Mandatory Implementation, future XML, future Indirect Costs enhancement, and consultant training

A few topics I want to hit for this week's blogpost.

• delay in March 1 mandatory use of CARS
• future XML enhancement
• future automatic indirect cost calculation
• last week for consultant CARS Training

1. Many of you may have already seen that the mandatory March 1 date to use CARS has been delayed. We'll be working closely with you to get a new mandatory date for using CARS.

2. I know many of you are busy trying to get XML to work. One thing that is changing in one of the near future enhancements is that the indirect costs from direct labor will be automatically calculated by the system.

Right now in the XML, you need to declare the direct labor and then declare the amount of indirect costs in the XML. For the future XML, you will only need to put in the direct labor, and the indirect costs will be automatically calculated based on what you have put in the direct labor. You can just leave those overhead tags blank.

This is what is changing - you will no longer need the dollar amount information, but you will need the tags and information for the calendar month and year and cost rate type. This is a work in progress.

Just to note, this is not ready now. When it is pushed to the test environment, we will let you know so you can test out your XML.

3. Related to the indirect costs being calculated by the system. Currently, you are entering in manually the direct labor and the indirect costs.

In a future release of CARS, you will be able to more quickly enter in employees. The indirect costs will be generated by the system.

This is a future enhancement - here is a demo of how it will work.

Maximize the video to better see what is happening - if the above video is fuzzy, here is another link 

4. Training next week in the Milwaukee area will consist of 15 consultants on Tuesday, followed by 27 consultants on Wednesday.

A list of firms trained in CARS is here.

A link to the training videos is here.

CARS March 1 mandatory implementation has been delayed

As you can tell by the title of this blog post, the mandatory March 1 implementation of CARS has been delayed. There were a few crucial items that we all need to have working in CARS to proceed by that date. When it became apparent not all fixes would be done by March 1, we decided to postpone the mandatory implementation.

We'll be working closely with the consultant community to find out a new implementation date for CARS.

Note, if you have started invoicing a project in CARS, you should complete your invoicing for that particular project. You should not go back to paper.

Regardless of implementation, we are still busy training consultants. In the upcoming week, we have training in Waukesha on Wednesday and Thursday. So far I have 18 consultants signed up for those dates.

The link to the CARS training videos is here.

The link to firms that have signed up for training is here.

CARS Training in NC Region and Consultant Training Update

Just got back from training WisDOT employees in Rhinelander and Wisconsin Rapids. A total of 46 employees were trained. They are now ready to accept invoices electronically through the CARS application.

I also wanted to update you on the new training dates for consultant training. The new dates are January 28 and 29, February 3 and 4.

Go to the CARS website if you want to sign up for training.

The new dates are reflected in this map.

I have consultant training in Madison next Wednesday. A total of 20 consultants have signed up for training.

The list of firms trained in CARS is here.

A link to the CARS training videos is here.

change in CARS Consultant Training Dates

I know many of you have signed up for the February 17 and 18 CARS Training dates in West Allis and Waukesha. 

Many of you should have received an email indicating that those training dates will no longer be offered because we are losing our training environment after February 11.

I think this is good and bad. Bad because I don't like to have you make a commitment to the time, and then back out of it. This is something that really was out of our hands, so I let you know as soon as we did.

I am happy that we will be offering training earlier though. I felt with the March 1 implementation date, that training in mid-February would not allow you a lot of time to change how you did your business. The new training dates will hopefully be the last week of January and the first week of February. Hoping for 4 training dates over those two weeks. Will follow up with you as soon as I have dates and locations booked. I will work to update the website as well.

Training North Central WisDOT employees the upcoming Tuesday (1/13) and Wednesday (1/14).

The list of firms trained in CARS is here.

The link to the CARS Training videos is here.

January 2015 training schedule

As we head into the New Year, let's look ahead to what is on our training schedule.

WisDOT training

Rhinelander - 1/13/15 - training 14 employees
Wisconsin Rapids - 1/14/15 - training 29 employees

Consultant Training
Madison - 1/21/15 - training 14 consultants (so far)

I know we are down to two months until implementation. I'm trying to set up either a WebEx training session or possibly another training session in the SE Region in late January.

If you have already signed up for a SE Region training, I will email you about new opportunities to get training.

The list of firms trained in CARS is here.

The link to the CARS training videos is here.