How to Solve the Manual Data Entry Problem for Alaska Fish Tickets​​

Manual data entry can suck. Especially with the pressure of knowing that the data you’re entering will be sent to a government agency and is required to be accurate to comply with laws and regulations. That’s what you’re facing as an Alaska Seafood Processor required to complete and submit Fish Tickets to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Between the pressure, all the things on your to-do list and just simply being human, mistakes are bound to happen – we get it. But instead of accepting the added stress of fixing these mistakes as part of the job, we have a solution to make this seemingly never-ending problem much less stressful.

The Problem: Manual Data Entry & Corrections

You need accurate Fish Ticket data because you rely on it for auditing, record-keeping, answering fishermen’s questions, submitting to ADF&G, etc. So, when the data is input manually and a mistake is made, it makes an impact. What makes even more of an impact is when you have to manually correct the mistakes, too.

For example, let’s say you have a father-son duo fishing for you and the son is the permit holder and records the fish but you need to pay the father because the father is actually going to be responsible for paying out the crew. Or, maybe there was a crew member with a permit to catch more fish and you paid them instead of the boat owner. By manually recording these fish tickets incorrectly, they’ve now affected your general ledger, your Fish Ticket records, and the fishermen’s balances. This can be extremely problematic as it’s hard to explain to fishermen on their statements if you don’t manually track these movements clearly. For example, using our above scenario, if the son was to get his Fisherman Statement with the paid fish ticket on it that was meant to go to his father, he probably wouldn’t question it but then on his next Fisherman Statement that paid fish ticket would no longer be on there and his balance is now X number of dollars less and he doesn’t know why and may have already spent that money and he’s probably going to come to you frustrated, with a lot of questions.

Unfortunately for you since you’re trying to manually track all of this information and keep your documentation organized and accurate, you probably can’t answer his questions quickly or maybe even accurately because your data has been changed five times and doesn’t even live in the same place so you probably don’t even know if you’ve corrected everything that needs to be corrected.

But, lucky for you, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The Solution: Accurate Corrections at the Click of a Button

When all your data lives in the same place, digitally, and integrates with all parts of your business, it’s a lot easier to stay organized, find answers to fishermen questions, and make accurate corrections. Whether it’s voiding or correcting your Fish Tickets, NorthScope has you covered.

You simply search for the Fish Ticket(s) that need voiding or correcting, set the GL date of the void/correct, and then process. If you choose to void a ticket, NorthScope will replace the historical ticket and create a new ticket and mark it as void, this reverses the effects of the original ticket with the GL date you have provided. If you choose to correct a ticket, NorthScope will replace the historical ticket and create a new version of the ticket that is available for you to edit. Once you’ve made your corrections to the ticket, all you have to do is click a button and NorthScope does all the heavy lifting for you. NorthScope will create the necessary journal entries, update the affected fisherman’s or fishermen’s balance(s), auto-calculate the taxes and premiums if they are affected, and update each Fisherman Statement to show each ticket as Voided or Corrected so it’s clear to your fishermen, all while keeping track of the historical records of previous tickets, what was changed, when it was changed and by who it was changed. Oh, the glory of everything living in a system that was built for your industry!

By the way, the Fish Tickets you’re voiding and/or correcting don’t even need to originate in NorthScope – you can download eLandings tickets that had errors and correct those in NorthScope, too!

Finally, to close the loop on our example from before, if you were to void and correct the Fish Ticket you incorrectly paid out to the son to now be paid to the father, NorthScope would void the son’s Fish Ticket and create a new Fish Ticket to be paid out to the father – all of which would show up on their Fisherman Statements and would adjust their balances accordingly while keeping your GL balanced and accurate! It’s a win-win for you and your fishermen – clarity and accuracy for all!

To learn more about how NorthScope can help you serve you fishermen and keep them happy, check out our eBook Guide to Serving Your Alaska Seafood Fishermen.