From Arita's Desk

EXCERPTS FROM A.B. CONSULTING NEWSLETTERS

January 1999

 

Closing the Year in Timeslips

December 1999 Update: These instructions also apply to closing the 1999 year. Just substitute 1999 for 1998 and 2000 for 1999.

 When? Do these year-end procedures before finalizing your first bills for 1999.

Here's my annual checklist of year end procedures for Timeslips users. Timeslips does not require year-end processing. You may enter slips and post payments for 1999 without doing anything special. However, before you finalize your first 1999 bills, I recommend that you print a Monthly Totals report, a History Listing report and reset client history totals for the current period to zero. Before you begin: Back up your data, and finalize your last bills for the year, removing any bills from proof or revision stage.

If your firm is not on a calendar fiscal year, save this article until the end of your fiscal year then follow the steps substituting your fiscal year end month for December.

Date Issue - December 1998 Bills
If you have not yet finalized your December bills and want Timeslips to track them for history purposes as billed in 1998, revise the date in Timeslips to 12/31/98. To do this, select Settings, Revise Date. Don't forget to return to the current date after finalizing your bills.

Reports and History Totals

Client monthly totals. This report contains billed and paid amounts by client for each month since the beginning of the period. You will find this report under Reports, Client, Monthly Totals. Change the date in Timeslips to 12/31/98 to get a report of the twelve months of 1998. Check the option to show unbilled payments. The Timeslips 9 "monthly totals" report is called Client History by Period. Version 9 does not limit history to twelve months. You may track history for as many months as you like. So if you're using version 9, be sure to enter the date range for monthly totals. Since this report may include all elements of history, use "Set Up This Report" to limit the report to A/R items only.

Client history listing. This report is essential for resetting year-to-date history totals to zero. Make sure the reports are accurate before answering "Yes" to the reset totals prompt. Since the history listing prints only two clients per page, you may opt to print this report to a file and review it on screen with your word processor. In version 9, resetting totals, contained in the purge area, consolidates earlier periods into the "prior" column. Though not a necessity, you should consider printing these reports, also:

Slip analysis summaries. Available by client, timekeeper and activity, these show the hours and dollars for the time period you select. Don't forget to include closed slips!

Periodic totals is a summary-style report that you can run by timekeeper with subtotals by client. It shows totals for hours, fees, and costs for your slips. You'll find this report under Reports, Slip Analysis. In version 9 it's called Slip Totals by Period and is on the Slips tab of the reports list. Be sure to use the options to set the type and number of periods (month, quarter, etc.) you want to report.

Timekeeper history analysis. This report shows period and inception to date totals by timekeeper and includes an option to reset timekeeper PTD totals to zero.

Be sure you've printed all of the desired reports before moving on to the next procedures.

Hiding or Deleting Inactive Clients

After reporting, hide or delete inactive clients. Remember, you cannot retrieve a deleted client without restoring from a backup. If you're using version 7 or 8, use Hide instead. In version 9, change the client's classification to Inactive (hidden) or Closed (will be deleted when purge is run). Print a slip analysis summary report first to assure there are no slips for clients you want to delete.

Deleting Inactive Timekeepers

If there are timekeepers who are no longer with the firm, and they have no active slips in the system, you may want to delete them from the timekeepers list. Print a slip summary analysis report first to make sure there are no slips for these timekeepers. When you delete a timekeeper, all of his/her slips are deleted also. In version 9, change the timekeeper's classification to Inactive. This will remove them from the active list without permanently deleting them from your database.

Closing Slips

Year-end is a good time to remove excess slips from your active database. Close slips that were billed in 1998 or earlier. You can always include closed slips in reports, if needed.

Purge Slips and Transactions

Optionally purge and archive slips and transactions. Even if you have closed slips, the closed slip file will eventually become quite large (you will notice this during backups). Purging permanently removes the slips. Purging transactions is of lesser concern. I keep transactions going back several years. Purge older transactions in your discretion. One of the improvements in version 9 is the consolidation of the all purge functions, including deleting clients, timekeepers, and activities and resetting history totals into a single window.

A.B. CONSULTING

Computer Applications Consulting, Training & Support

Arita B. Sims, Owner

P.O. Box 1989

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1989

Phone: 517-630-8714 E-Mail: arita@absims.com

   End of excerpts from January 1999 Newsletter