The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2

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Text File | 1992-01-08 | 51KB | 945 lines

FIDONET ACCOUNTING/BILLING SOFTWARE "FIDOBILL" v1.01a 07-Jan-92 -- INTRODUCTION -- I started programming FIDOBILL after I approached Eric Smith (1:104/513), the treasurer of my network, about it. I was curious how he went about keeping track of the accounts and how he handled billing. To my surprise he was essentially doing it by hand using some combination of a custom program and a Lotus spreadsheet. I thought the process could be streamlined by a complete software package that took care of everything. And so I began programming in late September, 1991. The package quickly took form and within a week Eric was running the first version of the software. Compared to the final product that is now being distributed this version was very limited. Still, it dramatically decreased the amount of time Eric had to spend on his duties as treasurer. Over the course of the next two months I continued to add features, improve the user interface, and take Eric's suggestions as to what would be nice to have in the package. This version of the software is a dramatic advance over the version Eric originally used. But, as a programmer, I recognize that a given program is never "done." There is always more you can do with a program. For that reason I encourage you to send me netmail with any ideas you have for additional features. Also, the "Reports" section of the program was built with expandability in mind. If you have an idea for a report that you'd like to see just send me netmail and I'll try to get it programmed and f-sent to you ASAP. I hope you find FIDOBILL easy to use and a helpful tool in keeping track of billing. If you do, I hope you'll consider registering the software. Your support will encourage the future development of this product. -- Craig Steiner 9959 E. Peakview #C-206 Englewood, CO USA Fidonet - 1:104/332 Internet - Craig_Steiner@f332.n104.z1.fidonet.org -- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS -- o 640k RAM minimum o DOS 3.30 or above o 500k base disk storage plus approx. 4k per node in billing database. o Processor 80286-8 or above recommended o Color monitor preferable o Printer optional As indicated above, FIDOBILL will require approximately half a megabyte of disk space and then grow by about 6k for each node that is in your billing database. Due to some of the number crunching it is recommended that you use a 286 or better, but this is not a requirement. A color monitor will also add to the visual attractiveness of the program but, of course, is not required. FIDOBILL now supports both the Hudson-style message base (RA, QBBS) as well as the Fidonet *.MSG message base format. -- DISCLAIMER -- This software is distributed on an "as-is" basis. The author assumes absolutely no responsibility for the results of using or misusing this software. The author will not be responsible for any loss, financial or otherwise, incurred by the use of this software. Further, the author makes no guarantees or promises concerning the fitness of this program for a specific purpose. The author is under no obligation to provide support or future enhancements for the product, though he may choose to do so. By using this software you unconditionally agree to this disclaimer and understand that you bear the full risk of using this software. -- THE TWO PROGRAMS -- Two primary programs make up the FIDOBILL billing system. These programs are FIDOBILL.EXE and BILLING.EXE. In addition to these two programs there will be one additional .EXE file for each report that is being used. FIDOBILL.EXE is the control software. All of the setup is done from this program. All editing of node's accounts, input of received payments, etc. is also done from FIDOBILL.EXE. If you are not sure which program to use it is most likely FIDOBILL.EXE. BILLING.EXE, on the other hand, is the program that handles the actual sending of netmail to individual nodes. This program should be run once and only once per 24-hour period. Presumably you would include this file in your nightly maintenance routines. -- THE SOFTWARE KEY APPROACH -- I have implemented a software key to encourage users to register the software. The software key that is included with this program is a temporary evaluation key that will function through May 30, 1992. The evaluation key will allow you to use all the features of the package EXCEPT the functions that tie everything into the net's bank account. These features will be enabled only with a legitimately registered key. Once the temporary evaluation key has expired the BILLING.EXE program will cease to operate. Essentially this means that you will be able to track the accounts but the program will not be able to "communicate with the world" by automatically sending netmail. I did not want to cripple the software too much, but quite honestly I DID want to see some registrations. I hope I balanced these factors well. The software is no less functional without the bank account features. But those features are definitely a "perk" for those who register the software. Please see the section "REGISTERING FIDOBILL" for the procedure to register this software and to receive a permanent software key. -- REGISTERING FIDOBILL -- FIDOBILL is a shareware program. You are free to use and test the program for as long as you wish (subject to the expiration of the temporary evaluation key) to determine whether or not the program will suit your needs. Should you receive the FIDOBILL package at a date approaching the May 30, 1992 temporary key expiration date please send netmail to Craig Steiner at 1:104/332 and request a new evaluation key. I'll be happy to send you a new one to give you plenty of time to evaluate the software. If you choose to continue using FIDOBILL I do request that you register the software by filling out the registration form on the next page and sending it, along with check, cashier's check, or money order for $40.00 (U.S.) to the address indicated. Software keys will be f-sent to you upon your checks successful clearing of your bank (normally 2-weeks). If I should receive your registration near the temporary key expiration date a temporary replacement key will be issued while your check clears. A permanent key will then be issued when the check clears. Cashier's checks and money orders will be honored immediately, so if you're in a hurry this is the way to go. Sorry, I'm not some major software company (yet?) so I can't accept credit card orders. Perhaps someday... Note that when FIDOBILL is registered it is registered to the NETWORK, not to the individual accountant. Should the accountant resign, quit, etc. and someone else take his place the software key will still work and may legitimately be passed along to the new accountant. An additional service that I am offering is to convert your current records into the FIDOBILL database. This will allow you to get up and running with FIDOBILL immediately and with correct balances for each node. Should you desire to take advantage of this service I would PREFER the information be provided via modem rather than a hardcopy. If you can f-send it to me at 1:104/332 be sure that the data is in an ASCII TEXT FILE. I cannot convert a Lotus Spreadsheet, etc. unless you have saved it as an ASCII file. Alternatively you can enclose a hardcopy of the stats with your registration. Either way please allow some additional time for the conversion to be done. The data files will be sent to you with the software key. The fee I am charging is $25.00 regardless of the number of nodes in your network. -- FIDOBILL REGISTRATION -- -- v1.01a -- Network To Register: ______ ______ (Zone) (Net) Todays Date: _____/_____/_____ Month Day Year Accountant's Name: ______________________________________ Address: ______________________________________ City: ______________________ State: ________ Zip: ________ Country: ________ Voice Phone: (____) ______ - __________ FidoNet Address To F-Send Key To: ________________ ____ Mark here if you are not on FidoNet or would prefer to receive your key by calling The Vault BBS and downloading your key. Is your network funding this registration? _______ Where did you find this copy of FIDOBILL? _________________ Where did you first hear of FIDOBILL? _____________________ I have enclosed: _____ $40.00 (drawn on U.S. bank) for FIDOBILL registration. _____ $25.00 (drawn on U.S. bank) for conversion of my existing records. These records are provided by: ____ Enclosed hardcopy of records ____ F-Sent to 1:104/332 under name of ___________ Date it was F-Sent to 1:104/332: ___________ I understand that by signing below I agree to any and all terms of usage of FIDOBILL, which include: 1. I will not resell the software key I receive. 2. I will not try to de-compile or reverse engineer FIDOBILL or attempt to tamper with it's data files without prior written consent of the author. 3. I will not distribute FIDOBILL in any form other than as the complete package as I received it. ________________________________________ Signature of Applicant Date -- INSTALLING FIDOBILL -- Presumably you have already done this. Installing FIDOBILL is a matter of unzipping the file. I'd recommend you install FIDOBILL in it's own subdirectory, but that's up to you. But that is all there is to installing FIDOBILL. -- CONFIGURING FIDOBILL -- Once FIDOBILL is installed the next step is configuring it. To get to the "(S)etup/Configuration" section run FIDOBILL.EXE. The "S" option on the main menu will take you to the Setups screens. The setups section of the program consists of two screens which may be accessed by hitting PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN from either screen. Throughout the program the ESCAPE key will exit you back to the previous screen. We'll now cover each of the setup fields. BILLING SYSTEM ADDRESS: This is the network address for the system that will be running FIDOBILL and mailing out the bills, statements, etc. I would expect that this would be YOUR (the accountant's) network address. PATH TO CURRENT NODELIST: This field must contain the full path to where you keep your active nodelist. FIDOBILL will look for a valid St. Louis style nodelist in this directory. I highly recommend that you include the drive identifier (C:, D:, etc.) as part of the path to avoid possible confusion. PATH TO HUDSON/*.MSG FILES: This field must contain the full path to where you keep your Hudson-style message base files. If you use the *.MSG message storage method this must contain the full pathname to where you keep your netmail *.MSG files. When the BILLING program generates netmail statements, reports, etc. it will look for the files in this directory. It is of utmost importance that this path be correct. Again, I recommend that you include the driver identifier as part of this path. NETMAIL AREA NUMBER: In this field enter the Hudson area-number (1- 200) for Netmail. For example, if you are using RemoteAccess and have set-up message area #200 as Netmail, you'd enter 200 into this field. If you are using the *.MSG message format this field should either be blank or contain the number "0". LOCAL SYSOP AREA NUMBER: In this field enter the Hudson-area number of the echomail area that the sysops in your net use to communicate with each other. Generally this would be a sysop-only echo for the sysops of your net. This field is currently not utilized anywhere in the program but should be entered anyway to allow for future upgrades to the software. PRIORITY--WELCOME: This indicates the priority (Normal/Crash) that you wish to send "welcome messages" (more on this soon) with. PRIORITY--RECEIPT: This indicates the priority (Normal/Crash) that you wish to send payment receipts with. PRIORITY--BILL: This indicates the priority (Normal/Crash) that you wish to send bills and statements with. DEFAULTS -- The fields in the "Defaults" section refer to how a brand new node will be set-up until otherwise specifically modified. BILLING STATUS: This is a field that will cycle between Non- Billable/Billable/Exempt/Cancel. If you choose "Non-Billable" then new nodes, by default, will not be charged any fee until you manually go in and edit their account. "Non-Billable" is used to signify nodes that are not being billed because they are not receiving any services (i.e. backbone echos) that require a fee. If you default it to "Billable" the node will automatically be billed when it first appears in the nodelist or is manually created by you in the node editor. Functionally "Exempt" operates as "Non-Billable." "Exempt" is usually used for nodes that are exempt from billing due to being an echo hub or for some other administrative reason. "Cancel" would be a bizarre choice to default new nodes to and, quite frankly, I can't think of ANY reason to do so. FEE: This is the fee that you wish to charge nodes by default. BILLING DATE: This is the day of the month (1-31) that you wish nodes to be billed on. Each node may be billed on a different date if you desire. This field represents what new nodes will be defaulted to--you can modify them later if you choose. I do not recommend billing nodes after the 28th of the month. If you were to bill on the 31st of each month the program would actually end up billing systems on the first of the NEXT month in cases where only 30 days exist in the month (that is, if you are billing on the 31st of each month then in April there is no April 31st. So the nodes would end up being billed on May 1st). BILLING FREQUENCY: This is another field that cycles between options: Monthly/BiMonthly/Quarterly/Annually. This indicates how often you wish to bill nodes the above fee. If the fee is entered as $3.00 and the billing frequency is Monthly then nodes will, by default, be charged $3.00 per month. Again, you can change this for each specific node. One node can be billed Monthly and the next could be billed Annually. This field represents how a new node is billed until otherwise specified. SEND WELCOME TO: This field cycles between NONE/ALL NEW/NEW BILLABLE. When nodes are added to your database they are marked as "new." You have the option of sending a "welcome message" to new nodes that appear in the database. If you don't want to send welcome messages you'd select "None." If you want to send welcome messages to ALL new nodes (billable or not) you'd set this to "ALL NEW." This could welcome the node to FidoNet, etc. If you wanted to send welcome messages only to new systems that will be paying a monthly fee you'd select "NEW BILLABLE." This could welcome them to FidoNet and explain the net's billing procedures, etc. ACCOUNTANT'S NAME: Sort of self-explanatory, don't ya think? SEND PAYMENTS TO: These four fields should contain the U.S. Snail address of where nodes should send their payments. Four fields are provided so you can enter something along the lines of: Net 9999 Co-Op c/o Mr. Accountant 100 W. Anystreet Anytown, USA 00000 The information you enter here will appear on the bills/statements that are generated by FIDOBILL. BILLING SITUATION 1-4: The whole top half of the second page is a little bit complex and actually is a topic in and of itself. So leave these alone for now. SEND LAST x DAYS OF BANK STATEMENT: This requires a registered software key. When enabled FIDOBILL can be instructed to send the last x days worth of the FIDOBILL bank account files to specified nodes. This is great for auditing the accountant by other parties. So if FIDOBILL was going to send the bank account files on December 31st and this field had a 10 in it it would send all the transactions that occurred in the 10 days prior to December 31st. ON THESE DAYS: This field may hold a list of dates, separated by spaces, that you wish to send the bank statement on. For example, if the NC wanted a copy of your bank account records on the 1st and 15th of each month you would enter "1 15" in this field. FORWARD BANK ACCOUNT RECORDS TO: This field may contain a list of nodes in your network to forward the bank records to. In the above example you would enter the node address on your NC into this field. If you enter more than one address in this list then all the nodes in this list will be issued copies of the bank statements on the dates specified above. BILL DOWN SYSTEMS?: This is a Yes/No toggle. This indicates whether or not you want to continue to bill a system even if it is marked as "Down." This is up to each individual network. One could argue that all systems should be billed unless they are specifically marked as Non-Billable, Exempt, or Cancelled. One could also argue that if a system is down then it isn't receiving any services so shouldn't have to pay for them. In any case, this is how you control that parameter. SEND STATEMENTS TO EXEMPT NODES: This is another Yes/No toggle. Exempt nodes are not going to be billed any dollar amount by FIDOBILL. You may wish to send statements to the exempt nodes anyway. If you want to send statements to exempt nodes despite the fact there is no actual dollar amount being billed then select "Yes." Otherwise select "No." -- PROCESSING NODELISTS -- Once FIDOBILL has been fully configured the next step will be to construct the initial database. This is done by running the "(P)rocess Nodelist" option from the main menu. You should run this function whenever you have a new nodelist. This allows FIDOBILL to keep track of the up/down status of nodes, scan for any new nodes that have appeared in the nodelist, or any other changes for the system. This function will take anywhere from several seconds to several minutes to run depending on where your network exists within the nodelist and how many nodes are in your network. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE SYSTEM DURING THIS PROCESS. The program does some index building, etc. and it could be potentially harmful to interrupt it in the middle of processing. -- EDITING NODES -- Editing node accounts is a very simple, straight-forward matter. From the main menu select the "(E)dit an Existing network node" function. A screen will appear with a number of fields for you to edit. NETWORK ADDRESS: This is, of course, the node number that you wish to edit. To bring up a nodes account simply type in the address (simply entering the node number is sufficient. You need not enter the zone and net). If the node you enter does not exist all the fields will be assigned the default values specified in the "Setup/Configuration" section and you may proceed to enter the data and create a new entry. SYSTEM NAME: This field will contain the name of the system as it appears in the nodelist. BILLING NAME: This field will contain the name of the sysop as it appears in the nodelist. If the name changes in the nodelist this field will automatically be updated the next time you (P)rocess the nodelist. ADDRESS LINE 1 ADDRESS LINE 2 CITY, STATE, ZIP, VOICE PHONE #: These fields are all completely optional. The program does not use any of these fields at any time. They are for your reference only and whether you choose to use them or not is up to you. BILLING STATUS: This toggles whether this node is Non- Billable/Billable/Exempt/Cancelled. A node that is marked as "Non- Billable" or "Cancelled" will never be billed, nor will any statements ever be mailed to them. A node that is marked as "Exempt" will not be assessed any fees, but may be sent a statement depending on how you configured your "Send statements to Exempt nodes?" in the Configuration section. "Billable," of course, subjects the node to standard billing. SYSTEM STATUS: This is a toggle between Active/Down. When you process a nodelist this field will be updated automatically. You may also adjust it manually from the editor. Netmail will never be sent to systems that are marked as down. Down systems will only be billed if you have marked "Bill Down Systems?" as "Yes" in the setups section. FEE: This is the fee you wish to charge the node. BILLING FREQUENCY: This field cycles between Monthly/BiMonthly/Quarterly/SemiAnnually/Annually. This represents how often the fee should be applied to this account. BILLING DATE: This field indicates what date of the month the system should be billed. Values between 1 and 31 are valid, although 1-28 are recommended for the reasons discussed in the "Setups" section previously. WRITE-OFF: This is a Yes/No toggle field. The default is always "No." This field is only used in reports that you may produce. If you get into a situation where a node owes the network $20 and then disappears without a trace you will, in all likelihood, assume that the network will never see the $20.00. In this case you'd want to flag the account as being "written off" so that this $20.00 wasn't considered in the reports that report on the current status of the net. NETMAIL BILL TO: This field will contain a single network address. Usually it will be the same address as the NETWORK ADDRESS above. All correspondence that FIDOBILL generates for this node will be netmailed to THIS address. For example, if you have a situation where a single sysop is running two systems with two different addresses he may request that all billing be sent to ONE of the addresses. Simply enter the address into this field and all mail will be sent to this address. BILL ALTERNATE SYSTEM: This is an interesting (albeit, perhaps not TOO useful) feature. By entering a network address into this field all charges that this node incurs will be charged to the alternate systems account. That is, if you enter "332" into this field then any charges that would normally be charged to this system would instead be charged to node 332's account. Pressing "F1" from the node editor will bring up a screen with their billing history. Anything involving this node will be recorded here, including date, description, and amount of the transaction. The 100 most recent transactions are retained. After 100 transactions have been saved in the history additional transactions will cause the oldest transaction to "scroll off." You can scroll through all the transactions with up UP/DOWN arrow keys and the PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN keys. You may also manually adjust the balance of the node by hitting the space bar and entering a new balance. NOTE: When you adjust the balance of a node a netmail message will be sent to the node you are adjusting stating that you have adjusted their balance. This prevents the accountant from modifying a balance "behind the scenes" under the assumption no-one will notice. -- RECEIVE NODE(S) PAYMENTS -- When you receive the payment for a node you will select this option. A window will open, prompting you to enter a node number. Enter the node number that you have received a payment from. FIDOBILL will then tell you the billing name for that node so you can verify you are talking about the correct node. You will then be prompted to enter either the check number that was received or 'CASH' if you have received a cash payment. Finally, you will be prompted for the amount of payment. Enter the appropriate dollar amount. Upon hitting enter with a dollar amount on this field the payment will be applied to the nodes account. The program then cycles back to prompting you for another node number. This allows you to quickly enter many payments. When you enter a received payment a payment receipt will automatically be netmailed to the node acknowledging that you have received the payment. -- ISSUE STATEMENT TO A SINGLE NODE -- If a node should request that a new statement be netmailed to him you may simply select the (I)ssue Statement to a single node from the main menu. You will be prompted for the node number to issue a statement to and your selection will be verified. A statement will then be netmailed to them. Note that this does not imply that they will be billed again but rather they will get a new copy of their account status to date. -- BANK ACCOUNT FUNCTIONS -- The bank account functions are options available only on the registered version. These are powerful functions which will make FIDOBILL even more useful, but I don't think the lack of them will take away from the usefulness of the program for those who have not yet registered. -- DEPOSIT PAYMENTS IN BANK -- When you have accumulated some deposits (which will have already been entered into the program via the (R)eceive Node Payments command) and you are actually ready to go to the bank and deposit them you will use the "(D)eposit Payments In Bank" command from the main menu. If you have any deposits on record you will be shown a summary of them, like "3 Checks Totalling $35.00, 2 Cash Totalling $25.00." You then have the choice of either examining the deposit or making the deposit. If, based on the numbers, it appears that what the program shows doesn't match what the true deposit will be (i.e., if FIDOBILL shows you a $60.00 deposit but you notice you only have $50.00 in your hand to deposit) you can (E)xamine the deposit. This will display a breakdown of what makes up the current deposit. The node number, check number (or 'CASH'), and dollar amount for each node payment received will be indicated. You can scroll through them to find the part(s) of the deposit that may have been entered incorrectly. When you find an error in the deposit you may adjust the dollar amount by hitting ENTER on the item in question. You will be prompted for a new dollar amount. Simply enter the correct dollar amount. NOTE: When you make an adjustment to the deposit a lot happens that you won't see. First, if you were to adjust the deposit entry for node "332" and indicated that the deposit was $5.00 less than originally entered the system would then go out and adjust the account records for node 332 accordingly. Clearly, if you are only depositing $10 in the bank but you originally credited them for $15 that would be incorrect. So an adjustment will be made to their account. Also, a netmail message will be sent to the node in question stating that an adjustment was made by the accountant and will state the date and amount of that adjustment. When you are satisfied that the bank deposit amount reported by FIDOBILL actually reflects reality you may (M)ake the deposit. You will be prompted for a brief explanation of the deposit (which defaults to "NODE PAYMENT DEPOSIT"). The system will make all the necessary updates and make the deposit in the main bank account records. -- WITHDRAWAL FUNDS FROM ACCOUNT -- The time will come when it is time to pay the net's phone bills, etc. and you will need to inform FIDOBILL that you are withdrawaling funds from the account. To do this use the "(W)ithdrawal Funds From Account" function from the main menu. You will be prompted to enter a brief explanation of the withdrawal. You will then be prompted for the dollar amount to withdrawal. Finally, you will be asked if the withdrawal information is correct. If it is the withdrawal will be processed and the bank account records will be updated accordingly. -- BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE REPORT -- The "(B)ank Account Balance Report" will produce a screen that looks a lot like a checkbook. The activity in the network's bank account will be reported here. The ledger itself is rather self-explanatory. If you know how a checkbook works you will understand the ledger. If you don't know how a checkbook works one could argue that perhaps your net should choose another accountant. The options you have from the Balance screen are to apply interest to the account, apply a service charge to the amount, to make an adjusting entry, and to forward a copy of the bank statement to a given node. The "(I)nterest Applied to Account" function is very straight- forward. You will be prompted for the amount of interest that is to be applied. After verifying that this is the correct amount to credit to the account the interest will be added to the bank account records. The "(S)ervice Charge Applied To Account" is identical to the interest function, except it debits the amount from the account. Again, you will be prompted for the amount of the service charge to debit and be asked to verify the amounts correctness. That amount will then be debited from the account. The "(A)djusting Entry" is exactly what it sounds like. If you have tried everything possible and you just can't get the bank's statement to match your records you can make an adjusting entry to make the two statements match. As with any account this should be a last resort since agreeing to the bank's statement may actually cost the net money since it is POSSIBLE the bank DID make a mistake. When selecting the "(A)djusting Entry" you will be prompted for a brief explanation of the adjustment. Then you'll be prompted for the amount of the adjustment. A positive number is treated as a credit to the account and will INCREASE the balance while a negative number is treated as a debit and will DECREASE the balance. The program will then verify that this adjustment is correct and then proceed to make the adjustment to the account. Finally, the "(F)orward Copy of Bank Account" allows you to send a copy of your bank account records to any given node. You will be prompted for the network address of the node you wish to send the records to. Enter this in standard address format. After verifying the address to be the correct address you will be asked how many days worth you wish to send. That is, if today is December 20th and you enter 10 into this field the system will send the records of the last 10 days (since December 10th) to the node you specified. Upon entering the number of days a copy will be netmailed. Note that the records will not actually be sent until the next time you run the BILLING program which handles all the mailing. -- VIEW REPORTS -- The reports section of the program is an area that contain a number of custom reports concerning the network. The release version of FIDOBILL supports only one report but additional reports will be released in the future and I welcome any suggestions concerning reports you'd like to see. When you enter the "(V)iew Reports" screen another window will pop-up listing all the available reports. From this menu you may either select a report that you wish to view and hit (ENTER) to execute it. You also have the option of removing a report that you no longer use. To delete a report position the highlight bar on the report that you wish to remove, then hit the (D)elete key. After verifying that you really want to remove the report it will be removed from your menu. If you receive a new report or wish to re-install a report that you have previously deleted you may (A)dd new reports. The program will prompt you for the name of this report. This is the name that will appear on the menu in the future--enter anything you'd like that will describe the report for you. Next it will ask you to enter the filename to execute to produce this report. All reports will have a filename that looks like FBR-####.EXE, where #### is some number between 0 and 9999. If the report you were installing was named "FBR-0001.EXE" you'd enter "FBR-0001" into this field. -- WHEN VIEWING A REPORT -- When you have selected a report and hit (ENTER) on it the program will execute the report generator and display the report on the screen. This may take several moments--the exact time will depend on how many nodes are in your net and what kind of report is being produced. Once the report is on the screen you may view the entirety of the report by scrolling it up/down with the up and down arrow keys as well as the page up/down keys. Another option you also have is to "(P)rint Report." As the name suggests this simply allows you to dump the report to the printer. The next option is to "(F)orward Report Via Netmail." Again this is fairly straight-forward. If you wish to forward this specific report to someone else in your net you'd select this option. Simply enter the node address, when prompted, and the report will be forwarded to that node the next time the BILLING.EXE program is executed. The "(S)chedule Report" allows you to have this particular report produced and forwarded to a specific node on specific, scheduled days of the month. For example, it might be useful to send a specific report to your NC on the 10th and 20th of each month. To do this, select this option. You will then be prompted for node address of the system you wish to forward the report to. After verifying the node address is being correct you will need to tell the program what days of the month you'd like to have this report generated and sent to the node you entered. Enter the day(s) of the month, separated by spaces. The report will then be sent to that node on those dates each month without further need for maintenance. The "(K)ill Scheduled Reports" allows you to do the opposite of the Report scheduling just described. This option will allow you to REMOVE the reporting you have scheduled for this report. Note that ALL scheduled reports for this report will be killed. That is, if you've scheduled the report to be sent to two different nodes on different dates BOTH of them will be removed by this function. -- AUTOMATIC NODE WARNING/CANCELLATION -- FIDOBILL includes a powerful feature that will automate a lot of your work, beyond what you've already seen. Let's explain this by way of example. Perhaps your net is setup so that if a node gets 6 months behind payment you cancel them. No problem. But perhaps it would be wise to send some warnings before you cancel them. Perhaps you'd like to warn the node when they get 3 months delinquent that they are getting close to being cancelled. At 4 months perhaps you'd like to remind the node again. At 5 months warn the node a final time as well as notify the net's administration that the node is getting ready to get cancelled. At 6 months, **BOOM** that's it. Cancel the node and make sure the admin nodes know about it. FIDOBILL makes this all a breeze and allows it to be done automatically. Go back to your "(S)etups/Configuration" screen from the main menu, then go to the second page. The whole top half of the screen relates to this functionality. We mentioned above that we'd like to warn the node when they get 3 months delinquent. To do this move the highlight bar to "Billing Situation #1" and enter "-3 NODE" This means that "at -3 Months (3 months delinquent) send the file called NODE1.FBT as a netmail message to this node." Presumably NODE1.FBT would contain text warning the node they are approaching the cutoff date. At 4 months delinquent you wanted to send the node another warning, so in "Billing Situation #2" you would enter "-4 NODE" Then at 5 months delinquent you want to send a final warning to the node as well as notify the administration systems that the node is about ready to be cancelled. In "Billing Situation #3" you'd enter "-5 NODE ADMIN" This means that at -5 months you want to send NODE3.FBT to the node as netmail and include this node on a warning list that will be sent to all the administration nodes that are listed in the "Administration Nodes To Warn" field. Finally, at 6 months delinquent you want to notify the node that they have been cancelled, notify the admin nodes, and change their status to "Cancelled" in the accounting records. This would be achieved by entering "-6 NODE ADMIN CANCEL" into "Billing Situation #4." This would send a final netmail msg (NODE4.FBT) to the node, put the node on the admin's warning list, and then cancel the node. It actually isn't necessary to put both "ADMIN" and "CANCEL" on the line since "CANCELing" a node automatically generates a detailed message to the administration nodes. In the same area of the setups screen are two fields, one is "Node Notice Priority" and the other is "Admin Warning Priority" These two fields indicate what priority (Crash/Normal) the corresponding messages will be sent with. Finally, the "Administration Nodes To Warn" field is used in conjunction with the "Billing Situation" fields mentioned above. Any netmail being sent to "admin nodes" will be sent to all the nodes listed in this field. -- THE BILLING.EXE PROGRAM -- The BILLING.EXE program is the second component of FIDOBILL. BILLING is the program that actually processes the billing, mails receipts, statements, warnings, etc. to nodes. The BILLING.EXE program should be run EVERY NIGHT, probably as part of your nightly maintenance. I'd recommend just prior to ZMH so that any netmail produced by FIDOBILL can be efficiently sent out during the ZMH period. The BILLING program will run unattended so there is no problem in running it as part of a batch file in the early morning hours. However, FIDOBILL does accept several command line parameters. By specifying these parameters you may override the options that the program defaults to. Note that the parameter includes the minus sign and the full word spelled out. The colon (:) is not actually part of the parameter that is passed to the program. -ANNOUNCE: This option enables global announcements to be sent. The default is for announcements NOT to be sent. If this option is enabled the file ANNOUNCE.FBT, if it exists, will be sent as netmail to all active nodes. Be careful with this one. If you have a file called ANNOUNCE.FBT lying around and always specify the -ANNOUNCE parameter the program will send that text file as netmail each and every time it is run. -WELCOME: This option enables welcome messages to be sent. The default is to NOT send welcome messages. If this option is enabled the program will send the file WELCOME.FBT to all nodes meeting the criteria in the setups section. That is, it will either send the welcome to all new nodes that haven't received the welcome message or it will send the welcome message to all new BILLABLE systems that haven't received it. -NOBILLS: This option disables the billing part of the program. The default is to process billing each time the program is run. If, for some reason, you do not want to process billing you would specify this option. Presumably this would only be useful if you were running the billing program by hand from DOS. One possible use is if you just created an announcement that you want to send to all nodes you would, perhaps, execute a BILLING -NOBILLS -ANNOUNCEMENT which would send the announcement to everyone but wouldn't process billing at that time. -NOACK: This option disables the sending of payment receipts to nodes. The default is to send the receipts each time the program is run. -NOBANK: This option disables the sending of bank statements to any nodes that normally would receive them. Once again I can't think of too many reasons to use this option, but it is there if you need it. My recommendation is that the following lines be inserted into your nightly maintenance batch file: CD \FIDOBILL BILLING -WELCOME -ANNOUNCE Those two lines will cause the program to send welcome messages to the appropriate people, send a general announcement (ANNOUNCE.FBT) if it exists, and enables all other standard features such as mailing payment receipts, processing billing, etc. Note that it is very important that you change your active directory to wherever your data files are. It doesn't matter if the executables or data are in your path or not, you MUST be in the directory that contains the data files when you execute either FIDOBILL.EXE or BILLING.EXE. -- FIDOBILL *.FBT FILES -- All files with the ".FBT" extension are standard ASCII files used by the BILLING program. "FBT" stands for "FidoBill Text." These files are files that will be sent as netmail to nodes under various conditions. You may modify these files so that they contain whatever you wish to send them in the given conditions. Just use a standard text editor to create/edit the files. Just follow these conventions: The very first line of the text file must contain the subject of the message as you wish it to appear in the netmail message that is sent. The subject line, per FidoNet standards, must not exceed 72 characters in length. Strange things may happen if you exceed this length. The rest of the file contains, line for line, what you want to appear in the body of the netmail. It is best to make sure that each line of this portion of the file does not exceed 80 characters in length, although this is not a requirement. The following list names and explains each .FBT file that Fidobill uses. WELCOME.FBT - This will contain the welcome message that you want to send to all new nodes or all new billable nodes, depending on how your system is configured. A "Hi welcome to the network" or "Hi, here's how the net conducts billing" is the type of thing I'd expect to see in this file. Again, remember the first line of the text file is the subject for the netmail. Also, the WELCOME.FBT file will only be sent if you specify the -WELCOME parameter when calling BILLING.EXE. ANNOUNCE.FBT - This file, if it exists, will be sent to ALL active nodes. General billing announcements, announcements from the Net Coordinator, etc. may very easily be sent via this file. The ANNOUNCE.FBT file will only be sent if you specify the -ANNOUNCE parameter when calling BILLING.EXE. NODE1.FBT, NODE2.FBT, NODE3.FBT, NODE4.FBT: These files correspond with "Billing Situation #1," "Billing Situation #2," etc. in the "(S)etups/Configuration" setting. For example, if billing situation #1 includes sending netmail to the node, NODE1.FBT would be sent. NODE2.FBT would correspond with billing situation #2, etc. RELINK.FBT - This file will be sent if the node has been cancelled in the past but sufficient payment has been received and the accountant has instructed the program to re-establish it's previous billing status.