

group and it should be the first placement you enter because placements must be entered

chronologically from earliest to latest. Like all placements, the person must be in the database

first. Right now, you must check adopter or foster for the person to appear in this dropdown. That

will be remedied. You can also link animals and people through the comments fields in either

profile as they are fully searchable. You can also add "surrenderer" as a role in the person's

profile and the name of the animal in the person's comments field.

Coming Soon: What is a quick person and why would you want one? In order to enter a

placement for an animal, the person or organization you are placing the animal with must already

be in the database to appear in the placement dropdowns. They also must have certain boxes

checked: foster, adopter, board or place animals with, or surrenderer (coming soon). To keep you

from having to leave the animal area to add the person, we will give you a way to add just

enough information about the person for him/her to appear in the appropriate dropdowns. Be

sure when adding a quick person that you check foster, adopter or surrenderer in order for

the person to appear in the appropriate dropdowns. For organizations, check board or place

animals with. To add a quick person, click on the button and a small window will open. Fill in

at least the required fields for the person, check appropriate check boxes and click submit. Thats

it.

Anything you need but dont see: If there is important information you wish to include about

an animal in the profile for which we have not provided a field, you can put the information in

the comments box (middle of the 3 large text boxes). The comments field is fully searchable. Use

this for microchip numbers, proposed adoption fee or any other information you might want to

be able to search on that is not otherwise available.

Back to top

Initial Medical Condition - medical problems to look for when you first see an animal:

This page was created so a rescuer could go through a quick check-list of medical problems that routinely

require attention when an animal first comes into the rescue system. It allows you to record medications you

might administer yourself at the time of rescue such as advantage or strongid, and to have a record of the

animals general initial condition. Any medical problems that are not in this check-list should be entered in

the medical section. You can also record the costs of these medications here and write yourself a reminder if

you want to check up on any given condition (see Reminders below). Problems included in Initial Medical

Conditions are as follows:

Fleas

Kennel Cough - dogs

WormsEarmites

Upper Respiratory Infection

Eye Irritation

Skin Problems

Diarrhea

Vomiting

Eating - this defaults to yes, checking no indicates a problem

Drinking - this defaults to yes, checking no indicates a problem


21 5/7/2012


11/21

Choose treatments administered from the customizable dropdown next to the problem. You can add the

medications you use to this dropdown on the admin page (see Customizing Dropdowns above).

The Initial Medical Condition page only appears when you add an animal and not when you go back to edit

an animal later. All the conditions you checked, however, are recorded in the medical table for that animal, so

you can view them or change them later on.

Back to top

Check List - Vaccinations, Spay/Neuter, Rabies, FIV/FELV test

The check-list form is for recording standard medical procedures that rescues administer though they are not

associated with illness: spay/neuter for both cats and dogs, FIV/FELV test for cats, rabies vaccine for dogs,

and 3 vaccinations for each. You may not have to administer all of these procedures, however, you will

probably want to know if they have been done. Note: You are not required to enter dates for these procedures,

but it is a very good idea to enter dates for vaccinations and rabies shots as adopters need this information

later on. When you check yes to FIV, rabies, spayed/neutered, or fully vaccinated, the check-list screen will

shrink to only saying yes next to those issues. All the information you had recorded there, however, is

viewable/editable in the medical table for this animal. If you believe you made an error and wish to dosomething over again in check-list, go to the medical entry in the medical table, click edit, and then set

resolution to open. This will restore the check-list screen to where it was when you initially checked yes

to any of these issues.

The dropdown lists for vaccinations are customizable. You can add whichever vaccines you normally use to

the dog or cat vaccination dropdown on the admin page (see Customizing Dropdowns above).

Back to top

Placing an Animal - Its Gotta Go Somewhere!

When an animal comes into your system, or even if you rescue it some other way, say by transferring it to a

no-kill facility, the animal has to go somewhere. It also goes somewhere each time you move it to a new

foster, to an adopter, to a boarding facility or if the animal gets returned to your group, or if an animal dies.

Each of these events should lead to a new placement form being filled out. You may or may not wish to keep

track of where animals go if they are transferred or rescued by some other means, however, you probably will

want to know where they go if they come into your system. Record this in a placement form. From the top

level file tabs or the start page, choose Animals. Then either add a new animal or select the existing animal

you wish to place by clicking edit next to the animals name. You are now in the secondary banner level.

Click Placement. Here you will see a list of previous placements for this animal if there are any. Click

Add New Placement. A popup window will appear with a form (please read about popup windows above).

Date In: Enter the date the animal is going into this placement. This will automatically become

the date out of the last placement if there was one. Enter placements chronologically, entering the

earliest placement first.

Placement Status: This describes if the animal is being placed as a foster, a boarder, or an

adopted animal in a forever home. Unfortunately, deceased and euthanized also seem to fit

most logically in the category of placement status, as does Returned.

Foster or Adopter: This is a dropdown list made up of all people in your database who have the


21 5/7/2012


12/21

checkbox Foster or Adopter checked. If you do not see the name you are looking for, you

must either add the person, or, if you think the person is in the database, edit the person and be

sure foster or adopter is checked. It is for this reason that we have added a Quick Person

button on the profile page. You can use this button to add just the bare essentials of a person you

want to see in the placement dropdown. Unfortunately, when you go back to the profile, your

placement popup window will disappear. You can either save the placement entry first, then go

back and edit it, or you can simply let it disappear and start over again after you have added or

edited the person from the Animal profile page. Once the person appears in the dropdown, selectthat person for your foster or adopter.

Organization: If you are boarding the animal, or have transferred it to another organization, you

should chose the location from this dropdown rather than the Foster or Adopter dropdown.

Organizations with appear in this dropdown are organizations you have added to your database

and which have the checkbox do we give or get animals from this organization checked. If you

do not see the organization you are looking for, you must leave the animal area, go to

Organizations at the top level, and add the organization (or check the appropriate checkbox if

the organization was already there).

Note: If you have given an animal a placement status of deceased or returned, you willprobably want to leave both Foster/Adopter and Organization blank. For returned animals,

make a second placement entry for its next location. This will keep the history of the animal

clear when you look in the placement table.

Supplies/Boarding/Training (costs): This is a section where you can record non-medical costs

towards the animal. If you provide a foster with supplies, record the amount here. To add more

costs to the same placement at a later time, edit the placement entry and costs will be cumulative.

You can enter costs for boarding whenever you get the bill.

Adoption Fees (income): Record income from adoption fee for the animal in the placement

form. When you adopt an animal out, it is a placement. The combination of the costs and income

in the placement forms allows you to keep a tally of outflow and income for all animals, and

generate statistics in the upper level animal table.

Note: when an animal moves from one location to another, be sure to fill in a new placement

entry rather than editing an old one. This allows you to keep a complete placement history on the

animal.

Comments: Enter anything here that you care to note about the placement.

Reminder Date/Reminder Text: This allows you to record a reminder in the upper levelreminder table for any follow-up activity associated with the placement. Many rescues do

follow-up contacts for adoptions, and you might want to see how your fosters are doing within a

certain period of time.

Back to top

Recording Medical Information for an Animal

Medical issues in Trackabeast are divided into what we call tickets. A ticket is one or more related medical

events. When adding a medical event, you can either add it as an entry to a pre-existing ticket, or you can


21 5/7/2012


13/21

start a new ticket. Adding new entries to pre-existing tickets is a way of keeping related medical events

grouped together. For instance, if you have a dog with a protracted condition such as mange, you might list

each mange treatment as an entry in a ticket and you could then view them together in consecutive rows in

the medical table. We have grouped some things into tickets for you, such as Initial Medical Conditions and

Vaccinations. You may choose not to use the ticket grouping and simply add each medical event as a new

ticket. Whether you use multiple entries in tickets or a single ticket for each event, you can always view the

medical table chronologically, rather than ordered by ticket. The medical history table defaults to View by

Ticket, however, there is a button on top of the data which says View by Date. Click this to see medicalevents chronologically. Click View by Ticket to see events grouped, first, by ticket and, second, by date.

Adding New Tickets

To add a new ticket, click the Add New Ticket button on top of the medical history table. You

will then see a form in a popup window (see popup windows above). This form allows you enter

a great deal of information about the event. Add as much or as little as you need. This form is

actually the initial entry in a new ticket if you choose to use it that way. It could be the only

entry, or you could add onto it.

Adding New Entries to Existing Tickets

You can add a new entry to a ticket by clicking the New Entry button to the right of the initialentry for that ticket. The initial entry has the title of the ticket and is the only one in the group

with the Add New Entry button next to it. The form will appear in a popup window, and you

will see it is exactly the same form you use to enter a ticket. As stated above, the ticket is really

just an initial entry into a potential group of entries in a ticket.

Medical Entry Form

List each field

Back to top

Adding a Person

Adding Initial Information:

From the start page (the page you arrive at after logging in), click on People from the bottom group of

links, or, from within the application, click on People from the top group of file-folder tabs. Click on Add

a Person. A small window will open asking you for a few pieces of information about the person:

First Name: Required.

Last Name: Required.

Home Phone: Not Required

Work Phone: Not Required.

Cell Phone: Not Required.

Check boxes: Foster, Adopter. Not required, however, you must check the appropriate boxes if you

want to see the people in the placement dropdown for adopters/fosters or in the animal profile in the

surrendered-by dropdown.

Enter the required and other information and submit the form. You will then be brought to the

person profile page which allows you to add additional information.

The profile page is part of a secondary group of categories which apply to the individual person


21 5/7/2012


14/21

you are working on. This is the secondary navigation bar described above. The categories are

Volunteer Info, Foster Info, Placements, Volunteer History, Donation History. You can enter

information in any of these categories, clicking between them without losing information,

however,you must submit each form separately before clicking on anything in the top level

file-folder tabs or you will lose the information you added.

Back to top

Profile Data:

Active/Inactive: This feature defaults to active. Choose inactive if, for any reason, you

dont want to see the person in the upper level person table on a regular basis. The search criteria

in the person table defaults to Show Active. You can change this by clicking Show Inactive

if you need to. You can de-activate people or delete them. See Submitting and Deleting Forms

under Navigating the System above.

Date Active: This defaults to the date you enter the person, however, you can overwrite that date

if, for instance, the person has been with your group for some time and you are just now adding

them to the database. It can be useful to know when a person became associated with your group.

Send mail: This box is checked by default, however, if someone requests that you not send them

mail, or you simply dont want them as part of your mailing list, uncheck this box. There is a

button at the bottom of the upper level person table which says Make Mailing Labels. This

feature will check if each person in the search which you are mailing to has the Send Mail

feature checked and will not include those who dont.

Standard contact information: first, last, address, phone numbers, email addresses. Some

of these will already be filled in from the person stub.

Comments: Use this text area in any way youd like. It is searchable from the person table at thetop level, so you can put anything in there you think you might need to search on to find this

person or information about this person.

Relationship to Organization: At the bottom of the person screen is a group of check boxes

indicating how this person relates to your organization. Included are foster, volunteer, adopter,

donor, staff, board member, pet wish, surrenderer. Choose as many as are appropriate. If you do

not see the relationship you are looking for, do two things: store the information in the comments

sections where you can search for it, and two, let us know so we can consider adding that role.

These Relationships are searchable in a variety of contexts. You can search for all donors, for

instance, in the person table and print mailing labels for just that group, or search for all

volunteers in the donation table as another example.

Back to top

Volunteer Info: Use this form to record specific information about a volunteers availability and the tasks

they want to perform. All checkbox information in this form is searchable from the upper level person table.

For example, you can search for all people who have volunteered to do animal transport, or to work

specifically with dogs at mobile adoptions.

Foster Info: Use this form to record specific information about foster care givers. All checkbox information


21 5/7/2012


15/21

in this form is searchable form the upper level person table. For example, you could search for all fosters who

take bottle-feeds.

Placements from a Persons Point of View

The placement browser associated with each person shows the history of animals placed in foster or adoption

with that person. It differs from the placement browser associated with individual animals in that you cannot

add a placement from this browser. It is simply a way to see what animals are, or have been, with a particular

person.

Adding Volunteer Activities and Donations:

While you can see a list of all volunteer activities performed by all people in the top level browser, and a list

of all donations made by all people in the top level browser, you can only add a volunteer activity or donation

at the secondary level, associated with a specific person. From the top level person table, click edit for an

existing person, or add a new person. You will then come to the secondary level of choices for an individual.

You will see Volunteer History and Donation History. From either one of these tables, you can add a new

entry or edit an existing one. The entries show up in a small popup window and allow you to record

information about the activity or donation.

Back to top

Volunteer Activity:

the volunteer activity form has a dropdown for type of activity. That list is not customizable at this time. We

hope youll find what you need in what weve provided. You can list the date, activity, number of hours and

whether the task was completed. The last category task completed is there so that you can schedule

volunteers ahead of time. You can enter a person for a future date and view what you have scheduled in the

upper level activities table. The upper level table can be filtered by date, so if you have scheduled a number

of people to work on a certain date, you can look at this list just for that date. You can fill in whether they

actually completed the task after the fact, or perhaps you would want to delete the entry if they did not show

up. The hours you put in the entry will be part of the total on top whether you have checked completed or not,

so if you want this number to be accurate, you should probably delete uncompleted activities. Each person

who has volunteer hours will have their own list of activities under their name on the secondary level. Thus

you can see a list by individual, or a list for all individuals.

The lower level volunteer table and the upper level table each has hours at the top which are cumulative for

all the activities in the table. Grantors are often interested in how many volunteer hours have been given to

the group.

Donations:

The donation form has a dropdown for the reason for the donation. This list is customizable so that you can

associate donations with your particular fundraising drives. You can record monetary donations as well as

in-kind donations in this form. You can also record whether youve sent a thank-you note. Each individual

has their own donation table on the secondary level and there is a top level donation table for all donations.

Each has a dollar amount and an in-kind amount at the top of the table. This figure will change if you filter

the list in different ways. For instance, you can see a total for all donations toward a particular drive, or all

donations in a particular time period.

Back to top


21 5/7/2012


16/21

Adding an Organization

Adding Initial Information:

From the start page (the page you arrive at after logging in), click on Organizations from the bottom group

of links, or, from within the application, click on Organizations from the top group of file-folder tabs. Click

on Add an Organization. A small window will open asking you for a few pieces of information about the

organization:

Organization Name: Required.

Phone Number: Not Required.

Do we give or get animals to this organization?: Not required. Check this box if you want the

organization to show up in the dropdown in the placement form, particularly if you board

animals with them. You also may want them in this dropdown if you transfer animals to them or

trade with them.

Enter the required and other information and submit the form. You will then be brought to the organization

profile page which allows you to add additional information.

The profile page is part of a secondary group of categories which apply to the individual organization you are

working on. This is the secondary navigation bar described above. The categories are Placements and

Donation History. You can enter information in any of these categories, clicking between them without losing

information, however,you must submit each form separately before clicking on anything in the top level

file-folder tabs or you will lose the information you added.

Back to top

Profile Data:

Standard contact information: Organization Name, Phone Numbers, Addresses. The name

should already be there from the organization stub.

Relationship to Organization: Trackabeast provides 4 categories: gives or gets animals from

organization, provides volunteers, gives donations, gives grants. None of these categories is

currently searchable in the upper level organization table. Please let us know if you think these

features should be added, or if it would be helpful to add other relationships, like veterinary

services, that could be searched on.

Contact Information: Some organizations do not have central locations and numbers (like somerescue groups for instance!), and so we have given two blocks for contact information of

individuals in the group.

Active/Inactive: This feature defaults to active. Choose inactive if, for any reason, you

dont want to see this organization in the upper level organization table.

Date Active: Add this date if you want to know how long the organization has been associated

with your group.

Back to top


21 5/7/2012


17/21

Placements from an Organizations Point of View

Like placements from a persons point of view, this browser shows animals that are placed with an

organization. This will usually mean boarding, or it could be another rescue group to whom youve

transferred an animal. The browser will show you the history of all animals placed with this organization.

Like the person placement browser, though, you cannot add placements from her. You can only add a

placement from the perspective of the animal.

Donations

If you receive donations from an organization, record it by adding a donation under the individual

organization. This would also be a place you could record grants. You would want to add the specific grant to

the donation reason dropdown so you could associate the money with a particular cause. You may want to

record reporting terms of the grant in the comments section of the organization.

Back to top

Using Tables - Browsing Data, Generating Reports and Statistics

Animal Table

(Please see also Navigating System/Top Navigation. )

Clicking on Animals on the start page or the top level navigation bar brings you to a page listing cost/income

statistics at the top, search criteria, and a list of all animals appropriate to the search criteria. The default

search criteria gives you a list of all active animals. You can view a single animal in the table or browse

through many. A fair amount of information is available about each animal in this screen, however, you can

get more information on a particular animal by clicking the edit button next to the animal. The current

location of the animal is hyperlinked to the profile page of the person(s) or organization the animal is

residing. Clicking on this link allows you to quickly get information about a foster, adopter or boarder, like

their phone number.

Statistics: At the top of the animal browser is cost/income information associated with whatever list of

animals you have chosen in you search criteria. Trackabeast keeps a running tally of medical, boarding,

supply and training costs that you have entered in the placement forms for each animal. It also keeps a

running tally of adoption fees collected. You enter these costs in the placement popup screen when you move

an animal into foster, adoption, boarding or where ever. You can edit a placement to add new expenses and

they will be added to those already entered.

From these statistics, you can find out things like how much you have spent on medical care for kittens, or

how much was spent on animals brought into the system between certain dates. Of course, the list is much

longer.

Printer Friendly Buttons: Because the animal browser in Trackabeast is so long in terms of columns, we

have offered you two ways to print it out. Print Basic Info and Print Statistics. Each includes a different

set of columns. This feature is still under construction. When you click on one of these buttons, Trackabeast

opens a second browser window that can be printed by clicking on file in the top navbar of that window,

and then choosing print. You can also save this report to you own computer by clicking file, then choosing

save as. Give it an extension of .htm. You will be able to open it from your computer, but it will appear in

an internet browser rather than as a Word doc or text file.

Back to top


21 5/7/2012


18/21

Person Table


Clicking on People on the Start Page or the top level navigation tab brings you to a page listing all people in

your database matching the current search criteria. The default search criteria gives you a list of all active

people. You can view a single person in the table or browse through many. Name, phone, email, address and

relationship-to-group are available about each person in this screen, however, you can get more information

on a particular person by clicking the edit button next to the person.

Mailing Labels/Merging: At the bottom of each page of the person browser is a button that says

Make Mailing Labels. You can actually do more than just make labels. When you click on the

button, every persons address in you current search criteria will be formatted into a text

document that is tab delimited. You will see a hyperlink called to that document called

labels.txt along with some instructions near the top of the browser. Clicking on this hyperlink

opens a new browser window showing you this document. At the top of this second window,

click file, then save as and choose and directory in which to store this file on your person

computer. Save the document as a text file, giving it any name you like. Now you have a

tab-delimited file on your own computer which you can use with the Microsoft Word merge

feature to make labels or letters. The procedure to do this depends on your version of MicrosoftWord.

Here is one way to do it using Word 2002 on Windows 98:

Open Microsoft Word1.

Choose open a new document2.

From top nav bar, choose tools3.

From the tools dropdown, choose Letters and Mailings4.

Under Letters and Mailings choose Mail Merge Wizard.5.

Follow Words instructions after that.6.

When you get to Select recipients, choose browse7.

Find the txt document you saved from Trackabeast on your own computer and choose it for your

recipients file.

8.

Continue following instructions from the Microsoft Word Mail Merge Wizard.9.

Back to top

Organization Table


Clicking on Organizations on the Start Page or the top level navigation tab brings you to a page listing allorganizations in your database matching the current search criteria. You can view a single organization in the

table or browse through many. You can see some information about each organization in this screen,

however, you can get more information on a particular person by clicking the edit button next to the

organization.

Placements


Clicking on Placements from the Start Page or the top level navigation tab brings to a page listing all


21 5/7/2012


19/21

placements of all animals in your system matching the current search criteria. The default search criteria says

show current only. This means you are only seeing the current location of each animal rather than a full

history of placements for each animal. Unclicking current only gives you full placement history for every

animal (both active and inactive).

Statistics: The statistics at the top of the placement browser are the same as the ones in the

Animal Browser. Trackabeast keeps a running tally of medical, boarding, supply and training

costs that you have entered in the placement forms for each animal. It also keeps a running tally

of adoption fees collected. You enter these costs in the placement popup screen when you move

an animal into foster, adoption, boarding or where ever. You can edit a placement to add new

expenses and they will be added to those already entered.

The top level placement browser offers some valuable reporting capabilities. Because you can

filter this browser by date-in to date-in to a particular location, you can find out here how many

animals have been adopted during a certain period of time, or how many have been put in

boarding or foster during a period of time.

Back to top

Activities Table (Volunteer History)


This browser shows you a list of all volunteer activities performed for your organization by all people ever

(so long as youve recorded it in an individual volunteer form, of course). Luckily, you can filter by date or

by job. Total number of volunteer hours is listed at the top. This figure reflects the current search criteria, so

if you want to find out, for instance, how many hours were volunteered for a newsletter, you can do that.

Some grant-giving organizations want to know how many hours have been volunteered to your organization,

so keeping track is a good thing.

Donations Table(Please see also Navigating System/Top Navigation. )

The top level donation browser gives you a list of donations from all people and all organizations to your

group. You can filter by reason for donation, or by date, by relationship-to-your-group (volunteers, staff,

etc.).

Reminders


Reminders can be added to the system through either a placement form or a medical entry. This gives you a

way to remind yourself to check on an animals placement situation or medical condition. Some reminders

are generated automatically. This feature is still in development and will probably work a little differently in

the near future.

Back to top

Automatic Reminders

When you add an animal, reminders are automatically created for Spay/Neuter, Leukemia/FIV Test for

cats and Rabies Vaccine for dogs unless any of these is checked Yes in the Checklist form. The date of


21 5/7/2012


20/21

the reminder for each of these defaults to todays date, but you can change that to the real date you anticipate

it happening.

Adding Your Own Reminders

Reminders can be entered in the Placement form, Initial Medical Conditions form, Medical Form or through

the Check List form. The first 3 offer you a field for a date of the reminder and a field for the reminder text.

The Check List form generates the reminders automatically, but you can change the date of the reminder.

Updating and Deleting Reminders

Reminders can be updated or deleted directly from the reminder browser. Once the reminder is connected, it

is no longer connected to the form in which you entered it initially, so changing it in one of those forms will

not work. Make the changes directly in the reminder browser.

Coming Very Soon: Self-generated reminders for Vaccines. (We somehow missed this one.)

Coming Soon: A place to put miscellaneous reminders that are not necessarily associated with medical or

placement events.

Back to top

A Sampling of Different Kinds of Reports You Might Want to See and How to Get Them

(Section under development)

1. How many animals came into the system between this date and that date:

In the Animal Browser, type the first date in From Date In (Entry Date), and the second date in To Date In

(Entry Date). Click Search Again. You will see the number next to Total Entries directly above the list of

entries.

2. How many kittens came into the system between this date and that date:

Same as above, except uncheck show dogs, show cats, show puppies. You will get only the number of

kittens. Besides number, you can now also see what youve spent on this group of kittens for medical,

supplies and boarding.

3. How much money has been generated by a particular fundraising endeavor:

In top level donation browser, choose the fundraising endeavor from the Reason dropdown. The Reason

dropdown is customizable, so each time you begin a new drive, you can add it to this list. The total amountwill be shown on top of the browser page.

4. How many animals have been adopted within certain dates:

In the top level Placement Browser, enter the dates in the From Date In and To Date In; choose adopted

from the Rescue Status dropdown (this dropdown is customizable). Click Search Again. The number

following Total Entries is the number that were adopted in that time.

5. How many dogs were rescued from a particular shelter within a period of time:


21 5/7/2012


21/21

In the Animal Browser, choose the shelter from the Origin dropdown. This dropdown is customizable and

should have the names of shelters and other venues you rescue from. Choose the shelter you are interested in.

Put the first date in From (Entry Date) and the second date in To (Entry Date). Click Search Again.

The number following Total Entries is the number you rescued from that shelter in that time.

Back to top

Reporting Bugs and Suggestions

Please send bugs and suggestions to the Trackabeast developers. Contact information is at the top of this

document. Do not send links to pages as we will not be able to get to them. Feel free to send screen shots if

you are able. Otherwise, simply describe the error in as much detail as you can (exact steps you took before

getting the error), and telling us what the error message said.

Back to top

Date and Phone Number Formats

Phone numbers are accepted in a variety of forms:

1-222-333-4444 - use dashes or any other delimiter including spaces

222-333-4444

333-4444

(111) 222-3333

111/222-3333

Trackabeast accepts the following date formats:

dd-mm-yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy

d-m-yy or d/m/yy

d-m-yyyy or d/m/yyyy

Back to top

Copyright 2004 Trackabeast. All rights reserved.

Website design by Evolution Technologies

Home About Trackabeast TestimonialsUsers Manual

Contact Us

Monday May 07, 2012


track a beast manual

Documents