Copyright: Client Biller ®1993 NEW, HLP by A.Muller


Contents
Client Biller

Welcome to Client Biller!

Table of Contents

Introduction to Client Biller

Shareware

Registering

Installing Client Biller

Using Client Biller

Technical Information

Other software from N.E.W.


Introduction to Client Biller

Client Biller is really a simple program with a simple task: Make Invoices.

As a consultant I hated keeping track of clients, invoices, phone numbers, invoice numbers, etc.  Client Biller keeps track of all these things for me and it does it well.

If you have an idea for Client Biller, drop us a line:

New Executable Workshop

PO Box 57336	Phone: (904) 292-2815

Jacksonville, FL  32241-7336	Internet: jamesbell@delphi.com

Client Biller is Shareware, that means that you are allowed to use the program for ten days to determine if it is for you.  If you continue to use it, you have to register with us at N.E.W.  Registration takes about 5 minutes and you can do it by phone, by e-mail, or by mail.

When you do register you'll get a license number and notification of major upgrades.  If you have an older version you can also get a copy of the latest when you register.

Thanks for using Client Biller and N.E.W.


Shareware

Client Biller is Shareware.  You are allowed to use it for up to ten days as an evaluation, but you must register to continue use.

Registration is simple and provides the following benefits:

*  New versions!  This version may already be replaced by an update.

*  You can get copies of other programs available from N.E.W.

*  With a license number you can be registered instantly over the phone.  No waiting for the mail. If you order a new version you can receive that in just a couple of days (even faster with Express shipping!).

*  Upgrades are cheap, usually under $8!

*  Flexible pricing lets you get exactly what you want.

*  Site licenses available for 5 or more users.  You must get multiple copies if there will be multiple users or use on a network.  50% discount on the 5th license and up.


Registering

By phone: Just call us at: (904) 292-2815.

By mail: Just print and fill out the "ORDER.FRM" file and send your check or money order (US Dollars only) to us at:

New Executable Workshop

PO Box 57336

Jacksonville, FL  32241-7336

Prices:

Client Biller	(Invoice-maker extraordinaire!)	$19.99

Surf	(WAV audio file toolbox)	$29.99

Statline	(The Ultimate Windows Status Line)	$24.99

See also: Other software from N.E.W.

Special ComboPack:

Statline and Client Biller.	$39.99

Special SuperPack:

Surf, Statline, and Client Biller.	$49.99

Shipping options:

Express shipping (USA only)	$5.00

Shipping outside the USA	$2.00


Installing Client Biller

1. Copy the CBILLER.EXE and CBILLER.HLP files to your Windows directory.

2. Click on the Program Manager group you'd like Client Biller to be in.

3. Select "File" then "New..." from the menu, click OK for a new program item.

4. Give the Command Line as "CBILLER.EXE", click OK, and you're done.

Technical Note: Client Biller will create and use 5 files: invoices.db, clients.db, charges.db, scharges.db, and cbiller.ini.  Do not delete these!  You can safely delete the scharges.db file if you want to erase all the items on your Standard Charges list.


Using Client Biller

Just start-up Client Biller by double-clicking on its icon.

You'll see the Client Biller main window appear:

Click on these buttons for more information

From here you just click on the button (Clients, Invoices, Reports, or Setup) where you want to work.  You can also hit the first letter (C, I, R, or S) instead of using the mouse.


Setup

To get started, click on Setup.  Setup will let you type in your company's name and address information and you can tell Client Biller about your modem (for the auto-dialer).  The Setup dialog looks something like this:

This company information will be printed at the top of every invoice.  You can leave the Name, Company, or Address #2 fields blank if you wish.  The Dialing Prefix is for office phone systems where you dial "9" or similar number(s) to get an outside line.  The "Extra Note" will be printed on invoices under your client's name and address.  The envelope and paper selections determine if you want to print your return address by default or not.

Important: The Setup dialog is also where you type in your license number when you register.


Clients

Clients are the people you send invoices to and you'll need to type in information on your clients.  If you have not registered, you'll only be able to setup three clients - you should easily be able to tell if you like Client Biller with this small limitation.  You can register with a single phone call and immediately get your license number which will allow you to have as many clients as you wish.  There are no functional limitations in an unregistered copy of Client Biller.

The Select Client dialog lets you add, edit, or delete clients and it looks something like this:

More information about the selected client will show up in the address box at the top right. Once you've selected a client, you can auto-dial the client's phone number, print an envelope addressed to them (with or without your return address), or copy the address to the clipboard (for the heading in a letter).

You can also edit or add new clients, which will bring up the Edit Client dialog:

Here you can keep track of a client's address information and a small number of notes (2048 characters per client).


Invoices

Now that you have things setup and have some clients it's time to make some invoices.  Click the Invoice button on the main window and you'll get the Select Invoices dialog:

From here you can add, edit, print, export, or delete invoices.  You'll probably want to add a new invoice first, so click on "New" to begin a new invoice.  First you'll be presented with a list of your clients to select from, and then you can begin editing the new invoice.  The Edit Invoice dialog looks like this:

Don't be scared!  It's easier than it looks.  The top left portion is where the charges will be listed (we haven't put any in yet though).  Under the charges is the total of the invoice so far. At the top right you can enter the invoice number and change the date of the invoice if you don't want to use today's date.  At the bottom are two fields for notes.  The smaller field is limited to 90 characters and these notes won't be printed on the invoice.  The larger notes field can have up to 320 characters and will be printed at the bottom of the invoice's last page.

As you can see, we haven't put any charges in for this invoice, so lets click the "New" button to add a new charge.  You can also delete or edit charges from here.

The Edit Charge dialog looks like this:

There's a place for the charge description and the amount, so you can just type those in.  Limit yourself to 5 lines of description.  If you leave the amount field as "0.00" the amount won't print on the invoice but the description will.  The "Calculator" button will start Windows' Calculator utility and automatically copy the contents of Calculator's display into the Amount field.  This way you can use Calculator to do the math required for the charge, and Client Biller copies the total from Calculator into the amount field in Client Biller for you.

The "Standard Charges" button expands the dialog to include some more functions.  A standard charge is something that you use over and over, like "Initial Consultation, $35.00".  You can maintain a list of standard charges and use them over and over without retyping.  The expanded Edit Charge dialog looks like this:

You can see the drop-down list of standard charges (only the first line of the description is shown).  You can apply the standard charge and use it, or you can do the reverse and make whatever the current charge is into a standard charge.  So, in the above example, if you wanted to charge an IDE card to this client, you'd just click the "Apply" button and that would fill in the description and the amount like this:

Likewise if you had made up a new charge and wanted it to be on the standard charges list, you'd simply click on the "Add" button and that charge would always be available for use when you made any new invoice charge.  When you're done with editing the charge, just click "OK" to save, or click "Cancel" to undo any changes to the charge.

Once you've added all the charges you want on the invoice, you'll want to print it out.  You can click on the "Print" button in either the Select Invoice dialog or the Edit Invoice dialog to do this. You'll get to see a preview of the first page of the invoice and decide if you want to print or cancel:

You can also select to print more than one copy if you like.  Once you've printed you'll be asked if you'd like to print an envelope addressed to this client.

You can also "Export" invoices to a text file if you'd like to use them elsewhere, transmit them via E-Mail or whatever.  Just click "Export" on the Select Invoices dialog and you'll be asked for a filename to export to.  The file will be plain ASCII text and you can edit it with Notepad, DOS's EDIT or your favorite text editor.


Reports

Now if you have some invoices, you'll want to know how you're doing overall.  More extensive reports are planned for future versions, but the basic "Date Range" invoice report can tell you quite a bit.  Just select the Reports button and you'll see the Date Range Dialog:

Simply type in the date ranges you'd like to include in the report and click OK.  You can also select from the preset date ranges by clicking on one of them.  Next you'll see the Report Listing dialog:

Just click on "Print" to print out a copy of the report.  You can also use the keyboard or mouse to select a portion or all of the report text and hit Control+Insert to copy it to the Windows Clipboard.


 Technical Information

Client Biller's creation

Client Biller was created with Microsoft's Visual C++ 1.0.  Version 1.2 stands at about 4500 lines of straight C code.  Client Biller was written for N.E.W. by James Bell.  This helpfile was created for N.E.W. by Arthur Muller (internet: muller@fwi.uva.nl -or- a605a507@hasara11.bitnet).

Database Files

There are 4 database files maintained by Client Biller: INVOICES.DB, CLIENTS.DB, CHARGES.DB, and SCHARGES.DB.  All records are fixed-length.  The files will be created as needed if any or all are deleted.  CHARGES, INVOICES and CLIENTS are linked and INVOICES and CHARGES should be deleted if any one is lost (CLIENTS can remain).  By default these files are kept in the Windows directory.  If they are moved, you should change the entries for them in the CBILLER.INI file.

Database Limits

The following are the size limits on the length of fields in the database.  All fields except "Amount" are zero-terminated ASCII strings.  "Amount" is a floating point value from -3.4 x 10e38 to +3.4 x 10e38.

Client Database 	Invoice Database	Charge Databases

Field	Len	Field	Len	Field	Len

Contact Name	40 	Date	8	Description	262

Company Name	40 	Invoice Number	8	Amount	4 (numeric)

Address #1	40 	No-Print Comment	90

Address #2	40 	Printed Comment	320

City	22

State	2

Zip	10

Phone #1	16

Phone #2	16

Fax Phone	16

Notes	2048


Other software from N.E.W.

Statline - The Ultimate Windows Status Line

Statline is the status line for Windows 3.1 and up, capable of displaying the date, time, amount of memory free, percentage of "system resources" free, and hard drive space free.

Statline goes a step further by providing a program launcher, a small icon menu for often-used programs, a small notepad, print driver control, and a quick exit out of Windows.

Surf - The WAV Audio Toolbox for Windows

An incredible selection of effects for your Windows WAV files, including:

· 5 levels of echo	· Chorusing	· Inversion	· Playback control

· Cut and paste editing	· Smoothing	· Hiss control	· Phaser

· 5 WAV viewers	· Gain control	· Sample rate control	· Undo/Redo

All this and much more wrapped up in a user-friendly toolbar.