TraCS Overview

The key elements of the TraCS software are as follows:

• Cases

• Forms

• Groups

• Collections

Cases are the primary components of TraCS. Before you can create and enter data into a Form, you must create or open a Case.

Within a Case, officers open Forms. Forms are used to collect data pertaining to an incident. For example, if an officer were at the scene of an accident, he/she would open an accident report form to enter the appropriate data. A Case can be assigned an unlimited number of Forms. If citations were issued in connection with the accident, citation forms would be opened as well within the same Case.

Forms contain sets of fields called Groups. All forms are composed of one or more Groups that organize related information. For example, all information concerning the driver of a vehicle in an accident is placed in a Group, while location information regarding the accident is placed in a different Group. Groups that occur one time in a form are known as Non-Recurring Groups, and Groups that can occur more than one time in a Form are known as Recurring Groups.

Some Groups contain Collections of Common Information. TraCS organizes Common Information into the following four categories, which are called Collections:

• Individuals (for example, name, address, phone number, etc.)

• Vehicles (for example, make, model, license plate number, VIN, etc.)

• Commercial Carriers (for example, carrier name, carrier address, DOT #, etc.)

• Location (for example, location description, latitude, longitude, etc.)

Once common information is entered into a TraCS Case, it can be used in multiple forms.

Form layout

The layouts of the TraCS forms are significantly different from the paper forms. They contain all the data fields on the paper forms plus, in some cases, a few additional data fields.

Document Number

TraCS automatically generates document numbers for all forms. You cannot change the number. This is very important so that duplicate document numbers do not occur for different reports.

Unlike the document number on the paper MV4000 that consists of seven numbers, the TraCS accident document numbers contain numbers and letters.

Help Screens

TraCS has built-in help screens that can be accessed for a data field by pressing the <F2> key. Help is available for each of the forms in the suite.

The Help button on the toolbar brings up information about the TraCS software, in general.

Validations

The forms contain numerous validation rules that check data integrity and completeness as well as enable or disable data fields based on the value entered in another field.

Ability to import data from other sources.

TraCS allows the import of operator and vehicle information from external data sources such as a mobile data browser or by using a 2D barcode scanner. Your agency may or may not be set up to use these features.

Pre-filled data fields based on user default files

Some data fields such as your agency name, address and phone number can be automatically populated into the report from your user file.

Data sharing among forms

If multiple forms are opened within a Case (e.g. accident plus citations), once data is entered in one of the forms, it can be brought into other forms without re-keying.