JCSM Shareware Collection 1993 November

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P R O B I L L Accounts Receivable and Billing System Professional Version ********************************************* ** ** ** NOTICE: THIS IS A COMPLEMENTARY LIMITED ** ** VERSION OF THIS PRODUCT AND THE MANUAL. ** ** ** ** YOU MAY ORDER THE COMPLETE PRODUCT AND ** ** MANUAL FROM: ** ** ** ** √DIMESTORE SOFTWARE ** ** 23121 VERDUGO DR. SUITE 202 ** ** LAGUNA HILLS, CA. 92653 ** ** (714) 581 - 6749 ** ** ** ********************************************* Introduction About PROBILL PROBILL is a complete billing and accounts receivable system designed to be fast, efficient, and easy to use. You will find PROBILL to be a versatile system that fits the needs of most businesses needing to bill customers and clients. Although PROBILL is designed to be a service billing system, because of its unique approach to billing PROBILL can be used to bill for both services and products. PROBILL FEATURES: Print to Plain Paper, Laser Forms, or Dot Matrix / Tractor Fed Forms. Repeat Billing to Re-Bill Easily On a Monthly or Other Period Basis. Active Open Session Eliminates Cumbersome Closing Functions. Full Featured Accounts Receivable Tracking and Reporting. Income Distribution Tracking and Reporting. Aged Receivables to 'True' Date of Aging. Re-Print Flexibility - Re-Print Any Invoice at Any Time. Payments Recording, Tracking, and Reporting. Customer Statements and History. Sales Tracking and Reporting. Full Receivables Accountability. PROBILL is available in Single Company configuration which allows you to generate bills and manage receivables for a single company. PROBILL is also available in a version for Multi Company processing. The Multi Company configuration allows you to process billing and receivables management for an unlimited number of companies on a single computer system. Technical Support Technical Support is available to all registered licensees. We hope our 'ease of use' approach to software and extensive documentation provide you with all you need to fully utilize the product, however, we are available to answer technical questions you might have and assist with problem resolution. Technical Support can be reached at (714) 581-6749. Our hours are 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m. PST Monday through Friday. GETTING STARTED System Requirements To run PROBILL you will need the following minimum system: IBM PC/XT, PC/AT, IBM PS/2, or IBM PC compatible 512 Kb of memory A Hard Disk with at least 2 Mb of free space Monochrome or Color Display adapter card and monitor DOS 3.1 or higher Any Printer will work, however, a tractor fed or laser printer are recommended Installing PROBILL To install PROBILL to your hard disk follow the steps outlined below: Start your computer as usual. Place the PROBILL installation disk in drive A: (or drive B:). At the DOS prompt type >A: INSTALL and press <ENTER>. The Installation program will lead you through the install process. If the install process is not successful note the problem specified, correct the problem (e.g. not enough disk space), and repeat the install process. Starting PROBILL Once PROBILL has been installed on your computer you are ready to start the program. To start the program you must either change to the PROBILL directory, or you must have the PROBILL directory specified in your path variable. a .BAT file to switch to the PROBILL directory and run the program. PROBILL must be started with the directory it resides in as the current directory. The below examples assume that you have installed PROBILL into the default C:\PROBILL directory. Change to the PROBILL directory by typing CD \PROBILL and press <ENTER>. Type PROBILL and press <Enter> to start PROBILL. PROBILL is shipped with Dimestore Software as the established company with default settings for company information. You will want to edit the company information to be that of your company's. See the Company Maintenance section in the Reference chapter of the manual to edit the company information. Starting Multi Company PROBILL When starting Multi Company PROBILL you are first asked to enter the company code for the company you wish to work with before entering the PROBILL menu system. Each company in the system will have an associated company code that may be up to five (5) characters in length. For example, the sample company 'Dimestore Software' has the company code of 'DIME'. At the prompt enter the company code. If the company code is not found in the system you will be asked if you wish to create a new company. See the 'Company Maintenance section' for information on creating new companies. Optionally, you may also select the company you wish to work with from the DOS command line by including it along with the PROBILL command. For example, to start PROBILL and select the 'Dimestore Software' company enter PROBILL DIME from the DOS command line. Starting PROBILL in this fashion bypasses the initial sign on screen. We recommend reading through Chapter I and then moving into Chapter II to work with the Tutorial. If you're an experienced computer and applications user you may be able to dig right in and use PROBILL right away, however, spending the hour or so it takes to peruse the material and go through the Tutorial will help you to better understand PROBILL. Using The Menu System PROBILL uses a menu system that allows selection by either single key entry or by the 'point and shoot' method. To select by 'point and shoot' move the selection bar to the desired menu selection with the arrow keys. When you have moved the selection bar to the desired selection press <ENTER> to execute the selection. A selection ending with an arrow indicator will invoke another menu whereas selections without arrow indicators will invoke that function. To select a menu item using single key selection, depress the key corresponding to the letter highlighted within the desired menu item. Your selection will be executed immediately. Single key selection does not require you to press the <ENTER> key. BILL ENTER/EDIT RECEIPTS PRINT/REPRINT BILLS STATEMENTS SELECT COMPANY GENERATE REPEAT BILLING MAINTENANCE MENU REPORTS MENU UTILITIES MENU EXIT TO DOS In the example above pressing 'B' would activate Bill Enter/Edit, pressing 'M' would activate Maintenance Menu. Pressing <ENTER> would activate Statements since that item is highlighted. (Letters that would be highlighted are shown in bold and double underlined) Data Entry Keys Whenever you are performing data entry in PROBILL you are under control of the data entry keystroke handler. You are in data entry mode whenever you are entering data into a field, or answering any question posed by PROBILL. The data entry keystroke handler attempts to reduce the number of keystrokes needed in order to speed up your work process in PROBILL. Single Keystroke Entries In general, anytime a single keystroke entry is required (e.g. a 'Y/N' Yes, No response), the keystroke handler will act immediately upon your keystroke without the need to press the <ENTER> key. Field Entries Field entries are entries that require multiple keys to specify the value for the field. The entry of a name or date would be a typical example of a field entry. When in field entry mode you are offered the field in edit mode such that the cursor is positioned at the end of the current value of that field. If there is no value for the field the cursor will be placed at the beginning of the field waiting for you to enter a value. When a field currently has a value (cursor positioned at end of current field), you may accept the field exactly the way it is by pressing <ENTER>. You may edit the field by using the <BACKSPACE> key to erase characters and then retyping them. You may also delete the entire field by pressing the <DELETE> key. The keystroke handler will not allow you to enter more characters than are allowed in a given field nor will it allow you to enter characters where only digits are acceptable. Throughout the entry/editing of a field the following keys will function as described below. <BACKSPACE> - Deletes the character to the left of the cursor. <DELETE> - Deletes the entire field and allows reentry of the field. <ENTER> - Accepts the field in its current form. <ESCAPE> - Aborts the field entry and Cancels the editing function. Line Entries Line entries are those fields which are entered in a linear fashion. An example of this would be the entry of an invoice or purchase order line item appearing somewhat as shown below. QUANTITY PC DESCRIPTION PRICE TAX AMOUNT 2 100 Green Widget 12.00 .96 24.00 Line entries are identical to normal field entries with the exception of the <ESCAPE> key. When making line entries the <ESCAPE> key cancels only the current field entry within the line. If you are at the beginning of a line the <ESCAPE> key then will cancel the edit function. This allows you to move amongst the fields of the line until you have completed the line to your satisfaction. For example, if you finished entering the unit price field of 12.00, the cursor would then be positioned in edit mode at the extension field of 24.00. If you pressed <ESCAPE> at this point the editing would 'back up' to the Tax field. You would then be able to re edit that field or press <ESCAPE> again to back up and edit the Price field. You can continue this process until you finalize the line by accepting the last field of the line or by pressing <ESCAPE> until you have canceled out of the edit. Field Types There are three basic field types within the PROBILL environment. Each field type is described below. Specific field descriptions can be found in the reference section of this manual. For example, the description of the NAME field for the CUSTOMER record would be found under the CUSTOMER MAINTENANCE section of this manual. Numeric Fields Numeric Fields consist of all number characters and allowable special characters. Specifically the field can contain the characters 0 - 9, COMMA (,), PERIOD (.), or MINUS (-). No other characters are allowed. Date Fields Date fields allow the entry of valid dates in the numerical representation format. For example, October 12, 1992 would be represented as 10/12/92. The format is always expected as MM/DD/YY where MM is the month, DD is the day of the month, and YY is the year. You may use the '/' separator, the '-' separator or no separator. Acceptable separator examples are 10/12/92, 10-12-92, or 101292. Text Fields Text fields are free form fields accepting virtually any characters that can be typed from the keyboard. Text fields are usually descriptive fields such as an address field. Data Entry - The Create / Edit Mode Virtually all data entry screens in PROBILL are presented in Create/Edit mode. This means that from one screen or data entry window you can perform both create and edit functions. Each record uses some type of 'key' field or fields to uniquely identify the record. For example, we assign customers a 'customer number' as a unique identifier. The 'customer number' becomes that records 'key'. The 'key' field is usually the first field entered for data input as is the case for our example of customer records. To enter a new customer the first thing you would enter is a customer number. In our Create/Edit mode of input if a customer associated with the record number you entered exists you will be offered the customer's record in edit mode. If there is no customer identified by the customer number you entered you will be allowed to create a new customer record. Whenever a record is being created or is in edit mode the record is 'in holding' until the creation or edit is completed. To complete a creation or edit of a record you must have traversed each field of the record. This means you must have pressed <ENTER> for the very last field of the record before the newly created or edited record is saved. IF YOU ESCAPE BEFORE COMPLETING THE LAST FIELD A NEW RECORD OR THE EDITING OF AN EXISTING RECORD THE FIELDS YOU HAVE ENTERED OR CHANGED WILL NOT BE SAVED. YOU MUST GO ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE RECORD FOR IT TO BE SAVED. This makes the opposite, abandoning entries and changes, easily accomplished by pressing <ESC> before completing the last field of a record. Selection Lists Throughout the PROBILL system data entry sessions you are offered Selection List lookups to help you to find information quickly. Going back to our previous example, if you wanted to edit the customer record for John Jones but couldn't remember the customer number you could use the Selection List option by pressing the <F1> key at the initial field entry. When a Selection List is available PROBILL indicates so by a highlighted message somewhere near the field you are about to enter. When a selection list is shown the following keys are functional. <ESC> - Leaves the Selection List mode without a selection. <ENTER> - Leaves the Selection List mode and inserts the highlighted selection as your entry. <DNARROW> - Moves down (highlights) one entry in the Selection List. Wraps around to the top when the bottom of the window is reached. <UPARROW> - Moves up (highlights) one entry in the Selection List. Wraps around to the bottom when the top of the window is reached. <PGDOWN> - Move down one window if there are more selections available. <PGUP> - Move up one window if there are more selections available PROBILL'S Normal Processing Sequence This section describes the normal processing sequence when using PROBILL. PROBILL allows processing in any order or sequence desired, however, by the nature of customer billing certain events must precede others in the natural order. For example, the payment of a bill cannot be processed until a bill has been established. Remember that the below processing sequence is a suggested sequence for using PROBILL. Use this sequence as a guideline in developing your own processing sequence. ENTER COMPANY INFORMATION Establish Company Name, Address, Bill Numbers, etc. MULTI-COMPANY PROCESSING Enter New Company Information Enter New Company Services Enter New Company Customers ENTER SERVICES Establish the Service Codes, Pricing, and Tax information for Billing. RECORD PAYMENTS Enter payments received on previously issued bills. ENTER NEW BILLS Create the new bills to be issued. PRINT REPORTS Print all pertinent reports. Check Bills and payments for accuracy. Be sure all data is validated before printing bills. PRINT BILLS Print all bills and prepare to issue. Any of these steps may be executed at any time. PROBILL does not enforce any structured periods with the exception of the Aging reports which age within 30, 60 and 90 day increments. Periods can be simulated by the use of start and end dates for reporting periods. Thus, any monthly period income (or other pertinent information) can be known by producing a period billing report specifically for the dates defining that particular month (e.g. from 6/1/92 to 6/30/92 for the month of June, 1992). At this point we suggest that you install PROBILL onto your system and proceed to the TUTORIAL section that follows. This TUTORIAL will guide you through some normal processing within PROBILL and will help familiarize you with the PROBILL system. TUTORIAL The PROBILL Tutorial is designed to give you a quick view of the most used features of PROBILL. The tutorial will guide you through some normal processing steps in the generation, recording, and reporting of bills and accounts receivable. This Tutorial generates live data within the PROBILL system. If you do not complete the Tutorial you will have this live data mixed in with your data when you begin to generate your own system. The ending portion of the Tutorial deals with deleting the Tutorial data so as to leave you a 'clean' system to begin with. BE SURE TO COMPLETE THE TUTORIAL BEFORE BEGINNING TO ENTER YOUR OWN DATA. There are two other options you may take to insure that Tutorial data does not become mixed with your 'live' data. The first option is to perform the Tutorial with 'live' data of your own. You will only need three services, two customers, and one bill which has been paid by the customer. Option two is to perform the Tutorial, continue to 'play' with the system to learn more about PROBILL and then reinstall PROBILL before entering your 'live' data. If you have the Multi Company version of PROBILL you may also delete the sample company (DIME) after the Tutorial. To begin the Tutorial change to the PROBILL directory and start PROBILL (See the Getting Started Section). If you have the Multi Company version enter DIME at the company selection prompt. You will then be at the PROBILL main menu. If you have the Single Company version you should already be at the main menu. STEP 1 - MAINTENANCE Since we have already established a Tutorial company there is no need to perform any Company Maintenance. Company Maintenance should be completed before any maintenance of Services and Customers is performed. See the Company Maintenance section in the Reference Chapter for more information about Company Maintenance. From the Main Menu select MAINTENANCE. From the Maintenance Menu select SERVICE MAINTENANCE. Enter the three Services as shown below. Note that a field marked as [BLANK] means you should press <ENTER> leaving the field blank. Service Code: 100 Description: SOFTWARE CONSULTING Taxable: N Unit of Measure: HR Sales Price: 56.00 Cost: 12.00 Service Code: 101 Description: PROGRAMMING Taxable: N Unit of Measure: HR Sales Price: 48.00 Cost: 10.00 Service Code: 200 Description: COMPUTER PRODUCTS Taxable: Y Unit of Measure: [BLANK] Sales Price: [BLANK] Cost: [BLANK] Note that of the three services just entered one is actually a product. Since that product (COMPUTER PRODUCTS) is a general category we have left the unit of measure, price and cost fields blank. These unit of measure and price fields are used for defaults when entering line items. Leaving the cost field blank indicates that we will not be tracking costs for this particular service or product. Now that you have entered the three services you should be positioned at the Service Code field. Note that the 'F1 for Selection List' message appears at the top of the window. Press <F1> to view the selection list for services. You should see all three services (100, 101, and 200) shown in the window. To demonstrate use of selection lists and editing we will now adjust the price of our Programming Services to be $50.00 per hour instead of the original $48.00 per hour. Using the Arrow keys move the highlight in the selection list to the 101 PROGRAMMING item. Press <ENTER> and you will be moved to the Service Maintenance window with the proper record in place ready for editing. Press <ENTER> until the cursor stops at the end of the Sales Price field. Press <DELETE> to delete the $48.00 and then enter 50 for this field. and press <ENTER>. To save the changes we just made you must complete the record by pressing <ENTER> through the last field. When that is done and the window clears the record has been saved. Enter 101 for the Service Code field and press <ENTER> . You should see the Programming record again displayed this time with our changed Sales Price of $50.00. When you are finished in the Services Maintenance press <ESC> at the Service Code field to return to the Maintenance Menu. Now we will enter some customers into the system. From the Maintenance Menu Select CUSTOMER MAINTENANCE. Enter two Customer records as shown below. Customer Number: 100 Name: Constantine, John G. Addr: 1239 W. Roosevelt Dr. Suite 23 City: Westerfield State: NJ Zip: 08372 Tax Rate (%): 8.00 Repeat Service Code: [BLANK] Repeat Service Amt.: 0 Repeat Quantity: 0 Customer Number: 101 Name: Wentworthe, Dorothy S. Addr: 3459 Ashford Circle City: Laguna Hills State: CA Zip: 92653 Tax Rate (%): 0 Repeat Service Code: 100 Repeat Service Amt.: 48.75 Repeat Quantity: 2 A few items are noteworthy about the entries you just made. PROBILL uses many default offerings throughout its processing. When you got down to the City, State, and Zip fields for the first time PROBILL offered you the default entries for Laguna Hills, CA, 92653. It got these values from the Company Record. Thereafter PROBILL will use your previous entry for these fields as the default value. Many times defaults will save you typing. If you want to use the default just press <ENTER> to accept the default value. If you want to enter a different value, press the <DELETE> key to erase the default value and then enter the value you want for that field. Note also that we did not enter any information for repeat billing for customer 100. Once you entered BLANK for the Service Code field it skipped over the remaining two fields thereby completing the record. PROBILL will always attempt to save you work. If the Repeat Service Code field is BLANK indicating no repeat billing then the remaining two fields are not needed and PROBILL will zero them for you automatically. When you are finished with Customer Maintenance press <ESC> at the Customer Number field to return to the Maintenance Menu. Press <ESC> again to return to PROBILL's Main Menu. STEP 2 - ENTER / EDIT BILLS Now that we have entered our Services and Customers we are ready to create bills for our customers. From The Main Menu select BILL ENTER/EDIT. When you first enter the Bill Enter/Edit window the cursor will be at the Bill Number field awaiting entry. If you wanted to edit a bill you would enter its number now or use the Selection lookup to find a Bill to edit. Since we are going to create a new bill press <ENTER> at the Bill Number field. This advances the cursor to the Customer Number field. In so doing PROBILL has automatically assigned the next bill number to the Bill Number field. Enter 99 at the Customer Number field and press <ENTER>. PROBILL will prompt you with 'CUSTOMER NOT FOUND - CREATE A NEW CUSTOMER (Y/N)?' and await your answer. We could have entered each of our customers from within the Bill Enter/Edit area. This saves you time when you are generating bills and have a new customer to enter. For now, answer the prompt <N> or <ESC> to return back to the Customer Number field. Delete the 99 in the Customer Number field (press the <DELETE> Key) and enter the information as shown below.CUSTOMER NUMBER: 100 BILL NUMBER: 256 BILL DATE: 3/16/92 Constantine, John G. 1239 W. Roosevelt Dr. Suite 23 P.O. NUMBER: XYZ-192 Westerfield NJ 08372 QUANTITY CODE DESCRIPTION PRICE TAX AMOUNT Once you have completed the above entries you will be in the line entry area. There are 3 cursor types in the line entry area. The first one you will see is the line cursor (O) which appears at the left side of the screen. The line cursor points to the current line for entry or editing. The line cursor can be moved with the <UPARROW> and <DNARROW> keys. When entering or editing the fields of the line the normal cursor is used. When a line is completed you will see the line completion cursor (x) at the far right side of the line. Now would be a good time to review Line Entries under the Data Entry Keys section in Chapter I. Enter the two bill lines shown Below. CUSTOMER NUMBER: 100 BILL NUMBER: 256 BILL DATE: 3/16/92 Constantine, John G. 1239 W. Roosevelt Dr. Suite 23 P.O. NUMBER: XYZ-192 Westerfield NJ 08372 QUANTITY CODE DESCRIPTION PRICE TAX AMOUNT 5 100 SOFTWARE CONSULTING 56.00 0.00 280.00 2 200 COMPUTER KEYBOARDS 29.95 4.79 59.90 You should have found that PROBILL offers you defaults based on the services you have established, but any field of the line (except Amount) can be changed when you enter or edit the line. Be sure you have ended the last line and the Line Cursor appears on the left side. At this point press <ESC>. You will then be prompted 'Is this Bill Completed (Y/N)'. Any answer other than 'Y'es will return you to the point where you left off in the Bill Enter/Edit. Answer Y to complete this bill. Now that you have completed the first bill enter a second bill for Dorothy Wentworthe and use your imagination for at least 3 lines of services. When you have completed your bill go back to the Main Menu. From the Main Menu select PRINT/REPRINT BILLS. When prompted to print all unprinted bills answer Y. Be sure your printer is turned on and has paper loaded. At the 'READY PRINTER - PRESS ENTER WHEN READY' prompt press <ENTER>. PROBILL will print each of your bills in Bill Number order. Press <ENTER> to return to the Main Menu. Now select RECEIPTS from the Main Menu. Select RECEIPTS FROM CUSTOMERS. Now we will assume we have received payment for the first bill that we produced. The total for that bill was $344.69 so we will record a payment for that amount from our customer. Enter the Bill Number of the first bill and press <ENTER>. You should see the information for the bill filled in as shown below. Enter the Payment Date and fill in the Payment Amount fields with the full amount of the Bill. When you do so you should see a 'PAID IN FULL' message to the right of the payment amount. 'You will then be prompted 'RECORD THIS PAYMENT (Y/N)?'. Enter Y to record the payment and complete the transaction. Enter <ESC> to end the Payments session. Bill Number: 256 Bill Date: 03/16/92 Customer No.: 100 PO Number: XYZ-192 Customer: Constantine, John G. Bill Original Amount ..... 344.69 Current Balance .......... 344.69 Payment Date .... 4/15/92 Payment Amount ........... 344.69 Discount Taken ................ New Balance .............. 0 PAID IN FULL This concludes the major portion of the billing process with the exception of optionally producing various reports. STEP 3 - PRODUCING REPORTS The reports that you produce will be determined by your needs. We will produce three of the most common reports within the Tutorial, however, feel free to produce whatever reports you wish to look at. Reports only provide you with information about what's in the PROBILL system. There are no reports that change any of the data in the system. From the Main Menu select REPORTS MENU. From the Reports Menu select PERIOD BILLING REPORT. As with all reports, you will be prompted to send the output of your report to the Printer or to the Screen. Be sure your printer is on and enter P to print to the printer. Next you will be prompted 'Full Bill Detail including line items (Y/N)?'. Enter N to this prompt. You will now be prompted for the date range for the report. Select a date range from 3/1/92 to today's date (or the dates you used to create your bills). When you have entered the date selections your report will print. Peruse the report and look in the Reports section of the Reference chapter to identify the information in the report. Repeat these steps for the Income Distribution and Payment Activity reports. STEP 4 - DELETIONS In the normal course of operations you will probably not encounter many situations where you will delete items with the exception of using the Bill Purge utility. For our Tutorial we will now delete all the items that we have created to clean the system in preparation for the entry of your 'real' data. The items we have to delete are bills, services, and customers. PROBILL has some safety features to keep you from accidentally deleting necessary information. You cannot delete a service if that service appears on any active bill, nor can you delete any customer who has one or more active bills. From the MAIN MENU select UTILITIES. From the UTILITIES MENU select PURGE OLD BILLS. PURGE BILLS FROM SYSTEM STARTING BILL NUMBER: 1 ENDING BILL NUMBER: 999 $$ WARNING $$ DELETION OF BILLS IS PERMANENT BACKUP PRIOR TO DELETION IS RECOMMENDED. To ensure that we delete all bills produced under the tutorial enter Starting from Bill Number 1 and ending with Bill Number 999 as shown above. PROBILL will search the files and report to you how many bills are ready to be deleted and ask your confirmation. Answer Y to the 'Are You Sure (Y/N)?' prompt and the bills will be deleted from the system. Now that we have deleted the bills we can go into maintenance and delete the services and customers that we created. Return to the MAIN MENU and select MAINTENANCE MENU. From the MAINTENANCE MENU select SERVICES MAINTENANCE. Bring up each of the services in edit mode by entering the service code (e.g. 100, 101, and 200). Services are deleted by entering the word 'DELETE' as the description (see below). At the confirmation prompt of 'Delete this Service (Y/N)?' enter Y. Do so for each of the services to delete all services. You can use the <F1> selection list to be sure none remain. Service Code: 100 EDIT SERVICE Description: DELETE Taxable (Y/N): N Unit of Measure: HR Sales Price: 56.00 Cost: 12.00 Delete This SERVICE (Y/N)? Y Return to the MAINTENANCE MENU when you have deleted all services. From the MAINTENANCE MENU select CUSTOMER MAINTENANCE. Bring up each of the customers in edit mode by entering the customer number (e.g. 100, 101). Customer deletion is identical to service deletions. Deleted by entering the word 'DELETE' for the customer's name (see below). At the confirmation prompt of 'Delete this Customer (Y/N)?' enter Y. Do so for each of the customers to delete all customers. You can use the <F1> selection list to be sure none remain. Customer Number: 100 EDIT CUSTOMER Name: delete Addr: 1239 W. Roosevelt Dr. Suite 23 City: Westerfield State: NJ Zip: 08372 Tax Rate (%): 8.00 Repeat Service Code: Repeat Service Amt.: Repeat Quantity: Delete This Customer (Y/N)? Y This concludes the Tutorial Session. Be sure that you have deleted all data that was entered in the Tutorial before entering your 'live' data, or reinstall the PROBILL system. Your next steps will be to set up your company information, then your services and then customers. Use the Reference Section to questions you might have about a particular function. PROBILL REFERENCE Bill Enter / Edit The Bill Enter/Edit function allows you to create new bills and to edit existing bills. New bills are assigned a number by PROBILL based on the Next Bill Number field of the Company information. To edit an existing bill you will have to know the bill's number. The Bill Enter/Edit screen is divided into two sections, the Header section and the Lines section. Bill Header fields Bill Number: [Key] A unique 5 digit identifying number. Customer Number: A unique 4 digit number identifying a customer (See Customer Maintenance) and linking this bill to that particular customer. Bill Date: The Date you wish to associate with this bill. Normally the date of creation of the bill. P.O. Number: A Purchase Order number that might be associated with this bill. 10 characters. Bill Line fields Quantity: Number of units for the item. The number can have decimal portions for example 1.5 hours. A maximum of 9999.99. Entering a [blank] or Zero (0) for quantity indicates a line containing only a description. The Quantity field can be negative indicating a credit amount. Code: The Service Code for this line item (See Services Maintenance). The service code cannot be blank except for a description only line. Description: The description for this line item. PROBILL offers the description associated with the specified Service Code, however, this can be edited or changed for this line item. Price: The price per unit for this line item. The amount from the Service Code record is offered as the default price. A maximum of 9999.99. The Price field can be a negative amount indicating a credit. Tax: The amount of tax for this line item. PROBILL calculates this amount using the tax rate specified in the customer's record times the price of the line item IF the line item is specified as taxable in the Service Code's record. In all cases you may enter/edit any amount into this field when entering or editing the line item. Amount: This field totals the extension of the Quantity times the price for this line item. THIS FIELD DOES NOT INCLUDE THE TAX AMOUNT. The Amount field is a calculated field that you cannot edit. Enter a New Bill To generate a new bill leave the Bill Number field [Blank] by pressing <ENTER>. This advances the cursor to the Customer Number field. Enter a valid customer number or a new customer number if you wish to create a new customer at this time. Fill in the remaining header fields and you will be advanced to the Bill Lines section of the screen. Enter the desired bill lines and comments. (See the Line Entries section of Getting Started and the Tutorial). When you are finished entering lines (and the cursor is at the far left of the screen) press <ESC> to end the bill. Edit an Existing Bill To edit an existing bill enter a valid Bill Number at the Bill Number field (or use the search list to obtain a valid bill number). In edit mode you can change any field in the header with the exception of the Bill Number or the Customer Number. Each Line item can also be edited. In the Bill Lines section of the screen you may use the <UPARROW> and <DNARROW> keys to point to the line(s) you wish to edit (See the Enter/Edit Bills section of the Tutorial). *NOTE: Once a bill has had one or more payments applied to it you will not be allowed to edit the bill. You will be shown the bill in view only mode for review. Credit Bills Credit Bills (or credit line items) can be created by indicating a negative amount for a line item. This can be accomplished by either a negative Quantity or a negative Price field. (However, a negative Quantity and negative Price yield a positive Amount) Negative balance bills are considered Credit Bills and represent an amount that you owe to the customer. Voiding a Bill There are two ways to void a Bill. The first method can only be used if payments have not been applied to the Bill thereby allowing you to fully edit the bill. If that is the case, we recommend voiding the bill by either deleting each line item on the bill (Enter a Zero (0) quantity for every line), or by reversing each line item on the bill by making a negative entry for the same quantity, price and amount. This will bring the bill's Total to Zero (0) which effectively voids the bill. Method two performs the same function, but does so by generating a new bill as a credit invoice that cancels out the bill you wish to void. Be careful to make credit entries for each line item so that your service code totals will be in balance. You can simply enter a one line credit balance that cancels the other bill's total, however, your service code totals will not be correctly represented. *WARNING: We do not recommend using the PURGE OLD BILLS function to void a single bill. Although this will delete the bill in question from the system, you will have a gap in bill numbers and very likely an out of balance system with respect to amounts billed and moneys received. Receipts When payments to bills are received they must be recorded in PROBILL. The Receipts functions allows the flexibility of having multiple payments applied to any bill as well as handling Credits and allowing editing of receipt entries. Timely recording of receipts is necessary to gain full advantage of PROBILL's receivables tracking and reporting. There are three functions within the RECEIPTS menu. The RECEIPTS FROM CUSTOMERS is the main function and allows processing of the normal payments that are received from customers. The EDIT RECEIPTS and APPLY CREDIT BILLS functions provide utility services to handle special case situations. Receipts From Customers Entry of a customer receipt requires you to know the bill number for which the payment is to be applied to. Once the bill's number is entered the function will show you the bill's original amount and remaining balance. Enter the date the payment is received and the amount of the payment. If there was a discount taken you must also record the amount of the discount at this time. If the payment amount (and discount amount if any) equals the balance amount you will see the New Balance field displayed as Zero (0) and the 'PAID IN FULL' message to the right. You will be prompted to 'Record this Payment (Y/N)?' . Answer 'Y'es to record the payment. Recording a payment for less than the bill's amount If the payment amount is less than the remaining balance you will be shown the balance remaining after this payment is applied in the New Balance field. You may record up to 98 receipts and discounts for each bill in the system. Recording a payment for more than the bill's amount If you receive more in payment than your invoice you have a credit situation. Recording the full amount received will make this bill into a Credit Bill. Credit Bills may then have their credit balance amounts either applied to another bill for the same customer, or applied to a 'Check Issued' if a check is sent to the customer for the credit amount. Credit Bills may not have receipts applied to them in the Receipts From Customers function. Recording a payment with a discount taken When a receipt is recorded along with a discount taken the discount amount is applied to the bill's balance just like the payment amount. When recording a discount amount be sure the discount amount is correct and that the customer was due the discount. Discounts are tracked within the receipts area of PROBILL and reported accordingly for accounting purposes. Edit Receipts The Edit Receipts function allows you to edit previously recorded receipts. USE THIS FUNCTION WITH CAUTION. It should only be used when a receipt has been incorrectly recorded. The Edit Receipts function looks almost identical to the Record Customer Receipts function, but adds the facilities to adjust both the date and the amount of a receipt. You must know the bill number for the receipt you wish to edit. Once the bill number has been entered you will be shown information about the bill and will be cycled through each payment for that bill. At each payment you will be asked '(E)dit Receipt (N)ext Receipt'. Press E if you wish to edit the receipt shown, press N to view the next receipt, or press <ESC> to end the editing of receipts for this bill. *WARNING: Changing a receipt amount that is connected with a Credit Bill (or a receipt that made a bill into a Credit Bill) can disrupt the receivables tracking and create an out of balance condition. We recommend that you DO NOT edit any receipts associated with Credit Bills. Apply Credit Bills When a customer pays more than is due, when merchandise is returned, or other special situations Credit Bills can be produced. A Credit Bill is any bill with a balance due that is less than Zero. A Credit Bill means that the customer is due the amount indicated by the bill. Once a Credit Bill exists PROBILL allows you to 'apply' the credit amount in one of two ways. The first method is to apply the Credit amount to a check that you will issue to the customer for the amount of the credit. This allows you to 'clear' the credit bill by bringing its balance to Zero thereby removing it from the 'active' bills. The second method allows you to apply the Credit amount to another bill for the same customer. Applying a Credit Bill in this manner will also clear the credit bill by bringing its balance to zero. In the Apply Credit Bills function you will need to supply a Credit Bill's number which will bring up information about the bill. You will next be asked to enter a bill number that you want to apply the credit amount to. (Note: you can apply a large credit amount to a number of bills by separate entries) The bill you specify to apply the credit to must be a bill for the same customer and must have a positive balance due. If you issue a check to the customer for the credit balance you must also apply the Credit Bill. To apply the Credit Bill to a check issue enter a Zero (0) for the Apply to Bill Number field. (You must enter a Zero (0) not a [Blank]). You will be prompted to be sure that you are applying to a check issue. You then will be allowed to enter the date and amount of the application by check. You may repeat any of the above applications until you have depleted the Credit Bill's amount. In this manner you can apply a credit across multiple bills or issue a check for a portion of the credit and apply the rest to other bills. Print / Reprint Bills The Print/Reprint bills function allows maximum flexibility in printing and reprinting bills. When a bill is created it is flagged as an 'unprinted' bill. After it is printed the first time it is flagged as a 'printed' bill. The Print/Reprint function allows you to print all 'unprinted' bills at any time. This makes it easy to enter all new bills for a session and then print all the new bills for the session. After a bill has been printed it may be reprinted at any time by supplying the Print/Reprint function with the bill's number. Reprint requests a range of bill numbers making it easy to reprint any number of bills. *NOTE: If you Reprint bills that are currently flagged as 'unprinted' they will be printed and flagged as 'printed'. When Print/Reprint is first selected you are asked 'Print all Unprinted Bills (Y/N)?'. Answering 'Y'es will print all bills in the system flagged as 'unprinted'. Answering 'N' will bring up the Range Selection window for reprinting bills. Enter the starting and ending bill numbers of the bills you wish to print at this time. Before printing, Print/Reprint asks you to 'Ready Printer - Press <ENTER> when ready'. Be sure you have loaded or positioned the forms correctly if you are using forms. Press <ENTER> and printing will begin. If you have a slow printer or your printer runs out of paper PROBILL will flash a warning message for you to check your printer. If your printer has paper and is printing you can ignore the message and PROBILL will continue printing. You can cancel a print task at any time by pressing <ESC> during the print cycle. It can take a number of seconds for PROBILL to recognize your cancel print command and to actually cancel the print task. Try to avoid pressing <ESC> repeatedly to cancel the print task. Once you have pressed <ESC> it will be recognized. Statements Statements provide a recap of a customer's billing and payment activity for a given period of time. Once selected you must select the customers and the date ranges you wish to print. Statements are always produced to plain paper. In this manner you can print a statement for a single customer spanning any duration of time to printing statements for all customers again spanning any duration of time. For more information on what information Statements contain see the Customer Review Report in the Reports section. The Customer Review Report contains the same information as customer statements, but is in report format. Select Company The Select Company function allows you to change to another company for processing. This function is only available on Multi Company versions. When selecting a company for processing you effectively 'close' the current company and 'open' the newly selected company. The currently selected company for processing is indicated in the upper left hand corner of the PROBILL background screen. A company must already exist to be able to select it. If you attempt to enter a company code that is not recognized PROBILL will ask if you want to create a new company. If you answer 'Y'es to the 'Company Not Found - Create New Company (Y/N)? ' prompt you will be sent to the Company Maintenance function where you can create a new company. New companies are created through the Company Maintenance function under the Maintenance menu. The company to process may also be automatically selected when you start PROBILL from the DOS command line by adding the company's code to the command line invocation. This will bypass the opening screen and position you at the main menu with the company selected. For example, to start PROBILL and select the demonstration company of Dimestore Software (with a company code of 'DIME'), you would enter PROBILL DIME at the DOS prompt. Generate Repeat Billing The Generate Repeat Billing function allows you to quickly generate repeat bills for selective or all of your customers. To generate a repeat bill for a customer that customer must have a repeat service code, amount, and quantity in their record (See Customer Maintenance). Generate Repeat Billings for all Customers (Y/N)? Answering 'Y'es at this prompt will generate a bill for every customer having repeat billing information as described above and in Customer Maintenance. Answering 'N'o to this prompt will cycle through all customers with repeat billing information available and ask if you would like to generate a bill for that customer. When the repeat bills are completed you may print the bills generated using the Print/Reprint Bills selection from the main menu. Services Maintenance The Services Maintenance function allows you to enter and edit company services. Services are items that will be billed for through the PROBILL billing system. A service may be taxable, and may also actually be a product rather than a service. PROBILL allows a service item to be edited or deleted once it has been entered into the system, however, you should edit and delete service items with caution. Edited and Deleted service items can limit the accuracy of the data provided by PROBILL through the reporting mechanism. To delete a service you must first obtain the service's record in edit mode, then enter 'DELETE' for the service's description. Services may only be deleted when there are no bill lines for that particular service. Remember that a service item's purpose in the system is to provide information to create line items for bills, and to define 'Sales Categories' which accumulate as these services are sold. You could actually do all your billing with one service called 'SALES' that you edited to whatever you wanted for each particular line item. Since each line item allows editing of virtually all fields regardless of the Service record's values, this most certainly would work. (See the Bill Enter/Edit section) The results, however, would probably not be desirable. You would then have no breakdown of services or items sold unless you went through each invoice manually and tallied the individual items based on their description. We recommend that you pay careful attention to how detailed you would like your sales breakdowns to be. Service Fields Service Code: [Key] Up to three digits identifying the service. (i.e. 100, 283, etc.) Description: Up to 30 characters of Descriptive text. (i.e. "Square Widget") Unit of Measure: Up to three characters to describe how you measure quantities of this item. (i.e. EA., HR, DOZ, etc.) Cost: Your cost per unit of this item. This is used to compute profitability (e.g. price - cost = profit). Unit Price: The price you charge your customer per unit. Taxable: Determine if this item is taxable or not. Entry 'Y' if this item is Taxable or 'N" if this item is not taxable. *NOTE: The following suggested Services are recommended when they apply to your particular business. Apportioning amounts to these categories will enhance the sales representations of your business. DISCOUNTS GIVEN- Used to define discounts you give to your customers. SALES RETURNS - Used when an item is returned for credit. (Used on Credit Bills) SALES ALLOWANCE - An allowance other than a Discount e.g. a trade-in value. SHIPPING & HANDLING - Amounts charged for shipping and/or handling. Customer Maintenance The Customer Maintenance function allows you to enter and edit customer. Customers are persons or businesses that you will send bills to. All bills require a valid customer record be associated with each bill. If you have 'cash sales' or other situations that require a number of customers that you do not wish to keep on file you may create a customer named 'CASH' or 'MISC' with an easy to remember customer number. Whenever you use this record you can edit the name and address within the bill and thereby not have to create new customer records every time. To delete a customer you must first obtain the customer's record in edit mode, then enter 'DELETE' for the customer's name. Customers may only be deleted when there are no bills for that particular customer. Customer Fields Customer Number: [Key] Unique number to represent this customer. 4 digits. Customer Name: The customers name. Enter as Lastname, Firstname if you want to see customer lists sorted by lastname. Addr: Address. 35 characters. City: City. 25 characters. State: State abbreviation. 2 characters. Zip: Zip Code. 10 characters. Tax Rate: This Customers rate of taxation. A tax rate of 7.75 percent (7.75%) would be entered as 7.75. 4 digits. Repeat Service Code: The service code used to generate Repeat Bills for this customer. A blank repeat service code indicates that this customer will not have a bill generated when repeat billing is run. Repeat Service Amt.: The sales amount (price) of the repeat service. This value cannot be zero. Repeat Quantity: The quantity to use for repeat bills. This value cannot be zero. Company Maintenance The company maintenance section of PROBILL allows you to define the company parameters and system wide functions. Company maintenance should be the first step you choose in setting up a new company. Multi Company PROBILL allows you to create and edit an unlimited number of companies. If you have the Single Company version you will only be allowed to edit the single company's information. Multi Company Considerations Multi Company PROBILL allows you to administer receivables and billing for a number of companies. Each company has a separate set of data files. These data files may all reside in the same directory or, as we recommend, may be kept in separate directories. Using separate directories eases identification and backup of individual companies. Remember that creation or editing of a company's record DOES NOT automatically select that company for processing. You must still use the 'Select Company' function to distinguish the company to process. Company Fields Company Code: [Key field] Code associated with a company record. Up to 5 characters. Can only be edited with Multi Company versions. Name: The Name of the Company. 35 characters. Addr: Address. 35 characters. City: City. 25 characters. State: State abbreviation. 2 characters. Zip: Zip Code. 10 characters. Msg1 - Msg4: Four Lines of Message Information that will print on every bill. 45 characters per line. Next Bill Number: The number to assign to the next bill that is generated. 5 digits. Forms Type: The Forms Type field describes the type of form you will be printing for your bills. A zero (0) indicates you will print your bills as full 8 1/2" pages with all headings and data printed by PROBILL. Indicating form type 1 will print to a 7" preprinted tractor fed form (See APPENDIX B for a description of forms and envelopes). Much of the heading information is already preprinted on this form and PROBILL fills in the data. Selecting form type 2 prints an identical form to form type 1 but tells PROBILL NOT to print the company name and address on the form. This would be used when your form has the Company name and address preprinted on the form. Data Path: The Data Path where you wish this company's data files to reside. This field may only be defined when a company is newly created. (Multi Company Only) 64 characters. *WARNING: Whenever you change the Next Bill Number field that there will not be a conflict with existing bills in the system. PROBILL requires that each bill number be unique, therefore if you attempt to create a bill with a number that already exists in the system you will get a FILE SYSTEM ERROR. Deleting a Company (Multi Company version ONLY) On occasion you may find it necessary to delete an entire company. DELETION OF A COMPANY ALSO DELETES ALL DATA ASSOCIATED WITH THAT COMPANY. To delete a company bring the company record up in edit mode and enter DELETE for the company name. You will be prompted by a warning screen. Answering 'Y'es will delete the company and its associated data files. *WARNING: Once deleted a company's data cannot be recovered. We recommend performing a backup to capture this data before deleting the company. Reports PROBILL has a wealth of reports to help you to view the information in your system in a variety of ways. With its active open period structure PROBILL can easily provide you information about past, or present transactions for any 'period' you desire. Samples of each report are shown in the Sample Reports section. Report Options All reports may be sent to the printer or to the screen. Whenever you invoke a report you will be prompted to send the output to (P)rinter or (S)creen. Sending reports to the screen is an easy way to quickly review information. When viewing a report on the screen you can abort the report at any page break by pressing <ESC>. Pressing <ENTER> at a page break advances to the next page of the report. There is no facility to 'back up' in a report display. Many of the reports provide you with various options that will determine which data will be presented and/or what order the data will be presented in. Each of the options are defined within the individual report descriptions. Selecting Date Ranges Many of the reports allow you to specify a date range to define what data will be included in the report. By using the date ranges you can specify 'period' reports at whatever intervals you wish. For example, to produce monthly period reports you could specify From Dates as the first day of the month (e.g. 6/1/92) and the To Dates as the last day of the months (e.g. 6/30/92). This specifies a monthly period and will produce a report based on that monthly period. Aging Report The Aging Report provides information about which bills are outstanding (have balances due), and how long they have been outstanding. The Report can also show outstanding customer balances as well. The 'Aging' is based on the date you supply to age from and the date of the bill's creation. The report breaks the outstanding bills (or customer amounts) into Current, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, and 90+ days categories. This tells you how long each amount has been due. The Aging Report performs a 'True' aging which means that any payments or bills transacting after the aging date are not included within the aging figures. This means that you can produce accurate aging reports for past periods. Period Billing Report The Period Billing Report provides information about the bills that have been produced for the given period of time. The Report shows the Date, Bill Number, Customer Number and Name, the Bill's original amount, and the amount still due. If the 'Full Detail including Line Items' option is selected you will also see each line item comprising each bill along with individual bill totals. The Full Detail report can easily serve as an alternative to keeping separate copies of each bill. The Period Billing Report is always produced in date and bill number order. Customer List The Customer List report provides a list of all customers in the system. Optionally you may sort by Customer Number or by Customer Name. Since there is a single name field in the Customer record you would need to enter customers as Lastname, Firstname to receive a customer list sorted by lastname. You are also offered the option of a short or long format. The short format lists one line of information per customer whereas the long format lists all information in the customer record. Services List The Services list report provides a list of all services currently in the system. There are no options to this report. Services are always listed in Service Code order. Customer Review The Customer review report provides a look at a single customers bill and payment record for a specific period of time. This report echoes the information that is found in a customer's statement but places the information in a report format rather than a statement format. Each review report shows each bill that has been produced for this customer within the specified period. Within each bill are shown each payment made by the customer and the resultant balance due. Income Distribution The Income Distribution report is one of the key reports in the PROBILL system. This report breaks down all bill activity within the specified period into the discrete service areas defined by the services that have been established (See Services List Report and Services Maintenance). There are two different Income Distribution reports selected by the (P)rofit or (T)ax option. The Profit option provides a breakdown of each service item for quantity sold, total cost, total sales, and total profit. The Tax option provides a breakdown of each service item for quantity sold, total sales, total taxation, and total including taxation. Receipt Activity Report The Receipt Activity report provides information about all receipts recorded within the specified period. The report lists the date of the payment, the Bill number, Customer number and name, the discount amount or the amount paid. The report is in date order. Credit Allocation Report The Credit allocation report provides an audit trail of all applications of Credit Bills. The report lists the date of the allocation, the From_Bill and To_Bill numbers, the Customer number and name, and the amount of the application. Note that the From_Bill and To_Bill numbers provide a linkage of the application of the credit amount. When viewing the report remember that the To_Bill field always shows the bill number of where the amount for that line was applied to. Since there is a transference between two bills (thereby canceling / balancing each other) the From_Bill and To_Bill fields can be confusing. The entries should always balance with the exception of Check Issued items which only eliminate the credit balance and do not apply the amount within the PROBILL system. Tax Billed Report The Tax Billed Report shows all bills that were produced within the period specified that had tax added to the bill. The report shows the date, bill number, customer number and name, the bill's amount and the amount of tax included in the bill. The report is in date order. Company List The Company List report is only valid in the multi company version of PROBILL. This report shows all companies available in the PROBILL system. It is a short format only report showing company code, company name, and the current next bill number and forms type for that company. Utilities System Status The System Status function provides a single screen of general information about the PROBILL system. Some information, such as Memory Available, is purely informational. In the System Status screen you can see the quantities of items PROBILL has active in the number of Customers, Services, Bills, and Bill Lines. You will also find the earliest and latest bill date as well as the smallest and largest bill numbers. The next bill number to be used and the currently selected forms type are also displayed. Purge Old Bills The Purge Old Bills function provides a way to delete bills from the system. Since PROBILL provides a single active open period you can accumulate bills for years at a time. At some point you may want to 'purge' the system of old information that is no longer used. BE SURE that the information you delete is no longer needed before you purge bills from the system. You will be warned if you are trying to delete any bills with existing balances, however, you will still be allowed to delete items as you see fit. If you delete items from the system that have significance to the overall accumulations (e.g. bills with a balance due), you can cause your overall accounting to be out of balance. *WARNING: Use this function with the utmost caution. Once bills are Purged they cannot be recovered. We recommend performing a Backup prior to purging items from the system. Mark Bills As Printed This function allows you to change bills flagged as 'unprinted' to be flagged as 'printed' (See the Print/Reprint Bills section). You are allowed to mark all existing bills as printed or to selectively mark individual bills as printed. Clear Bill and Customer Totals The Clear Bill and Customer Totals function allows you to Zero the balances of bills without entering payments. If you are not interested in tracking receivables you may want to use this option to save you from having to enter payments for each bill. If you are tracking receivables then you should not use this function. Within the function you are allowed to clear all bill balances to Zero or to selectively clear bill balances to zero. The major use of this function occurs for Multi Company versions of PROBILL when processing clients who are not interested in tracking receivables and are just requiring you to produce their bills. *WARNING: CLEARING BILL TOTALS ALSO CLEARS CUSTOMER TOTALS. Unless you are NOT tracking receivables you should NOT use this function. Edit Bill Payments Occasionally you may find that you have entered a payment in error. The Edit Bill Payments function allows you to easily correct the situation. The format is similar to the Payments function, however, you must provide a payment number to edit a particular payment. The Edit Bill Payments function will show each payment in succession if you are unsure of the payment number you wish to edit. Exit To DOS The Exit to DOS function on the MAIN MENU exits the PROBILL system and returns you to the DOS prompt. This is the normal way to end your PROBILL session. Be sure not to turn off your computer until you have exited PROBILL in this manner. *WARNING: Powering down your computer system while in the PROBILL system can corrupt and damage the data within the PROBILL files. Always exit PROBILL through the Exit to DOS function. Technical Notes The various technical notes are provided for your information. Master Files There are ten (10) master files used by PROBILL that MUST reside in the PROBILL directory and MUST NOT be deleted. If these files are deleted they must be copied back into the PROBILL directory from the original Installation Disk. SERVICE.DB BLINE.PX SERVICE.PX CUSTOMER.DB BHEADER.DB CUSTOMER.PX BHEADER.PX RECEIPT.DB BLINE.DB RECEIPT.PX Additionally the COMPANY.DB and COMPANY.PX files are essential to PROBILL. The COMPANY files contain information about each company in the system. If lost these files will have to be copied from the original installation disk and then all company information will have to be re entered. Sub Directory Creation for New Companies When specifying a new sub directory for a new company remember that DOS can only add one sub directory beyond the existing directory structure per time. Given the structure of C:\PROBILL existing, specifying a new company with a directory path of C:\PROBILL\NEW\XCOMP would fail (providing the sub directory NEW did not exist). Remember this when specifying a new company. Backups You should adopt some routine for periodically backing up your data. As a rule of thumb backup whenever you have done enough work that you would not want to have to re create that amount of work. Backing up after each session would be prudent. For Multi Company versions separating companies into separate sub directories can make backups easier. The files you should back up are all files with a .DB and .PX extension. BILL PREPARATION AND DISTRIBUTION PROBILL attempts to make the production and distribution of bills as easy as possible. There are a number of factors, however, that are beyond the scope of the PROBILL system. Preparing the bills for mailing, filing copies of bills for your records, depositing receipts to bank accounts, etc., etc. We have found that the least expensive and easiest production of bills occurs when PROBILL prints to laser printer forms and we use dual window envelopes. Its a simple process to print the bills, tri-fold each bill, insert the bill into a dual window envelope and seal and stamp the envelope. If you're using a laser printer you must run Reprint Bills to get actual copies of bills since Print Bills produces a single copy by the nature of the way laser printers print (no impact for 'carbon' copies). (See Keeping Copies of Bills below). The alternatives are either plain laser paper (Works just as well, but there is no perf for your customer to tear off) with dual window envelopes, non window envelopes, or dot matrix tractor fed forms. Non window envelopes mean you will have to address both the customers and your return address which can take a great deal of time. Dot matrix tractor fed forms must be prepared before placing in the envelopes by tearing apart the forms, tearing off the tractor feed strips, and possibly bursting one or more copies of the form. It works well, but is very time consuming. Keeping Copies of Bills One feature of PROBILL that can save you some time is that you should not have to keep a copy of each bill that you produce. In some cases you may still want a copy (or copies) of the actual bill distributed within your organization, however, PROBILL provides a report that should take the place of copies of the individual bills. The Period Billing Report in its 'full bill detail including line items' format provides virtually everything a copy of each bill would provide. If you can be comfortable with this report in lieu of an actual copy of each bill then you will only need to print a single bill with a laser printer and should be able to get by with 1 less part on a dot matrix tractor form. (As little as 2 part - 1 for the customer to keep and 1 for the customer to return with payment). ACCOUNTING WITH PROBILL PROBILL maintains an "always active" current period that spans the full range of data within the PROBILL system. In essence PROBILL does not segregate data into discrete periods and does not require 'closing' of periods as would be found in many accounting system. To derive discrete 'period' information PROBILL allows reporting based on report dates that you provide. This method provides maximum flexibility in obtaining information and in manipulating data, especially with regard to 'prior period adjustments' situations. The main 'accounting' reports that PROBILL provides are the 'Period Billing Report', the 'Income Distribution Report' and the 'Aging Report', the 'Payment Activity Report', and the 'Tax Billed Report'. PROBILL is designed around the 'Accrual Basis' accounting method, although it does provides the necessary information to perform both 'Cash Basis'. For more information see each of the above mentioned report descriptions. Linking Accounts Receivable to General Ledger The linkage of Accounts Receivables to the General Ledger is usually accomplished by making periodic journal entries to the General Ledger. The areas of concern and sample general journal entries are described below. With the next release of PROGL (ÖDimestore's General Ledger Package) and PROBILL you will have the ability to automatically produce the journal entries directly to the General Ledger if you have both packages. General Journal Entries Produce an 'Income Distribution Report' for the desired period (normally a given month) using the 'TAX' option. The '$TOTAL' total becomes your Accrual Basis Income for the period. The '$INCOME' amounts become your sales amounts. The '$TAX' total becomes your sales Tax liability for the period. The service category breakdowns are only necessary if you segregate your sales in some fashion you may choose to lump all sales into a single category. The 'Discounts Given' Service category is assumed if you give discounts to your customers (See the Services Maintenance section). Given this information your general journal entry would appear as follows: ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE $TOTAL Total Discounts Given $Discounts Given SVC CATEGORY1 SALES $INCOME SVC1 SVC CATEGORY2 SALES $INCOME SVC2 SVC CATEGORY3 SALES $INCOME SVC3 SALES TAXES PAYABLE $Tax Total Produce a 'Receipts Activity Report' for the desired period . From the 'Receipts Activity Report' we derive the cash that has flowed into the company . CASH RECEIVED $Total Payments Discounts Taken $Discounts Taken ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE $Total Payments FORMS and ENVELOPES PROBILL can print to plain 8 1/2" X 11" paper with both laser printers and dot matrix printers. The purchase of specific forms and envelopes can make your bills more presentable and save you time when producing bills. Below you will find the appropriate forms and envelopes for both laser and dot matrix printers. All forms and envelopes are available from ÖDimestore Software, however, you may be able to find similar forms or envelopes from other vendors. The items listed below are readily available and PROBILL has been tested with these items. Pricing may change, however, current pricing is shown below. LASER PRINTER FORMS The Laser printer form is a plain paper (8 1/2" X 11") form with a serrated tear-off as the bottom third of the page. PROBILL will print to this form (or plain paper) to produce a header, body and tear-off that can be folded into thirds. Use a two window envelope and a preprinted return envelope for best results. BILL FORM: PRODUCT # - PB1001-18 (8 1/2" laser w/perf) ENVELOPE: PRODUCT # - PB1001-21 (Dual Window Envelope) RETURN : PRODUCT # - PB1001-31 (Return Envelope) DOT MATRIX FORMS Dot Matrix forms are three (3) part or five (5) part 7" forms for tractor fed printers. BILL FORM: PRODUCT # - PB1001-72 (2 Part Invoice form) BILL FORM: PRODUCT # - PB1001-73 (3 Part Invoice form) BILL FORM: PRODUCT # - PB1001-74 (4 Part Invoice form) ENVELOPE: PRODUCT # - PB1001-21 (Dual Window Envelope) RETURN : PRODUCT # - PB1001-31 (Return Envelope) CURRENT PRICING: 100 250 500 1,000 PB1001-18 (Laser w/perf) $7.00 $11.25 $17.50 $29.50 PB1001-21 (Window Envelope) $23.25 $41.50 $56.25 $91.50 PB1001-31 (Return Envelope) N/A N/A $56.25 $91.50 PB1001-72 (2 Part Invoice) $28.75 $47.50 $85.00 $150.00 PB1001-73 (3 Part Invoice) $34.25 $58.50 $97.00 $174.00 PB1001-74 (4 Part Invoice) $42.25 $74.50 $129.00 $238.00 *NOTE: Minimum quantity of 500 for any item imprinted with company information.