TCS customers can transfer files via Secure FTP (SFTP) which allows customers to upload course imports, Redshelf catalogs and various other files for import/export into the hosted system.

Connection Information

The server can be accessed with the information below.

1. Server: connect2.total-computing.com
   • If IP address is required: 104.209.214.232
   • Please note the server name is the preferred connection method.
2. Port: 43522
3. Protocol: sftp

Creating A FileZilla Connection for The First Time

The steps below cover how to install FileZilla if you don’t currently have it on your PC. Please note that you will need your credentials in order to complete the process. You can request your credentials by emailing support@total-computing.com.

1. Download FileZilla from here.
2. Run the installer and install with the default options.
   1. Click I Agree
   2. Typically select Anyone who uses this computer and click Next
   3. Leave the checkboxes checked, and if you would like a shortcut on your desktop, check Desktop Icon
   4. Click Next for the default Destination Folder
   5. Next in follow screen
   6. Leave Start FileZilla now checked and click Finish
      • Note that there were no prompts for any addon programs, browser toolbars, etc. as of 5/4/20. Always watch the prompts for any software you download to make sure another program hasn’t been included.
3. Create the TCS connection and save it in the site manager
   1. FileZilla should already be open, if not, go to Start, type filezilla and open the red FileZilla App
   2. Click OK for the welcome message
   3. Go to File and select Site Manager
      • 
   4. With My Sites selected, click on the New site button
      • 
   5. Name the new entry created (typically TCS) and press Enter
      • 
   6. Customize as follows
      1. Change the Protocol drop down from FTP – File Transfer Protocol to SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol
      2. Enter connect2.total-computing.com into the Host field
      3. Enter 43522 into the Port field
      4. Logon Type should be set to Normal
      5. Enter your username and password from TCS
      6. 
      7. Click on OK to save your changes
      8. You will be prompted on whether or not FileZilla should remember the site password. It’s recommended to use a master password.
         1. A master password will prompt your for your password that you create.
         2. FileZilla will prompt you for your password every time you connect to the system. After you provide your master password it will use the stored site information to connect.
            • 
4. How to connect
   1. Click on the small Site Manager icon right beneath the File menu option and click on TCS
      • 
   2. The first time you connect to the new server you will be prompted to accept the server’s host key. Check the Always trust this host, add this key to the cache and click OK
      • 
   3. You should then be connected to the server with your PC files shown in the panel on the left, and the remote server files on the right.
5. How to upload files
   1. This link will take you to their wiki article on navigating the server files, navigating the files on your PC and how to upload and download to/from the server. Please reach out to support if you have any questions after reading that article.

 

 

The steps below cover how to return a web order. It’s virtually identical to a regular return, with two exceptions; the transaction type and the tender.

These steps also include returning an ebook. That part of this process is the same for web and regular orders as well.

All web returns must be completed from a Host Connection or your regular web order machine.

1. Start by using the MORT transaction type or the return option under your web register
2. Look up the customer
3. Enter the items to return
   1. For an ebook, enter the ebook SKU, or scan the ISBN and select the ebook option (if applicable)
   2. Answer the prompts for the original transaction the ebook was purchased on
      1. This is so that the system can get the access codes and verify if they are valid for return
   3. Confirm the access code is correct
      1. Repeat for any other ebooks
      2. Note that any access code that has already been activated is not a valid candidate for returns per Redshelf.
4. Total the transaction after all items have been returned
5. Select the appropriate shipping amount (if applicable)
6. The tender should default to the transaction amount + tender type
   1. If not, enter the amount followed by the original tender type
   2. e.g. 10.25AR 10.25CC 10.25EL 10.25BL 10.25BLM
7. If a Credit Card was used, select either the Match or Swipe option
   1. Swipe allows the customer to return to a new card. This is rare for web transactions since the customer usually isn’t in the store with their card handy.
   2. The Match option allows you to return the funds to the original card if a card was used on the original transaction.
      1. Answer the the original transaction prompts so the system can obtain the credit card token to use.
8. Press enter and the process is complete.

 

The steps below cover how to create matrix items while you are in the middle of creating a purchase order.

1. Start a new PO in GM-1-21
   1. Enter a PO# or enter a period “.” to use the next system suggested number.
   2. Optional: Enter an Alternate # for any third party reference numbers.
   3. Enter the order date.
   4. Enter the vendor number, or do a vendor lookup by entering part of the vendors name.
   5. Optional: If you are a multi-store environment then you can use the Ship To: field to specify a store to ship the merchandise to.
   6. Enter a shipment method in the Ship Via field or select one with the ?? button.
      • Additional shipment methods can be added by clicking the ?? button and then clicking on the Maint button on the bottom left.
      • You will be returned to the PO screen after creating your any necessary shipment methods. Just press Enter at the empty Ship Via Code field.
   7. Optional: Enter any order comments.
   8. Optional: Enter any deadline date in the Must Sip by field.
      • The top section of the PO should now look something similar to this:
2. Start adding items to the PO
   1. After navigating past the Must Ship by field your focus will be moved to the line navigation tool.
      • This tool can be used to display additional lines not currently displayed on the screen. To add new lines to the bottom of the list, insert lines into the middle of the list, more move items in the list.
      • 
   2. Enter a 1 into the text field of the navigation tool to jump to line 1. You can also enter an “A” to add a new line to the PO to the end, if you are at the beginning then it will create the first line.
      • If there was already a line #1, you can enter the next field (2) and it would create a new line for line 2.
      • You can also click on the Add button on the navigation tool but keeping your hands on the keyboard is generally the most effect way to use the system.
   3. At the Item Entry screen you can add an existing item or create a new item and add it to the PO.
      1. To add an existing item, enter the SKU, barcode, vendor catalog ID or part of the items description into the SKU field.
      2. To create and add a new item:
         1. Enter a . into the SKU field
         2. Select MF Entry option.
            • The quick entry is a bare bone item creation screen. Matrix items cannot be added via the quick entry method. Which falls outside the scope of this article.
            • The process is very straight forward however, simply populate the required fields in the Quick Entry screen, save your item, and then you will be taken back to the Item Entry screen where you can specify order quantities, cost, etc.
         3. The system should now be at the regular MF/Item screen to create the new item.
            1. Enter a description for the item
            2. Fill out the required fields: Status Code, Date, Class Code, Unit of Measure (UOM)
               • Also fill out any necessary optional fields, notably any color/size fields, the selling price and any vendor information
         4. Enter the order parameters for the new item
            • None of these fields are required and can be skipped by pressing ESC and then Enter
            • The Buyer Code is used to restrict the purchase of this item to a specific employee.
            • Auto Order Code is used to specify the calculation type. Essentially a collection of parameters, calculations and criteria on when an item should be placed on order via the Auto Orders process.
            • Min and Max can be used to specify a minimum or maximum order quantity
            • Order comments will be added to the PO every time the item is placed on a PO
         5. After saving (pressing enter) at the end of the Order Parameters screen the system goes back to the MF item screen.
         6. Select the U=Matrix button or type U and press Enter
         7. Click on Continue at the notification that the item will be saved before proceeding to the Matrix screen.
         8. Create any child item(s) to add to this matrix set
            1. Select the A=Add option or type an A and press Enter
            2. Select the color and size codes for the first child item
            3. Press Enter at the SKU field.
            4. DO NOT click past the sku field into another field.
            5. DO NOT change the SKU value.
            6. Enter the selling price for the first child item
            7. Continue adding child items by entering their color, size and sell price of the child item(s) until done.
            8. To complete the process press Enter at an empty Color field. Then press Enter or use the =Save option to save the child items.
            9. Once back at the MF Entry screen enter a . into the SKU field and repeat the steps above to create any additional items until done.
            10. Press Enter at the MF Entry screen’s SKU field to bring the system back to the PO Item Entry process
         9. Specify the quantity to order for each child item. The Vendor List and Vendor Cost can also be modified per child item.
            • Press Enter after the last child item. Then press Enter in the Line Item navigation tool to finish editing the child order data.
         10. Press Enter to save the quantities, prices, etc. specified for the child items.
             • M=Modify can be used to go back and change field values.
             • X=Cancel will cancel the ORDER information for this item. The new items will still exist in the system.
         11. The regular Item Entry screen will then be displayed with an overview of the matrix set on the PO.
             • The SKU is the Mother SKU of the matrix set
             • Order Qty is the combined quantity of the child items on order
             • The Vendor List is the list specified in the Mother SKU
             • The Selling Price is the Selling price of the Mother SKU
             • The Discount. % is the vendor list vs vendor cost percentage
             • the Cost is the average of the CHILD items ordered
         12. Add any order or receiving comments. The screen will then display the options to Save, Cancel, Modify Matrix or Cancel Order Qty. Press Enter to save.
         13. The screen will then go back to the PO overview with the items added into line 1. Focus is placed in the Line Navigation tool.
             • The QOrd (quantity ordered) is the total number of child items ordered.
             • The QOut (quantity outstanding) is the number of child items that have not been received and are still outstanding.
             • The Retail and Cost columns will always display MATRIX when a matrix set has been ordered.
             • The Ext Cost (extended cost) is the combined cost of all child items.
         14. Enter a 2 into the line navigation tool or click on the Add button to add another item to the order.
         15. Pressing enter in the line navigation tool will display the options at the bottom of the screen.
             • L=LineItems can be used to navigate to a line item and view the item details, change costs, quantities, etc. for the item on that line.
               • It’s recommended to Save the PO after adding the line items and then go back in to view, modify, etc. to ensure that any work isn’t lost.
             • M=Modify will bring the focus to the top of the PO section to modify the vendor, shipment, comments, etc. fields at the top of the PO
             • C=Cancel Order will cancel the PO and the quantities on order for all items associated with the PO.

 

 

The Price Change screen allows you to change the prices of multiple items without having to navigate through each individual item. It also allows you to set prices for items for a specific time frame.

Creating Price Changes

To get started, navigate to GM-22-1 to create your list of items and their new prices.

1. Enter the correct store
2. Choose S for the source
3. Enter a “.” for a new document number, or enter a preexisting document number to access that document.
4. The effective date controls when these changes should be applied. Never use a date prior to todays date.
5. If the price changes are going to be temporary, then enter an End Date for the changes.
6. Cancellation is only used if the price change is temporary. If so, then enter a Y

Adding Items

1. Navigate to the ISBN/SKU field and bring up an item by a description lookup or entering its SKU.
   • The MOD column will populate automatically. This is the module of the item (GM or TX)
2. Use the ?? next to the Reason Code to choose an appropriate readon
   1. If you want to add a Reason Code, choose the ?? and then click on the Maint button at the bottom of the list window.
   2. Enter a short 2-3 digit code for the Reason Code you would like to add and select the Add option when prompted.
   3. Enter a description for this new code and save your changes.
      • Repeat the steps above for any additional codes
   4. Press enter at the empty Reason Code field to get back to the Price Change document.
3. Enter the New price for the item.
4. Continue adding additional items to the document. Once all items have been added save the document which takes you to the previous menu.
5. Choose option 2 (GM-22-2) to post ALL open price change documents.
   1. Posting a document changes the status to P, which prevents it from posting a second time.
6. At this point all items on the document will have their new prices.

 

 

Overview

A kit in the TCS system is a bundle of items that are sold under one SKU. For example, if you wanted to sell a tablet, cleaning cloths and a USB flash drive all as one item then a kit would need to be created.

The main item that is sold (the bundle) along with each inventoried item needs to exist prior to creating a kit. Once all of the items exist, the kit quantity on hand is generated by pulling quantities from all of the items that make up the bundle.

In the following example all items have already been created in the GM, MF database. Instructions on how to create individual items can be found in the General Merchandise Training page.

Assign Items to the Kit

1. Bring up the MF record for the bundle that is going to be sold
   • 
2. Select the K=Kit option at the bottom of the screen
3. Select the M=Modify button to navigate to the item table
4. Add each SKU that makes up a part of this bundle
   • 
   • In this example there will 2 Microfiber cloths added when we generate quantities of this bundle to sell. There will be one each of an 8inch tablet and a 8GB flash drive.
5. Press Enter until you are at the Kits to Assemble
   • Enter the number of kits (bundles) you want to create. Notice that in this example we’re limited to 10, since there are only 20 cloths on hand and there will be 2 used per kit created.
   • If too many kits are created then the Kits to Disassemble field can be used to assign quantities back into the items that make up the kit. Simply enter how many of this kit you want to disassemble and proceed through step 6 to assign quantities back out to the kit items.
6. Press Enter until you are at the bottom of the screen with a =Save option and press Enter to return to the main item screen.
   • At this point the QoH for each kit item has been reduced
   • The QoH of the kit will not refresh until you leave the item screen and look it up again.
7. The kit can now be sold. All quantities sold will decrement the kit QoH since the items that make up the kit have already had their QoH reduced in step 5-6.

Here are the steps that can be taken to setup a bad check, or Negative Account, in the system so further checks are blocked.

1. Set up the account in POS-22-21
   1. The account number can be anything you’d like. Student ID, Driver’s license, bank acct, etc.
      • It’s recommended to set a standard and stick to it. Reasons for this are explained in the final point of this document.
   2. Information can be filled out as needed. The key field that the system looks at is the Status field. If this is anything other than OK, the system will not accept the CK tender type for the transaction.
      • 
   3. The comments at the bottom are for informational purposes only.
2. When using the CK tender, your cashiers will see a prompt to enter the account number.
   1. If the account number entered by the cashier matches the Negative Account number (e.g. 55555 from this example) then they will not be able to use a check.
   2. If the number entered by the cashier doesn’t match any Negative Accounts, then the transaction is processed.
      • This is why following a standard for the account number is so important. If the negative account was created using a student ID, but the customer driver’s license is entered, then there is no match and the transaction will go through.

Screen Look and Feel

The cash register is the heart of the TCS system. It is used for sales, returns, buybacks, mail order transactions, and others.

From the Main Menu, select the Cash Register option to get to the Sales Entry screen (POS-1). Some logins can be designed to skip this step and automatically logon to the Cash Register.

The screen can be divided into three main parts; Upper, Main Sales Entry, and Tender / Totals.

Upper – The Upper portion of the Cash Register screen contains all the information about the transaction itself. The Sales Clerk field defaults to the individual logging onto the register. The Tran Type field determines the type of the transaction. The Tran Number field is a sequential counter for that specific register. The Store field defaults to the store number. The Date defaults to the current date. The Register number is a unique identifying number for that register. All of these components are vital in identifying each individual transaction, and are printed on the register receipt.

Main Sales Entry – This is where all of the individual items are entered into the register. Items can be scanned in using the register scanner or entered manually using the keyboard. Many of the programmable function keys of the keyboard will be used in this area.

Tender / Totals – This is where all your tenders will be entered. You will also see the sub-total, tax, and total amounts here.

Exiting

1. Use the ‘EXIT’ key to exit out of the Cash Register screen. You may exit out of and return to the cash register screen as many times as you wish. Exiting does not close out your register or zero out any totals. When you return to your register screen, you will be able to continue with your normal sequence of transactions.
2. To get back to the Cash Register screen, follow the directions for ‘Logging On’.
3. Make sure you use the EXIT key only while the cursor is at the ‘TRAN TYPE’ field. If you use the EXIT key while in the middle of a transaction, it will act like the ‘TRANSACTION ABORT’ key and will nullify any information you have entered during your present transaction. Transaction Types

The following are the commonly available transaction types with a brief description. Other transaction type may also be available. Special transaction types can be protected with a security level and/or either the user’s password or a special password.

For a complete list for your system, select the ?? Either at the register’s Tarn Type field or at Transaction Type Maintenance (POS-2-5).

Open – This is used to open the register. Until the register has been opened, no transactions can be run on the register.

SA – This is used for most Sale transactions. Since this is usually set as the default Tran Type there is no function key setup. At the end of each transaction, the cursor will default back to the Tran Type field. AR sales have their own sales Tran Type.

RT – This is used for most Return type transactions. To use this Tran Type, either type in the RT code or press the function key labeled Return. AR Returns have their own Tran Type.

AR – This is used for all Accounts Receivable / University Charge type transactions.

ARRT – This is used for Returns of Accounts Receivable / University Charge type transactions.

ROA – This is used for Accounts Receivable / University Charge payments made at the cash register (Received on Account).

BB – This is used in conjunction with our TEXT module. The Buy Back transaction type will assist you in buying back textbooks.

PV – This Post Void transaction will void out any previously completed transaction. Security restrictions can and should be placed on this tran type.

RR – This is used to reprint a Receipt.

NS – No Sale to open the cash drawer.

X – The X is used to get an ‘X-REPORT’. This is used when you are ready to count and reconcile your drawer. The x-report will give you all totals for sales and tenders since the last time your drawer was set back to ‘zero’ through a z-close. The x-report will not zero out any amounts.

CLOSE – The CLOSE key is used to do a ‘Z-CLOSE’ when you are ready to close out the register and do a final reconciliation of the drawer. The z-close will close out the register and zero out any totals. The z-close report will give you all the same information that the x-report does.

Tender Codes

The Tender Code determines whether the transaction will be processed by credit card, debit card, cash, check or by other means. The most common tenders are listed below with a brief description. All of these tenders have a function key assigned to them.

Multiple tenders can be used until the total amount of the amount due is paid.

CASH – Used in accepting cash as the method of payment.

CHECK – Used in accepting either a personal or business check as a method of payment.

CREDIT CARD – Used in accepting credit cards as the method of payment. The system can be setup to accept Visa, Master Card, American Express, Diners Club, as well as others.

DEBIT CARD – Used in accepting debit cards as the method of payment. Unless a “Debit Card” system has been setup at the University, this will usually not be an option. Visa type debit cards will normally be processed as a credit card unless a ‘pin’ number is required. Special setup is required to accept cards using a pin number.

GIFT CERTIFICATE – Used in accepting system-generated gift certificates as the method of payment.

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE – Used in most cases of Accounts Receivable / University Charge type transactions.

Entering Transactions

From the Main Menu, select the Cash Register option to get to the Sales Entry screen (POS-1). Some logins can be designed to skip this step and automatically logon to the Cash Register.

1. The Sales Clerk field is filled in automatically by the system with the name of the person currently logged in.
2. In the Tran Type field, enter the transaction type that you would like to use. You can see a list of transaction types by selecting “??.” Each register can have a default transaction type set. (usually Sale) If you wish to close the register, enter the transaction type that is set up to close the register; if you wish to open it, enter the transaction type that is set up to do so. Upon first entering the register (anytime after the register has been closed), the transaction type of OPEN will automatically appear.
3. The Tran Number field is automatically filled in with a sequential transaction number. The Store field is automatically filled in with the store number from the register parameters. The Date field is automatically filled in with the register date. The Register field is automatically filled in with the register number from the register parameters.
4. In the Qty/Sku/Mod field, you can enter a SKU, an ISBN, a quantity, a merchandise class code, or a modifier. To change the quantity, enter the new quantity then press the Quantity key. The Qty field should change to reflect the new quantity. You can select a SKU or ISBN by entering the item name, title, or other cross-reference term.
5. The Description field is filled in automatically. If the SKU or ISBN that you enter doesn’t have a price associated with it, you must fill in the Price field with the appropriate price. The Extended field is calculated by multiplying the value in the Price field with the value in the Qty field.
6. To move from the item entry section of the cash register screen to the tender entry section, press the Total key. When the Total modifier has been entered, the Sub Total, Sales Tax, and TOTAL fields are automatically filled in.
7. In the Modifier or Tender field, enter the tender amount followed by the tender code. For three dollars in cash, you would enter “3.00” and then press the key for the tender that you wish to use. You can also enter a modifier in this field to void an item or transaction, return to the item entry section, apply a discount to the transaction, and the like.
8. Once you have entered enough tenders to meet or exceed the total amount due, the system will tell you the amount of change that should be given to the customer. It then gives you the option to continue or reprint the receipt. Once you press [ENTER] to continue, you will be returned to the Tran Type field to begin a new transaction.

Scanning Items

Scan in the item with the hand-held scanners. You may scan a manufacturer’s bar code, or a system generated bar code. To scan, press trigger on scanner while holding over bar code. Try not to move the scanner around too much while scanning for better scanning results.

Manually Entering Items

By SKU

Enter in the item number. When you manually enter the number, the number must match exactly as it is in the Master File. The system will not accept only part of the number.

By Description

Enter in any part of the description of the item. The system will match exactly the description you tell it to. For example, if you type in “SHAM”, it will pick up ‘Shampoo’ as well as ‘Shamrock’, but will not pick up ‘Shmp’(as an abbreviation for Shampoo).

If a ‘List Box’ is displayed, you may scroll through the list until you find the item you are looking for. If you do not find the item, you may want to try under a different description. When you have located the item in a list box, choose the corresponding number to the left of the item.

Modifying Items / Transactions

Changing Quantities

Enter in the quantity amount of the item being purchased.

Press the ‘QUANTITY’ key to accept the amount entered.

Continue entering items or press Total to complete the transaction.

Applying Discounts

There are several different keys defined to apply a percentage discount or a dollar amount discount.

Changing Tax Status

Use the keys defined to modify the tax on an item or for the entire transaction.

Price Changing

Press the ‘PRICE CHANGE’ key if the price displayed is incorrect, or if there is a special sell price for the item.

Enter in the new price of the item as indicated by the prompt in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. When the new prompt displays, it will show as a markdown at the line item level, but will reflect the correct pricing at the sub-total line.

Complete the transaction as you would any other transaction.

The ‘PRICE CHANGE’ key will only work for the line item most recently entered. If you need to change the price of a line item other than the one that you have just entered, you will not be able to use this key.

Precautions should be used to password or set security levels on this key to prevent unauthorized use.

Canceling items

To cancel the last lined entered:

Press the ‘CANCEL LAST LINE’ key when you want to cancel the last line item entered in the sales entry screen.

Resume entering in items or press total to complete the transaction.

You may only cancel the last line item only once. Though you may use the ‘Cancel Last Line’ key multiple times throughout the transaction, you can only use it once per line.

To cancel any line:

Press the ‘CANCEL ANY LINE’ key.

Enter in the line number of the transaction you wish to cancel.

The ‘Cancel Any Line’ key may be used multiple times during any transaction.

Other Register Functions

Global Inquiry

Press the ‘ITEM INQUIRY’ key to look up an item.

Scan or manually enter in the item in question.

Press the enter key to exit out of the item.

Press the enter key to return to the Cash Register screen.

The item inquiry key can be used at any time while in the cash register screen. When you return to the cash register screen, you will return to the point you left. You may use the item inquiry key as many times during a transaction as you wish.

Gift Certificates

Purchasing a Gift Certificate:

1. Press the ‘Gift Cert Purchase’ key.
2. Enter in the information in the field on the display. (fields are optional except the value field – enter in the value of the gift cert) It is recommended that you fill in the “Purchased By” and “Purchased For” fields.
3. As you fill in the amount of the gift certificate on the actual gift certificate, you must write down the voucher number on the gift certificate! The voucher number is automatically given to you when you press the ‘Purchase Gift Certificate’ key. The number is located towards the top left hand corner of the screen with the prompt of “Voucher Number:”
4. After you have filled in all the necessary information for the gift certificate, and only after you have written the amount and voucher number on the gift certificate, press “Enter” to ‘Save’ the gift certificate to the system.
5. Continue on with your transaction as you would any other transaction.

NOTE:

You may purchase multiple gift certificates per transaction (if they are buying 2 $20.00 gift certificates, you will be processing two different gift certificates in the system and they will have two separate ‘voucher numbers’.

Only sell a gift certificate during a “SALE” transaction since that is what you are doing – you are ‘selling’ an item to them.

Redeeming a Gift Certificate:

1. After entering in the items the customer is purchasing and you have pressed the total key, press the “Gift Certificate” tender key.
2. At the prompt “Enter Voucher Number”, enter in the voucher number written on the gift certificate.
3. Validate the gift certificate through the receipt printer.
4. Complete the transaction as you normally would.

Line Item Memo

After entering an item to purchase, you can press the “Memo” key to add a free form text message that pertains to that specific item. The text message is displayed with the previous item.

If you want the memo text printed on any receipts as well…

1. Select each receipt header (POS-3-3)
2. Select <R>=Receipt Detail
3. Add a new line number under NewL
4. Set how many spaces you want the memo text Indented.
5. Set MEMO as the Attribute.
6. Set Mask to L#nn, where nn plus the indented amount doesn’t exceed the number of spaces available on the receipt (typically 40).
7. You can enter any Comments that you wish.

Suspend

1. You can suspend any SALE transaction as long as you have not placed a Tender (form of payment) towards the transaction.
   1. Process the Sale transaction as you would any other transaction.
   2. After all items have been entered into the register, press the Suspend key.
      1. The suspend key can be pressed while in either the sales entry screen or in the tender area.
   3. At the prompt Enter the customer’s name, enter the name of the customer for whom you are suspending the transaction.
      1. Once you enter the customer’s name and press the enter key. The system will move the transaction to a separate file and you will be returned to the Cash Register screen.
2. To get a report on your suspended transactions;
   1. From the POS Master Menu, choose the RP option for the Report Menu.
   2. Next choose option number 6 for Miscellaneous Reports, then option number 5 for the Suspended Transaction Report.
3. You can choose to print the report to your screen (terminal) or to the printer.

Resume

1. To resume a suspended transaction, press the Resume key when the cursor is at the Tran Type field.
   1. Choose the transaction that you want to resume from the list of transactions.
2. Complete the transaction as you would any other transaction.

Item Exchange

While in the Sales Entry’ screen, press “Enter” to accept the default tender of “SA” for a sale transaction.

1. Enter items as you would a normal sale transaction.
2. To enter a ‘return’ item:
   1. Press the “ITEM EXCHANGE” button
      1. (If you have more than one of the same item being returned, enter in the amount being returned then press the item exchange button — if two items are being returned, press “2” then “ITEM EXCHANGE”)
   2. Enter the item by scanning, manually entering the SKU number, or by description.
3. When you are through entering in items being sold or returned, press the “TOTAL” key.
4. Complete the transaction by entering the amount tendered

Store Credit

Issuing a Store Credit

1. A store credit can be issued any time the balance owed (the total) is a negative balance (whether through a return or exchange). If you have a negative balance after you have pressed the ‘Total” key, press the “Store Credit” key.
2. A small window will display where you must fill in the name, address, and phone. All the fields in the window are required fields. It is recommended that you enter their name, their ‘company’ or ‘squadron’ for the address, “WP” (for West Point) for City, ST Zip, and then a phone number (any phone number will do)
3. Press “Enter” to save the store credit to the system.
4. Make sure you give the customer the receipt. The receipt will have the voucher number on it, and they must provide the receipt in order to redeem their store credit.

Redeeming a Store Credit

1. After entering in the items the customer is purchasing and pressing the total key, press the “Redeem Credit” key.
2. At the prompt “Enter Voucher Number”, enter the voucher number that is on their original receipt.
3. Complete the transaction as you normally would.

Aborting (Voiding) a Transaction

Press the ‘TRAN ABORT’ key when you want to cancel any transaction.

The Tran Abort key can be used any time during the transaction to cancel it out. A transaction is not completed until a Tender amount and Key have been entered. Once a Tender Key has been pressed you must complete the transaction you are on. You must then use the ‘Post Void’ key to cancel out the transaction.

Special Orders

Overview

Special Orders are used when an item that is not in stock is placed on order by a customer. The order can then be added to another PO going to the same vendor, or created specifically for that customer. When the order arrives, the customer will then be notified to pick up the item. The following document shows how Special Orders work with the TCS software.

Special Orders are used for items not in stock. Three major processes are involved: Placing the Special Order, Receiving the Special Order, and Picking up the Special Order by the customer.

Placing Special Orders

1. In Cash Register Screen in POS, enter a regular Sale transaction type.
2. Hit the Special Orders function key you have set up.
3. Enter the information to go on the Special Order. If a deposit is entered, this amount will be added to the Balance Due.

Special Order Maintenance

1. There are two ways to get to the Special Order Entry screen (POS-24-1). If you wish to enter a new special order, you must access the screen by selecting the Cash Register option from the Main Menu and then entering “SPO” as the transaction type. If you are going to modify an existing special order, you can access the screen from the Main Menu by selecting the Special Orders option followed by the Maintenance option.
2. In the Special Order ID field, enter a period to assign the next available ID number to the new special order. If you are modifying an existing order, enter the ID number assigned to that order, the name of the customer, or enter “??” to see a list of existing orders.
3. In the Customer Name field, enter the name of the customer who is placing the order. If the customer is representing an organization, enter the name of that organization in the Organization field.
4. In the Primary Phone field, enter the primary phone number where the customer can be reached.
5. In the Secondary Phone field, enter any other phone number where the customer might be reached.
6. In the Address fields, enter the customer’s address.
7. The Date of Request field is automatically filled in with the current date. If the customer requested the items earlier, you can modify it.
8. In the Deposit Field, enter any deposit amount that the customer will pay on the items.
9. You can enter up to three lines of notes in the Call Notes field.
10. In the SKU field, enter the SKU of the item that is being ordered. The Description field is filled in automatically.
11. In the QTY field, enter the quantity that the customer wishes to order.
12. In the Special Instructions field, enter any special instructions on the handling of the item.
13. If the customer picks up the items, enter the number of items picked up in the Picked Up field. The Date Picked Up field is automatically filled in with the current date, but it can be modified.
14. Repeat steps 10 through 13 for each item you would like to order.
15. Press [ENTER] twice to save the order.
16. If you want to create Pending Orders for the items, enter “Y.” Otherwise, enter “N.”
17. Optional Step: For GM or TRADE create a Pending Order. For Text items, add them to a Manual PO.
18. Finish the Sales transaction.
19. Print off a copy of the receipt for the customer and a copy for ordering personnel.
20. Log into the module where the item exists (GM, TRADE or TEXT).
21. Place the Order. (Cancel if you discover an order is not necessary).

Receiving Special Orders

1. Enter a receiving log as normal.
2. If there are any outstanding Special Orders in the master file, a comment will be automatically be added to each line item with special order quantities.
3. Optional: Print special order tags to tag items with person’s
4. Optional Step: For GM or TRADE name, phone, address, title, author, special order number, date. You must have a Special Order tag code setup (SPO tag type).
5. Optional: Place special order tags on items.
6. Notify customer that item has arrived.

Picking up Special Orders

1. Customer picks up special order items.
2. Customer takes items to the cashier.
3. Do a regular Sale transaction.
4. For the line items enter the Special Order Pickup Modifier. (To set this up go to Special Order Pickup Modifier.
5. This will take you into Special Order maintenance. Put in the quantity being picked up.
6. The program will automatically add these items to the current transaction.
7. Total the transaction.
8. At the tender code entry, if a deposit was made on the special order, enter the amount of the deposit. For the tender type use the Special Order tender. (To set this up go to Special Order Tender Key)).
9. You will be prompted once more for the special order id, enter it.
10. Use any other tender type to pay for the remaining portion of the sales transaction.

When all items are picked up, the special order will be flagged with a “P” status as “Picked up”.

Initial Setup

Fiscal Periods

(GL-SU-1 also GL-24)
Fiscal periods define the ending date of an accounting period. The most current date is at the end of the list. All dates for at lease one fiscal year should be always beentered.

You can set all dates initially to the open status. They are closed automatically when the period is closed through the menus.

Generally there are 12 periods in a year. You should never need more because you can reopen and close a period multiple times.

Generlly there are 4 quarters in a year.

Account Status (GL-SU-21)

There are 3 account status codes.
A – Active (Open for posting and entry)
I – Inactive (Open for posting if already entered in a Journal Entry that is not
H – Header Used for Chart of Accounts report heading.

Account Category (GL-SU-22)

Set up as many account categories as you like.
These are generally such things as Assets, Liabilities, Sales Revenue, Sales
Expenses, etc.

Bank Codes (GL-SU-23)

Set up a bank code for each bank where you deposit or withdraw money.

Journal Codes (GL-SU-24)

Journal codes are used for classifying journal entries.
You should have the following codes and more if desired:

• GJ – General Journal
• POS – Sales Journal
• AP – Accounts Payable Journal
• AR – Accounts Receivable Journal

Account Master (GL-2)

Set up your chart of accounts. Use any formating structure you desire but be consistent. We find it best if you choose to use a fixed number of numbers for the accounts. This is not necessary as long as you remember that all sorting is done from the left (even though most people choose to use numbers). You can use letters if you want. You can also use periods or dashes if you desire.

One method to use is 6 numbers. Enter the headers first so that you have a feel for the accounts. One structure that you can use is:

10000 – Assets
13000 – Inventory
17000 – Other Assets
20000 – Current Liabilities
30000 – Capitol
40000 – Revenue
50000 – Cost of Goods Sold
60000 – Operating Expenses
80000 – Other Income

Account type is D for debit and C for credit. This is to identify the accounts normal balance.

Income Statement or Balance Sheet. Enter an I or B depending on the type of account.

All Income Statement type accounts need to have a Closing Account. This closing account is where the account balance is transferred to at the end of the year/beginning of a new year. Balance Sheet accounts do not get transferred.

Journal Entries

The journal entry process is the only process that updates the general ledger. From here you review, create, and post entries into the general ledger.

Regular Journal Entry

Enter a valid journal code – the default is GJ. Enter ?? for a list of journal codes.

Enter a journal number. The system will automatically assign a number if you enter a period.

Enter a type.

• M – is for manual entry.
• S – is for system generated entry (filled in automatically by A/P, POS, etc.)
• R – is to reverse a previous entry.
• B – is to create beginning balances.

Enter a valid accounting period.

Enter the date the entry is for.

Enter any comments. These will be seen on reports so be very descriptive.

Enter all of the account numbers, projects, references, debit amounts and credit amounts. Leave fields blank if there is not value for them.

Either save or post the entry when you are done. If debits don’t equal credits you cannot post the entry. You can save entries that are out of balance to be corrected and posted later.

Beginning Balance Journal Entry

Do everything like a regulary journal entry but use “B” for the type field. This will post to the beginning balance fields in the database.

Reverse a Journal Entry

Heaven forbid you might make a mistake!
Enter an “R” for type.
You will be prompted for the entry to reverse.
The entry will be something like GJ*1655. This is the journal code and asterisk and the journal number of the entry you want to reverse.
The debits and credits are displayed in the opposite way that they were entered.
Just press enter through every field and post it.

Disbursements (Checks)

If you are using TCS A/P then in the A/P module choose option 21 (end of period) and post your checks to G/L. This process updates the GL.CD file (CashDisbursements).

Enter/Modify Checks

Enter the check number and the bank that it is drawn on.
Enter the date, payee, amount, and any comments.
Enter the Account (G/L) distribution. It is not wise to enter the same account as the
bank that is drawn on, rather enter an account(s) for expenses, inventory, etc.

Cleared Check Entry

Enter the bank code that the checks are drawn on.
Enter the beginning check and ending check using your bank statement as a guide.
Any gaps on the bank statement should be a gap in your entry.
You can use the same check number for both beginning and ending check.

If you make a mistake you can use Cleared Check Reversal.
The input is identical to cleared check entry only when the record is updated the “clear bank” flag is set to indicate that the check has not cleared.

Outstanding Check List

Once you have entered the cleared check list you can run the outstanding check list report. This report is a list of all of your outstanding (uncashed) checks.

Miscellaneous Receipts

Use this option to enter receipts that were not taken at the cash register or though A/R.
Inputs are nearly identical to checks.

End of Period (Month or Year)

There are 4 things that happen here.

1. Post Cash Disbursements (usually pushed here from A/P).
2. Post Miscellaneous Receipts (manually entered in G/L).
3. Close a Month (Months 1-11).
4. Close a Year

(When we say month it is synonymous with fiscal period.)

Before you close a month be sure to print your income and balance sheets to make certain that there are no more journal entries to be made.

Post Cash Disbursements

Enter the bank code you are posting.
Enter the check date range to use for posting.
Enter the accounting period to use.
Indicate if you will be posting detail or summary. Most people post summary.
When you choose detail posting then if there were 1,000 checks to post there would be 1,000 line items on the journal entry.

Post Miscellaneous Receipts

Same criteria as Cash Disbursements

Close a Month

This process creates beginning balances for the next period. It updates year-to-date, quarter-to-date and project-to-date values for both financial activity and for budgets.

Overview

GM/Trade refers to the General Merchandise and Trade Books components of the TCS system. Since most of their functions are similar, they are combined here.

All merchandise items are maintained in a master file (MF), referenced by SKU/ISBN. SKUs may be added or deleted as required. Synonyms allow one item to be referenced by more than one SKU. The module handles Purchase Orders, Receiving, Returns, and Physical Inventory. A perpetual inventory is maintained; each receiving adds to the inventory, each sale subtracts from it. You can print bar-coded labels for the merchandise and print various reports.

Master File

Creating a New MF Item

1. At the ‘Enter your user id:’ prompt, type “GM” to log onto the General Merchandise account.
2. From the GM master menu, type in “MF” for ‘Master File Maint”.
3. At the ‘SKU:’ prompt, there are three (3) different ways of adding a new item (or assigning it a SKU number). Either way is acceptable.
   1. Let the system automatically assign a SKU number
      1. To let the system automatically assign a SKU number, enter a ‘period’ “.” and the system will assign the item the next sequential SKU number in the system.
      2. After entering a period “.”, your next prompt will be the ‘Description:’ field.
   2. To enter in your own SKU number
      1. Enter in the SKU number you have listed for this item.
      2. After entering your own SKU number, you will be presented with the prompt “Item not on file, Do you wish to add or copy? [A]=Add, [C]=Copy, [X]=Cancel”
         1. Choose “A” to add the item
         2. Note: You will only be presented with the ‘Item not on file’ prompt if the SKU number is not found in the system. If there is already an existing SKU number, the item that has that SKU number will be displayed. You will then either need to delete the old item, or assign the new item a different SKU number.
   3. Scan the manufacturer bar code to create the SKU number (if you have a scanner available at the workstation that you are at)
      1. Scan in the manufacturer bar code using the scanner.
      2. After scanning in the manufacturer bar code, you will be presented with the prompt “Item not on file, Do you wish to add or copy? [A]=Add, [C]=Copy, [X]=Cancel”
         1. Choose “A” to add the item
         2. Note: You will only be presented with the ‘Item not on file’ prompt if the SKU number is not found in the system. If there is already an existing SKU number, the item that has that SKU number will be displayed. You will then either need to delete the old item, or assign the new item a different SKU number.
4. Enter the description of the item at the ‘Description:’ prompt.
   1. Make sure you use ‘meaningful’ descriptions, and try not to abbreviate. Most descriptions can be accomplished using 25 characters or less (including spaces), but you may use as many as 45 characters.
   2. Make sure you are consistent in describing like items. This field is a ‘cross-reference’ field, which means, you are able to do a search on various items by simply typing in a description of an item. For example:
      1. PEN will pick up PENcil, PEN, PENtal, PENdaflex
      2. CAN will pick up CANdy, CANvas, CANdle, CANary, CAN
5. Enter the Vendor Number for the Manufacturer in the ‘Manufacturer:’ field.
   1. Presently, Manufacturer and Vendor are the same thing unless you have created Manufacturers in your Vendor Maintenance as well. In that case, enter in an appropriate Manufacturer number.
   2. You may also enter in a short description of the Vendor/Manufacturer such as “SUP” for ‘Supplies are Us’. Keep in mind that you will also pick up any other vendors having ‘SUP’ in their name.
6. The ‘Style:’, ‘Color:’, and ‘Size:’ fields are optional fields.
7. The ‘Status Code:’ field automatically defaults to “A” for Active.
8. The ‘Date:’ field will automatically default to the current date.
9. You must enter a valid Class Code in the ‘Class Code:’ field.
   1. You may enter a “??” or “//” to display a list box of valid class codes.
10. Enter the Selling Price of the item in the ‘Sell Price:’ field.
    1. Entering “500” will be taken as $5.00. Only entering “5” will be taken as $0.05.
11. The ‘UOM:’ field (Unit of Measurement) will normally default to “EA” for each.
12. The ‘Price Code:’ field is optional and is used in special sale circumstances.
13. The ‘Promo Price:’ field will default to “N” for No. Accept this default.
    1. This field is used in special sale circumstances.
14. Enter “Y” in the ‘Print Label?:’ field.
15. Enter the type of Bar Code Label Code you would normally use to print bar codes for this item in the ‘Label Code:’ field.
16. Enter “Y” or “N” if the item is taxable or not in the ‘Taxable:’ field.
17. Enter “Y” or “N” if the item is allowed to be discounted or not in the ‘Discountable:’ field.
18. You must enter a valid Vendor for this item in the ‘Vendor’ field.
    1. You may do a “??” or “//” to display a list box of valid vendors, or you may enter in a brief description of a valid vendor such as “SUP” for ‘Supplies are Us’.
19. The next two fields “Catalog #’ and ‘Barcode’ are both optional and can be left blank.
20. You are required to enter in a Vendor List price in the ‘Vndr List’ field. Typically, the ‘Vendor List’ and ‘Sell Price’ are the same prices.
21. Enter “EA” in the ‘UOM’ field (Unit of Measurement)
22. Enter in the Vendor Cost in the ‘Vndr Cost’ field.
    1. The Vendor Cost is what you pay for the item – not what you will sell it for.
23. The ‘UOM’ field under vendor cost automatically defaults to ‘EA’.
24. The ‘Min Order’ field defaults to “1” and can be left at that number.
25. If you are able to receive this item from multiple vendors, enter in the second vendor on line 2, and repeat steps 18-24.
26. Keep pressing the ‘Enter’ key until you come to another screen (the rest of the fields in the first screen are optional).
27. All the fields in this second screen are optional as well, so you can press ‘Enter’ until you see the ‘Options’ at the bottom of your screen.
28. Press ‘Enter’ to accept the default of ‘Save’ (< >=Save).

Every item you will use in the system must be set up in this manner. In some of the processes that you will encounter, you will be asked if you would like to create a new item. Regardless of where you are at in the system and whatever process you are in that is asking you if you want to create a new item, you will go through the steps listed above in creating that new item.

Synonyms

Sometimes it’s necessary to refer to the same item by more than one SKU. This is readily done by making the second (third, fourth, etc.) SKU a synonym, pointing to the original SKU. Go to Synonym Maintenance (GM-SU-01-21) and enter the new SKU as the Synonym ID. Then enter the name of the existing SKU; it’s description will be displayed. Press Enter to save the synonym. When either value is entered as a SKU, the original record will be accessed.

To subsequently delete the synonym, go to Synonym Maintenance, enter the synonym and enter ‘D’ for delete.

Promotional Pricing

Please follow the guide located here on promo pricing.

Purchase Orders

Creating Pending Orders

Creating Pending Orders involves two steps, creating your pending orders, and then creating the purchase orders from pending. The purpose of Pending Orders is to group the items together that are going to the same vendor and putting them onto the same PO, This makes the process more simple for the vendor and yourself. Let’s get started with creating our pending orders.

1. At the Enter your user id: prompt, enter ‘GM’ to log onto the General Merchandise Account.
2. When you arrive at the GM main menu, Enter in a ‘1’ to take you to the Purchasing Menu.
3. You are now at the main purchasing Menu, Choose option number ‘1’ to enter/modify pending orders.
4. Next you will be prompted for a ID or Option number. To create a new one enter in a period and press enter.
5. The next field you will be prompted for is the SKU number, enter in the sku of the item you want to place an order for and hit the enter key.
6. Once you have hit enter it should automatically have filled in the Description, Manufacturer and Vendor number. Sometimes an item will have more than one particular vendor, if the one that was brought up is not the one you want to use, type in the correct vendor number and hit return.
7. After you have verified the vendor is correct and you have to hit the enter key. The Store number, shipping code, and prices are automatically filled in. If all the rest of the information is correct, you will only need to change the quantity if it is greater than the default that is set to ‘1’.
8. Once you have entered the amount you want ordered, you will be prompted for the UOM (Unit of Measure), Enter in the code for the ordering units here. These codes are set up using the following menu path: SU-Codes-Units of Measure.
9. Enter through the rest of the fields until you come to the options at the bottom of the screen. You now have the Option either to save it by pressing the enter key, or cancel the pending order by pressing X.

You have now created a pending order for that item. Once you have gone through and created pending orders for all the items you need, it is time to create your purchase orders.

Creating Purchase Orders from Pending

1. Once you are finished creating all your pending orders, it’s time to create Purchase Orders. From the main purchasing menu, choose option ‘4’ Create Purchase Orders (from pending) and enter.
2. Enter in the specific vendor you want to create the purchase order for. Leave vendor # blank to process pending orders for all vendors. If you only want to process pending orders for specific vendors, enter the number or numbers (separated by commas).
3. Leave the release date field blank to process all pending orders regardless of release date. If you specify a release date, all pending orders with a release date equal to or earlier than that date will be processed.
4. Enter ‘Y’ to include pending orders with no release date assigned. Enter ‘N’ to exclude any pending orders without release dates assigned.
5. Choose ‘Y’ to run procedure or ‘X’ to cancel.

You have now created a Purchase Order. After you have ran the procedure it should show you the First PO was #______ and the Last PO was #______. It should also send those numbers to the printer for you to keep as reference once you receive the items. Now that you have created a purchase order it is time to learn how to receive against a Purchase Order.

Creating Purchase Orders Manually

1. From the GM Master Menu, choose option 1 for Purchasing.
2. Next choose option 21 to Modify Purchase Orders.
   1. Even though the option here says to ‘Modify’, this is the option to create a manual purchase order.
3. At the PO # prompt, enter a ‘.’ to get the next system assigned PO number.
   1. Throughout the system, entering a period (.) in a key field (the key is the unique identifier of the item that you are creating – whether you are creating a new PO, Receiving log, SKU….) will let the system assign the number.
4. A prompt will appear letting you know that the item you are creating is not on file. Choose the Add option to add the item.
5. If you need to adhere to certain PO numbers, enter in your PO number in the Alternate # field.
   1. The number (either numeric or alpha/numeric) entered in the Alternate # field will print on the PO as the PO number. The system assigned number will also be printed on the PO as a reference number.
6. The Order Date will default to the current date, but can be changed to the date of your choosing.
7. Enter the Vendor you will be creating the purchase order for.
   1. You can choose the vendor by either entering the vendor number or by entering the vendor name.
      1. If you enter the vendor number, you must enter the entire number.
      2. If you enter the vendor name, you need to enter at least 3 letters of the vendor name.
         1. American Vendors can be entered by full name, by Ame (or more letters), by Ven (or more letters), or by Ame Ven (or more letters).
         2. Outstanding Office Supplies can be entered by full name, by Out (or more letters), by Off (or more letters), by Sup (or more letters), by Out Off (or more letters), by Off Sup (or more letters), by Out Sup (or more letters), or by Out Off Sup (or more letters).
            1. Note that the order of the words does not matter. Outstanding Office Supplies will be found if you enter Supplies Office, or Sup Outstand Off.
8. Enter your store number in the Ship To field.
9. Enter the preferred method of shipping in the Ship Via field.
   1. If you are unsure what to enter, you may choose from a list that will display by entering two question marks (??).
10. Entering Comments is optional as well as the Must Ship By field.
11. To start adding items to the PO, choose the Add option when prompted as the line number is displayed.
    1. Choosing the Add option will display another Order Entry screen.
12. Enter the SKU or Description of the item that you want to order.
    1. If you enter the SKU number, you must enter the entire SKU.
    2. If you enter by Description, you can enter part of the description as in the case of entering the vendor name.
13. Enter the quantity you wish to order in the Order Qty field.
14. The Vendor List, Selling Price, Discount %, and Cost fields will all default to the values assigned in the Master File for the item that you are ordering. You can change any of the values if you need to.
15. Both the Order Comments and Rcvng Comments fields are optional.
16. Choose the Save option to add the item to the PO.
17. Continue choosing the Add option for as many items that you want to place on the PO.
18. When you have completed entering the items for the PO, do not choose the Add option – instead, press the Enter key to continue.
19. Choose the Save option to complete the Purchase Order process.
    1. Make sure you make note of the system assigned PO number for printing and receiving purposes.

Modifying Purchase Orders

1. From the GM Master Menu, choose option 1 for Purchasing.
2. Next choose option 21 to Modify Purchase Orders.
   1. Note, this is the same option used in creating Purchase Orders.
3. Enter in the PO number of the PO you wish to modify.
4. If you need to modify the Alternate #, Order Date, Vendor, Ship To, Ship Via, Comments or Must Ship By fields, use the modify option.
5. If you need to Add new items or Change existing items, choose the Line Items option.
   1. To Add new items;
      1. Choose the Add option and add the new item using the same process as creating a purchase order.
   2. To Change existing items;
      1. Enter the line number of the item you wish to change and modify the item.
6. When you have completed any modifications to the PO, choose the Save option to save and update the PO.

Printing Purchase Orders

1. From the GM Master Menu, choose option 1 for Purchasing.
2. Next choose option 22 to Reprint Purchase Orders.
3. Since you can print more than one PO at the same time, enter the PO Number of the first PO you wish to print in the First Purchase Order # field.
   1. If you are only printing one PO, you must still enter the PO Number in the First Purchase Order # field.
   2. If you are printing more than one PO, the PO Number entered in the First Purchase Order # field must be sequentially lower than the next PO (keep the PO numbers in order).
4. Enter the PO Number of the last PO you wish to print in the Last Purchase Order #.
   1. If you are only printing one PO, you must still enter the PO Number in the Last Purchase Order # field.
   2. If you are printing more than one PO, the PO Number entered in the Last Purchase Order # field must be the last PO sequentially of the group of PO’s you want to print.
5. Enter the Printer Number you wish to print to in the Printer Assignment field.
   1. Each printer used to print through the system has been assigned a printer number. You must enter the printer number as Fx with x indicating the printer number.
      1. If printer number 2 was going to be used to print the PO, F2 would be entered in the Printer Assignment field.
6. Choose the Y = Run Procedure option to print the PO.

Receiving

1. From the GM Master Menu, choose option 2 for Receiving.
2. Next choose option 1 for Receiving Log.
3. Since the Rcv Id is assigned by the system, enter a period (.) to get the next system assigned receiving ID number.
4. A prompt will display if you are creating a new receiving log letting you know that the item is not on file. Choose the Add option.
5. The Rcv Clerk field will default to the user that is signed on to that port, and the Rcv Date will default to the current date. Both may be modified if you wish.
6. Enter the PO Number you wish to receive against in the PO Num field.
   1. The PO Number you will need to enter is located on the PO as either the Order Number or Reference #.
      1. Use the Order Number if you are using the system assigned PO Numbers to do all of your tracking for you.
      2. Use the Reference # if you are using the Alternate # field when creating the PO. The Reference # will then be the system assigned PO Number.
7. At the prompt “A new PO number will remove any existing Line Items”, choose the Accept PO Number option.
8. Some of the fields will automatically fill in using information that is on the PO that you are receiving against. With the other fields (up to the Inv Total field), they are all optional fields and do not need to be filled in. Below are brief descriptions of the optional fields if you do want to fill them in.
   1. Comments – receiving log comments
   2. Shipped Via – the method of shipment
   3. Cond Code – what kind of condition did the shipment arrive to you in
      1. The condition codes are user defined codes and can be maintained at GM-SU-03-23
   4. Num Pallets – how many pallets were used for this shipment
   5. Num Cartons – how many cartons were in this shipment
   6. Inv Num – what is the invoice number for this shipment
      1. Presently, if you do not have an invoice number to enter at the time of receiving and after you Post your receiving, you will not be able to enter the invoice number at a later time. Do not let this hold you up from receiving! Continue with the receiving process even if you do not have an invoice number. (We currently have a project in development to allow you to enter an invoice number at a later date)
   7. Inv Date – the date of the invoice
9. The Inv Total field is a required field and a figure needs to be entered.
   1. If you have the invoice, enter the amount of the invoice.
   2. If you do not have an invoice, you still need to enter an amount. Entering a zero (0) is a valid amount.
10. Entering an amount in the Freight field is optional. If you have an invoice, enter the amount of freight if listed.
11. You will be prompted with a message to Select a method for sorting the PO lines. It is strongly suggested to choose the PO line numbers option.
    1. Choosing the PO line numbers option will always keep your receiving log and purchase orders in the same order. This is extremely useful when receiving against multi-line PO’s.
12. Depending on how your system is setup, you may or may not be prompted with the option to choose your method for entering received quantities.
    1. If you choose the Exception option, all of the order quantities of the items that are on the PO will be listed as the received quantities as well. This is useful when receiving an order that the majority of the items ordered are accounted for EXCEPT for a few items – thus the term Exception. You can still modify the received quantities regardless of what figures have been entered.
    2. If you choose the Manual option, you will need to go through each and every item listed on the Receiving Log and enter an amount – even if that amount is zero (0).
13. With the cursor in the SKU field, press Enter to accept the SKU number.
14. Enter the quantity received in the RQty field.
15. You then have the opportunity to change any of the price and cost information. Making changes here will affect the master file if you choose to have your system automatically roll over receiving prices.
    1. To automatically roll receiving prices, see GM-UU-23-01-store number-screen 3.
16. If you want to print tags for the items you are receiving, enter a Y in the Tags field.
17. Continue through the rest of the receiving log until you are finished.
18. The two main options at the bottom of the screen are S = Save, and P = Post & Save.
    1. The Save option will allow you to save the receiving log and gives you the opportunity to modify the receiving log at a later date (by entering the Receiving Log Id number instead of a period at the Rcv Id prompt). Using the Save option will not post the received items to the inventory.
    2. The Post & Save option will save the receiving log and post the received items to the inventory. Using the Post & Save option will not allow you to modify the receiving log at a later date.
19. When choosing the Post & Save option, you may get a prompt letting you know that the Line item total + freight does not match the invoice total.
    1. If you did not have an invoice to enter an invoice total from, your figures will not match. Choose the Accept option in this case.
    2. If you entered an invoice total from an invoice, and the figures do not match, you may want to choose the Re-enter option and see if any of the line items had a price change.
    3. You may also choose to ignore the prompt and just choose the Accept option.

Returns

1. Manual Chargeback or Pending Return
   1. It must first be decided whether to enter a chargeback or enter a suggested return.
2. Chargeback
   1. Enter a chargeback if you know exactly what it is that you want to return.
3. Suggested Returns
   1. This is to generate suggested returns or entering pending returns that can later be changed into a chargeback.
4. Clear Suggested Returns
   1. Before you generate suggested returns, it is a good idea to run this procedure to clear out any suggested returns that may be lingering in the system.
5. Create Suggested Returns
   1. This will create a number of pending returns with a status of ‘S’ for suggested. The initial selection is by the TR.MF or GM.MF file selecting with a quantity on hand greater than zero, checking also that purchase orders exist on file. The criteria on the returns are also different, than those in TEXT, in that the return is based on highest cost for the return with a secondary selection given based on the expiration date of the invoice.
6. Sales Cutoff Date
   1. Anything that has not been sold since this date will be selected.
7. Vendor Number
   • 1. You may limit this according to vendor.
8. Expire Days
   1. To restrict it to items that will expire within a number of days, enter the number here. This is maintained in Vendor Maintenance (VM) with the vendor maximum months and the vendor minimum months.
9. Enter Pending Return
   1. This allows you to enter the pending return yourself. It will remain as a pending return until made a chargeback or deleted.
10. Modify Pending Returns
    1. You still may modify a pending return, before it becomes a chargeback.
11. Change the Return Status to “Release”
    1. In order to change the pending return into a chargeback, you must first change the return status to release. This can be done individually, in Pending Return Maintenance, or you can change the status of the pending returns of a certain vendor all at once in Pend Returns Maint by Vendor.
12. Create Chargeback
13. Create from pending Returns
    1. This is a batch process that will consolidate all of the pending returns of a certain vendor and create a chargeback. The return status of the pending return must be ‘R’ for release.
14. Enter Manually
    1. In “Enter/Maintain Returns” enter a ‘.’ to enter your own chargeback.
15. Return Permission
    1. If the vendor requires permission to return something, you should now print the permission requests. Vendor maintenance is where it is specified whether a vendor requires permission.
16. Send and Receive Permission Requests
    1. Once the permission requests have been printed, they are sent out, confirmed, and returned.
17. Print/Send Chargebacks
    1. Now the chargebacks are printed. If you only want to print chargebacks with certain vendors, then enter their codes. The chargeback records can be sent out with the merchandise so that your account can be credited.
18. Inventory Adjusted
    1. To determine when the inventory will be adjusted, go to Returns Parameters (SU-2-6) and select ‘Consolidated’ or ‘Chargeback’. Consolidated will adjust the inventory when you create chargebacks from the pending returns. Chargeback will adjust the inventory when the chargebacks are printed.

Performing a Physical Inventory

Overview

Physical inventory consists of initializing the master file, recording quantities on hand (QOH) onto worksheets, checking the worksheets, and posting the counts to the master file.

Initializing the master file clears out any old worksheets and saves the current QOH values. Counts can be recorded on the worksheets manually or through a programmable scanner. Various reports are available to help check the worksheets. Posting updates the master file QOH counts.

Posting assumes the worksheet count is the count at the time of initialization. The new QOH counts are set to the worksheet counts minus any changes in the master file QOH since initialization. This allows you to continue to sell and receive inventory between initialization and posting.

Worksheets are identified by store, date, and sheet number. (Ignore any references to a Location Code, keep its value blank.) This uniquely identifies each set of worksheets. The worksheets can be created three different ways: by pre-loading it from the master file, by pre-loading it from a portable Densei scanner, and by manually creating it. When old worksheets become a year old, they are automatically deleted at the next initialization.

Worksheets may be Open, Committed, or Posted. Open worksheets can have their counts modified. Only counts from committed worksheets will be included in the posting. Items from open worksheets will not be included.

The menus have three sections, separated with a blank line: initialization, edit cycle, and posting. Interlocks require completing one section before proceeding to the next.

Initializing

Make sure you’ve set the correct Inventory Method: A, B, or C (GM-SU-02-03). Use method A if you want to initialize a set of worksheets from the master file, method B if you’re going to create most of your worksheets from items scanned with the Densei scanner and method C if you’re going to manually create all your worksheets. Methods A and B also allow manual creation of worksheets for any adjustments you may need to make for items already on other worksheets. Each method has slightly different menu options for the inventory.

Regardless of the method, current master file QOH counts are saved so any changes before posting can be used to adjust the worksheet count.

You must initialize (GM-24-01-01) before you can do anything else. Enter the date you want to use as the inventory date. This date identifies this inventory, so the same date must be used throughout the inventory.

Counting & Verifying (Edit Cycle)

As explained above, method B allows counting items with a special Densei scanner. You then create worksheets from the scanned items. You can commit the worksheets as you create them, or leave them open and commit each one manually at a later time. Special reports help you monitor the status of all items scanned. Only items in the master file can be included in any worksheets; you’ll be notified of any scanned items that are missing.

You can modify the count on any open worksheet, but once it’s committed you can only change a count by entering an adjusting count for the same item on another open worksheet. Do not try to make adjustments through the inventory adjustments menu between initialization and posting; they won’t have any effect.

Various reports help you monitor and confirm the counts before you perform the irreversible stop of posting. You can run the reports as often as you want to verify and refine the inventory count.

Print non-committed sheets

Lets you see which worksheets won’t be included in the posting if done at this time.

Master file status report

The other reports look at the inventory from a worksheet viewpoint, but this one lets you look at the inventory status of items from the viewpoint of the master file. Various options help you check on the progress of the inventory.

Print Adjustments / Valuation

This report shows you the cost/price valuation of the worksheet items, open and committed, at this point in time, along with the difference between the old master file QOH counts and what they’ll be if you post the current worksheets.

Utilities

You can add new worksheets at any time up to posting. The same item can be on more than one worksheet; the counts are added together. If you’ve committed a worksheet and discover an error in the count, you can manually create a worksheet and record a compensating count, positive or negative, for the item, so when they’re added together they provide the correct count.

You can delete any worksheet at any time prior to posting.

You can print any worksheet at any time.

For inventory method B, you can also print status reports on the intermediate file holding the Densei scanned data before it goes to a worksheet.

Posting the Counts

Once you’ve confirmed that you have the correct counts in committed worksheets for all the master file items you want updated, you can perform the irreversible posting step. This is where the master file QOH values are actually changed. For each item, the worksheet counts are added together and the difference between the QOH at initialization and the current QOH is subtracted for the new QOH value. For example, if the item count at initialization was 10, the worksheet counts total 8, and 3 items were sold between initialization and posting, the new QOH will be 5 (the counted 8 minus (the original 10 minus the current 7)).

Corrections after Posting

Corrections during inventory, between initialization and posting, must be made on worksheets. Corrections between inventories are made through the inventory adjustments menu (GM-24-02). Enter the SKU, the adjustment amount, and the reason code for why the adjustment was made. An inventory adjustment report (RP-01-21) lets you review and monitor these adjustments.

Printing Barcode Labels

You can print tags from the MF Maintenance menus, from Receiving, or from the TAG account’s main menu. You can have as many different types of tags as you want; each will be identified by a unique tag type (TAGS-25). Each tag type includes a header tag format and a detail tag format. When you print several sets of tags at once, the header tag helps you find the beginning of each set of tags. The detail tags are the ones you attach to the merchandise.

Each Tag Type specifies the type’s Code, the Header and Detail Tag formats (TAGS-24), how many Header Tags to print at the beginning of each run, and where to print the tags. An item’s tag type must be specified explicitly at the TAGS menus, while Receiving and MF Maintenance pick up the tag type according to the following priority.

The Label Code specified in the SKU definition (GM-MF, SKU) – or if it’s null,

the Tag Default specified in the Class definition (GM-SU-01-02) – or if’s null,

the Tag Type used in the last print job.

Whenever you’re asked to enter a tag type, you can enter ?? to get a list of what types are available.

Accounts Receivable Training

Introduction

The AR (Accounts Receivable) system tracks customer accounts, charges, and payments for three general account types: sponsored (financial aid) accounts, debit accounts, and open accounts. Open accounts may be either Balance-Forward or Open-Item depending on whether you want payments to be applied against the oldest charges first or against the invoices you specify.

You can set up as many different customer types as you want, setting each one of these general types and setting other control parameters as explained in Customer (Account) Types on page 21. Each individual account is then assigned to one of these customer types. Sponsored accounts are those where the billing and payments are handled by an agent (sponsor) rather than by the customer. These accounts must be linked to the sponsor’s agent so agent invoices can be prepared for all charges to individuals of that agent. Agents can be grouped into agencies for breaking out the printing of agent invoices, statements, and various other reports. Agent invoices are created for current charges, statements for past due amounts. Overdue charges are aged according to five aging periods and finance charges may be assessed to the overdue amounts. Each account has a unique numeric ID, assigned when the account is created. This ID is often referred to as the customer ID. You can access a given account with this ID number or by entering the customer’s name, SSN (Social Security Number), contract number, or the name of someone you list as authorized to use the account. If more than one match is found, you are presented with a list of accounts to select from. Since the A/R functions are selectable from menus, the menu selection sequence to access a particular function will be included as part of the function identifier. For example, to prepare current customer statements you select menu 4, then menu 1. This is designated as AR-4-1. Similarly, AR-SU-3 takes you to the General Parameters screen. In addition to its integrated interface with the TCS POS system, this AR allows custom interfacing with other A/R systems.

Initializing your A/R

Several items of information need to be available before individual A/R accounts can be set up. Most data fields have helpful information about the field which can be accessed by entering a question mark (?) in the field before entering your data. The following items are listed in the approximate order in which they should be considered.

General Parameters (AR-SU-3)

This includes some general parameter values that usually only need to be set once. Enter ‘?’ for help with any field.

1. You can add a one-line customized message to all monthly statements, customer and agent, by entering the text at the Global Statements Msg.
2. For now, you can ignore the Current Accounting Period and the Current Statement Cycle.
3. Bal Fwd or Open Item lets you specify the default payment type for credit accounts. This is overridden by the Payment Type flag set for each customer type (AR-SU-4).
4. The Finance Charge Rate sets the percent charged on unpaid balances when the monthly statements are run if:
   1. the unpaid balances are older than the Days Until Finance Charges for this customer type (AR-SU-4) and
   2. charge Interest is set to ‘Y’es for the customer (AR-CM).
      1. Enter the rate as hundredths percent; 150 for a 1.5% rate. It will display as 1.50.
5. The Minimum Finance Charge sets the minimum amount charged on any overdue amounts described above. Enter the amount as dollars and cents with no decimal; 1200 for $12.00.
6. Default Terms prints out on the invoices.
7. The Statement Override Sort allows you to select the definition code that you wish to sort by.
8. Set Standalone A/R to ‘N’o, since you’re running it integrated with the POS module.
9. The POS Tender Code for A/R is usually ‘AR’. If you name it something else in POS-2-4, the new name must be entered here.
10. Similarly, you need to set the transaction code (POS-02-05) for payments on account (Return on Account) at POS Trans Code for ROA.
11. Set the Use Unapplied Payments to Y if you do not allow overpayments on invoices.
12. The History: Months to Keep On-Line and the History: Months in History Files lets you set the number months to keep history information.
13. A/R calculates past-due amounts based on five specified Aging Groups or aging periods. For individuals these aging periods are one through five months, designated as 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 days. For agents these five periods may be set to any 30-day multiples, such as 90, 120, 150, 180, and 360 days. Overdue charges are aged when you create statements (AR-4-1 and AR-5-21) and the latest aging reference date is displayed in Customer Inquiry (AR-CI).
14. Individual invoices are identified as sss_nnnnn where sss is the store # and nnnnn is an invoice number. Cust Invoice Prefix lets you add a special prefix to each invoice number on the statements and invoices. It doesn’t actually change the invoice numbers.
15. Agent invoices are identified as aaa*nnnnn where aaa is the agent id and nnnnn is an invoice number. Some outside systems that log this invoice number can’t handle the ‘*’ in the id, so Agent Invoice # Delimiter allows you to substitute an acceptable character for the ‘*’.
16. The default Invoice Program is ‘INVOICE’. If you have a custom invoice program created, you would enter its name here.
17. If you export your invoices then you can enter a Y at the Realtime Invoice Export to export the invoices in real time.

Agencies and Agents (AR-5-22 and AR-5-21)

Accounts may be paid by a sponsor rather than the customer making the charges. These sponsors are called agents and are grouped into agencies. Customers belonging to a customer type that requires an agent code (AR-SU-4, Require Agent Code = Y) must be linked to an agent so their charges can be grouped together on an agent invoice to be sent to the agent for payment. Agencies must be set up (AR-5-22) so the agents can be linked to them, and agents (AR-5-21) must be set up so customers can be linked to them.

To set up an agency (group of agents)… (AR-5-22)

Agencies are no longer used…Please skip this step.

1. Enter a dot(.) for the next sequential number. This is the Agency’s Code number for linking agents to it.
2. Enter in an agency Description to identify the name of the group.

To set up an agent (sponsor)… (AR-5-21)

1. Agent #: This is the agent’s ID number. Enter a dot (.) for the next sequential number.
2. If you want a brief one-line message to print on all statements for this agent, enter it as the agent Statement Msg. It can be changed each time before statements are run.
3. Enter the agent’s Last Name (or the name of the organization if the agent is a company) and First Name (or the name of the organizations contact if this is a company) as you want it printed on the invoices and statements.
4. Optionally, enter the Address Lines, City, State, Zip, Phone number, and Extension.
5. Enter the agent’s Status: ‘A’ for active, and ‘I’ for inactive.
6. If you want to link this agent to a group, enter the group’s Agency Code. (This option is no longer used.)
7. If you want to close this agent out on a certain date, enter the Closing Date.
8. Enter GEN as the Invoice Code unless you have a special code created by TCS.
9. Enter GENERIC for the Statement Fmt unless you’ve created a special statement format (AR-SU-22) that you want to use instead.
10. If you plan to charge the agent a processing fee, enter the Process Fee % and/or the Minimum Fee you’ll be charging.

Class Categories (AR-SU-6 and AR-SU-5)

If a sponsor wants to restrict the amount the sponsored customer can charge for certain types of merchandise, the merchandise classes to be so restricted must be organized into class categories. You have to first create the Category codes and their Descriptions in Class Category Maintenance (AR-SU-6) so you can link each class to the appropriate Class Category (AR-SU-5). As each sponsored customer to be given category limits is set up (AR-CM), the categories and their limits are set in screen 2 as explained under Adding Customer Accounts on page 11.

Customer (account) Types (AR-SU-4)

This is where you define all the different types of customer accounts you want, based on the different combinations of payment type, sponsorship, finance charges, taxing, and ways the customer transactions are handled at the register. As you create new customer accounts you can link them to the appropriate customer type which gives the account the characteristics for that type. Enter ‘?’ for help with any field.

1. Each different type is identified by a Customer Type Code which may be any combination of letters and numbers. Short one or two character codes are usually easier to use and remember.
2. Enter a Description for the type, sufficient to remember why you created it.
3. The Payment Type may be ‘D’ebit, ‘O’pen-Item, or ‘B’al-Fwd. O and B overrides the General Parameters default setting (AR-SU-3, Open Item or Bal Fwd).
4. Aging Type (Sequence) is a code you can set to group different types together on the aging report (AR-SU-5).
5. The Require Agent Code is what determines if accounts of this type are sponsored (have agents) or not. Only accounts belonging to a type which has this set to ‘Y’es can be included in agent invoices.
6. If you want to require a credit limit to be set on all accounts of this type set Require Credit Limit to ‘Y’es.
7. You can allow customers of this type to charge over their credit limit by setting ‘Y’es in Allow Over limit Charges.
8. If you don’t allow over limit charges, you can let them pay for any charges beyond their limit with cash by setting ‘Y’es in Allow Cash Purchase if Over Limit.
9. You can set an Opening Date and a Closing Date on each customer to limit when they can charge their account. Setting ‘Y’es to Allow Purchase Before Start Date lets accounts of this time to begin charging before the opening date. ‘Y’es in Allow Purchase After End Date lets them charge after the closing date.
10. Limit Purchs to Class Category = ‘Y’ means they can only charge items belonging to the classes that are included in the specified class categories for the account and only up to the limit for that class category unless the overall credit limit for the account is reached first.
11. Each account has provision for a list of authorized persons. Setting Restrict Purch to Auth Persons to ‘Y’es only allows charges to the account when either the owner’s name or one of the names on the list is given.
12. Require Name of Person Charging = ‘Y’es requires a name to be entered at the register on all transactions on this type of account.
13. Set the Require GL Account to ‘Y’es if an account number is required for this customer type.
14. Set Use Purchase Tracking to ‘Y’es if you want to monitor the items being charged to accounts of this type. A special purchases file lists each SKU, and warns the cashier if the item has already been purchased before or if a return is attempted on a SKU that hasn’t been purchased. Good for tracking textbook purchases by sponsored students.
15. The POS Discount Code is used when you want customers of this type to get a special discount. The discount is set up in POS, either as a ‘TDM’-type modifier (see POS-2-2) or as the name of a discount matrix (see POS-2-6).
16. Set the Statement Format Code to GENERIC unless you have created a special format in Statement Formats (AR-SU-22).
17. The Process ID for additional input is only set if TCS has written a custom program to request additional information from the cashier for this type of customer account.
18. If you will be charging finance charges on overdue accounts, set the number of Days Until Finance Charges, if you will NOT be charging finance charges then enter ‘999’. Only unpaid charges older than this number of days will be used to calculate finance charges.
19. Once overdue charges become older than the Max Days Past Due for Charges, the customer will not be allowed to make further charges until they are paid. Set to 999 if you don’t want the days past due to be checked.
20. When unpaid amounts get too old, you can stop any customer discounts until they are paid by entering the Max Days Past Due for Discounts. Entering 999 indicates you don’t want this check to be made.
21. If charges for customers of this type are to be taxed, enter ‘Y’es in Tax Charge Sales.
22. If cash payments made after the credit limit or a category limit is reached are to be taxed, enter ‘Y’es in Tax Cash Sales.
23. If you wish the allow the system to automatically make payments with the mass payment option then set Allow Autopay field to ‘Y’es.
24. If you set Limit Purchs to Class Category to ‘Y’es, enter the category Code for the Default Class Categories you want customers of this type to be limited to. You’ll enter the category codes and their limits in screen 2 of the Customer Maintenance screen.

Dunning Letters (AR-4-22-21 and AR-5-6-21)

If you want to send dunning letters to customers and/or agents who have overdue accounts, you can set up one to three different form letters for customers (AR-4-22-21) and three for agents (AR-5-6-21).

1. Enter the Letter # (1, 2, or 3) you want to edit.
2. Enter the number of blank lines at the top of each letter, the Top Margin Adjust.
3. Enter the Left Margin Adjust, the number of spaces on the left of the letter.
4. Enter the Text to appear on letter. You can include the following variables (with the preceding |) to designate where you want data from the system included in each letter. As you include these variables in your letter, allocate enough space on the line for the variable’s value.

|PHONE The store’s customer services phone #, maintained in General Parameters.

|NAME The customer’s first and last name.

|ADDRESS All lines of the customerfs address, including City, State and Zip.

|DL1DATE The last date the customer received the 1st dunning letter.

|DL2DATE The last time the customer received the 2nd dunning letter.

|DL3DATE The last time the customer received the 3rd dunning letter.

|PREBAL The outstanding amount due on the customer’s account.

|DAYSOLD The number of days the amount is past due.

|LASTSTMT The date the last statement was sent.

|DATE Today’s date.

| (A single carat in column 1 of an otherwise blank line, prints a blank line.)

Dunning Letter Report (AR-4-22-1 & AR-5-6-1)

This report provides a list of customers that will get dunning letters based on criteria you set. Specify the age groups for which you want letters sent. The report lists the customers who have an unpaid balance in any of the selected groups. It includes the amount of the unpaid balance in each selected aging group and the last date the customer received any of the dunning letters. This lets you make any necessary adjustments before you print the actual letters. Enter ‘Y’es for each aging group for which you want dunning letters printed.

Print Dunning Letters (AR-4-22-2 & AR-5-6-2)

This is an expansion of the previous report. In addition to specifying which groups are to be checked for this set of dunning letters, you specify which letter is sent to each aging group. You can print a letter for a single customer by specifying the customer fs ID. You can also have the letters print in either name or zip code order.

1. If you only want dunning letters for certain customers, enter their account IDs in Customer Ids to Print. If more than one, separate them with commas.
2. Set to ‘Y’es the same Age Groups you used in the dunning letter report.
3. Print the Dun Letter # (1, 2, or 3) you want sent to each age group you set to ‘Y’es.
4. Enter N or Z to indicate the order in which you want the letters printed, By <N>ame or <Z>ip.

Non-merchandise Transaction Codes (AR-SU-1)

Some accounts need to be charged for such non-merchandise items as freight, service charges, special interest charges, beginning balances, etc.. These charges can be made with a manual invoice. The codes for such charges need to be set up before the invoice can be created (p. 15).

1. Enter a Transaction Code to represent the special charge.
2. Enter a Description of the special charge
3. Enter the Type description for the code, such as NEW, USED, SOFTWARE, OTHER, TAX, INSTALLATION, FREIGHT, TRAVEL, EXPENSES. Enter a ? for a list of current types.
4. If you have the General Ledger module, enter the G/L Account number for this code.
5. Factor is for future use. Leave it blank.

Adding Customer Accounts

Each A/R account is identified by a unique customer code. The customers may be students whose parents have put in money for them to draw on (debit account), students sponsored by a company or a scholarship fund (sponsored account), or bookstore employees or college departments (balance-forward or open-item credit accounts).

The First Name, Last Name, Soc Sec Num, Contract #, and Authorized Persons values are automatically entered into a customer cross-reference when the account is created. This lets you access the account by entering in any of these values in addition to the account number.

A student account is usually set up for only one school term, with a new account being opened for each succeeding term. The old account will have an ending date sometime around the end of the term, after which the customer can no longer charge to it. For the new term, you create a new account for the customer to start charging against the sponsored amounts for the new term. You still want to access the old account using the customer’s name so you can complete the payments and answer any queries you may get. At the same time when the cashier enters the name, you only want them to see the new account. You achieve this by rebuilding the customer cross reference (AR-SU-23) so the older accounts, as specified by a closing date cutoff and customer type(s) go into a ‘H’idden cross-reference which can only be accessed by entering H; (‘H’ and semicolon) before the name. Then when the cashier enters the name Johnny Jones, the ‘hidden’ accounts don’t show up on the cross reference. But if you need to access all the accounts for Johnny Jones, you just enter H;Johnny Jones to see both the current and the hidden accounts.

Accounts may be created or edited via the customer maintenance menu (AR-CM).

1. At Customer #, for a new account enter a dot (.). For an existing customer enter the customer’s ID, either the Customer #, Last and/or First Names, Alternate ID #, .Contract #, or a name from the Authorized Persons list. If more than one match is found, you get a list of matching accounts from which you can select the one you want.
2. Enter the customer’s First Name and Last Name; they’ll be included in the cross reference so you can use them to locate the account.
3. Enter the customer’s Address Lines, City, State, and Zip.
4. The Country Code may be left blank for now.
5. If you enter the Alternate ID it too is entered in the cross reference.
6. The Contract # refers to sponsored accounts, but can be used for any special ID that you want to be included in the cross reference.
7. Tax Exempt ID is for accounts that are tax exempt.
8. You can enter the customer’s Phone number if desired.
9. You can enter the customer’s Fax number if desired.
10. You can enter the customer’s E-mail address if desired.
11. Customer accounts may be controlled through the Status flag. Charges can only be made against ‘A’ctive accounts, or ‘H’old accounts with a supervisor’s authorization. To temporarily stop charges to an account, set status ‘I’nactive. If you subsequently want to allow charges, simply set status back to ‘A’ctive or ‘H’old.
12. As explained under Customer (account) Types on page 21, set the Customer Type code that contains the characteristics you want this account to exhibit.
13. In the Customer Type Maintenance (AR-SU 4) if the customer type’s “Require Agent Code” is set to ‘Y’es then enter the Agent/Bill Code of the agent to which this account is assigned.
14. If you want to charge interest on overdue amounts for this customer, set Charge Interest to ‘Y’es. The amount of interest charged depends on the Days Until Finance Charges for this customer type and the Finance Charge Rate and Minimum Finance Charge in general parameters.
15. Set the Send Statement field to ‘Y’es if you want this account to receive monthly statements.
16. Enter the maximum amount that can be charged to this account in Credit Limit. This value also determines the default Category Limits for screen 2.
17. The Balance Due and Available Credit are calculated values.
18. Use primarily for sponsored accounts, the Opening Date and Closing Date lets you limit when charges may be made against the account. Note that this may be overridden by the Customer Type Maintenance ‘Allow Purchase Before Start Date’ and ‘Allow Purchase After End Date’ flags. Leave them blank if you don’t want any date limits set.
19. You can set up Statement Cycle codes for sponsored accounts to identify groups of customers to include in different agent invoice runs; see Creating Agent Invoices on page 21.
20. Enter the Tax Exempt ID for customers that are tax exempt.
21. Price Code
22. The first three lines of Miscellaneous Information are displayed at the register, a good place for special notes and instructions for the cashiers. Additional lines are only available from this screen. The first six characters of the first line also displays in the cross reference selection list at the register. This can be useful for special codes when a customer has more than one sponsored account.
23. If you set Restrict Purch to Auth Persons for this customer’s type, enter the names of the Authorized Persons. The purchaser’s name is checked against this list for any charges to this account.

For accounts using category limits, screen 2 manages and displays the category information.

The category limits are initialized to the Credit Limit when it’s entered. If the sponsor places lower limits on any category, enter the actual Category Limit. If you later change the credit limit, any category limits equal to the old credit limit will be updated to the new limit by the system. No matter what is entered for the category limits, the customer’s total charges cannot exceed the credit limit.

Adding Charges to Accounts

Charges can be made either through the cash register or through a back office manual invoice entry. Register charges show up on the register reports, back office charges do not. They are usually used for non-merchandise charges and adjustments. In either case the account may be selected by the account number, customer name, SSN, or contract number.

These payments are applied to oldest invoices first, even on Open-Item accounts.

Register Charges (POS-1, AR/ARRT)

A/R register transactions are usually coded as AR for charges and ARRT for returns. The cashier is asked for a customer contract or name. Any cross reference entry is valid. If more than one match is found, a list of matches pops up, showing the Customer #, Last and First Names, the first six characters from the first line of the customer’s Miscellaneous Information (useful for special codes), any Primary Customer link, the Soc Sec Num, the account’s Closing Date, and the current Balance Due.

Upon selection of an account, a screen pops up with the customer’s First and Last Names, Contract Number, Customer #, Opening and Closing Dates, Credit Limit, Balance Due, Available Credit, and the first three lines of Miscellaneous Information. The cashier can accept it as the correct account or make another request. Some of the actions at the register depend on the settings for the account’s customer type (AR-SU-4). The transaction is paid with an A/R tender code (usually ‘AR’), up to the account’s credit limit and/or category limits. Depending on the customer type’s Allow Cash Purchase if Over Limit setting, the customer may be able to pay any excess amount with cash.

Note: For now, debit account charges do not link to the account payments, so they may not show up correctly until you Prepare Current Statements (AR-4-1) where a special utility links them before preparing the statements.

Back Office Charges (AR-3-1)

Back office charges are made directly in AR (AR-3-1). You can create new invoices or review, modify, post-void, or print existing invoices. This is designed not only for occasional corrections, but for batch entry of invoices from another POS system. Batch entries can be reported and posted for quality control.

1. To create a new invoice, enter a dot (.) for the next sequential Inv # or enter any unique invoice number as long as it begins with the store number and an underscore (_).
2. Enter the Cust # by number, name, Alternate ID #, or contract number. If your entry finds more than one match in the cross reference, select the one you want from the pop-up list. The customer’s information is filled in from the account information.
3. You can enter any date for the Inv Date, it doesn’t have to be today’s date. Remember aging calculations are made from this date.
4. The Store, Date, and Reg are filled in automatically, but you can change them if needed.
5. The Tran#, Clerk and other fields are optional, mostly useful when copying transactions from another system. Enter ? on any fields you have questions on.
6. Enter CHARGE or ADJUSTMENT for the Inv Desc.
7. The invoice line items, Prod/Tran/GL, may be either merchandise class codes or one of the transaction codes set up in AR-SU-1 (p. 10). Complete the information for each line and press the Enter key when done.

A customer invoice is created and linked to the customer account.

Note: Be careful about changing an invoice created at a register; a subsequent cleanup utility may restore it to its original values. It’s better to make a compensating invoice so the original remains unaltered.

Adding Payments to Accounts

Like charges, payments may be made either through the POS register or through the back office. Their IDs consist of cust*paymentID, where cust is the customer ID (account number) and paymentID is a unique ID. In the case of ROA payments the paymentID is the transaction ID (STORE*DATE*REG*TRAN#). For back office payments, the paymentID can be almost anything.

Note that just as you can’t directly apply a negative-balance invoice (a Return) against a positive-balance invoice; you can’t apply one payment against another. Charges can only be resolved by linking to a payment and payments can only be used up by linking to an invoice.

Register Payments (POS-2, ROA)

ROA (Received On Account) is the usual register transaction type for A/R payments. The transaction type is linked to a fee code which belongs to a class and department so the tenders are included in the register reports.

ROA payments are treated as Balance-Forward even if the customer payment type is Open-Item.

Back Office Individual Payments (AR-3-21)

This powerful function offers you many fields to enter data and several options to select. Enter ‘?’ in any field for which you have questions.

1. Enter the Cust # (as account #, name, SSN, etc.). The payment type (Open Item or Balance Forward) and name and address are automatically filled in.
2. Enter the payment Type; A, CK, CA, V, MC, or AX
   • Adjustment, Check, Cash, Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
3. For Doc#, enter the check number if payment is by check. Otherwise enter a dot (.) for a unique payment number, or enter a number of your choice. Try to avoid any spaces in the Chk/Doc ID; they can be confusing and sometimes harder to handle. The account invoices and their balances display at the bottom of the screen.
4. Enter the Store, Date, Reg, and Tran#. The date is preloaded with the current date, but can be overridden. Enter anything you want for the register and transaction number.
5. Enter the Payment Amount.
6. Balance-Forward payments: Any invoices with a negative balance are automatically paid off and their amounts are added to the payment amount. The payment amount is then automatically applied against the invoices, oldest first, until the payment is used up or all invoices are paid off.
7. Open-Item payments: You must designate how much to apply to which invoice until the payment amount is used up or all invoices are satisfied. Applying the payment to a negative-balance invoice, increases the payment amount.
8. You can designate the invoice(s) to be paid off in several ways: by entering an invoice’s line number, a range of line numbers (nn-nn), or entering the letter I and an invoice number.
9. If there are more invoices than will fit on the screen you can go to the Next screen, the Previous screen, the Top of the list, or the Bottom of the list.
10. If the payment is larger than the outstanding charges when you exit, a special unapplied-payment invoice (store_UPnnn) is created for the difference. Keep in mind that these are temporary invoices and their values are only accurate at the time they’re created. For the most part you can ignore them.

Back Office Agent (sponsor) Payments (AR-3-22)

Agent payments work like the customer payments described above, except that you enter the agent code instead of the customer code and the ‘Cycle’ code, the agent billing cycle you specified when you created the agent invoices (p. 21). The payments are applied to the individual customer invoices that make up the agent invoice for that agent and cycle. It’s a very fast and easy way to pay off large numbers of individual charges.

Checking Account Status

The Customer Inquiry (AR-CI) function shows you the credit limit, balance due, and available credit. It also shows the aging buckets and the amount past due for each aging period for the cutoff date of the last aging run. It’s convenient for quick answers to any questions a customer might have about their account. It starts with a list of customer invoices, most recent first, with their date, description, total, and balance.

From this screen you can select a Payments list, from which you can pull up the details of an individual payment. You can similarly select an Invoices list, from which you can pull up the details of an individual invoice. You can look at the customer’s Category Limits and the secondary and primary Customer Links for linked accounts.

Making Account Corrections

Use Customer Maintenance (AR-CM, see Adding Customer Accounts on page 11) to make corrections to the general account information. Corrections to account charges and payments can readily be done through adjustment Invoices (AR-3-1, p. 15) and Payments (AR-3-21).

Creating Account Credits and Adjustments

Usage scenario: An account has an invoice of $1000.00 that needs to be backed off of the account. If you are still in the same accounting period then the back office invoice can be post voided in AR-3-1. An invoice charged at the register would need to be post voided at the register. For this scenario the original invoice was posted months ago and a post void is not an option.

1. An offset invoice must be created to reduce the balance on the account, this is performed in AR-3-1
   1. Enter a . to create a new invoice number. Enter the account number and change the Date or Reg as necessary. The Tran# is optional.
   2. Populate additional fields as desired until you reach the Invoice Desc field.
   3. Enter an accurate invoice description. An example would be “Charge Reversal for Invoice ###”.
   4. Enter a SKU, Class Code, GL Distribution or Tran Code in the Prod/Tran/GL field. A ?? can be used to get a list of transaction codes.
   5. Enter a description if necessary for the line item.
   6. Enter a negative qty if this is offsetting a positive amount invoice, or a positive qty if offsetting a negative amount invoice.
   7. Specify the price. NEVER enter a negative price amount. A negative amount can be obtained by entering a negative qty.
   8. Fill out any additional line items if needed. In this scenario the Invoice total would read -1000.00 after all of the line items have been entered.
   9. Press enter until the record has been saved.
2. The offset invoice will appear on the account and reduce the account balance by $1000.00. However the “Left to Pay” column will still have the original 1000.00 and the new -1000.00 amounts. This is taken care of by doing an adjustment payment on the account in AR-3-21
   1. Enter the customer number.
   2. Enter a . for the Doc# field or enter a specific document number.
   3. Enter an A for adjustment.
   4. Enter the Store Date and Reg as needed, Tran# is optional.
   5. All adjustments will have 0 in the Payment Amount field.
   6. Enter the amount to apply. In this scenario we’re going to apply payment of -1000.00 to the new -1000.00 invoice.
      • A second run through will take care of the original 1000.00 invoice. This can be done in the same document.
   7. Enter the line number in the table for the new -1000.00 invoice. The most recent invoice should show up on line 1 so 1 would be entered.
      • The system may suggest a line number to apply the amount to.
      • After applying the -1000.00 amount the invoice Balance column in the table should change to 0.
   8. The cursor will reset to the Amt to Apply field. To apply payment to the original 1000.00 invoice, enter 1000.00.
   9. Enter the line number for the orignal invoice in the “Apply to” field.
   10. Further adjustments can be entered if desired. Otherwise leave the Amt to Apply field as 0.00 and press enter until the record has been saved.
       1. Payments can be lumped into an “Amt to Apply” total and applied to multiple invoices in one document.
       2. Positive amounts and negative amounts would be totaled together and applied separately.
          1. If there were multiple negative invoices totaling -5480.87 and multiple positive invoice totaling 5000.00:
          2. One “Amt to Apply” of -5480.87 would be entered. The “Apply to” field would be used multiple times against the negative invoices that make up the -5480.87 total.
          3. One “Amt to Apply” of 5000.00 would be entered and applied to the invoices that make up the 5000.00 total.
   11. The account should now have the corrected balance from the offset invoice with Left to Pay balances of 0 for the original and offset invoice.

Removing Obsolete Accounts (AR-6)

Data can be kept in one of three places: in the current files, in history files, or on backup media. The first two are on the system, the last is offline. The usual procedure is to keep data used in regular reports and functions in the current files. As they age to the point where you may only need to access them once in a while for some special situation, they can be moved to history files. They’re still accessible, but not as readily as in the current files. And it keeps the current files from getting so big they become too inefficient.

You set the controls for the history operations in History Parameter Maintenance (AR-6-1). The data are only moved in packets of a full month’s data; partial months are left alone.

1. Enter the # months to keep in active file. When you run history, all data older than the specified number of months are moved to the history file.
2. Enter the # additional months to keep in history file. When you run history, any data older than the active file months plus the history file months is purged from the system, leaving only the specified number of months in the history file.
3. You can set history to run automatically after the end of each month or on specified months. Leave Month(s) on which to run history blank to run each month. To run at the end of each quarter, enter ‘3,6,9,12’.
4. If you don’t care to see the results of the history run, leave Send History Report blank. You can send the results to the display by entering RD or send it to a printer by entering Rn, where n is the number of the printer you want it sent to. You can also run the history report later via menu AR-6-2.

For example, you might want to keep no less than six months of data on the active file and at least two years of data available on the system at all times. And you only want to move data to history at the end of each quarter. Set the active months to 6, the history months to 18, and the months to run history to 3,6,9,12. At the end of each quarter you’ll have 9 months of current data and 21 additional months in the history files. Following the backup at the end of each quarter, the history process will move the oldest three months of data from current to history and purge the oldest three months from history. Then if you archive the backup tape you create at the end of each year, you’ll always have two copies of all your data saved on tape. You can also force a history run at any time via menu AR-6-3. It will save the data for the specified number of full months plus any partial months. Note: not all history functions are completed at this time.

Running Monthly Statements

Agent (sponsored) Accounts

Agent invoices include all new charges up to an ending date you give, for all individuals linked to that agent. Each invoice is identified by the agent’s ID number and an agent billing cycle code you also specify.

The cycle code needs to be unique for each billing cycle or the new invoices will be added to an old agent invoice. A useful convention might be to use YYMM, where YY is the last two digits of the year and MM is the current month. The cycle code is not only used to identify the agent invoice, but also to link the individual customer invoices to the agent invoice so they’ll only be included on one agent invoice.

After the invoices are created (AR-5-1), they may be checked with a preliminary invoice report (AR-5-2) and then printed (AR-5-3), either all at once or in various groupings. When payment is received (AR-3-22, page 18), it’s entered against the agent invoice (agent ID and cycle code). When payments are overdue, you can print agent statements (AR-5-4) to send out as a reminder. You can even add finance charges if you wish.

You can also create individual statements for sponsored customers to review their charges if you wish, but their invoices are still included in the agent invoices.

Creating Agent Invoices (AR-5-1)

This function picks up all A/R invoices with 1) agent billing cycle codes that are blank or match the Agent Cycle you enter, 2) dates no later than any specified Ending Date for Charges, 3) a customer Statement Cycle code that matches any specified Customer Statement Cycle, and 4) a customer agent code that matches any specified Agent Code(s). It combines these invoices into an agent invoice for each included agent.

1. Enter the Ending Date for Charges, the cutoff date for charges to be included in the agent invoice.
2. If you’ve assigned Statement Cycles (p. 13) to your sponsored accounts, you can limit the invoice to those with a certain code by entering it in Customer Statement Cycle.
3. If you only want to create invoices for certain agents, enter their Agent Code(s); otherwise, leave it blank.
4. This is where you assign the Agent Billing Cycle. The two-digit year and month (0104 for April 2001) is a useful code and easy to remember.
5. Enter the Date for Invoice, the date you want printed on each invoice.
6. If you wish to exclude payments from the invoices then enter ‘N’o in the Include Payments field.
7. You can use the Optional Invoice Heading to have a brief message printed on each invoice, just below the address. This is in addition to the note you can include at the bottom of each invoice summary sheet (AR-5-23).

Printing the Preliminary Invoice Report (AR-5-2)

This report is useful for checking things out before you print the actual invoices. You can see the data that will be included on each invoice. It can be used on any agent invoice you’ve created. Just enter the agent billing Cycle code. If you only want to look at invoices for a particular agency or agent, enter their Agency Code(s) and/or Agent Code(s).

Printing the Agent Invoices (AR-5-3)

Using the same controls as the preliminary invoice report, this function lets you print the actual invoices to send. You can print them in sets by agency or agent if you want.

Each invoice consists of a summary page showing the totals for each transaction code, in order of largest amount to smallest, and the grand total for the invoice. With the default GEN invoice code set in agent maintenance (p. 5), you also get a sheet listing the totals for each transaction code of each individual included in the agent invoice. Contact TCS for custom creation of other invoice formats.

Processing Agent Statements (AR-5-4)

This lets you create statements for any agents with outstanding balances from their agent invoices. When you enter an agent payment, it pays off the individual invoices that make up the agent invoice as far as the payment amount will go. The agent invoice balance is reduced by the total amount of the agent payment.

1. Enter a Statement Aging Cutoff Date. This is used to calculate the amount overdue for each aging period as specified in the AGENT Aging Groups in general parameters (p. 4).
2. Enter the Statement Date to be printed on each statement.
3. You can specify a brief Statement Heading message to be printed below the address on each statement. If a Global Statements Msg is set in general parameters (AR-SU-3) it will also be printed at the bottom of each statement. If an Agent Stmt Msg is set in the agent setup (AR-5-21), it too will be printed at the bottom of each statement.
4. You can specify if you want to Use Agent Name or Code for sorting the statements.
5. You can run statements for only certain agent(s) by setting Agent Code(s) or Name(s). If you’re sorting by ‘N’ame, enter the agent name(s); if by ‘C’ode, enter the agent code(s).
6. If Invoice Details or Summary only is ‘D’ you get a line for each customer invoice making up the agent’s statement total. Otherwise, you only get the agent total on each statement.
7. If you want to include customer invoices that have been paid off, enter ‘Y’es for Include Zero-Balance Invoices. Otherwise, only the unpaid invoices are included.

Reprinting Agent Statements (AR-5-5)

From this menu option you can reprint agent statements for any agent/billing cycle combination available. You have the same Summary/Detail option and printing options you have with Process Agent Statements above.

Individual (non-sponsored) Accounts

At the end of each calendar month you can create statements (AR-4-1) for any customer type you wish. You can make a trial run until you feel they’re correct and then make the final run where finance charges invoices will be created as needed. You can also re-create statements for any previous month (AR-4-2). You can print the most recently generated statements in various groupings and options (AR-4-3).

A standard GENERIC statement comes with the system or you can create custom statements (AR-SU-22).

Preparing Current Statements (AR-4-1)

You can create account statements showing account balances for each aging period, the previous month’s balance, charges and payments for this month, and the current account balance. You can make a trial run until the results look ok, then make the final run when the finance charge invoices will be created and added to the accounts. If you want to print a brief message at the end of each statement (agent and customer), enter it into the general parameters (SU-3, Global Statements Msg). If you only want statements for certain customer types, enter the customer type codes separated with commas (such as S,NP,EMP). Normally you won’t include agent customers. The cutoff date excludes charges and payments after that date; you can enter ‘.’ to autoload the current end-of-month date. The Payment Due date is used in custom statements.

Select the ‘T’rial run until you’re assured that the statements are correct. Interest will not be calculated on overdue amounts. You can only make the ‘F’inal run once for the selected customer types. You must enter ‘Y’es for Calculate Interest if you want finance charges calculated. The interest rate and minimum charge values come from the general parameters (AR-SU-3). If you generate finance charges by mistake, you can create offsetting invoices with Back Out Finance Charges (AR-4-23). You can either print statements at the end of the run or do it later from the Print Prepared Statements menu. The selected accounts are aged according to the aging values from the general parameters (AR-SU-3). The aging values and their effective date are included in the Customer Inquiry screen (AR-CI). The Rebuild Customer Aging (AR-SU-2) and Customer Aging Report (AR-4-27) functions also recalculate aging.

 

INTEGRIS DEVELOPMENT TEST STORE

CUSTOMER AGING – Summary

AR-90-02-05 Alphabetical Order by Customer

Printed 16:41:58 02 Jan 2001 Page 1

AGE RUNNING CURRENT OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER CURRENT CURRENT

SEQ …BALANCE …BALANCE ……..30 ……..60 ……..90 …….120 …….150 …CHARGES ..PAYMENTS

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

Sub -95,530.10-129,072.00 0.00 74.10 245.10 0.00 21,900.87 9,205.29 61.79

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

Sub Tota110.08 -15.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 24.95 0.00 0.00 0.00

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

Sub To1,298.68 -10.00 13.28 18.74 100.05 0.00 285.63 0.00 0.00

———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

Sub Tota878.70 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 883.79 117.00 75.00

========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========

, -93242.64-129,097.01 13.28 92.84 345.15 24.95 23,070.29 9,322.29 136.79

Preparing Previous Statements (AR-4-2)

You can reprint a statement from any previous month in which you created statements with the Prepare Current Statements function. Enter the month-end date for the month you want to re-create that month’s statements and use Print Prepared Statements to print the one(s) you want. Note that this recalculates the aging as of that previous month, so the Customer Inquiry aging date and values will change. After you’ve printed the old statements you want, rerun this function with the latest statement date to restore the statements file and aging values.

Printing Prepared Statements (AR-4-3)

From here you can print any or all statements for the last month you prepared statements, either current or previous. The selection options let you print a single statement or various groups of statements. Enter ? in any field for details of that field’s operation. Printer Assignment lets you send it directly to a printer OR send it to a spooler hold file from which you can later print or view it through the Printer Management menu (PM-1 or PM-2). If you’re using the GENERIC statement (as specified in Customer Type’s Statement Format Code), you have two other options. You can sort the statements by the Ship-To name, the customer’s name from the AR transaction and you can select the level of detail you want included in the generic statements. ‘I’tem includes a line for each customer invoice, ‘C’lass summarizes the invoices for a class into one line, and ‘S’um summarizes all the invoices into a single total. The use of these two options will vary with custom statements.

Department Statements (AR-4-21)

This prints a simple summary of charges for each selected customer, useful for department billing. You can use any date range you want and can specify the date and a one-line message you want to appear at the top of each form.

The trial run statements are labeled with ‘*** TRIAL ***’ and let you check things out before running the final statement. If you include HS in the Printer Assignment you can view them on the screen (PM-9-2, job#) without wasting paper. On the ‘F’inal run, each invoice selected for this billing is tagged so it won’t be included in a subsequent department billing.

Printing A/R Reports

The following reports are available. The menu path to each report is listed before the report. Customers… RP-1-1 Customer Information RP-1-2 Customers with Balances RP-1-3 Customer Activity RP-1-4 Mailing Labels RP-1-5 Phone List RP-1-21 Over Limit Report RP-1-22 Customer Audit RP-1-23 Invoice Audit RP-1-24 Payment Audit Charges and Sales… RP-2-1 Invoice Total Sorted by Agent Code by Customer Name RP-2-2 Invoice Total Sorted by Customer Name RP-2-3 Invoice Total Sorted by Customer Name with Purchases RP-2-4 Processing Fees RP-2-5 Daily Charges by Acct Type RP-2-6 Customer Balances RP-2-7 Agent Sales by Dept Receipts & Deposits… RP-3-1 Daily Receipts RP-3-2 Accounting Period Summary RP-3-3 Unapplied Payments Agents… RP-5-1 Name Listing RP-5-2 Aging Recalculations RP-5-3 Agency Client Listing Miscellaneous… RP-6-1 Invoice/Charges RP-6-2 Class Summary by Cust Type RP-6-3 Sales/Charges by Accounting Period RP-6-4 Invoice/Charges Total Detail RP-6-5 Aging Report – Alphabetical/Numerical RP-6-6 TCode Summary by TCode Type RP-6-7 Summary By Account RP-6-22 By Account with Invoice Detail RP-6-23 Invoices by Acctg Period RP-6-24 Paid Invoice Summary RP-6-25 Invoice Class Category Totals RP-6-27 Account Balances Customer-unique… QB (ad-hoc reports)

Miscellaneous Account Maintenance

Rebuilding the Cross Reference (AR-SU-23)

As mentioned in various places above, the A/R system maintains cross references whereby you can access an account by the name of the account owner, their SSN, a contract number, or a name included in a list of those authorized to use the account. Normally new accounts are automatically added when an account is created and old ones removed when an account is sent to history. Rarely, the cross reference may become corrupted, necessitating a rebuild.

However with sponsored accounts where a new account is generated for the customer for each term to coincide with the sponsor’s new contract, you may not want the old account to pop up when the cashier enters the customer name or SSN for charges on the new account. Rebuilding the customer cross reference with a closing date cutoff and customer type(s) will remove any accounts matching the selections from the current cross reference. They will be included in a ‘hidden’ cross reference from which they may be brought up by entering ‘H;’ before the name or SSN. This keeps the cashier cross references simple and current while still giving those receiving payments or answering account queries easy access to all the accounts for the customer.

1. For with Customer Type, enter any customer types that include accounts you don’t want to show up in the current cross reference.
2. For and with Closing Date prior to, enter the oldest date for which you do want accounts for the customer type(s) you selected to remain in the current cross reference.
3. Enter ‘Y’es for unless Running Balance isn’t zero, if you want all accounts with a non-zero running balance to remain in the current cross reference, even if they have the above customer type and are older than the above closing date.

Example

An example might help explain it. Let’s assume you’ve set up two account types, SST for sponsored students taxable, and SSNT for sponsored students non-taxable. In the fall of 2000, Susie Smith has two sources of financial aid.

The first is for $500 for books only, non-taxable, and expires on 9/30/00. Say you opened an account, numbered 2413 on 8/25/00 with credit limit of 50000, type SSNT, opening date of 8/25/00, closing date of 9/30/00, and category ‘B’ with a limit of 500.00.

The second is for $300 for either books or supplies, taxable, and expires on 10/31/00. You opened that account, number 2437 on 8/28/00 with credit limit of 300.00, type SST, opening date of 8/28/00, closing date of 10/31/00, and category ‘B’ with a limit of 300.00 and category ‘S’ with a limit of 300.00.

Up through 9/30/00 she can charge books to either account and supplies to 2437. When the cashier enters her name at the register, all Susie Smith accounts will be listed for the proper selection to be made. Entering her SSN will only her two accounts. After 9/30/00, charges will not be allowed on account 2413 and after 10/31/00, charges will not be allowed on either account. A/R customer maintenance, customer inquiry, and customer payments will still operate normally for both accounts.

Now on 1/3/01 both financial aid sources are renewed for winter term, to expire on 1/31/01 and 2/28/01 respectively. Say you open both accounts at the same time, now numbered 2593 and 2594 with the same information as the Fall accounts, except with the new closing dates. Now if you enter her SSN at the register, you see all four accounts, but only the last two are relevant.

This is where you want to Rebuild the Cross Reference. Enter SST, SSNT for the Customer Type, 11/1/00 for the Closing Date prior to, and N for Running Balance isn’t zero. This removes all accounts of SST or SSNT type with a closing date prior to 11/1/00 from the active cross reference, so when you enter her SSN at the register, only accounts 2593 and 2594 are listed.

However for customer maintenance, customer inquiry, or customer payments, you may still want to access the older accounts. Simply enter H; (‘H’ followed by a semicolon) before the SSN (or name or contract number…) and all four accounts will show up, allowing you to select the one you want.

Training Checklist

• Initializing your A/R 
• Adding Customer Accounts 
• Adding Charges to Accounts 
• Adding Payments to Accounts 
• Checking Account Status 
• Making Account Corrections 
• Removing Obsolete Accounts 
• Running Monthly Statements

Agent (sponsored) Accounts

Individual (non-sponsored) Accounts 

• Printing A/R Reports 
• Miscellaneous Account Maintenance

Rebuilding the Cross Reference (AR-SU-23)

_________________________ trained by TCS on ______________________

(signature) (date)

Changes Record:

WHEN	WHO	WHAT