Tempo Services

Invoicing from SMART

 

Introduction

SMART is designed to automate most of the steps in involved in invoicing responses and other services performed by Zip and Group 4 control rooms.

Tempo customer invoices are produced by the Tempo Sun accounting system, and not by SMART. This means that the procedure for Tempo SMART users varies slightly from the procedures documented in the SMART help system.

This document provides an overview of the procedure for SMART Tempo users. Links to more detailed help are provided where appropriate.

Overview

We use the terms Operations Supervisor,  Operations Administrator, and Invoice Entry Operator. In some branches two or more of these roles may be performed by the same person. In most cases the job titles will be different.

- the Operations Supervisor checks that operational details have been entered correctly.

- the Operations Administrator checks that billing details and pricing are correct, and generates 'invoices'. Although these are referred to in SMART as invoices, they are not the same as the invoices which will be sent by the Sun system. Their purpose is to batch jobs so that jobs cannot be missed or billed twice.

- the Invoice Entry operator extracts the invoice information from Smart and enters it into the Sun system.

Procedure in Detail

  1. Invoice processing starts once the job is complete. SMART prevents the operator from completing the job until all required details have been added.
  2. Completed jobs which have not yet been approved for invoicing can be viewed
    • in the Job Dispatch window by choosing the status of Complete, or
    • in the Prepare Items for Invoicing window, in the Not Approved tab.
  3. The Operations Supervisor may show that he or she has checked a job (this step is optional) by checking the Checked (Ops) checkbox at the top of the Job Details window. Jobs which have been checked are shown
    • In the Job Dispatch window, with the Job Ref in green
    • In the Prepare Items for Invoicing window, with a green tick in the left column.
  4. The Operations Administrator checks that billing details and pricing for each job are correct, using the Prepare Items for Invoicing window (press the $ icon on the Main Menu). Once details are correct, the job can be approved for invoicing by either
    • Changing the status of the job to Ready to Invoice in the Service Details tab of the Job Details window, or
    • Highlighting the job in the Prepare Items for Invoicing list, and clicking the Approve One/Marked button.  Multiple jobs may be selected for approval by highlighting each job and pressing the space bar.
  5. Changing the job status to Invoice Now has the same effect as Ready to Invoice or Approved.
  6. Changing the job status to Never Invoice will remove the job from the billing system but leave it available for operational reporting.
  7. The Operations Administrator 'prints' invoices
    • Select \Accounts \Customers \Print Invoices from the Main Menu, or clicking the 'Print Invoices' button on the Smart Map.
    • In the Filtering tab, make sure the appropriate Division for your branch is selected.
    • Select the New Invoices tab and ensure that
      • Ignore Billing Cycle and Generate, Don't Print are checked.
      • Date Invoice: is set to the current date.
      • Include items to is set correctly. This date must be no later than the end date of the period to which this billing belongs.
    • Now press the Print button.
    • Jobs which have been invoiced will disappear from the 'Approved' and 'Invoice Now' tabs in the Prepare Items for Invoicing window.
  8. The Invoice Entry Operator exports invoiced jobs to a spreadsheet, ready for data entry.
    • Select \Accounts \Export to Spreadsheet from the Main Menu
    • Choose the Invoiced option at the top of the screen and choose a date range which has not previously been processed.
    • Choose the appropriate Division for your branch.
    • You should avoid making other filter selections (except when cross checking your work) because it may cause you to miss jobs.
    • Press OK to create the spreadsheet.
  9. You can locate jobs on a particular invoice from the Prepare Items for Invoicing window - press F2, enter the invoice number at lower right, then OK.

 

© Skorpion Pty Ltd 2003