Accounts Receivable

OVERVIEW

The Accounts Receivable (A/R) program is a computer program to track invoices that are owed to you. Invoices are automatically generated by Truck & Driver and/or DATOW during POSTING. Invoices may also be manually entered from within the A/R program. Customer Statements are printed, and extensive reports as well as mailing labels and even remittance slips and payment coupons are part of this program. 

Invoices

Most of the invoices that the A/R will track and process are created automatically by Truck & Driver and by DATOW. Each of those two programs knows how to send billing information to the A/R, so you don't have to re-enter call and release billings. However, you can easily enter a new invoice directly into the A/R, or edit an existing invoice. Invoices are printed on plain paper on either a dot matrix or laser printer. Custom invoices can be ordered as well as pre- printed invoices. 

Payments

Payments received by you from your customers are entered into this program. Entering a payment is fast and easy. You simply choose the customer whose account you are paying, put in the check number and the amount of the check. The program ensures that this check has not been entered before, so you cannot accidentally double-post a check. Then the program shows you all the unpaid invoices for that customer, and you use your arrow keys to pick and choose which invoices you are going to pay. The list of invoices is shown to you in either date or invoice number order, which makes it easy to choose. It even shows you how many invoices are open and the balance on the account. Our ReportView feature allows you to see the entire detail of an invoice as you are paying it.

A single payment can easily be applied to thousands of different invoices. You can even partially pay an invoice. Our AutoPay feature can really speed things up as it pays all open items, oldest first, up to the funds available. As you pay an invoice, our special "Funds Available" display shows you how much money you have to apply. Any funds left over can be saved as an Unapplied Credit. An audit trail is printed during each payment session for your records. 

Reports

Many reports are available. Aged Trial Balance, Transactions, Customers, Labels, and even a Collections report is just a few keystrokes away. Many customers just give these reports to their accountant. We developed this program with the guidance of accountants and CPAs, so you can rest assured that all the reports you will need are available. 

Statements

Customer Statements are a special kind of report. While most reports are intended for your use, the Statement is sent to your customer. The Statement shows your customer their activity with you, each open item, their balance and, optionally, where their payments were applied. We produce a high quality Statement that you will be proud to send to your customers.

You have numerous options when you print the Statement, including "Good/Bad" messages that conditionally print based on that customer's status. Many of our clients use this feature to send special holiday or event messages, such as "Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!", or "Your account is PAST DUE." The program will print the appropriate message. Also, aging information can be printed or suppressed, aging windows can be adjusted, and interim or individual statements can be printed at any time. 

Additional Features

Proper accounting requires that errors be offset. The best way to do that is by using Credit and Debit memos. We support that approach, and make it easy for you to correct errors without overstating or understating your income.

Suppose you sell a vehicle to someone and they are going to pay you over some period of time. We support automatic billing, which creates an invoice each month without you having to do it. Also, you can print a payment coupon book to make it easy for your customer to remember and to pay your bill. A variation of the payment coupon book is the remittance slip that you can include with your mailing.

Customers and products can be added "on-the-fly" when and as you need them.

The program remembers on which customer you are working. For example, as you switch from invoice generation to payments to query, the program guesses that the customer you want is the one you just worked on. This makes it easy and fast. Which is why you want to computerize in the first place!

You can Query a customer at any time. This means, you can look at a customer's account and see, in one place, the last time you billed that customer, how much it was for, the last payment posted, the last 13 months of activity, past invoices and which payments were applied and, of course, all open items. We even make it easy to print this information on paper -- one key and it is done. Our ReportView feature allows you to see the detail of any transaction, even from years ago.

Each service or product you sell is tracked and totals are maintained. You can even let the program subtract from inventory as you sell an item. If you are running low on batteries or No Parking signs or any other item you stock and sell, you can get a report to tell you what you need to re-order.

Extra programs to re-sort, re-number, or even to clear out old activity are included. This type of program is called a Utility and A/R comes with everything you need.

You can go to A/R by choosing a menu item in either DATOW or Truck & Driver. (From the dispatching screen, A/R is just one keystroke away!) When you exit from A/R, it remembers where you were when you chose it, and returns you to that program. Of course, password access control applies here too.

A mini G/L (General Ledger) is part of A/R, so you can see your activity at a glimpse. It is not a full G/L since it does not do balance sheets and P & Ls. It does give you the information that your CPA will require. We do offer a full G/L, but very few towing operations require it. With our full G/L, summary journal entries that are created by the A/R can be posted to the G/L at the end of each accounting period.

Although rarely required in a towing company, we have the ability to assign each customer and/or invoice to a salesperson, so that proper credit or commissions can be calculated.

Extended Comments allow you an unlimited area to write any additional information about each customer. For example, you could use this area to keep track of collection efforts, special billing or delivery instructions, or any other information related to that customer.

Discounts can be established for each customer on a per product basis. You can specify that a customer will automatically receive a discount, either a fixed amount or a percentage, for certain products or services only and not for others. Both DATOW Lot Control and Truck & Driver use this feature during posting, so you can better control all aspects of your billing.

Mailing labels and even envelopes (on a laser printer) are available. And you can even print "reverse" labels or envelopes, so that you can include a return envelope with your statement.

A/R also supports Export of reports to other programs. 

PROfessional Edition

The PROfessional Edition of A/R supports multiple companies. It is useful for operations that have a body shop, a repair facility or some other business in addition to the towing operation.

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