Autobatching in Agency Web
Introduction
In a given year ~204,000 salmon fish tickets are created. Each year more and more of those tickets originate in eLandings. ADFG staff had difficulty keeping up with salmon ticket batching due to the volume of tickets. In an effort to make this easier, the Auto Batching tool was created for Salmon tickets.
The Auto Batching tool in the Agency Workstation allows ADFG staff to assign batching information to fishtickets efficiently within the eLandings system. You can create a batch of up to 200 fish tickets for processing within this Agency Web feature. We suggest a limit of 200 paper fish tickets to a batch, as that is approximately how many paper fish ticket forms can be inserted into a standard manila envelope.
All fish ticket reports submitted to ADFG should be reviewed for completeness and accuracy, prior to the batching process. If an eTicket is submitted with incorrect information (incorrect statistical area(s), incorrect number of fish/average weights), contact the processor and request that they correct the fish ticket within eLandings. Provide them with the landing report or E-ticket number for reference. They can access the ticket(s) within the eLandings system and correct the data. Once corrected, the processor or you can reprint the fish ticket and staple the corrected copy to the copy of the fish ticket with the signatures.
The primary purpose of auto batching tickets is to create a retrievable archive. Once processed, fish ticket records are not frequently accessed. Auto batching provides a balance between rapid and efficient data processing and source document retrieval. The batching process also validates that fish tickets have been reviewed by staff for completeness and accuracy. Once batched, tickets are then copied to the fish ticket database.
Just as a reminder, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and even ADFG staff seldom need to access the original signed copy of the fish ticket. An electronic copy of the fish ticket is easily available within the Agency Interface application for re-printing, in the original and edited version.
Original ticket without signature
Edited ticket without signature
Unless specifically requested by Alaska Wildlife Troopers or receipt of a court order for the original copy with signature, a copy of the landing printed from the Agency Interface will suffice, in most cases.
CFEC requests ADF&G staff to stamp each ticket with a sequence ticket number to assist archival and digitization efforts.
Pre-Batching paper fish ticket processing procedures
Sort conventional ADFG fishticket reports from the electronically generated eTicket reports, as each ticket type needs to be processed separately.
Conventional fishticket reports are data entered into Zephyr. eTickets are processed within the eLandings Agency Desktop application. Batched eTickets are pulled into the Zephyr system every 15 minutes.
We suggest you sort the eTickets by period, locale code or harvest (if you plan to modify the default code 11), if you plan to assign any of these values. You will expedite auto-batching if the pre-printed ticket numbers are in numeric sequence, although this is not necessary for auto-batching to work. eTickets from a specific processor’s tender and from a unique opener are most likely to be in sequential order. It is not required that you sort tickets, unless requested by the local area management biologist. Some local management biologists want tickets to be sorted by processor and by vessel name. If not required by your supervisor, sorting by processor, tender vessel and pre-printed fish ticket number is the most efficient procedure to expedite batching.
In all situations, count the number of eTickets for the batch. You do not need to stamp the tickets with a sequence fish ticket number, but some ADF&G staff find assigning a sequence ticket number helpful. If you do not stamp a sequence fish ticket number on each ticket, you will need to adjust your ticket stamper for subsequent sequence ticket numbers.
Within the fish ticket application, Zephyr, create a batch. You do not need to wait until all the conventional fish tickets have been processed to create a batch of eTickets. Conventional fish ticket batches and eTicket batches can be comingled in the Zephyr Batch & Ticket Log, but again, create separate batches for each category of tickets.
Count the tickets and record the number of tickets for the batch, or
Establish the ticket range within Zephyr.
Record the batch and ticket sequence number on the exterior of the manila envelope.
Again, the individual fish eTicket reports do not need to be stamped with the sequence ticket number, but you may find this helpful.
Beware of Duplicate Tickets
Be aware that you may receive duplicate, unlabeled fish tickets without signatures. If this is occurring, please contact the local seafood processing facility and ask them to label the fish ticket copies and send only the signed Fish and Game copy to the local office.
As a general practice, if you receive unsigned eTickets, set these tickets aside and determine if a signed copy is present. Also review the duplicate copies to determine if a correction or modification in the fish ticket has occurred. If so, then staple the modified ticket to the signed copy. If the unsigned duplicate copy is nothing more than a duplicate, then it can be discarded.
Auto Batching Procedures
In order for a ticket to move from eLandings to the ADFG Fish Ticket Database (i.e. Zephyr), the ticket must have batch information assigned to it. The ticket will also need harvest code information assigned to it.
Typically salmon tickets have one harvest code = “11 – State managed fishery” and this is the default setting.
The Auto Batching tool allows you to enter a list of tickets and assign batching information to them all. The benefit is that you do not have to open each ticket individually when assigning the batching information.
Login to the Agency Web application (if you need help with this please see the Agency Web Users Manual).
Select Auto Batching from the Reports drop down menu.
Batch Year will default to the current year and Harvest Code will default to 11 – State managed fishery. Additionally, the Start Fish Ticket # field will default based on the Batch Year displayed. Though defaulted, these fields can be modified to meet your coding requirements. As an example, if you have a ticket with a pre-printed fish ticket number for the previous year, simply change the default year. The harvest code default can be easily modified, as well.
The auto batching page asks for the Batch Year, Office Code and Batch Number. Optionally, you can enter the Harvest Code, Fishing Period and Locale Code here.
The Fish Ticket Numbers will default with a prefix of EYY (where YY is the current year), allowing you to enter only the six digit fish ticket number. In this example, you would enter 181164 and then hit the enter key. The EYY on this ticket = E15 indicating a ticket from 2015.
In a few cases, a processor will fail to download the current year of tLandings and it generates fish tickets with the prior year date. The ticket(s) should be batched with the current year’s fishery. Just change the prefix on the ticket. Remember to change the prefix back to the current year when you have completed processing of the ticket(s). Again, enter the pre-printed fish ticket number, omitting the leading alpha letter (the E) and the year.
Enter Batching Information
Office Code
Batch Number and Sequence Ticket Range (as established from Zephyr)
You can enter the Fishing Period, the Locale Code and modify the Harvest Code as necessary, for the entire batch, or within the batch for a sub-set of tickets, but they are not required data fields.
On the Auto Batching screen enter the following data:
Start Seq. Ticket Range: 1
End Seq Ticket Range: 6
We have 6 tickets that we would like to assign batch information too.
E18 046023
E18 046024
E18 997799
E18 997800
E18 007157
E18 045572
We can see that we have a run of four consecutive numbers E18 046023 to E18 046024 and E18 997799 to E18 997800.
Upper limit of 250 tickets in a batch
Note that the upper limit of tickets the system will let you batch is 250. If you try to batch more than 250 tickets, you will get a hard error that will not let you proceed until you reduce the number of tickets to below 250.
Add tickets in Sequence:
Type 046023 into the Start Fish Ticket # field.
Press the Tab Key to move to the next field.
Type 046024 into the End Fish Ticket # field.
While the field focus is on the End Fish Ticket # field, press the Enter Key or "-" hyphen key.
The enter key or hyphen key will add this range of tickets to the list to be batched.