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This section guides the user through the menu options that are available under the Account Billing menu.
Use the Billing Journal to check over the amounts that will be charged (or credited) to accounts in this billing run. For each account in the billing run, the journal will list the charges and credits that were processed (including draw charges), and office pay subscribers on the route. Bill processing control totals are included at the end of the report.
Business Rules determine the default sort order, truck sequence, and truck departure order for the Billing Journal. Business Rules also determine whether payment notes print, whether accounts with zero balances or zero billing activity should print, and the placement of blank lines. Finally, Business Rules determine the sort sequence that should be used for printing office pay subscribers.
The format for this journal is defined in Business Rules and by selecting Setup | Accounting | Account Billing | Bill Format. See Bill Format in the Setup Manual for details.
Select Billing Journal from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Billing Journal window. All of the active billing runs that are ready to produce the Billing Journal are displayed.
Select the billing run(s) for which the journal should print (click the appropriate checkbox(es) in the Process column).
Enter the sort parameters for the Billing Journal. If one of the billing runs you are printing the journal for is a selected accounts billing, the journal will automatically sort by account.
SORT ORDER
predefined
Indicate whether the Billing Journal should be sorted by account, name, route, district, zone, region, area, or truck. You can also sort by publication and then district, zone, region or area.
TRUCK SEQUENCE
setup
If the sort order is by truck, enter the truck sequence in which you want the journal to print. The truck sequence is the pattern that describes which routes are dropped from which trucks on a given day. Examples are “daily” and “Sunday”.
TRUCK DEPARTURE
setup
Enter the truck departure sequence in which you want the journal to print when the sort order is “Truck”. The departure sequence is the departure pattern trucks follow on a given day, for example “City” or “Monday”.
Click Continue to produce the journal. It is recommended that you save your Billing Journal as a spool file. Once close billing, the spool file is the only way to reprint or view this particular report in the billing run.
Certain states that tax newspaper subscriptions allow tax on the delivery cost to be excluded. In Circulation, the delivery cost is equivalent to the credit paid to the account for delivery. For example, if a subscription costs 20.00, the tax is 2%, and the account is credited 5.00 to deliver the subscription, we would wind up with:
This option, Trans Exclusion, calculates the delivery cost exclusion. A report is created as part of the process. Another option, Tax Exclusion, can be run to deduct taxes for subscriptions in which the delivery cost exceeds the cost to the subscriber from the transportation exclusion (see Tax Exclusion for more information).
Note:
The Transportation Exclusion Report is part of the Taxing add-on option. Contact the Naviga Support Center if you wish to purchase the Taxing add-on.
The tax exclusion amount will be incorrect if accounts are charged and credited for office pay subscriptions. To produce accurate exclusion figures, you must set up account rates so that accounts are only credited (not charged) for office pay. Also note that in order to find the subscriber tax authority, an account tax authority needs to be set up and attached to the accounts; the tax for the tax authority should be a charge of zero (unless accounts are actually taxed).
A subsidy amount can be added to the transportation cost, based on the Business Rule— “What is the daily subsidy amount which should be added to the remit on payment trans cost calculation?” (Transportation Cost section) or, if defined at the route level, the Route Subsidy field in the Route Setup Utility.
A Business Rule— Should transportation costs be excluded? (Account Finance section), determines whether Transportation Exclusion will be run. If so, invoices, deposit slips, or the Billing Journal must be run before Transportation Exclusion can be run. Once Transportation Exclusion has been processed, invoices, billing journals, and deposit slips can no longer be generated for the billing run.
To calculate the delivery cost exclusion, the report will total the route’s draw credits, and multiply that total by the subscription tax percentages for the tax authority. The tax percentages will be based on the subscription tax authorities. To find the tax authorities, the report will use the carrier’s publication address or the carrier’s address (depending on how the Business Rule— Which address should be used for determining an account’s taxability?, is set). If it is set to “publication”, the publication address will be used; if it is set to “account” or “route”, the carrier address will be used.
Select Trans Exclusion from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Transportation Exclusion window.
Select the account billing run for which to calculate the transportation cost.
Click Continue to run the report. The report will also create GL transactions (see GL Entries for Subscriber Taxing for details).
In some cases, carriers are given deposit slips so that they can deposit payments directly into the newspaper bank account. This option creates deposit slips for all carriers with a debit balance.
Business Rules determine the following for deposit slips: the length (in lines), the line on which printing should start, and the starting position (characters across) for printing.
Select Deposit Slips from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Deposit Slips window. All of the active billing runs that are ready to produce deposit slips are displayed.
Select the billing run(s) for which deposit slips should be printed (click the appropriate checkbox(es) in the Process column).
Click Continue to produce the deposit slips. See for information about how to load forms and configure your printer for this task.
Once a billing run is processed, select this option to print the actual invoices that will be sent to the accounts.
The format for this invoice is defined by selecting Setup | Accounting | Account Billing | Bill Format—see Bill Format in the Setup Manual for details.
Business Rules determine the default sort order, truck sequence, and truck departure order for invoices. Business Rules also determine whether payment notes and remit addresses are printed, whether accounts with zero balances or zero billing activity are printed and have invoice numbers, whether scan lines are printed, and the placement of blank lines. Business Rules determine whether office pay subscribers are printed on a separate page, and the sort sequence that should be used for printing office pay subscribers.
Finally, Business Rule—What should display for an override label in account billing for Invoice Date and Bill Date? determine the label to be displayed on the invoices.
Note:
Invoices can also be printed on carrier/dealer bundle tops. See for details.
Select Invoices from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Invoices window. All of the active billing runs that are ready to produce invoices are displayed.
Select the billing run(s) to include (click the appropriate checkbox(es) in the Process column).
Enter the sort parameters for the invoices. If one of the billing runs you are printing invoices for is a selected accounts billing, the invoices will sort by account.
Click Continue to produce the invoices.
Account Setup determines whether accounts are billed in advance of or after delivery. If before, the bill will contain an estimate of next period’s billing (which the carrier/dealer pays), the actual charges and credits for this period, and a reversal (adjustment) for the bill that was paid last period. For example, if a monthly advance-bill account receives a bill at the end of June, the bill will contain an estimate of charges and credits for July, the actual figures for June, and a reversal for the June estimate that was paid in May.
Use this option to select companies or bill sources (or individual accounts) for a billing run. There are two types of billing runs:
A standard billing run to bill all accounts for a company/bill source combination and billing date. This cannot be started until final transaction processing is completed for the last date to be billed and all batches of miscellaneous charges/credits, draw adjustments, returns, and payments have been entered and accepted (no batches suspended). All accounts in the bill source will be billed.
Selected accounts billing (also known as “dummy” billing). You can select individual accounts to bill by entering “n” in All Accounts. Circulation will not check to make sure the billing date is valid, and only check for suspended batches that apply to the selected accounts. After you have printed invoices, you should Undo the selected accounts billing.
This method is useful when carriers quit in the middle of the month, and you want to send a bill to them. Circulation calculates the charges (allowing you to print a bill) and then “undoes” them. When the real billing run is processed, the charges will appear again. By this time, the carrier may have made a payment to offset the charges.
If you are doing a selected accounts run, the windows will be slightly different when you process the billing journal, invoices, deposit slips, and other Account menu items.
You may have more than one standard billing run open at the same time, as long as they do not select the same accounts.
Note:
You may or may not be able to start a billing run if there are suspended payment, miscellaneous charge, return or draw adjustment batches, as governed by Business Rules.
Choose Selection from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Billing Selection window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click Accept and then Continue to select the accounts for billing. In the example shown, a billing run has just been selected for the bill source “Dealer”. Notice that there are two other billing runs active—the billing run for bill source “Rack” has just been processed, and the Billing Journal has been produced for a selected accounts billing run for an account (Meadows).
If you are billing selected accounts (i.e., you entered “no” in All Accts), another window will appear. Click Add and enter the accounts that should be included in this selected accounts run.
Recurring charges and credits are set up and assigned a billing period in which they should be included on the account’s bill. For example, insurance might be added every third week, bond premiums every week, and mileage the first week. Charges are assigned to bill periods for each account in Distribution | Account Setup | Account | Specifics | Recurring Charges. An example of billing periods might be:
If you do weekly billing and are selecting for the third week of the month, you would enter an asterisk (*) in Bill Period and select “3” and “Every”, so that insurance and bond charges will appear on the account bills. You would not select “1” because mileage credits should not be included in this billing run.
To include recurring charges for accounts being billed in advance, you would enter the advance billing periods to include. For example, if you are selecting bills for the third week of the month, the advance billing period would be the fourth week. Only those charges set up to allow advance billing are added to the account’s bill.
If invoices are sent to carrier/dealers via bundle tops (see ), not all of them may receive a bundle top on the date that invoices are included. For example, a carrier may no longer be active, or may not deliver on that day of the week. These invoices, then, will need to be printed and sent separately using this option. Missed Invoices must be run after bundle tops, and before the next billing run is started.
Select Missed Invoices from the Account Billing menu to display the Missed Account Invoices screen.
Select Add and choose the products and publishing dates for which invoices should be printed.
Then, press F1 and select Continue. The missed invoices will be formatted like standard invoices, but only accounts who did not receive a bundle top will have an invoice.
Note: Once they are processed, missed invoices can be reprinted by selecting UNDO FINAL TRAN PROC, running Transaction Processing again for the final time, and generating bundle tops again.
This option allows you to export invoice information for single copy and home delivery accounts for formatting outside of Circulation.
Notes:
This option is controlled by the Account Export section of Business Rules.
Formats for Invoice Export are created using the Bill Format option in Setup (see in the Setup Manual).
For a list of data elements that can be used for Invoice Export, see in the User Manual.
Select Invoice Export from the Account Billing menu to display the Invoice Export window.
Select one or more billing runs (click the appropriate checkbox(es) in the Process column).
Enter a sort order, truck sequence, and truck departure.
Click Continue to export the invoice information.
When all account billing processing, invoicing, and reporting has been completed for the billing run being processed, select this option to close the billing run. The general ledger is then updated and prepared for entry of information for the next account billing period.
All history pertaining to the billing is updated, and changes to this billing run are only possible if you undo the close (see ). To produce a report of the general ledger entries generated by this option, print the General Ledger Interface Journal for the appropriate bill batch or bill date (after closing account billing). See .
If you are running a selected accounts billing (see ), Business Rules determine whether you can Close it. Typically, you would Undo the selected accounts billing rather than selecting Close.
Select Close from the Account Billing menu to display the Close Account Billing window.
All of the active billing runs that are ready for closing are displayed. Select the billing run or runs to close.
Click Continue to execute the billing close. The Close Account Billing report will be produced, displaying control totals from the billing run.
Bundle tops are the primary method by which newspapers communicate delivery changes to carriers. To increase efficiency and save in printing and mailing costs, account invoices can be printed on the bundle tops for a certain publication and date. If this method is used, account invoices will not need to be printed and mailed as a separate process.
Note: Not all carrier/dealers may receive a bundle top. The option will print invoices for these accounts.
In order for invoices to print on bundle tops, the billing run must be flagged for bundle tops for a certain publication and date. This is done here, in Invoices On Bundle. A Business Rule— Are account invoices printed on the bundle tops? (Account Invoice section), determines which publications can be entered. The publishing date must be an open or future date (i.e., final transaction processing not completed).
Select Invoices On Bundle from the Account Billing menu to display the Invoices on Bundle screen.
Select Modify, highlight the billing run and press Enter. The run must at least be processed (it may be closed). Selected accounts (dummy) billing runs can be flagged if they have been processed.
On the next screen that is displayed, enter the publication and publishing date on which the invoices are to print on the bundle tops. More than one entry may be necessary for a billing run—for example, if the accounts in the billing run deliver more than one publication.
After all of the publications and dates have been defined, press F4 and select Exit. You can then flag other billing runs for printing on bundles, or press F4 and select Exit again to exit to the main menu.
When bundle tops are produced during the publishing run on the date entered, invoices will print after the bundle top messages (and after the route list, if a route list is also printed). The invoice format is based on your bill format (i.e., they will be formatted like your standard invoices). If an account delivers multiple routes, the invoice will appear with the billing route’s bundle top.
SORT ORDER
predefined
Indicate whether the invoices should be sorted by account, account group, name, route, district, zone, region, area, truck, distribution code or depot (see Distribution Code and Depot in the Setup Manual for more information about distribution codes and depots, respectively).
You can also sort by publication and then district, zone, region or area.
TRUCK SEQUENCE, TRUCK DEPARTURE
setup
Enter the truck sequence and truck departure sequence in which the invoices should be printed when the sort order is “Truck”.
If the sort order is not “Truck”, these sequences enable the system to print the correct truck on the invoice.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company ID for the group of accounts being billed.
ALL ACCTS
yes/no
All Accounts is always set to “y” in the graphical version of this menu option—all accounts will be selected for the billing run. In the character version of this menu option, you can enter “n” if you are billing selected accounts, testing new rates, etc.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the bill source for the group of accounts being billed. This field will default to “*” and skipped when billing selected accounts.
BILL DATE
date
Enter the billing date for the group of accounts being billed. This date must be specified as a billing date in the statement calendar (see Statement Calendar in the Setup Manual).
NEXT BILL DATE
date
The next billing date, based on the billing calendar for the bill source entered, is displayed. This field will be left blank for selected accounts billing.
BILL PRD (period)
setup
Enter the billing period to include in this billing. The bill period determines what charges are included in the billing. See about bill periods. Note: In the character version of this menu option, bill periods can be multi-selected. In the graphical version, they cannot.
ADV PRD (advanced bill period)
setup
Enter the advance billing period(s) if some of these carriers are set up to be billed in advance.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of the group of accounts being billed.
STATUS
display
This field displays the status of all active billing runs. See Billing Run Status for an explanation of the various statuses.
You may have a situation where you want to reopen a closed billing run—for example, you may want to print another set of invoices, or a selected accounts billing run may have been closed accidentally. Use Undo Close to reopen:
The last billing run for a company/bill source combination, provided that a billing run is not currently active
A selected accounts billing run (billing run for selected individual accounts), in the case where Business Rules allow you to close selected accounts billings
Undo Close will simply reopen the billing run; it will not undo billing processing.
Select Undo Close from the Account Billing menu to display the Undo Account Billing Close window. All of the closed billing runs that may be reopened are displayed.
Select the account billing run for which you want to undo the close (by clicking the appropriate checkbox).
Click Continue. You will be prompted about continuing with the undo close.
Click Yes to reopen the billing run. A report will list any errors that occurred during the undo close.
This option allows you to quickly determine the current stage in the billing run for each of your company/bill source combinations. Selected accounts billing runs (runs with only a few accounts individually selected) will also be displayed. The following table lists the possible statuses, and indicates whether they are a required step of the account billing run.
To view billing run statuses, select Billing Run Status from the Account Billing menu to display the Billing Run Status window. Click Done to exit the window.
A drop credit is a flat fee paid to an account for each home address delivered, without regard to the number of pieces that are delivered to the address. Drop credits are not used with single-copy routes.
Drop rates are associated with a product. Normally, the product with the highest drop rate determines the drop credit paid to the account, although product priorities can be established to override this calculation.
Daily drop rates are defined in Drop Rates setup (see Drop Rates in the Setup manual), and you indicate that an account is paid on a per-drop basis in Account setup. Drop credit priorities can be defined in the Deliverable record.
Select Create Drop Credits from the Account Billing menu to display the Create Drop Credits window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which to create drop credits.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the billing source for which to create drop credits.
BILL DATE
date
Enter the bill date for which drop credits will be created.
CHARGE BATCH
open
Enter the name of the charge batch that will be created.
Click OK and then Continue to create the drop credits. A processing report will be displayed.
Interest can be calculated for certain account recurring charges, usually bonds. For example, you may require accounts to pay a monthly bond amount, but give them interest on the amount. To do this, you would:
Set up a recurring charge code (such as “bond”) to charge a certain amount on account invoices in each specified billing period. If you want a single, one-time charge (say 50.00) you could still have it be a recurring charge, but make the maximum charge 50.00. For more information about specifying charge amounts, see Account in the Setup Manual.
Set up a miscellaneous charge code (such as “bondint”) that does not update Accounts Receivable, but updates the balance of the charge code in step 1 (“bond”). For more information about setting up charge and credit codes, see Charge/Credit Code in the Setup Manual.
Calculate the interest each month (or whatever your interest period is) using this option. You specify the interest percentage here, and the amount is added to the associated recurring charge’s account during billing processing.
When the carrier leaves the route, you can find the total amount that was charged for bond (the recurring charge plus interest) by running the Charge/Credit Report. Then you can enter a miscellaneous credit for the account. The miscellaneous credit code (for example, “bondout”) should update the bond charge (“bond”), but also apply to AR.
Business Rules determine whether the interest calculation should include previous unbilled interest, the current recurring charge amount, and whether unbilled miscellaneous charges and credits that update this charge account.
Note:
Interest calculations may increase a account’s “maximum amount” (see Account in the Setup Manual) for a recurring charge balance. For example, if the account’s “maximum amount” is 150.00, interest calculations might cause the total to be 152.00.
If you do give interest on bonds (or any other charges), calculating interest should be part of your account billing run.
To perform the interest calculation:
Select Interest Calculation from the Account Billing menu to display the Bond Interest Calculation window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which interest should be calculated.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the bill source for which interest should be calculated. A bill source is a group of carriers which you want to bill together (examples are Carrier and Dealer).
CHARGE BATCH
open (10)
Enter a batch name for the interest charges.
CHARGE DATE
date
Enter the date when the interest charges should be created.
CHARGE CODE
setup
Enter the charge code(s) for which the interest should be calculated. The only valid charge codes to use are the ones that update the balance of another charge code. Press F2 for a lookup of valid choices.
PERCENTAGE
decimal (11)
Enter the interest percentage; for example, enter 3 for 3%.
BILL PERIOD
setup
Enter the bill period of the recurring charges that should be included in this interest calculation, such as “every”, “weekly” or “monthly”. Interest will only be calculated on charges in this bill period.
Click OK and then Continue to perform the interest calculation.
When the calculation is complete, the Bond Interest Calculation Report is displayed, listing the accounts where interest was applied.
It may be necessary to undo billing processing due to numerous errors that must be corrected (you must also undo the billing run in the case of a selected accounts billing). Any information created by the billing processing will be removed. Select this option any time before selecting Close.
Select Undo Processing from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Billing Undo window. All of the open billing runs are displayed.
Select the billing runs that should be undone (by selecting the appropriate checkbox).
Click Continue. At this point, you will be prompted about whether the billing run should be undone.
Click Yes to continue. All charges created by the billing run will be reversed, and the undo process will produce the Account Billing Undo report, which lists the control totals for the canceled billing.
Use this option to export all of the information necessary to perform corporate billing for selected accounts.
If individual single copy chain stores maintain their own accounts receivable, but the corporate office prefers to make payments on behalf of the stores, you can use this option to prepare a summarized statement for corporate billing that includes payment information, aging, charges details, and invoice details for those stores. To accomplish this, you must assign each store to an account group, and then run this option on the account group. All of the accounts that belong to the account group will then be included in the Statement Export file. The export file uses file mapping.
Select Statement Export from the Account Billing Menu to display the Account Statement Export window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to export the information.
A key option on the Account Billing menu is Processing. When you select this option, Circulation gathers and then processes the information required to create account bills, and creates control totals for this billing run.
Business Rules determine whether unapplied payments should be automatically applied (to the new charges) during account bill processing.
Note: Never enter account payments when a billing run is in process.
You can process the account bills only for a single bill source and a single billing date. You can also run a selected-accounts billing of a selected group of accounts at any time.
Select Processing from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Billing Processing window. All of the active billing runs that are ready for processing will be displayed.
Select the billing runs that should be processed (click the appropriate checkbox in the Process column).
Click Continue to process the billing run.
After processing is completed, a processing report appears. This report lists error messages and control totals.
For every account in the billing run, billing processing determines the draw and returns for each route for which the account is to be billed, and rates these draws and returns using account rating to determine the draw charges and credits the account receives. Piece and weight bonuses are also calculated based on the draw. If you have Business Rules set to apply unapplied payments, any unapplied payments will be applied to the new charges.
Recurring charges and credits that are in the specified bill periods are also selected, along with levies (if any are defined). This information, combined with the miscellaneous charges and credits entered since the last billing run, are used in printing the Billing Journal, invoices, and general ledger entries.
If an account is advance bill (defined in Account Setup), bill processing will estimate the charges and credits for the next period, and reverse out charges and credits for the last period. For example, say you are running billing on the last day of June, and an advance bill account was billed 50.00 for June (in May). Circulation calculates the actual charges and credits for that account in June and finds that they total to 40.00. A 10.00 credit would then show up on the account’s invoice, along with the estimated charges for July.
At the end of account bill processing, Circulation has combined control totals of all of the transactions processed in the billing. These control totals print on the Account Billing Processing Report, and also at the end of invoices, the Billing Journal, and the Close Account Billing Report. See the following table.
* The Invoice Count, Statement Count and Total Count control totals appear on Account Invoices, the Account Billing Journal, the and the Close Account Billing report.
During billing processing, all account charges and credits are calculated and general ledger account numbers assigned. If any errors are encountered, messages are displayed so you can correct them: Undo the current billing run, make the necessary corrections, and begin the billing process again by selecting Selection.
The next step in processing account bills is to print the Billing Journal so you can verify the billing information (i.e., all accounts look correct) before printing invoices.
Use this option to reverse the drop credits created generated by Create Drop Credits. This may be necessary if an error was encountered—the process can be undone, the error corrected, and the process rerun.
Select Undo Drop Credits from the Account Billing menu to display the Undo Drop Credits window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Yes to confirm that you want to undo the drop credits.
Click Continue to finish the process.
Newspapers sometimes have carriers pay bond charges as security for their routes. The bond money is returned when the carrier leaves the route. This function allows you to create and print bond letters to your carriers and, optionally, create charges for the bond deposit that will appear on the letter.
Typically, some or all home delivery carriers are required to pay bonds. There are several different ways that you can set up bonds:
The bond can be a recurring charge. For example, the carrier would pay 5.00 every month. The bond charge code would be set up in Setup | Accounting | Account Billing | Charge/Credit Code. The bond amount would be set up for each carrier in Setup | Distribution | Account Setup | Account | Specifics | Recurring Charges.
The bond can be a recurring charge but with a maximum (defined in Setup | Distribution | Account Setup | Account | Specifics | Recurring Charges) so that it functions like a one-time charge. For example, for a 100.00 bond, you can create a recurring charge for 50.00 with a maximum of 100.00. Hence, the charge would be used only twice.
You can make the bond a percentage of draw, rather than a flat rate (this is defined with the charge code). This method could work with either of the methods listed above.
The bond can be a miscellaneous (one-time only) charge, such as 50.00 on the first bill. The bond charge code is set up in the same place as the recurring charge, but the amount is entered in Misc Charge Credit | Misc Charge. You can also create a miscellaneous charge with this option by setting Create Charges to “y”. For each carrier, the bond amount will be assessed as:
(Carrier Collect Draw) x (Wholesale Rate) x (Factor)
Business Rules determine the factor that the carrier’s rate is multiplied by to create the initial bond deposit. The maximum amount for the bond is also established in this function, which is the total draw times the wholesale rate:
(Total Draw) x (Wholesale Rate)
If you want to give the carrier interest on a miscellaneous bond charge, you will have to transfer the miscellaneous charge to a recurring charge account (interest can only be calculated on recurring charges). To do this, define a recurring bond charge, and define another charge that uses the miscellaneous charge GL account but updates the balance of the recurring charge (see Charge/Credit Code in the Setup Manual for more information).
You can make the bond a floating percentage of draw. For example, if the bond is 50% and the draw is 200, the bond would be 100.00, which the carrier would pay initially. If the route draw went up to 300, the carrier would be charged an extra 50.00. To do a floating percentage, follow method 3 with a recurring charge, but leave the maximum at “0”. Then answer the Business Rule— By what factor should the account’s rate be multiplied to calculate the initial bond deposit?, with a factor. The bond amount will be:
(factor) x (percentage) x (route draw)
When you select CREATE BOND CHARGES, Circulation selects any accounts within that bill source that have a total recurring charge of zero. This means that only new accounts will be selected.
Select Create Bond Charges from the Account Billing menu to display the Create Bond Charges window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to print the bond letter and create the bond charges (if you selected Create Charges).
Follow the steps in the following table to create the template (generalized form) for a bond letter. You can customize the letter for individual bill sources by taking advantage of the method explained in step 4.
* Only Carrier Collect draw is included in the “CC” Carrier collect draw totals.
** The draw types included in the “ALL” Draw Totals are: Office Pay, Paid Complimentary, Unpaid Complimentary, Samples and Service.
Certain routes may request a statement of activity in between billing periods. For example, a large single copy outlet might be billed on a monthly basis, but require preliminary invoices each week. Trial Billing will produce these invoices, based on activity in a date range, without updating any information in Circulation.
Although trial billing invoices will give an accurate report of activity within the date range, it is important to note that:
The trial billing will have no effect on the carrier/dealer’s account. The invoices are the only thing produced—no charges or any other records are created. Therefore, this process cannot replace account billing.
The invoices will not be an exact reflection of the carrier/dealer’s account. Some items, such as payments and advance charges/credits, will not be included. There will be no balance forward on the invoices, only a total of charges/credits for the date range.
Draw charges and credits
Returns and draw adjustments
Miscellaneous charges and credits, including bonus and TM delivery credits
Recurring charges and credits. When defining the recurring charge codes, be sure to set Print Bal On Bill to “n” (trial billing does not update recurring charge balances).
Substitute charges
Levy charges
Back credits
The invoices will not contain payments, coupons, tips, or messages.
You can run Trial Billing as often as you like. Both the processing and invoice creation are completed by this one option.
Select Trial Billing from the Account Billing menu to display the Trial Account Billing window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and the Continue to create the invoices. A processing report will be displayed first (similar to the Account Billing Processing report, but without balance forward or aging totals), and the invoices next. The processing report file name is entered in the View & Print Options window. The invoice file name will be the first five characters of this name, plus “INV”, plus the extension. For example, if the processing report is saved as TRIALPROC.15, the invoices will be saved as TRIALINV.15.
Invoice Count *
Count of all invoices produced. Any bill with current activity is considered an invoice.
Statement Count *
Count of all statements produced. Any bill with no current period activity is considered a statement.
Total Count *
Total of Invoice Count plus Statement Count.
Balance Forward
Total of Balance Forward (previous balance) for all accounts.
Current
Total of outstanding current aging period balances from all accounts. This contains all of the charges and credits that have just been processed.
Period 1
Total of outstanding age period one balances from all accounts (see Age Period in the Setup Manual for more information about aging periods).
Period 2
Total of outstanding age period two balances from all accounts.
Period 3
Total of outstanding age period three balances from all accounts.
Period 4
Total of outstanding balances beyond age period three from all accounts.
Balance
Total of outstanding balances for all accounts.
Payments
Total of all payments picked up in this billing run. This includes payments (both applied and unapplied) and cash adjustments. This also includes any discount amount related to any other payment type.
Debit Memos
Total of all checks issued to carriers through Accounting - Interface to AP and picked up in this billing run.
Draw Charges
Total of all account draw charges, less any account draw delivery credits (e.g., Office Pay or Complimentary delivery credits) billed for dates prior to the billing date.
Return Credits
Total of all return credits less any returns charges (reversals of delivery credits).
Misc Charges
Net total of all miscellaneous charges and credits picked up by this billing run.
Other Charges/Credits
Total of various types of charges and credits picked up or created by this billing run which do not fall into any of the specific charges/credits categories listed here. This includes net charges for non-return draw adjustments, automatically generated adjustments for backdated carrier collect-office pay conversions, carrier tips, TM delivery credits, taxes, finance charges, minimum daily service charges, weight and piece bonus credits, and interest on recurring charge balances.
Substitute Charges/Credits
Net total of draw charges/credits for substitute carriers during this billing run.
Recurring Charges/Credits
Net total of recurring charges and credits created during this billing run.
Levy Charges
Net total of account levies charged during this billing run.
Advance Draw Charges
Total of all advance billed draw charges less any advance billed draw delivery credits (e.g., office pay delivery credits). These amounts are based on estimated draw for the next billing period.
Advance Misc Charges
Net total of all advance billed recurring charges and credit created during this billing run.
Reverse Charges
Total of all advance billed draw charges and miscellaneous charges billed during the last billing period that are being reversed out on this period’s bills.
Total Charges
Net total of draw charges, return credits, misc charges, other charges/credits, recurring charges/credits, advance draw charges, and reverse charges.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which to undo drop credits.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the billing source for which to undo drop credits.
CHARGE BATCH
open
Enter the name of the charge batch that will be undone.
BATCH DATE
date
Enter the date of the batch of drop credits that will be undone.
1
Select PROGRESS EDITOR from the Utilities menu.
2
At the parallel lines, retrieve the sample template file by depressing F5 (or CTRL-G) and enter the following: billing/bonddep/template
Then press F1.
3
The sample template will be displayed. Save the file under a new name by accessing the top strip menu (press Esc-M) and selecting FILE | SAVE AS.
We suggest that you save the file in the custom directory: /custom/file_name_you_select.
Then press F1. Be sure to save your template file in the /custom directory (or another safe directory).
If it is saved back to its original location, it will be overwritten when software upgrades are installed.
4
Press F3 (or Ctrl-T) to enable insert mode so you can insert characters within in a line of text. Press F3 again to disable insert mode.
5
In addition to the body of the letter, you customize the letter for individual carriers by printing the contents of certain fields. These are listed in table below. Enter these field names within the curly bracket symbols: {}.
6
When you have finished editing the letter, press F6 (or Ctrl-P) to save the letter. To later edit this letter, first load and display it on screen by replacing the reference to billing/bonddep/template in step 2 above with /custom/file_name_you_select.
7
Press F8 (or Ctrl-Z) to clear the screen.
8
Enter “run sysinit” and then press F1 to exit to the Circulation main menu.
9
Reference this new template by /custom/file_name_you_select when processing the bond deposit letters.
DeliveryDate
Letter delivery date.
Month
Month and year of delivery date.
StartDate
Start date of the carrier.
Drop1
First line of the drop location.
Drop2
Second line of the drop location.
CarrierID
Carrier’s account number
Truck
Truck number from the truck sequence files.
Address1
Carrier’s name.
Address2
Carrier’s address.
Address3
Carrier’s address.
Address4
Carrier’s address.
Address5
Carrier’s address.
Address6
Carrier’s address.
DueDate
Due date of payment.
DS1
First draw delivery schedule.
DS2
Second draw delivery schedule.
DS3
Third draw delivery schedule.
DS4
Fourth draw delivery schedule.
DS5
Fifth draw delivery schedule.
CC1Draw*
Carrier collect draw total for first delivery schedule.
CC2Draw*
Carrier collect draw total for second delivery schedule.
CC3Draw*
Carrier collect draw total for third delivery schedule.
CC4Draw*
Carrier collect draw total for fourth delivery schedule.
CC5Draw*
Carrier collect draw total for fifth delivery schedule.
DS1Rate
Rate for the first delivery schedule.
DS2Rate
Rate for the second delivery schedule.
DS3Rate
Rate for the third delivery schedule.
DS4Rate
Rate for the fourth delivery schedule.
DS5Rate
Rate for the fifth delivery schedule.
CC1Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times first delivery schedule.
CC2Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times second delivery schedule.
CC3Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times third delivery schedule.
CC4Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times fourth delivery schedule.
CC5Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times fifth delivery schedule.
ALL1Draw**
Draw total for first delivery schedule.
ALL2Draw**
Draw total for second delivery schedule.
ALL3Draw**
Draw total for third delivery schedule.
ALL4Draw**
Draw total for fourth delivery schedule.
ALL5Draw**
Draw total for fifth delivery schedule.
ALL1Total
Draw total for first delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL2Total
Draw total for second delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL3Total
Draw total for third delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL4Total
Draw total for fourth delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL5Total
Draw total for fifth delivery schedule times its rate.
CCTotal
Carrier collect total amount of all delivery schedules.
ALLTotal
Total amount of all delivery schedules.
DS3Rate
Rate for the third delivery schedule.
DS4Rate
Rate for the fourth delivery schedule.
DS5Rate
Rate for the fifth delivery schedule.
CC1Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times first delivery schedule.
CC2Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times second delivery schedule.
CC3Total
Carrier collect total amount of rate times third delivery schedule.
COMPANY, BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the company for which to run a trial account billing.
ALL ACCOUNTS
yes/no
Enter “n” if you want to run trial billing for a single account.
ACCOUNT
setup
If you entered “n” above, enter the account number for which you want to run trial billing.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the billing source for which to run trial account billing.
USE PENDING DRAW
yes/no
Indicate if you want to include pending draw in the trial billing. If you select this checkbox, you will be able to enter a future date range beyond where final transaction processing has been run for the publication delivered by the route.
START DATE, END DATE
date
Enter the date range for the trial account billing. Only draw charges, returns, miscellaneous charges, etc. for this date range will be included. Unless Use Pending Draw is selected, all days within the range must be unbilled and published (final transaction processing must be run through the end date).
BILL PERIOD
setup
Enter the billing period to use for recurring charges. Because normal billing periods will have recurring charge amounts for the whole period, we recommend defining a special billing period and recurring charge codes for trial account billings. The recurring charge amounts should reflect the trial billing period (e.g., 1 week rather than 1 month). All recurring charges and credits, including advance charges, will reflect the current period only.
SORT ORDER
predefined
The standard invoice sort orders are available for trial invoices: account, depot, distribution code, district, name, publication/area, publication/district, publication/region, publication/zone, route or truck.
TRUCK SEQUENCE, TRUCK DEPARTURE
setup
Enter the truck sequence and truck departure sequence in which the invoices should print when the sort order is “Truck”. If the sort order is not “Truck”, these sequences enable the system to print the correct truck on the invoice.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which statement information should be exported.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the bill source for which statement information should be exported. A bill source is a group of accounts you bill together (examples are Carrier, Dealer, NIE, etc.).
TRUCK SEQUENCE
setup
Indicate the truck sequence to ensure the export of correct trucking information for the account bill route.
SELECTION TYPE
predefined
Indicate whether this export should sort by group area, region, reason, zone, district, truck, account group, or account.
SELECTION
setup
Enter a specific selection based on the Selection Type entered.
AGING CRITERIA
predefined
Select an aging period to include (e.g., 1st, 2nd, etc.) or select all aging periods.
START DATE END DATE
date
Enter a date range for the export.
FILE FORMAT
setup
Enter a user-defined format that has been set up in File Map.
FILE NAME
open (30)
Enter the file name of the file in the /dti/exchange/cm directory.
FILE OPTION
predefined
Select append to add this information to the existing file, or replace to replace the existing file.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which these bond letters apply.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the bill source for which these bond letters apply. A bill source is a group of carriers which you want to bill together (examples are Carrier, Dealer, and Route).
BILL DATE
date
Enter the billing date for which these bond charges should appear.
DELIVERY DATE
date
Enter the date that these letters should be delivered.
DUE DATE
date
Enter the date that payments for these bond charges are due.
CHARGE CODE
setup
Enter the charge code for creating bond charges. If you will give the carrier interest on the bond, this must be a miscellaneous charge code that updates a recurring charge code (and also updates Accounts Receivable). When the carrier leaves the route and collects the bond money, a miscellaneous credit can update this same recurring charge code.
CHARGE BATCH
open (10)
Enter a unique name for these charges.
TRUCK SEQUENCE
setup
Enter the truck sequence that should be used to determine truck related information that prints in these letters.
TEMPLATE PATH
open (40)
Enter the directory and file name of the letter template (generalized form of the letter). You may define more than one letter template to, for example, send different letters for different bill sources or for different types of bond charges. Newscycle provides a sample template file named “billing/bonddep/template”. The process of creating a template is described below (this will need to be completed before initially creating bond charges).
CREATE CHARGES
yes/no
Indicate if miscellaneous charges (bond charges) should be created. Run this option the first time with Create Charges set to “n” to insure the right bond charge amounts are being calculated.
