PAC - Pre-billing Report
Pre-billing Report Overview
This program produces a listing of all transactions that will be generated by the 'Auto Account Billing' process. It is a pre-emptive report that allows you to check for errors and omissions before you run the final 'Auto Account Billing' which creates the transactions on the parent accounts.
It is recommended that you run this report firstly using the 'Summary Report' format and carefully check the:
- Transactions arising from:
- Standard Billing Structure.
- Standard Discount Structure.
- Manual Special Transactions.
- Split Billing Special Transactions.
- Summaries of:
- Standard Transactions.
- Discount Transactions.
- Manual Special Transactions.
- Split Billing Special Transactions.
- Grand Totals.
When you are satisfied with the summarised figures you should then re-run the report using the 'Details Report' format and check each section (as above).
General Tab
| Fields that require further explanation | |
|---|---|
Billing / Discount Rules | Billing and discount rules are set up in program Finance > Parent Accounts > Setup Information > Parent Accounts Setup on the 'Billing Structure' and 'Discount Structure' tabs respectively. The 'Billing / Discount Rules' period that you enter in this field will determine which rules are used by the auto-billing. For example, if you were to enter 'Billing Period 3' here, rules with a '3' or an 'A' in the 'Period' column in program Finance > Parent Accounts > Setup Information > Parent Accounts Setup on the 'Billing Structure' and 'Discount Structure' tabs, will be used. Unless you are running a 'fees in advance' auto-billing, this would normally be the current billing period. |
Students Current as at | The auto-billing will base the billing on the students who are currently at the school at the date entered here. The default is today's date. A small number of schools run a 'fees in advance' billing, e.g. Billing for 2016 Term 1 in 2015 Term 4. In this case, you would enter a date for 2016 that reflects the desired student population. Very Important! It is very important that you read the guide 'How to Bill School Fees in Advance' before proceeding with a 'fees in advance' auto-billing. Students with a date of entry after the nominated date will be excluded from the auto-billing run, thus will not be included in the report totals. |
Subject Year/Semester | The auto-billing will base the billing for any subject charges on the subjects allocated to students in the year and semester entered here. The default is the current year and semester. The current year/semester is defined in program Student Admin > Timetable > Timetable Information > Timetable Setup. Important! Check that this is correct before proceeding. |
Enter 'Report Criteria' into the 'General' tab and click on the 'Print' tab.
Print Tab
| Fields that require further explanation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Report Format | Summary Report | It is important that in every billing run that you run this report in this mode and thoroughly cheque the summarised data as specified above. Refer to the bulleted list in the overview for the items you should check. |
Detail Sort | You should then run the report in this mode and re-check. | |
| Formatting Options |
| Choose to print the Charges, Credits, or Receipts report as a PDF or export to Microsoft Excel® or Microsoft Word®. Export to PDF is the default setting. Use the checkboxes to indicate your preference for displaying 'Alternate Row Colours' and 'Table Borders'. These can enhance the readability of the report but are not available if the listing destination is Excel®. |
| Report Title | Enter a preferred title for the report or use the default title 'PRE-BILLING REPORT'. | |
Important!
Although you may run this program in both summary and detailed mode, it is strongly suggested that you run this report in detailed mode prior to an auto-billing run. This is so you can use the report as an aid in reviewing your auto-billing transactions. If these transactions have not been verified as correct, you should continue to make the necessary adjustments and rerun this report until you can verify the report as being 100% correct before running 'Auto Account Billing'.
The report rendered provides a plain English representation of your billing and discount structures in a format that is easy to understand. You should use this report to ensure your setups in Finance > Parent Accounts > Setup Information > Parent Accounts Setup on the 'Fees', 'Billing Structure' and 'Discount Structure' tabs are complete and accurate.
Important!
You should correct your 'Billing Structure' using program Finance > Parent Accounts > Setup Information > Parent Accounts Setup before proceeding if you get the following message on the report:
'Warning. Discount Fee Codes have been found in some Billing Structure Rules. These will not be correctly represented in this report. It is recommended that discount transactions are set up in the Discount Structure only.'
It is also suggested you run the report Student Admin > Student Records > Listings/Reports/Merges > House Boarder & School Totals and cross-check the student totals on this report with the totals on your 'Pre-Billing Report'.