Time is Money(TM) Version 2.2 Copyright (c) 1986 - 1991 by Custom Data Solutions All Rights Reserved Written by Martin Schiff _______ ____|__ | (TM) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Table of Contents Introduction.......................................... 4 Purchasing Time is Money.............................. 6 Disk Vendor Rules..................................... 9 Association of Shareware Professionals................ 10 Warranty.............................................. 11 Getting Started....................................... 13 Installation...................................... 13 Starting Program.................................. 15 Main Menu............................................. 16 Client List........................................... 20 Define Project........................................ 24 Add New Time Records.................................. 26 Enter Fixed Expense Records........................... 29 Invoicing............................................. 32 Reports............................................... 38 Logging Invoice Payments.............................. 41 File Maintenance...................................... 43 Utilities............................................. 48 Helpful Hints......................................... 51 Miscellaneous..................................... 51 Retainers......................................... 52 Glossary.............................................. 54 INTRODUCTION Time is Money(TM) is a Shareware time and expense billing and accounting system that will allow you to completely automate your billing and receivables. It supports time billing in any increment, and also the sale of equipment or fixed price contracts. Time is Money (for the sake of brevity I will sometimes refer to Time is Money as TIM) facilitates the time recording and billing process for anyone who bills by time and project. It is a versatile time and expense billing system that maintains records, automatically generates invoices, and keeps a history of the payment of those invoices. TIM is not a complete accounting system. No general ledger or payables system is included, but it will handle all your time and expense billing requirements. Some of the features included in this version of TIM are: Time recording in any increment by project Expense or fixed price contract recording Maintenance of client list Print labels Maintain client credit balances for retainers Bill to/Ship to reference Inclusion of contact name on "Attention:" line of invoice address Automatic generation of invoices for all unbilled time and expenses by project for one or all clients All clients and projects can be billed for their unbilled time with one menu selection Statements of account by client Unbilled time and expense reports Pro-forma invoice Sales tax reporting and recording Unpaid bill report New printer support module with support for laser printers Although many time billing systems are available, very few can handle equipment sales as easily and as effectively as TIM. Additionally, the source code is included in the registration package, allowing TIM to be customized to your own specifications. Finally, TIM is designed to be simple to operate yet versatile. PURCHASING TIME IS MONEY Time is Money is being distributed as user supported software (Shareware). That is, if you are using TIM in your business you should pay for it based on the schedule below. Please send all payments to: CUSTOM DATA SOLUTIONS 248 Wood Lake Drive Maitland, Florida 32751 or phone (407) 767-9278 to order by MasterCard or Visa. I hope you will register this copy as an indication of your support for the Shareware concept. Registration is required if you are using this program in a business environment after initial testing. Please send in the registration form provided in the file license.txt with your registration. You may ask what will I receive in return if I pay for the program? Well, besides the satisfaction of paying for a program that you use and from which you derive benefit, you will receive the following based on the amount you send: $50 - Basic shareware registration package 1. The latest shareware version of the program 2. 1 hour of telephone support 3. Installation guide 4. On-line documentation 5. Unlimited support on the CONSULT forum on CompuServe 6. Free sign up kit and connect time for CompuServe $95 - Deluxe commercial distribution version (not shareware) 1. The latest shareware version of the program 2. 2 hours of telephone support 3. Installation guide 4. A FoxPro version of the program (if requested) which includes a FoxPro runtime, and a command prompt that allows you to create new reports, and do your own queries on the databases. 5. Unlimited support on the CONSULT forum on CompuServe 6. Free sign up kit and connect time for CompuServe 7. Printed user manual Additional support will be charged at $60 per hour computed by the minute at the discretion of the support personnel. In many cases there will be no charge for the additional support. Support or registration may be paid for by Mastercard, Visa, or by sending a check in advance. For $200 per year, you can receive unlimited free support, and free updates as they are issued. I am eager to hear suggestions, compliments and criticisms about Time is Money. If you are a registered user, and I feel that your suggestion will add to the value of the program, it is quite likely that I will implement it very quickly and send you a new version of the program at no charge. Custom modifications can also be implemented at an agreed upon charge. If you are not a registered user, I would still like to hear your comments, etc. DISK VENDOR RULES Time is Money may be distributed by any approved member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP), and it will be included in the officially approved team mailing for the ASP. Otherwise, Time is Money MAY NOT BE sold, or included in any compilation of programs which are sold without the express written permission of Custom Data Solutions. We urge all vendors to join the ASP as an expression of their support for quality shareware. For information on obtaining ASP Approved Vendor status, contact: ASP Executive Director 545 Grover Road Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS Custom Data Solutions is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals, an organization formed in April 1987 to strengthen the future of shareware (user-supported software) as an alternative to commercially marketed software. Its members, all of whom are programmers who subscribe to a code of ethics, are committed to the concept of shareware as a method of marketing. ASP has established stringent standards for its member. ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Rd. Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or a CompuServe message via Easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. WARRANTY TIME IS MONEY(TM) Copyright (C) 1986 - 1991 by Martin Schiff This program is warranted to be as free from problems as I could make it, but beyond that, I will not be responsible for improper billing, or any other problems that may occur as a result of the proper or improper use of this software. If you are a registered user and entitled to support, I will make every effort to correct any problem which may occur, and to provide you with a corrected version of the program. It should be understood that this program uses either FoxPro (Trademark Fox Software, Inc.), or Clipper compiler (Trademark Nantucket), and in no way will I be responsible for problems generated by any of these packages. However, I will attempt to work around them for registered users. There are no other warranties either implied or expressed that apply to this package. I will not be responsible for any losses or problems that may occur as a result of the use of this software. Clipper is a trademark of Nantucket FoxPro is a trademark of Fox Software GETTING STARTED INSTALLATION Time is Money version 2.2 requires an IBM-PC/XT, AT or compatible computer with a hard disk having at least 900K of free space, and approximately 450K of free ram memory after loading DOS and your normal operating environment. It will run on either color or monochrome systems, and can utilize practically any printer. Other versions of Time is Money which will run on systems with less memory are available on request to registered users. Also, a FoxPro version is available which has a command line interface that simulates the command prompt in FoxPro. First copy all the files from this archive into a new directory on your hard disk, and then type INSTALL to install the program. If you are using a previous version of Time is Money, and are a registered user call for an update program before installing this version. In order to run Time is Money, you must have a CONFIG.SYS file in the root directory of your boot disk. It must have the following minimum values: FILES=30 BUFFERS=15 If you do not have a CONFIG.SYS file, you can create one as follows. At the DOS prompt of your hard disk (i.e. C>) type the following and press the key after each line: CD\ COPY CON:CONFIG.SYS FILES=30 BUFFERS=15 Then press function key F6 (it will display ^Z) and the key. You will get the message "1 file copied." STARTING PROGRAM The shareware version of TIM is started by typing START from within the TIM directory (type CD \TIM to get into the TIM directory) . Once you are at the main menu, you should press function key F1 to read the on-line manual. The manual is available at almost any point during program operation, so if you have a question about what you are doing at any time just press F1. The FoxPro version is started by typing FOXR TIMFOX from the DOS prompt in the TIM directory. Alternately you can use the batch files provided (START.BAT for the shareware version and STARTFOX.BAT for the FoxPro version). Just type START or STARTFOX from the DOS prompt in the TIM directory to use that method. Remember that if you are using a menu program which uses batch files to run Time is Money, you should either include the batch instructions in your batch file, or use the dos CALL command. MAIN MENU After starting up the program, a title screen will appear. You can press the space bar to go past the title screen, or wait and it will automatically go on after a few seconds. The next screen you will see is the Main Menu This menu is the heart of the Time is Money system. Almost any function of TIM can be accessed from the Main Menu. To choose an option from the main menu, press the key indicated. It is not necessary to press the key. To begin using the power and time saving capabilities of Time is Money, you must first set up the system with the information it needs to function. The first step is to input your company information. You will use MODIFY company information (option M) to accomplish this. First select M on the Main Menu and you will be presented with a data entry screen that asks for information about your company. At the bottom of the screen you will see the standard data modification menu for Time is Money. Once you learn how to use this menu, you will have mastered 80% of this program, and the other 20% should be self evident. You will notice that you can execute a number of commands from this menu. These functions are: Add a company, Change a company, Delete a company, Find a company, display the Next or Previous company, and List all of the companies (if you decide to define more than one company), you will be able to page up or down, and select a particular record for editing, or press the first letter of the company code to move directly to that part of the list. Now you may well ask what is the use of all this since I am only one company? Very perceptive, but it will be very useful when you want to edit your time records, or client list. To enter your company information, press A for Add and type in all the information requested. If you fill a field the cursor will automatically go on to the next field. If not, you must press to go on. You should type the information exactly as you wish it to appear on your invoice headings (i.e. upper and lower case where desired). Most of the prompts are self explanatory, but there are a couple that may need clarification. The Invoice Prefix is an upper case code that uniquely identifies your company. Invoice numbers will be of the form PREFIX+NUMBER (i.e. "ABC 123"), where ABC identifies your company. It is necessary to use 3 letters, 1 or 2 are not acceptable. The initials of your company name are a good choice. You can create multiple companies if you desire to bill using more than one company name, but all the accounting information will be kept together. The current invoice number is the number used to start your series of invoices for that particular company. You should note that the prefix of the company that is currently selected is displayed on the main menu beneath the Main Menu heading. After you have input all the information for your company, you should go on to enter your client list using option C, and then C again at the client submenu. This option works similarly to the company edit screen, and then you must input your project names by selecting option D (DEFINE new project). See the pages regarding these options for further information. When you have all the information entered, you can begin keeping time records for your projects. Further information about this function can be found under Add new time records. Time is Money comes pre-configured for a color system, and an Epson compatible printer. If you need to change to monochrome, use the Setup option and respond to the appropriate prompt that you have a (M)onochrome system. The "What printer?" option will allow you to change your printer type. See the section for "Setup" and "What printer?" for further information. CLIENT LIST The client list is a record of all your clients that includes: Company name, address, contact person, telephone number, credit balance (if any) and a comment. You must give each client a unique identification code. I recommend using alpha codes, such as a last name for a company that uses a person's name as the company name, or a portion of the company name if it is not a person's name (i.e. "The Real Estate Company" could be "TREC" or "REALEST"). The code will be automatically converted to upper case on input. When a project is created, use this client code to identify the client to be billed. Next to the contact field, you will notice a prompt "Include?". Answer Y if you want the contact's name to appear in an attention line (Attention: "Contact Name") on the address of your invoice. The "Distance" field allows Time is Money to keep track of the distance that you drive in a mileage log. This distance should be the ROUND TRIP distance to your client's location from your office. When you are entering your time records, if you use "TRAVEL" as the ACTIVITY, the program will display a prompt for DISTANCE, with the distance to your client already entered. If it is not correct (if you went from another location for instance), you can edit the mileage figure. If you prefer a designation other than "TRAVEL", you can go into Setup and choose another name. If you wish to be prompted for mileage on each time record, then enter a "*" for the travel designation. The "Credits" field should be left blank unless the client currently has a credit with you for overpayment of a previous invoice. The "Ship to" field is used as a pointer to another client record. This allows you to have a "ship to" address printed on your invoice that is different than the "bill to" address. If this field is left blank, there will be only one address printed on the invoice, and there will be no "Ship to" or "Bill to" identifiers printed. If you need a ship to address, create a second client record with a different client code (you could add a number to the first code -- i.e. MJS and MJS2) and input the client code of the second record in the original record as a "Ship to" pointer. This is especially handy in the case of a lease where the equipment is delivered to your client, but sold to the leasing company. You would have a client record for the leasing company, and in the "ship to" field you would put the client code for the client that is leasing the equipment. The "ship to" field can be edited at any time if there is more than one "ship to" address for a client (as in the case of a leasing company). Now we can really see the benefit of the List command on the client maintenance menu. Once you press L for List, you will see a screen that shows you the records in your client file in table form. You can page up and down, or use the cursor key to move up and down in the list. Also, with the shareware (Clipper) version, you can press any letter to move to the first record that has a client code which begins with that letter (or number if you use numbers). Remember that the client code field is an alpha field, so if you use numbers, they will be sorted in alpha rather than numeric order (i.e. 1,11,2,21,3 rather than 1,2,3,11,21). With the Clipper version, you can press to return to the main menu, or use the cursor key to pan throught the fields left or right. With the FoxPro version, to find a record in the List subsystem, Press Ctrl-F and you will get a find window. Follow the instructions, and press Ctrl-Enter when you are ready to begin your search. This search is very handy when you want to find a record by something other than the key since it searches through every field for the characters you type. Select "ignore case" if you want to find all occurrences regardless of capitalization. In the FoxPro version, you can edit all fields of the client database in the List function which uses the "browse" command in FoxPro. Press to move from field to field, and to wrap back to the first field after the last one. Use of a mouse is supported completely in the FoxPro version, so you can simply point to the record and/or field that you want with a mouse. See the section on mouse use for further details. DEFINE PROJECT Time is Money keeps track of time records by project. It allows you to have multiple projects for a client (as many as you want), and allows you to set a billing rate for each project. This billing rate can be any time period that you choose (i.e. HOUR, DAY, WEEK, etc.). All time and expense records are attributed to projects. Project names can be up to 10 characters, and could be anything that you find easy to remember. Some suggestions could be an acronym of the actual project name (such as ACCTG or ACCOUNTS for "Set up Accounting System"), or a purchase order number if the client issues one. The project code is not displayed on the invoice, so it should be easy for you to remember (for instance, if the client is a real pain, you could use "OUCH"). The project name is displayed on the invoice as a reference for the client, so it should be descriptive and could include a purchase order number or any other information that will be meaningful to the client. The customer code is the code you assigned the client when you created their record, and the rate is the rate per time period you wish to charge the client. Time unit is a singular description of the unit of time that you will bill for this project (HOUR, WEEK, DAY, MONTH, etc.). ADD NEW TIME RECORDS As the title of this program states, Time is Money, and this module is used to record your time for later billing. Time records are entered by project code, and invoices are later generated for a particular project. If you enter your time records every day, you will find that you will spend very little time doing your bookkeeping as you will remember most of what you have done that day. When entering a time record for a new client or a new project for an existing client, just type in the name that you intend to call the project, and you will be given the option to create a new client and/or project on the spot. This way you do not have to return to the main menu. If the project code already exists, but you cannot remember it, just enter a "?" (without the quotes) and a window will pop up with all of your projects, their full descriptions and client codes. You can choose the project from this list, by using the PgUp or PgDn keys to find the one you want, or by pressing the first letter in the project code to get close to it first, then press to select that project. The date defaults to the system date in your machine, but can be changed if you want to input for a previous date or future date. Once you have entered a date, that date will be used until you exit the Add mode, or until you type in a new date. This way if you have many entries to make for a previous date, you do not have to retype the date each time. Activity is used to sort the time records into categories on the invoice. For instance, if you use CONSULT as the activity, all time records that have an activity of CONSULT will appear together on the invoice under a subheading of CONSULT. Some suggested activities could be CONSULT, DESIGN, PHONE, MODIFY, etc. There is only one activity that is special and that affects the operation of the program. If you use TRAVEL as the activity, the round trip mileage to the client's location will be stored in that time record for later use in a time log. The Distance prompt will only be displayed if the activity is TRAVEL unless you use the Setup facility to change the travel prompt to something else. You could also use the activity field to keep track of billing by different people on the project. Just use the initials or name of the person doing the work, and it will be sorted on this field on the invoice and the time report. The description field should be used for a detailed description of the service performed. When the time record is completed, you will be asked to verify the accuracy of the input. If you respond "Y", you will be prompted for a new time record. At this point, you can press to add another time record for the same project, type in a new project name, or press function key F10 to quit entering time records. If you want to change to another project, press Y, and the field will be cleared for input, or just type over the previous code using the space bar to remove any extraneous characters. If you respond with any character other than "Y" or "y", you will be given the opportunity to return and edit any field. ENTER FIXED EXPENSE RECORDS The fixed expense record subsystem can be used for many purposes. It can be used for the sale of equipment or supplies, or other fixed price items. For those who bill all or part of their time in fixed price contracts, it can be used for progress payments by entering the amount currently due as a fixed expense and generating an invoice. In short, any billing not based on time increments, should be generated through this system. When entering fixed expense records, you must first enter a project code. If you enter an invalid project code, you will be given the opportunity to create a new project and/or client record, so it is not necessary to return to the main menu if you have not already entered this information. If you cannot remember the project code, enter a "?" (without the quotes) and you will be presented with a list of possible project codes. Use the PgUp and PgDn key to find the required project code or press the first letter of the project code to get close to it first and use the cursor keys to position on the correct record. Then press to choose the highlighted record. This will automatically fill in the project code with your choice. After you create your new project, or correct an erroneous one, the code will be checked for validity. Once the code has been validated, you will be prompted for a description. You should enter a description of the product or service that was provided. You will then be given the opportunity to enter a quantity and price for the item described. These entries are for your convenience only, and are not used on the invoice, nor are they saved in any way. They are just available to facilitate the extension of unit price and quantity. If there is only one item, you can leave the quantity and price fields at 0, and just enter the total price in AMOUNT if you wish. You will then be prompted for an amount, a date and the sales tax status of the item. If you indicate that it is taxable, the tax will be calculated and stored in the expense file. It will be labeled as SALES TAX, and the rate will be based on the sales tax rate you entered in SETUP. A sales tax entry will be made for each item that is taxable, since there may be taxable and non-taxable items included in the same invoice. When you have completed the data entry, you will be asked to verify its accuracy. If you indicate that it is correct ("Y"), you will be returned to the description prompt to enter a new record for the same project. If you are finished, or wish to change projects, just press the key on a blank field, and you will return to the project code prompt. If you are completely finished, press on a blank project code field and you will return to the main menu, otherwise enter a new project code and repeat the above steps until you are finished. If you indicate that the data was not correct, you will be given an opportunity to correct it. INVOICING The backbone of any time billing program is the invoicing subsystem. After all, that is how we get paid. When you are ready to prepare an invoice for a project, select the Print invoice (I) option from the main menu and you will be presented with the Invoice menu. INVOICE MENU 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � A. Automatic invoice by project � � � � C. Customized invoice by project � � � � P. Print all pending invoices � � � � S. Statements of account by client � � � � Q. Quit to main menu � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 Choose a letter ==> Select option A to create a single invoice for a project that has unbilled time or expenses. After you press A, you will be asked if you want a (N)ew invoice or a (R)eprint. Select (N)ew to create an invoice, or (R)eprint if you wish to reprint an invoice that has already been printed. After selecting N or R, you will be asked for a project code. Either enter the project code, or a ? to select from a list. Upon entering a valid project code, an invoice will be generated for all unbilled time and expenses for that project; it is that simple. You will continue to be prompted for project codes until you enter a blank project code to quit generating invoices. If you need to reprint an invoice, just select reprint instead of new, and you will first be prompted for the project code, and then the invoice number. You can enter the invoice number with no spaces between the prefix and the number, the program will automatically format it correctly. After verifying that everything is correct, a copy of the original invoice will be printed. You can print a reprint of any invoice at any time. If you cannot remember the name of the project you wish to invoice, just enter a "?" and you will be given the opportunity to choose from a list of all your projects. Most of the text portions of the invoice can be modified to fit your business practices. Select the S option (SETUP) to explore this further. Also your sales tax percentage is found under this option. The single and double character fields define the characters used for total lines and separation lines on the invoice. The defaults are "-" and "=", but these can be changed to any valid character that is supported by your printer. For instance, you can use the single and double line drawing graphics characters by pressing the key and entering their ascii codes on the numeric keypad. The line lengths refer to the lengths of these lines on the invoice. Setup also allows the selection of either the printer or a file as the output device for your invoices. If a file is selected, the name of the file will be the invoice number with a .TXT extension (i.e. CDS--200.TXT), and it will be stored in your default TIM directory. Page length is another option which can be changed here. In addition to the above method for changing invoice defaults on all invoices, by selecting option C for Customized Invoice by Project, you have the option of changing any of the above mentioned text for the current invoice only. You can also add a customized text message at the bottom of the invoice, and you can select an ending date for time and expense records to be included. This allows you to enter your time as you wish and choose an ending date for billing purposes without affecting time and expense records after that date. The third option, P for Print all Pending Invoices, is a very handy way of generating invoices for all clients and projects that have unbilled time and/or expenses. When you select this option, you will first be prompted to select (A)ll clients or a single client. If you choose a single client, you will be asked for the client code for that client and invoices will be generated for that client only. If you cannot remember the code, enter a ? and you can pick from a list. When you select all clients, every unbilled time and expense record will be located, and invoices for every project represented will be generated. Upon selecting option S for Statements of Account by Client, you will be first asked for a client code, and once it has been validated, you will be asked for an interest rate (default is in Setup), and a grace period which is also defaulted in Setup. If you choose not to charge interest on the unpaid balance beyond the grace period, just enter 0 for the interest rate. Next a statement will be printed for the client you chose, and it will include all invoices which have not been paid in full, and all partial payments on those invoices. No information about invoices that have already been paid will appear on the statement. The statement will also include the number of days overdue on each unpaid invoice. When you are finished with invoices and statements, press Q to return to the main menu. REPORTS There are a number of reports that can be generated by TIME IS MONEY. Most will give you the option of printing either to the screen or the printer. Under the C option you are given the option of printing your client list, printing mailing labels, or editing your client list. The G option (Average income over period) gives you the ability to project your income based on your current earnings. You simply select a start date and end date, and the program projects what your earnings would be for an entire year based on your average earnings for the chosen period. Print project report (option P) allows you to print a complete report of all time spent on a project from its inception. Just supply the project code, and the report will begin. To maintain control of your time and expenses that have not been billed (option T), you can generate an unbilled time report, an unbilled expense report, or a pro-forma invoice which will allow you to display your unbilled time and/or expenses for all projects, or a single chosen project. This is handy for projecting your income that has not been billed, and for checking that all hours have been entered. When you select option T, you will be given the choice of a time report, an expense report or a pro-forma invoice. The time report will display all unbilled time for one or all projects. All unbilled expenses will be displayed by the unbilled expense report, and the pro-forma invoice will print all the time and expenses due for any project of your choice with totals. The pro-forma invoice is useful for insuring that all time and expense items have been included without printing the actual invoice. The Unpaid Bill Report (option U) will give you a list in order of invoice number of all your unpaid invoices, with the telephone number of the client and your contact so you can dun them if necessary. The Sales tax report (option Z) will display or print all your expense items over any period of time you choose, with subtotals for non-taxable and taxable items, and a total of sales tax collected. The sales tax rate can be changed in the S option, SET up invoice messages. You can create a mileage log with the Mileage journal, option J. All time records with an activity field marked as TRAVEL will be included in this report which can be printed for any year of your choice. This tells you the total miles traveled in servicing your clients. Finally, the Year to date income report gives you a list of all invoices that have been billed for the current calendar year, and totals the amounts of paid and unpaid invoices. If you want to print the report for a year other than the current year, just exit to DOS, type DATE at the prompt and change your system date to one that falls in the year you wish to examine. LOGGING INVOICE PAYMENTS To log the payments of your invoices, select option O, LOG payments. You will be asked if you want to enter payments by scan or by invoice number. If you choose the scan option, you will be presented with each unpaid invoice, one at a time and asked if you wish to mark it paid. After you respond with either a Y or N, you will be asked for the amount paid which defaults to the invoice amount, and the date it was paid which will default to the current date. You can change the payment amount if the payment made was more or less than the actual amount of the invoice. If the payment is less than the invoice amount, the invoice will remain on the unpaid list, with the payment being recorded as a partial payment on that invoice. A payment of an amount equal to the invoice amount will remove it from the unpaid list, and an amount greater than the invoice amount will pay the invoice, remove it from the unpaid list, and apply a credit to the customer's account. After entering this information, the program will go on to the next unpaid invoice. This will continue until all invoices have been displayed, or until you select quit. Any time a customer has a credit balance, and an unpaid invoice is encountered for that customer during a scan of unpaid invoices, you will be asked whether or not the credit should be applied to the unpaid invoice. The invoice number option can be used if you know the number of the invoice that was paid. Just enter the invoice number at the prompt, and answer yes to the "Mark this invoice paid?" prompt. Answer no if the customer has a credit that you wish to apply, and you will be asked whether you want to apply the credit towards payment of the invoice as in the scan method. If an invoice becomes uncollectible, use the invoice maintenance function (described later) to change the status field to BD for bad debt. FILE MAINTENANCE Almost every file stored in Time is Money can be edited or added to using the following commands: Company Maintenance Client Maintenance Project Maintenance Invoice Maintenance Time Record Maintenance Expense Record Maintenance Each of these options follows the same convention that was discussed previously for editing the company information file. You are given the opportunity to Add to the file, Change the file, Delete the current record, Find a record, move to and display the Next or Previous record, and List the records in the file a page at a time with the option to select a particular record for editing. USE GREAT CAUTION when using the Add mode in the time record file, the invoice file, and the expense record file. Very little data verification is performed in this mode, so as a rule, do all your adding from the appropriate subsystem that is specifically for these files rather than through edit. In Change mode, you will be given the opportunity to change any field in the current record. When you are finished, you can press the key to go directly to the bottom of the screen, or press the key until you reach the last field on the screen. When using Find, you will be prompted for the key field (or fields) of the database you are editing. If there are multiple fields, you must enter a complete field to go on to the next field, but if you leave the latter fields blank, you will find the first record that matches the supplied information. If there is a single key field, you can enter partial information, and the first record matching the partial information will be found. Delete will permanently remove a record from the database, so use it with caution. First find the record you wish to delete, and then select the Delete option. You will be asked to verify that you wish to delete the record, and then the record will be marked for deletion and the file packed to remove it. Next and Previous will move you to the next or previous record in the database, and display the record on the screen. If you reach the end or beginning, you will wrap around (i.e. Next from the last record places you on the first record, and Previous from the first places you on the last record.). This is a quick way to move to the beginning or the end of the file. The List option will display a screen full of records or partial records starting at the current record, and allow you to page up or down through the database and select a record for editing. Alternately, with the Clipper version you can press the first letter of the appropriate code (i.e. client code, project code, etc.) to position the pointer close to the record you desire, or press Ctrl-F in the FoxPro version to search throught all fields of the current database to find a record. This can be very handy if you know the address, or some other portion of the data but you have forgotten the client's company code or name. When the bar highlights the chosen record, press the key (in the Clipper version or Ctrl-W in the FoxPro version), and you will be returned to the edit screen with that record displayed. The "View or change invoice" option has one additional choice, the Undo function. This will undo the currently displayed invoice, by returning all its time and expenses to the unbilled pool and deleting the invoice record permanently. It will not change the current invoice number, so if the invoice you are "Undoing" is not the last invoice, you will have a gap in the invoice numbers. If the invoice was the last invoice you can change the invoice number by selecting "Revise current invoice #" on the main menu, but do this with great care if the cancelled invoice is not the last. Be sure to change the number back to the next number in sequence after your last invoice if you should opt to re-use a cancelled number that was not the last in sequence or you may create invoices with duplicate numbers. UTILITIES There are a few other options that do not fall into any of the previously mentioned categories. First, option B (Build new indices) allows you to choose either All of the files, or one or more selected files to re-index. Re-indexing is necessary only if you are experiencing problems with accessing records in a file, or if you suspect that the index (or indexes) have been damaged. A power outage during program use can cause index files and/or program files to be damaged. Be sure to make frequent backups of your accounting system to insure against loss of important data. The only files that must be backed up are the files with a .DBF filename extension. All other files in the system can be restored from the original distribution disk. After such a restore procedure, option B should be used to rebuild ALL indices. Revise current invoice # should be used if you delete an invoice and wish to re-use the number, but be careful to set it back to the next number in sequence when you are finished. To delete an invoice, see the Undo option under file maintenance. Setups has been previously mentioned. Here you can edit the text messages that appear on your invoice. Also found here are the sales tax rate, the selection for color or monochrome systems and an option for a custom header for your invoice. If you specify a custom header, you will be given instructions on the screen for customizing your invoice. And finally, What Printer? (option W) lets you select from a list of pre-defined printers, or to create a new custom printer table. If you choose to create a custom printer table, select the option to create a new printer table, and you will be presented with the maintenance menu that is used for all other database maintenance. Select Add to add a new printer definition. When entering printer codes, you should use the format presented in the pre-defined codes. For the Esc character, use "chr(27)" (without the quotes), or for any other non-printable character (with an ascii code below 32), use "char(nn)" where nn is the ascii code of the character. With printable characters, enter the characters surrounded with apostrophes (a single quote character like this '), and link the codes with a plus sign. For example, the code for an HP Laserjet II to set the printer for condensed print (using the default data processing type built into the printer) would be "chr(27)+'(s16.66H'", without the "" quotes, but including the inner '' apostrophes. For purchasers of the FoxPro enhanced version only, option X on the main menu will allow you to exit to a command prompt that will give you the ability to enter any dBASE or FoxPro command for immediate execution. This includes creating new databases, report forms, label forms, and virtually all the commands supported by FoxPro and dBASE III+. You cannot run programs that have not been compiled with FoxPro at the command line. If you have repetitive tasks that you have written programs for, you should either buy FoxPro development system, or contact us for assistance. HELPFUL HINTS MISCELLANEOUS To bill for a fixed price contract, you should use the expenses subsystem and create expense items for the amount of the draw that is currently due. Then create an invoice, and before the next draw enter the amount for that payment. Remember to enter your time unit in singular case. The invoice subsystem will properly make the time unit plural when appropriate. If you have a color graphics card with a black and white monitor or if you are using a portable computer with an LCD graphics screen, choose the "monochrome" option for best results. When entering new clients, leave the ship to field blank if the shipping address is the same as the billing address. If for some reason you want to have the address printed twice under ship to and bill to, you can put in the same client code for the client and the ship to code. RETAINERS Retainers and time banking are commonly used to equalize a client's expenses over a period of time. They are also used sometimes at the end of a fiscal year to use up the current year's budget for your services. The retainer concept can be handled very easily with TIM. When you receive payment of a retainer that is to be billed against, just enter that amount (or add it to any existing amount) in the client record credit field. Then bill normally for projects with that client, but before sending the bill, scan the invoices that are due to be paid. When you get to the invoice that is to be paid by the retainer, answer (N)o to the question about ehether to mark this bill paid. You will be asked at that time whether or not you want to apply the credit to the bill. Answer (Y)es, and then Quit your invoice scan. If you wish to include the current credit balance at the bottom of your invoice, select that option in Setup, and it will automatically be printed. If there is no credit balance, or the client has a debit balance (they owe you money from previous invoices) nothing will be printed at the bottom of the invoice. If you wish to remind the client of their previous unpaid balances, you can send them a statment of account using that subsystem from the invoice menu. GLOSSARY Invoice prefix - A three character upper case code used to identify your company on invoices. Pro-forma invoice - According to form. Used to describe an invoice which is printed as a test, but that does not update the accounting records. Shareware - User supported software. Distributed by giving away copies of the software with registration instructions. Shareware is not public domain software, it is commer cial software with an alternate means of distribution (i.e. try before you buy).