Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Flat Rate Plus Import Introduction

This topic only applies if you want to take information from Flat Rate Plus™ Desktop and copy it over to Total Office Manager. This help topic explains how to use the Flat Rate Plus™ Import Wizard. This help topic does not pertain to Flat Rate Plus Online.

Usage

This wizard allows you to get information that is in your Flat Rate Plus™ database and copy it over to your Total Office Manager company file (database). This allows for faster invoice processing because you will not have to enter items, repairs, etc. You may simply open the invoice and enter the FRP task number . All of the related fields are automatically filled in for you. You must purchase FRP or already own a recent version to take advantage of this feature. Flat Rate Plus™ is made by the same people that make Total Office Manager and it is available by contacting Aptora at 913-492-9930.

This import will work with FRP version 8 (or higher) only. If your Flat rate Plus version is not 8, it must be updated. Please contact our office for conversion options.

Form Access

  • From the main menu, click File | Company Utilities | Import Flat Rate Plus Data.

Step-By-Step

NOTE: See Detailed Explanation of Each Field below for details.

  1. Back up your Total Office Manager company file.

  2. Open the FRP Import wizard according to the instructions above (see Form Access). The wizard will open. Click Next.

  3. Select a Flat Rate Plus database to import into Total Office Manager. Click Next.

  4. Select the correct asset, sales, and expense accounts. Click Next.

  5. Select the correct import options. See below (Form 2: FRP Import Options) for details of what each mean. Click Next.

  6. This form is like the previous. Select the correct import options. See below (Form 3: FRP Import Options (part 2)) for details of what each mean. Click Next.

  7. This form is like the previous two and is the last of the basic import options. Select the correct import options. See below (Form 4: FRP Import Options (part 3)) for details of what each mean. Click Next.

  8. Select the proper columns of pricing for each FRP department. This is usually the “Regular” column. See below for details of what each mean. Click Next.

  9. Double check your settings. Click the Import button. This process may take five or ten minutes and possibly more. Please don’t use Total Office Manager while the import process is proceeding.

Detailed Explanation of Each Field

The following list shows all of the various fields used by this wizard and explains what each one means.

Form 1: Choose The Flat Rate Plus Data File

Select a Flat Rate Plus™ Database File and Path

This refers to the Flat Rate Plus™ database that you plan to use for the data that you wish to eventually import into Total Office Manager. You will need to navigate to this location if it is not in the default location. Please click the button as shown and locate your Flat Rate Plus™ database. The exact path will be something like this: C:\Program Files\Flat Rate Plus\FRPHVAC.mdb (or any custom path you may have established).

Form 2: Account Information

Income Account

The list of accounts shown is from Total Office Manager’s Chart of Account list. These are the accounts that are affected when you buy or sell something. You must select an Income Account. This is the account that will track income (sales). Note: Total Office Manager allows you to only pick from Income accounts.

COGS\Expense Account

Select an expense account. This is the account that will track your cost of goods sold (direct expenses) or expenses accounts. This is the money you pay for resell items. We generally recommend that you select a cost of goods sold account and not an expense account.

Asset Account

Select an asset account. This will track the inventory asset in Total Office Manager. This is the value of the items that are unsold. Note: Total Office Manager allows you to only pick from asset accounts.

Form 3: FRP Import Options

Part Number Appearance

FRP always adds dashes to task numbers (but no repair items). You can decide if you wish for Total Office Manager to add these dashes or leave them out. Check the field “Use FRP Style Dashes” to add dashes to tasks. The advantage to keeping the dashed from FRP is that the tasks in Total Office Manager will have the same exact task number as in FRP. The disadvantage is that the dashes require a little more data entry when creating invoices.

Import into Total Office Manager as

This refers to the item type that Total Office Manager will use for these items. See your choices below.

Inventory Part Items (tracking)

These represent materials or parts you buy, track as inventory, and then resell. Through inventory part Items, you can keep track of how many Items remain in stock after a sale, how many Items you have on order, your cost of goods sold, and the value of your inventory. We generally recommend that you do NOT select this option.

Non-Inventory Part (no tracking)

GENERALLY RECOMMENDED FOR MOST USERS. All FRP items will be added to Total Office Manager but Total Office Manager will not track them as inventory. This is generally what WE RECOMMEND! NOTE: Due to the way Total Office Manager works, you are not able to change the item type of an item once an item is created in Total Office Manager.

If Total Office Manager already has this data, overwrite from FRP

This refers to how you want Total Office Manager to handle duplicates if encountered. See your choices below.

Always

When this option is selected, all items in Total Office Manager that have the same item number as FRP will be OVERWRITTEN. In other words, duplicate FRP data will overwrite Total Office Manager data.

Never

When this option is selected, Total Office Manager will NOT overwrite anything that has the same item number already in Total Office Manager.

Only if FRP Data is Newer

When this option is selected, duplicated items will be overwritten only if they have a Last Revised Date from FRP that is NEWER than Total Office Manager’s last revised date. This is generally recommended.

Only if FRP Data is Older

When this option is selected, duplicated items will be overwritten only if they have a Last Revised Date from FRP that is OLDER than Total Office Manager’s Last Revised Date. This option has it’s uses but generally you would not want this option.

FRP Sales Tax

This refers to how you want Total Office Manager to handle sales tax with these items.

Tax Exempt

Total Office Manager has an option to individually mark items as tax exempt. This is generally NOT recommended.

Taxable

With this option selected, all items will be taxable. In other words, the ‘Tax Exempt’ box is not selected in Total Office Manager.

Use FRP Tax

This means that items in Total Office Manager will have the same sales tax setting as in FRP. This is GENERALLY RECOMMENDED.”

Form 3: FRP Import Options (part 2)

Use Item Vendor as Preferred Vendor

Total Office Manager has a field that allows you to select or enter the name of your “preferred” vendor. You can have Total Office Manager fill this field with the value that is stored in the “Vendor” field in FRP.

Append Item Notes to Description Field

Append means to add to the end of what is already there. Check this option to add any item notes that may exit is FRP to the end of the FRP’s regular item description. This will create one large item description.

Append Task Notes to Description Field

Append means to add to the end of what is already there. Check this option to add any task notes that may exit is FRP to the end of the FRP’s regular task description. This will create one large task description.

If Checked, Only Items Used by Tasks Will Be Imported

By checking this option, Total Office Manager will only import inventory items. This includes all active items, whether or not they are used in a task. Tasks will not be imported. Labor items will not be imported. Most users will never need to use this option. We highly recommend that you leave this option unchecked (off).

Import Active Inventory Items Only

We highly recommend that you leave this option unchecked (off). By checking this option, you will import each and every one of the inventory items that are contained in FRP. This not only includes items used by tasks, but also all other inventory items. Items are imported as long as they are set to active. Please leave this option unchecked (off) unless you have deleted or inactivated a substantial number of tasks and items in FRP.

Create Item Categories

When checked, Total Office Manager will setup Item Categories like you have in FRP. This organizes your items. We recommend that you have this option checked.

Form 4: FRP Import Options (part 3)

Departments

Flat Rate Plus allows you to setup as many departments as you want. Each department can have as many as six columns of pricing. Examples of these columns may be “Regular”, Preferred”, “Overtime” and “Add-on”. Select which Flat Rate Plus Column you wish to use as the default price for each Department. You have the ability to associate a column to serve as the default price of labor for each department setup in Flat Rate Plus. Let’s say you have a Service Department and an Installation Department in Flat Rate Plus. In your Service Department you use column 1 (called “Regular”) as your most likely column to use when pricing a repair. For most companies this would be referred to as their “regular” price. That’s why we called the column “Regular”. In this form, you would select “Regular” as shown. Let’s say that in the Installation Department you are using column 5 as your “Regular” price. You would select “Regular” as shown. Note: “Regular” is almost always your best choice. When in doubt, ask for help or pick “Regular”.

Form 5: Import Data

Import Button

Starts the import process. Be sure to double check your settings and be sure you have backed up your database (Company File), and read this entire topic, including the tips, before clicking this button.

Tips

  • Be sure that you have spent time setting up your Flat Rate Plus™ database before you send its data to Total Office Manager. Enter labor rates, discounts, sales tax, etc.

  • Clean up your FRP database! You should inactivate repairs that you don’t need. This should include a large number of installation tasks and other repairs that don’t apply to you.

  • You can only copy data from FRP to Total Office Manager. You can’t copy information from Total Office Manager to FRP. This is a feature we plan to add in the future though.

  • Once the entire process is complete, please go into Total Office Manager and look over the data VERY CAREFULLY. If you notice something that you don’t like, you can restore from the backup that you made. Remember, if you imported things you wish you hadn’t (like tasks you will not need), you can delete them as long as the records you are deleting have not been used in any transaction .

Related Content