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