Preferences are settings that affect the way Fusion does certain things and are a way of customizing Fusion for your operation. Usually when you open this window it will be from Fusion Client and the settings will apply to the entire Fusion system. However, if you open the window from the within a truck the preferences you can set will be different and only apply to the computer in that truck.
On the left hand side of the window there is a list of preference sections. Click a section in the list to see the settings associated with it. At the bottom is the Defaults button. If you click this button Fusion will change all the preferences in all sections back to their factory default values (if they have a default value). Or you can hold the Alt (Option on Mac) key down when you click the Defaults button and Fusion will only reset the settings for the selected section.
When you are finished making changes to the preferences, click the OK button. Or click the Cancel button to not save any of the changes you just made.
Generally it is best to figure out your preferences before you start using Fusion too much—especially before you transition. While preferences can be changed at any time, their historical affect cannot be. |
These sections are available from within Fusion Client and affect the entire system.
Company Logo. If your company has a logo that you would like printed on reports, you can add it here. Click the New From File button to get a new picture. Fusion will copy the picture you select to the server and leave the original file in place. You can delete it if you like. Fusion supports most picture file types. You normally want a fairly large picture size so that it will still look good when printed.
If you don't want the logo anymore, click the Clear Picture button to delete it. If you click the To Desktop button, Fusion will copy the logo picture from the server to your Desktop. This can be helpful when you need to work on the picture file itself and don't have another copy. If you make changes that you want Fusion to have, make sure you use the New From File button again to pull the changed picture file back into Fusion.
These preferences are related to lots in the system.
If you have a water meter which is used to help calculate the amount of water that is in a tempered ingredient, you have the choice of how Fusion bills for the water.
Previous to Fusion 3.8, Fusion used a system of tax formulas to calculate tax. While Fusion still has the possibility for setting up tax formulas (see below), they are only left in for historical purposes, ensuring that when old reports and invoices are re-printed Fusion will calculate the tax the same as before. If you are using the old tax formula system, you should transition to the new tax rate based system as soon as possible. Newly setup feedlots should only use the new system.
The new system works by specifying the tax rate as an attribute for ingredients, drugs, inputs, and water meters. Yardage also has a tax rate associated with it in the Lot Edit window. Other items can have a tax amount associated with them, also in the Lot Edit window. When using the new system, Fusion will look up the appropriate tax rate to apply on a particular day for each item.
In order to provide a way to transition from the old to the new system, this section of the Preferences window has a date field labeled Use tax rate attributes when billing starting on this date. When a date is entered here, Fusion will use the new system when calculating any tax related information on or after this date.
As mentioned above, the use of tax formulas is only left here for historical purposes and should not be used going forward. |
When Fusion calculates the tax amount for a bill, it will apply the formula you have entered here to the subtotal. If the way you calculate tax changes over time, create a new formula each time it changes and Fusion will use the correct formula depending on the time period of the bill.
Click the + button to create a new formula. Click the - button to delete the selected formula. With a formula selected, you can change its effective date and formula below. Use T in place of the subtotal value of the bill in the formula. For example, if the formula was (T*0.05)*0.1, and a bill's subtotal was $1000, Fusion would calculate the tax this way:
($1000 * 0.05) * 0.1 = $5.00
After you have entered a formula, click the Test Formula button to make sure it works as expected.
Fusion provides six different fields to store different ways of identifying an animal. One of them is the RFID field and the other ones can be customized for your operation. For example, you might have a management tag besides the RFID tag. You can use the Preferences window to change the label of each of the custom ID fields. You can also determine if each one is actively being used and which one is the default.
If you leave the RFID Tags All Consist Of Only Numbers option on, Fusion will use the touch keypad instead of the touch keyboard on touch screens if you have to manually enter an RFID tag. This is easier to do, but the option can be turned off if you have to enter RFID tags with letters in them for some reason.
Historically feedlots have used some of the custom ID fields to store non-ID related information. Fusion now has many other fields to store a host of information about each animal. It also has five custom fields to be used for other information you want to store that is non-ID related. We encourage the correct use of the custom ID fields now. |
In addition to the custom ID fields explained above, Fusion allows you to define five custom fields for animals to be used to store any information you like. You can also define 5 genetic test fields to store the results of up to 5 different genetic tests. And you can define 5 weight fields for an animal. Fusion already stores the weight of several instances in an animal's life—in weight, last known weight, the weight at each implant—but you may want to capture the weight of animals at another time in an organized way. The custom weight fields are for this use.
In each case, you can change the label of a custom field however you like and the new label will start being used throughout Fusion immediately.
If you have saved views (see the List Windows topic for more information), the columns in the view would have been saved with the labels current at the time of saving. If you change labels here, you will need to go through applicable saved views to update the labels manually. This applies to views set as default views as well. This applies to all the labels you can set including the custom animal ID fields and the lot custom fields described above. |
When an out cohort is saved, Fusion can adjust the weight of the remaining animals in the pen based on the weight of the out cohort. For example, if Fusion thinks the average weight for a pen with 10 head in it is 1000 lbs and you create an out cohort for 5 animals and their actual weight is 1100 lbs, then in theory the remaining animals must only be 900 lbs. This may be true if you took the 5 heaviest animals from the pen, but it may also be that Fusion had the average weight wrong in the first place. This preference determines how to handle this situation.
When the Simple Death Out Cohort window is used to record a dead, you can make sure Fusion always forced the user to link the animal that died by turning the Force animal linking for simple death out cohorts option on. If you are always linking animals this is usually a good idea. However, if you aren't linking animals or aren't always able to identify a dead animal, you should leave this option off.
These preferences determine how the bunk call graph and surrounding area look in all the feed trucks. If a change is made here, the trucks won't pick up the change until their next full sync.
Below the bunk call graph is a list of indicators that may be helpful when you are deciding whether to change the bunk call for a pen. There is limited space, so not all the indicators can be immediately visible (although you can scroll to see the other ones). The list of indicators can be used to set up how this list will appear in the trucks.
First, you can decide whether an indicator is even displayed by toggling the Display checkbox for each indicator. You can also drag and drop the indicators in the list to change their order. This way you can place the most important ones at the top where they will be seen without scrolling. If you Double-Click an indicator, the color picker will appear so you can change the color of the text of the indicator, perhaps to make it stand out more in the truck. You can also cause an indicator to be bold or italic by checking the appropriate checkboxes in the list. By working with a combination of these settings, you should be able to make it easy to comprehend the most important indicators in the touch at a glance.
When you are creating loads and delivering feed, Fusion realizes you don't care to hit the target amount precisely to the pound every time. Instead, you can set a threshold percentage where, if the actual is within this percent either side of the target, Fusion will consider it close enough to consider it done. The top three fields in this section are where you can set these threshold percentages.
You can set Fusion up to help you deliver feed in several passes through the day, with a different percentage of the day's required feed on each pass. This is done on a ration by ration basis (see the Ration Edit Window topic for more information). This preference is where you set up the default pass system for new rations. If you change this, previous rations are not affected and any new rations can be changed later, so this is just to save you time if most rations you create will have a similar pass system.
Click the + button to add a new pass. Double-Click the percentage to change it. Click the - button to remove a pass. If you select a row and click the Make 100% button, the percentage in that row will be changed so that the total for all rows is 100% which is necessary before you can save the preferences.
After you have delivered a load of feed, if there is a small difference between the zero weight of the last load and the new load as you begin making a new load, Fusion can automatically distribute this difference to the pens that were just fed which ensures that your loads are properly billed for. If the difference is more than about 50 pounds, you'll be asked if you want Fusion to do the distribution first. However, you can turn all this functionality off by unchecking the Auto Distribute Feed checkbox.
Most feedlots have feed trucks which need to communicate with Fusion Server. However, it is possible to tell Fusion Server to not listen to feed trucks if you don't have any.
Fusion tries to send as little information to truck computers as possible in order to keep the syncing times to a minimum. It does have to send a certain amount of historical data so Fusion Truck can do its job. For example, in order to draw the bunk call graph, Fusion Truck needs the feeding history for the pen. In most cases this only includes a few months worth of data, but for "temporary" pens such as a sick pen which has never been fully empty, Fusion might try to send years worth of data unnecessarily. This preference can be used to set a limit on how many days of data are sent to the truck for any pen.
The setting in this section pertain to the Scale Indicator window when used at chuteside or in the truck.
We strongly recommend against using the Hold and Compensate For Drift buttons. They were added to temporarily solve some issues connected with LCIB and DSI devices which are no longer supported. These buttons should not be necessary if you are using a scale indicator such as a Digit-Star head. |
This section determines how the Scale House window works for all locations.
The bottom section is used to define how the scale ticket number which is auto created for each scale house load is to be constructed. This is different for each location. Choose a location and then enter the prefix, next number, and suffix. For example, if you entered HH as the prefix and TT as the suffix, specifying 100 as the next number, the next few scale ticket numbers would look like this: HH100TT, HH101TT, HH102TT.
Depending on how you have the permissions set up for each user, they may or may not be able to edit the scale ticket once it has been generated. In either case, once a number has been used (even if the scale house load wasn't saved or was deleted), it won't be used again.
It doesn't make sense to keep some kinds of information in Fusion forever. Use this section to specify how long Fusion keeps data that can be removed after a time.
Fusion keeps an audit trail every day for every feed truck. This information can be extremely helpful, but usually isn't useful after a few weeks or months and it takes up a lot of space in the data file. By default Fusion will delete these audit trails after 270 days, but you can adjust this timeframe. Use the Check Impact... button to see how much room these audit trails are taking. Normally you just change the value and the next night Fusion will remove what is needed, but if there is a reason to you can use the Remove Now... button to do so now.
Fusion Anywhere is a separate product which makes it possible to access your yard's data when away from the yard. If you are using Fusion Anywhere, you'll need to make sure the Allow Fusion Server to connect to Fusion Anywhere checkbox is turned on. You can also change the connection URL, if instructed to do so by our support team. And you can test the connection using the Test Connection button.
Please note that any change you make here will take up to 30 seconds to apply after you've saved the Preferences window.
If you are in Canada, Fusion can automate much of the required communication with CCIA. Use this section to enter your CCIA account information for each location by selecting a location and entering its information to the right.
The move in and move out events can be automatically done as described above. Age verification can also be done automatically if set up as part of a chuteside job (see the Job Definition Edit Window topic for more information). Other CCIA events can be manually taken care of from the Animal List window (see the Animals List Window topic for more information). |
In order for Fusion to be able to automatically send events to CCIA, your CCIA account has to be modified slightly. You will need to contact CCIA (cltssupport@canadaid.ca) and ask them to turn on the WS Birth Date Report and WS Event Submission security options for web services for each of your accounts. If this isn't done, you will get an error when Fusion tries to communicate with CCIA.
For age verification purposes, we sell another product called Symmetry. Symmetry replicates the entire age verification part of the CCIA database locally on your server. If you have Symmetry, you can point Fusion to it with these preferences so that age verification is done very fast and will work even if the internet isn't working.
If you use iFHMS at one of your locations and you plan to have iFHMS communicate movement and health charges to Fusion, the following need to be set up in Fusion:
Once a location is set up for iFHMS, please be aware of the following behavior and expectations:
When Fusion encounters an error while processing iFHMS files, it sends a system message to the administrator and then stops further processing for that location. (You can view the status of a location in the Preferences window.) Fusion will re-try processing every minute, so once you correct the error you shouldn't have to wait very long before it takes affect. (If you do not fix the error within three hours, another system message will be sent.)
If the error is the result of a lot or pen name not being correct, make sure you correct this in Fusion, not iFHMS. At this point iFHMS has already committed the information under its lot or pen name and won't create another communication file after you change it there.
If you are in Australia, you can enter your NLIS account information for each location here. You can then submit information to NLIS from the Animal List window (see the Animals List Window topic for more information). To enter an account, select a location and then fill in the fields to the right.
There are two other NLIS related settings.
These sections are only available from with a truck and only apply to the computer in the specific truck.
These preferences deal with how the truck syncs with the Fusion Server. The IP address and port can also be set in the Full Sync window.
The next set of preferences can be used to set Fusion up to automatically sync at certain times. While it is necessary to sync at the beginning and end of the feeding day, we recommend syncing with every load if your network will allow it. The more often you sync the less less likely you will be to lose much information if you have trouble with your truck. And this is especially important if you multiple trucks feeding in an overlapping pattern.
There are two possible situations when Fusion can automatically sync: after you finish making a load and after you finish delivering a load. You will choose what will happen during each situation by clicking the appropriate radio button
Our recommendation would be to select the last option for both situations if your network will handle it.
On Windows, you can open this window by going to Fusion Admin → Setup → Preferences in office computers. On a Macintosh, you can open the window from the application window. On either platform, use Fusion Chuteside Main Menu → Options → Physical Computer Management at chuteside or Fusion Truck Main Menu → Options → Physical Computer Management in a truck.