Probill 2.0 User's Guide

Recurring Billing Software

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Probill Plus is a revolutionary new software product designed to provide you with a powerful account database, billing program, and correspondence generator in one easy to use package. Probill was designed specifically to make billing simple. You don't need to know a lot of accounting or computer jargon to make Probill work.

This manual has been divided into two major sections. The first is intended to get you up and running with Probill in the easiest possible manner. It goes over the major features of the program and will have you entering new customers and generating billing in no time.

The second section goes into some of the advanced functions of Probill Plus. Many of these features are there to use at your option, or show you how to customize Probill to your specific way of doing business. Many people will never utilize these features and will stay with the default program setup. Familiarize yourself with Probill's basic features first and then go onto the more advanced topics at your leisure.

We hope you enjoy using Probill Plus!

With the plunging cost of today's computers, the specifications listed above can be met for an amazingly low price. If you don't have at least the computer equipment listed, consider purchasing it. It's the absolute minimum required to run all of today's sophisticated, graphically oriented programs (like Probill!). In addition, for really professional printing you may want to consider purchasing an HP compatible laser printer.

This manual is meant only as a starting point for using Probill. At anytime while running the program more extensive help is always available at the push of a button. The easiest way to access the help system is to push the F1 key on your keyboard. This will bring up help specifically directed toward the section of the program you are currently in. More on help later.

Installation

If you had previously been running Probill as a trial version and have just purchased the program, there is no need to reinstall the program using the program CD. Unless otherwise instructed, the trial version of the program that you have already installed is a fully function of the program.

After purchasing the program you should have received a cover letter that contains your registration information, an unlock code, and instructions on unlocking the trial version of the software. The CD ROM you have received is provided strictly as a backup so that you can reinstall the software in the event, for example, that you purchased a new computer system.

6. Follow the on screen installation instructions.

That's it! The installation program creates a custom program group in windows for the software. To start Probill simply double click on the Probill Plus icon in Windows.

Setup

When you first start Probill it automatically opens up to the company setup screen. The installation program will have automatically put your company name in the top field. Go ahead and enter your company mailing address below it. The phone number section is meant for any different phone numbers you might use on your correspondence. If for example your sales phone number is the same as your service phone number just put the same number in each location.

Company Information

The Company Setup Screen is used to enter your companies name, address, and telephone numbers. This is the information that will appear on your billing documents so you should enter the address you would like your payments sent to. There is also a small button to the right of the company address field. Clicking on this button will allow you to enter a second address line for your company if desired.

When evaluating the program in Trial Mode the company name can be changed any time you like. Once you have registered and unlocked the program the Company Name field is no longer editable as this serves as the copy protection for the program and prevents unauthorized distribution of our software. If you do need to make a minor change to the company name in the future (like needing to add ,Inc. to the company name after incorporating) you can call our customer service for a new authorization code.

The default company services section allows you to define standard values for recurring services that you normally provide your customers. Using defaults can greatly speed up data entry of new accounts if your business bills many accounts in the the same way. If for example you bill most customers monthly, or usually charges the same monthly billing amount or tax rate, these default values will automatically be entered each time you add a new customer to Probill.

Keep in mind that each one of these values can still be changed or customized for each individual account that you entered and are not fixed. They are simply there to speed up data entry for many businesses types.

There a four different Recurring Categories to choose from in Probill. The first three are standard recurring categories. The fourth one can be used as a standard recurring or as a special recurring category which we will go over in detail in a moment.

Each of the four Recurring Category names has a checkbox to the left of it. Clicking on a categories activation checkbox allows you to change the categories name, the printing that will appear on a customers invoice, and the default amount charged for this recurring service. It also allows you to choose whether or not this particular service is taxable or not. Keep in mind that the charge amount for each recurring service should be the actual amount you charge the customer for a particular billing cycle.

For example: If you typically charge $20.00 a month for your recurring service but you have set your default billing cycle as quarterly you should enter $60.00 for the recurring billing amount, because $20.00 a month billed quarterly is $60.00. Once again the recurring service type, billing amount, text to print on invoice, and taxability can still all be individually adjusted when entering each individual account. You are simply setting up defaults here.

The fourth recurring category can be used as a standard recurring charge or can be setup as any one of the following special recurring categories.

Contract - The contract category is a special recurring category that can be used if you have a recurring charge that you want to count down and expire. For example: If you have a customer that you want to charge $20.00 a month for 36 months you can enter those values here and Probill will bill the customer $20.00 a month each month while counting down the contract period. Each time the customer is billed, Probill will let the customer know how much time is remaining on the contract by printing the remaining contract period. For example: 19 Months Remaining on a 36 Month Contract.

At the end of the contract period the contract charge will terminate and the customer will no longer be billed for this service. Again this is just a default, you can still choose when adding a new customer whether or not the customer should have a contract charge, how many months are on the contract and what the monthly billing amount will be.

Annual-Sub - The Annual-Sub category can be useful if you have a customer that you bill on one billing cycle for one service, but then charge a yearly fee for another. Say for example you charge a customer $20.00 a month for a recurring service, but once a year in May you want to charge them an additional yearly fee for some other service. The Annual-Sub charge will facilitate this.

One Time - The One Time category can be used to charge the customer a one time fee for a service. Example: You charge a customer $20.00 a month for a service but want to charge them a one time setup fee on their first bill. By using a One Time charge this customer would get charged the standard recurring fee for the first bill but would also be charged the one time fee on this first bill only. Then charge is automatically deactivated.

Late Charges

Assessing Late Charges can be a very effective way of insuring on time payments. In Probill late charges can be setup in one of four ways.

None - Customers are never charged Late Charges on past due invoices.

Fixed Late Charge - This would cause Probill to assess the same late fee amount regardless of how much the late customer owes on their account. For example: $5.00 a month.

Annual Percentage Rate - This would cause Probill to generate a late charge based on the amount of money the past due customer currently owes. It is entered as an annual percentage rate so for example: If you entered an annual percentage rate of 18% and the customer owed $100.00 they would get a late fee of $1.50 a month.

18 percent divided by 12 months = 1.5 percent per month times $100.00 = $1.50

If the same customer owed $2000.00 they would get charged a late fee of $30.00 based on the same formula.

Greater of Fixed or APR - This is often the most effective way to setup late charges. The greater of fixed or APR combines both of the above methods and will always charge the greater fee.

For example: If you setup a 5.00 fixed late charge and a 18% APR, a customer that owed you $100.00 would get charged the fixed charge of $5.00 (because its greater than the APR which would be $1.50). But a customer that owed $2000 would get charged the APR late fee of $30.00 (because its greater than the fixed charge that would be $5.00).

Late Charges can be activated or changed at anytime and individual customers can have late charges turned off completely if desired.

When you are finished entering your Company Setup information select Save to save changes or Cancel to discard any changes. Keep in mind you can always come back to this screen and make modifications to your setup at any time.

In most cases that's all that's involved in setting up the program. There is more customizing available such as if, when, and which late notices to send to customers, but in most cases the default settings should be just fine. More information on this customizing will be given in the advanced features section of this manual.

Now lets put this program into action!

The toolbar consists of six icon buttons located at the top of the main screen. These picture buttons are labeled customers, payments, reports, monthly, help, and exit. They are there to provide quick access to the most commonly used functions of Probill. Ninety percent of the time these are the only functions of Probill you will need to access. Collectively these buttons allow you to manage your customer database, log in customer payments, search for late customers, and process your monthly recurring billing. To access these functions you simply click on their associated picture with the left mouse button.

You may have noticed that if you click on one of the words at the top of the screen a menu drops down allowing access to a number of other functions. Selecting the menu allows you to access all of the items accessible by clicking on a tool bar icon, as well as functions you would not generally use as often. These include things like backing up or restoring your data, printing various reports, and setting up the program or printer. These menu functions will be addressed in detail in the advanced features section of this manual.

Working With Customers

To access the Account Screen in Probill select the Customer icon from the programs toolbar or select Customers... Customer Information from the main menu screen.

Account Screen

This is where you enter new accounts and maintain all of your customer information.

Show Site Info / Show Bill Info

This button will toggle the customer information view between the customers billing information and premise information. This section contains the accounts customer #, name, address and contact information. When entering accounts it is important to type all information in Upper and Lower case. So, for example, you should enter the account name as Davis & Company, Inc. and Not DAVIS & COMPANY, INC. When entering the customers address you will notice that there is a small button to the right of the address box. If you click this button it will expose a second address field that you can use to enter additional address information if necessary. This section also contains a number of key fields that you can use to enter any additional customer information you want to keep in the customers database. The label captions above these key fields can be changed if desired by adjusting their names in the Program Settings screen.

Bill Summary View

The Bill Summary box displays, based on the information you've entered, a summary of when the customer is due to be billed next, how much they will be billed as well as any special services that will be billed in the next billing period. The Account Activity box can be used as a quick reference allowing you to see the customers last billing and payment activity. It also shows the customers aging status and allows you to turn off Late Charges & Notices for this particular account.

Recurring Cycle

The Billing Cycle drop down listbox allows you to choose the frequency with which you want Probill to generate automatic recurring bills for this customer. There is also a selection marked Non-Recurring that you can use to enter an account that you want to keep in your database but don't want Probill to generate recurring bills for.

Tax Rate

If you must charge taxes on recurring services you may select taxable and enter a tax rate in the tax section of this screen. Be sure to enter the tax rate as a percentage number like 7.000 not .0700! In Probill you may enter multiple different tax rates for your customers. Each tax rate will be totaled separately on your sales tax report to assist you in filling out your various tax filing paperwork.

One special note on taxes: If you are in a situation where you have two or more tax rates that are the same, but must be reported separately (for example two separate reported districts that both have a 5% tax rate) you may enter 5.001 for the first district and 5.002 for the second. The .001part of the tax rate will not have any affect on calculations but will be separately listed on your sales tax report.

First / Next Billing Date

When you are entering a customer for the first time this field will be marked First Billing Date. After you save the customer the field name will change to Next Billing Date and will always display the next month that the customer will be billed for.

If this customer is to be billed on a recurring basis pay particular attention to the value entered in the 1st billing date field. Normally Probill automatically bills recurring services in advance starting with this first billing date. If you entered a first billing date of 5/01/2001, and selected a cycle of quarterly, running your recurring bills in April of 2001 Probill would bill the customer for May, June and July automatically. You only need to set the first billing date one time, after that first billing, Probill will automatically determine the next billing date based on their recurring cycle. Probill always bills customers from the first of any given month to the first of the next billing period. It does not however state it this way on the printed invoices. The printed invoices will simply say for example:

If you are entering existing accounts for the first time you may want to enter an opening balance for the account.

When you select the Comments button from the main Account Screen in Probill you will be presented with a special version of the Document Editor. The editor now has a list box labeled Template --> that you can use to choose a document template for the comment screen. These document types are preset forms that can be filled out and actually become part of the customers database file.

Each time an invoice is created or a payment is entered for an individual account it becomes part of their Account History. To view the history select the History button from the main Account Screen. This screen displays the customers entire transaction history and also shows the accounts aging.

By double clicking on an individual item in account history you can view, change, or delete the item selected. You can also print a statement for the customer by selecting the Print Statement button.

Reminders allow you to enter notes regarding future events for a customer. To activate a reminder select the Activate Reminder Checkbox. Then simply enter a reminder message and select a future date.

Lets you sort your customer database by any of the fields listed in the Sort Order drop down list box. After sorting your data your recurring bills and many of your reports will be sorted by this order as well.

Selecting the find button on the main customer account screen allows you to perform powerful searches that will locate accounts based on specific search criteria.

By entering all or part of a customers information in a data field you can quickly locate an account or list of accounts based on that word. If for example your customer was located at "123 Anywhere Street", even entering the word "where" in the address field would locate the customer. If Probill finds more than one customer that matches your search criteria it will display a list of them for you to choose from.

You can search for an account by either their billing information or their premise information. To toggle between the two search screens click on the Show Site Info / Show Billing Info button. You can also use the find screen to select multiple accounts to print custom letters to. After bringing up a list of accounts using the find command, you will notice a button marked Print Documents at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on this button will prompt you to select a letter (or print mailing labels) that Probill will customize, format and print to all the customers that match your search criteria.

Click the Add button to enter new accounts into the Probill database. When adding new accounts default data will automatically be entered into the account screen based on the settings you have in the Company Setup screen.

Click the Delete button to permanently remove a customer from the Probill database.

Navigate - These navigation buttons allow you to display the first, previous, next, and last customers in your account database in whatever order has been set by the Sort Order listbox.

To create a one time invoice or proposal for a customer select the Invoice button from the main Account Screen. This will bring up Probill's Invoice Generator. The first thing you need to do is choose a Sales Category to help classify the sale. You can make your category names whatever you want, they are used in various reports to help you keep track of your total sales. If you don't have any Sales Categories add one now. Once you have selected a Sales Category you can start creating your invoice.

After adding a category to these lists you can create Invoice templates that you can use to quickly generate Invoices out of items that you tend to use over and over again.

After typing out an Invoice changing the quantity of an individual item will automatically recalculate the Amount for that item. You can also adjust whether or not an individual item is taxable by turning its tax box on or off. The Comments Section of the Invoice can be used to enter any free form text you would like to appear on the Invoice. It will be printed in italics at the bottom of the Invoice.

If you need to delete a particular item on your invoice just double click on the item. This will remove the item from the Invoice.

If you leave the Quantity or Amount boxes as blanks those columns will be left blank on the Invoice. This allows you to add free form text to the Invoice.

Selecting finished will bring up a dialog box that allows you to save your document, apply any charges, and even enter a payment for the Invoice if desired. You can also select Destroy and Exit to keep from saving your changes.

Remember that you can go back to your Invoice or Proposal at anytime by going in to the customers Account History and redisplaying the document. You could then reprint the document, change the charge amounts or convert a Proposal into an Invoice.

Posting Customer Payments

To apply a payment to a customers account you would either select the Payment icon from the main screen in Probill or select Payment... Customer Payments from the main menu.

This screen is used to quickly enter payments that have been received from your Customers. To rapidly search for accounts you can use four different methods.

Search for Account to Apply Payment

Hitting the Enter key on your keyboard will bring up a list of all of your Accounts allowing you to scroll down and select a specific account. Typing in the Accounts Billing Name and hitting Enter on your Keyboard will search for and immediately display the selected account. If you enter a partial name or Probill finds more than one Account that matches your search criteria it will bring up a list of Accounts for you to choose from. Typing in the Accounts Customer Number will search for and immediately display any Account that contains the entered account number.

Typing in the Invoice Number of the Invoice that is being payed off will immediately display the appropriate Account and prompt you to apply a payment to the selected Invoice. If you don't know any of the above information you can select the Full Account Search button allowing you to enter any of the information you might know about the Account and search for the Customer that way.

There is also a checkbox on this screen called View Deposit. Checking this box will give you a running total of all payments and credits you have applied during this payment batch. It also displays a button that says View Report. After you have entered a number of payments you can select the View Report button to display a Deposit Slip report listing all payments and credits that have been entered in this payment batch. This will allow you to check you work and make any possible corrections should you make a mistake. The report could also be printed and included with your bank deposit to speed up processing and insure accuracy.

When the account you have searched for has been located you will be presented with the Enter Customers Payment screen where you actually apply the payment.

Probill will display the current amount due on the account and enter that as the payment amount in the payment box. If the payment that has been sent is different than the total amount due you can change it here, enter the customers payment reference and click on the Accept button to have Probill record the payment and adjust the customers balance.

Payments can be applied in two different ways Auto Pay and Invoice Pay. If you select Auto Pay any payment entered will be applied to the oldest invoices first. If you select invoice pay you can select which invoice you want to apply the payment to from the Summary of Unpaid Invoices list.

You can also apply the payment as a credit by selecting the Apply as Credit checkbox and record the payment as a credit so it will not be shown as income in your reports.

The date you want to apply the payment on can also be adjusted by clicking on the date in the Adjust Payment Date box and changing the date you want to post the payment on.

Handling late customers is one of the most important features of Probill. Customers that get too far behind in payments are much more likely to cancel service than those who are not. With Probill checking for late customers is easy. Select the reports icon from the programs toolbar or select Reports... Past Due Customers from the Probill's main menu. This brings up the check for past due customers screen.

This screen allows you to search for all customers that are over a certain number of days past due and / or ones that owe more than a certain amount of money. Make your selection and click on the OK button. This will display a report showing all accounts that matched your search criteria.

The report the accounts name, how much is overdue and the customers contact telephone number. This report is also helpful if you want to make phone calls to late customers requesting payment. If you double click on a name in the list you can quickly display the entire account data screen for reference. This allows you to reference any relevant account information or account history while you are on the phone with the customer. You could also print a statement for the customer or generate a late notice at this time. When you are done viewing the accounts information pressing finished returns you to your past due customer report so you can continue your work.

Printing Recurring Billing

To automatically print recurring bills for all accounts that have billing due this month either select the Monthly icon from the main screen in Probill or select Monthly... Print Recurring Billing from the main menu screen.

We suggest that you send out recurring bills on the tenth of the month. Invoices will be due dated for the first of each month by default. This gives the customer almost three weeks to send in their payment. If you would like you can change both the invoice printing date and due date on this screen. You can also enter a miscellaneous comments you want to appear on all of your recurring invoices. Examples of such comments might be "We appreciate your business" or "Merry Christmas".

Particularly if this is the first time you are printing your recurring billing with Probill we strongly suggest you select the Print Billing Preview button first. Instead of printing out a full page invoice for each affected account and posting the new charges, the preview report contains a one line summary for each account to be billed. This summary gives you a quick view of what charges Probill would have billed each customer before actually printing invoices or posting charges. This can be very helpful in checking over your accounts for data errors in either the start billing date entered, billing cycle, or billing amount.

Once you have checked this report for accuracy, you may go back into the Print Recurring Billing screen and select the Print Bills button to start the recurring billing process. Once your billing starts Probill will processes through all of your accounts checking for any customers that are due to be billed this month. The program will generate an invoice, recalculate your customers billing information, and update their Account History. If you have activated the "automatically send statements feature " the program can also generate statements at this time. Depending on the setup you have selected Probill would only generate statements to accounts that are over a certain number of days past due and that do not have a recurring bill going out this month. When Probill has finished printing your billing a billing report will be displayed that summarizes the total dollar amount of the billing generated, as well as the number of invoices that were generated.

At this point you should very carefully check the invoices that were printed and select finished, Probill will present you with a number of Billing Completion Options. If everything printed properly selecting the Save Billing button will cause all the new charges to be posted to the customers accounts and the recurring billing process will be completed. If they did not print correctly you can choose to either reprint a selected range of invoices or select the Cancel button to abort the billing process all together so you can start over once you've corrected any problems.

After you have accepted the billing process Probill will ask you if you want to backup your customer data to external backup media using the Probill Data Backup Utility. This should be done periodically in case something really bad happens to your system like your hard drive crashes. By making it a habit to backup your data each time you do your billing the most you can possibly lose is one months work.

The interactive help system provides all of the information necessary to the proper operation of the program. It can be accessed in several different manners to provide quick and easy access to program information:

F1 Help Key - By hitting the F1 function key located in the upper left hand corner of most computer keyboards, the help system will automatically pull up help information that is specific to the part of the program you are working on.

How Do I - By selecting How Do I option from the programs help menu, you can quickly bring up a list of the most common questions users ask about the program.

Contents - By clicking on the contents button located on the top of this help screen or selecting contents from the programs help menu you will activate the help articles arranged from beginning to end like the contents section of a book for immediate browsing.

Index - By clicking on the Index button located at the top of this and every help screen you can search through the programs help index alphabetically, or you may select the Find tab and enter a keyword to search for.

Please note - While using Probills Online Help screen whenever you see a word that is displayed like this it indicates that the word is a hot word. By clicking on the word you will be instantly linked to the help article that is related to that topic.

Conclusion - Basic Features

This completes the basic features section of the manual and is just about all you need to know to perform the most important functions in Probill. Now would be a good time to take a break from the manual and play around with some of the features you've learned. Try to get comfortable with the programs basic features, then when your ready you may want to go on to explore some of the more advanced features of Probill.

The menu in Probill is accessed by clicking on its associated word (i.e.. Customers) located above the toolbar. It can also be accessed by selecting the ALT key on your keyboard.

The top selection for each menu option is identical to its associated icon on the toolbar. Using the toolbar is just an easier way to access those commonly used functions. The other menu items in Probill provide access to less commonly used program functions like backing up or restoring customer data, printing various reports, and setting up the program or printer. In the following section we will go over each one of the menu options from left to right.

Customers

Customer Information File - Selecting the Customer Information File menu option has the same effect as selecting the Customer icon on the toolbar.

Search for Reminders -You may want to periodically select this menu option to search for reminders that you have set up on your accounts. When searching for reminders you are allowed to enter a range of dates to be used in the search. If any reminders are found that match your search criteria they will be displayed on a report for your review.

Double clicking on an account in this list will bring you to the individual customers screen so that you can work with the account. After you have viewed the account and selected finished you will be returned to the reminder report.

Enter Miscellaneous Invoices - This menu option can be used to create proposals for potential customer or enter invoice information on customers that you don't expect to do work for in the future and do not want to keep in your customer database. By entering the information here the financial data will still be tracked in your sales, and tax reports, and a copy of the invoice will be permanently stored on the system for your records. Keep in mind that this option can only be used to record invoices for which you have already received full payment. If you need to bill the customer, set up an actual account for them, that way Probill can track the invoice and make sure you get paid.

Backup Customer Information -Probill performs two different kinds of backups. Automatic internal backups and manual external backups. Automatic backups are performed the first time you exit the program each day. These backups are maintained in a directory on your hard drive called databack which is located in your main Probill database directory. Probill actually keeps five separate database backups that are archived in age from anywhere from 1 day old to 2 months old. This way if you had a database failure at some point you could choose to restore your database from multiple different database copies or dates.

The automatic backups can be very helpful in many circumstances but are no substitute for manual backups created by you. Periodically backing up your customer database to an external backup location is absolutely critical. In the event that something happens to your computer, or you have a hard drive crash, it is the only link you will have to your valuable customer financial data. To make this a simple process we have built an external back up and restoral program right within Probill. In addition the program will automatically prompt you to backup your data once a month when you have finished printing your billing, but you can certainly backup more often if you wish.

We recommend that you keep at least three different backup sets of your customer data. If you backup your data once a month you would have a separate backup set for each of the three different months. After this time you may rotate the backup media and reuse them for the next new month. We would also suggest that you keep at least one set of the backup media off premise just in case of loss by theft, fire, or some natural disaster.

To Perform an external backup select Customers... Backup Customer Information from the main menu screen in Probill. The program first performs an automatic backup as explained above. In the event that you need to restore your customer information, the program will first look for your data in this directory and give you the option of restoring from it. In a situation where you want to restore your data because, for example, someone entered the wrong months payment information, you can very quickly restore right from your own hard drive. This saves you from the time consuming task of using the external backup media as a restoral source.

After it performs an automatic backup it will prompt you to insert your backup media and create an external backup set. Simply follow the on screen instructions, the backup program automatically backs up all of your customer information, invoices, and program configuration settings. Keep in mind that the backup program will automatically overwrite any information that already exists on the backup media that you use.

Restore Customer Information - The process of restoring your customer information is a relatively simple one. In the event that there is a problem with your system or your customer data, you can easily return your accounts to the state they were in at the time of the last backup. It is very important that you understand what this means. When you restore your customer data all program information reverts to the state that it was in on the date of the last backup. This means that any account, billing, payment, or program changes will have to be reconstructed from that date!

If the program cannot find a backup copy of your customer information on your hard drive or you select use diskettes, you will be prompted to insert your external backup media. The date that the backup diskette was made will now be displayed for your reference.

Once you have chosen the backup files you want to restore, go ahead and select restore now. Your files will be immediately restored to the state they were in before the last backup. This will launch the Probill Data Restoral Utility allowing you to restore from your external backup.

If Probill cannot find a valid backup on the specified drive or you would like to look at another backup location you can select Restore Drive Selection from this screens menu to choose an alternate restoral location.

Payments

Customer Payments - Selecting the Customer Payments menu option is the same as selecting the Payments icon from the toolbar.

Reports

Past Due - Selecting the Past Due menu option is the same as selecting the reports icon from the toolbar. This will allow you to check for past due customers as previously described.

Receivables Report - Selecting the Receivables menu option allows you to quickly get an overview of the companies financial and account status. This report displays the total aging status of all accounts, as well as a total of the accounts receivable.

Double clicking on an item in the report will allow you to view, change, or delete the individual item you've selected.

Sales Report - To generate a Sales Report for your company select Reports... Sales Report from Probill's main menu.

Selecting the Sales Report menu option allows you to quickly get an overview of the companies total sales based on the date reporting period you have selected. The sales report is broken down by month and sales category. The sales categories are the ones you setup when you create new invoices.

By double clicking on either an area in the bar graph chart or an individual category listed in the report you can get detailed information on just what invoices made up that category in any given month. Double clicking on an individual invoice in this list allows you to view, modify, or delete the invoice being displayed.

Sales Tax Report - To generate a Sales Tax Report for your company select Reports... Sales Tax Report from Probill's main menu.

Selecting the Sales Tax Report menu option allows you to get an overview of all sales taxes to be collected in any given month based on the selection dates you have entered. The taxes are broken down by month and sales tax rate. You can get a detailed view of the invoices that made up your sales tax for any given month by double clicking on an area in the bar graph chart or a specific item in the sales tax report.

Double clicking on an individual invoice in the report will actually bring up a copy of the invoice for your review.

Print Customer Records - To print a customer list select Reports... Print Customer Records. from the Probill's main menu. You can then choose whether you want to print a customer list based on the accounts premise information or billing information.

Once the customer list report is displayed double clicking on an account in the list will bring up that customers Account Screen so you can work with that individual account.

Search or Print Old Invoices - To search for invoices that have been created in Probill by date and type select Reports... Search or Print Old Invoices from Probill's main menu.

The Invoice Search Selection screen allows you to search for any combination of Proposals, Invoices, Recurring Bills, or Late Charges that where posted between your selected search dates.

Once the Invoice List report is displayed you will see all items that were posted within your search dates as well as the total amount for these items. Double clicking on an item in the report will allow you to view, change, or delete the individual item you've selected.

Search or Print Old Payments - To search for payments that have been entered in Probill by date and type select Reports... Search or Print Old Payments from Probill's main menu.

The Payment Search Selection screen allows you to search for Payments, Credits, or both that where posted between your selected search dates.

Once the Payment List report is displayed you will see all items that were posted within your search dates as well as the total amount for these items. Double clicking on an item in the report will allow you to view, change, or delete the individual item you've selected.

Recurring Revenue Report - To generate a Recurring Revenue report select Reports... Recurring Revenue Report from Probill's main menu.

This report shows all recurring accounts that are currently entered in Probill, their monthly billing amount, billing cycle and next billing date. It also displays totals indicating the average monthly billing amount, total average monthly billing amount and the total amount that is currently due.

Double clicking on an account shown in this report will bring up the customer Account Screen allowing you to work with the account.

MONTHLY

Print Recurring Billing - Selecting the Print Recurring Billing menu option provides the same function as selecting the Monthly icon on the toolbar. This allows you to quickly and easily generate all of your recurring billing as previously described.

Print Statements - To automatically print statements select Monthly... Print Statements from Probill's Main Menu Screen.

Normally statements are generated automatically by Probill while you are printing your recurring billing so it is very possible that you will never need to use this option. One situation where using Print Statements could be helpful though is if you only do your recurring billing once a quarter or once a year. Selecting the Print Statements option from the menu would allow you to generate past due statements. When printing statements Probill will ask you which accounts you want to print statements for you can elect to print out statements only to accounts that are over a certain number of days past due and / or customers that owe more than a certain amount of money.

Print Late Notices - To print late notices select Monthly ... Print Monthly Late Notices from the main menu screen in Probill.

Selecting the Print Monthly Late Notices menu option allows you to generate late notice letters to delinquent customers. Probill will automatically search for any past due accounts and generate customized late notice letters that you can send to them. The wording of these letters is specifically tailored to the number of days that your customer is past due and the tone of the letters gets more severe with age.

A number of default late notices are already supplied with Probill. If you want to send late notices you can either use these or create your own late notices.

For more information on setting up your own custom late notices see the section entitled Document Editor at the end of this user manual.

HELP

About Help - Selecting the About Help menu option provides the same function as selecting the Help icon from the toolbar. It brings up a screen that describes the programs help system and explains it usage.

How Do I - Selecting the How Do I menu option brings up a screen that lists many of the most commonly asked questions about Probill. By clicking on a question you will be immediately brought to a help screen that has information answering that question.

Contents - Selecting the Contents menu option activates the Help System for Probill and starts you out at Probill's Help Table of Contents so you can quickly find the answer your looking for.

Setup

Program - To display the Program Setup screen select Setup... Program from the Probill's main menu. The Program Setup screen allows you to customize the way Probill works for your company and has the following options.

Program Settings

Selecting the program settings tab on the Program Setup screen allows you to customize some of the labels that are used on the customer Account Screen.

The first label is the Customer # Label, you can customize this label name if you would like. By default Probill automatically assigns customer numbers starting with 1000. If you wish you can change the customer number that Probill starts with, or you can turn off automatic customer numbers completely and use your own customer numbering system.

The next label is for the Key 1 field on the Account Screen. This is the field just to the right of the Customer # field. You can change the default label for this field if you wish and use this Key field to store any additional customer data you want kept in the customers database.

The next label is for the Key 3 field on the Account Screen. This is the field just below the contact name field. You can change the default label for this field if you wish and use this Key field to store any additional customer data you want kept in the customers database.

The next field is marked Sort by default. The sort field is typically used to hold sorting information for the customer name so the accounts can be sorted alphabetically if desired. If you really needed an additional Key field you can select the Disable Sort Field checkbox and use this field to store any additional customer data you want kept in the customers database.

The Last Invoice Number Used field holds the last invoice number that was automatically generated by Probill. By default Probill starts Invoice numbering at 5000 so the numbers won't be confused with customer numbers. If you would like you can change your starting invoice number here to reflect your own invoice numbering scheme.

The Print Company Phrase on Invoices field can be used to enter a company phrase if desired. This phrase will print directly below the company name on your invoices and can be used to display additional company information or a company slogan.

If you check the Print Phone Number on Invoices checkbox Probill will automatically print the customers phone number on invoices that are generated.

Selecting the Password Protection tab on the Program Setup screen allows you to setup passwords for gaining access to Probill and your database.

The password selection box can be used if desired to deny access to certain parts of the program to non-management personnel. To use password protection select the use password protection checkbox. Enter a password for the manager and operator. Now the next time you run the program you will be immediately prompted for your user password. You are given three tries to enter a valid password.

If the management password is entered you will be allowed access to all sections of the program. If the operator password is entered you will be denied access to certain sensitive parts of the program such as the ability to print customer lists or view financial reports.

While using the program selecting the word exit on the menu will allow to choose a menu option called let another user log in. This option can be helpful if an operator is currently running the program and a manager needs quick access to a restricted area. By selecting this option, the manager is allowed to enter his user password and gain full access to the program without having to exit and restart.

Please note: if you use password protection please be careful not to forget your password number, if you do there is no easy way to reset the program.

Selecting the Statement Options tab on the Program Setup screen allows you to setup if and when automatic statements are generated by Probill during the Recurring Billing process.

If you would like statements sent to late customers when you are printing your recurring billing select a minimum aging value and minimum amount due. Keep in mind that statements will only be printed for accounts that are more than the number of days past due you specified and don't have a recurring bill being printed this month.

For example: Say you have an account that is billed semi-annually. The account is sent an automatic bill in January and is not due to get another recurring bill until June. If the customer is over the number of days past due specified here and owes more than the minimum amount you have selected he will get an automatic statement.

Documents - To select or create custom letters and documents for use in Probill, select Setup... Documents from the main menu. This will display the document selection screen. On this screen are two document selection boxes, Available Documents and Document In Use. The Available Documents box displays the names of all documents currently available for use in Probill. The Documents In Use box shows all documents that are actively being used by the program.

By clicking on the listbox below the Available Documents caption you can display the available documents by document type. You can reorder the documents in the list by selecting the up / down order buttons to the left of the documents in use box.

Using Documents

If you want to add a document to the Documents In Use box so that you can start using it in Probill highlight the document name in the list and select the Use Doc button. The document will be added to the Documents in use listbox and will now be available for use in Probill.

Removing Documents

If you want to remove a document from the Documents In Use box so that it is no longer shown in Probill highlight the document name in the list and select the Remove Doc button. The document will be removed from the Documents in use listbox and will no longer be available for use in Probill.

Deleting Documents

If you want to delete a document you've created so that it is removed from the Probill documents lists, highlight the name of the document and select the Delete button. The delete option is not available for the documents supplied with Probill. These documents are protected and cannot be deleted from the program.

Editing Documents

If you would like to change a document and customize it for use with your business, highlight the document name and select the Edit button. This will display the document in Probills Document Editor where you can make your changes.

Creating Documents

If you would like to create a new custom document for use with Probill select the Create button. This will display the Probills Document Editor allowing you to create your own custom document.

Additional Comments

Please note not all of the editing functions are available for all document types. In the Template and Account Info document types are preset by Probill normally not be edited. Templates are the documents that are available when you select the Comments button from the main Account Screen. These document types are preset forms that can be filled out and actually become part of the customers database file. We have tried to create useful template documents for your use. However, if you have a custom data form that you use in your business that you would like us to add to Probill give us a call. If we think the document would be a good addition to Probill we will create a custom data form for it and allow you to use it with your database. By creating a collection of custom forms created by our users that we can share with all users we hope to make Probill more powerful and expandable in the future. If you have a proprietary form that you would like us to create for use with Probill, and you do not want to share it with other users, contact us for an estimate on having us add your custom form to your copy of Probill for your sole use.

Printer - To change the printer you would like Probill to use when printing invoices select Setup... Printer from the Probill's main menu. The default printer should already have been setup when you initially installed the program. This option would normally only be used if you have more than one printer and want Probill to print to a specific printer rather than the default one. If you want to choose a different printer simply select it from the drop down list box located on this screen.

There is another section on the printer setup screen marked Invoice Adjustment. Many printers have slightly different printing patterns. Changing the invoice alignment setting allows you to make minor adjustments either up or down to the position that the printer starts at when printing invoices.

Selecting Online... from Probill's Main Menu screen gives you the following menu options. Selecting one of these options will cause Probill to activate your connection to the Internet, launch your Internet Browser, and connect to our website. This assumes that you have access to the Internet on your current system.

Visit Our Website

Clicking this link will bring you to the main home page of our website. Here you can obtain product news, search technical support, and order forms, supplies, and software updates.

Order Supplies

Clicking this link will give you information on ordering various supplies for use with Probill. It will allow you to print out an order form which you can mail with your check or fax to our office for order fulfillment. It also allows you to connect to our website and use our secure shopping cart to purchase supplies online via credit card.

Online Support

Clicking this link will bring you directly to our support page where you can get up to the minute information on how to resolve technical problems or download product updates.

Check for Updates

Clicking this link will launch our automatic update program. This is the best way to check for and download any updates that are currently available for your software.

Select Check for Update to have Probill automatically connect through the Internet to