AMOS Connect Message Costing for Crew
FAQs (See also Factsheet)
Q Does this product charge Crew the exact price of the message?
No it doesn’t, because Modem Handshake, Message Compression, Duplex transmission, poor lines etc. are not taken into account
The intention is that the pricing reflects approximately the EXTRA cost of sending these messages over and above what the ship’s business traffic is. So if the ship makes a call with 100KB + one crew email of 6KB, the call will be longer. Based on the type of Inmarsat (or Iridium) circuit used, this extra cost varies as can be seen below:
Many of our shipping company customers would like to offer their crew email, some of them want to charge at cost, others are only interested in knowing what the costs are. This tool allows them to achieve this.
Doing it this way is also very clear for the crew. Knowing that it will be eg 10c per kilobyte is easy to understand.
Q Is this only for crew?
No. ALL messages sent and received will be displayed, by mailbox.
The spreadsheet also has a summary sheet showing subtotals per Account Code. AMOS Connect can be configured to force an Account Code to be entered against each message. In this way, messages can be subtotaled for eg. Owner, Charterers, or Managers.
Q Which software versions does it work with?
AMOS Connect 5.1 and higher
Microsoft Windows NT, 2000 and XP
Microsoft Excel 97 and higher
QHow do I install it?
The file should be copied over the existing file of the same name in the directory containing the AMOS Connect Program. No other changes are required.
If this is not known, search for file name “amos log.xlt” This is the correct location.
QHow do I use it?
In AMOS Connect simply select:
Remote> Connect Log> View in MS Excel.
This screen will appear
Select the From and To dates (for the From date ,if you do not select a time, use the day AFTER you want the report.
Press OK
Excel will automatically open and after a few seconds this screen will appear:
Click OK and you can see a summary, per Mailbox (user) of the costs.
On the left of the screen (in the example next to rows 11, 18 & 19) you see + or -. Click on the + to see the individual messages or – to summarise.
The information can now be saved or printed.
QWhat is the default rate per kilobyte?
As standard the software is set at 10c per kilobyte (always rounded up to next kilobyte) eg 1.5 KB is charged at 20c.
QHow do I change the price per kilobyte?
Open the file “amos log.xlt” via Windows Explorer. Select the file and. with the right mouse button. select open.
Go to worksheet “Prices”.
Change the rate as required.
Save it and close it.
You have to rerun the export for these changes to take effect.
Note: Do not open via Excel itself or by double clicking on the file as this opens a worksheet.
If when you press “save” Excel asks you for a filename, you have opened it in the wrong way.
QDo I need to make any changes to Excel?
Macros sometimes contain viruses. Because amos log.xlt contains a macro, your Excel security settings may stop macros running or may give a warning that the file contains a macro and give you the option to Disable or Enable macros.
If you are not sure, the old version of amos log.xlt also uses a macro. If the old version will work, then so will the new one.
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