HiFinance 5

 

SECTION 1.4.5.1 -. DEBTOR STATEMENTS - BY PERIOD

 

USAGE: These Statements are sent to your customers as a record of the month’s activities. Statements can either be a list of outstanding transactions or a full list of current transactions. Current business practices normally only require the first option because this creates fewer Statements and less paperwork.

 

DISCUSSION: This function always prints in Debtor Code order.

 

When you enter this program, the following questions will appear:

 

STATEMENTS FOR: YEAR [ ] (L)ast, (T)his or (N)next year. PERIOD [..]   Statements are generated up to a period. By default, this is the current period but you can change the period if you wish. Backdating does not undo the balances to the status as it was at the end of that period. Eg if you are currently half way through March and you have entered a number of receipts that affect February, running statements for February will not give you the balance at the end of February, rather it will give you the remaining balance up to February. You may legitimately backdate statements if, for instance, you are running the report at the beginning of March but have not yet started posting receipts and you wish to see the report expanded up to February.

 

                            Enter a year, eg L for last year, T for this year or N for next year. Then enter the period number, 1 - 12, within that year. Note that next year can only have periods 1 - 3.

 

PRINT PRIOR TRANSACTIONS AS AN OPENING BALANCE     This option is for companies that are used to running Balance Forward accounts. Although this is an out-of-date method, HiFinance offers the option for backward compatibility. If you answer Y here, HiFinance will not print any transactions prior to the chosen statement period but will instead add up any balance still outstanding and print it as a single figure. The default answer is N. If you have chosen the option to SIMULATE BALANCE FORWARD STATEMENTS (see SECTION 7.1.2, SYSTEM ULTILITIES) this option is forced on.

 

PRINT CURRENT TRANSACTIONS IN FULL           This option is normally used in conjunction with the previous one. This option will force HiFinance to print all transaction within the chosen statement period, even if they have been paid. This can give some interesting results if not used correctly. If you answer N here, HiFinance will only print a current transaction if there is still an outstanding balance on that transaction. The default answer is N. If you have chosen the option to SIMULATE BALANCE FORWARD STATEMENTS (see SECTION 7.1.2, SYSTEM ULTILITIES) this option is forced on.

 

PRINT FUTURE TRANSACTIONS AS FORWARD ORDERS This option only relevant if you forward date invoices. You can either choose to ignore these transactions or have them print. If you choose Y, HiFinance will print the transactions without adding their value into the outstanding balance. The transactions will be tagged as * FORWARD TRANSACTIONS - NOT YET DUE. The default answer is N.

 

PRINT PURCHASE SUMMARY ON STATEMENTS      If you reply Y here, HiFinance will add up the Invoices and Credit Notes, the Receipts and the Adjustments in the current accounting period and print a summary of at the end of each statement. This is can sometimes reduce enquiries from your clients.

 

PRINT SUNDRY DEBTOR The special Debtor called SUNDRY can be excluded from Statements by entering a N here. This is particularly useful if you have chosen to print the current transactions in full.

 

INCLUDE DEBTORS THAT HAVE A ZERO BALANCE        If you answer N here, HiFinance will ignore any Debtor that has a zero balance, even if there have been current transactions. This option can also be simulated by choosing the appropriate TOTAL BALANCE RANGE as discussed below. This should not be used as substitute for allocating receipts as un-allocated transactions are not removed at the end of year. The default answer depends on how you have answered the preceding questions.

 

INCLUDE ALL DEBTORS If you do not wish to set any limits on the report, enter Y otherwise enter N. If you enter N, you will be asked a list of further questions. HiFinance will always exclude any Statements that do would print without a balance or transactions.

 

The following question asks you to enter both a lower and upper limit. The upper limit must not be less than the lower limit. The default answers define the extreme limits of the field. You do not have to change all of these limits. Only change the ones you wish to, and tab past the others.

 

CODE RANGE   This is the Debtor’s code. If you press <F9> you will be able to search for a Debtor. If you choose a Debtor, the code will be entered into both the upper and lower limits of this range. This is a quick way to print a statement for one Debtor.

 

GROUP RANGE This is the Debtor Group.

 

NAME RANGE   This is the first 10 characters of the Debtor’s name.

 

POSTCODE RANGE This is the postcode. For this to work, you must use the postcode field on the Debtor’s master-file.

 

OTHER KEY RANGE           This may appear as a different literal depending on how you have defined the field in SYSTEM PARAMETERS.

 

SALESMAN RANGE This is the salesman code as it appears on the Debtor master-file (not the transaction file).

 

TOTAL BALANCE RANGE This is the range of Debtor balances you wish to include. You can specify that only customers who owe you money be included by entering limits of $0.01 to $999,999,999,99. Alternatively, you may wish to exclude customers below a higher dollar range.

 

To start the report, press <Enter> through each field or simply press <F10>.

 

Special End-Of-Month Extension for Cards

 

The following is a description of the procedure used in Cards system. The following screens, etc do not appear unless the cards option is enabled at your site.

 

Before beginning the process, ensure that

 

Once this is complete, use the END-OF-MONTHS DISCOUNTS MENU (see SECTION 1.3.8.U6), to adjust the discounts for each customer; apply volume and promo discounts; and apply transaction fees. To reach this option, press <F1>, then 3, 8 and 7. Most charges are computed at end-of-month, once all the transactions have been up-loaded and applied, so these functions must be run after the last day of the month and before the STATEMENTS are run.

 

 

The functions on this menu must be run in sequence and once, only. The running of these functions is covered in their respective menu pages. See SECTION 1.3.8U.6.1, SECTION 1.3.8U.6.2 and SECTION 1.3.8U.6.3.

 

Once this is done, you can run the Statements, proper. Note that, if you have forgotten to run the two programs, as above, HiFinance will probably detect this and ask you to run them. The procedure for EOM is as described above, for normal STATEMENT BY PERIOD. However, there are a few extra questions that will appear:

 

 

Note that the year and period are for the month just closed. If you run the statements before the 10th of the month, HiFinance will automatically enter the correct values. The values for the other fields can be taken as correct, ie just accept the default values.

 

The last question on this screen is:

IS THIS A STANDARD PRINT RUN (NO => EXPORT EVERYTHING INC PDF'S)

 

If you are running an EOM, you must answer NO. This is very important because answering YES will cause HiFinance to assume that you are printing one or more INVOICES for non-EOM purposes. No updates will be made to the Web Site. So, for EOM, answer NO. If you did not answer correctly, none of the following will happen.

 

You will be asked:

 

RUN THE FUELTRAC EXPORT PROGRAMS NOW

 

If you have not run the FUELTRAC export, you can run it now. The default answer is Y. The only time you should answer N is if you have already run this report or are restarting the statements and have already answered Y before. It is important that the FUELTRAC export is run at the same time as the statements, so that the totals presented in this file exactly match the Statement. The export file is downloaded and manually sent to the relevant customers. (Mario). The FuelTrac export can take a while to run, depending on the number of customers on the list and their activity. While it is running, a counter will appear on the screen. If you accidentally bypass this function, you can still run the export manually (see SECTION 1.5.9U.3), however you must make sure that no transaction are entered into the closed month or the totals will not match and you will have to reconcile the exports to the Customer.

 

Finally, you will be asked if you wish to start the STATEMENT RUN. Reply Y.

 

HiFinance will write 2 files to the directory h:\ftp_scripts. (This directory is setup in the SPECIAL DIRECTORIES function See SECTION – 7.5.5) but should not be changed without consultation with IT.) Writing these 2 files will cause the Scheduler and Report Server to pause. HiFinance will display the following warning: SCHEDULER AND REPORT SERVER HAVE BEEN PAUSED. This is to remind you that while the statements are being generated, all printing is paused and no transactions will be imported from anywhere (eg PCE, Q/Fuel, etc.) If the statement program is cancelled before it completes, you must advise IT to delete these 2 files. Otherwise the two functions will remain disabled.

 

HiFinance will now scan through the debtor file and generate an invoice for every customer that needs one. This means that customers that have a non-zero balance, or have had transactions in the relevant month will have a statement/invoice generated. HiFinance will automatically determine if this invoice is printed, faxed or emailed, unless the STATEMENT TYPE field is set to A. In this case, the program will pause and require you to tell it how to proceed. It is recommended that none of your customers be set this way. Also, a statement is produced (in PDF format) for every live customer even if the totals are zero.

 

Once HiFinance has finished generating all the relevant files, the message THE SCHEDULER SHOULD NOW BE RUNNING will appear. This is to remind you that the transaction import programs have been reactivated. You will then be asked you will be asked:

 

ARE YOU READY TO START PRINTING INVOICES

 

You must answer Y to proceed. The screen will display the message THE REPORT SERVER SHOULD NOW BE RUNNING and printing should start. (Please note that, as there is a bug in the Report Server, printing may start immediately. The only downside of this is that someone has to be around the whole time to make sure that the printer does not jam.)

 

The next function refers to the placement of the PDF files into the Web Site. You must enter the correct month and year so that HiFinance can transfer the files to the correct directory in the Web server. The screen appears as follows.

 

 

There are 2 fields you need to enter. The first is the name of the month you are running the statements for and the second is the year. By default, HiFinance should compute the correct values, so you should just be able to press <Enter> twice, or <F10> to continue. The month should be in lower case and the year is in 4–digit format. HiFinance combines this information to determine the exact directory it will send the PDF’s to when transferring to the ISIS server. If you have messed up the values, press <F1> to reset to the default.

 

Having entered this last piece of information, HiFinance will return you to the MAIN MENU. In the background, the PDF’s are created and transferred to the ISIS server. This can take many hours. So the Web pages will not become live immediately. If the Statements are run at the end of the day, for instance, the Web will be updated overnight. If you run the Statements in the morning, the Web will probably not be completely updated till that evening.

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