E*TRAC - product details
| Base module | Residential | Pretrial | Work release | Goodies | Reports | System Mgr. | The future |
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Overview
The Base module includes over 60 data entry and edit screens which can be independently incorporated in the system allowing you to be as detailed (or as general) in your data collection tasks as appropriate for your business and legislative requirements! It is designed as a stand-alone day reporting module, but can be used to augment the functionality of any other part of the system as well. Data is entered and viewed via a Windows Explorer - like interface called Data Explorer. The main categories are displayed in the left hand window, and appropriate detail information in the right pane. Individual records can be viewed or edited by simply double clicking on the desired row. The Base System collects data in the following main categories:
Personal data (12 subcategories)
Financial and billing (9 subcategories)
Legal information (6 subcategories)
Supervision (14 subcategories)
Victims (3 subcategories)
Residential supervision (11 subcategories)
Documents (4 subcategories)
Photo ID and biometric identification
Contact information
Correspondence
Chronological notes about a client ("chrons")
Alerts (summary of missed events, positive substance tests, infractions, etc.)
Facility log (administrative and other entries not directly related to any client.)
The Base module contains everything you want to know about your clients in one, fully user-customizable and easy to use place! You can add and subtract categories and subcategories displayed in Data Explorer at will thus tailoring the view of data to individual members of your staff or to groups of employees. Reporting is also easy and fully customizable as the system is designed to seamlessly integrate the comprehensive suite of built-in reports with custom (user-designed) reports.
Check-in
In a busy day reporting facility the Check-in screen is probably the most used part of the system. All relevant check-in operations, with the exception of creating new records, can be performed from this screen which incorporates information about the client's current ("today's") schedule, permanent schedule and about all appropriate restrictions, warnings and concerns about the client. Detailed information is available simply by clicking on the selected row of data.
Scheduling
One of the most difficult and labor-intensive tasks is scheduling and compliance tracking of clients' activities, events, tests, meetings, etc. Fortunately, E*TRAC provides very robust and flexible scheduling facilities. Events, classes, substance tests, payments, etc. can be scheduled either as one time, recurring or random events (only certain events - such as verifications, client searches, etc., and substance tests make sense as random events, of course.) The frequency can be 1-7 times per week, 1- 3 times a month, “on the last day on a month”, and bi-weekly. You can also schedule activities as 1-7 times a week “any day" or 1-3 times a month “any day" and the system will display them as "currently scheduled" during the specified period. Moreover, the system is capable of checking whether the schedule generated for all clients, or for a specific subset of clients, conforms to a set of user-defined rules, for instance whether or not a particular “event” occurs no more than certain number of days apart. Because of the flexibility of the E*TRAC scheduler, the generated schedule can be as detailed or as general as required by your requirements. For instance, you can schedule a case manager meeting on a certain day – and time – or anytime during a week or even a month. You can also schedule client co-payment – if any – for any schedule. The scheduler works equally well in a day reporting environment and in a residential facility, where – in addition to scheduled events, classless, tests, etc., - many events occur randomly. Also useful in a residential setting is the ability to schedule deposits of client’s paychecks and payments of amount due. The system automatically processes new schedules (and new billing schedules - see below) each night. Recurring monthly and weekly schedules are automatically generated at the end of each month for the following scheduling period. The system supplies a lot of scheduling, compliance and audit-type reports, including "who-what-when-where" reports, non-compliance reports, administrative audit reports (e.g. active clients without schedules, etc.) As with the rest of the system, all reports can be easily customized to your needs and requirements.
Billing
Billing in E*TRAC is automatic, easy to configure and fully customizable! You can configure the system to bill per day, per month or per occurrence of a certain event. You can also choose “who pays” - whom to bill (client, agency, etc.) and ”who gets” the money. You can also easily configure “split billing” – where the client pays a portion of the fee and other agency (or agencies) the rest. The billing component works equally well in both residential and non-residential settings. By default, for nonresidential (for instance day reporting) clients the system generates a bill (or an invoice, statement, etc.) and for residential clients the system automatically charges their money accounts. In a residential setting, you can also write checks for “cash” (client’s pocket money) and perform manually other kinds of withdrawals from the client’s accounts. All these operations can be performed either on individual checks or on groups (‘batches”) of transactions. The system generates bills, statements and invoices in virtually any “paper” format. It can also export billing data in text format, for instance for use with your billing software or accounting program. (Please note that the "export" functionality is an optional, extra-cost item.) A separate billing component (one of the "goodies" in the system) facilitates check printing, voiding and bank statement reconciliation, etc. All billing related operations might be performed automatically (as scheduled) or manually, at any time during the billing cycle (for instance – even for single clients upon their discharge.) To facilitate the process, a billing wizard guides the operator through the required billing operations.
The residential subsystem - "The Watchtower" - provides real-time information about clients in a residential setting, such as a halfway house. It is a specialized residential-only module and is designed to work with the base system, which provides data entry and edit facilities. The main screen displays all clients currently in the facility in the right-hand pane, and all clients currently out of the facility in the left-hand pane. Users can easily view more information about any of the “out” clients by selecting the client and clicking on the “Details” button. Information on the screen is updated automatically in user-selectable intervals. Clients can be selected manually or with a client’s ID card (for instance using a barcode reader.) Optionally, the client’s picture can be displayed on the screen each time the client is selected for check out or check in. If the facility consists of more than one physical location, users can monitor all buildings (in a view-only, read-only mode), but checkout and check-in operations can be performed only for one building at the time by the workstation located in that building. Users can perform the following operations from the main “Watchtower” screen:
Check out, check-in, client’s time and location change
Enter the client’s ride requests and dispatch
Perform administrative tasks
Add and edit approved locations – both client-specific and “generic” to all clients
Add work hours for a client
Perform breathalyzer, substance tests, and enter payments deposits, “chrons” and other events
Monitor visitors in the facility
Make entries in the “whereabouts” verification log
View and print related reports, print the current count sheet, etc.
The system can also include a client’s accessible reporting facility, based on a touch-screen (keyboard less) workstation and a client ID card reader.
If you run a pretrial supervision program, or perform pretrial evaluations, this program supplies all the functionality needed to accomplish it efficiently and accurately. The "heart" of this module is a user configurable pretrial questionnaire and a pretrial summary sheet. After entering data, the system's rule-based and user configurable scoring system performs all scoring operations. Discretionary adjustment of the total is also possible. The scoring system works in tandem with the main pretrial data entry screen and the client's criminal history data, and automatically assigns the appropriate number of points to appropriate scoring categories. You can define a practically unlimited number of questions in the pretrial questionnaire, assign a numeric point value to each question and attach a scoring rule to any question. The questionnaire is divided into typical pretrial evaluation scoring sections: criminal history, residence, employment, home ownership and living arrangements. Additional helpful information, such as banking, income and debt data are also incorporated in the system In addition to the main pretrial questionnaire the system can also use other standard questionnaires - such as Domestic Violence Scoring Instrument DV1040 in the state of Colorado - which can be incorporated into the program depending on your needs. As with other parts of the system, data entered in this module is instantly available to other parts of the system, thus allowing - for instance - a "seamless" change of the client's status from "pretrial evaluation" to "pretrial supervision." In addition to Data Explorer and the Criminal history screen, the system includes the following data screens:
Biographical information
Address
Employment
Family situation
Used names and aliases
Contact and reference information
Co-signer data
Photo
Medical data
Substance abuse data
Documents and correspondence, etc.
In addition to standard predefined reports (main pretrial report, scoring sheet, domestic violence scoring, etc.) user-defined reports can be easily incorporated in the system
Work release/Useful Public Service
This module provides the functionality required by the work release and other "useful public service" programs. It concentrates on storing and processing legal information about the client (sentence, conditions, etc.), compliance tracking (work site history, hours worked) and employer/employee skill matching. It also generates the necessary paperwork, such as update/completion documents, placement forms, referral sheets, placement agreements, skill matching reports, etc. All documents and reports generated by this part of the system are user-customizable, and of course you can always add your own custom forms and reports. In addition to standard data elements, the systems stores data about work sites, skills required, work restrictions, etc. As with other parts of the system, data entered in this module is instantly available to other parts of the system.
E*TRAC reporting subsystem uses a powerful reporting engine – Crystal Reports by Crystal Decisions, Inc. (formerly Seagate Crystal Reports) version 7 or higher. All reports are stored in external files and can be easily modified by the system administrator and competent users. All reports can accept parameters - both explicit (user-selected) and implicit (defined by the system administrator.) Parameters make the reporting subsystem very flexible and allow designing reports delivering exactly the desired output. Reports can be generated for the selected client only or for all or current clients. You can also easily configure reports to print data based on practically any selection criteria – program, case manager, event, range of dates, etc. There is no limit (except disk storage and the sheer length of the list of reports) to the number of reports that can be used by E*TRAC. New reports are added to the system and made available to all – or selected – users using the system administrator utility. Report output can be sent to the screen, printer or file, or – optionally - rendered as a PDF file readable by Adobe Acrobat. The latter option can be exceptionally useful when reports are emailed, because the PDF file is read-only and cannot be altered. For printing, the user can select any installed printer – local or networked. Reports can also be printed in batches, based on pre-selected parameters, with each batch scheduled to run unattended.
Goodies are small programs and utilities that make your life easier. These programs either add a very specific, custom functionality to the entire system or simply automate time-intensive operations. At this time, the "goodies in the system include:
A specialized billing application used for check printing, bank statement reconciliation, etc.
A fully user-configurable "assessment" module, including the ability to store and administer standard tests
Barcode data entry subsystem used for batch scheduling of substance tests and other activities
Client/inmate accessible residential reporting utilizing a touch-screen computer
Touch screen wireless tablet application used for room checks, head count, etc.
Utility to "even up" any random-scheduling "bumps"
Various system and workstation configuration utilities
Thanks to the open, component-based architecture of E*TRAC various "goodies" can be added to the system on request. Please note that some "goodies" are extra-cost items.
This subsystem - included with every module of E*TRAC provides all customization, configuration and management options required by all other components. The system is almost entirely data driven and most changes to the configuration variables are instantaneously available to all users without the need to reboot their running E*TRAC applications. System Manager is used to configure the following:
System and site data
Program data, variables and defaults
Program locations, internal and external staff data
Standard codes used throughout the system
Default values for frequently used data elements
User accounts and system access rights
Logical view of data for individual users or groups of users
Required data elements and data validation criteria
Templates for "chrons", facility notes and other frequently used descriptive entries
The system is constantly evolving and new modules are added rather frequently. Soon, the system will include the following additional functionality:
Domestic Violence module (the system already collects many DV-related data elements)
Biometric identification module, based on fingerprint or hand-geometry recognition, retina scan, etc.
Web-based reporting. Users will be able to access the E*TRAC reporting facilities with a regular internet browser. The future is already here! Please see E*TRAC Reports/Net for more info.
Information will be posted on the web site as these module become available
Read the
E*TRAC FAQ page
Go to the E*TRAC Reports/Net page
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