| Balance File Screen (Manually Update Balances) |
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Level II or Higher Feature
This chapter deals with the Balance File Screen. The Balance File Screen allows you to view Balance Files and/or to make changes to the information found within them. But first a few basics about Balance Files . . . Balance Files contain the names of your customers and their balances at six-month intervals. Every six months, a new Balance File is created. They are created automatically by the program when needed during the billing process. The primary function of a Balance File is to provide a starting point to calculate how much a particular customer owes. The amount a customer owes is found on a billing statement. When AnyOrder creates a billing statement, it begins with the customer's starting balance, adjusts for payments and charges, and arrives at the customer's current balance. The starting balance is a key piece of information on a billing statement, and it comes from a Balance File Here's where the starting balance appears on a statement:
When creating statements, you'll almost always use the "Normal" billing process. The billing period for a "Normal" statement is ¾ to 1 ¼ year (9 to 15 months) and it provides your customers with an optimal summary of account activity. Here's a visual look at Balance File in relation to a "Normal" billing process:
Balance File Screen - Introduction The Balance File Screen enables you to look at directly at the contents of a Balance File. If desired, you can make changes to customer balances, customer names and numbers, and other information contained in the file. In rare cases, you can use this portion of the program to delete customers - or even to create, or delete, a Balance File.
How to Reach the Balance File Screen To reach the Balance File Screen, select MAIN TASKS from the Menu Bar and choose BILLING STATEMENTS & BALANCE FILES. This will bring up the Billing Options Screen. You have several options, but to make changes in Balance Files, choose the fourth option, "Manually Update Balances & Make Balance Files." At this point, the "Select or Create a Balance File" dialog box will appear.
At the top, you can select from a list of Balance Files, or you can create a new file. If you are creating a new file, you'll need to enter the year and whether it is a mid year Balance File or end of the year file. Note. If you use a fiscal year which does not match the calendar year, use the last of the two years. For an example, if your fiscal year goes from July 1st of 2013 to June 30 of 2014, use "2014" to indicate the year. Thus, to create a mid year balance, you would type in "2014" in the year blank and select "Middle of Year." For more information on how Balance Files are named, their content and other details see: Balance Files Either pick a file or enter the information for a new file. After you click OK, the next screen that appears (the Balance File Screen) is where you'll find all the information contained within the Balance File. The Balance File Screen looks like:
General Information Each Balance File consists of a series of records. Each record is a different customer. You can page through the different customers by clicking on the navigation arrows or pressing Page Up or Page Down. Along with each customer is their grouping number (if they have one), their balance (how much they owe at that period of time), and information on how old their balance is at that point (30 days old, 60 days old, 90 days old, etc). To help prevent inadvertent changes, some of the information (like the customer's name) is locked. However, if you need to change the customer name or number, you can access it by selecting TOOLS from the Menu Bar and choosing UNLOCK. If you are creating a new Balance File, make sure that you first have issued an invoice for that customer (and given them a number if they are a regular customer). That way the names in the Balance File will exactly match those used on your invoices. You'll want to make sure that the customer's name is always spelled the same on all invoices and in the Balance File. If the name is not spelled the same, the program will treat the different spellings as different customers. When that happens, you'll have to make manual changes in name spellings. The program provides you with lots of flexibility to make the changes, but you'll find it easier if you start with invoices and customer database first and then build from there. If you don't have any customers that owe you, it is not necessary to set up a Balance File. As time goes on the program will automatically create them and take care of them for you.
New Users: Transferring Customer Balances from an Old Program to AnyOrder If you have been business for a while, and you have just switched to AnyOrder, and if you have customers that owe you, then you'll want to make sure that you transfer their balances into the program. There are a couple of ways to transfer customer balances. One involves creating "re-issued" or "summary" invoices and the other involves creating a Balance File. Both of those methods are described here: Moving Billing Information to the Program
Making Changes to the Balance and Age of Balance Generally, most changes, if any are made at all, are made in the "Balance" blank. If you make a change there, you'll also want to make the same change in the "Age of the Balance" blanks. "Age of the Balance" is how old the customer's balance is. The customer's balance might be less than 30 days old. Or it might be over 30 days but less than 60 days old. Or it might be over 60 days but less than 90 days old, and so on. It is possible for one balance to have several ages. For instance, a customer that owes you $300 might have $100 of the balance over 60 days old, $50 over 30 days old, and $150 less than 30 days old. The age of a balance is useful in that it tells you and your customer how far they are falling behind in payments. Balance age is something you normally don't have to worry about. The program keeps track of the age for you. Just keep in mind, however, if you make manual changes to a customer's balance, you need to make a similar change to the age. If you're not sure how old the balance is, then just enter the amount of the balance in the "Under 30 Days." This is a conservative way of assigning an age to the balance. It allows the customer a fair amount of time before the first bill is sent to them. If you forget to enter a number in the Age blanks, the program will remind you with a message and automatically put the amount in the "Under 30 Days" blank. If for some reason the amount(s) in the Age blanks do not add up to the Balance blank, the program will not continue until you adjust the amount so it is the same. Having unequal amounts will cause errors in Billing Statements, and the amounts must be corrected before you can exit the Balance File Screen. Either make your own correction, or delete all of the amounts in the Age Blanks and let the program enter the total for you.
Adding a New Customer The Balance File Screen also allows you to add a customer to the file by selecting GO TO, and ADD A NEW ACCOUNT. You can search for a customer or a group number by selecting GOTO and SEARCH. To bring up a pop-up list of past customers, click on the "L" button or place the cursor in the Billing Name blank and double-click. (For more information, see Pop-up List of Past Customers.) You can delete a customer, by selecting EDIT and DELETE THIS CUSTOMER. You can also print a copy of a record from the file by selecting FILE and PRINT.
Making Corrections in an Older Balance File Normally, you won't be making corrections to old Balance Files, but if you do, you should be aware of something called Automatic Update which updates the balance information in the newer files. Balance Files build upon one another. The data from the Bal14Mid file is used by the Bal14End file. Data from the Bal14End file is used by the Bal15Mid file, and so on. Thus, if you make a change in the Bal14Mid file, you need to carry the change forward to Bal14End and Bal15Mid. That is, if Bal14End and Bal15Mid exist. The qualifier "if Bal14End and Bal15Mid exist" above is important. If you correct Bal14Mid - and the Bal15End and Bal15Mid don't exist - you don't have to worry about Automatic Update. Since the normal billing process uses a range of 3/4 to 1 1/4 years, AnyOrder won't make a new Balance File until needed. If the files exist, then AnyOrder has created them and is using them for preparing billing statements. In that case, you'll need to use Automatic Update. Otherwise, it's not necessary. How do you know which Balance File AnyOrder is using? When you run the "Normal" billing process, AnyOrder will tell you which Balance File it is uses. If there are any Balance Files later dated than that one, then it's best to delete them (more about that below). AnyOrder will make a Balance File when needed. Automatic Update is reached by selecting PRODUCT TOOLS and INVENTORY FUNCTIONS and clicking on the "Automatic Update Balances & Make Balance Files" button.) The following is covered in Automatic Update, along with a diagram that illustrates the process, but it's an important concept and we wanted to include it here as well. Continuing with our example, to update the Bal14End file we would type in "06/01/14" as the starting date and "12/31/14" as the ending date in the Automatic Update dialog box. When you click on OK, AnyOrder will use Bal14Mid (the one we updated) as the starting Balance File. It will run through all the invoices from 06/01/14 to 12/31/14, figure out charges and payments, and update the balances in Bal14End.dbf. You would then, follow the same procedure to update Bal15Mid. One caution about Automatic Update. Be careful not to create Balance Files later than the one used by a Normal Billing process. Let's say the Normal Billing process uses Bal15Mid. You don't want to create Bal15End. As time passes and AnyOrder is ready to use Bal15End for a Normal process, it will find that it already exists and use it as it is. It won't re-create it. If information in the file isn't up-to-date, then you won't have accurate starting balances. Before running Automatic Update, find out which Balance File is being used for a "Normal" process. You can update the file used for the "Normal" process, but just don't create any new Balances File beyond that one. If you do accidentally create Bal15End, just delete it. That's no problem since AnyOrder will be creating it when it's needed. Information on deleting Balances Files is found below.
Deleting a Balance File As mentioned, above, we recommend that you do not create Balance Files later than the one being using by AnyOrder for a "Normal" billing. If AnyOrder is using Bal15Mid for the Normal billing process and you find that you have Bal15End listed among your Balance Files, it's best to delete it . As time passes and AnyOrder is ready to use Bal15End for a Normal process, it will find that it exists already and use it as it is. It won't re-create it. If information in the file isn't up-to-date, then you won't have accurate starting balances. It's no problem to delete it. AnyOrder will create it when needed and you'll be assured of having accurate information. To delete it, select MAIN TASKS >> BILLING STATEMENTS & BALANCE FILES, and then click on "Manually Update Balances & Make Balance Files." Choose the file you need to get rid of. Then select FILE >> DELETE ENTIRE BALANCE FILE:
Other Features Other features can be accessed from the menu bar on top of the Balance File Screen. You can select GO TO and SEARCH to find a customer. The TOOLS menu provides an option whereby you can unlock the fields for editing. VIEW/PRINT FROM SPREADSHEET is available from the FILE menu. This feature will automatically start your spreadsheet program and allow you to view the contents of the Balance File in spreadsheet form. You can't edit records in this manner, but it gives you an alternative way of looking at a Balance File.
Other Information about Billing Statements: Batch Printing Billing Statements Exporting Billing Statement Data
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