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Text File | 1992-04-20 | 114KB | 3,172 lines

FIDONET ACCOUNTING/BILLING SOFTWARE "FIDOBILL" v2.00 April 20, 1992 A Complete Accounting & Billing Package For FidoNet/Compatible Network Treasurers Programmed by Craig Steiner FidoNet 1:104/332 Documentation by Jesse David Hollington FidoNet 1:225/1 FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 1 -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION/NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR.............................. 3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS............................................. 4 SOFTWARE DISCLAIMER............................................. 5 THE TWO PROGRAMS, FIDOBILL.EXE and BILLING.EXE.................. 6 REGISTRATION INFORMATION The Software Key Approach................................. 7 Registering FIDOBILL...................................... 8 FIDOBILL Registration Form................................ 9 INSTALLING & CONFIGURING FIDOBILL............................... 10 OPERATING FIDOBILL Processing Nodelists...................................... 17 Editing Nodes............................................. 18 Receiving Node Payments................................... 22 Manually Issuing Statements............................... 23 Forcing Node Billing...................................... 23 ECHOMAIL VOLUME-COST CALCULATIONS............................... 24 The ECHOVOL Program....................................... 24 Calculating Node Fees..................................... 26 BANK ACCOUNT FUNCTIONS.......................................... 28 Deposits.................................................. 28 Withdrawals............................................... 29 Bank Account Balance Report............................... 29 REPORTS......................................................... 31 Viewing Reports........................................... 32 AUTOMATIC NODE WARNINGS/CANCELLATIONS........................... 33 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: Command Line Parameters....................... 35 APPENDIX B: Custom Message Files.......................... 37 Custom Message Variables...................... 38 The DEFAULT.ITM File.......................... 41 APPENDIX C: Creating a Network EchoMap File............... 42 APPENDIX D: Internal Files Used by FIDOBILL............... 43 APPENDIX E: Dealing with Incompatibilities and Bugs....... 46 Support/Update Instructions............................... 48 Plans for the Future of FIDOBILL.......................... 49 Beta/Support Sites........................................ 50 Acknowledgements.......................................... 51 FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 2 -- INTRODUCTION -- I came up with the original idea for FIDOBILL soon after I started receiving my monthly co-op netmail bills after joining FidoNet. It seemed that the approach being used was rather cumbersome--for both the treasurer and the people receiving the bills. I netmailed the treasurer and found that he was using a rather odd combination of professional spreadsheets and a custom-written program to take the spreadsheet data and produce netmail bills. It seemed to me that a more elegant solution could be implemented. The first working version of FIDOBILL was in the hands of Eric Smith roughly a week later. Naturally FIDOBILL has evolved tremendously since then. When I originally wrote the program it was truly for Eric--I had no intentions to release it to the public. But I soon realized that there was a very real need for the program and others very well could make use it. The product of this was FIDOBILL v1.xxx. I figured that a no-frills but workable program might be of use to others. I was in no way prepared for the response it received. After the article appeared in FidoNews I received hundreds of file requests from around the world. This version of FIDOBILL represents three months of design, development, and debugging above and beyond the original release of FIDOBILL earlier this year. The most frequently requested features have been implemented in this program. But even before the release of this version both myself and the beta-testers recognized more desirable features--which virtually guarantees many more enhancements in the near future. Also, version 2.00 represents a change in the philosophy of encouraging users to register the software. FIDOBILL no longer includes an expiring key that will cause the program to stop functioning on a given date. The same features that were restricted to registered users are still restricted, but the program as a whole will continue to work indefinitely without a registered key. I hope, however, that you consider registering the program if you find yourself using it on an ongoing basis. I hope that you find FIDOBILL effective in your net's cost-recovery needs. If you have additional ideas that you'd like to see implemented in future versions of FIDOBILL I certainly welcome to the input. Best wishes, Craig Steiner (Programmer) FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 3 -- 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 Colour 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 colour monitor will also add to the visual attractiveness of the program but, of course, is not required. A "clean" version of MS-DOS or PC-DOS, preferably version 3.x or above is strongly recommended. Although FIDOBILL should run in most environments, a true untainted version of MS-DOS or PC-DOS should insure compatibility. Be weary of any DOS "enhancers" or replacements for DOS's COMMAND.COM. Using such programs is just inviting incompatibility with not only FIDOBILL, but potentially many other programs as well. FIDOBILL now supports both the Hudson-style message base (RA, QBBS) as well as the Fidonet *.MSG message base format. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 4 -- 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. ... I hate to have to make that statement. But everyone else does and I am not going to be the first programmer stupid enough to NOT make the statement! FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 5 -- 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. FIDOBILL.EXE will not generate any NetMail by itself. BILLING.EXE 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. It is recommended that it be set up to run right before an optimal time for sending NetMail out, for example right before Zone Mail Hour. See Appendix A for a list of command-line options supported by these programs. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 6 -- THE SOFTWARE KEY APPROACH -- I have implemented a software key to encourage users to register the software. FIDOBILL is distributed as an unregistered evaluation copy, without a software key. This 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 registered software key. 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 registered software key. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 7 -- REGISTERING FIDOBILL -- FIDOBILL is a shareware program. You are free to use and test the program for as long as you wish to determine whether or not the program will suit your needs. 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 cheque, cashier's cheque, or money order for $40.00 (U.S.) to the address indicated. Please do not send cash through the mail. Netmail will be sent to you upon receipt of your cheque indicating my receipt of the cheque and stating that your software key will be sent as soon as the cheque has cleared. Software keys will be sent to you via FidoNet Mail upon your cheque's successful clearing of your bank (normally 2-weeks). Cashier's cheques and money orders will be honoured immediately, so if you're in a hurry this is the way to go. Should you indicate that you are not a member of Fidonet or would, for any reason, prefer to call The Vault BBS and download your file or file-request it from my system simply check the appropriate space on the registration. A letter will be sent to you via standard US Snail Mail instructing you on how you can file-request the file or download it from The Vault BBS. 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 and someone else take his place the software key will still work and may legitimately be passed along to the new accountant--and the previous accountant may not take the key with him to another network. All commercial users must register their own software key at the standard price. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 8 -- FIDOBILL REGISTRATION -- -- v2.00 -- Network To Register: ______ ______ (Zone) (Net) Today's Date: _____/_____/_____ Month Day Year Accountant's Name: ______________________________________ Address: ______________________________________ City: ______________________ State: ________ Zip: ________ Country: ________ Voice Phone: (____) ______ - __________ FidoNet Address To 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 (U.S.) drawn on a U.S. bank for FIDOBILL registration. 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. 4. I recognize that the software key is registered to my net and not myself. ________________________________________ Signature of Applicant Date Send registrations to: Craig Steiner, 3827 E. Easter Drive Littleton, CO 80122, USA FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 9 -- INSTALLING FIDOBILL -- Presumably you have already done this. Installing FIDOBILL is a matter of unzipping the file into its own subdirectory. Any other zipfiles included in the FIDOBILL archive should also be unzipped. In addition, you should place a command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to set the FIDOBILL environment variable to point to the directory that the data files are contained in (ie "SET FIDOBILL = C:\Fidobill\"). This will allow you to run FIDOBILL from any directory, since it will look for its data files in either the directory pointed to by the FIDOBILL environment variable, or the current directory if the FIDOBILL environment variable is not set. -- CONFIGURING FIDOBILL -- Once FIDOBILL has been installed the next step is to configure it. In order to do this you must run FIDOBILL.EXE and select the "(S)etup/Configuration" option from the main menu. This will take you into the setup section. From here you will be presented with four options as follows: Global Program Settings - Set Global Program Configuration. Net Specific Settings - Set Network Specific Configuration. Network Definition - Define Nodelists for each Net. Point-Net Translation - Set up Point Support. You should probably go through these in order for your initial setup. Start by selecting "Global Program Settings." You will be presented with a screen with the following information on it: Primary Network: 1:225 Type of Key: Evaluation Key Expires: Never Key Status: No key found The last four fields give details of your registration status, and are for information purposes only. The first field is where you enter your Primary Net Number, in the format "z:nnn". The above example shows the evaluation copy information for Net 1:225. After you have entered your primary Net Number press ESC to return to the Setup Menu. Throughout the program, the ESC key will return you to the previous menu. The next section you should visit is the "Net Specific Settings." This will allow you to setup specific configuration information for each Net that you are billing for. This section consists of two screens, which may be accessed by hitting PGUP or PGDN from either screen. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 10 This screen is a little bit more complex than the last one. We'll now cover each of the Net Specific Setup Fields individually: ZONE:NET: This is the Network Number you are configuring for. If you are running Single-Net Billing, this must be your primary Net number. If you are running a Multi-Net Billing version, this can be any alternate Network that you also happen to bill for. Pressing F2 will give you a list of Nets that are currently setup in FIDOBILL. F3 will allow you to delete the currently displayed Net from FidoBill's database. 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. NETWORK THIS NET BELONGS TO: This is the name of the Network (Domain) that this Net belongs to (ie, FidoNet, AlterNet, Imex, etc.) PATH TO HUDSON QUICKBASE: If you are running a Hudson format message base, this field should contain the path to where your message base is stored. If you are running a *.MSG message base, this path should be left blank. HUDSON #/MSG PATH--NETMAIL: If you are running a Hudson format message base, this field should contain the number of your NetMail area. If you are running *.MSG, it should be a full DOS pathname to your NetMail directory, with trailing backslash included. It is highly recommended that you include the drive identifier as part of the path. HUDSON #/MSG PATH--FORUM: As above, except this is the area where you want forwarded EchoMail reports to be output. This would generally point to some form of local administrative echo. PRIORITY -- WELCOME: This is the priority (Normal/Crash/Hold) that you wish to send Welcome Messages with. Welcome Messages are explained in detail further on. PRIORITY -- RECEIPT: This is the priority (Normal/Crash/Hold) that you wish to send Payment Receipts with. PRIORITY -- BILL: This is the priority (Normal/Crash/Hold) that you wish to send Bills and Statements with. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 11 DEFAULTS: The fields in this section refer to the default settings for new nodes. You can modify all of these settings for existing nodes on an individual basis. These settings represent those that are assigned to new nodes by default. BILLING STATUS: This field indicates the default billing status of new nodes. It will cycle between the following options: NON-BILLABLE: New Nodes, by default, will not be charged any fee until you manually go in and edit their account. This would generally be used to signify nodes that are not being billed because they are not receiving any services (ie, Backbone echoes) that require a fee. BILLABLE: New Nodes, by default, will be billed as soon as they appear in the nodelist or are created in the node editor. If you want a node not to be billed for any reason, you must go in and manually edit their account. EXEMPT: Functionally, this is identical to "Non- Billable" in that new nodes are not billed. This option would generally be used for nodes that are exempt from billing for some administrative reason, such as being an Echo Hub. CANCEL: This option indicates that a node has been cancelled from EchoMail service, generally for non- payment. This would be a bizarre choice to default new nodes to, and I can't think of any reason why somebody would want to, but the ability is there in case somebody needs it. FEE CALC METHOD: This field indicates the default fee calculation method for new nodes. This is only applicable if BILLING STATUS is set to "Billable." It will cycle between the following options: FIXED: New Nodes will be charged a flat rate by default. The rate that will be charged is defined under "FEE." VOLUME: New Nodes will be charged based upon EchoMail volume by default. For more details on this, please see the section on EchoMail Volume-Cost Calculation on page 24. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 12 COST-SHARE: New Nodes will default to being charged an equal share of a fixed cost. The fixed cost is set by pressing F4 from the Net Configuration screen. For example, if the cost was set to $100, and there were 5 nodes set to "Cost-Share," each node would be charged an equal share, or one-fifth, of the cost, which would come to $20 in this case. If a new node were to come online, the individual cost per node would go down to one-sixth, or $16.67 (FIDOBILL rounds to the nearest cent). BILLING DATE: This is the day of the month (1-31) that new nodes will default to being billed on. It is not recommended that this number be greater than the shortest month (ie, 28), since FIDOBILL will not send bills in months that have less days. For example, if you had this set to 31, and you were billing in a month that had only 30 days, a bill would not be sent during that month, since the 31st day would never be reached. BILLING FREQUENCY: This field indicates how often you want new nodes to be billed by default. Regardless of the setting, bills are sent on the day of the month defined by BILLING DATE. This field will cycle between the following five options: MONTHLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated each month. BI-MONTHLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated every second month. QUARTERLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated every four times a year (every four months). SEMI-ANNUALLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated twice a year (every six months). ANNUALLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated once a year (every twelve months). FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 13 COST-DEDUCT: This field only applies if the FEE CALC METHOD (above) is set to FIXED. It is a Yes/No toggle which indicates whether new nodes should have their Fixed Fee deducted from the total Cost-Share amount. For example, if the cost-share amount is $100, and there are 5 nodes marked for COST-SHARE billing, each node would normally be charged $20. However, if there is a sixth node paying a FIXED rate of $50, and it has COST-DEDUCT set to "Yes" then the $50 will be deducted from the Cost-Share amount, and the remaining amount ($50), would be divided between the COST- SHARE nodes, which would mean that they would only be paying $10 each instead of $20 each (one-fifth of $50 instead of one-fifth of $100). SEND WELCOME TO: When new nodes are added to your database, you have the option of sending Welcome messages to them. This field specifies whether Welcome messages should be sent or not, and who they should be sent to. It will cycle between the following options: NONE: Welcome Messages are not sent. ALL NEW: Welcome Messages are sent to all new nodes as they appear in your database. NEW BILLABLE: Welcome Messages are sent to only new nodes when they are marked BILLABLE. Exactly how this behaves depends upon your default BILLING STATUS for new nodes. If you default your new nodes to BILLABLE, then this will function similar to the ALL NEW setting. If you default your new nodes to something other than BILLABLE, Welcome messages will be sent out when the individual node is marked as BILLABLE. ACCOUNTANT'S NAME: This is the name of the Network Accountant. It would generally be *your* name. It is used in the "From" line for messages that BILLING generates. SEND PAYMENTS TO: This field should contain the postal address that nodes should send their payments to. It may be used in messages generated by BILLING to tell your nodes where to send their money. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 14 BILLING SITUATIONS: This top half of the second page defines when and how you want your Automated Warning messages to be sent. For details please see the section on "Automatic Node Warnings and Cancellations" on page 33. AUTOMATED BANK STATEMENTS: These features require a registered software key. They allow you to automatically send out copies of your bank statement on a regular basis. This is useful if you have Administrative nodes in your Net who want to see what is happening in the account (for example your Network Coordinator). For more information see the section on BANK ACCOUNT FUNCTIONS on page 28. SEND LAST ___ DAYS OF BANK STATEMENT: This sets how many days to include in the bank statement. For example, if this was set to 30, then each bank statement would include the previous 30 days of activity. ON THESE DAYS: This defines the days of the month (1-31) that the bank statement is sent out on. Several days may be entered separated by spaces. FORWARD BANK ACCOUNT RECORDS TO: This is a list of the node addresses, separated by spaces, that you want to send copies of the statements to. BILL DOWN SYSTEMS: This is a Yes/No toggle which indicates whether systems which are marked as "Down" should continue to be billed. The setting of this would depend upon your specific application, but generally if a node is marked as down it isn't receiving any services, nor is there anywhere to send the bill to, so it shouldn't be billed. DOWN systems are generally compiled from the nodelist, but a node can also be manually marked as DOWN if necessary. SEND STATEMENTS TO EXEMPT NODES: This is another Yes/No toggle which indicates whether nodes that are marked as "Exempt" should have monthly statements sent to them. Exempt nodes will not be charged a dollar amount regardless of this setting, but if it is set to "Yes" they will be sent a monthly statement anyway. Once you have setup the options on this screen, press ESC to return to the Setup Menu, and then select NETWORK DEFINITION. This section allows you to tell FIDOBILL where it can find the nodelists for each of the Networks that you are a member of. A window should appear with the words "<< Create a New Network >>" highlighted. Press ENTER to select this option. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 15 You will then be asked to enter the name of the Network that you are defining the Nodelist for (ie, FidoNet). This should match the Network name that you setup in the last section. FIDOBILL will then ask you to enter the Nodelist spec. This is simply the full DOS pathname to your nodelist file. Do not include the extension, since FIDOBILL will add the appropriate numbered extension. For example, if your nodelist was called NODELIST.101 in the directory C:\Network, you would specify "C:\Network\Nodelist" in this field (FIDOBILL would add the ".101" extension when compiling the nodelist). If you are finished defining Networks, press ESC twice to return to the Setup Menu. Otherwise, select the "Create a New Network" option again to create a second Network. Repeat this step for each additional Network you are defining. Lastly, if you plan on billing points in your Net, you will need to select the "Point-Net Translation" option from the Setup Menu. Select the "Create New Translation Entry" option. You will first be asked to enter the primary node number. This is the BossNode, or the main node number that is supporting the points. You will then be asked to enter the Fake Net Number. If you are supporting true 4-Dimensional Point Addressing you should leave this field blank, otherwise enter the Fake Net Number that your points use. Lastly, you will be asked to enter a full pathname to the Nodelist that contains your points. This will be either a Fake Net list, or a BinkleyTerm-style 4D point list. This list will be compiled with your primary nodelist. Repeat this for each individual node in your Net that has points. You will most likely need to obtain their Point Nodelists to keep your database updated. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 16 -- PROCESSING NODELISTS -- Once FIDOBILL has been fully configured, you must construct the initial database of nodes. This is done by selecting the "(P)rocess Nodelist" option from the main menu. This option should be selected whenever you update your nodelist to keep FIDOBILL up to date on the status of the nodes in the database and automatically add any new nodes that have appeared in your Net. How long this function takes to run will depend upon where your network exists in the nodelist and how many nodes there are in your network. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE SYSTEM DURING THIS PROCESS. The program does some index building and other file access that could make it potentially harmful to interrupt it in the middle of processing. The Nodelist(s) may also be compiled automatically in unattended mode by running FIDOBILL with the 'NODELIST' parameter. This will cause the newest Nodelist available in the Nodelist directory to automatically be compiled, and FIDOBILL will exit upon completion. This may be useful if you use an automated routine to process new Nodelists. For more information on the variations of the NODELIST parameter see the section on Command-line Parameters on page 35. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 17 -- EDITING NODES -- Editing node accounts is a very simple matter. First, select the "(E)dit an Existing Network Node" function from the Main Menu. A screen will appear with a number of fields for you to edit. NETWORK ADDRESS: This is the node number that you wish to edit. Simply type in the address of the node you wish to edit or create (you only need to enter the node number - zone and net are assumed). Alternatively, you may press F2 which will allow you to select from a list of existing nodes. If you are creating a new entry the default values that you specified in the Setup section will be assigned to it and you may edit them if necessary. SYSTEM NAME: This is the name of the system as it appears in the nodelist. This field will normally be skipped when using the ENTER key. You must use the cursor keys if you need to access it for any reason. BILLING NAME: This is the name of the Sysop as it appears in the nodelist. ADDRESS LINES 1 and 2, CITY, STATE, ZIP, VOICE PHONE #: These fields are for your reference only, and are completely optional. They are not used by FIDOBILL. BILLING STATUS: This field indicates the node's billing status. It will cycle between the following options: NON-BILLABLE: This indicates that the node should not be charged any fee nor sent any bills or statements. This would generally mean that this node is not being billed because it is not receiving any services (ie, Backbone echoes) that require a fee. BILLABLE: This indicates the node will be subjected to normal billing procedures. EXEMPT: Functionally, this is identical to "Non-Billable" in that the node is not charged an echo fee. Whether or not the node has statements sent to it depends upon the setting of SEND STATEMENTS TO EXEMPT NODES in the Network Setup section. This would generally indicate that the node is exempt from billing for some administrative reason, such as being an Echo Hub. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 18 CANCEL: This option indicates that this node has been cancelled from EchoMail service, generally for non-payment. Generally, this is set automatically by FIDOBILL (see page 33, Automatic Warning and Cancellation Messages), but it can be set manually if you so desire. FEE CALC METHOD: This indicates the fee calculation method for this node. This is only applicable if BILLING STATUS is set to "Billable." It will cycle between the following options: FIXED: This node will be charged the flat rate defined under "FEE." VOLUME: This node will be charged based upon the volume of EchoMail that it is receiving. For details on this, please see the section on EchoMail Volume-Cost Calculations, on page 24. COST-SHARE: This node will be charged an equal share of a fixed cost, split between all the nodes that are marked as COST-SHARE. The fixed cost is set by pressing F4 from the Net Configuration screen. For example, if the cost was set to $100, and there were 5 nodes set to "Cost-Share," each node would be charged an equal share, or one-fifth, of the cost, which would come to $20 in this case. If another node were set to COST-SHARE, the individual cost per node would go down to one-sixth, or $16.67 (FIDOBILL rounds to the nearest cent). BILLING DATE: This is the day of the month (1-31) that this node is billed on. It is not recommended that this number be greater than the shortest month (ie, 28), since FIDOBILL will not send bills in months that have less days. For example, if you had this set to 31, and you were billing in a month that had only 30 days, a bill would not be sent during that month, since the 31st day would never be reached. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 19 BILLING FREQUENCY: This field indicates how often you want this node to be billed. Regardless of the setting, bills are sent on the day of the month defined by BILLING DATE. This field will cycle between the following five options: MONTHLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated each month. BI-MONTHLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated every second month. QUARTERLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated every four times a year (every four months). SEMI-ANNUALLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated twice a year (every six months). ANNUALLY: Bills are sent out and charges are calculated once a year (every twelve months). COST-DEDUCT: This field only applies if the FEE CALC METHOD (above) is set to FIXED. It is a Yes/No toggle which indicates whether this node should have its Fixed Fee deducted from the total Cost-Share amount. For example, if the cost-share amount is $100, and there are 5 nodes marked for COST-SHARE billing, each node would normally be charged $20. However, if there is a sixth node paying a FIXED rate of $50, and it has COST-DEDUCT set to "Yes" then the $50 will be deducted from the Cost-Share amount, and the remaining amount ($50), would be divided between the COST-SHARE nodes, which would mean that they would only be paying $10 each instead of $20 each (one-fifth of $50 instead of one-fifth of $100). SYSTEM STATUS: This field indicates the status of a node. It toggles between ACTIVE and DOWN. Normally this is updated automatically whenever you process a nodelist, however you may adjust it manually from the editor if you need to. NetMail will never be sent to systems that are marked as DOWN. In addition, DOWN systems will not be billed unless you have the "BILL DOWN SYSTEMS?" option in the Setup screen set to YES. WRITE-OFF: This field is a Yes/No toggle. The default is always NO. It is used only in the reports that FidoBill produces. Generally, if a node owes the Net money and then disappears without a trace, the money will in all probability never be collected. Setting this field to YES will tell FidoBill not to include the amount that this node owes in the general reports. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 20 NETMAIL BILL TO: This field indicates the Network address that FidoBill should send the bills and statements for this node to. Generally it will be the same address as the main NETWORK ADDRESS above. If you have a situation where the bill should be sent to a different address, you can change this. BILL ALTERNATE SYSTEM: This field allows you to define an alternate node that should be billed for this node's expenses. By entering a network address into this field, all charges that this node incurs will be charged to the alternate system's account. The main node will still receive a monthly statement letting them know that their charge has been billed to an alternate system. ECHOMAIL FEED: This field defines where this node gets its EchoMail from. This is currently used for reference purposes only. This field will contain information from your Echo Map file, if you have one and have imported it (see page 42, "Importing an Echo Map File" for details). Pressing F1 from the node editor will bring up a window showing the current node's account history. Anything involving this node will be recorded here, including date, description, and amount of the transaction. The 100 most recent transactions are retained. You can scroll through the transactions using the UP and DOWN arrow keys and the PGUP and PGDN keys. You may also adjust the balance of the node manually 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 to let them know that you have adjusted their balance. This prevents the accountant from modifying a balance "under the table" and assuming that nobody will notice the difference. Pressing F2 will bring up a list of all the nodes in your current database, from which you can select a node to edit. Pressing F3 will allow you to delete the currently displayed node from the database. Lastly, pressing ESC will return you to the main menu. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 21 -- RECEIVING NODE PAYMENTS -- When you receive the payment for a node, you should select the "RECEIVED NODE(S) PAYMENTS" option from the main menu. This will bring up a window prompting you to enter a node number. Enter the node number that you have received a payment from and FIDOBILL will then tell you the billing name for that node so you can verify that you have selected the correct node. You will then be prompted to enter either the cheque number that was received, or 'CASH' if you have received a cash payment. You will then be prompted to enter the amount of the payment. Upon hitting ENTER the payment will be credited to the node's account. The program will then cycle back to prompting you for another node number. This allows you to quickly enter many payments. If you have completed entering payments, pressing ESC will return you to the main menu. For each received payment you enter, a payment receipt will automatically be netmailed to the node acknowledging that you have received the payment. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 22 -- MANUALLY ISSUING STATEMENTS -- If a node requests an interim statement, you may simply select the "ISSUE STATEMENT TO A SINGLE NODE" option from the main menu. You will be prompted for the node number to issue a statement to and the date that the statement should list account activity from. The date here should be entered in the format MM/DD/YY or MM-DD-YY. If you wish to resend statements to all the nodes in your net, you may do so by running BILLING with the -ALLSTAT parameter. For more information, please see the section on Command-line Parameters on page 35. It should be noted that this does not imply that the node(s) will be billed again, but rather that they will get a new copy of their account status to date. -- FORCING BILLING -- Should you wish to force billing to a node on a day other than that node's normal billing day, you may do so by selecting the "FORCE BILLING NOW" option from the main menu. You will be prompted for the node number to force billing for and asked to confirm it. A bill will then be NetMailed to that node. Note that this forced billing is IN ADDITION to and not in place of the node's normal monthly billing. That is to say that if a node is billed on the 15th of the month and you force billing for that node on the 14th, the node will receive TWO bills, one for the forced billing on the 14th, and the other for the monthly billing on the 15th. As a result, this option should be used with extreme care. Note that there is no limit to the number of times you may force billing for a node each month. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 23 -- ECHOMAIL VOLUME COST CALCULATIONS -- One of the major enhancements in FIDOBILL 2.00 is the ability to bill nodes based upon the volume of EchoMail which they receive. This way each node pays a fair share of the EchoMail costs. How this works is that the cost for bringing in EchoMail is shared proportionately between nodes receiving EchoMail, based upon the volume each node is receiving. For example if it costs $100 to bring in a month's worth of EchoMail, and one node is receiving 15% of the total volume of EchoMail coming in, that node would pay $15 (15% of $100 = $15). The total cost (the dollar amount to be shared) is entered in the Net Setup screen by pressing F4. There are two fields here, one is for EchoMail Volume Cost, and the other is for the basic Cost-Sharing function (explained earlier). You can use both methods if you so desire. Only those nodes with a FEE CALC METHOD of "Echo Volume" will share the EchoMail Costs. Other nodes can continue to be charged a Fixed rate, or a basic cost-share. -- THE ECHOVOL PROGRAM -- In order to measure the volume of EchoMail coming in, a program called ECHOVOL.EXE is run during the main EchoMail Hub's unpacking sequence. This program calculates the sizes and number of messages in all inbound packets, and keeps track of them in a data file. This program should be run after the program that decompresses the packets, but before the program that unpacks them. If you are running a mail processor that decompresses and unpacks the packets simultaneously, you should get a hold of a pre-processing program, such as SPAZ, which will decompress the packets before your mail processor unpacks them. ECHOVOL supports three command-line parameters, as follows: "SCAN: <dir>": This tells ECHOVOL to scan the .PKT files in the directory specified by <dir>. If no directory is specified, the current directory is used. "DATA: <dir>": This tells ECHOVOL where to find its data file, ECHOVOL.DAT. It may be omitted if ECHOVOL.DAT is in the current directory. "DELETE <area>": This option is used to delete the volume statistics for a given echo from the ECHOVOL.DAT file. Running ECHOVOL with no command line parameters will display the collected volume statistics from ECHOVOL.DAT. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 24 Examples: ECHOVOL SCAN Would scan all the packets in the current directory and store the information in ECHOVOL.DAT in the current directory. ECHOVOL SCAN: C:\Inbound\ Would scan all the packets in C:\Inbound and store the information in ECHOVOL.DAT in the current directory. ECHOVOL SCAN: C:\Inbound\ DATA: C:\FidoBill\ Would scan all the packets in C:\Inbound and store the information in C:\FidoBill\ECHOVOL.DAT. ECHOVOL This would display the volume statistics accumulated by ECHOVOL by reading ECHOVOL.DAT in the current directory. ECHOVOL DATA: C:\FidoBill\ This would display the volume statistics accumulated by ECHOVOL by reading ECHOVOL.DAT in C:\FidoBill. ECHOVOL DELETE: FIDOBILL This would remove the volume statistics on the FIDOBILL echo from ECHOVOL.DAT in the current directory. ECHOVOL DELETE: FIDOBILL DATA: C:\FidoBill\ This would remove the volume statistics on the FIDOBILL echo from ECHOVOL.DAT in the C:\FidoBill directory. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 25 -- CALCULATING NODE FEES -- At the end of the billing period, the ECHOVOL.DAT file is used by FIDOBILL to calculate what percentage of the total EchoMail volume is being received by each node. Since ECHOVOL only records the amount of inbound traffic, not who is receiving that traffic, you must also have a file from each Echo Hub detailing which nodes are receiving what echoes. These files are in standard AREAS.BBS format, and are named "NET-NODE.ARE". For example, the area file for 225/1 would be named 225-1.ARE. All areas listed in the areas file are assumed to be used by the Hub as well, unless they are marked as being passthru. FIDOBILL expects to see the "#" and "P" characters at the beginning of an area definition line to indicate if an area is passthru or not. A sample .ARE file for 225/1 might look something like the following: E:\Echo\FIDOBILL FIDOBILL 12/12 E:\Echo\MUFFIN MUFFIN 12/12 225/334 339 343 451 452 #E:\Echo\INTERUSE INTERUSER 12/12 225/343 This file would indicate that 225/1 is receiving the FIDOBILL and MUFFIN echoes as well as passing them on to the other nodes listed. However, the INTERUSER echo is marked as passthru, and is therefore only being used by the listed nodes (ie, 225/343). If for any reason one of your Echo Hubs doesn't support either the "P" or the "#" character to designate passthru areas, they must send another list to indicate those echoes that they are using. This list contains the names of these echoes, one to a line. This file uses a .ELS extension. A sample file for 225/1 would be named 225-1.ELS and might look something like the following: FIDOBILL MUFFIN This ties in to the sample 225-1.ARE file. If the "#" symbol wasn't in front of the INTERUSER echo in the 225-1.ARE, FIDOBILL would have no way of knowing whether 225/1 was actually using the echo or not. Therefore it would check the 225-1.ELS file to see which echoes are being used by 225/1. These files should be collected from each of your EchoMail Hubs, and placed in your main FIDOBILL directory shortly before BILLING is run to generate the monthly billing. When BILLING runs, it will read all of these files, calculate what each node owes for the volume they have received, and sent out bills as appropriate. This may take a while, depending upon the size of your Net and how many echoes you are pulling in. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 26 After BILLING has finished running and the bills have been sent out, you should delete your ECHOVOL.DAT file in order to restart the tracking. Otherwise your nodes will be billed for the same volume statistics again the next time around. It is also possible to compute what each node owes from FIDOBILL, using the CALCULATE NODE FEES option from the main menu. Selecting this option will compute what each node owes and write it into the FEE field in each node record. This way you can get an idea of what each node will be paying before the bills are actually sent. It should be noted here that because of the way FIDOBILL works, it assumes that the information contained in the .ARE and .ELS files applies for the whole month. If a node has just connected to an area a couple of days before billing occurs, they may be billed a little bit extra for that conference (since FIDOBILL will assume they were carrying the area for the whole month). Conversely, if a node has just disconnected, they will be billed a little bit less than the volume they actually pulled in (since FIDOBILL will assume that they were not carrying the area at all during that month). Either way, the differences caused by this should be negligible, but it's something to be aware of. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 27 -- BANK ACCOUNT FUNCTIONS -- The Bank Account Functions are available only on the Registered Version of FIDOBILL. These are powerful functions which will make FIDOBILL even more useful, but the lack of them will not take away from the basic usefulness of the program for those who have not yet registered. For more information on how to register FIDOBILL to get these options to operate, please see "Registering FIDOBILL" on page 8. These options allow you to use FIDOBILL to track bank account activity, such as depositing node payments and making withdrawals to pay phone bills. FIDOBILL is also capable of sending out bank statements by NetMail and/or EchoMail to keep others in the Net informed of what is happening with the account. -- DEPOSITING PAYMENTS IN BANK -- When payment is received from a node and entered into the program via the "RECEIVE NODE PAYMENTS" command (see page 22), FIDOBILL automatically tags the payment as waiting to be deposited into the bank account. Once you have accumulated enough node payments to go down to the bank and deposit them in your account, you will record this in FIDOBILL by selecting the "DEPOSIT PAYMENTS IN BANK" option from the main menu. You will be presented with a window showing you a summary of the funds waiting to be deposited, as two sums, one of total cheques received, and one of total cash received. You then have the option of either examining the deposit or posting it to the account. If you choose to examine the deposit, you will be presented with a breakdown of what payments make up the current deposit. The node, cheque number (or "CASH"), and dollar amount for each payment received will be indicated. You can scroll through the items using the UP and DOWN arrow keys, and PGUP and PGDN. If you need to adjust a deposit item, you may do so by highlighting the item in question and pressing ENTER. You will be prompted for a new dollar amount for that deposit item. In addition, the account of the node who made the payment will also be adjusted accordingly, and a NetMail message will be sent to that node indicating that an adjustment was made, just as if the adjustment were made in the node editor. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 28 When you are finished examining the deposit, you may press ESC to return to the Deposit Summary screen. The new amounts will be reflected here. If you are satisfied that the bank deposit amount reported by FIDOBILL actually reflects reality you should select the "(M)ake Deposit" option to post the deposit to the bank account. You will be prompted for a brief explanation of the deposit (which defaults to "NODE PAYMENT DEPOSIT"). The system will then post the deposits to the bank account and clear the pending deposits record. -- WITHDRAWING FUNDS -- When the time comes when it's time to pay the Net's phone bills, you should inform FIDOBILL that funds are being removed from the account by selecting the WITHDRAW FUNDS option from the main menu. You will be prompted to enter a brief explanation of the withdrawal and then be prompted for the dollar amount to withdraw. Finally, you will be asked to confirm that the withdrawal information is correct. If it is then the withdrawal will be processed and the bank account information will be updated accordingly. -- BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE REPORT -- To view a statement of the bank account activity, you should select the "BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE REPORT" option from the main menu. This will produce a screen that looks a lot like a chequebook. All of the activity in the network's bank account is reported here. The ledger itself is rather self-explanatory. If you know how a chequebook works then you will understand the ledger. If you don't know how a chequebook works then one could argue that perhaps your net should choose another accountant. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 29 From the Balance screen you have the following options: INTEREST APPLIED: This option will allow you to record any interest that the bank has applied to the account. You will be prompted for the amount of interest to apply and it will be credited to the account as "Interest." SERVICE CHARGE: This option allows you to record any service charges that the bank may charge you. It functions identically to the Interest function, except the amount you enter is debited from the account as a "Service Charge." ADJUSTING ENTRY: This is exactly what it sounds like. This allows you to make an adjusting entry to make FIDOBILL's statement match the bank's. This should be used as a last resort, only after you have tried everything possible to make the statement's match, since agreeing to the bank's statement may actually cost the network money, since banks have been known to make "computer errors" from time to time. When selecting this option, you will be prompted for a brief explanation of the adjustment, then prompted for the amount of the adjustment. A positive number is treated as a credit and will increase the balance, while a negative number is treated as a debit, and will decrease the balance. FORWARD COPY OF BANK ACCOUNT: This option allows you to manually forward a copy of FIDOBILL's bank statement to a specific node. You will be prompted for the address of the node to send the statement to and then asked how many days of the statement should be sent to the node. FIDOBILL will then send the statement to that node as a NetMail message. ECHOMAIL POST BANK ACCOUNT: This option is identical to the FORWARD option above, except that it will post a copy of the bank statement in your NetMail area, as defined in the setup. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 30 -- REPORTS -- FIDOBILL is capable of generating a number of reports. The reports are created through external report generators, making it possible for future reports to be added to FIDOBILL at any time. The release version currently supports two reports, a General Accounting Report, and a report on Write-off Nodes. The reports section is accessed from the "VIEW REPORTS" option from the main menu. When this option is selected a window will appear listing all of the available reports. To view one of the reports, move the highlight bar onto it and press ENTER to execute it. You also have the option of removing a report that you no longer use or adding a new report. To delete a report position the highlight bar on the report that you wish to remove and select "(D)elete." FIDOBILL will ask you to verify that you really want to remove the report from your menu. Once you confirm this the report will be removed from the menu. It should be noted that this option only removes the report from the menu. The external program that generates the report is not deleted, and can therefore be reinstalled at a later time. To add a new report that you have received, or re-install a report that you have previously deleted, you may select the "(A)dd new reports" option. 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 like here to describe the report. Next it will ask you to enter the filename of the external report generator. All report generators 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 would enter FBR-0001 in this field. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 31 -- VIEWING REPORTS -- When you have selected a report and press ENTER the program will execute the report generator and display the report on your screen. This may take a while depending upon how many nodes are in your net and what kind of report is being produced. Once the report is on the screen, you may use the arrow keys and the PGUP and PGDN keys to scroll through it. You may also select from one of the following options: PRINT REPORT: This allows you to print out the report. FORWARD REPORT VIA NETMAIL: This option allows you to forward a copy of this report to a specified node. You will be prompted for the node address, and the report will be forwarded as a NetMail message to that node. FORWARD REPORT VIA ECHOMAIL: This option allows you to forward a copy of this report into the EchoMail area that you have defined in your setup. SCHEDULE REPORT: This option allows you to setup FIDOBILL to automatically produce and forward this particular report, as either NetMail to a specified node or as EchoMail, on scheduled days of the month. You will be asked to select whether you want to schedule the report as NetMail or EchoMail. If you select NetMail, you will be prompted for the address to send the report to. You will then be prompted to enter the days of the month that this report is to be sent on. You may enter several days, separated by spaces. KILL SCHEDULED REPORTS: This option allows you to erase all the schedules for sending the current report. It should be noted that this option will kill ALL the scheduling for this report, so if you've scheduled the report to be sent to two different nodes on two different dates, BOTH of them will be removed by this function. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 32 -- AUTOMATIC NODE WARNINGS/CANCELLATION -- One of the more powerful features of FIDOBILL is the ability to automatically send warning messages to nodes who are behind on their payments, and to cancel their accounts if they get too far behind. For example, let's say that you wish to cancel a node after they get two months behind payment, but you wish to send them some warnings and reminders before you cancel them. Perhaps you would like to send the node a reminder the month before their payment is due, then send them another notice when their payment is due, and lastly a warning when they are a month overdue, with a notice to the Net administration. Lastly, when they are two months overdue, cancel their account, cut their access off and send notice to the Net administration. FIDOBILL will handle all of this easily and automatically. Firstly, you should go back to the "Setups/Configuration" section from the main menu, and select "Net Specific Settings." Press PGDN to go to the second page of the Net settings. The whole top half of the screen relates to this functionality. First you have to setup the BILLING SITUATION lines. Each BILLING SITUATION line refers to a warning message that you would like to send. The information entered into each BILLING SITUATION line specifies the criteria on which the messages should be sent and the action that should be taken for that situation. The first parameter on the line is a number which specifies the number of months before or after payment is due that this message should be sent. A positive number refers to months before payment is due, while a negative number refers to months overdue. A zero refers to the month that payment is due. For example, if a -1 was placed here, this situation line would be processed when a node was 1 month overdue. The remainder of each BILLING SITUATION line, after the first number, may contain any or all of the following: NODE: Specifies that the individual node is to receive a warning message. See "Custom Message Files" on page 37 for information on how to create the text for these messages. ADMIN: Specifies that the Administrative nodes defined below should each receive a warning about the node. CANCEL: Specifies that the node's billing status should be marked as "CANCEL." It should be noted that this option implies ADMIN. Whenever a node is cancelled, the Administrative nodes will automatically receive notice, whether ADMIN is set for that situation or not. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 33 The NODE NOTICE PRIORITY and ADMIN WARNING PRIORITY fields both define how you want the Node and Admin Warning Messages to be sent, respectively. They toggle between NORMAL and CRASH. Lastly, the ADMINISTRATION NODES TO WARN field is where you define a list of Administrative nodes (such as the NC and Echo Hubs) who will receive any ADMIN warnings that are generated. You can enter as many nodes in this field as you like, each separated by a space. Now, let's look at all this in light of the example above. We said that we would like to send a notice one month before payment is due, and another notice when payment is due. We also said that we would like to send a warning when payment is a month overdue, with an administration warning as well. Lastly, when the node is two months overdue, we want to cut them off, with a message to the administration as well. To do this, we would setup the billing situations something like the following: BILLING SITUATION #1: 1 NODE BILLING SITUATION #2: 0 NODE BILLING SITUATION #3: -1 NODE ADMIN BILLING SITUATION #4: -2 NODE ADMIN CANCEL One month before payment is due, BILLING SITUATION #1 will be processed. The node will receive a message, supposedly reminding them that payment is due next month. The month that payment is due, BILLING SITUATION #2 will be used, and the node will be sent another notice, this time reminding them that they should pay their account immediately. If by the following month they still haven't paid (ie, they are now a month overdue), BILLING SITUATION #3 will be used, and the node will receive a notice and an administrative warning will be sent out listing this node. Finally, if they haven't paid their balance off by the following month, BILLING SITUATION #4 will be used, and the node will receive a warning, an administrative warning will be sent, and the node's billing status will be marked as CANCEL. It should be noted that in BILLING SITUATION #4, the "ADMIN" option isn't really necessary, since the "CANCEL" option will send out administrative notices anyway. The messages that are sent correspond to each of the BILLING SITUATION lines. They are defined in files with extensions of .ND1 through .ND4. For more information on these files please see "Custom Message Files" on page 37. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 34 APPENDIX A -- COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS -- FIDOBILL.EXE supports one basic command-line parameter, with several modifiers, to automate nodelist processing. This is the "NODELIST" parameter. The syntax for this parameter is: FIDOBILL [/U] NODELIST [<domain> | <net>] Where parameters included in brackets are optional, and <domain> is the name of a Domain to be compiled (ie, FIDONET or ALTERNET), and <net> is a network number to be compiled (ie, 1:225 or 1:104). /U stands for "Update" and indicates that the nodelist should only be compiled if a new nodelist is found in the nodelist directory. Example: FIDOBILL NODELIST This would compile your primary net. FIDOBILL /U NODELIST This would compile your primary net only if the nodelist was newer than the last one compiled. FIDOBILL NODELIST FIDONET This would compile all of your billable Nets in FidoNet. FIDOBILL NODELIST FIDONET ALTERNET This would compile all of your billable Nets in FidoNet and AlterNet. FIDOBILL NODELIST FIDONET 1:104 This would compile all of your billable Nets in FidoNet and Net 1:104. FIDOBILL /U NODELIST FIDONET ALTERNET 1:104 This would compile all of your billable Nets in FidoNet and AlterNet, and Net 1:104, but only if the nodelist was newer than the last one compiled. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 35 BILLING.EXE on the other hand has several command-line parameters which allow you to customize its operation. These are prefixed by a dash (ie, BILLING -ANNOUNCE) and are as follows: ANNOUNCE: This option enables the sending of a global announcement message. This allows you to send a mass mailing to all of the nodes in your Net. The default is for announcements NOT to be sent. See Appendix B, "Custom Message Files" for information on how to create the message text for this option. If the message file does not exist, no announcement messages are sent. Be especially careful when using this option in a routine batch file, since BILLING has no qualms about sending the same announcement message several times to every node. If you use this in a batch file, it is advisable to delete or rename the announcement file immediately after BILLING sends it out. WELCOME: This option enables the sending of welcome messages, based upon the setting for Welcome Messages in the Net configuration section. The default is to NOT send welcome messages. If this option is enabled, messages will either be sent to any new nodes that haven't received a welcome message, or to all new BILLABLE nodes that haven't received it, depending upon the setting in the Net configuration. See Appendix B, "Custom Message Files" for more information on how to create this message. NOBILLS: This option disables the billing portion of the program. The default is to process billing each time the program is run. This would generally be used if you were running BILLING manually from DOS and didn't want to send out any billing messages or statements. Payment Receipts, Reports, and Bank Statement will still be sent. NOACK: This option disables the sending of payment receipts to nodes. The default is to send any pending receipts each time the program is run. NOBANK: This option disables the sending of bank statements to any nodes that would normally receive them. ALLSTAT: This option will force a statement to be sent to all the nodes in your database. They will not be BILLED, but will receive their current statements. NOLOCAL: Turns off the local flag on any generated NetMail. NOK/S: Turns off the Kill/Sent flag on any generated NetMail. As a result, most mail processor will not kill the messages after they are sent. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 36 APPENDIX B -- CUSTOM MESSAGE FILES -- All of the NetMail messages sent by FIDOBILL are completely customizable. The text for these messages is contained in a series of ASCII text files which may be modified to suit your needs. Files that you wish to apply to all Nets that you bill should be named with a base filename of "DEFAULT". Files that apply to a specific Net should be named with the Network File Handle (the Net File Handle is displayed at the top of the Net Configuration screen). For example, Net 225's Network File Handle is N27F1. The extensions for these files are as follows: STATEMENTS - Sent when a statement is issued to a node. .STA Statement for billable nodes with balance > 0. .STB Statement for billable nodes with balance = 0. .STC Statement for billable nodes with balance < 0. .STD Statement for non-billable nodes with balance > 0. .STE Statement for non-billable nodes with balance = 0. .STF Statement for non-billable nodes with balance < 0. .STG Statement for exempt nodes with balance > 0. .STH Statement for exempt nodes with balance = 0. .STI Statement for exempt nodes with balance < 0. .STJ Statement for cancelled nodes with balance > 0. .STK Statement for cancelled nodes with balance = 0. .STL Statement for cancelled nodes with balance < 0. .STM Statement for Alternate Billable nodes with balance > 0. .STN Statement for Alternate Billable nodes with balance = 0. .STO Statement for Alternate Billable nodes with balance < 0. BILLS - Sent when BILLS are sent to nodes .BTA Bill for billable nodes with balance > 0. .BTB Bill for billable nodes with balance = 0. .BTC Bill for billable nodes with balance < 0. .BTD Bill for non-billable nodes with balance > 0. .BTE Bill for non-billable nodes with balance = 0. .BTF Bill for non-billable nodes with balance < 0. .BTG Bill for exempt nodes with balance > 0. .BTH Bill for exempt nodes with balance = 0. .BTI Bill for exempt nodes with balance < 0. .BTJ Bill for cancelled nodes with balance > 0. .BTK Bill for cancelled nodes with balance = 0. .BTL Bill for cancelled nodes with balance < 0. .BTM Bill for Alternate Billable nodes with balance > 0. .BTN Bill for Alternate Billable nodes with balance = 0. .BTO Bill for Alternate Billable nodes with balance < 0. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 37 RECEIPTS - Sent when payment is received from a node .CAS Receipt for CASH received. .CHK Receipt for CHECK received. ADJUSTMENTS - Sent when a node's account has been adjusted .ADJ Notification to the node that their account has been adjusted in a NEGATIVE direction. **NOTE** If you disclose the amount of the adjustment in your *.ADJ message the amount returned will be a *POSITIVE* number. .BDJ Notification to the node that their account has been adjusted in a POSITIVE direction. RELINK - Sent when a node has been reinstated after links were cut .RLK Notification to the Administration nodes requesting that the nodes echo links be re-established. .NOK Notification to the node that is being re-established that their links are being restored. ADMINISTRATION WARNINGS - Appended with "Warning" nodes .ADW This prefaces a list of nodes that have warning or cancelled status. WELCOME/ANNOUNCEMENT MESSAGES - Sent to "new nodes" .ANN Sent to all nodes if the -ANNOUNCE parameter is specified when running BILLING.EXE (see Appendix A for details). .WEL Sent to new nodes as defined in the network setups, if the - WELCOME parameter is specified when running BILLING.EXE (see Appendix A for details). Again, the base filename for these files is either the Network's File Handle or DEFAULT. FIDOBILL looks for the Network File Handle first, and if it can't find it for that Net, DEFAULT is used instead. For example, DEFAULT.WEL would be the welcome message for all Networks that you bill, while N27F1.WEL would be the welcome message for Net 225 only. If both existed, N27F1.WEL would be used for Net 225, and DEFAULT.WEL would be used for all the other Nets that you bill. -- CUSTOM MESSAGE VARIABLES -- Several variables may be used to in the custom message files to insert variable information. The variables are surrounded by a caret ("^") on either side, and are as follows: FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 38 VARIABLE DESCRIPTION NOTES ======== ========================================= ===== ABSCURBAL The absolute value of the current balance N+ ACCTLINE1 Line 1 of the "Accountant Address" info T ACCTLINE2 Line 2 of the "Accountant Address" info T ACCTLINE3 Line 3 of the "Accountant Address" info T ACCTLINE4 Line 4 of the "Accountant Address" info T ACCTNAME The accountant's name T ACCTNODE The network address of the accountant T ACTIONDATE The date this action took place D ADDRESS The address of this node T AMOUNT The amount received or adjusted N+ BILLFREQ Node's billing frequency (ie MONTHLY) T BILLSTAT Billing status (ie, billable) T BILLTO The address that we're billing to A CHECKCASH The cheque number, or "CASH" T@ COMMENT,text In-line comments--totally ignored by program CREDITS The amount of credits considered N CURBAL Node's current balance N DEBITS The amounts of debits considered N DOMAIN The domain (Fidonet, Alternet, etc.) T ECHOHUB The address of the system's echo hub A ITEMS Individual item entries statements/bills T LASTPMT Amount of the last payment received N NETNUMBER Just the net number (104, etc.) text T NETWORK Complete network (1:104, etc.) T NETZONE Just the net's zone # (1, 2, 3, etc.) T NODEFEE Node's fee per billing frequency N NODENAME Node's system name T OPENDATE Date account was opened D PAIDTHRU The date that the account is paid thru D PMTDATE Date last payment was received D PREVBAL Balance previous to this month's billing N* STARTDATE Date from which statement is reporting D# SYSOPADDR1 Line 1 of the sysop's address T SYSOPADDR2 Line 2 of the sysop's address T SYSOPCITY The city of this sysop T SYSOPNAME The name of the sysop at this node T SYSOPSTATE The state of this sysop T SYSOPVOICE The sysop's voice phone number T SYSOPZIP The zip code of the sysop T TODAY Today's date D NOTES: N = Value returned in the format X,XXX.XX D = Value returned as date in the format MM-DD-YY T = Value returned as text A = Value returned as a FidoNet Address in the format Z:NET/NODE + = Value returned is ALWAYS POSITIVE * = Valid only with BILLS @ = Valid only with Payment Receipt messages # = Valid only with STATEMENTS FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 39 In addition, several formatting options are supported for each variable. These are placed after the variable name, separated by a comma. They are as follows: C Combined Upper/Lower case with U/L parser D Date first (DD-MM-YY) F Full Month Day, Year (January 10, 1992) O Date as only Month Year Z Format as "Month Year" if year differs, otherwise just "Month" U Return field in ALL upper case X Return field (upper/lower case) exactly as it appears in files Y Year first (YY-MM-DD) R=#### Right Justify (where #### is the length of the field) L=#### Left Justify (where #### is the length of the field) -#### Minus the # of days specified from the date -###M Minus the # of months from the specified date +#### Plus the # of days specified from the date +###M Plus the # of months from the specified date Examples: ^ACTIONDATE,O^ would return the date the transaction took place in the format "Month Year" (ie, "April 1992"). ^ACTIONDATE,O-001M^ would return the date the transaction took place minus one month, in the format "Month Year" (ie, "March 1992"). ^ACCTNAME,U^ would return the Accountant Name all in Uppercase (ie, "JESSE DAVID HOLLINGTON"). ^OPENDATE,F^ would return the date the account was opened in full month day year format (ie, April 15, 1992). FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 40 -- THE DEFAULT.ITM FILE -- The various individual items listed in each statement by the ^ITEMS^ variable can be modified by creating a file named DEFAULT.ITM. The format for each line in this file is: <linetag> | <text> Where <linetag> is the internal line name used by FIDOBILL, and <text> is what you want that line to read. The <text> line may include the variable ^I^, which will be replaced by the relevant information for that line (ie, the cheque number for received cheques, the dates for echo charges, etc). The formatting options described above may also be included after the ^I^ variable (ie, ^I,O^ would return "Month Year" format). The internal line names and their defaults are as follows: CHECK This is the line that indicates that a payment was received by cheque. DEF: "Received payment, check #^I^ -- Thank You" ALTERNATE This is the line that indicates that an alternate node has been billed for the current node's fees. DEF: "Credited for echo fee, charged to node ^I^" BILLEDFOR This line indicates that the current node is being billed for an alternate node. DEF: "Echo charge for node ^I^" BALFORWARD This line indicates the balance forward from a previous billing system. DEF: "Balance forward from previous billing system" CASH This line indicates that a payment was received as cash. DEF: "Received cash payment, please send checks" ECHOFEE This line indicates that a monthly echo charge has been deducted. DEF: "Monthly Echo Charge for ^I^" ADJUST This line indicates that an adjustment has taken place to the node's account. DEF: "Adjustment by accountant" It should be noted that the ^I^ variable is UNDEFINED for the BALFORWARD, CASH, and ADJUST lines, and should therefore not be used. See the included SAMPLE.ITM file for examples. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 41 APPENDIX C -- CREATING A NETWORK ECHOMAP FILE -- FIDOBILL also has the ability to read a specially formatted EchoMap file in order to define who gets their EchoMail from whom. The information read in from the EchoMap file is placed in the ECHOMAIL FEED field in each node's record. The file is an ASCII text file, named using the network file handle as the base filename, with the extension .MAP. Your Network File Handle for each Network is shown on the Network Settings screen in the Setup section. The first line should define which Net the EchoMap file is for, and is of the format "ECHOMAP NET <net>" where <net> is your Net number in z:net format. The remaining lines will consist of node numbers which define the various EchoHubs and end-nodes. Node entries may be placed in any of four columns, one to a line. The first column ends at position 6, the second column at position 26, third at 46, and fourth at 66. The first node listed in the first column is the Network "Star", or the main hub which imports EchoMail into the Network. All the nodes which follow this entry in the first column are assumed as getting their EchoMail from the main hub. Secondary hubs should also be listed in this first column. The nodes that receive their mail from each secondary hub should be listed on the lines below the secondary hub in the second column (ie, ending at position 26). The same applies for the third and fourth columns. This is best explained by way of example. Let's look at a simple EchoMap file for Net 225.... ECHOMAP NET 1:225 99 <-- This is the Main Hub 334 <-- This node receives mail from Node 99 224 <-- Receives from 334 223 <-- Recvs from 224 339 <-- This node receives mail from Node 99 343 <-- This node receives mail from Node 99 Note that the numbers in the first column END at character position 6, the second column at character position 26, and the third at position 46. For more details on the correct format, please see the included SAMPLE.MAP file. To Import the Network EchoMap, you simply place it in your main FIDOBILL directory, and select the "IMPORT NETWORK ECHOMAP" function from the main menu. FIDOBILL will read in this information and place it in the "ECHOMAIL FEED" field for each node. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 42 APPENDIX D -- INTERNAL FILES USED BY FIDOBILL -- The following is a list and brief description of the files that are used by FIDOBILL: FILENAME DESCRIPTION ======== ================================================== *.ARE The AREAS.BBS files for nodes, especially hubs, if you are using echo-volume based cost-sharing. The base filename identifies the node that the file references (ie, 225-1.ARE would be the AREAS.BBS file for node 225/1). *.FEX Contains the text for the "descriptions" entered by the accountant when making adjusting entries. AREAS.NET This file is produced when running BILLING or when you force cost calculation from FIDOBILL. This file is essentially an AREAS.BBS for the entire net. It will be an AREAS.BBS style format but will list all nodes in the net that receive the echo (assuming all information is made available to FIDOBILL). DEPOSIT.DAT This file holds information pertaining to the bank deposit. It will be created/appended whenever you (R)eceive a Node Payment. When you go to (D)eposit this file will be read to figure out what nodes should be in the deposit and for what amounts. If this file is erased or destroyed all records of a pending deposit will be lost. DOMAIN.DAT This file contains the domain/nodelist information. This file is automatically created by FIDOBILL in the Domain Setup screen, but must contain valid data for a successful nodelist compile to occur. ECHOVOL.DAT This file is created by ECHOVOL.EXE (if used) for tracking the volume in each echo. It is used by FIDOBILL for echo-volume based cost-calculations. FBR-????.RCF These are temporary files that are created by the auxiliary reports. They can be deleted without harm, but will be created again instantly by executing a report. FBR-????.TXT These files contain the output of the last report executed. These files can be deleted without harm--they will be created again instantly by executing a report. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 43 *.FBS This file(s) contains the "report schedule". If you have instructed FIDOBILL to automatically post report #1 in the echo, or to send report #2 to node 104/332 each 15th, this file contains the data to cause this happen to. Erasing this file will wipe out any scheduled reports you have. This file does NOT contain the bank report scheduling that is defined in the Network Configuration. FIDOBANK.DAT This file contains the entire bank account history. It contains the current balance and a record of all transactions since the account was started in FIDOBILL. Erasing this file will cause all bank account data (except for pending deposits) to be wiped out. FIDOBILL.CFG This is the heart of the FIDOBILL data files. As the name suggests its the configuration file for FIDOBILL. It's best not to erase it. Erasing this file will essentially wipe out EVERYTHING that you may have set in the (S)etups section other than Domain Information and Point-Net Translation. FIDOBILL.LOG This file is just a log file for tracking what FIDOBILL may be doing. FIDOBILL.MNU This file is an "overlay" file of sorts. It contains a lot of critical information about the screens used in FIDOBILL. FIDOREP.DAT This file contains a list of what auxiliary reports are available from the (V)iew Reports menu option. Erasing the file will cause all reports to "disappear". They can, however, be added again from the (V)iew Reports menu option. *.NOD This file contains the main database of the node account information. Erasing this file will cause your node/account information to be erased. One of these files exists for each network you bill. Each node in the database requires 4k in this file. *.IDX This file is an index file into the *.NOD files. If this file is erased or corrupted it can be reconstructed by recompiling the nodelist. This file will always be 20,000 bytes long, plus an additional 2 bytes per point system you include in your database. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 44 *.NLR This stands for "NodeList Report" It is created whenever you compile a nodelist. It will contain pieces of information about the compile that may interest some net coordinators. *.REF This is a reference file for the node account database. It is also created when you compile nodelists. It is also updated when you manually add nodes, change nodes, or delete them. If this file is corrupted or erased it can be recreated by recompiling the nodelist. *.MAP The "echomap" for the net. See Appendix C. *.NPD This file contains information pertaining to messages that are to be sent the next time BILLING.EXE is run. If you erase this file no permanent damage will be done, however any messages listed in this file will not be sent. NET.TMP This is a temporary file created by FIDOBILL during nodelist compiles. FIDOBILL should delete this file itself after it is finished compiling the nodelist. POINTNET.DAT This file contains the configuration data regarding points. It includes fake net translations and point nodelists. It is created from the Point Setup section. *.FBZ These file(s) contain information that will be mailed to SOMEONE. These files should automatically be deleted after running BILLING for all networks that you bill. If you are sure you have run BILLING for all nets that you bill and you still find any .FBZ files lying around, they can be deleted. FIDOBILL.KEY This is the key file for FIDOBILL. If you are an unregistered user, you will not have a key file. See page 8, Registration, for details on how to register FIDOBILL. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 45 APPENDIX E -- DEALING WITH INCOMPATIBILITIES AND BUGS -- If you have problems running FIDOBILL on your system, the first thing you should do is make sure that your system meets the "System Requirements" described on page 4. If your system meets these requirements, you should take the following steps to determine where the problem might be. First, try booting from a clean DOS diskette and running FIDOBILL. If FIDOBILL works properly at this point, you know that you have an incompatibility with something that is being loaded into memory. (NOTE: Sometimes this is not possible, particularly if you use a program such as Disk Manager or VFeature Deluxe, which requires a driver to be loaded to access the hard drive). Remove any non-standard programs that are in your environment, one at a time, since these programs can cause conflicts. The first sort of programs you should look for are TSR (Terminate-and-Stay-Resident) programs, such as pop-up calculators and so forth. These are the most common cause of compatibility problems. If FIDOBILL runs after you have removed a specific program, chances are extremely good that it is this program that was causing the conflict. If you discover a conflict like this, please report it to the author, since it is quite possible that it can be resolved in a future version. If, when stripped to the DOS level, FIDOBILL still doesn't work, you may have discovered a bug in FIDOBILL itself. As the program develops and progresses this possibility becomes more and more unlikely, but NEVER impossible. We will NEVER try to claim that FIDOBILL is bug free. Despite what some programmers would have you believe, ALL programs have bugs. A quote from a Murphy's Law Book seems to make a certain amount of sense: "It has been said that all programs contain at least one bug and that all programs can be reduced by at least one line of code. It can therefore be surmised that all programs may be reduced to one line of code that doesn't work." FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 46 This being the case the author will be the first to admit that FIDOBILL very possibly still contains bugs. As more and more people have used the program we are catching more and more of them. If you should find bugs please report them ASAP. A kind note to the author at 1:104/332 will do the trick. Your note need not be "irritated" or "upset" sounding to attract immediate attention. All bug reports will be investigated and taken to their logical conclusion--either with the fixing of the bug or a reasonable explanation of what the user can do to defeat the problem. In any bug/incompatibility reports please include a complete explanation of what you were doing, what happened, what DOS (and version) you are running under, and any other TSRs or programs that are being run and their revision numbers. Also include the version number of FIDOBILL that you are currently using. If you successfully determined what software package FIDOBILL is conflicting with this would be very helpful. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 47 -- SUPPORT/UPDATE INSTRUCTIONS -- You may always freq the most recent version of FIDOBILL on any systems noted as being "FIDOBILL Support Systems" (see page 50 for current systems). The magic name "FIDOBILL" will always get you the latest version. Available on 1:104/332.0 is the file FIDOREV which is a zipped file which contains the current REVISION.DOC. At the time of this writing this file is only 4k long. It is recommended that you file request this file occasionally to see what, if any, enhancements and bug fixes are available in the current version. Should you decide that it would be worthwhile to file request the entire program you may then do so. Also available on the FidoNet Backbone is the Support Echo for FIDOBILL. The tag name for this area is FIDOBILL, and you should be able to request it through your local NEC or REC. You may send also netmail to Craig Steiner, the author and programmer of FIDOBILL, directly at 1:104/332.0. He will virtually always be able to respond to your netmail within 24-hours of receiving it. FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 48 -- PLANS FOR THE FUTURE -- In future versions of FIDOBILL we hope to include: o Support for the Statistics file created by the Squish Mail Processor. This will eliminate the need to run EchoVol for those systems that run Squish. o The ability to bill nodes for Echo Volume based upon Cost per Kilobyte in addition to the current shared EchoMail Cost method. o The capability of automatically cutting echo feeds when a node is cancelled by writing a batch file that would call Areafix or some other EchoMail manager. o Support for other message base formats by writing EchoMail report messages as .PKT files in the inbound directory, which may then be imported by any echomail processor. o "Areafix-style" requests where nodes could send netmail to "FIDOBILL" to request a copy of their account history, current balance, or network administrators could instruct FIDOBILL to make account adjustments simply by sending netmail to it. o More complete support of the OS/2 Operating System. o Whatever else you want... Let me know! FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 49 -- BETA/SUPPORT SITES -- The following are the beta sites, support sites, and distribution sites for FIDOBILL. I thank all of these people who have helped greatly in the development of FIDOBILL: Eric Smith Dave Hunter LDS Reading Room A Small World Aurora, Colorado Nepean, Ontario, Canada 1:104/513 1:243/3 303-343-1665 613-726-0744 Beta-Site DISTRIBUTION/Beta/Support Joe & Andrea Dabrowski Jesse D. Hollington Ice Palace BBS The NiteLine Las Vegas, Nevada North Bay, Ontario, Canada 1:209/770 1:225/1 702-438-2992 Beta/Support DISTRIBUTION/Beta/Support Craig Steiner The Vault BBS Englewood, Colorado 1:104/332 303-779-4253 DISTRIBUTION/Beta/Support FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 50 -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- Time for the thank-you's... Eric Smith, the net 104 treasurer, has been extremely cooperative since day one. For that matter, I owe thanks to all of net 104. There have been times over the months when, because Eric was testing beta software, they received duplicate bills, were billed when they shouldn't have been, the reports were screwed up, etc. I thank both Eric and net 104 for their patience. I would like to thank the beta-testers (listed separately in this manual) for their extremely generous help in evaluating, testing, and supporting this program. Their help has been appreciated more than I could ever express. And I think I speak for both myself and the users of the program when I say "Thank you" for patiently helping to find and stomp out those nasty bugs before they had a chance to torment the users at large. Thanks! Jesse Hollington has been EXTREMELY helpful. Jesse, of course, deserves credit for putting together this documentation for version 2.00. But my debt to him doesn't end there--far from it. A late joiner in the beta team he has helped squash an incredible number of nasty bugs in short order. Many of the bugs he found were so squirly that I still cannot believe he found them ("If the month is xxx, there are four deposits pending, there is only one point in the database, etc." are the kinds of things we're talking about here). Were it not for him I would have spent much of my time writing docs instead of programming, and many more bugs would have reached the public. Thanks, Jesse! I hope I can make it up to you someday. [Editor's Note: That's okay, Craig... Let's just say that if I ever make it down to Colorado, you owe me a beer. ] I thank the USERS of this program. You are the people I am writing this program for. I appreciate the very fact that you are trying the program. And I definitely offer an additional "Thank You" to those who have made the effort and capital outlay to register the program. Finally, I would like to thank my good friend, Erin. Were it not for her encouragement throughout the months FIDOBILL might never have even reached the public--let alone reached version 2.00. Thank you, Erin. You will notice that this list has grown significantly since the original release. To me this means a lot: It tells me that there are people out there who think FIDOBILL is useful enough to commit their time, energy, and/or money to help support it. I think that this is the highest compliment the public can give a programmer. Thanks to everyone who has made FIDOBILL what it is today! FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 51 The following names are trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or the efforts of the person(s) and/or companies named: Fido, FidoNet - Tom Jennings, Fido Software Areafix - George Peace and Greg Dawson Squish - Scott J. Dudley MS-DOS - Microsoft Corporation PC-DOS, OS/2 - International Business Machines Corporation BinkleyTerm - Bit Bucket Software VFeature, VFeature Deluxe - Golden Bow Systems Disk Manager - OnTrack Software Systems FIDOBILL v2.00 DOCUMENTATION -- PAGE 52