Program Description
This program can be found on the Contracts Data Entry menu (CN-1-11). Contracts are billed through this program. The only exception to this is when contracts are billed through the Commitment Entry program (CN-1-13), which is part of the Contract Commitments system. Users have the ability to bill a specific contract or a range of contracts based on the due dates and contract type. This includes base billing, meter billing, or both. This procedure updates the customer’s accounts receivable balance (ARECD data file), sales tax files, sales analysis (which updates the sales history and the general ledger), accrual file, and the contract.
Rev 15 Changes
The Company Number from the Contract Header has been added to the Contract Billing Report. It will print in the “Copies Due With No Meter Readings” section before the Contract Number field. It will also print in the normal billing section between the Billing Period and the Customer Number. The heading for Billing Period has been changed to Bill Period to accommodate the new field.
An enhancement has been added to the Contracts Module to allow for a freight charge to be added to contract invoices. This is a chargeable add-on feature for the Contracts Module. Please contact LMS Sales Department for information on pricing. This enhancement is meant as a way to charge freight for the delivery of the toner and supplies that are included in some contracts. This will eliminate the need to bill out an invoice to the customer for only the freight amount. This feature is activated using a new global option (field 40) in the Contract Control File (Global Record 8). This field is “Calculate Freight On Contract Invoices (Y/N)”. It can only be activated or deactivated by LMS Support personnel.
The freight amount will print in the freight total at the bottom of the invoice, and will update Accounts Receivable file (ARECD) and the Bill-To Customer’s AR Balance (CUSTD) with the freight amount and freight tax.
If the Tax Code on the Group Bill Master Contract is set up to have Freight Taxable equal to Yes in the Tax File (TAXD), Contract Billing will calculate tax on the Freight amount and include that on the total tax on the invoice. The tax for the freight will also be included on the Tax Register. If the Tax Code in the Group Bill Master contract is set to not charge tax on freight, tax will not be charged.
If the Tax Summary On Invoice feature is activated for the contract, a line will be added to the last Tax Summary on the invoice that has “Freight” for the item number and description and it will include the freight amount and the freight tax. This will only appear on the last Tax Summary on the invoice. See screen sample below:
The Contract Billing report will have a new column if the Global option is activated. This column will show the total freight and the freight will only print on the last line per contract group. The Tax Amount field on the last line on the contract group will include the tax on the freight if the freight is taxable. The Total column on the last line of the contract group will include the freight amount and the freight tax. The report totals will also include the freight and freight tax. This is a sample of the report:
Four new fields have been added to the Contract Header File (CNHDR.DT) to accomplish this. These are Base Freight Type, Base Freight Amount, Meter Freight Type, and Meter Freight Amount. The Freight Types will be either P for percentage or D for dollar amount and are used to determine whether the amount field is a percentage or a flat dollar amount. These fields will be used by Contract Billing to calculate and include freight on contract invoices only if the new Global option in the Contract Control file has been activated. So, even if there are amounts in these fields, it does not mean that freight is being charged by the system. If the new Global option is not set to a Y for yes, these new fields in the Contract Header File can be filled in. However they will be for informational purposes only.
This feature should not be used on contracts to US Bank (BOLT), Lanier or Wells Fargo if the invoice download and auto cash posting programs are being used. Those download and auto cash posting programs do not have logic to transfer the freight amount. You will still be able to set up the freight amount for contracts that are not US Bank (BOLT), Lanier or Wells Fargo.
The Contract Billing program will only use the freight amounts that are stored in the Group Master Header only. If for example: the Group Bill header is set up with a $5.00 base freight and a 1.25% meter percentage, but each subcontract has been set up with different freight amounts. Contract Billing will charge a freight of $5.00 for the base plus 1.25% of the meter charges. Contract Billing will not look at the subcontracts. If you ever bill subcontracts by themselves Contract Billing will still look at the Group Bill Master contract to get the freight information.
Since this is designed to bill for freight charges incurred to send free toner and supplies, you may wonder why there is a need to have an option to set up two sets of freight amounts (base and meter). Some dealerships may want to set up the freight as a dollar amount based on the base. This will be a consistent charge that will never fluctuate. Some dealerships, may want to set up the freight as a percentage of the meters billed. The idea behind that is that the more copies produced, would mean more toner and supplies shipped out, which would mean a higher freight charge. On the other hand, if a low number of copies were produced, then less toner and supplies are shipped out, so the freight charge will be lower. When the base or meters are billed also comes into play. The base freight will only be charged if the total base amount for the contract (or contract group) is not equal to 0. The meter freight will only be charged if the total copy amount billed is not equal to 0. So, if a contract is billed, but the customer did not go over their copies included, and not copies are billed, Contract Billing will not calculation freight based on meters. You should also be aware of how often the base or meters are billed when deciding whether to place the freight on the base or meters. If the contract has base billed monthly, but meters billed quarterly, the freight would be charged monthly if set up on the base side. However, it would be billed quarterly if set up on the meter side. The contract method should also be thought about before deciding where to place the freight. For example, method four contracts never bill for base. So, if the freight amount is placed under the base, contract billing will never bill the freight. You can also be creative and set up the freight on both the base and meters.
Different freight amounts can be included for the base and the meter charge. One can be set up as a dollar amount and the other set up as a percentage. As a reminder, the freight fields only on the Group Bill master contract will be used when doing the freight calculation. If you would like to charge a flat 2.25% charge for the total of the invoice (base and meter), you will need to place 2.25 % in both the meter freight and the base freight amounts. If you placed it only in the base freight amount field, the program would only charge freight of 2.25% of the base billed and meter charges will not include freight.
During Contract Setup, Base Freight Type (P’ercentage or D’ollar Amount) and Base Freight Amount are fields 35 and 36. The Meter Freight Type and Meter Freight Amount are fields 44 and 45. During Contract Changes, the Base Freight fields are field numbers 36 and 37. The Meter Freight fields are field numbers 45 and 46.
When you enter the freight as a percentage, there will be checks to make sure that the percentage entered is not over 100.00% or less than 0. When you enter the freight as a dollar amount, there will be checks to make sure that the amount entered is not less than 0. If you do not want a base or a meter to have freight charged, enter either P or D at the Freight Type field, and enter 0 for the amount.
If N is entered for Meter Billing Y/N question during Contract Setup, the Meter Freight Type will default to a P and the Meter Freight Amount will be 0.
These new fields in the Contract Header File can be seen in the Contract Inquiry and they will print on the Contract Agreement Listing.
Contract Setup screen sample below:
Contract Changes screen sample below:
The program would occasionally stop with an Invalid Subscript stop at line 2882. This has been corrected.
The program only allowed for a printer name that was five characters long instead of eight. This has been corrected.
A new Global option has been added to the Contract Global (record 8). Field 41 is Print Copies Included On Method 1 Invoice If Greater Than Total Copies (Y/N). When set to Y for yes, Contract Billing includes the Copies Included on the invoice if it is greater than the total copies being billed. When this field is set to N for no, Contract Billing will not include the Copies Included on the invoice if it is greater than the copies billed. This is useful if a dealership does not want the customer to see that they make less than the Copies Included and request a credit for the difference. This is for method 1 contracts only. This field differs from field 34 in the Contract Global which is used to determine if the Copies Included should print on method 1 invoices if the meters are not due to be billed. If you would like this to continue working the same as it did prior to Revision 15, set this field to Y for yes.
Rev 14 Changes
There was a problem with Revision 13 if there was an item type stored in the new Meter Item Type field in Contract Control File Maintenance field 20, and if there happened to be a message on the Contract Invoice that was 16 characters long. The program would give an Invalid Subscript Stop at line 3346. This correction was done while Revision 13 was being released and was added to Revision 13 at that time.
Sales Rep 2 from the Contract Header File (CNHDR.DT) was not being written into the Invoice Header File (INVHDRD) if it was greater than 1. This has been corrected.
A new field was added to the Invoice Line Item File (INVLID), Sales Analysis File (SALID) and Sales History File (SHHIST.DT). This is the Commission Cost. The Contract Billing programs will write the Commission Cost from the Item File (ITEM) into these files when an invoice is billed. The Commission Cost field is not used for any of the existing Commission Reports. However, you can use this field to write custom Commission Reports with Application Manager.
There was a problem with the Revision 13 Sales Rep Split Percentage enhancement. If the contract had a sales rep split, 100% was being written into the Invoice Header (INVHDRD), Invoice Line Item (INVLID), Sales Analysis (SALID), and Sales History (SHHIST.DT) files in the new Sales Rep 1 Percentage. This should have been 50% if there was a sales rep split. This has been corrected.
There was a problem with the Invoice Date prompt. The system date would display at the prompt as the default. However, if the operator returned at the prompt to accept the default on the first contract billed, the Invoice Date would default to the transaction date entered at the menu. On all subsequent contracts billed, the Invoice Date would be whatever the Invoice Date was on the previous billing. This has been corrected so that the system date will not display as the default because it isn’t used. The transaction date, or the date entered during the previous billing if multiple contracts are billed will be displayed as the default. A second problem was if the operator was at the Beginning Date prompt, and entered “^” (Shift-6) to go back to the Invoice Date field, the default prompt would not display. This has been corrected.
A new global option has been added to print the start and expiration dates of the contract on the contract invoice. If this feature is activated, the dates will print next to the line(s) on the invoice that say “Maintenance Agreement No”, “Rental Contract No”, or “Leased Machine – Contract No”. See sample below. The global option is in Contract Control File Maintenance, field 38 Print Contract Start And Expiration Dates On Contract Invoice (Y/N). Note: This feature must not be activated if the BCL Download, Wells Fargo Download, or Lanier Download are performed.
An option was added to Contract Billing to specify the billing method to bill. Billing methods 1 through 4 can be entered at this prompt, or A for all billing methods.
If Auto Contract Inactivation is activated in Contract Control File Maintenance field 27, an additional prompt will be asked when billing all contracts. The prompt “Bill Auto Inactive Contracts” has been added. If this question is set to Y, and the an inactive contract has an Auto Inactivate field (field 27)set to Y, the contract will bill normally. If the Auto Inactivate field is set to N, this instructs the program that the contract was not inactivated by the Auto Inactivation feature, and the contract will not bill. If the Auto Inactivate feature is not set to Y for yes (field 27), this new prompt will not appear.
When a contract is billed, the MTD and YTD units, sales and cost figures for the Multiple Sales Analysis Items are updated. Usually the Sales Analysis Items are non-tangible (non-stocked) items. Some customers have began adding tangible (stocked items), such Toner on a contract as a Sales Analysis Item. These stocked items should not have the MTD and YTD figures updated.
A global option has been added to Contract Control File Maintenance for those customers that use stocked items as Sales Analysis Items on contracts. This is field 39 Do You Wish To Update MTD/YTD Figures On Tangible (Stocked) Items During Contract Billing (Y/N). This new field will be set to Y for yes during Revision 14 since that is how the program worked prior to the revision. If you would like to set this field to N to not update stocked items, it is very important that the Non-Stocked Y/N field in Item File Maintenance is checked on the items that are used as Sales Analysis Items to ensure that the Non-Stock field is set to N on tangible (stocked) items and set to Y on non-tangible (non-stocked) items. Contract Invoice Void will also use this new global option to determine whether or not to update the MTD and YTD figures when voiding a contract invoice.
Contract Billing will now write to the new Contract Billing Missing Meters File (CNMISSM.DT). This file contains machines for which the contract was billed and the meter readings were due, but one or more of the machines on the contracts were missing meter readings. This will be for contracts with Billing Method 1, 4, and 2 (if there is a First Meter Due Date in the contract). This does not include Method 3 contracts, or Method 2 contracts (if the First Meter Due Date is zero). This file will store the Item Number and Serial Number of the machine, Contract Number, Group Bill Number, Operator Initials, System Date, System Time, Task Number and Port Number. There is a listing on the Service Contract System Manager Menu (option 9) that can be used to keep track of this information.
Rev 13 Changes
Several changes were made to this program, which are described below:
The program has been changed to include a Contract Global option to print the PO number or the Contract Number from the Contract Header file into the ARECD file. If P is entered in field 31.Use P’O/Contract Number Or C’ontract Number in A/R Reference in Contract Control File Maintenance (BI-3-1-18-8), the PO/Ref number (if there is one) will write to the Accounts Receivable (ARECD) data file. If the contract header file PO number field is blank, the system will write the Contract number into the PO/Ref number in ARECD. If C entered, the Contract number will always be written into the ARECD record’s PO/Ref field. The PO/Ref field in the Invoice Header (INVHDRD) file will always have the PO number from the Contract Header (CNHDR.DT) file if there is one regardless of this prompt.
The results in Account Detail Inquiry (AR-2-1) are as follows. Invoice number 96250 listed below is an example of when C is entered in the field 31. Use P’O/Contract Number Or C’ontract Number in A/R Reference in Contract Control File Maintenance. The ARECD record has the maintenance agreement number and the Invoice Header (INVHDRD) file has the PO number from the CNHDR (Contract Header) file. Invoice number 96249 is an example of when P is entered in field 31 of Contract Control File Maintenance.
The results in Order/Invoice Inquiry (BI-2-6) are as follows:
Internal changes were made to correct form feeding problems with the Contract Billing report.
The ability to enter a range of branch numbers and company numbers was added. Internally, this program used the Company Number from the menu to bill and update the Invoice Header File (INVHDRD), Invoice Line Item File (INVLID), Accounts Receivable File (ARECD), and Sales Analysis File (SALID). In Revision 13, the program will now use the Company Number from the Group Bill Master Contract (in CNHDR.DT) to update these files.
Prior to Revision 13, when base billing information was updated in the Sales Analysis File (SALID) and Sales History (SHHIST.DT), one record was written for the whole amount, even if the quantity on the line was greater than 1 (meaning that the serial number was not written into the Sales Analysis file). Since base revenue cannot be linked to a certain machine, the contract profitability reports (ie. Contract Profit And Loss Report, Client Profit And Loss Report, etc.) could not use actual base revenue in their calculations. Therefore, the current base revenue from the Contract Line Item File (CNLI.DT) was used to calculate an estimated base revenue.
With Revision 13, Contract Billing will write one Sales Analysis record and one Sales History record per each serial number and per each multiple Sales Analysis level. For example, if a contract has item SF90 with a quantity of 2 at $300 base rate for each machine, this revenue is broken into two multiple sales analysis breakdowns of $150 each. Contract Billing will bill $600.00 and create 4 records in Sales Analysis and Sales History each with $150 sales and each containing a serial number.
Prior to Revision 13, this program only created 2 records. If the item line has a quantity greater than the number of serial lines under it, the extra base revenue will be created in a separate Sales Analysis record and Sales History record containing the first serial number. If the quantity on the item line is less than the number of serial numbers (which should not happen), the extra serial numbers will not have Sales Analysis records or Sales History records created for them. This will have an effect on all reports that print Sales Analysis information and Sales History information. Instead of one record containing the whole base revenue for the item line, they will be split into separate records.
Two additional prompts will display: Bill The Base Rate(s) Of Contract(s) If The Contract (Batch) Is Missing Meter Readings (Y/N). If N is entered at this prompt, the next prompt will display: Bill The Base Rate(s) Of Method 2 Contract(s) With Base Due And Days Before First Meter Reading Not Met (Y/N). If Y is entered in the first prompt, the program will work as usual. If no meter reading is entered for the machine on the contract, the base that is due will be billed.
On Method 1 contracts, if N is entered in the first prompt, if any machine on the contract or group of contracts (whether or not it is batch billed) has a meter reading due but not entered, the machine will not bill the base.
On Method 2 contracts, if the contract base due date is prior to the contract start date plus days before first meter reading, it means that the meter reading is not due. If this is the case, and N was entered at the first prompt and Yis entered at the second prompt, the contract will bill even if no meter reading was entered. If N is entered at the first prompt and N is entered at the second prompt, the contract will not bill if a machine on the contract or group of contracts is missing a meter reading.
On Method 2 contracts, if the contract base due date is after the contract start date plus days before first meter reading, it means that the meter reading may be due. If that is the case, and the first question is answered N (no matter how second question is answered), the contract will not bill if a machine on the contract is missing a meter reading.
On Method 3 and Method 4 contracts, the prompts described above are not used at all.
There is a new exception report that will print any serial numbers where no meter reading is entered. Only machines that are not already printing on other exception reports will be printed.
The Sales Order Number field was moved to a new location in the Invoice Header File (INVHDRD). Internal program changes were made to accommodate this change.
New indices were added to the Sales History data file (SHHIST6.IX, SHHIST7.IX, SHHIST8.IX). Changes were made to the existing index (SHHIST4.IX). Data will not be added to it if an invoice number is 0 (which should not happen in Contract Billing).
Prior to Revision 13, City Tax did not update the Tax File (TAX2.DT) correctly. Two additional decimal positions were not added to the City Tax Percentage before it was written to the Tax File. This has been corrected.
A new global field was added to Billing Control File Maintenance. This is field 37. Rounding Of Sales Tax (O'ff To Nearest Cent, Always U'p, Always D'own). This field is used in Contract Billing when calculating taxes.
Also, an index to the Sales History File named SHHIST4.IX was changed to not be added to if the invoice number is zero. A problem was encountered when there was over 65534 duplicate invoice numbers which could happen with parts on non-chargeable service calls. This has been corrected.
Also, the Sales Order Number field was enlarged from 6 characters to 8 characters in Invoice Entry, Credit Memo Entry, Order Entry, Order File Maintenance, Service Invoicing and Contract Billing. This field is stored in the Invoice Header File (INVHDRD) and the Order Header File (OEHDRD). Contract Billing had an internal change made to move that field to the new positions on Contract Invoices also.
A global option was added to Billing Control File Maintenance that allows dealers to round sales tax off to the nearest cent, always round sales tax up, or always round sales tax down. This is field 37. Rounding Of Sales Tax O'ff To Nearest Cent, Always U'p, A'lways Down.
New indices have been added to the Sales History File (SHHIST.DT). These are SHHIST6.IX, SHHIST7.IX, and SHHIST8.IX. These will now be added to in this program.
There is a new global option in Contract Control File Maintenance, which is Print 'ESTIMATED' On Contract Invoice If Meter Was Estimated (Y/N). If this field is set to Y, and the Number Of Meter Estimates in the serial record of the machine is greater than zero, the program will print TOTAL ESTIMATED COPIES instead of TOTAL COPIES on the billing report and on the contract invoice. If the machine is on a batch, the TOTAL COPIES that prints under the TOTAL COPIES OF BATCH will not have ESTIMATED on it. If copy detail is not printed during contract billing, the TOTAL COPIES message does not print. It will not print TOTAL ESTIMATED COPIES. If this global option is set to N, ESTIMATED will not print. The program uses the Number Of Meter Estimates field in the Serial File (SERIALD) to determine if the last contract meter was estimated. Every time a meter is estimated on a machine, this field is incremented by one. Once a meter reading is entered, this field is set back to zero.
Field 33. Use S'ales Analysis Item Number Or I'tem Number Of Machine On Invoice in Contract Control File Maintenance is a new global option. If this field is set to S, the item number on the base billing line of the contract invoice will use the Sales Analysis Item Number on the first Multiple Sales Analysis Level (MULTSA.DT file). This program worked this way prior to Revision 13. If this global option is set to I, the machine's item number will print on the base billing line of the contract invoice. If the BCL Download or NWF Download is used, this should be set to S for the Sales Analysis Item Number, since that is the item number that will be sent to BCL or NWF.
There is a new global option in Contract Control File Maintenance, which is field 34. Print Copies Inc On Method 1 Contracts With Meters Not Billing (Y/N). If this field is set to Y, and a method 1 contract is billed with no meters on a machine, the message regarding copies included will print on the contract invoice (as long as the machine has copies included). If Y is entered in the Print Copy Detail Y/N prompt, the copies included message will print on the contract billing report also. If this global option is set to N ,then the copies included will not print unless meters are being billed. The message is COPIES INCL. IN USE CHARGE. Prior to Revision 13, the copies included did not print if the meters were not billed. The copies included on a method 1 contract is quantity break #1 if the quantity rate #1 is zero dollars.
There is a new global option in Contract Control File Maintenance, which is field 20. Meter Item Type To Use When Bill Meters Only. During Contract Billing, if this field has a valid item type and if the contract being billed is only billing click rates (meters) and not base rates, this item type will write into the Invoice Header File (INVHDRD) and the A/R File (ARECD). If this field is left blank, or if base rates are billed, or if the meters billed are non-chargeable, the normal item types will write into these files. The normal item types are based on contract type and stored in Contract Control File Maintenance fields 4,5 and 6. The item type field in the A/R File can be seen in Account Detail Inquiry. The item type field in the Invoice Header File can only be seen through Application Manager reports.
Internal changes were made to add new fields to the Invoice Header file (INVHDRD), Invoice Line Item File (INVLID), Sales Analysis File (SALID), and Sales History File (SHHIST.DT). These fields are branch 2, branch 1 percentage, and sales rep 1 percentage. These fields are used for sales rep split, and branch split. Since Contract Billing does not allow for sales rep split or branch split, branch 2 will be set to 0 and branch 1 percentage and sales rep 1 percentage will be set to 100%.
Rev 12 Documentation
Contracts are billed through the program Bill Contracts, found on the Contract Data Entry menu, 1-11, The only exception to this is when contracts are billed through the Commitment Entry program which is a part of the Contract Commitments program.
Internal changes were made in Revision 12 to incorporate the Item and Serial File size changes. The new sales history index, Shhist5.ix, is updated in Contract Billing.
When a contract invoice is created an invoice is written to the bill to customer’s Accounts Receivable account. The file that is updated is the Arecd File. This file can be viewed in Account Detail Inquiry and the A/R Aging reports. Within the Arecd File, is the storage of a reference field. Prior to Revision 12 all contract invoices had the type of contract and contract number written into the reference field. The possible references are Maint # or Lease # or Rental #. On invoices generated through Billing and Order Entry, the reference field is the purchase order number that is entered in the Invoice or Order header. A change has been made in Revision 12 so that if there is a purchase order number stored in the Contract header, this number will write into the reference field in the Arecd File, instead of the contract type and number. If the purchase order field is blank in the Contract header, the contract type and number writes in to the reference field. The purchase order number, stored in the Contract header, can be viewed and changed in Contract Changes, field 23. This change is also applicable when billing contracts through the Commitment module.
Following is an example of the results of this change. The Account Detail Inquiry is shown.
Customer A/R Inquiry 9/13/96 Dated 9/13/96 By
Cust.No. 7857777 SEA RAY BOAT LA CROSSE AR Bal. 1716.16
Inv.No Tac * Tdate Amount Paid Balance C/M.No Ref Lstpmt
89945 1C INV 81695 800.00 800.00 MAINT.#2635
93323 1G INV 91396 916.16 916.16 PO2705
Display O'ptions E'nd
Invoice 89945 is a contract invoice that had no purchase order number in the Contract header, thus the contract type and number displays in the Ref reference column. Invoice 93323 is a contract invoice that does have a purchase order number in the Contract header. Thus the purchase order number PO2705 displays in the Ref reference column. Note, this change has no affect on the printing of the invoice. If there is a purchase order number, that prints on the invoice. When the purchase order field is blank nothing is printed in the purchase order field on the invoice.
Bill Contracts (Cont’d)
For those of you that have purchased and activated the Contract History module, when a contract is billed a Contract History record is created. This also occurs for those of you using the Contract Commitment module. With Revision 12 the current contract meter reading and reading date is now written into the Contract History Billing record. Thus any contracts billed after Revision 12 will have this additional information stored in the Billing Contract History record. At this time the information can only be accessed through Application Manager. This will provide you with the current meter reading at the time of the billing of the contract.
Deferred income and the Income Recognition Report is a part of the Contract module. This is activated by assigning accrual General Ledger account numbers to the item and serial numbers on the contracts. With accrual accounts entered, upon the billing of the base rate, the start and expiration date on the contract is automatically updated to the next billing period. This occurs when billing the contract’s base. This only occurs on maintenance contracts and with a billing period of 3 or greater. If the accrual accounts are not assigned no updating of the start and expiration date occurs. Contracts with a base billing period of 1 do not have the start and expiration date updated, even if the accrual accounts are assigned. Also rental and lease contract are not updated.
A new global option has been added. The option is found in the Contract Global File, record 8, field 18, Update Start and Expiration Dates When Base Bills (Y/N)? A Y for yes updates the start and expiration date on all contracts, even if the G/L accrual accounts are not assigned to the contracts. This includes all types of contracts, maintenance, lease and rentals. This includes all base billing periods, including a billing period of 1. If the base billing period on a contract is less than 12, the start and expiration dates are updated for a year. As an example, the old start and expiration date is 09/01/96 to 08/31/97 and the billing period is 1. The new start and expiration date is 09/01/97 to 08/31/98. A base billing period greater or equal to 12 updates to the actual billing period.
For those of you that do not enter General Ledger accounts into your contracts setting the Global option to an N for no and billing the base on the contracts will not update the start and expiration dates. Thus if you do not use the Income Recognition Report and you do not want the start and expiration dates updated automatically when the contract is billed set this global option at an N for no.
Bill Contracts (Cont’d)
For those of you who are currently using accrual G/L accounts setting the Global option to an N for no, makes the program perform like it always has, as described on the previous page. The start and expiration dates are updated. Monthlies are not updated or rentals or lease contracts.
For those of you who are currently using the accrual G/L accounts setting the Global option to a Y for yes, updates the contracts that have accrual accounts entered the same as always. In addition the rentals, lease and contracts, with a billing period less than 3, also have the start and expiration date updated.
Be aware that when the start and expiration date is updated, the new dates are only updated one cycle of the billing period. Thus if you have not been manually updating the start and expiration dates upon renewal, they will update but not up to the current time period. As an example, if the current start and expiration date of a contract is 09/01/94 to 08/31/95 and the base due date is 09/01/97 and the billing period is 12 and the contract is billed, the dates are updated. However, the new start and expiration dates are 09/01/95 to 08/31/96. They are not updated to 09/01/97 to 08/31/98.
Also with a monthly billing period the start and expiration dates are not changed until the contract’s base due date that is billed is after or equal to the month and date assigned to the expiration date. As an example, a contract with a start and expiration date of 03/15/97 to 03/14/98 and billed for the base due date of 09/15/97 does not have the start and expiration date changed until the March of 1998 base billing is billed.