I have a script in a directory -say users/me/test/
It looks like this:
# "bkup" - copies specified files to the user's ~/Backup
# directory after checking for name conflicts.
a=$(date +%T)
cp $1 ~/test/Backup/$1.$a
It copies file.txt from current directory and timestamps the name of it of it.
No problem there. bkup runs ok

I have a cron job that looks like this:
54 18 * * * /`users/me/test/bkup
I do crontab cron.txt and get no error
I set it up to run in the next few minutes. When the appointed time comes, instead of getting a new file copied, i get a mail from the Unix saying

Your "cron" job on thebox
/users/calcdev/coregan/pocbatch/bkup

produced the following output:

sh: /users/me/test/bkup^M: not found
What incredibly simple thing am I doing wrong? Do I have permissions to run the job. Seems like it can't find the script to run it.

dont edit your crontab file w/ a windows editor.

remove the ^M at the end of your crontab entrie.

Just as an update to Optimus_P's post, I found this old thread:

What is wrong with this code?

^M chars should be the cause.
You can remove them by opening the file in vi editor and using the foll command in the command mode:

%s/ctrl-v ctrl-m//g
(finally, it should show :%s/^M//g)

^M was the carriage return as described previously thanks to everyone.
I was editing it in UltraEdit because I can never get to grips with vi editor - I know that's blasphemy! - but UltraEdit is so much easier to use. Apart from when there are carriage returns in there of course!