The benefit of material tracking is you know where your materials are at any stage of the supply chain, from manufacture to install on site. Every material you're tracking has a record in Matrak that shows where it is and what its status is.
These Record Types have different categories: Materials, Locations, Containers and Tasks.
Materials include everything from big items like Facade panels to small items like nuts and bolts.
Locations tell you where these materials are in the supply chain.
Containers are your stillages, shipping containers, or deliveries.
Tasks show which jobs need to be done, or what needs to be checked.
In the Edit Record Types page you can:
Add new Record Types such as Materials, Containers, Locations and Tasks
Quickly edit the fields within these Record Types
Edit multiple Records Types in one interface
In this article we'll cover:
Tip: You can use the above links to 'jump' to areas of the article you might specifically be looking to learn about. We've added a 'Back to navigation' link at each section header to quickly come back to this navigation menu.
What are record types?
Record Types are essentially like templates for your Matrak records. They all have unique IDs and status fields by default, and then you can add different fields to collect information about your materials like comments, dates, times, links, and photos. When you edit these fields it will change the fields in all of the associated records that use this template.
You can create Record Types for Materials, Locations, Containers and Tasks. For example, when you create a Record Type for a Stillage in the Container category you might want to include fields like Location, Arrival Date, Arrival Time and Comments. That way you know where your delivery is going and if it's been packed properly.
How to create a new record type
On the left hand side of your workspace, you will see a vertical navigation bar, with our Record Type categories 'Materials', 'Tasks', 'Containers' and 'Locations'. There is also a handy search bar, so you can find your Record Types easily.
To add a new Record Type into one of these categories, simply click the '+' add button next to your chosen category, this will automatically create a new Record Type within this group.
Now type in your Record Type name and click enter, for this example let's setup a Stillage Record Type.
You'll now see a new Record Type called 'Stillage' in your workspace, this has been pre-populated with a text fields for the 'ID' and a list of possible values for 'Status', you can't remove these fields, they're necessary to make sure all your materials are tracked correctly!
But you can add more fields, above we wanted to add some fields to make sure we knew the progress and arrival date of our new Stillage, let's add some fields for Location, Arrival Date, Arrival Time and comments.
Simply right click on either of the current descriptions and it will bring up a menu where you can:
Insert a new field above
Adds a new field above the field you selected
Insert a new field below
Adds a new field below the field you selected
Edit the list reference (Only if you right click on a list)
Allows you to quickly change the selected list to one you've previously created, super helpful if you're creating multiple descriptions with the same list ie: Pass, Fail or N/A.
Detach a list (Only if you right click on a list)
Detaches this list if you've used the Edit List Reference tool above
Deletes the selected description
Permanently deletes the descriptions you've selected.
Note: This cannot be undone, and will remove this field from any associated records.
If you hover over 'Insert one below' or 'Insert one above' it will bring up a list of field options:
To create a new description for location we're going to select a list and name it 'Location', so we can add multiple selection options such as 'In Transit' and 'Arrived on Site'.
We can now continue to add new fields to our Record Type such as a Time field for the 'Arrival Time' a Date field for the 'Arrival Date' and a Text Area field to collect comments.
Note: Text is a single line of text for shorter descriptions and Text Area is expandable suitable for many comments and longer descriptions.
Now your Record Type is set up correctly, you can start creating Records by using the Add Records Page, you can add information for all of the new fields you've created by typing it in or pasting directly from Excel.
How to re-order your Record Type fields
If you want to reorder the fields in your Record Type you can simply hover over a field you would like to move, and left click and hold, and move it up or down to it's required position
You can also do this within the list drop downs:
And in the side navigation.
Note: You can drag and drop Record Types within these categories, if you want to move a Record Type into another category, right click on the Record Type and use the menu to click 'Change Category' and select and new option.
