User's Guide to Computer Appointment Verification

Introduction
- Overview
How the Billing Feature Works
Printing Bills
Solving Printing Problems
Practice and Review
- Printing a Final Bill for a Client
- Using Other Billing Options

Chapter 9: Client Billing

Introduction

Billing is another important feature of your Computer Appointment Verification service. The system calculates your billing for each client, sets the billing dates, prints the bills and prints mailing labels. You decide how often to bill each client.

Overview

In this chapter, we show you how to bill your clients for your services. This chapter contains four major sections. You first learn about the billing process. Then we explain the procedures for printing bills and the various billing options you have. The next section provides a printing problem resolution guide, and finally there is step-by-step section that shows you how to print a bill. The following are the four sections in this chapter:

How the Bill Feature Works
Printing the bills
Solving printing problems
Practice and Review

How the Billing Feature Works

Computer Appointment Verification allows you to customize the billing and charges for each individual client. You can set individual fees for each client as well as individual billing cycles. The program charges for every valid call entry with a final call date that falls during the current billing period. All calls that have a status of C (completed) or F (failed) are valid calls. This is regardless of the number of attempts, or whether the message was actually delivered.

A billing period may be a calendar month or any reasonable number of days, for example 14 days. If you miss a billing cycle for a client, you must first bill the client for the missed billing cycle before billing the client for the next billing cycle.

When you are ready to bill, CAV prints all bills due before the current day. The next billing due date resets each time the bill for a client prints. Therefore, you can bill at any time during the month and always print only those bills that are actually due as of the day you print.

You have the option of printing more than one bill if your client needs more than one copy. The number of copies printed of each client's bill is specified individually by client. This option is determined by the Bill Copies entry in the Billing Information section of the Client Information form.

A sample bill is pictured below.

Figure 59 - Example of a Bill

Printing Bills

It is to your advantage to have all clients on the same billing cycle. When you enter a new client, the Last Billing Date will show as the day before the current date. The Next Billing will show as 1 month from the day before the current date. Each time you bill the client, the Next Billing Date will increment by the period you enter for the Billing Period. If possible, you should try to setup all clients so that they are all billed at the same time for the same period. To do this, adjust the Next Billing Date and the Billing Period to be the same for all clients at the time you enter a new client. This is not mandatory, but will make your job easier. There are two rules about billing you should remember. They are:

You cannot generate a bill for a current billing period if there are calls unbilled from a previous billing period. Bill for the previous billing period and then bill for the current period.
You cannot delete a client if there are unbilled calls on the client calling list.

The billing format is designed so that you can fold the bill for use with standard #10 window envelopes if you desire. If you prefer to use mailing labels, you can choose the Print All Billing Labels option from the Billing menu to print the labels for the clients whose bills you have just generated. We recommend the following:

Laser Printers - Use Avery #5661 clear labels. You may also use Avery #5161 white labels.

Dot Matrix Printers - Use Avery #4145 white labels.

The next billing due date is reset each time the bill for a client is printed and updated. Therefore, you can bill at any time during the month and always print only those bills that are actually due as of the day you print.

Selecting a Bill to Print

Press Alt + F to display the File menu or just click on File in the menu bar. Select Billing from this menu.

Undisplayed Graphic

Figure 60 - The Billing Option in the File Menu

When you select Billing, you see the Billing Options menu as shown in Figure 61. You must first select a billing option from this list.

Figure 61 - The Billing Options Menu

The Bill All Clients option allows you to bill all your clients with billing dates before the current date.
The Bill Current Client option allows you to bill the client whose Client Information form is currently displayed if the billing date has arrived or passed.
The Reprint All Client Bills option allows you to print another copy of the most recently printed set of client's bills.
The Reprint Current Client Bill option allows you to print another copy of the bill for the client whose Client Information form is currently displayed.
The Print All Billing Labels option allows you to print billing labels for the group of clients most recently billed.
The Print Current Client Billing Label option allows you to print a billing label for the client whose Client Information form is currently displayed.
The Print Final Bill for Current Client option allows you to print a final bill for a client whose service is ending. This function disregards the billing dates and bills all outstanding calls. You must complete this function before you can delete the client from your Client Directory.

When you select a billing option, you see a series of Please Wait advisory message boxes that keep you apprised of what's going on while a bill is building. For lengthy bills, a progress indicator moves across the center of the box. If you wish to stop the report building, then press the Cancel button or press Esc.

When the building is completed, the Please Wait box disappears and the completed bill displays in the Print Preview dialog box.

Using the Print Preview Dialog Box

The purpose of the Print Preview dialog box is to show you what the printed bill is going to look like. A sample Print Preview dialog box appears in Figure 62. You can either scroll through the display or use the { or the } keys. The scroll bar does not appear until there is text that the dialog box cannot fit on the display window (the large, white portion of the dialog box).

Figure 62 - The Print Preview Dialog Box

If you have indicated that you wish to print more than one copy of a bill, you will scroll through all copies to be printed in the Print Preview display window.

In the Print Preview dialog box itself, there are four buttons along the bottom of the box. These buttons are: the Print button, the Setup button, the Go To button and the Cancel button (from left to right).

Print begins the printing of the billing option displayed in the Print Preview dialog box.

Setup when pressed, allows you to see which printer is active, and change the printing options.

Go To opens the Page Jump dialog box. It takes you to another page in a report when you type in the page number and then press OK. If you wish to stay where you are in the report, press Cancel.

Cancel closes the Print Preview dialog box without printing anything and without updating the Calling List.

You may also use v to move a box around a button and press Enter.

After you have opened and displayed the billing option you want printed, and have made sure everything appears the way you want it to, press Print.

The Print Selected Pages dialog box appears as shown in Figure 63. Here you select the beginning and ending page numbers you want to print.

Figure 63 - Print Selected Pages Dialog Box

When you want the complete set of bills printed, press the OK button.

The selected report is sent to the printer.

Billing Advisory Message Dialog Box

When you close the Print Preview dialog box by pressing the Cancel button, a Billing advisory message dialog box appears.

Undisplayed Graphic

Figure 64 - The "Billing" Advisory Message

Here you have three options.

Press Yes if the bills are printed correctly. This updates your billing and sets the next billing dates for those clients whose bills you just printed.
Press No if the bills are not correct, and you don't want to update the next billing dates. This returns you to the Client Information form.
Press Cancel to return to the Print Preview screen without updating the next billing dates.

Solving Printing Problems

If, when you press the Print or OK, a message box like the one pictured appears, there is a problem with your printer or something associated with your printer.

Figure 65 - Printer Problem Message Box

There are several possible solutions.

Check to make sure that the printer is on.
Check to make sure that your printer is on-line. Typically, the printer has a light or L.E.D. that lights up when the printer is on-line. If your printer is not on-line, press the On-Line button. (Check your printer manual if you have any questions on where the On-Line light or the On-Line button are.)
Check to make sure there is paper or labels loaded in your printer.
Make sure the connectors from your computer to your printer cable and from your printer cable to your printer are firmly plugged in.
After you make all of the above checks, press the Retry button to again start the printing.

Practice and Review

Printing a Final Bill for a Client

You must print a final bill before you can delete a client. This is built into the program so that you will not leave any unbilled calls on the Calling List.

1. Open the Client Information form for the client for whom you are printing a final bill.

2. Click on Billing in the File menu.

3. Click on the Print Final Bill for Current Client option in the Billing option's drop down menu. A Please Wait dialog box appears. There will be a brief wait while the program assembles the billing summary. There is a Cancel button you may press if you decide you do not want to print the bill.

The billing Print Preview dialog box opens.

You can scroll through the bill to make sure everything is correct

4. Press the Print button at the bottom of the Print Preview dialog box.

5. Press OK at the bottom of the Page Selection dialog box that appears.

The report prints.

6. Select Cancel.

This opens a Billing advisory message where you may:

• Press Yes if the bills are correct. This updates your billing and sets the next billing date.

• Press No if the bills are not correct, and you don't want to update the next billing dates. This returns you to the Client Information form.

• Press the Cancel button to return to the Print Preview screen without updating the next billing.

Using Other Billing Options

All Billing options work the same, only the output is different. Follow the above procedure and select other billing options so you may see how each one appears as a finished product.

	Print begins the printing of the billing option displayed in the Print Preview dialog box.
	Setup when pressed, allows you to see which printer is active, and change the printing options.
	Go To opens the Page Jump dialog box. It takes you to another page in a report when you type in the page number and then press OK. If you wish to stay where you are in the report, press Cancel.
	Cancel closes the Print Preview dialog box without printing anything and without updating the Calling List.
You may also use v to move a box around a button and press Enter.	After you have opened and displayed the billing option you want printed, and have made sure everything appears the way you want it to, press Print.