TOM now has a Rounding Adjustment account under Equity.  The rounding account shows $417.71.  Can you tell me where the rounding is coming from and how to rid this figure from the financials.

The scenario you describe most likely stems from an incompletely saved transaction.  There are many reasons in the computer world that a transaction might not get completely saved (like hard disk drive "read/write errors", for example).  An incompletely saved transaction means when one half of the double-entry transaction gets saved, but the second half of the transaction gets lost for whatever reason.  In other words, a debit got saved but the associated credit got lost, or vise-versa.  TOM understands that there MUST be a double entry somewhere, so in these cases the “missing” entry becomes a temporary Rounding Adjustment which appears on certain forms.  Here’s how to clean up this amount:

From the main menu in TOM, click Tools > Utilities.  The Utilities dialog box will appear.  Highlight “Database Checkup” and click the “OK” button to reveal the Database Checkup form.  This form is used to scan for various suspect items in the database.  Please try scanning for “Out of Balance Transactions” first.  Double-click to open any that are found, and examine them closely, looking for incomplete entries.  Make any corrections necessary, then save and close the transaction.  If the transaction appears in the scan results list, but nothing strange about it is found, try putting a “-“ or any other character in the memo field.  This will cause TOM to re-establish the transaction in the General Journal upon save, perhaps correcting the situation.  Having examined a transaction listed after a scan, you might want to locate that same transaction in TOM’s General Journal (Banking > General Journal) to look for anything strange there.  Do the same sort of investigation after scanning for “Find Orphan Records” and “Checks/Bills with Missing Dates” as well.

It might take a bit of detective work, but you’ll probably find the origins of the Rounding Adjustment amount and be able to correct the transactions.

On a hardware note, if this sort of situation happens on a regular basis it might signal that there are network connectivity issues at hand or even a hard disk drive starting to fail on the server or elsewhere.  As with any business, be sure a qualified IT professional has a proper backup solution and disaster recovery plan implemented.

  

You can order these from the following website:  http://deluxechecks.com/

The coupon code for Deluxe Printing is K08683.  This code will provide you with 20% off your first order of checks with them.

The check designs which are compatible with TOM are:

#81064, #80971, #80003-81064, #80974, #88008, #80501, and #100018 (deposit ticket)

  

  

The Capital Stock account is the ownership shares of a corporation authorized by its articles of incorporation, including common and preferred stock.

Uncatergorized Income/Expense are similar to the Miscellaneous accounts.  They can be used interchangeably.  You typically use the Micellaneous accounts to record transactions that are not "assigned" to a specific account.  The Uncatergorized accounts are used in the same manner.

  

I have put in all my customer's beginning balances and that went fine. My A/R total
equals my old system. When I started to put in the balance sheet beginning balances the bank accounts did fine. The inventory accounts did not. I'm using 3 accounts, Clearing, control, over/under.

Am I suppose to input them using positive numbers for debits, and negative numbers for credits?  When I get to the income statement TOM doesn't give me any place for beginning balances. How do I put those in?

The Income Statement and Balance Sheet after the Journal Entry:

  

These are located under the Customers --> Sales Tax --> Sales Tax Liability Adjustment

  

To begin, let's first define a contra account for accounting principles.  A contra account is an account with a balance that is the opposite of the normal balance for the chart of account.

An asset account has a normal debit balance, whereas the contra account to an asset account will have a normal credit balance.  For example, Accumulated Depreciation for your computer is a contra asset account, because its credit balance is contra to the debit balance for your computer asset account. Another example is the owner's drawing account. This is an owner's equity account and as such you would expect a credit balance. However, the drawing account has a debit balance.

The same would apply to any Chart of Account within the program. 

  

For everything that is under the job analysis please tell me where these numbers are coming from. 

Here is a detailed Breakdown of the Job Analysis Portion of the Job Costing report.

Projected Total: This comes from the Projected Total field located within the customer job "Job Info" tab. This is a field where you may enter a guess of what the projected total will be.

Final Amount: This is the total amount of (sum of invoices and sales) minus credits. If you look at a customers history, there is a reported total of sales and invoices. This number should match what is reported on the Job Costing reported as depending on the date range being pulled on the job costing report.

Difference: This is difference of the projected total and the final amount.

Cost of Goods Sold: Total of all cogs assigned to the job. This is any invoice item assigned to a cogs account that has been assigned to the job on a bill/check (AP transaction). This may also include payroll if you have your payroll assigned to a cogs account and select the customerjob name on timehsheets when entering timesheets for your technicians.

Gross Profit: This is the reported gross profit of the job which is figured by the Final Amount minus the Cost of Goods Sold which equals your gross profit.

Overhead: This comes from any expense assigned to the job on a Bill or check. This may also include payroll if you have your payroll assigned to an expense account. Any invoice items you have or expenses entered on a bill or check where the customer job name has been selected will be put to overhead.

Additional Overhead: The additional overhead is another field located within the "Job Info" tab of the customer account. Here you can enter additional overhead and chose to assign based off a percentage of the final amount or just assign additional overhead by a dollar amount. This is something you enter in the customer job, job info tab.

Net Profit: This is the net profit made on the job which is figured by your final amount, minus COGS= Gross Proifit minus Expenses (Overhead) minus additional overhead= Net Profit.

Accts Receivable is money that has been billed to the job but not yet collected. Money that is owed.

  

When you give a customer a quote on a job - for example - $5,000 to complete a job, we will put $100 into an account called "Warranty Reserve".  This account is a liability account that is used to hold warranty funds in the event that something were to go wrong with the purchased product and it is within the warranty period.  This account will hold the monies for up to 1 year.

If we had to go out and service a unit covered by warranty, then any labor or parts such as cleaner would come out of the warranty reserve. But after the year has passed or the warranty has expired, any funds that were not used would then be moved from the liability account into the income account.

In order to utilitize Total Office Manager for these types of transactions, you will need to have Total Office Manager Enterprise Edition.  Then all you need to do is enable the Escrow Accounting feature.  This feature was designed especially for Total Office Manager users who perform these tasks as a part of their business practices.

To turn on this feature, Edit your Preference settings and check the box for Escrow Accounting located in the Service Agreement section.

Once this feature is activated, you will need to setup up a new Liabilty Account that you will use to hold your "Warranty" money.  You will then need to create a new Service Agreement for the "Warranty Reserve".  In the account section of the new Invoice Item, you will designate the liability account that will hold the "Warranty" money.

When you sell a Warranty on an invoice, you will be prompted to create a new Service agreement.  When creating the new Service Agreement, select the Menu button and choose the option to create Planned Maintenance.  You will need to change the date on the Planned Maintenance to the date which you would like Total Office Manager to move the monies from the Liability account to the Income Account.

Once you have saved the Service Agreement, the escrow movement is recorded.  Under the Customers menu, you can view a list of your Escrow Movements.  These movements occur based on the criteria set in the initial Service Agreement setup that is made from the creation of an Invoice or Sale.

For further information on how to setup and use Escrow Accounting in Total Office Manager, please consult the Help system within the program. 

  

What kinds of information can I import into Total Office Manager?

You can import a variety of lists into the program. To date, the lists that can be imported are:

Appointment Types, Chart of Accounts, Customers, Customer Types, Departments, Employees Types, Employees, Equipment Manufacturers, Equipment Types, Item Categories, Item Groups, Items, Job Types, Marketing Types, Vendor Types, Vendors, Warehouses, Work Order Types, Work-Ship Methods, and Zip Codes.

Because the information must be formatted into style that the import utility can understand, we have included a template that will make the process easier for you.

The column headings are an exact match for the columns that can be imported into Total Office Manager. Each spreadsheet contains a field(s) that is highlighted. This highlighted field is REQUIRED information that must be present in order to complete the import. Any other information listed in the template is optional.

Once you have formatted your spreadsheets and are ready to begin the import, select File --> Company Utilities --> Import from the menu. The Import Wizard will then take you through the steps to import your information into the program.

There are some sections in the program where you can assign hiearchy (commonly known as Parent Child relationships).  The Import Utility does not handle this association.  If you have Customers, Chart of Accounts, etc. that have a Parent Child relationship, you will need to contact the Data Migration Department for further assistance.

  

To enter and manage a new investment into the company from an owner or person involved in the business, you must first set up new accounts in the Chart of Accounts list (Banking > Chart of Accounts List > Chart of Accounts List > New Account).

The first account will be an Equity account with a name like “Owner’s Investment”. Enter any notes you would like in the Notes text box. Enter the amount of the loan in the Opening Balance area of the form, and then enter the date the loan was received. A more detailed description can be entered in the Description text box. Once all the information has been entered, click “Next”.

The second account will also be an Equity account. In fact, this account will be a sub-account, or child, of the earlier account you set up, “Owner’s Investment”. This account will be named “Owner’s Draw”, or something similar. Once the information is entered, select “OK”.

Transferring the money from the owner to the business requires a Journal Entry.

1.    From the Total Office Manager main menu, select Banking > Make Journal Entry.

2.    Enter the date on which the transaction took place.

3.    Select the “Owner’s Investment” account* from the drop-down menu.

4.     Skip the next column, Debit, and enter the amount of the loan to the company in the “Credit” column.

*NOTE: If the money from the loan is going directly into the bank, continue with the instructions below. If the money will be deposited with other funds at a later date, select the “Undeposited Funds” account in the Account field of the second line rather than the bank account.

1.    On the second line below “Owner’s Equity”, find the name of bank account into which the loan money will be deposited.

a.    You will find that the amount of the loan has been automatically entered into the Debit column for this item.

2.    Click the “Save and Close” button.

When you are ready to make a payment to the owner on the loan:

1.    From the Total Office Manager main menu, select Banking > Write Checks.

2.    Enter the bank from which the money will come to write the check.

3.    In the “Pay to the order of” field, enter the name of the owner/officer to whom the check is going.

4.    Click the “Expenses” tab on the form.

5.    Select the “Owner’s Draw” account from the Account drop-down menu.

6.    Enter the amount of the check (payment).

7.    Enter the number of the check that was manually written, or select the “To be Printed” checkbox to print the check on check stock paper.

8.    Click the “Save & Close” button.

Related issue: ID 320

  

After updating, I notice that the Account Register has changed.  Why is this?

Modifications have been made to the way that the Account Register functions.  Because filtering changes the functionality of the form, we have removed this from the Account Registers and replaced it with a Find utility.  You can use the Find feature to locate a Date, Transaction Type, Amount, or Number.  This feature will allow you to locate information in the Account Register with ease.

We have removed the ability to sort any part of the Account register.  Remember the days before computers when you had to do everything by hand?  For those who still keep a paper register of transactions that take place in your own personal checking account, you can understand the logic behind this.  In the 20th century, when you looked in your register, the oldest transactions were listed first.  If you wanted to see the most recent transaction, you flipped to the back of the register to locate your most recent entry and account balance.  Although the 21st century has brought new technology, the concept is still the same. By default the register will open with the oldest transaction listed first.  We have enhanced the form to go one step further and open to the current dates location.  All transactions for today's date will be "highlighted" in white. This will give you the ability to distinguish between past, current, and future transactions.

The printed report will also display/print based on the Account Register form as well.  If you are wanting to see just the transactions for a specific period of time, you can preview the report and just print those pages that are of interest to you.

  

You are correct in the program creating this account by default. When your Company File is created, there are nine accounts that are required and created for use in the program.  These accounts are Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales Tax Payable, Retained Earnings, Undeposited Funds, Uncatergorized Expense, Uncatergorized Income, Rounding, and Opening Balance Equity.

Because these nine accounts are required accounts that are generated when the company account is created, you cannot delete them. If your company Chart of Accounts contain one of these accounts, you can change the number of the Total Office Manager account to match your Chart of Account number. 

Any transactions that deal with any of the required designated accounts will use the system generated account.

  

How does payroll service work in Total Office Manager? How do I figure my employee's hourly earning rate?

  

While on the Schedule Board, when you right click on a date and choose to either create a New Appointment or Work Order, the date that appears on the Appointment/Work Order is the date that is populated on the upper left hand corner of the Schedule Board and not the date that you right clicked on.

In the image below, I right clicked from October 8th and the date that populates is October 27th.  The date that should populate into the Work Order/Appointment is the date that I right click from and choose either New Appointment or New Work Order.

The scenario described above only occurs if you are viewing the Schedule Board in the Month View. 

As long as you are viewing the Schedule Board in the Day, Week, or List View mode, any date and time slot that you right click on to add a New Appointment or Work Order will populate the date and time of the Appointment/Work Order with the corresponding date and time selected.

  

When doing an item import, I receive an error that a field is missing?

The item import is one of the modest tedious imports to perform.  There are many variables in the import and the import file must contain exact information that is associated with your Total Office Manager file before doing the import.

Prior to importing your items into Total Office Manager, you will need to verify that the appropriate Income, Expense/COGS, and Asset accounts are entered.  You will also need to verify that the Item Type is entered into the data file that contains your items to be imported.

Below you will find the most common messages that appear when doing an item import, along with an explanation of what these message boxes mean. When correcting the problems that the message boxes prompt you about, it is not necessary to close out of the Import Wizard.  Simply open the data file that contains your items, make the necessary corrections, save the data file, then return to the Import wizard and select the Import button to resume the import.

This message will appear if the Part Name/Number exceeds the maximun allowable characters for the field.  The current field max is set at 55 characters.  To correct this, you will need to modify the part name/number to the appropriate character length.

This message will appear if there are duplicate items in the data file.  In order to correct this, you will need to locate the duplicates and change the name/number to one that is unique.

This message appears when the Income Account does not match what is in your company's Chart of Accounts.  This account name will have to match the EXACT name that is in your Chart of Accounts list.  This includes the capitalization and punctuation.

This message appears when the Expense or COGS Account does not match what is in your company's Chart of Accounts.  This account name will have to match the EXACT name that is in your Chart of Accounts list.  This includes the capitalization and punctuation.

This message appears when the Asset Account does not match what is in your company's Chart of Accounts.  This account name will have to match the EXACT name that is in your Chart of Accounts list.  This includes the capitalization and punctuation.

  

  

  

I selected a Long Term Liability and/or Other Current Liability account on a transaction.  It is prompting me to select a vendor when trying to save the record.  I don't see why I need this information.

Liabilities are what the company owes its creditors. Liabilities are balance sheet accounts. Examples of liabilities are Accounts Payable, Payroll Liabilities, Notes Payable, Long-term debt, and income taxes payable.

Because many users enter information in the software in a variety of ways, Total Office Manager cannot determine to who the Liability is owed.  Whenever you select an account that is of type Other Current Liability, Long Term Liability, or Accounts Payable, you are required to select the Vendor that is affected by the transaction that is being entered. 

  

Finance Charges in Total Office Manager are calculated as follows on an Annual basis:

Number of days past due X Balance Due X Finance Charge Percentage / 365

In the instance where the Customer balance is $252.01, the overdue balance for this customer is actually $217.47.  This balance comes from an invoice that was due on 1/11/08. January 11th is 346 days past due on December 22nd.

346 X 217.47 = 75244.62    (number of days past due X balance overdue)

75244.62 X 1.5% = 1128.67   (result X finance charge percentage)

1128.67 / 365 = 3.09   (result / 365)

In the case where there are multiple overdue invoices, the finance charges are calculated for each individual invoice and then totaled together. Invoices are considered past due the day after the Due Date on the invoice.  You can choose to assess the finance charges as of the Invoice Date, the Due Date, or the date the last finance charges were assessed.  If when choosing the option to assess based on the Due Date and the Due Date is left blank, Total Office Manager will calculate the Due Date as of the Invoice Date.

In the case of a customer with a balance of over $700.00 and only being charged $3.00, I was able to locate an example of this in a copy of your database.  A customer was invoiced on 7/30/07, but the due date was set to 8/9/07. On 9/5/07, finance charges were accessed in the amount of $3.00.  This is correct.

41 X 711.02 = 29151.82    (number of days past due X balance overdue)

29151.82 X 1.5% = 437.28   (result X finance charge percentage)

437.28 / 365 = 1.20   (result / 365)

Since $1.20 is less than your minimum finance charge amount, the full $3.00 was accessed.

  

If you are needing to give a credit for the finance charges and/or adjust the finance charge invoices, you will not be able to change the finance charge line item amounts as this amount is a percentage calculation.  Instead, you can use an other charge item and enter a negative amount on the finance charge invoice to zero out this amount.  You can also create a credit memo for the finance charges and apply it to the finance charge invoice. 

  

A liability is an existing debt or obligation of a company. It is an amount owed to a creditor that requires something of value, typically cash, to be transferred to the creditor to settle the debt. Most obligations are known amounts based on vendor bills and contracts. Liabilities are reported in the balance sheet as current (short-term) or long-term, based on when they are due to be paid.  

Current liabilities are those obligations that will be paid within the next year.  Examples of current liabilities are: raw materials used in the production process, goods and services that are used in the process of operating the company on a day to day basis, equipment purchases that will require only a short time to pay in full and short-term loans that will also be paid off during the current fiscal year.  

Long-term liabilities are existing obligations or debts due after one year or operating cycle, whichever is longer. They appear on the balance sheet after total current liabilities and before owners' equity. Examples of long-term liabilities are notes payable, mortgage payable, obligations under long-term capital leases, bonds payable, pension and other post-employment benefit obligations, and deferred income taxes.  Accounts payable is a type of current liability that represent those obligations that exist based on the good faith credit of the business or owner and for which a formal note has not been signed. Purchases of merchandise or supplies on an account are examples of liabilities recorded as accounts payable.  

Payroll Liabilities are also a type of current liability that is owed by the company as a result of processing payroll for your employees.  Amounts owed to employees for work performed are recorded separately from accounts payable. Expense accounts such as salaries or wages expense are used to record an employee's gross earnings and a liability account such as salaries payable, wages payable, or accrued wages payable can be used to record the net pay obligation to employees. Additional payroll-related liabilities include amounts owed to third parties for any amounts withheld from the gross earnings of each employee and the payroll taxes owed by the employer. Examples of withholdings from gross earnings include federal, state, and local income taxes and FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act: social security and medical) taxes, investments in retirement and savings accounts, health-care premiums, union dues, uniforms, alimony, child care, loan payments, stock purchase plans offered by employer, and charitable contributions. The employer payroll taxes include social security and medical taxes (same amount as employees), federal unemployment tax, and state unemployment tax.

  

You can put the beginning balance in the Opening Balance field located on the Additional Info tab in the Vendor form.  This will then create a single bill for each vendor for the total amount that is owed.  If a vendor has multiple bills that are due at different times, you can enter these separately if you are wanting them to age properly.  To enter bills for vendors, you can access the bills form by going to Vendors --> Enter Bills or selecting Ctrl + B from your keyboard.

As for the accounts affected, Accounts Payable and the Uncaterogrized Expense accounts will be affected in the Chart of Accounts.  You will need to move this money from the Uncatergorized account into the appropriate expense/COGS account via a journal entry.

  

When running my AR Aging Summary and the Balance Sheet, the Accounts Receivable totals do not match.  Why is this and how do I fix the problem?

In previous versions of Total Office Manager, if you issue a credit memo or the customer has an overpayment on June 1 and you then issue a refund check on Aug 1, Total Office Manager would display the credit balance and the refund check appropriately on the AR Aging reports, as long as the credit is not applied to the check.  If you apply the credit to the check on Aug 15, Total Office Manager did not know the actual date of the application.  So when running the AR Aging report again for June 1, the credit balance is -0-, therefore, not showing on the AR Aging report. The same would be true when issuing and applying credit memos to customer invoices where the invoice date was less than the date of the credit memo. The first thing that will need to be done in your company data file is rebuild your balances.  To do this, you will need to go to Banking à General Ledger.  On the General Ledger form, you will need to select the option to Rebuild Balances under the General Journal List menu selection.  **Everyone will need to be out of the program when the balances are being rebuilt*** 

In order to find the discrepancies between the AR accounts on the AR Aging and the Balance Sheet, you will need to do the following:

Run the Balance Sheet thru the date that needs to be adjusted.  Double click on the Accounts Receivable account in order to bring up the Transaction Detail by Account report.  Export the Transaction Detail by Account report into Excel.  Sort the spreadsheet so that all the customers are grouped together.  Total each customer section to get the amount that is being reported.

Run the AR Aging report thru the same date that the Balance Sheet was run.  Locate the customers that are different from one report to the next.  Determine why the discrepancy is there. (This is more than likely going to be due to a credit or overpayment on a customer’s account being applied prior to the Date Applied field being added).   

  

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15t.pdf

  

After updating Total Office Manager, I now receive a message box when I open the program.  What does it mean?

This message box will only appear if you received a Total Office Manager database that was created from the QuickBooks Data Migration (formerly known as a Conversion). 

When you first received your Total Office Manager database, you were sent an email informing you that your QuickBooks Data Migration was completed.  Attached to that email was a document called Conversion Notes.  This document contained information regarding the data that was in your new Total Office Manager file, any differences that were noticed between QuickBooks and Total Office Manager, and instructions on Sales Tax, and/or Payroll if your company utilized these aspects in QuickBooks.

If you have already reviewed this document prior to updating to 7.7.30, please check the box that says you have read the Migration Report (formerly known as the Conversion Notes) and the message prompt will no longer appear.

If this is the first time that you are opening the Total Office Manager company file after getting a QuickBooks Data Migration, please review the Data Migration Notes prior to working in the company file.  If you have any questions regarding the information that is contained in the Data Migration Notes or the Total Office Manager database, please do not hestitate to contact the Data Migration Department at 913-322-4666.

  

  

This is correct.  With the new makeover and functionality of the Pay Bills form that was released in version 7.8.9, many changes were made to the way that the form processed information.  These changes were listed in the Release Notes for the 7.8.9 version and are listed below for reference.

Filtering Options were changed to work like the other Quick Filters in the program.  A Quick Filter selector has been added that will enable you to filter the Pay Bills form.  You no longer need to manually apply the filter to the form. 

The Refresh button was relocated to the bottom of the form.

The Discount application has become its own function.  It is no longer associated with the Set Credits form.  Discounts applied to bills are now entered on the same line of the bill on the Pay Bills form.  A column was also added for the Discount Account associated with the Discount Amount.  A Discount Account selector has been added to the lower portion of the Pay Bills form.  This field will display the Purchases Discount default that is designated in the main Preferences menu.  When a bill's terms indicate that a discount is warranted, the Suggested Discount will be displayed.  By selecting the Auto Discount button, the Discount will be applied using the default Discount Account.  The date the Discount application will affect your financial records is determined by the Payment Date located in the bottom right corner of the Pay Bills form.

Applying Vendor Credits to your Vendor Bills have been improved.  A Date Applied field has been added to the credit application so that the application of the credits will affect your financials as of the Date Applied entered.  You will no longer need to check the box of the bill you wish to apply only credits to.  Just make sure that the row selected is the bill use wish to apply credits against and select the Set Credit button on the form.  Once you hit Save & Close on the credits window, the credit application is saved and the bill will be removed from the list if the bill balance is -0-. 

Since these enhancements were made to the Pay Bills form, we no longer save selctions when you close the form without selecting either the Pay & Close or Pay & New button on the form, Refresh the form, or change your Filtering Options. 

The reasoning behind this is simple.  You should only select bills to pay when you are physically ready to pay them (i.e. create the checks or credit card charges, credit off a bill balance, etc.).  If you select bills to pay and then need to leave for one reason or another, Total Office Manager cannot assume that the bills you selected have not been altered by another user.  To ensure data integrity, Total Office Manager will not save your selections if you close the form without paying the bills.  Since the program is used in a multi-user environment, this will prevent you from short/over paying bills that you assume no one has altered.

A message box is being added to the next release that will notify you that refreshing and/or closing the form without paying your selected bills will not save your current selections.

  

When selecting a task in QuickBooks that is from Flat Rate Plus, the amounts do not match.  I am trying to use the Preferred Column pricing, but I cannot get the totals to match.

There are a few steps that will need to be done in order to get your pricing to match from Flat Rate Plus to QuickBooks.  Let me first explain what occurs during the Import of Flat Rate into QuickBooks.

When you imported the Flat Rate Tasks using Account Link, you designated which column you wanted to use for the Default Labor Item.  Typically, the Regular column pricing is selected. 

The various column prices are varied by your Department Setup in Flat Rate Plus.  When you apply Material Discounts, the pricing will change.

Once the Tasks have been imported, each column received a Service Item for each Department and each Labor, Discount, and Trip Charge column that you are using.

Now let's look at entering the Tasks on transactions in QuickBooks.  For example, your technician went and performed task TOR-G005-0045 at the Preferred Add column pricing.  When you select this task on the QuickBooks Invoice, you see the following:

When reviewing the Technician Report, you notice that the Preferred Add column price should be $79.49, but QuickBooks shows a price of $104.19.  This is because the Regular column pricing is being used.

The first thing that you will need do is change the Labor Item to the Preferred Add item.

You will notice that the price still does not match the book pricing.  This is because based on the Department Setup in Flat Rate Plus, there are Material Discounts associated with Preferred Add pricing.  This Discount information will need to be added to the Task.  In order to do this, you will need to Insert a Line into the task above the Labor Item.  If there is more than one item in the task group, you will need to insert a Subtotal Line as well.  Then select the Discount Item of the column you are pricing.  In this case, you would select Discount Preferred Add.

After making these few modifications, the total matches in QuickBooks what is reported in the Flat Rate Plus Technician Report.

  

If you have Customer records that should be Sub-jobs, there are two options available to turn these "Parents" into "Children".

Option One:  You can create Sub:Jobs for the Parents and Merge the customers together.

In the example below, Customer QT Store #364 should be a Child of Quick Trip Corporate.

You will need to create a Sub Customer and/or Job for the Customer that the Child should belong to.  In order to make the Merge process easier, please name enter the Job Name the same name as the Parent account that should be the Child.  You will not need to enter any address or contact information into the newly created record.

Once you have saved the Job entries for each Child that you need to create, you will need to Merge all the duplicate entries.  Under Tools | Utilities | Locate/Merge Duplicate Customer:Job, you can locate all the duplicate Customers based on the Name entries.

Select the Customers that you would like to Merge and click the Merge button in the top Right section of the form.  You will then select the Customer record that you created as the Target Customer.  (Hint:It is the one that is displayed like this Parent Name:Child Name)  In the lower grid, select the original Customer that you would like to merge into the new Job (sub-Customer). Then click the Merge button located in the upper right section of the form.

You will need to do this for each Customer record that should be a Child of another Customer.

*****Please Note: Using the Import Utility to Import Customer records into your company file does not provide the ability to bring in a Parent:Child relationship.  All Customers imported using the Import Utility will be imported as Parent records.  If you are looking to make this association when Importing more Customer records, please speak with the Data Migration Department as there are services available to perform such tasks.*****

Option Two:  You can contact the Data Migration Department (913-322-4666) and they will work with you to convert your existing records into the appropriate Parent:Child relationships.  There is a fee associated with this task, but will prove to be less of a hassle for you in the long run.

  

How do I bill for Retention in the program?

Many construction related Total Office Manager users don’t record the income associated with the retention until it is billed. This is incorrect accounting since the income reported for any period should equal both the Net Due Balance on the invoice plus the Retention amount.

Setting Up For Retention Requires Three Simple Steps

1.      Create an Other Current Asset Account named Retentions Receivable

2.      Create an Other Charge item named Retention, in the description field enter “Amount Deducted for Retention”. In the amount field enter -10% (negative 10%). Select the % radio button. In the Account field select the Retention Receivables Account you created.

3.      Create a second Other Charge item named Retention - Inv, in the description field enter “Amount Invoiced for Retention”. Leave the amount field blank. Select the $ radio button. In the Account field select the Retention Receivables Account you created.

Invoicing the Customer and Deducting Retention

Consider the following example:

Customer has agreed to a $50,000 job, with 10% retention to be held until the job is completed. If I am billing the customer 50% complete I would do the following:

·         Create an invoice for the customer for the $25,000 amount, if you have created an estimate you can generate the invoice from the estimate.

·         On the following line on the same invoice enter the Retention Item. The customer invoice now shows a negative $2,500 on this line, with a net due from customer of $22,500.

Note: If you have some invoice items not subject to retention (such as mobilization charges): Enter all items subject to retention, enter a sub-total line, and then enter your Retention item. Follow with the remaining items that will not be subject to retention.

Reviewing Customer Retention Balance

When nearing the end of the job you will want to review your Retention Receivables account for that client.

1.      Click Reports and select the Transactions Details by Account report.

2.      Select the account you just create called Retention.

3.      Select an appropriate date range.

4.      Select correct Customer:Job.

Invoicing For Final Retention

After reviewing the retention balances in the Retentions Receivable Report that you memorized, create an invoice to the client.

Select the Retention - Inv item that you created and enter a positive amount equal to the retention withheld from prior invoices in the price column.

Your company now has a reduction in your retentions receivable account and an increase in the aging Accounts Receivable. Additionally, you now have an invoice to send to your customer.

Now your company has the correct amount of revenue in the correct accounting period and we haven’t lost track of the amounts withheld from prior invoices.

  

The best way to handle automated Database Backups is to create a custom backup script that can be scheduled using Windows Task Scheduler (Express Edition), use SQL Server Agent to schedule the a backup job (Workgroup Edition and above), or use third-party software that runs on a schedule and performs the backup tasks using standardized SQL Server methods (All Editions).

The following describes how to create a batch (.bat) file that can be scheduled to run in Windows Task Scheduler. Additional parameters that can be used with SQLCMD can be found elsewhere on the internet.

1. Open your favorite text editor application (ex. Notepad, Wordpad, etc.).
2. Create a new plain text document (if required by your editor).
3. Copy and paste the following text:
   
   SQLCMD.exe -S "{SERVERNAME}" -E -Q "backup database [{DBNAME}] to DISK = '{BACKUPFILE}.bak' WITH INIT, SKIP" -o "{LOGFILE}.log"
   
   Notes: This script connects to the Server Instance using Windows Authentication and backs up the database using the given parameters. It can only be ran on the local computer for the SERVERNAME provided. This is to say you cannot use this script to perform network backups of remote SQL Server databases.
4. Replace {SERVERNAME} with your server name (ie. "SERVER\APTORA").
5. Replace {DBNAME} with your database name (ie. "Sample Company")>
   
   Note: This is the SQL Server Database Name, not your company name. If you are not sure what this value should be, run the Enterprise Server Utility and click the "Backup Database" option. The listed databases are the SQL Server Database Names. Use the name from this list for the database(s) you want to backup using this script. 
6. Replace {BACKUPFILE} with the desired backup location (ie. "C:\Backups\Sample Company"). The ".bak" extension will be used for the generate backup file.
   
   IMPORTANT: This file location must be on the local computer. It can be an external or internal drive, but it cannot be a network drive.
7. Replace {LOGFILE} with the desired backup log location (ie. "C:\Backups\Sample Company Backup Log").
8. Repeat the above for each database you would like to backup using this method.
9. Save the file and give it a ".bat" extension (ie. "Sample Company Backup.bat"). You will also want to save it to a location where it can be accessed via Windows Task Scheduler.
10. Run Windows Task Scheduler, create a new task, and then find and select the .bat file that was just created.
11. Set the Task to run as the Windows "Administrator" user, or another user that is part of the SQL Server Admins group for the provided SQL Server Instance.
12. Everytime this task runs it will overwrite any existing backup at the location provided. A log file will be generated, which will provide any details about errors that occurred. You can manually double-click the .bat file at any time to run the script on demand.

  

This will typically occur if the Payment was not entered properly on the Deposit form.  When a Customer remits payment for their account, this is entered in Total Office Manager by going to Receive Payments under the Customer Menu.  It is recommended that you select Group with Other Undeposited Funds as the Deposit To account.  This will allow you to select the Payments that are going to be deposited at one time into your Bank account.

When you are ready to make your daily Deposit, go to the Make Deposits option located under the Banking Menu.  When the Deposit forms opens, you will be prompted that there are undeposited funds that need attention.  Once you click the OK button, you will need to click the Payments button to select the Customer Payments that are to be included in the Deposit record you are creating.

Manually selecting the Customer in the Received From column and the Undeposited Funds account in the From Account column does NOT remove the Customer Payments that have been grouped with other undeposited funds from the Payments List in the Deposit form. 

If you are showing Customer Payments that have already been deposited according to your records, you will need to locate the Deposit that these Payments were entered on and select the Payment from the Payment window.  If the Deposit has been previously cleared through the Bank Reconcilition process, you will need to contact Technical Support for assistance in clearing the Payment.

  

The Undeposited Funds account is an account that reports on money that is received by your company until it is deposited into your Bank account.  This account is typically setup as an Other/Current Asset account, and is used when you are ready to prepare your bank Deposits in Total Office Manager.

It is recommended that any Customer Payment, regardless of the method of Payment (i.e Check, Cash, Credit Card, etc.) is deposited to the Group With Other UnDeposited Funds on the Receive Payments and/or Sales Receipts forms. This will allow you to pick and choose which Customer Payments are included in your batch Deposits to your Bank Account.

Even if the Customer pays by Credit Card and you are using the Credit Card processing feature in Total Office Manager, it is recommended that you still group these Payments with the other Undeposited Funds.  The reason behind this is quite simple.  Some Credit Card Companies charge a fee per Credit Card payment that is processed.  Although the Customer may have paid you $100.00, the Credit Card merchant may charge you a 2% processing fee.  Subsequently, only $98.00 of the Customer Payment is then deposited to your Bank account. By grouping with other Undeposited Funds, you will be able to account for the processing fee when you enter the Deposit.

  

While it is true that many Credit Card Merchants charge a fee for processing transactions through them, it is rather easy to account for this in the Total Office Manager program.

Enter your Customer Payment as you would for any other payment type.  If you are using Authorize.net in the program, process the Payment through the EPay feature.

Once you have verified that the Customer Credit Card Payment has been settled through your Merchant Vendor, you can then enter the Deposit to your Bank account. 

Let's say that your Merchant Vendor charges a 2% processing fee for all Customer Payments and your Customer submitted a $250.00 payment by Credit Card.  The processing fee for this payment would be $5.00.  Enter your Deposit, selecting the Payment from the Payments window on the Deposit form.  In the Cash Goes To section of the Deposit, enter the processing fee for the Payment.  It is customary for businesses to have an Expense account that tracks the Credit Card fees that are assessed.  If you do not have such an account, please speak with your Accountant to determine what account needs to affected for this transaction.

  

When setting to use EPay (Customers|Electronic Transaction List, right click and choose Setup), I selected Authorize.net from the drop down in the Default Gateway (using the mouse).  The field remains highlighted but the selection does not save.  I then get a message that says:

We are aware this and are currently working to improve the Epay setup so that you can select from multiple gateways.

In the meantime, after selecting Autorize.net from the drop down, please select 'No' on the message prompt and continue to enter your company information.

  

When processing direct deposits I created 30 batches then tried to process another and got a message saying I had reached the limit of how many files can be created in a day. Why am I getting this message?

  

What is the Statutory Box for in an Employee's Payroll Items?

Checking the box for Statutory Employee in the W-2 Information on the General Tab in an Employee's Payroll Items will only check the box on the W-2 form in Box 13 when you are ready to process and print your W-2s.  Checking this box does not perform any calculations when processing Payroll Checks and/or W-2/W-3 IRS tax forms.

If you are not sure if an Employee is qualified to be a Statutory Employee, please refer to the following websites for more information.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=179118,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=179119,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15a/ar02.html#en_US_publink100052185

  

Because there is criteria that must be met in order for an Employee to claim tax exemptions, Total Office Manager cannot maintain when an Employee is exempt from one tax and not another.  These rules and regulations are maintained by the IRS and individual State agencies.

When an Employee is exempt from taxes, you will need to remove the tax that is not to be withheld from the Earning Item in the Employee Payroll Items.  To do this, you will need to add the Earning Item(s) to the Employee's Payroll Items.

For each Earning Item that you select, you will need to remove the Tax below that is Exempt for the Employee.  To remove it, you will need to click on the red 'X' next to the Tax in the grid. Please remember that you will need to click on each Earning Item to see which taxes are being withheld.  Removing a Tax from one Earning does not remove it from the remaining Earning Items that are assigned to an Employee.

For more information on Exempt Employees for Federal Taxes, please refer to the following website links:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch01.html#en_US_publink10007250  (Exemption from Withholding section)

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=120663,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=104936,00.html

For State Tax exemption guidelines, please refer to you local State Taxing Authority.

  

I am trying to import my Chart of Accounts and keep getting the following message:

This message will occur when you do not have an appropriate Chart of Account type entered on your spreadsheet.  The Chart of Account types must match what is in Total Office Manager. This includes the capitalization and punctuation. Below is a list of these account types.

Balance Sheet Accounts:

Bank, Accounts Receivable, Other Current Asset, Fixed Asset, Other Asset

Accounts Payable, Other Current Liability, Long Term Liability, Credit Card, Equity

Income Statement Accounts:

Income, Other Income

Cost of Goods, Expense, Other Expense

  

                                     A. INITIAL INVENTORY PROCEDURES

1.    Establish a truck-stocking list for each service and installation truck. Each truck should have an adequate inventory supply for the type of work its operator will be engaged in, on a normal basis. It may be necessary to study past supplier statements, packing slips, and service invoices - to gain a sufficient understanding of what is required. The goal is to design a list that will supply technicians with all required parts, 85% of the time.

2.    Clean out each truck of all debris and inventory. Reposition, secure, and label shelving, install and label parts bins and containers, in an attempt to make each truck as similar to the next as possible. Depending on their respective department, trucks may be setup in a different manner as needed. However, each department should adopt one specific configuration.

3.    Each truck must have labeled parts bins, containers, and shelving units. Label information must contain no less than the part number, minimum on-hand quantity, and maximum on-hand quantity allowable.

4.    Restock each truck in strict compliance with the inventory lists previously established. Be certain that all items all properly labeled.

5.    Clean warehouse of debris and all old and obsolete parts. Dispose of these parts or place in a specific storage area for latter use.

6.    Organize all remaining warehouse items in a logical manner. Using a Johnstone (or similar) catalog as a guide, position items in logical groups such as Motors, Motor Accessories, HVAC Controls, Electrical Products, Thermostats, etc.

7.    Label (or circle existing) all items with the appropriate vendor part number, as needed. All items must have a part number.

8.    Each item must be located within a labeled parts bin and/or shelving unit. Label information must contain no less than the part number, minimum on-hand quantity, and maximum on-hand quantity allowable.

9.    Carefully select one or more individuals to count inventory.

10. Print a complete inventory list from your accounting system. Make one copy for each person who will be counting inventory. To promote efficiency and accuracy, it is generally a good idea to have as few people counting inventory as possible.

11. Count each and every inventory item, updating the inventory list as you go. Adjust listed quantity with the actual quantity on-hand, as needed. Verify the item descriptions for completeness and understandability. All notations should be made only with a pencil.

12. Once inventory has been taken, no one will be allowed to add or remove items from the warehouse until all adjustments have been made to our accounting software program.

13. Enter the actual quantity on-hand, along with other corrections, to our accounting system. Items that exist on our list but do not exist in our inventory module, should be zeroed out or removed completely from the system.

14. Inventory from the trucks should be counted and adjustments made to the accounting software program. This process should be relatively easy considering the prior work that has been done.

B. TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS

1.    Ignore establishing multi-warehouse inventory procedures. If this practice is required, it may be implemented at a later time.

2.    Label items using a re-usable sticker (Avery 6460). Instruct your technicians to transfer this sticker from the item to the invoice or job-costing sheet. Apply these stickers to all new and existing items in inventory.

3.    When labeling existing inventory, assign the same vendor number to identical items made by different manufactures. Example: 30 amp, 2 pole, 24 volt contactor made by General Electric and White Rogers may share the same number. Do not consider this practice when labeling new inventory. You should always use the correct number.

4.    Do not track small items such as staples, pipe dope, lubricants, Teflon tape, electrical tape, screws, etc.

5.    Create electrical kits, gas kits, etc., to hold various supplies. Example: An electrical kit may hold wire nuts, wire ties, electrical tape, solderless terminals, etc. Count these kits as a single item, not as individual items. You may even consider having technicians turn in the entire kit for replacement. The used kit may then be replenished and returned to stock. This will improve inventory control without unwarranted complexity.

C. MAINTAINING THE INVENTORY SYSTEM

1.    Technicians may not make purchases without a valid purchase order number.

2.    Technicians may only purchase what is necessary to complete a specific job. If truck stocking is required, permission to make additional purchases must be granted by the office.

3.    The technician’s inventory may not exceed the maximum allowable on-hand quantity for any item.

4.    Items that do not appear on our truck stock list may not be acquired and stocked in any truck. If a technician desires that a certain item be stocked on our trucks, he or she should report this desire, in writing, to his or her manager for consideration.

5.    When items are purchased, the vendor’s part number must be circled or printed on each container.

6.    All invoices must be completely and legibly filled out. Packing slips must be attached to the respective invoices. Only one invoice is allowed per purchase order number. Personal purchased, if approved, must be on there own separate invoice, and clearly marked as such. Vendors, or technicians, must clearly mark each packing slip with the appropriate purchase order number. Invoices that do not contain the appropriate information will be placed in the respective technician’s mailbox for correction.

7.    Item numbers must be printed on each invoice. Technicians who fail to accurately record items numbers used will be required to gather and record that information without additional pay (they were already paid to do this).

8.    Packing slips will be entered into the accounting system as they are turned in.

9.    Each invoice will be entered into the accounting system. All inventory items must be entered and accounted for.

10. Inventory will be counted once every six months.

  

I appear to be having problems with my MAPI settings and Total Office Manager.  This is the message I get when I try to Email from within Total Office Manager: