INVOICING - MONTHLY PREPAID

Monthly prepaid invoicing consists of a number of forms and that are meant to guide you through the invoicing process. The first form is the Monthly Prepaid Invoicing Setup form shown below.

Specifying a Date Range

As you can see, there are only five choices to make on this form. The need to enter a Begin Date an End Date an Entry Date and a Due Date. The Begin Date will be the date for the start of the current invoicing period. This could be the beginning of the month, but in Monthly Prepaid it is more likely to be some arbitrary date after the first of the month such as November 10th. The End date is likely to be approximately 30 days after the Begin Date, but again, this may vary depending on your common invoicing practices. The Entry date corresponds to the Date Entered field in PROFILE or to the Date Entered field on the Invoice Entry form. Use this field to capture records that may have Start and End dates outside of the specified invoicing period. The due date field is provided simply so that a date due can be shown on the invoice. Note the down arrows next to each of the date fields. Selecting the down arrow will pop-up a calendar for date selection.

Including Previously Printed Entries

You can also specify whether or not previously printed entries from Invoice History will be included in the current invoice run. If you select 'Yes' for this option, Invoice History entries within the invoice time frame specified will be included in the invoice run.

When you've completed the invoice setup form, select the 'Continue' button. This will display the next form to show you invoice creation progress. When you press the 'Start' button the system will keep you advised of progress by checking off completed processes. For example, after invoice tables are copied to the invoice subdirectory, the system will place an X in the first box indicating that this process has been completed.

As processing continuous, you may see some windows open and your screen may be momentarily obscured. This is normal and nothing to be concerned about, your screen will return to normal in a few seconds.

Prior to producing the actual invoice, the system will advise the the number of Regular Entries in PROFILE vs. the number of Regular Entry records in the Invoice Report. If the numbers agree, simply select Ok to continue.

The Invoice Report - from the Preview Report Tab

The actual invoice report is run using the TCSW Report Writer, so it has the flexibility of any other report available in TCSW. Feel free to use the Define Search Tab to filter the Invoice Table and produce an Invoice for a single sublease or Sublessee Name. You could also produce a report of New Cars, Terminated Cars, etc. Your report choices are limited only to your imagination.

The Invoice Report - from the Define Search Tab

As you can see from the above, the invoice report consists of several linked tables, the most important table being ZMARPT1 in the INV subdirectory. The stucture of ZMARPT1 is virtually identical to INVENTRY (Invoice Entry). See the topic Invoice Table Structure for more information. The INVCODES table provides Invoice Code Descriptions and Sort Codes for the Invoice Report. The TOTVALS tables (TOTVALS1, TOTVALS2) calculate total values for Maintenance, Mileage and Management Fees.

Continuing the Invoice Process

If you are done with invoice printing, and you wish to move selected sublease numbers to invoice history, close the Report Writer and press the Continue button on the Progress form. If you wish to cancel invoice processing, press the return button.

Sublease Selection

After the Continue button is pressed, the appearance of the Progress form is changed to show a list of sublease numbers that are a part of the current invoice run. To move invoice entries for all sublease numbers, simply select the move button. If you wish to select specific sublease numbers to exclude from the move, select them with your mouse. To select a single sublease number to exclude from the move, click once with your mouse. To select a continuous range of sublease numbers, click on the first sublease number in the range then press and hold the shift key down. With the shift key held down, select another sublease number. All sublease numbers between the two selected will now be highlighted. To select another range of subleases, press and hold the Ctrl key. Then press the shift key and hold it down while selecting another sublease number. With a little practice, you'll find that you can easily select any combination of sublease numbers to be excluded from the move, as you can see in the sample below.

Entering an Invoice Month Label

When the move is taking place, you'll be asked for an invoice month label. Enter an easily remembered invoice month, such as NOV 1997 -- you have up to 15 characters for this label. This will allow you to easily select your current invoice run from invoice history to produce invoice reprints. When the move is completed, you will see a message indicating that the move has been completed in the progress form. Select Return to complete the invoice process and return to the main invoicing form. You can now return to create new Invoice Entries, adjust existing entries or run other Invoice-related reports.

The move process moves the Invoice Entries for the selected item(s) to the Invoice Current Year Table (INVCY). See Invoice Support Tables for further information.